The Prissy Patriot: National Security

Showing posts with label National Security. Show all posts

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Commander Guy Turns on Our Troops

The troops really belong to We the People more than they do Dubya. They are not there just to protect V.I.P.'S; they are around to protect us all from enemies both foreign and domestic.

But Duyba always turns real logic on its head, or actually, Rover does it for him. Prissy thinks certainly that is when they squish their message out of the Pentagon to make it appear legit.

Prissy is sure most decent Americans would be appalled by their private chats, considering the lies they are willing to tell publicly. And shame on those Generals Petraeus (AKA Gen Betray-US) and Peter Pace. Do they plot and practice to cover their wicked deeds against We the People and our troops?

Did Rover think he wasn’t so pink, that he could move silently, undetectably, like a cat burglar in a jewelry store? Or that not one of us was smart enough to catch on?

Karl probably understands money does change a lot of things, but not everything. Just ask Scooter Libby. Take criminal conduct for instance. Why it has been this administrations unwritten (?) policy.

In fact, which transgression shall we begin with? Let us see: We have lying to congress and Congress lying to the people, aka Dick Durbin. (Note to DD-all you had to say was "the prez is lying"-that was not classified)

Then there is the issue of the commander in chief, VP and defense secretary lying to the troops. Of course we also have the media, lying to everyone…and some Americans, still lying to themselves.

Notice Dubya stomping his feet to get more money for his war hole. Congress making noises, “George, next time we probably won’t bail you out-the 2008 elections, the people, you understand...” George replies, “Yeah whatever, you say that every time. Now gimmee the money.”

Here's your cash, Dubya

Prissy guesses congress wants the avalanche of phone calls, letters, and emails and visits to come to a halt. They aren’t used to We the People actually demanding things. Like expecting the majority to rule, our civil rights, and an end to the war.

Get used to it misleaders or get tossed out. Did November 2006 teach neorepublicans anything? Congress must stand up to this bully or Americans will give them no rest. Moreover, the prez really needs to stop trying to blame everyone but himself or just step down. He won't be missed, not even by his own party.

Now, he is having his pentagon disrespect the troops by telling media that as many as a third of our soldiers think torture is A-OK. Prissy does not believe this stat and neither should you. It is utter bunk and who ever put this out cannot possibly be military trained.

For the last 50 years, the US military has taught that torture is not an effective means to elicit actionable intelligence, thus Geneva that most soldiers know by heart. Do not let him fool you about the troops. Sure, there are a few bad ones-there are bad people in every occupation, as if you were not aware…

Keep up the pressure on congress because it is working. They are getting a reminder they do indeed work for us and yes, we do care about our soldiers.

So main stream media, stop printing that grey sludge the grey suits at the Pentagon and Rover’s sewage factory keep manufacturing; we are aware they wish to make scapegoats of our soldiers.

These are the same people who attempted to shame and silence those of us opposed to this quagmire from the beginning. Their claims accusing us of being 'against the soldiers’ have proven the fallacy for the premise of invasion.

Soldiers reading this blog don’t have any doubt who is really on their side.

Dubya and his boys are hoping if they degrade our troops enough, Americans will say, “Gee those are some bad people who make up our soldiers-let them rot in Iraq.”

It's not the first time they have used this "use 'em and lose 'em" tactic. It's still effective. Remember how they used to reassure suburban white people that it was "just the ghettos” being cleaned out, during the Vietnam draft?

It is all more of the same propaganda that Dubya and his media have been spoon-feeding the American people. They wonder why ratings are down and blog readership is up?

Now that the troops and “supporting them” have ceased to be a bell ringer for the Bushies, Dubya has turned on them. He always was a lousy commander-in-chief... Remember how they used "support the troops" as their code for shutting down any true debate about Iraq? Ah yes, you see this really isn’t your father’s Vietnam. These soldiers are done with his war, as the mission is a desert mirage and changes with the seasons.

The public too, is done with his war-but congress and Halliburton are still making money on the deal.

Warning to Bushies who think Prissy is making the wrong call on the war. The soldiers, all the intelligent ones are like-minded. They are clear headed in their application of strategy and they see the false construct. They wouldn’t be very good military leaders if they didn’t, now would they?

Their discipline of being non-partisan keeps most from speaking out. But Dearest Readers, this war is their reality. Their commander guy is in a state of denial and we cannot help him. Nevertheless, we can help them. We need to get them out of Iraq. We must demand their return until the last American soldier comes home.

A United States Airman in Iraq, doing his best to help in a bad situation. Obviously this guy doesn't believe in torture.

Don't you dare disrespect them, Dubya.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Dubya's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

The war, missing emails, the Dubya and the Dick! Want it all to just end right now? Prissy has a cure for your frustrations-register your protest. Yes you can write a post card or make a call, but why not get really creative?

Creativity seems to have been stifled, most likely at an early age, in hard core right wingers. It puts them at a real disadvantage. If Americans during the American revolution had not been creative in their strategies, we may have lost...shudder at the thought.

Of course we did win and with it the right to tell our government when it is wrong-without fear of reprisal, as guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights.Look, no net!

Not that Bushies concerned themselves with those pesky rights-no indeed-they stepped all over them. But we can demand their return with creative protesting.

Prissy will give you some ideas, let her know if you hear of a really creative (and legal!) protest method. Civil disobedience methods and tactics are welcome, as Prissy doesn't know much about those...

In Nancy Pelosi's district, military families have used sidewalk chalk to write her and her staff messages "END THE WAR" "You do not support the troops, only the war" "Impeach Bush for Blowing the Job" -oh there are many other slogans you can use. Freeway blogger has some great ones, if you need ideas.

Progress Ohio is having a campaign "What would you tell Senator Voinovich?" The winner gets a truck billboard with their saying on it, along with encouragement for others to call Voinovich. They will drive past the Senators house and neighborhood as well as his old stomping ground of Cleveland. The former governor really should know Ohioans better than to think he'll get away with his rubber stamp on Dubya's crazy foreign policies. Shame on him!

From Prissy's Inbox: May want to stock up enough for a couple of weeks, Dearest Readers Truckers Protest April 23-25 "Truck Out"

Participate in the TRUCKER'S "TRUCK OUT" RALLY, on April 23rd, 24th, and 25th. Join in on one or all three days to rivet every citizen's attention on the injustice being done to you and to our country by the criminal, reckless, and unprecedented actions of our Government.

Traprock Peace Center Presents Scott Ritter & former Congressman Andy Jacobs in INDIANAPOLIS

As Indiana National Guard members face call up for offshore deployments to Iraq, Veterans for Peace Indiana Chapter #49 invites you to discuss:
U.S. Policy in the Middle East: Wednesday April 18, 2007 7-8:30 pm Target Iran / The Role of Congress
Hear Scott Ritter US Marine, Gulf War Veteran and former UNSCOM Weapons Inspector and Honorable Andy Jacobs, Korean War Veteran and former Indiana Congressperson

Note to Dearest Readers: Scott Ritter thinks stopping a war with Iran may be impossible. As far as the missing emails go, remember that Rover and his laywer "found" 250 emails that the were previously unavailable-not "archived through the usual White House process." That and the emails were being sent through a non-government email account.

Patrick Fitzgerald's investigators made copies of the hard drives of all of Rovers' computers during the CIA Leak investigation.

Dearest Readers, Please let Prissy know if you will be traveling to the Columbus area. Betty and Prissy had the pleasure of meeting some Dearest Readers Saturday night and it was a lot of fun;-)

Coming up in Columbus: EARTH DAY April 22, 2007 Check the schedule of events here.

Hot Links

India Times Euro hits 2-year high versus $

The euro reached a two-year high against the dollar and approached a record versus the yen as signs of faster growth in Europe raised speculation the European Central Bank will increase interest rates.
Gains in the euro accelerated after it rose above $1.34, triggering orders to buy back the currency, traders said. ECB officials said this week that higher borrowing costs are needed to contain inflation as reports showed strength in manufacturing. The Bank of England kept rates unchanged on Thursday.

Mercury News San Mateo pyschiatrist arrested on molestation charges

Dr. William Ayers, 75, a well-known San Mateo County child psychiatrist, sat behind bars on $1.5 million bail Thursday night accused of several counts of child molestation in a case spanning decades.
Ayers - who treated children from the 1960s through last year - first came to the attention of authorities in 2002 when a victim reported that he was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions by the doctor during the 1970s. Authorities, however, were unable to prosecute the doctor because the case fell out of the statute of limitations.
But during a subsequent civil case against Ayers, several victims reported that they also had been molested by Ayers from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. None of those cases, however, fell within the statute of limitations.

Is he another 'Chester the Molester' republican? Just wondering...

India Times Pakistan offers to sell Iranian gas to India

Lending a new twist to negotiations on the tri-nation gas pipeline, Islamabad has offered to sell Iranian gas to India at its border to save New Delhi the bother over risks associated with safe transit of the fuel through Pakistani territory.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at a late night meeting with Petroleum Minister Murli Deora here on April 3 offered to buy 60 million standard cubic meters per day of gas from Iran, use half of it in his country and sell the rest to India at the Indo-Pak border, highly placed sources said.
This way India will neither have to deal with Iran, which faces UN sanctions over its nuclear programme, nor be bothered about cumbersome security of the 1,035-km pipeline stretch in Pakistan and safe delivery of gas at its border.
On the flip side, Pakistan may add some margin to the already high Iranian gas price.

ABC 7Cheney Hasn't Called Libby Since Trial

"Well, there hasn't been occasion to do so," Cheney said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS'"Face the Nation."
Libby is the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago. He was found guilty last month of perjury and obstruction in the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
The episode undercut the Bush administration's credibility, one of a string of a bad-news stories that have hurt the president's standing.
President Bush and Cheney have expressed sadness for Libby and his family, but largely refrained from comment because the matter is an active legal case. Libby plans to appeal.

Dick is just mad because Scooter was caught...

Haaretz Israel Angry, Wants to Sell China Arms, US Says NO

Peretz told his hosts that he had suffered injuries when he was serving as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces (sparing them details of the accident). Ivanov was the most impressive of them all: sharp, fluent and displaying the qualifications that have made him one of the two leading candidates to succeed Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gates, who will arrive in Israel tomorrow for a short visit, was limp and gray, quite the opposite of Ivanov. He did not radiate the power of someone who represents the defense establishment in the strongest country in the world.
In the mid-1980s, Gates was the head of the CIA intelligence administration and deputy to the CIA director, William Casey. In his professional capacity, Gates often met with people from the Mossad and Israeli military intelligence in Washington and Tel Aviv. They did not like him much. On one of his visits here, Yoram Hessel of the Tevel division for foreign relations at the Mossad accompanied him on a flight to the Golan Heights. Gates looked out over Syria and advised Israel not to leave the Golan. Now at the diplomatic level, he will take care not to repeat this.
Gates' visit to Israel reflects a decision not to boycott it: He must not skip Israel on his visit to the region, though he is known to be cooler toward it than his predecessor Donald Rumsfeld. There are no fateful issues that Gates is authorized to conclude with Peretz, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (whom he asked to meet, perhaps because of the rumor that she is getting closer to becoming prime minister) and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Dealing with Iran is the president's jurisdiction. In Iraq, the Pentagon has refrained from accepting overt Israeli help. Gaza, which the administration is making efforts to prevent from bursting into flames, belongs to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, even in the channel of Security Coordinator Keith Dayton. So what's left? Not a lot, mainly just the delicate issue of the sale of arms to other countries - an issue wrapped in hypocrisy on both sides.

It's probably a positive thing Israeli officials don't like Gates. Quite frankly, Prissy doesn't like or trust him much, either...

Salon Will Rush Limbaugh be Next Off Air?

At least, that was the fear at the Free Congress Foundation on April 13, where a panel discussion of an ancient broadcasting regulation quickly turned into a discussion of Don Imus and how his firing might portend a similar fate for some of the right's best-known media personalities. In the absence of any compelling evidence, participants in the latest of the conservative think tank's occasional Next Conservatism Forum series managed to convince themselves that the Fairness Doctrine, a rule that was scrapped by the Federal Communications Commission 20 years ago, was poised for a comeback, and was about to become a weapon in a liberal jihad against the right wing's freedom of speech.
In fact, the prominent conservatives, addressing a crowd of 30 on the ground floor of a Washington row house, described what sounded like a conspiracy. Panelist Ken Blackwell, formerly Ohio's secretary of state and the Republican candidate for governor last fall, said Imus was "not a conservative" and that "the left has sacrificed one of their own to give them a platform to go after true conservative talk show hosts." Cliff Kincaid, of the conservative media watchdog Accuracy in Media, said the Imus firing had been a revelation. "It wasn't exactly clear to me how [liberals] intended to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, but I think now with the Imus affair, we know ... [And it's a] short leap from firing Imus to going after Rush Limbaugh."
Established in 1949, the Fairness Doctrine was an FCC regulation that required broadcasters to give balance to opposing viewpoints in any opinion programming. Its abolition by the FCC during the Reagan administration is widely credited with making the explosion of conservative talk radio possible.
With the return of the Democrats to power in Congress, conservatives have become concerned that the Fairness Doctrine might be on its way back. William S. Lind, director of the Free Congress Foundation's Center for Cultural Conservatism and moderator of the April 13 panel discussion, said the choice of topics had been occasioned by an "emergency" -- the Fairness Doctrine's seemingly imminent return.

We can only hope...

Muckraker Gonzo Drinks GOP Koolaid "Can't Remember"

I tell you, it's hard work remembering what Alberto Gonzales remembers and doesn't remember.
In October of last year, President Bush had a conversation with Gonzales about U.S. attorneys. According to the White House's public statements, the conversation was a broad one, about voter fraud in three districts. Gonzales has said publicly that he doesn't remember such a conversation taking place.
But that's not what Kyle Sampson told congressional investigators this past weekend. According to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sampson said that in early March of this year, Gonzales told him about a conversation he'd had in October with Bush that was specifically about U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias. Remember that the White House was getting heavy pressure from Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and other New Mexico Republicans to can Iglesias.
So in early March, Gonzales told Sampson privately about this conversation (this was, by the way, before the White House had publicly disclosed that there had been any conversations between Bush and Gonzales about U.S. attorneys). But on March 26, Gonzales told NBC and the world that he didn't remember having any such conversation.

ABC Killer's Note: 'You Caused Me to Do This'

Cho Seung-Hui, the student who killed 32 people and then himself yesterday, left a long and "disturbing" note in his dorm room at Virginia Tech, say law enforcement sources.
Sources have now described the note, which runs several pages, as beginning in the present tense and then shifting to the past tense. It contains rhetoric explaining Cho's actions and says, "You caused me to do this," the sources told ABC News.
The number of dead is almost twice as high as the previous record for a mass shooting on an American college campus. That took place at the University of Texas at Austin on Aug. 1, 1966, when a gunman named Charles Whitman opened fire from the 28th floor of a campus tower. Whitman killed 16 and injured 31.

Seattle Times French intelligence service knew of al-Qaida hijacking plot in early 2001 (so did as many as 8 other countries intel warnings were also ignored, including Cuba and Germany)

"It wasn't about a specific airline or a specific day, it was not a precise plot," Lorenzi told The Associated Press. "It was a note that said, 'They are preparing a plot to hijack an airplane, and they have cited several companies."'
The Sept. 11 commission's report on the four hijacked flights has detailed repeated warnings about al-Qaida and its desire to attack airlines in the months before Sept. 11, 2001.
In a version declassified last September, the report shows that the Federal Aviation Administration's intelligence unit received "nearly 200 pieces of threat-related information daily from U.S. intelligence agencies, particularly the FBI, CIA, and State Department."

NDTV Patti Smith lashes out at Guantanamo Bay

Rocker Patti Smith said on Friday that her concern for the hundreds of men imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay compelled her to record a song about a former detainee.
"I feel responsible as an American citizen. It's a terrible injustice and I think it will be a stain upon us when history examines this period," said Smith.
Smith's Without Chains focuses on Murat Kurnaz, a German-born Turkish citizen who said he was kept under fluorescent lights for 24 hours at a time and complained of being beaten at the US military detention center in southeast Cuba.
And...In October, German prosecutors said they found no evidence linking Kurnaz to Islamic radicals in Pakistan or Afghanistan and formally dropped their investigation.

Reuters Over 250,000 still without power in U.S. East and Canada

More than 250,000 homes and businesses remained without power Tuesday morning after a rare spring nor'easter hit on Sunday and Monday, knocking out electric service to more than 1.3 million customers from the Carolinas to Maine and Quebec.

Wired U.S. Watch Lists Sow Frustration and Fear

Elizabeth Kushigian spent time in an isolation room at Miami International Airport every time she returned from an international trip -- until a senator got her taken off a DHS watchlist.
For years, Elizabeth Kushigian never had a problem flying back-and-forth to Costa Rica, where she runs a local micro-lending nonprofit. But in 2004, she suddenly found it impossible to re-enter the United States without being ordered into a special isolation room at Miami International Airport. There, she'd wait for extra scrutiny.
"I was in the line where you come in and stamp your passport, and each time they would scan the passport and look at (the) screen and stiffen," Kushigian says. "I was on some sort of list. I don't know why; it could have been because of something I did in the '60s and in the early 1980s, I did some civil disobedience on behalf of El Salvador."
Kushigian is just a member of a growing club of American citizens whose lives have been touched by a slew of government watch lists proliferating with little oversight or redress mechanisms since the 9/11 attacks. Containing, by some estimates, hundreds of thousands of names submitted by dozens of agencies, the lists have not only snagged people like Kushigian -- who wind up on them for mysterious reasons -- they've also stigmatized and inconvenienced thousands of others whose names happen to be similar to an entry on the list.

Quotes of the Day

Few men of action have been able to make a graceful exit at the appropriate time--British journalist, author, satirist, media personality, soldier-spy

There's a trick to the Graceful Exit. I begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over -- and to let go. It means leaving what's over without denying its value.--Ellen Goodman

Great Quotes from Catch-22

Morale was deteriorating and it was all Yossarian's fault. The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them. Chapter 39, pg. 415

The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.-- Yossarian, character

Open your eyes, Clevinger. It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead.-- Chapter 12, pg. 133-134

You know, that might be the answer - to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That's a trick that never seems to fail. Chapter 13, pg. 149

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Dick and Dubya's Excellent Sedition Adventure

Dearest Readers, yesterday's hearings in the Senate with Gone-Zo's former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson on the hot seat were not to be missed. Try to catch the a clip of it if you can here on C-Span 'Firing of U.S. Attorneys'. Rover should have known not to mess with lawyers, that's what he gets for being too busy scheming for neorepublicans instead of graduating college...

Gone-Zo, as you know, is the finger in the dyke. And when the dam bursts the indictments are going create such a flood, they'll have to call the military home to clean up the mess for sure...Dearest Readers, you all know Prissy would go and fetch them herself, if she could round up enough planes and ships.

Senate republicans know its over, when we hear the 'rest of Gonzo's story'. The part they heard yesterday from Sampson frightened them so much, it was enough to make the cowards call a temporary halt to the hearings. What did they expect? Excuse me ladies and gentlemen; this is how your government works. That's why we hired you. Oh, you didn't wish the work involved? As Chuckie said, then go sell shoes. Thank goodness if they did; because then Prissy could avoid them forever...

Kyle, who looks like a younger version of the dull-eyed Karl Rove, thought he could just say it was all a big mistake. Golly, he just mixed bad ideas with good ideas and he shouldn't have handled it that way-oops my bad, sorry.

There is no question a young ideologue who has mere a handful of cases to his credit-lead counsel on none-and only one criminal case- certainly has no business evaluating any career justice attorney performance.

You'll notice how Kyle's voice gets higher with each tale he tells-it was a giveaway. Especially when he was reminded he was under oath. Prissy bets if his mother watched it on C-Span 3, she could tell us when he was lying.

It was Kyle who said he cooked up the idea to get rid of US Attorneys who didn't meet the Bush administrations standard of blind loyalty to the all mighty Dubya.

Of course Rover's blood drenched hands were involved as email show and Sampson's "Uh, I don't remember, I'm not sure if I was aware of that" type non-statements. RAW Story reports he said "I don't remember 122+ times! Maybe he should call Scooter Libby's "memory expert"...

At 37, he's awfully young to have such memory problems, but maybe its in the GOP koolaid. He seemed to make a remarkable memory recovery when his testimony favored him. He didn't like fronting out Gone-Zo, but why not? He's next on firing line. Kyle knows his days in government are over, thankfully for justice. Did criminal violations occur?

Prissy thinks its certainly probable, considering Ms. Goodling, another 'collaborator', is on an indefinite leave of absence from the DOJ and took the 5th amendment protection to avoid being questioned on the attorney firings. Who ever heard of a Department of Justice employee taking the 5th? After all, no one was asking her, "Do you have a crush on Pat Fitzgerald?"

Speaking of Irish catholics-Prissy's Granny equates Ms Goodling's refusal with a Catholic who won't make the sign of the cross in church-the height of blasphemy!

When Alberto's reign of terror is over, Dubya will be left to twist in the wind- legally speaking. And you know he's got no talent or patience in explaining legal terminology...

When the DOJ is no longer held hostage to Bushite politics, they will be busy prosecuting political corruption leftovers from the Bush era for the next twenty years. Its enough to make Prissy want to sign up for law school.

Hot Links

And here comes the tidal wave...

NYT Ex-Aide,Matthew Dowd Details a Loss of Faith in Bush

In 1999, Matthew Dowd became a symbol of George W. Bush’s early success at positioning himself as a Republican with Democratic appeal.
A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the Bill Clinton years, Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington. He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush’s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist.
Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced.
In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership.

Honesty from the republican party, now that's a breath of fresh air...

Yahoo, why Rudy will never make it to the primary Giuliani faces questions about Sept. 11

While the former mayor of the nation's largest city was widely lionized for his post-9/11 leadership — "Churchillian" was one adjective, "America's mayor" was Oprah Winfrey's assessment — city firefighters and their families are renewing their attacks on him for his performance before and after the terrorist attack.
"If Rudolph Giuliani was running on anything but 9/11, I would not speak out," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was among the 343 FDNY members killed in the terrorist attack. "If he ran on cleaning up Times Square, getting rid of squeegee men, lowering crime — that's indisputable.
"But when he runs on 9/11, I want the American people to know he was part of the problem."

They know the truth about 9/11. Most people suspect they were fed a line on the official story-word eventually gets around. So let's all stop pretending-got that corporate media?

Judicial Watch files Violations Force Feinstein Military Committee Resignation

She wielded quite a bit of power and succeeded in steering hundreds of billions of dollars in military contracts to companies partially owned by her wealthy husband, Richard Blum. One company alone earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approved by Feinstein’s committee and another $759 million.
The blatant ethics violation and obvious conflict of interest was first exposed earlier this year by a weekly Northern California publication. The story details how Feinstein voted over the years for appropriations that enriched her husband’s firms and that her top legal advisor also happens to be one of her husband’s longtime business partners; in other words, a financial beneficiary of the senator’s decisions.

Flashback from Sunday Times US generals ‘will quit’ if Bush orders Iran attack February 25, 2007

A British defence source confirmed that there were deep misgivings inside the Pentagon about a military strike. “All the generals are perfectly clear that they don’t have the military capacity to take Iran on in any meaningful fashion. Nobody wants to do it and it would be a matter of conscience for them.
“There are enough people who feel this would be an error of judgment too far for there to be resignations.”
A generals’ revolt on such a scale would be unprecedented. “American generals usually stay and fight until they get fired,” said a Pentagon source. Robert Gates, the defence secretary, has repeatedly warned against striking Iran and is believed to represent the view of his senior commanders.
The threat of a wave of resignations coincided with a warning by Vice-President Dick Cheney that all options, including military action, remained on the table. He was responding to a comment by Tony Blair that it would not “be right to take military action against Iran”.

AP Bush to visit with troops at Walter Reed

He will meet with soldiers once housed in Building 18, who endured moldy walls, rodent infestation and other problems that went unchecked until reported by the media. Bush declared the situation unacceptable and ordered a full-scale review of care for veterans.
Walter Reed is considered one of the Army's premier facilities for treating the wounded. The revelations of shoddy treatment for those wounded in war was an embarrassment to Bush, who routinely speaks of the need to support the troops.
Bush will tour both Abrams Hall, where soldiers transferred after Building 18 was recently vacated, and the main hospital.
He will award Purple Hearts to several soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and are now recovering from serious wounds.

He said he was sorry and that he would take care of things. The same thing he told the residents of New Orleans.

LA Times, blame Bush for preferring the bully pulpit over debateAbuse, threats quiet bloggers' keyboards

"If you're writing to say that my research is weak, that's fine," he said. "But saying I should be shot is a little over the edge. I mean, we're talking about iTunes here, not politics."
The issue is not an easy one, because it gets to the heart of the free-speech culture that allows bloggers to reveal every aspect of their lives and thoughts. The medium's openness leaves writers vulnerable to cruel invective from angry readers or troublemakers.
"They're idea terrorists," said Scoble, a former Microsoft executive whose postings about software once prompted someone to call him to say they wished they could kill him. His wife, Maryam, was also vilified on the sites that attacked Sierra. "If they don't agree with your ideas, they try to terrorize you or make you feel bad."

Keep it to yourself keyboard terrorists and take careful notice of Prissy's book list.

MSN Money Central How CEOs rob workers, customers (is this the strategy of CEO's running our government?)

In 1914, Henry Ford made a "bet the company" decision. Conventional thinkers thought he was insane. Those without Ford's imagination were certain his decision would send Ford Motor (F, news, msgs) into bankruptcy.
He chopped the workday down to eight hours, and he doubled employees' daily wages. But he did not do this out of compassion. He had no desire to share the wealth. He made a hardheaded business decision.
Absenteeism plummeted. Worker turnover virtually disappeared. So did the number of accidents; ditto the number of manufacturing defects. Meanwhile, productivity soared. And the automotive age was born.
Today, the reverse is happening. The entire structure that promotes worker security, health and devoted service is being systematically dismantled. As investors, we benefit from this. But the largest beneficiaries are corporate executives. Every dime they squeeze out of payroll drops to the bottom line. The same money takes them a step closer to realizing gigantic stock-option gains.

Scientific American(?) Prissy thought Dubya didn't allow that. Confirmed: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese Americans in WWII

Officially, Seltzer notes, the Secret Service made the 1943 request based on concerns of presidential safety stemming from an alleged March 1942 incident during which an American man of Japanese ancestry, while on a train from Los Angeles to the Manzanar internment camp in Owens Valley, Calif., told another passenger that they should have the "guts" to kill President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The incident occurred 17 months before the Secret Service request, during which time the man was hospitalized for schizophrenia and was therefore not an imminent threat, Seltzer says.
And...Census data is routinely used to enforce the National Voting Rights Act and other policies, but not in a form that could be used to identify a particular person's race, sex, age, address or other information, says former director Prewitt. The legal confidentiality of census information dates to 1910, and in 1954 it became part of Title 13 of the U.S. Code, which specifies the scope and frequency of censuses.
"The law is very different today" than it was in 1943, says Christa Jones, chief of the Census Bureau's Office of Analysis and Executive Support. "Anything that we release to any federal agency or any organization … all of those data are reviewed," she says, to prevent disclosures of individual information.

Are we supposed to believe the "Patriot Act" does not allow the Census Bureau to do it again?

Great blog...George Washington's Blog WHO's Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy?

First, let's look at the events leading up to the 9/11 attacks.
As reported by the New York Times, the FBI had penetrated the cell which carried out the 1993 world trade center bombing, but had -- at the last minute -- cancelled the plan to have its FBI infiltrator substitute fake power for real explosives, against the infiltrator's strong wishes (summary version is free; full version is pay-per-view). See also this TV news report.
And the CIA is alleged to have met with Bin Laden two months before 9/11.
Indeed, the government appears to have trained a number of the hijackers at military bases.

Shocking, well cited read...

Zuna fish Zuna Fish Prissy doesn't usually promote stuff-however, this looks like a site readers might enjoy;-)

You know the books, CDs, DVDs, and other stuff you’re finished with? Well, somebody wants them.
Zunafish® lets you trade your old media items for new titles you’d rather have. And, oh yeah— it’s fun, simple and dirt cheap: just a buck a trade! Easy and fun.
Just list the stuff you want to get rid of, pick the stuff you want to get, and watch the trade offers arrive!

WaPoEx-Partner Of Giuliani May Face Charges Kerik Counts Said To Include Deception During Cabinet Bid

Federal prosecutors have told Bernard B. Kerik, whose nomination as homeland security secretary in 2004 ended in scandal, that he is likely to be charged with several felonies, including tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wiretapping.
Kerik's indictment could set the stage for a courtroom battle that would draw attention to Kerik's extensive business and political dealings with former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who personally recommended him to President Bush for the Cabinet. Giuliani, the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination according to most polls, later called the recommendation a mistake.

That Kerik, such an oaf...

ABC Bush Calls on Iran to Free U.K. Sailors

President Bush on Saturday said Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines was "inexcusable" and called for their immediate, unconditional release.
Bush said Iran plucked the sailors out of Iraqi waters. Iran's president said Saturday they were in Iranian waters and called Britain and its allies "arrogant and selfish" for not apologizing for trespassing.

Dubya, haven't you 'helped things' with Britain and Iran enough already? Hush now...Let us pray the president of Iran believes in Geneva. So far he has not broken it.

Reuters Bush backs Gonzales, says no evidence of wrongdoing

Bush also said Gonzales, the nation's top law enforcement officer, was providing documents to Congress and would "tell the truth" when he testifies about the matter before the Senate Judiciary Committee in April.
"Attorney General Al Gonzales is an honorable and honest man and he has my full confidence," Bush said.
"I will remind you there is no credible evidence that there has been any wrongdoing," he added.

Is there no C-Span on at the White House? Apparently no one has told him about Sampson and Goodling...

Speaking of more fantasy of the right TPM Cafe Toensing Doesn't Know Dick About Val by Larry Johnson

It never occurred to even one of us, working on those laws at that time, that the identity of a covert officer would ever be revealed by the highest officials in American government in leading newspapers and syndicated columns of high level Washington insiders. In those days the revealers of identities ended up taking refuge in Castro's Cuba, not Washington dinner parties or high level corridors of insider power.
It is immaterial whether the CIA Identities Act was technically violated. In my view it probably was; reasonable people can disagree; Patrick Fitzgerald said that lies threw sand in the gears of justice, so perhaps we will ultimately find out, perhaps not.
Understand the protestations of those who argue most aggresively for pardon, are those who argue most aggressively that the identity law was not broken, but support the pardon in large measure because they also fear the ultimate revelation of the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Countless people who I respect and admire have urged me to aggressively attack Victoria Toensing. I don't believe she is very important to this. She has the right to her views, though they are close to universally rejected by those who know the most of this matter, witness how few Republicans came to the Waxman hearing to offer their support.

Victoria Toensing might...talk about a loose cannon.

Seattle Times News Source General sought to warn Bush not to say Tillman died in enemy ambush

Just seven days after Pat Tillman's death, a top general warned there were strong indications that it was friendly fire and President Bush might embarrass himself if he said the NFL star-turned-soldier died in an ambush, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.
It was not until a month afterward that the Pentagon told the public and grieving family members the truth -- that Tillman was mistakenly killed in Afghanistan by his comrades.
The memo reinforces suspicions that the Pentagon was more concerned with sparing officials from embarrassment than with leveling with Tillman's family.
In a memo sent to a four-star general a week after Tillman's April 22, 2004, death, then-Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that it was "highly possible" the Army Ranger was killed by friendly fire. McChrystal made it clear his warning should be conveyed to the president.

The Bushie White House... Always in *CYA mode, no matter who gets hurt-whether it be career spies’ outed or military families and soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice to their country. (For Dearest international readers, CYA stands for 'cover your @ss')

Prissy Patriot endorsed poller John Zogby, news UPI Poll: Iran could set off arms race

Nearly 90 percent of UPI-Zogby International poll participants said Iran's nuclear program could set off a Middle East arms race.
While Iran says its uranium enrichment program is solely for peaceful purposes, some Western countries say Tehran, in fact, is looking to develop nuclear weapons. Zogby interactive poll respondents said this would likely cause other countries in the region to seek a nuclear capability.
Some 49.7 percent of those asked said it was "very likely" countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt would want to join the nuclear club if Iran was proved to be a member and another 38.5 percent said it was "somewhat likely."

Dubya and Diplomacy mix like, say, oil and water...

Quotes of the Day

Any appeasement of tyranny is treason to this republic and to the democratic ideal.--William Allen White, American editor, journalist

Though those that are betrayed Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor Stands in worse case of woe.-- William Shakespeare

The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities states and nation. At the head is a small group of banking houses generally referred to as 'international bankers.' This little coterie... run our government for their own selfish ends. It operates under cover of a self-created screen...[and] seizes...our executive officers... legislative bodies... schools... courts... newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.--John F. Hylan, Mayor of New York City from 1918 to 1925.

Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions? Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas corpus law have been worthy of that suspension. They have been either real treasons, wherein the parties might as well have been charged at once, or sham plots, where it was shameful they should ever have been suspected. Yet for the few cases wherein the suspension of the habeas corpus has done real good, that operation is now become habitual and the minds of the nation almost prepared to live under its constant suspension.--Thomas Jefferson

The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that -- however bloody -- can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave.--Lysander Spooner, Nineteenth-Century lawyer, abolitionist, entrepreneur, legal theorist and political radical.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

To Forgive a Republican

Dearest Readers, there is a lot to be said about forgiveness. Being a Sunday here in the Bible belt what a great time to discuss it.

In Prissy's book, forgiving and forgetting are separate matters. Seriousness of the offense will always determine if both are granted-or only forgiveness.

In reference to the Bush administration, forgiveness will only begin after their trials are over.

Speaking of trials, have you seen the new Velvet Revolution ad? Here's the picture:

Here's to hopes that future historians will never gloss over the mess neocons have made of what was once a country held up as the hope for humanity and beacon of civility. Remember the famous "liberty and justice for all?"

Prissy and Betty have finally made the plans for our first show, thank you to the new Columbus media through the Freepress.org! We will of course make fun of all your favorite politicians and entertain you with their absurdities.

If any Dearest Reader has a original song they think would be a good theme for the show, please email Prissy!

Prissy will post the pod cast here at the end of the week. It took us a year to get it together-but as you know, Prissy has been busy fighting the warmongers ;-)

Hot Links

And away he goes...with the Brits assisting in the propaganda spin Pentagon blames Iran for 170 US deaths

Senior defence officials in Baghdad said that Iranian-supplied "explosively formed projectiles" were frequently being used against coalition forces.
They said the "highest levels" of Iran’s regime were responsible for giving them to Shia militias in Iraq.
These bombs are specially designed to penetrate heavily armoured military vehicles and are capable of crippling the US army’s main battle tank, the Abrams M1.
They have killed 170 US troops since June 2004, according to the American officials. They added that some weapons have been captured and they bore the hallmarks of having been manufactured in Iran.

It is difficult to know what to believe, as Prissy is no munitions expert. But some others claim the highly damaging IED's have the hallmarks of being manufactored in Israel.

IraqSlogger Blackwater Contractor Kills Vice President's Guard

There have been rumors buzzing around the contractor community about murder. It started when a Blackwater employee drunk and fresh from a Christmas party in the Green Zone got into an argument with an Iraqi security contractor. The Iraqi worked for the Vice President as a security guard. It is not cleared what transpired but the Blackwater employee emptied the entire magazine of his pistol into the Iraqi.
Under normal circumstances the contractor would have been arrested (the Green Zone is in effect a U.S. base) under the Patriot Act, MEJA, the military code or Iraqi law but he wasn't.
He was dealt with just like any other contractor who commits a crime in Iraq. He was bundled into an aircraft, returned to the US and dropped from the payroll. According to Blackwater's lawyer, he was "off duty" returned to the US and is being "investigated" by the FBI.
The yet to be identified contractor is a perfect example of how and why contractors are accountable to no one.
The recent jailbreak of the former Electricity Minister by DynCorp contractors is yet another example (this was the second time Ayman Alshammarae was sprung from jail) and the most egregious example. The recent Triple Canopy lawsuit brought by two former employers (one I met during a training program detailed in my book). The two Triple Canopy employees filed a lawsuit because they say they were fired for reporting that another employee wanted to "kill an Iraqi" on the way to the airport. The Triple Canopy employee tried twice to kill Iraqi civilians with his M4 and then his pistol.

CNN Iran negotiator: Nuclear program 'no threat to Israel'

• Iran's nuclear program no threat to Israel, says country's top negotiator • Ali Larijani says Tehran has no aggressive intentions toward any nation. • Iran prepared to settle outstanding issues with IAEA, he says

Donkeyod Why Dick Cheney Cracked Up Op-Ed Columnist By FRANK RICH -the full version

The answer can be found in the timing of the CNN interview, which was conducted the day after the start of the perjury trial of Mr. Cheney’s former top aide, Scooter Libby. The vice president’s on-camera crackup reflected his understandable fear that a White House cover-up was crumbling. He knew that sworn testimony in a Washington courtroom would reveal still more sordid details about how the administration lied to take the country into war in Iraq. He knew that those revelations could cripple the White House’s current campaign to escalate that war and foment apocalyptic scenarios about Iran. Scariest of all, he knew that he might yet have to testify under oath himself.
Mr. Cheney, in other words, understands the danger this trial poses to the White House even as some of Washington remains oblivious. From the start, the capital has belittled the Joseph and Valerie Wilson affair as “a tempest in a teapot,” as David Broder of The Washington Post reiterated just five months ago. When “all of the facts come out in this case, it’s going to be laughable because the consequences are not that great,” Bob Woodward said in 2005. Or, as Robert Novak suggested in 2003 before he revealed Ms. Wilson’s identity as a C.I.A. officer in his column, “weapons of mass destruction or uranium from Niger” are “little elitist issues that don’t bother most of the people.” Those issues may not trouble Mr. Novak, but they do loom large to other people, especially those who sent their kids off to war over nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and nonexistent uranium.

TPM Cafe Dick Cheney Was Briefed by CIA on Niger

As the Senate Intelligence Committee reported in 2004, Dick Cheney asked his briefer to find out what the CIA knew about this. When a Vice President or President asks a question or makes a substantive comment in response to the briefing material, the Briefer always goes back to CIA Headquarters and sits in on a morning meeting of Senior CIA officials. When the CIA briefer got back to Headquarters, he briefed the Director of Operations (or his Deputy) and the the Director of Intelligence (or his Deputy).
This led to two courses of action. First, the Director of Intelligence sent the rock rolling down the hill until it hit an analyst in WINPAC--the analytical shop in CIA tasked with monitoring Iraq's WMD program. According to the CIA memo released in the Libby trial, we now know that In response to this tasking the analyst produced a Senior Power Executive Intelligence Brief on 14 February 2002 that concluded:
information on the alleged uranium contract between Iraq and Niger comes exclusively from a foreign government service report that lacks crucial details, and we are working to clarify the information and to determine whether it can be corroborated.
Now here is the bullshit. The Republican led Senate Select Intelligence Committee claimed in July 2004 that:
The CIA sent a separate version of the assessment to the Vice President which differed only in that it named the foreign government service.

Atlantic Free Press Catapulting the Propaganda at the New York Times

For who are the "Shiite militias"? They are the armed wings of the political factions that now run the Bush-backed Iraqi government, elected in an electoral process designed by the Bush Administration that guaranteed the rise of these extremist sectarian armed cliques to power. The Shiite militias ARE the Iraqi government — or at least, they are part of that government's many contentious factions. If they have power, if they operate with impunity — with or without weapons supplied by the long-time allies in Iran, with which most of the Iraqi Shiite factions have a relationship going back decades — then it is because these factions have been and are now being empowered, armed, funded, trained and supported by the Bush Administration.
This is what the Bushists are tacitly admitting when they claim that the Shiite militias are fragging their ostensible American allies with Iranian weapons. They are saying that even the factions "liberated" and empowered by the American invasion are now attacking and killing U.S. soldiers, with even more virulence than the Sunni insurgents. They are saying that Bush is now "surging" more soldiers into a situation where every single armed faction in the Iraqi conflict is targeting and killing Americans, including those factions armed and funded by the Americans themselves.
This is a remarkable confession. And it represents yet another of the many overwhelming reasons to bring Bush's bloody Babylonian escapade to a halt without further delay. The most compelling reason, of course, is the fact that the invasion was a war crime from the word go and every second that it continues is a furtherance and compounding of that original sin. But even by the viscera-smeared lights of the war's own proponents, to have reached the place where the very people you have empowered are killing your troops is surely the end of the road.

Der spiegel "We Probably Gave Powell the Wrong Speech" SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH CIA'S FORMER EUROPE DIRECTOR

The former chief of the CIA's Europe division, Tyler Drumheller, discusses the United States foreign intelligence service's cooperation with Germany, the covert kidnapping of suspected terrorists and a Bush adminstration that ignored CIA advice and used whatever information it could find to justify an invasion of Iraq.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Drumheller, do you still dare to travel to Europe? Drumheller: Yes, absolutely. I was a great friend of the Europeans. I grew up in Wiesbaden. I love Germany very much.
SPIEGEL: Arrest warrants have been issued in Europe for a number of your former colleagues. They are suspected of involvement in the illegal kidnappings of suspected terrorists as part of the so-called "renditions" program. Doesn't this worry you? Drumheller: No. I'm not worried, but I am not allowed to discuss the issue.
SPIEGEL: One of the cases is the now famous kidnapping of Khalid el-Masri, a German-Lebanese who was taken into custody at the end of 2003 in Macedonia and later flown to Afghanistan. How could the CIA allow an innocent person to be arrested? Drumheller: I'm not allowed by the agency to comment on any of those cases or the so-called "secret prisons." I would love to, but I can't. We have a life-long secrecy agreement and they are very, very strict about what you can say.

Forbes Libby Case Gives White House Revelations

Trial testimony so far - including eight hours of Libby's own audio-recordedd testimony to a grand jury in 2004 - suggest that a White House known as disciplined was anything but that.
What has emerged, instead, is: _a vice president fixated on finding ways to debunk a former diplomat's claims that Bush misled the U.S. people in going to war and his suggestion Cheney might have played a role in suppressing contrary intelligence. _a presidential press secretary kept in the dark on Iraq policy. _top White House officials meeting daily to discuss the diplomat, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, and sometimes even his CIA-officer wife Valerie Plame.
Libby is accused of lying to the FBI and the grand jury about his talks with reporters concerning Plame. Libby got the White House press secretary to deny he was the source of the leak. He says he thought he first heard about Plame's CIA job from NBC's Tim Russert.
But after checking his own notes, he told the FBI and the grand jury Cheney himself told him Plame worked at CIA a month before the talk with Russert, but Libby says he forgot that in the crush of business.

Patrick Fitzgerald rested the prosecution case Wednesday. Team Libby defense will spend the rest of the time attempting to defend his undefendable actions. Prissy predicts the jury will not be fooled.

It is now expected Cheney will not testify. No kidding? With Libby's jail time now a looming reality, he continues looking out for his own neck. If Dick does end up on the stand as International Herald Tribune is reporting, he will seal his own fate as well...

When will Fitzgerald open "Sealed v. Sealed" ?

Prissy is thinking it will happen shortly after Libby's certain conviction. Go team Fitz!

Dallas News 2nd reporter IDs Libby in CIA leak

Mr. Cooper, Time magazine's White House reporter at the time, became the second reporter to testify at the CIA leak trial that Mr. Libby was a source for their learning that Valerie Plame, wife of ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a CIA operative.
Mr. Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is charged with lying to the FBI and a grand jury about his conversations with reporters about Ms. Plame and obstructing the investigation into how her identity leaked to the public in 2003. He is not charged with the actual leak.
Defense attorney William Jeffress asked Mr. Cooper about President Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, whom Mr. Cooper identified as the first official to tell him about Ms. Plame's CIA job.
In his opening statement, defense attorney Theodore Wells claimed the White House was trying in 2003 to blame Mr. Libby for the leak to protect Mr. Rove, although Mr. Wells did not explain how that related to the perjury charges against Mr. Libby.

Hindu Times Mr. Blair's endless troubles

There was a rare moment in the House of Commons when Tony Blair, seldom at a loss for words, found himself nearly speechless. It happened when the Scottish Nationalist Party leader Alex Salmond, not known for mincing words, sought to draw a parallel between the cash-for-peerages row and the Watergate scandal.
Putting the boot in as hard as he could, he asked Mr. Blair: "The Prime Minister is known for his close association with President George W. Bush [and] given all that has befallen all of the Prime Minister's men and women in recent days, is not now the more relevant association with President Richard Milhous Nixon? Is there a cover-up in Downing Street?" As a hush fell, an ashen-faced Mr. Blair slowly rose to his feet, mumbled something to the effect that he could not possibly comment on an ongoing investigation, and sat down with the air of a beaten man.
Minutes earlier, Tory leader David Cameron had taunted him: "Can't you see that it is time for you to go?" And all this even before it emerged that Mr. Blair had been questioned a second time by police over allegations that he nominated four businessmen for peerages in return for `secret' loans to the Labour Party's 2005 election fund.
Downing Street was dragged deeper into the scandal after Ruth Turner, one of Mr. Blair's most trusted aides, was arrested on "suspicion of perverting the course of justice"; and Lord Levy, his personal friend and party's chief fund-raiser, was detained a second time. In plain words, police suspect a cover-up at the heart of Downing Street.

by political artist Stephen Pitt

WTKR Astronaut Faces Very Serious Charges

Nowak faces charges including attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery.
Police said she drove 900 miles, donned a disguise and was armed with a BB gun and pepper spray when she confronted a woman she believed was a competitor for the affections of Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein.

This shows there is not a limit to strange things people can do, regardless of their accomplishments in life when it comes to their version of love (obsession in this case)

Proof people do need courses on what is a healthy relationship. Just like math and science, it must be learned.

New Org Bring Their Buddies Home

It’s time to do something that communicates on a deeper emotional level than demonstrations or protests. America’s brave sons and daughters gave their lives because they were told they were defending us. They were lied to and the continuation of this war and additional deaths will not justify their sacrifice. On President’s Day, Monday, February 19th, 2007, in hundreds of cities across the country, thousands of people will stand up to honor our fallen troops by showing that it’s time to Bring Their Buddies Home. Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the nation will stand in silence, shoulder to shoulder, at the same time, dressed in black, each wearing the name of one of the fallen troops.

Time and a still defiant congress Rep. Hoyer: Iraq Vote Will Be Limited

— A House vote on Iraq this week will be limited to the question of supporting President Bush's troop escalation, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Sunday.
Hoyer's comment drew a vehement objection from House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who said House Democrats had promised to allow a vote this week on a Republican alternative opposing a cutoff of money for the war.
Hoyer, D-Md., said such a vote would occur later.
"Live up to your word," Boehner told Hoyer. Democrats, Boehner said, "won't even let us have a substitute. ... Give us a vote this week."

Live up to your word Mr. Boehner, and support our troops, value their lives!

Newsday -a shrink analyses Dubya Bush is dreaming and won't wake up

Dissociation is a more complicated defense mechanism than denial. It doesn't just pretend that reality isn't there. It replaces reality with a fantasy world. We dissociate when we daydream. But when we repeatedly live in our own world, we do so at our peril. A gambling addict buried in debt is sure that next time he is going to win, but he almost never does. Despite his wife's expressions of unhappiness, a husband believes he is in a good marriage, and is shocked when she announces she wants a divorce. A patient avoiding childhood memories of sexual abuse tells her therapist she had a happy childhood when it couldn't possibly have been.
We see evidence of the president's dissociation in his assessments of Iraq. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he still maintains that Iraq is not in a civil war, but "in a difficult struggle against the insurgents." Long after his generals concluded that we are not succeeding there, he repeatedly declared "we are winning."
Last week, some Iraqi officials blamed the new U.S. strategy in Baghdad for the worst single suicide bombing in the war, at a Shia market in Baghdad. The Mahdi Army, the Shia militia, which had been deterring sectarian reprisals, was scattering before new U.S. troops arrived. Bush's response: "It's a good sign that there's a sense of concern and anxiety" about Baghdad security.
Such statements are not just political spin. Political spin is crafted to frame specific situations. Dissociation reveals itself in a persistent pattern of behavior. Present-day Iraq is hardly the only situation in which the president has dissociated. Lacking evidence of any link between Iraq and al-Qaida, the president insisted for years that the two were intimately connected.

Cleveland Elections chief in Ohio's largest county resigns (with more sure to follow-pp)

The embattled elections chief in the state's most populous county resigned Tuesday, ending a tense term that thrust Cuyahoga County into the national spotlight as it weathered a rough transition from punch-card to electronic voting.
The elections board announced the decision by executive director Michael Vu after a nearly two-hour closed-door meeting. Under Vu, the county had a botched primary election and saw the convictions of two workers who mishandled the 2004 presidential recount.

Random Quotes of the Day

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. --Will Rogers

Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.--Kurt Vonnegut

I'd rather be dead than singing "Satisfaction" when I'm forty-five. --Mick Jagger

Throughout the history of mankind there have been murderers and tyrants; and while it may seem momentarily that they have the upper hand, they have always fallen. Always.--Mahatma Ghandi

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Bringing the Clean Up Crew to Ohio Politics

Not ready for French fries, yet they still fantasize of having a French maid

Dearest Readers, blogging should be more regular this week. The investigation Prissy was working on has been wrapped up, with a final report being readied.

If the case ends up in court, Prissy will post the filing here- as it will be big news here in Columbus...and could easily have ramifications on a national level regarding our election systems.

Rest assured, everything possible was done to ensure integrity in the vote and election process.

Yesterday there was a lovely event at the Columbus Athletic Club, with Ohio's new Governor-elect Ted Strickland.

Let Prissy be the first to tell you, our Ted could go all the way-once he is done fixing Ohio.Inside the lobby of the Columbus Athletic Club.

Ted let everyone know last night-"Have fun, and be prepared to get back to work to reclaim Ohio January 1st." You've got it, Governor! Prissy can't wait to get started.Ted, Ohioans are ready for change. We know the state needs a good scrubbing

Hot Links

From the desk of Patrick J Fitzgerald 24 - 7 - 365.2425

Harder working than Santa's elves, the dedicated team of professionals working in the field and at the J. Edgar Hoover - FBI Building 'round the clock (even on Christmas and Leap Day) investigating graft and corruption (my pet peeve) and locking up evildoers - an endless and often thankless task. Talk about results...

From Project on Goverment Oversight (POGO) and Patrick Fitzgerald...two of Prissy's favorite crime fighters.

CS Monitor Could Iran help the US stabilize Iraq?

Feeling vulnerable, Iran sent an unprecedented secret letter to the White House, offering to talk about everything from its controversial nuclear program to support for Hizbullah and Hamas militants.
But the Bush team dismissed the offer, and even scolded the Swiss ambassador in Tehran at the time for passing the message on. Today, with the US bogged down in Iraq and looking for a facesaving way out, it is the Iranians who want to define the terms of any cooperation.
They often cite Afghanistan in 2001, when Iran helped the US defeat the Taliban and push out Al Qaeda with extensive intelligence and diplomatic aid, only to be labeled part of the "axis of evil" weeks later.
"It's a game. We think the US wants to use Iranian power to solve their problem in Iraq before the presidential election in 2008," says Mr. Mohebian. "After victory ... then it will be back to the old 'axis of evil.'

Media Info Public Records Bill, Backed by Papers, Passes in Ohio

A bill that mandates public-records training for elected officials and stiffens penalties for withholding records has cleared the Ohio Legislature this week.
The bill also would increase the likelihood that those denied records will get their attorney's fees paid.

Times of India Saddam-era soldiers invited to join army

"The national unity government will pay pensions for those who are not reintegrated," added the premier, who has presented the broad-based talks as a fresh opportunity to end Iraq's vicious sectarian bloodletting.
Before the conference began, delegates said that, for the first time, the talks would include former members of Saddam's Baath party and representatives of some of the armed groups fighting the US forces.

Dubya, remind Prissy again why you went in there? One good reason will be sufficient...

LA Times Data mining won't catch terrorists

Many business travelers prefer to sit in an aisle seat. Many also prefer to sit near the front of the plane so they may be among the first off when the plane lands.
Those also happen to be seats that might be desirable for terrorists bent on hijacking an airplane.
That common seat preference shared by business fliers and violent extremists could be earning innocent passengers additional scrutiny as they cross the U.S. border.
Last month, in a little-noticed filing buried deep in the Federal Register and first reported by the Associated Press, the Department of Homeland Security revealed that for several years, it had been using a so-called Automated Targeting System to screen passengers entering and leaving the United States

And that's why ATS will have to go away, it targets airlines best customers. Duh

Centcom tells tall tales for Dubya Elections Represented Hope for Iraqis

The ballot for the Dec. 15, 2005, election was incredibly complicated, with hundreds of candidates running for office. Some were affiliated with nascent political parties, others ran on their own. Some parties were affiliated with a particular sect or tribe. Others cut across ethnic and religious boundaries.
Election Day (2005) in Iraq was also a triumph for the Iraqi security forces. "All the time and money you have spent training the Iraqi army, you harvest it today," Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Mobdir Hatim Hothya al-Delemy told then-3rd Infantry Division Commander U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Webster following a tour of polling places that day.

Middle East Times Baghdad kidnapping sows terror as Blair backs Iraq PM

The latest in a series of mass kidnappings spread terror in Baghdad Sunday as British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a surprise visit to support his embattled Iraqi counterpart Nuri Al Maliki.
More than 25 aid workers were hauled off at gunpoint from a Baghdad office of the Iraqi Red Crescent aid agency by a gang of 50 gunmen sporting police uniforms, the second such mass abduction in Baghdad in three days.

Yet our delusional Bush administration sees "progress". Perhaps it depends on ones view of "unnecessary deaths."

MSNBC Witnesses in Libby trial all expected to testify

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has signaled that none of the government witnesses he intends to call will refuse to testify in the upcoming trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Fitzgerald did not say if Cheney or other top White House officials were on his witness list. But, he says, that none of the proposed witnesses intend to assert executive privilege, in an attempt to exclude their testimony.
The vice president himself has said in a CNN interview in June, "I may be called as a witness."

He sure will be up there on the witness stand. Prissy hopes his testimony is public, its worth going to DC to blog live! Get him, Fitz...

The Economist Blair's rotten week

Worse, in the end, may be government efforts to deflect attention away from the two pieces of unwelcome news this week. Both the questioning of Mr Blair, and the government announcement that it was bowing to Saudi pressure over the corruption inquiry, took place on the same day that a much-awaited report was published into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Whether or not this was intentional, it looks as if the government was trying to bury bad news on a day when Britain’s aggressive media might have been distracted. For all his efforts to leave his mark on Britain and the world, he risks being remembered most for formidable efforts to “spin” the news.

Hat tip to Fitz. Here's what Prissy will be wearing when "Fitzmas" finally arrives...

Testimony of Robert S. Mueller, III Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation Before the Senate Judiciary Committee December 6, 2006

Over the last two years, the FBI has convicted more than 1,060 government employees involved in corrupt activities, to include 177 federal officials, 158 state officials, 360 local officials, and more than 365 police officers. In FY 2005 alone, the Public Corruption Program saw a 25% increase in public corruption cases investigated, resulting in 890 indictments, 759 convictions, and 2,118 cases still pending. There are 622 agents currently working public corruption matters, an increase of 264 since 2002.

TPM Muckraker Roll Call Provides Scandal Scorecard of 19 members investigated of the 109th Congress

More to follow...

Rocky Mountain News The Suit that Jack Built one reporters tale

I found Sabatini at the impressive James Clothiers boutique at Tysons Galleria in McLean, Va. He still had those suits and the expense that came with them.
Sabatini beamed as I walked through the door. He said I was built just like big Jack. A quick fitting confirmed it.
I bought two double-breasted suits in different shades of pinstripes and a spiffy blue blazer.
On the lining of one jacket, embroidered in bright gold script, is the name "Jack Abramoff."

Chicago CBS2Reid: Ailing Senator Shows Some Progress

Sen. Tim Johnson has shown significant improvement after brain surgery and doctors say "everything is going to be just fine," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said Sunday.
Yet when asked whether the 59-year-old South Dakota Democrat was conscious, Reid said in a television interview: "I'm not a doctor. I have heard and talked to his family. You should talk to them. It's not appropriate to talk to me about that."
Reid, who has visited Johnson frequently after the surgery Wednesday following a brain hemorrhage, said "he's doing very well. ... His improvement has been significant."

The governor of South Dakota will have a fight on his hands if he attempts to fill the democrat senators spot.

Reuters Ahmadinejad's allies struggle in Iran elections

Friday's twin elections for the clerical Assembly of Experts and local councils, the first nationwide vote since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, will not directly impact policy.
But turnout of around 60 percent and Ahmadinejad's close identification with some candidates, particularly in Tehran, suggested a shift toward more moderate policies and away from the president's ultra-conservative line.
Although not Iran's most powerful figure, Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel and anti-Western statements alarm the West, which fears Iran is seeking an atomic bomb despite Tehran's denials.
"The results show that voters have learned from the past and concluded that we need to support ... moderate figures," the daily Kargozaran said in an editorial.

MSN Japan Japanese, US nuclear envoys head to Beijing for six-way North Korea talks

However, both Washington and Pyongyang have demanded concessions from each other while offering little in return.
The U.S. says North Korea must take concrete steps toward dismantling its nuclear arsenal, but the North has said the U.S. must first abolish its hostile stance toward Pyongyang and lift financial sanctions.
"I hope they come ready to make some progress, because we need progress," Hill told reporters in Tokyo early Sunday, before he left for Beijing.
"The issue is implementing the September (2005) statement," Hill said, referring to the North's agreement to abandon its nuclear weapons program in exchange for security guarantees and aid. "The question is what part of the September statement are they prepared to move on?"

Quotes of the Day

The real distinction is between those who adapt their purposes to reality and those who seek to mold reality in the light of their purposes.--Henry Kissinger (1923 - )

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.--Philip K. Dick (1928 - 1982), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Humankind cannot stand very much reality.--T. S. Eliot (1888 - 1965)

Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.--Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964), Taken Care Of ,1965

The Prissy Patriot

Loaded Web

Subscribe Now: Feed Icon