Bill of Rights, Going Once, Going Twice? Alito Only Knows

A Prissy Patriot Evening Edition...

Too Little, too late could become the new theme for the old Democrat party. Prissy says old, because intelligent ones, like Dr. Dean and Al Gore should split the Democrats and take the party in a new direction. They see what is happening and they have the good sense to be alarmed! Prissy likes them because they are not huge liars, either...

When the party splits; just be sure and take Hackett and Strickland with the new Dems...leave behind Biden, Hillary and Lieberman- and leave O'Bama with them. What a huge disappointment he has turned out to be. Joe- Please change parties and make it official. What a creep.

Hot Links

New Zealand Herald www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10366003 Bush to paint rosy picture on Iraq and economy in State of the Union(There he goes again)013106

"In his speech, the president needs to tell the American people what he is going to do to end the culture of corruption and lay out solutions that will make America strong," said Senate minority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

From The Washington Post...Bigots for Bush? www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/01/29/AR2006012900642.html?nav=most_emailed Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases January 30, 2006

"If anyone in Washington is skeptical about these findings, they are in denial," he said. "We have 50 years of evidence that racial prejudice predicts voting. Republicans are supported by whites with prejudice against blacks. If people say, 'This takes me aback,' they are ignoring a huge volume of research."

www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011706Y.shtml Truthout 17 January 2006 NSA Spying Evolved Pre-9/11 By Jason Leopold

What sets this type of operation apart from the unprecedented covert domestic spying activities the NSA had been conducting after 9/11 is a top secret executive order signed by President Bush in 2002 authorizing the NSA to target specific American citizens. Prior to 9/11, American citizens were the subject of non-specific surveillance by the NSA that was condoned and approved by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, according to former NSA and counterterrorism officials.

The sources, who requested anonymity because they were instructed not to talk about NSA activities but who hope they can testify before Congress about the domestic spying, said that in December 2000, the NSA completed a report for the incoming administration titled "Transition 2001," which explained, among other things, how the NSA would improve its intelligence gathering capabilities by hiring additional personnel.

Via PJF's Blog - From (CREW) Citizens for Resposibility and Ethics in Washingtonwww.citizensforethics.org/press/newsrelease.php?view=104 CREW SUES DHS OVER CONTINUING KATRINA COVER-UP -Bush Administration Fails to Provide Docs on Inadequate Preparedness and Response to Disaster

Washington, DC -Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today sued the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over its continued refusal to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Katrina-related issues.

On September 7, 2005, CREW sent a FOIA request to DHS and its component, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), asking for records and communications regarding the federal government's preparedness for and response to hurricane Katrina. CREW requested an expedited response from DHS on the FOIA, which was denied by DHS on September 20, 2005. CREW appealed on October 24, 2005, urging the agency to quickly release documents that would inform the public about the circumstances surrounding FEMA's response to Katrina. On December 21, 2005 DHS again denied CREW's request for expedited treatment, forcing CREW to sue DHS for the information. FEMA, how can we ever forgive you?

Times Union www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=445040&category=OPINION&newsdate=1/30/2006&TextPage=1 Bush: 'L'etat, c'est moi'January 30, 2006

WASHINGTON -- We are now learning what President Bush considers to be the limits of his power -- nothing. In public appearances this week, Bush defended his program of domestic spying without court approval, citing the inherent war powers of the presidency under the U.S. Constitution.

The President points to his status as commander-in-chief and the resolution -- approved by Congress three days after the 9/11 attacks -- authorizing him to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against the terrorists. It is an obvious overreach of presidential prerogative; thin justification for what amounts to a snooping foray against Americans and others in the U.S.

It all smacks of France's Louis XIV's famous dictum: "L'etat, c'est moi"-- "I am the state."

The administration is on shaky legal ground. Last week, the Justice Department issued a 42-page analysis declaring the President "will exercise all authority available to him, consistent with the Constitution, to protect the people of the United States."

Belfast Telegraph www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=677239 De Lorean aide Bushell dies 28 January 2006

The trial judge at the time said: "Bushell, along with the late Colin Chapman of Lotus Cars and John De Lorean himself, had been engaged in a bare-faced outrageous and massive fraud.

"It was a disaster for the British taxpayer and so many people in Northern Ireland, including many of small means, who were ill-prepared and ill-equipped to cope with the gross misfortune that befell them when the DeLorean dream turned into a nightmare."

The judge also told the court that Bushell, with his knowledge of finanace as a chartered accountant, had been the brains behind the fraud even though he received the smallest of the three shares in the money.

The trio had funnelled more than £5m cash through a Panamanian registered Geneva-based company called GPD Services set up by Bushell and the Lotus chief.

Times Union of NY timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=445034&category=REGION&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=1/30/2006 Chaplain shares reality of Iraq-Lutheran minister serving with Army says cause, costs of war need debate

SCHENECTADY -- Army chaplain Eric Olsen is a strong proponent of supporting the troops, but he doesn't much care for yellow magnetic ribbons.

What he'd rather see and believes would be a better show of support for the troops is public debate about the war and an answer for why 135,000 troops are still there.

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/29/national/w120152S55.DTL White House Official Warned Abramoff January 29, 2006

David Safavian provided "sensitive and confidential information" about four subsidiaries of Tyco International to Abramoff regarding internal deliberations at the General Services Administration, say the court papers filed Friday in a criminal case against Safavian.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud in a burgeoning bribery probe centered on Capitol Hill but also involving the Interior Department.

www.foxreno.com/news/6562719/detail.html?rss=reno&psp=news Cindy Sheehan May Run Against Feinstein

Sheehan said she would head to Washington on Sunday for protests against Bush's State of the Union address on Tuesday, and then return to California to discuss her idea of running against Feinstein with her son and two daughters.

"We're going to have a little family meeting about it," she said. "If any of them are diametrically opposed to it, I can't do it."

But, she added, her children have been fully supportive of her activism up until now, "so I can't see -- if they think it's going to help peace -- that they would be opposed to me doing it."

Sheehan and other peace activists met for two hours Saturday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is himself a fierce critic of Bush and the Iraq war. Sheehan said she was impressed by Chavez's sincerity.

"Our president won't even take five minutes to meet with me," she said, adding that Chavez was "really excited" when he heard she was considering running for the Senate.

An honest mother for Senator...what a great idea. Prissy supports Cindy and women like her, willing to take a stand-speaking truth to power.

Zogby International Polling (one of the few Prissy trusts) Talking about how the Washington Post and NYT seem to build Bush up www.zogby.com/Soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=12585 Later in the article, Stevenson again asserted that Bush has put his difficulties behind him:

The president goes into the speech having dealt to a large degree with the most acute political problems from the latter half of last year. One was the demoralization of his conservative base, whose enthusiasm could determine the control of Congress. The other was his loss of control last fall of the terms of the partisan debate over national security, the issue that more than any other has determined his political fortunes.

Given Bush's continued and overwhelming unpopularity, it is difficult to make sense of Stevenson's assertion that Bush has "dealt to a large degree" with his political problems.

Nor does Stevenson do much to help the reader understand how such an unpopular president can be said to have dealt with his "most acute political problems." The Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina, for example, is frequently cited as a major part of Bush's political struggles -- but Katrina isn't mentioned anywhere in Stevenson's article. The most recent public polling on the topic, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll from December, found that just 41 percent approved of Bush's handling of Katrina, while 57 percent disapproved.

65% of all Americans said the troops should come home NOW...

Quote of the Day

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk. ~Henry David Thoreau

The big thieves hang the little ones. ~Czech Proverb

I had an epiphany a few years ago where I was out at a celebrity party and it suddenly dawned on me that I had yet to meet a celebrity who is as smart and interesting as any of my friends.~Moby, quoted on CNN.com, March 2005

When they took the fourth amendment, I was silent because I don'’t deal drugs. When they took the sixth amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent. When they took the second amendment, I said nothing because I don'’t own a gun. Now they've come for the first amendment, and I can't say anything at all.~Tim Freeman, Author

We will disect Dubya's State of the Union speech Wednesday on The Prissy Patriot...