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.

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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.

Who is Sleeping With the Enemy?

Best of Prissy Today...Dearest Readers, Prissy will make this a short post- to be updated later. She is doing lots of hands-on "Bring the Troops Home NOW" kinds of activities. Please join in!

It doesn't matter what part of the world you are in. (Prissy is pleased and amazed so many readers are not American) Write to Congress, call the the White House-tell them end the war or resign, because they defy the wishes of the people.

If you don't want or can't have your name involved, get a post card with no return address that boldly states "END THE WAR" and send it to them. If you are not American and you take the time to complain about the war- that should really make them feel like dumb animals.

And let's face it- this bunch is not the brightest, nor the best of what America has to offer the world. They are on the bottom rung of humanity-greedy, always hungry bullies with little or no conscience. Now is the time-to give the wicked no rest with protests, lawsuits, complaints, phone calls, etc.

They should feel like we are their "bill of rights" collectors. We must remind them everywhere they go, they have an obligation to the citizens and a duty to the Constitution. They should be educated to understand, "Do it or get out of office". We must work on cleaning up the mess they have made-there is no sound reason to let it grow larger.

Perhaps Prissy will be a goodwill ambassador someday -her job would be traveling the world to apologize for the Dubya's mess...

The cabal may or may not escape the judgement of us mere mortals here on Earth, but last Prissy heard St. Peter still isn't taking bribes at the gate.

Besides, they will never make it past all those young marines guarding him...

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And look what Constant did- it's beautiful. And you know Prissy laughed!

Thank you Constant, Prissy will put it to good use... Constant's Pations

If you are a JAG, Prissy would like to talk to you Ref: Prissy's Nag the JAG program.

Prissy would like to know:

What is your plan to enforce the law?

What is your plan to work with your JAG-peers to ensure the laws of war are effectively enforced against a President?

Have you looked at the precedents which shows us that the Commander in Chief, because he claims to be a military leader, is subject to the US Code, and UCMJ?

Have you considered the precedents that show us that a sitting President may be lawfully prosecuted without an impeachment?

More updates later...gotta run, she's beeping in the driveway;-)

More proof he's lost his mind...Asia Yahoo Rumsfeld: US military can handle other threats despite Iraq

Rumsfeld warned potential enemies that the United States remained ready to take military action to defend its interests.

"It would be unfortunate if other countries thought because we have 136,000 troops in Iraq today that therefore we are not capable of defending our country or doing anything that we might need to do," Rumsfeld said.

The Pentagon has recently extended tours of US troops in Iraq and called up reserve Marines to quell violence in Iraq unleashed after the US-led invasion in 2003. Apart from Iraq, the US also has more than 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, and defense analysts say the deployments have put an enormous strain on the military.

"We have a large active force, we have a large reserve force, we have that ready reserve that drills the selective reserve and we have a large number of individual ready reservists who have an obligation that runs to depending on the circumstance for the remainder of their six-year period and we have allies.

Salt Lake Tribune Utahns: Dissent aids enemies 45% polled say that anti-Bush rallies more harm than good

When Rocky Anderson and Cindy Sheehan speak out against President Bush and his policies Wednesday, they probably will be cheered by thousands who agree.

But more Utahns will see them as aiding the enemies of the United States, according to a poll conducted for The Salt Lake Tribune.

Forty-five percent of poll respondents said war protesters such as Sheehan and Anderson aid U.S. enemies. Just 27 percent embrace the alternative view - that they "play an important role in the national debate over U.S. policy in Iraq."

The 625 registered Utah voters polled were split along party lines, with more Democrats believing war protesters further discussion and most Republicans believing they harm the United States. But even among Democrats, not a clear majority say protesters advance the public discussion.

That shows a lack of understanding about the importance of debate, said Brian Barnard, a local lawyer and free-speech advocate.

Yet in the same paper...Rolly: Petition to indict Bush - in Utah Veterans have gripes for Bush, too

Penny Bryman, a Salt Lake City attorney, has prepared the three-count indictment that names as defendants President Bush, Congress and the presidential administration.

The first count accuses Bush of abuse of power, citing the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay; kidnapping suspected terrorists and exporting them to other countries; failure to meet the rules of the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice; domestic spying; and thwarting the intent of Congress with the unprecedented use of 750 presidential signing statements. That count names Congress as a defendant for allowing Bush to abuse his power.

Count 2 accuses Bush of committing "other high crimes and misdemeanors" for allegedly misrepresenting that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction despite intelligence to the contrary and conspiring to reveal the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Count 3 accuses Bush of failing in his duty to promote the general welfare, citing the national debt, the growing number of children living in poverty and censoring data from the EPA and the National Academy of Sciences that address global warming.

The Age Bush 'palace' shielded from Iraqi storm

The prime 25-hectare site was a steal — it was a gift from the Iraqi Government. And if the five-metre-thick perimeter walls don't keep the locals at bay, then the built-in surface-to-air missile station should.

Guarded by a dozen gangly cranes, the site in the heart of the Green Zone is floodlit by night and is so removed from Iraqi reality that its entire construction force is foreign.

After almost four years, the Americans still can't turn on the lights for the Iraqis, but that won't be a problem for the embassy staffers. The same with the toilets — they will always flush on command. All services for the biggest embassy in the world will operate independently from the rattletrap utilities of the Iraqi capital.

Scheduled for completion next June, this is the only US reconstruction project in Iraq that is on track. Costing more than $US600 million ($A787 million), the fortress is bigger than the Vatican. It dwarfs the edifices of Saddam's wildest dreams and irritates the hell out of ordinary Iraqis.

Interesting site Water Industry. Some think the fight of the future is water, not oil. Qatar eyes RWE's Thames Water

Qatar's state-owned investment fund has teamed up with Swiss banking giant UBS to bid for Britain's largest water and waste group Thames Water, the Financial Times reported yesterday. RWE, the German power group that owns Thames Water, is looking to either sell or float the utility. The FT did not name its source, but said UBS would use its Global Infrastructure fund, launched in May, to provide part of the financing for the deal, which could value Thames Water at up to £7bn ($13.2bn)

Editor and Publisher Karr Cleared in JonBenet Case -- After Millions of Articles? With msm leading the way...pp

"The decision to drop the charges against Karr completes a 12-day arc that echoed many of the themes that have characterized the case, albeit on a more compressed, but no less bizarre scale. It was made all the more ironic because Karr's arrest earlier this month came as the nation appeared almost to have forgotten the case."

A Google search for "John Mark Karr, who was unknown until this month, came up with 10,800,000 results at the time of the latest twist. "John Mark Karr with "Ramsey" added produced 6.7 million returns.

In an article 11 days ago, E&P was among the first to question the initial assumption on the part of many in the media that Karr was almost certainly guilty, in an article headlined, "Rush to Judgment in JonBenet Case?"

E& P, bragging because they told the truth at least once...

Trailer for new movie, by soldiers in Iraq Ground Truth

Song of the Day by Paul Hipp. MFSO says Thanks Paul! SUB-IRAQIAN HOMESICK BLUES

Reuters Ahmadinejad defiant, challenges Bush to TV debate

TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad voiced defiance on Tuesday as a deadline neared for Iran to halt work the West fears is a step toward building nuclear bombs, and challenged President Bush to televised debate.

In a news conference, Ahmadinejad condemned the U.S. and British role in the world since World War Two but made no direct mention of the international nuclear confrontation.

"I suggest holding a live TV debate with Mr. George W. Bush to talk about world affairs and the ways to solve those issues," he said.

Which has a better command of english, do you suppose?

Reuters Early Iraq pullout "ruinous" to U.S. security: Cheney

Cheney and Rumsfeld said they welcomed vigorous debate over Iraq, but they drew differences between healthy debate and what the vice president called "self-defeating pessimism."

"We have only two options on Iraq -- victory or defeat -- and this nation will not pursue a policy of retreat," Cheney said.

Rumsfeld said America's enemies had launched a public relations campaign to distort the debate over the war and manipulate the U.S. media to focus on the violence rather than progress being made against terrorism.

"This enemy lies constantly -- almost totally without penalty," he said.

Oh yes, but your penalty is coming soon...

Quotes of the Day

I cannot accept, your canon that we are to judge pope and king unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.--Lord Acton

The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack… These actions apparently arise from a view that our national tradition of free expression is no longer valid; that censorship and suppression are needed to avoid the subversion of politics and the corruption of morals.--American Library Association

One of the Seven [wise men of Greece] was wont to say: That laws were like cobwebs, where the small flies are caught and the great break through.--Sir Frances Bacon

An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.--Justice Hugo L. Black

The government is the potent omnipresent teacher. For good or ill it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that the end justifies the means -- to declare that the government may commit crimes -- would bring terrible retribution.--Justice Louis D. Brandeis

Rally Against the War, Bring the Troops Home Now

Prissy Patriot will be taking off for Washington DC next week to lobby congress and cover the huge rally against the war which will occur Saturday Jan 27, 2007 at the National Mall.

More about the rally United For Peace

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The kind of juror Scooter's team is looking for

BG News, hat tip to Fitz, never too busy to keep his justice bloggers informed Lawyers slow jury selection in CIA leak case

The prosecutor took a more aggressive stance and jury selection slowed so much in the CIA leak trial yesterday that the judge postponed opening statements until next Tuesday.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald successfully objected to the way defense lawyers for former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were questioning prospective jurors. The lawyers had been asking for their opinions of top Bush administration officials and whether the officials lied to push the nation into the Iraq war.

"The jury will not be asked to render a verdict on the war or what they think of the war," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald also changed his own questioning to put Libby's attorneys, Theodore Wells and William Jeffress, more on the defensive.

Fitz, you know your courtroom skills give Prissy such criminal justice thrills...

Media Matters Hume again declared Libby did not commit the "actual leak" in Plame case

Summary: On January 18, Brit Hume again asserted as fact that "Scooter" Libby did not commit the "actual leak" of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA officer. The day before, Hume had stated that Libby was "not responsible" for leaking the information. However, prosecutors allege that Libby did discuss Plame's CIA employment with Judith Miller before it was made public; Miller herself confirmed this.

A Judge without courage, a young officer with plenty. The judge knows the war has no logic legal position. Military judge rules “illegal war” debate forbidden during Lt. Watada court martial

ALL POLITICAL SPEECH CHARGES GO TO TRIAL Nearly two weeks after hearing arguments in the January 4 pre-trial phase of Lt. Ehren Watada’s court martial for refusing to deploy to Iraq, and explaining his refusal to the press, military circuit judge Lt. Col. John M. Head today issued brief, tersely worded rulings January 16, 2007. In summation, “The defense motion for a hearing on the “Nuremburg defense” is DENIED. The government motion to prevent the defense from presenting evidence on the legality of the war is GRANTED.” The defense motion to dismiss the four political speech charges was also “DENIED.”

Just great, Lt. Watada got the one military judge who does not calibrate in his mind that he is not supposed to uphold illegal orders.

BBC New US rules on terror detainees

The Pentagon's legal adviser on the tribunals, General Thomas Hemmingway, told reporters he was satisfied with the rules. Among others they include:

* No evidence obtained under torture is to be admissible

* Evidence obtained by coercion before December 2005 will be admitted if a judge decides so

* Classified information will be submitted at a judge's discretion and the detainees will be given access to it

Fox Poll: More Americans Dislike Bush Than ... Cheney!

Bush can, however, still take some small solace from the fact that his approval rating is one point higher than Cheney's; the President's is 38%, while the VP's is 37%.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of other numbers that are striking for a Fox poll: Only 39% of Americans view the GOP favorably, and 49% view them unfavorably.

Still overguesstimated-why are they having such a difficult time finding people who are not opposed to the current administration Washington DC jury pool. And how can the jury pool be two-thirds white? That doesn't reflect the population.

NYT The caucus Reid Stands Between Bush and Iran

“Much has been made about President Bush’s recent saber rattling toward Iran,” Mr. Reid said. “This morning, I’d like to be clear: The president does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking Congressional authorization—a the current use of force resolution for Iraq does not give him such authorization.”

Mr. Reid proposed that by reaching out to Iran’s sizable under-30 population, a group he referred to as “a generation of potential reformers,” and by eliminating America’s dependence on foreign oil, the security threat from Iran could be diminished.

During her remarks, Mrs. Pelosi shifted away for her “six for ‘06” measures, the last of which was passed yesterday, to the older “Innovation Agenda.” Global warming and energy issues are a major part of that set of goals, which also includes spending more on putting in place the No Child Left Behind Act, increasing funds to universities and expanding children’s access to health insurance.

On Thursday, Mrs. Pelosi, the House speaker, announced that she is forming the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. The committee would not legislate, but it would hold hearings and recommend legislation. Mr. Reid said he backed the House’s efforts, but that a similar group would not be possible in the Senate.

CNN Blair aide arrested in funds probe

Turner is the fourth person, including Labour Party fundraiser Lord Levy, to be arrested in the inquiry which began in April.

Blair was interviewed by detectives last month, becoming the first serving prime minister interviewed in a criminal inquiry. However, he was not interviewed "under caution," meaning it is unlikely he is suspected of committing offenses.

Police are investigating allegations that honors -- such as seats in the House of Lords and knighthoods -- were given to individuals who loaned money to Blair's Labour Party. Police have also interview Conservative Party officials, including former leader Michael Howard.

Blair has acknowledged some supporters who offered loans were later nominated for honors, but has insisted that he did nothing wrong.

Financial Times GE earnings more than double

General Electric has been forced to restate earnings for the second time in 18 months after US regulators objected to the way the conglomerate had accounted for complex derivatives instruments.

Houston Chronicle Ney Corruption Timeline

2002:February — Ney's chief of staff Neil Volz leaves government to work with Abramoff as a lobbyist. Ney begins to receive regular meals and drinks at Abramoff's downtown Washington restaurant.

March 20 — Ney agrees to add language to a bill that would allow a Texas Indian tribe represented by Abramoff to reopen a casino.

April 29 — The Indian tribe donates $30,000 to Ney's various political fundraising committees.

Aug. 3-9 — Ney, Abramoff, Volz, two Ney congressional staffers and others fly to Scotland to play golf and then to London on a trip bankrolled by clients of Abramoff.

Nov. 26 — As House Administration Committee chairman, Ney awards a license to build wireless receivers in the Capitol to an Israeli company Abramoff represented.

Gee, why would they need so many wireless receivers in the Capitol?

The Statesman Texas Gov Perry sued over coal-fired power plants

Environmental activist groups have sued Gov. Rick Perry, charging that he overstepped constitutional bounds when he ordered the permit process for proposed coal-fired power plants be fast-tracked.

Reuters Negroponte says domestic spy program was critical

The NSA surveillance program, exposed by The New York Times in December 2005, was authorized by Bush to monitor the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens, without first obtaining a court warrant.

It caused a political uproar among Democrats and some Republicans who said it violated U.S. law. White House officials defended the program for more than a year, saying the warrantless surveillance that began soon after the 2001 attacks had helped protect against terrorism.

But under threat of investigation by a new Democrat-controlled Congress, the Bush administration announced an end to the program this week and said it would work with a secret federal court that issues warrants for electronic surveillance inside the United States.

It did violate FISA, which is why Bush is now back tracking. So what does he intend to remedy the violations of peoples civil rights?

Paint Ohio Blue

During the first 100 legislative hours of the 110th Congress, one of the bills that the House will consider is a bill to follow through on our commitment to increase investment in renewable energy and begin the path to energy independence. We will start by repealing billions in subsidies given to big oil, at a time of record profits to fund clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency. Specifically, the measure would ensure that oil companies that were awarded the 1998 and 1999 leases for drilling pay their fair share in royalties. The measure would also close loopholes and end giveaways in the tax code for Big Oil. Finally, the bill would create a Strategic Renewable Energy Reserve to invest in clean, renewable energy resources; promoting new emerging technologies, increasing the development and deployment of renewable sources, developing greater energy efficiency and improving energy conservation

Telegraph US housing bust getting worse, warns Goldman

The US Federal Reserve will need to slash interest rates three times this year as the housing slump goes from bad to worse and the American consumer begins to buckle, Goldman Sachs has warned.

"Americans have shown a complete lack of self-control. The personal savings rate is at its lowest point ever, and has actually been negative since April 2005.

"We believe that housing will soon become the proverbial 'straw that breaks the camel's back'," said David Kostin, the investment bank's US strategist.

UK Times Give us guns – and troops can go, says Iraqi leader

In a sign of the tense relations with Washington, he chided the US for suggesting his Government was living on “borrowed time”. Such criticism boosted Iraq’s extremists, he said, and was more a reflection of “some kind of crisis situation” in Washington after the Republicans’ midterm election losses. Mr al-Maliki conceded that his administration had made mistakes over the hanging of Saddam Hussein. But he refused to accept all criticism over the execution. When asked about the Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s attack on Iraq’s capital punishment laws, Mr al-

Maliki cited the Italians’ summary killing of Benito Mussolini and his stringing-up from a lamppost.

Asked how long Iraq would require US troops, Mr al-Maliki said: “If we succeed in implementing the agreement between us to speed up the equipping and providing weapons to our military forces, I think that within three to six months our need for American troops will dramatically go down. That is on condition that there are real, strong efforts to support our military forces and equipping and arming them.”

Stop Big Media Stop Big Media

New Studies Dismantle Big Media Case for Consolidation Reverend Jesse Jackson joined an alliance of civil rights and consumer groups today in Memphis to call on the FCC to halt media concentration and promote minority media ownership.

Akron Beacon via RAW Prosecutor says presidential recount rigged in Ohio county

Three elections workers in the state's most populous county conspired to avoid a more thorough recount of ballots in the 2004 presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors during opening statements Thursday.

"The evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless," Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said. "They did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount, he said.

Defense attorneys said in their opening statements that the workers in Cuyahoga County didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

Belfast Telegraph Blair dismisses civil liberty dangers of super-database

Because he and Dubya have such a great record on civil rights...

Times A sewer is the best medicine, poll declares

Doctors and members of the public, who were among the 11,000 voters, were divided on which discovery they considered most significant.

Sanitation eventually won with a total of 1,795 votes. However, medical professionals rated anaesthesia as more important, while the public voted for antibiotics — which came second overall with 1,642 votes.

Professor Johan Mackenbach, of Erasmus University Medical Centre, in Rotterdam, who put forward the case for sanitation, said yesterday: “The general lesson, which still holds, is that passive protection against health hazards is often the best way to improve population health.”

In the 18th century, infectious diseases led to huge numbers of deaths, including those from cholera, tuberculosis, diphtheria, measles, smallpox and typhoid, he said.

Quotes of the Day

What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The juries are our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it.”--Thomas Jefferson

“Take all the robes of all the good judges that have ever lived on the face of the earth, and they would not be large enough to cover the iniquity of one corrupt judge”--Henry Ward Beecher

“Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.”--Francis Bacon, Sr.

“The foundation of justice is good faith.”--Marcus Tullius Cicero

A Bully Swimming in a Sea of Cowards

Dubya still hides from Cindy, hoping she'll go away if his minions keep arresting her.

Just to set the story straight-since the msm will not regarding why Cindy Sheehan was arrested last week in Washington. From Prissy's Inbox.

The reason we were arrested at the White House, Cindy Sheehan, Nancy Nahvi-(Dallas, Texas), Rebecca Bahr- (Phoenix, Arizona) and myself, Mikal Hutto-(Houston, Texas), was because we asked to see the president, sat down in front of the gate and refused to move until he came and answered our two questions.

It had nothing to do with the petition. (for Redress of Grievances-pp) We had "delivered" the petition to the White House lawn much earlier, and had been taking turns reading the names of all the soldiers who have died in Iraq all day. If you were watching CNN when Bush had his press conference announcing Rumsfeld's resignation, you could hear us. My son called me and told me he could hear me reading, and everyone chanting, "NOT ONE MORE", while the reporters were talking.

We are ALL military mothers, not just "three other women". Nancy's son, Russell Nahvi, a medic died in Iraq, Oct. 19, 2005. Rebecca has a daughter who has been to Iraq and is still active military. I have a son that just got back from Iraq four weeks ago, and is active military.

First question, "What is this war for?"

Second question, "What does winning mean? Define winning this war."

There were actually three women from Texas arrested.

When we refused to move the crowd was growing, people were joining us off the street even though it was cold, raining and getting dark. The police decided the crowd was getting too big, so they used crime tape and taped off about fifty feet square around us and told anyone they would be arrested if they crossed the tape. Some people were tearing down the tape, but finally they got it up. After the area was all cleared out they arrested us, and eventually charged us with "interfering with a government function".

Pretty odd when we all know this government does NOT function.

Hot Links

Times UK Blair admits Iraq is 'pretty much a disaster'

Tony Blair went close last night to admitting that the invasion of Iraq had been disastrous. Challenged in an interview on Al-Jazeera’s new English-language channel that the Western intervention in Iraq had “so far been pretty much of a disaster”, he gave a brief agreement before swiftly moving on.

He said: “It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It is not difficult because of some accident in planning, it is difficult because there is a deliberate strategy, al-Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other, to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war.”

Mr Blair’s frank remarks came on the day that one of his most loyal ministers was reported to have described the war as “his big mistake in foreign affairs”. Margaret Hodge was said to have accused Mr Blair of espousing “moral imperialism”, remarks that she denied through an aide but which were recalled by people who attended the private meeting at which she was alleged to have made them.

Tony is a little slow, but certainly not as learning disabled as Dubya...

Cryptome The Map: Palestinian Land Loss 1946-2000

Cleveland Indy Media-sent in by a Dearest Reader Malachi burns himself alive to protest Iraq war

The press has almost completely blacked out this news in mainstream press . A long time Chicago activist, artist and contributer to the Chicago jazz scene has burned himself alive in an act of protest against the iraq war. He is only one of 10 Americans in history to have done this . Buddist monks did this during the VietNam war. On Friday, November 3, a man doused his body with gasoline and set himself afire to protest the war in Iraq . He died quietly in flames. His name was Malachi Ritscher.

Haven't seen it in the news? Me neither, which is kind of strange if you ask me, considering that it happened right here in downtown Chicago in front of hundreds of commuters during morning rush hour. The only conventional newspaper coverage to date was a tiny paragraph that appeared in the Saturday edition of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Newsworthy, yes. But Prissy wishes for no one to take this route of protest. Unless they are the authors, burning copies of the Project for the New American Century.Dick and Rummy stragerize in the old days

TruthOut, and a Prissy Patriot hat tip to Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitz, you are A-OK in Prissy's book... Reviewed: Peter Lance's 9/11 Masterpiece by Jason Leopold

Lance presents convincing evidence in the form of court records, transcripts, and interviews with key players that casts Fitzgerald, along with numerous other Justice Department and CIA officials, as terribly negligent in allowing the agencies to be hoodwinked by Mohamed, who succeeded in penetrating the CIA's Europe division and the FBI in California, all while Mohamed was secretly helping bin Laden orchestrate the African Embassy bombings. The story of Mohamed, a man Fitzgerald called the "most dangerous man I have ever met," is groundbreaking and has never been fully fleshed out before.

Triple Cross would end up being a highly entertaining Tom Clancy-esque thriller, in other words, pure fiction, if Lance didn't have tens of thousands of pages of documents locked up in a safe-house to back up this explosive account. Remarkably, Mohamed was never sentenced for the crimes he pleaded guilty to. He is in the witness protection program, his existence shrouded under a veil of secrecy.

According to Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald, Triple Cross should be placed right next to Harry Potter in the fiction section.

Prissy looks forward to Fitz writing his own account of what actually transpired...considering it was Andrew McCarthy who was actually lead counsel in that case. (Prissy confused this with Chertoff earlier, easy mistake since she doesn't trust him either)

Peter Lance is quite the story teller. Prissy did not see Jason Leopold mention that in his analysis.

Wired News Judge won't halt AT&T wiretapping lawsuit

"I do think these are matters we can proceed on," Walker said toward the end of the status conference here, which began at 11 a.m. PST and was attended by around 50 attorneys from the government, nonprofit groups, class action law firms and major telecommunications companies.

Friday's ruling represents another preliminary victory for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed its lawsuit against AT&T in January. In its suit, the EFF charged that AT&T has opened its telecommunications facilities up to the National Security Agency and continues to "to assist the government in its secret surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans."

The ruling is also a win for attorneys in 47 other cases against numerous large telecommunications providers. The cases are in the process of being consolidated into one mammoth lawsuit in the northern district of California.

Geez Dubya, those courts just keep upholding folks rights. Not looking so good for unlawful wiretapping orders these days.

Prissy will be holding a huge party when its all settled- as she hasn't been talkin' to "Al-Queda" but you tapped her phone and had her put in TALON anyway.

Remember this?

It's not just Democrats who want answers. Senator Specter has said Bush's illegal wiretapping "violates FISA — there's no doubt about that."

Until perhaps they reminded Senator Spector he wasn't immune to having his own line tapped...about that friend of yours, aye, Mr. Married senator?

Yes indeed one little reminder from Dubya's boys and Spector shut right up..

.

JTA Alleged AIPAC informant promoted

The State Department last week announced David Satterfield's promotion to senior adviser on Iraq to Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state. Satterfield was promoted from deputy ambassador to Baghdad. Satterfield is cited in the indictment against Steve Rosen, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's former foreign policy director, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst, as one of three government officials who shared information with Rosen.

Satterfield is described as meeting with Rosen in 2002, when Satterfield was second in command at the State Department's Near East desk.

Prosecutors refuse to explain why Satterfield escaped prosecution for leaking information.

How can we be shocked? Look at the commander-in-goof...

TBR The Voice of the White House

Bush has no intention of any kind of cooperation with a Democratic Congress and will go on his weird way, trying to put right wing , incompetents into Federal judgeships. The fact that not even most Republicans want them means nothing to Bush. And those fuzzy headed people who think Bush will promptly work out some kind of a rational plan for ending our involvement in Iraq are smoking hemp. Bush has no intention of changing even one of his goals and will, if allowed, stay in Iraq until the day he leaves office.

Even as I speak, they are planning to activate more National Guard units, regardless what the State Governors want and the goal is to put together a new force of ca 70,000 men and send them over to Iraq for one crushing attack on all the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds that are daring to kill Americans.

We are having identical problems in under-manned Afghanistan and we can’t take troops from Iraq to help them beat off the newly-grown Taliban. Bush simply does not care because he got his money along the way and is not up for reelection.

I said he was a nut and I meant it. I will say again that he isn’t going to change in any way so believe there will be much sadness in National Guard homes come Christmas and, given the huge new U.S. death rates, even more sorrow when their father, sons and brothers have their legs and faces blown off and come home in rubber bags.”

Unless, of course, they simply refuse Dubya's illegal orders. A good possibility, especially in light of all the evidence Guard JAG's now have in their possession. Prissy will laugh with mirth when they tell the angry little men to stuff it. The Guard can decide to "Just say No" and what can Dubya do about it, except have a temper tantrum. That didn't get his mother's attention, either...Dubya simply wishes to punish the Iraqi people "one last time" for not accepting his brand of democracy. And of course our punish our troops at the same time.

Don't count your eggs before they hatch, Chickenhawks...the public will take a strong stand against any more illegal actions. Perhaps Prissy should call in the V's...

Forbes Down Go Commodities, In Comes Recession

First, many point to a lack of investment in the production of energy, industrial metals and other commodities in the 1990s. For instance, oil company managements were loath to repeat the cycle of enthusiastic expansion of capacity leading to overproduction, which collapsed prices to the disastrous detriment of profits. Industrial metals producers had similar sentiments.

Second, political turmoil and military action in the Middle East, Nigeria, Russia, Venezuela and other major petroleum producers have added a substantial risk premium to oil prices.

Third, global economic growth led by American consumers has sired robust demand for commodities. The housing boom in the U.S. and many other countries has hyped demand for lumber, copper, gypsum, plastics and many other commodities.

Fourth and maybe foremost, the excess liquidity sloshing around the world, the demand for high returns, the speculative atmosphere and the devil-may-care attitude toward risk have driven investors beyond conventional stocks and bonds and into riskier areas, including commodities.

Christian Science Monitor Now, how to put Iraqis in charge

And in a remarkably sharp comment about the political atmosphere in Washington, the top US military commander in the Middle East commented that some aspects of the search for alternative strategies seemed to him unseemly.

When I come to Washington, I feel despair [here]," Abizaid told the Senate panel. "When I'm in Iraq with my commanders, when I talk to our soldiers, when I talk to the Iraqi leadership, they are not despairing," General Abizaid insisted.

That said, comments this week from other US officials suggests that the intelligence community, at least, takes a dark view of the current Iraqi situation.

Iraqi insurgent attacks against US and coalition forces have increased from about 70 per month in January to 180 in October, according to the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples. The rate of attacks on Iraqi civilians has increased fourfold over that same period of time.

General Abizaid will tell Dubya whatever he wants to hear...which is exactely why he is in charge of US Central Command. Peter Pace is another "yes Massah George" man.

Prissy isn't sure why they get to wear all those medals, but it certainly cannot be for bravery.

Straight Goods, November 18 2002Media ignores Bush's own Vietnam record - part AWOL, part deserter President prefers other people fight and die

A breath of fresh air for Ohio, Governor Elect Ted Strickland's new site

Reuters Indonesia cannot rule out terrorism for Bush visit

Washington is happy with what Indonesia has done to counter militants and the Bush administration has lifted restrictions on military sales that were a major irritant to Jakarta.

There remain strong disagreements on Middle East policy. Indonesian leaders have sharply criticized the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and say Washington is too pro-Israel, a country Indonesia does not recognize.

On Saturday demonstrations against the Bush visit took place in at least eight cities across Indonesia's sprawling archipelago, most attracting fewer than 500 people.

In front of the heavily fortified U.S. embassy in Jakarta, about 150 supporters of the Islamic-oriented Prosperous Justice Party carried banners that read "Say no to Bush" and "Wanted, the killer man in the world 2006".

International Herald Tribune For Bush, at APEC meeting, Vietnam offers lessons on Iraq

For Bush, who had never set foot in Vietnam before, this visit is something of a tightrope walk. America's defeat here is increasingly being mentioned in comparison with how Iraq may turn out, and Bush was careful to stress that in Iraq, unlike Vietnam, defeat is not an option for the United States.

"The Maliki government is going to make it unless the coalition leaves before they have a chance to make it," he said of Iraq's prime minister. "And that's why I assured the prime minister we'll get the job done."

In private, some White House officials concede that Bush's visit to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, scheduled months ago, is proving to be spectacularly poorly timed, because of all the uncomfortable parallels between the two wars.

For example, just as President Lyndon Johnson did in 1968, Bush has removed his longtime defense secretary and nominated a realist with "fresh eyes" to replace him. Just like Johnson in 1968, he is conducting a broad rethinking of strategy, and is hearing options he does not like.

Same old tired strategy, just like Vietnam...but Dubya was still on his 20 year vacation then, so he probably doesn't remember much about that war.

Lone Star Vietnam & Iraq: From Quagmire to Quicksand By Paul Abrams, M.D., J.D.

In both wars generals were called to make public political statements endorsing the strategy, and the Administration attacked the opposition as weak, cowardly, defeatist and unpatriotic. During Vietnam General Westmoreland endorsed the Administration’s military policy, claimed we were making great progress with our strategic hamlets policy, and supported civilian claims that “we have turned the corner and there is light at the end of the tunnel.” During Iraq several generals have made the incredible statements that they have enough troops and Vice-President Cheney told us nine months ago that “the insurgency was in its last throes.” Other than deposed General Shinseki, no high-ranking military man, it seems, is willing to forego that last star to save the lives and limbs of their troops.

In both wars U.S. complicity with torture severely damaged our international reputation and reduced the chances for ultimate success. During Vietnam it was the tiger cages and the My Lai Massacre, and, for good measure, the notorious statement that “we had to destroy a village to save it.” Although we have not (yet) had the Iraqi My Lai trial, Abu-Ghraib is Iraq’s tiger cages. We have nearly destroyed Fallujah, with perhaps other cities to come.

There are also some interesting, but substantively irrelevant, congruencies. A major architect of each war, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara for Vietnam and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz for Iraq, had their failures rewarded by promotion to President of the World Bank. In each war the junior Senator from New York was the prior President’s closest advisor, a “carpetbagger,” and a major contender for President.

Vietnam had a lot to teach us about what would happen in Iraq, but those lessons were ignored and vehemently denied. Perhaps, just perhaps, we can still learn from the quagmire how to extricate ourselves from the quicksand. The first lesson is to eschew false fears and false hopes. In both wars the exit strategy was to fashion a Constitution, conduct democratic elections, and train the locals to take over their own security. In Vietnam the latter process (dubbed, “vietnamization”) took more than four years, cost tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers’ their lives, with many more seriously wounded, plus an untold numbers of non-combatant Vietnamese lives and limbs, and a generation of birth defects from spraying large areas with dangerous plant toxins. The outcome was no different than if we had left several years earlier.

Cleveland Plain Dealer No more money for Iraq war, Kucinich says

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the former presidential peace candidate whose opposition to the Iraq war is now practically mainstream, wants to cut off future funding for the war.

It's the only way to assure a pullout soon, he says.

The Cleveland Democrat, appearing Wednesday on the Democracy Now independent broadcast network and Thursday on Fox News, says he will push that message in Congress and try to get a majority of his colleagues to agree. He would leave current funding in place but refuse the next Bush administration request for more money for the war, which could come by spring.

That's why Cleveland keeps Dennis, he's got that mid-western common sense that seem to leave many politicians when they get to Washington.

The Age Ghosts of Vietnam War haunt Bush

The comparisons will nonetheless be the subtext of Mr Bush's every move as he travels in Hanoi and then stops in the city that in his youth was known as Saigon, and that became the scene of a US military debacle. And he will have to convince his allies, ordinary Americans and perhaps himself that Iraq will end differently.

Until now, when asked what he had learned from Vietnam, Mr Bush has almost reflexively reached for the same line: That he does not micromanage his generals the way Johnson did. It is a response drawn from conservative orthodoxy about what went wrong in Vietnam, an argument that had the generals been allowed to fight their way, the United States might have won.

In Hanoi, Mr Bush will find himself inside Government halls adorned with paintings of Ho Chi Minh. He will be talking about the future of Asia with Ho's Communist successors who, Washington once warned, could not be allowed to win under any circumstances.

NYT Minister’s Own Rules Sealed His Fate

Now, the question was, what punishment did Mr. Haggard deserve? The board had two options: discipline him or dismiss him as senior pastor of New Life Church. Could he take a leave of absence, repent, receive spiritual counseling and return to ministry?

The answer became clear the next morning, the overseers said, when Mr. Haggard gave an interview to a television news crew as he pulled out of his driveway with his wife and three children in the car. He denied having sex with the male prostitute, and said he had bought methamphetamine but never used it. The overseers said they watched Mr. Haggard, affable as ever, smile grimly into the television camera and lie.

“We saw this other side of Ted that Friday morning,” said the Rev. Michael Ware, one of the overseers. “It helped us to know whether this would be a discipline or a dismissal.”

The Rev. Mark Cowart, another overseer, agreed. “It was a defining moment."

It will be a defining moment when the neocons can no longer deny they don't follow their own rules, just like Rev. Haggard...Dickie's next fundraiser

Quotes of the Day

Bill Maher new rule

NEW RULE: When the Iraq Study Group gets done studying Iraq, it should study America.

Now, I know liberals have been on a high these last 10 days, and it can't be the meth because that's a gay evangelical drug.

When Rep. Charles Rangel, (D-N.Y.) was asked what he thought about Bush, he said: "Well, I really think he shatters the myth of white supremacy once and for all."

It is “hard to resist” spoofing a pope “who seems to have been raised in libraries and not among people,” wrote Francesco Merlo, a columnist for the daily paper (Italian) La Repubblica.

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.--Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Democracy- Those Were the Days My Friends...

Prissy blogging live today from Camp Democracy in Washington, D.C. Camp Democracy has a great location, a nice organizational set up and wonderful event coordinators. Too bad the corporate media doesn't care...they haven't bothered to cover the event since opening day.

Oh, Prissy should mention the WaPo did a decent little article the second day of the camp.

But as usual, they are MIA. Corporate media does not love their own country enough to tell the truth... Camp Democracy on the National Mall in Washington (click to enlarge any photo)

"Bushnoccio" facing Constitution Ave

Heehee, look what's on his back!

Plenty of room at the media table

Veterans organizations against the war

Scottish bagpipe player joins Camp Democracy, accompanied by Jeff Fisher, who tells Prissy he is a vote fraud whistle blower

There are four tents at Camp Democracy, here are two of them

The main tent

See, Prissy told you they have a thing for each other!

Veterans for Peace, Impeachment tour bus

MFSO banner

Hey Rummy and Dumbya! Ever heard of these or is it "just a theory"

Will somebody ever stop them?

Or will they continue to wait it out like teenagers being asked to do household chores, until he officially declares his dictator status? Keep supporting them by doing nothing, Senators, and we'll all end up here...

Hot Links

ABC Pope Stops Short of Apology to Muslims

VATICAN CITY Sep 16, 2006 (AP)— Pope Benedict XVI "sincerely regrets" offending Muslims with his reference to an obscure medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman," the Vatican said Saturday.

But the statement stopped short of the apology demanded by Islamic leaders around the globe, and anger among Muslims remained intense. Palestinians attacked five churches in the West Bank and Gaza over the pope's remarks Tuesday in a speech to university professors in his native Germany.

An Iraqi insurgent group threatened the Vatican with a suicide attack over the pope's remarks on Islam, according to a statement posted Saturday on the Web.

Dearest Readers, Prissy sure wouldn't accuse him of being Christlike...

My Way via RAW Story Five Palestinian Area Churches Attacked

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - Palestinians wielding guns and firebombs attacked five churches in the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday, following remarks by Pope Benedict XVI that angered many Muslims.

No injuries were reported in the attacks, which left church doors charred and walls pockmarked with bullet holes and scorched by firebombs. Churches of various denominations were targeted.

Relations between Palestinian Muslims and Christians are generally peaceful, and the attacks on the churches sparked concern that tensions would heighten.

Nice going Pope, just what the world did NOT need-more religious contention.

ZD Net Where democracy goes to Diebold

Avi Rubin, the political scientist who has documented many problems with Diebold polling equipment, presents his report on a day at the polls during the Maryland primary. You should read the whole thing, but I am going to excerpt extensively because of how critical the performance of Diebold equipment is to our democracy. This information must be widely discussed.

There were many problems with Dielbold equipment at the polling place where Rubin spent the day as one of 16 election judges. Software errors, despite a story by The Washington Post that emphasizes human errors in the process that, as David Isenberg rightly criticizes, urge readers to miss the real problems with the Diebold systems. Most troubling to me, the errors are so pervasive that there is no systematic approach to trying to monitor for incorrectly counted votes.

Findlaw Can Congress Fire Rumsfeld?

With the midterm election season upon us, and public opinion turning against the conduct of the Iraq war, Democratic candidates and, to a surprising degree, many Republicans too, are using Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as a campaign issue. The charges include going to war with insufficient troops, bungling the occupation, and failing to articulate a realistic exit strategy.

Attacking Rumsfeld permits those incumbents who voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq to stand by that initial decision, while simultaneously taking advantage of the shift in pubic opinion. For Democrats, Rumsfeld makes an attractive target because of his repeated insensitivity--from dismissing soldiers' complaints of inadequate armor to, most recently, comparing his critics to appeasers of Nazism. Republicans, meanwhile, can criticize Rumsfeld without directly criticizing President Bush.

But what, other than winning their elections, do Rumsfeld's critics actually want? Mostly, they have called for his resignation. However, so long as the Defense Secretary enjoys the support of President Bush, he will not likely resign. And given the President's stubborn streak (or, more charitably, his loyalty), criticism of Rumsfeld may only stiffen Bush's resolve to stand by Rumsfeld. Thus, the calls for Rumsfeld's resignation could amount to little more than political posturing.

But suppose Rumsfeld's congressional critics really do want him replaced. Under our Constitution, can they fire him without the President's acquiescence? The answer is yes, but only by taking one or the other of two highly controversial steps: They can impeach and convict him for war crimes (or some other offense), or they can abolish the office of Secretary of Defense entirely.

And this...Suppose, for example, Congress concluded that Rumsfeld deliberately suppressed evidence that Saddam Hussein lacked weapons of mass destruction or ties to al Qaeda, while inflating or inventing evidence that he had such weapons or ties. Lying to Congress, whether or not under oath, is a crime, but even if Rumsfeld merely deliberately misled Congress and the American people, that in itself may be impeachable.

He talks about Rummy critics, who point out the deliberate malfeasance

Reuters Pope to give blessing as pressure for apology grows

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Pope was due on Sunday to make his first public appearance since Muslim fury erupted over remarks he made about Islam, with pressure growing for a personal apology.

The Vatican issued a statement on Saturday saying the Pope was sorry Muslims had been offended by a speech whose meaning had been misconstrued; but Muslim countries and religious groups continued to express anger at remarks they felt portrayed Islam as a religion tainted with violence.

Morocco withdrew its ambassador to the Vatican, calling the Pope's remarks "offensive", while Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said the Vatican statement was not enough.

"We feel he has committed a grave error against us and that this mistake will only be removed through a personal apology," said the Brotherhood's deputy leader, Mohammed Habib.

Bloomberg Liberty's Maffei Sets Path to Transform Malone Empire

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Liberty Media Corp. Chief Executive Officer Greg Maffei said he wants to use almost $13 billion in John Malone's media investments to buy companies he can run.

Liberty Media may swap $10 billion in News Corp. stock for a controlling stake in satellite TV provider DirecTV Group Inc., according to people familiar with the talks. Maffei, speaking at a Merrill Lynch & Co. conference yesterday, said he also wants Time Warner Inc.'s Atlanta Braves baseball team and other assets in exchange for Liberty's $2.9 billion holding.

Malone hired Maffei last November to turn Liberty's media- company investments into businesses. If he can't make trades, Maffei said he'll sell Liberty's stakes for cash and use it to buy media companies. At the top of his list, Maffei said yesterday, is a deal with News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch.

The irony! Liberty media

Falls Church News, VA a must read article from a very tiny, but excellent newspaper. A “Clean Break” From Law: Espionage and Engineering the War In Iraq

In a discussion last Tuesday, Mr. Smith, Director of Research at the IRMEP, highlighted specific applications of the neoconservative strategy doctrine in the foreign policy of the Bush White House. The paper was written by several Bush Administration officials, including former chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee Richard Perle, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, and current Middle East Adviser to the Vice President David Wurmser. The study group also had ties to former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who later worked with Perle at the Project for the New American Century.

The report came under increased scrutiny in 2003 as perceived connections were discovered between the document’s recommendations and the escalating War in Iraq, and the “War on Terror” as a whole. The IRMEP began studying the paper at that time, and the recent conflict between Israeli and Hezbollah in Lebanon has augmented the desire to research the document, and assess options for further action.

Prepared in 1996 for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, then recently elected PM and leader of the conservative Likud Party, the paper details a strategy for Israeli security and prosperity in the region. It advocates a method for advancing this strategy through the use of “hard power”—military strength instead of diplomacy and incentives—and issue framing. The authors infused rhetorically opaque arguments, crafted around Judeo-Christian and western democratic themes, to make opposition viewpoints seem indefensible.

The specific recommendations of the IASPS group within the “Clean Break” document include several provisions which have, in recent years, become manifest. Among the “laundry list” of proposals: the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, abandonment of the “Land for Peace” or “Comprehensive Peace” strategy in favor of a “Peace for Peace” or “balance of power” solution, engaging Syria and Iran through attacks in Lebanon, and legitimizing the pursuit of Palestinian militants beyond Israeli borders.

Coming this week on The Prissy Patriot: 'Why Ricky went AWOL'' and the Ohio vote fraud situation.

It is no "conspiracy theory". It was by conspiracy that Kerry did not win Ohio and thus the presidency.

Apparently, Kerry, whom only recently acknowledged that he was cheated despite overwhelming hard evidence and his background as a prosecutor, did not really want to work that hard anyway...

Quotes of the Day

Oh don't we know it...from one who wrote the American chapter of that book Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.-- Richard M. Nixon

Be entirely tolerant or not at all; follow the good path or the evil one. To stand at the crossroads requires more strength than you possess.--Heinrich Heine,German poet and satirist (1797 - 1856)

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience.--Admiral Hyman Rickover (1900 - 1986)Unfortunately, nuclear-powered submarines were his idea too...AKA "Father of the Nuclear Navy"

He said this in his old age:

"I do not believe that nuclear power is worth it if it creates radiation. Then you might ask me why do I have nuclear powered ships. That is a necessary evil. I would sink them all. I am not proud of the part I played in it. I did it because it was necessary for the safety of this country. That's why I am such a great exponent of stopping this whole nonsense of war. Unfortunately limits – attempts to limit war have always failed. The lesson of history is when a war starts every nation will ultimately use whatever weapon it has available." Further remarking: "Every time you produce radiation, you produce something that has a certain half-life, in some cases for billions of years. I think the human race is going to wreck itself, and it is important that we get control of this horrible force and try to eliminate it." (Economics of Defense Policy: Hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, 97th Cong., 2nd sess., Pt. 1 (1982))

The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.--Plutarch (46 AD - 120 AD)