The Priss is Back and Full of Sass

Is this the real reason Prissy hasn't been blogging?

Obama admin. to end use of term 'enemy combatant'

So what are they now? POWT's? (Prisoners of War on Terror?)It's a good thing, because otherwise there are a lot of others who might get swept up by definition of that terminology...

Dearest Readers, How have you been? Prissy sure needed a hiatus after the election...fighting to get President Obama into office tough, but a great success and took a lot out of us here in Ohio. Needed to take time off too allow the corporate owned media to catch up with The Prissy Patriot...Recall this? A Chat With the "D.C. Madame" Deborah Jeane Palfrey Update

Now those who scoffed are saying this: (H/T to WhatReallyHappened)

The Palfrey-Cheney Connection Tags:* ASSASSINATION

Well, lookie, lookie, Roll Call, Politico and Wonkette all served up items yesterday that mentioned the possibility that Dick Cheney used the services of Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s escort service in the 1990s.

Will we hold our new president as accountable as we did Bush?

As Ding-a-Ling Sarah Palin would say "You betcha!" We expect more from him mostly because he has a much higher IQ than Dubya ever dreamed of.

Besides, with the new President being half African American, he can't pretend not to know what oppression really is, unlike the drunken Frat boy.

So much has happened, where shall we begin? By now you all know by way of Seymour Hersh that Dead Eye Dick is all that and more. Prissy told you years ago to put nothing past this bunch. Kind of makes you wonder about the long list of "suicides" such as Debra Jean Palfrey, aka the DC Madame, Dr. Kelly of Great Britain, Mike Connell, the GOP IT guru and his "plane accident"...more on this later.

Deadly Dick the assassin. You heard it here first, Dick would stop at nothing to shut people up...Prissy has seen his kind before- of course, she was their guard in a maximum security prison.

Hot Links

Minnesota Post Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh describes 'executive assassination ring' which reported directly to Cheney But what does Hersh know? Plenty, here's a run down on scoops over the years that he has exposed:

* The My Lai massacre, which Hersh first revealed publicly and which he last night called “the end of innocence about us and war.” * The Pentagon Papers case, which Mondale called the best example of the “government’s potential for vast public deception.” * Henry Kissinger’s secret dealings, mostly relating to the Vietnam War. (Hersh, who has written volumes about Kissinger, said that he will always believe that whereas ordinary people count sheep to fall asleep, Kissinger “has to count burned and maimed Cambodian babies.”)

* The Church Committee investigation of CIA and FBI abuses, in which Mondale played a major role. (He talked about the fact that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover not only spied on Martin Luther King but literally tried to drive him to suicide.) * The Iran Contra scandal. (Hersh said the Reagan administration came to office with a clear goal of finding a way to finance covert actions, such as the funding of the Nicaraguan Contras, without appropriations so that Congress wouldn't know about them. Mondale noted that Reagan had signed a law barring further aid to the Contras, then participated in a scheme to keep the aid flowing. Hersh said that two key veterans of Iran-Contra, Dick Cheney and national security official Elliot Abrams, were reunited in the George W. Bush White House and decided that the key lesson from Iran-Contra was that too many people in the administration knew about it.) * And the Bush-Cheney years. (Said Hersh: “The contempt for Congress in the Bush-Cheney White House was extaordinary.” Said Mondale of his successor, Cheney, and his inner circle: “they ran a government within the government.” Hersh added: “Eight or nine neoconservatives took over our country.” Mondale said that the precedents of abuse of vice presidential power by Cheney would remain "like a loaded pistol that you leave on the dining room table.")

BBC The Bush/Blair years will never end for his victims UK resident freed from Guantanamo Bay

US interrogators told him, "This is the British file and this is the American file," Binyam Mohamed, 30, told the BBC in his first broadcast interview.

He said he wanted to see ex-President George Bush put on trial and, if there were evidence, former UK PM Tony Blair.

The UK says it does not condone torture, but will examine any claims.

The US has dropped all charges against Mr Mohamed.

Yet another "terrorist" case that wouldn't stick...

If you want the best advice and food for thought on the net, read George Washington's Blogspot. Prissy reads him every day. He's one of the best on the net to make sense of the economic disaster. Let's not forget who started the bailout-and the need for one... Why Obama Must Fire Geithner and Summers

As Robert Kuttner writes:

Geithner has ... come up with the idea of subjecting the largest banks to "stress tests" to determine just how badly damaged their balance sheets are. This has been advertised as government examiners crawling all over bank records, but much of this belated effort will rely on the banks' own risk models--the same risk models that got the banks into this mess.

Come to think of it, where have the examiners been all along? Why wasn't there serious investigation of bank balance sheets all along? Why should stress tests be performed only after disaster has struck (shades of Hurricane Katrina)?

The worst culprit among the feeble regulators is the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose examiners are responsible for assessing the safety and soundness of the holding companies of Wall Street's largest banks. It was high risk speculative activities by holding company affiliates that put the big banks under water.

Who dropped the ball? You may recall that Secretary Geithner, before he assumed his present post, was president of the New York Fed Bank. According to a withering feature piece from Bloomberg, he was asleep at the switch, and far too cozy with the banks. Heckuva job, Timmy.

Prissy concurs with George on this one. Geithner is a horrible pick, unless he's willing to tell us "where the bodies are buried." Is it Rahm Emanuel who is responsible for these awful cabinet picks?

In depth interview with Geithner and Charlie Rose. Hat tip to Justice League Blogspot, another favorite blog... BTW, Prissy heard Geithner say he has worked in public service all of his life. He was president of the Federal Reserve bank, but isn't aware that is not a federal government entity? Oh come now! Charlie Rose show: A conversation with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

A must see if you haven't already. The Daily Show's Jon Stewart blasts self proclaimed money expert Jim Cramer. Cramer is an expert with his own money, not yours or mine...Comedian calls financial "reporter" on his bullshit

Powerful video of today's reality facing America. Posted two years ago...Note at this video's end: The Prissy Patriot does not advocate the legalization of all drugs. Our law enforcement professors used to comment that pot legalization would be OK with them-tax it, regulate it and remove the criminal element. As they had yet to be on a domestic violence call where the perpetrator was just smoking pot-alcohol was nearly always the drug involved...

WSJ. Maxine Waters voted against Israel regarding their latest bloodbath in Gaza. Apparently she didn't think shooting fish in a barrel was fair. Is this her punishment? Waters Defends Ties to Bank

Ms. Waters (D., Calif.) said her efforts were intended to aid minority-owned banks overall, not just OneUnited Bank, an institution that received $12 million in federal bailout money.

Reports this week in The Wall Street Journal and New York Times detailed Ms. Waters's efforts to help OneUnited in recent years, in particular last fall, when she sought help from Treasury officials after the bank's capital dried up and it was in danger of failing.

"I have been an outspoken advocate for minority communities and businesses in California and nationally for decades," she said. "These articles only revealed one thing: I am indeed an advocate for minority banks."

Ms. Waters's statement said she asked former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to meet with the National Bankers Association, a group of African-American bankers whose president is the senior counsel of OneUnited.

BBC Pakistan opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has defied an apparent house arrest order to head for a protest in Lahore.

Mr Sharif was ousted as prime minister in 1999 during a coup by General Pervez Musharraf, who ruled until August 2008.

Tensions between Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif date back to the 1990s, but the two formed a brief partnership in government after parliamentary elections in February 2008.

Mr Sharif's party later left the alliance, complaining of reluctance by Mr Zardari's Pakistan People's Party to reinstate the judges sacked by the last government.

Relations have been further strained in recent weeks by a Supreme Court decision to ban Mr Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from elected office, and President Zardari's decision to put their stronghold in Punjab province under direct rule from Islamabad.

The same Pakistan which retrofitted fighter planes (which we sold them) with nuclear weaponry. Hurray for instability in a country that butts up against Iran,Afghanistan and India- the worlds largest democracy and Pakistan's mortal "enemy."

More on the situation in Pakistan from YahooProtests against Pakistani government turn violent

Sharif denounced the order as illegal and later left the house in a convoy of vehicles packed with chanting, flag-waving supporters, headed for a downtown rally that had already turned violent.

Mobs accompanying the swelling convoy smashed the windows of buses parked along the route. Others torched tires, sending plumes of black smoke into the blue sky over a usually bustling boulevard littered with stones and empty tear gas shells.

And...Washington worries that the crisis will further destabilize the shaky the year-old government and prevent it from being an effective ally in the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan.

Suspected militants attacked a transport terminal in northwestern Pakistan used to supply NATO troops in Afghanistan before dawn on Sunday and torched dozens of containers and military vehicles, police said.

Dubya should have kept Pakistan out of his "War on Terror" as an "ally".

From Pakistan, The News A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel’s survival beyond the next 20 years.

The study, which has been made available only to a certain number of individuals, further forecasts the return of all Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, and the exodus of two million Israeli - who would move to the US in the next fifteen years.

And...

He said CIA, in its report, alludes to the unexpectedly quick fall of the apartheid government in South Africa and recalls the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, suggesting the end to the dream of an ‘Israeli land’ would happen ‘way sooner’ than later.

The study further predicts the return of over one and a half million Israelis to Russia and other parts of Europe, and denotes a decline in Israeli births whereas a rise in the Palestinian population.

Lamb said given the Israeli conduct toward the Palestinians and the Gaza strip in particular, the American public—which has been voicing its protest against Tel Aviv’s measures in the last 25 years—may ‘not take it anymore’.

Professor Juan Cole Did Schumer and Emanuel Sink Freeman?

My interpretation of Chas Freeman's withdrawal from appointment as the chairman of the National Intelligence Council is that it was provoked primarily by Chuck Schumer and Rahm Emanuel. Schumer's call to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was probably the decisive event, though we don't know what Emanuel's reaction was.

That is, the original charge against Freeman was led by the spy for Israel, Steve Rosen, whose hiring by Daniel Pipes' Middle East Forum/ Campus Watch is excellent evidence of what those operations really are. Rosen, when he was a head of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's Middle East bureau, handed over classified Pentagon documents to the Israeli embassy in Washington DC, which were given to him by the agent Larry Franklin, a high-level Pentagon employee who reported to Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz.

And...Schumer angered some of his constituents with his defense of the Israeli total war on Gaza's civilian population this winter, and you wonder if his isn't the last AIPAC generation in US politics. I like Schumer and loved the way he stood up to Bush, but he and other admirable people like Mike Bloomberg just have this moral black hole in their souls when it comes to supporting far rightwing Israeli policies (policies that they would unalterably oppose if pursued by the US government).

Freeman gave his own take on the whole affair to NPR. What happened to Freeman is further evidence for the resilience of the Israel lobbies and their enormous power in US politics. The Neoconservatives were roundly defeated on the budget, and even had to swallow George Mitchell as a special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. But they still have the power to exclude a Washington Arabist such as Freeman even from an appointive position.

Interesting to note that the two AIPAC spies who bought information from former Defense Department analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, who was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. Larry gave Rosen and his fellow AIPAC lobbyist friend Weissman info about a number of subjects, including American policy in Iran, terrorism in central Asia, Al Qaeda and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment in Saudi Arabia, which killed 23 Americans, mainly members of the military.(NYT, 01/06)

WaPo Bailout King AIG Still to Pay Millions In Bonuses

The issue came to a head when Geithner called Liddy and told him the payments were unacceptable and had to be renegotiated, said an administration official who was not authorized to comment on the Geithner conversation.

In a letter to Geithner yesterday, Liddy agreed to restructure some of the payments. But Liddy said he had "grave concerns" about the impact on the firm's ability to retain talented staff "if employees believe that their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury."

Lawyers at both the Treasury Department and AIG have concluded that the firm would risk a lawsuit if it scrapped the retention payments at the AIG Financial Products subsidiary, whose troublesome derivative trading nearly sank AIG. The company promised before the government started bailing out the firm in September that employees would be awarded more than $400 million in retention pay this year and next.

"I do not like these arrangements and find it distasteful and difficult to recommend to you that we must proceed with them," Liddy wrote.

Prissy finds it distasteful and wasteful AIG is still in business. Not happy, once again, with President Obama's pick of Geithner. "No guts Geithner" (while kinda cute) couldn't put the hammer down on these guys if the country's life depended upon it...and the CEO's with their hands out should tell him to put those hands back into their own pockets. No bailouts for bonuses. That is about as ethical as jacking up the credit cards for glorious trips abroad and then declaring bankruptcy.

Yahoo News Barbara Bush leaves hospital after heart surgery

"Nobody ever had better medical treatment than I did this past week and a half," she added.

And she does mean nobody... Allow Prissy to point out it was taxpayer funded healthcare who picked up the tab on ole Babs.

MSNBC The Mess George Bush Left Behind (with complicity of the GOP, Congress and Corporate owned media)MSNBC calling it Obama's "new strategy", Prissy calling it "the truth of the matter."

Over the past month, Obama has reminded the public at every turn that he is facing problems "inherited" from the Bush administration, using increasingly bracing language to describe the challenges his administration is up against. The "deepening economic crisis" that the president described six days after taking office became "a big mess" in remarks this month to graduating police cadets in Columbus, Ohio. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here

"By any measure," he said during a March 4 event calling for government-contracting reform, "my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster."

Obama's more frequent and acid reminders that former president George W. Bush left behind a trillion-dollar budget deficit, a 14-month recession and a broken financial system have come at the same time Republicans have ramped up criticism that the current president's policies are compounding the nation's economic problems.

Bush is accustomed to having minorities and/or women cleaning up after him...

CNN = Certainly NOT News Commentary: Why bin Laden is speaking out CNN Editor's note: Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst and a fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington and at New York University's Center on Law and Security. His most recent book is "The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The new 22-minute tape posted Wednesday on a radical Islamist Web site is the first one from Osama bin Laden in nine months. On it, the al Qaeda leader urges Muslims to wage jihad against Israel because of its offensive in Gaza.

U.S. counter-terrorism officials had been expecting that bin Laden would release a tape before the 2008 presidential election just as he had done four years earlier.

On October 29, 2004, he released a videotaped address to the American people in which he said that it was irrelevant whether Americans elected Sen. John Kerry or George W. Bush as president. The key issue, as far as he was concerned, was that the United States needed to change its policies in the Muslim world.

Bin Laden, however, made no comments during the 2008 campaign season, and his recent silence has been puzzling.

However, Peter Bergen using the latest "news" for his Osama book isn't so puzzling...

BBC, you know they are a true ally, just don't ask to whom they are true... 'Bin Laden urges war on Israel' Note key word in bold by PP.

A new audio message purported to be from Osama Bin Laden has urged Muslims to launch a holy war to stop the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip.

The message also said Israel's assault was a desperate attempt to benefit from the last days of President George Bush.

It also accused Arab leaders of colluding with the Jewish state.

The US has dismissed the tape, saying it shows the al-Qaeda leader's isolation, and looks like an attempt to raise money.

And why you should "dismiss" the tape and laugh yourselves silly over his next purported news release...

Flashback from WaPo Feb. 1, 1999 When Seeing and Hearing Isn't Believing

"Gentlemen! We have called you together to inform you that we are going to overthrow the United States government." So begins a statement being delivered by Gen. Carl W. Steiner, former Commander-in-chief, U.S. Special Operations Command.

At least the voice sounds amazingly like him.

But it is not Steiner. It is the result of voice "morphing" technology developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

By taking just a 10-minute digital recording of Steiner's voice, scientist George Papcun is able, in near real time, to clone speech patterns and develop an accurate facsimile. Steiner was so impressed, he asked for a copy of the tape

Online Journal Who’s behind Madoff? by Wayne Madsen

As the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had cut a deal with $50 billion Ponzi scammer Bernard Madoff whereby Madoff will neither admit nor deny fraud claims against him in a suit brought by the SEC. In return Madoff has agreed to pay civil fines and penalties levied by the SEC. The agreement has no bearing on Madoff’s criminal trial.

WMR has learned that in addition to 20 million documents stored by Madoff in a warehouse in Queens that were stored without any indexing system and merely placed in boxes and strewn around the floor are millions of additional documents that were stored by Madoff in a Brooklyn warehouse that was partially flooded. A number of the Madoff documents there were destroyed by water damage.

WMR has also learned that a key element in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was Madoff Energy LLC, formed as a Delaware corporation in February 2007. Other Madoff firms in the energy arena were Madoff Energy Holdings LLC, Madoff Energy III LLC, and Madoff Energy IV LLC. There are links between these now-defunct Madoff energy entities and Texas oil and natural gas industry interests, some close to the Bushes and Dick Cheney.

WMR has also learned that the kid glove treatment given by federal authorities to Madoff, including allowing him to remain in his Upper East Side luxury town home, is because Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was part of a much larger operation, one involving top officials of both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, as well as the notorious Russian-Israeli Mafia.

Top official of the Obama administration? Gee, wonder who that could be... Don't let this guy become your KKKarl Rove, Mr. President

From The Public Record, Jason Leopold- a great site DOJ Watchdog Probed Yoo/Bybee Rendition Memo; Report May Criticize Opinion

This memo is one of several that the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has scrutinized in a four-year-old investigation into the legal work of Yoo and Bybee, according to legal sources at the DOJ who have seen a still classified report on the work of the OLC. It's unknown what conclusions OPR reached as the draft report has gone through changes since it was completed late last year.

The memo, prepared for then Department of Defense General Counsel William Haynes, was the product of several high-level meetings that took place over the course of several weeks that Yoo and Bybee participated in along with senior Bush administration officials.

The legal opinion was not, legal sources said, the result of a question "asked and answered" but rather the result of Bybee and Yoo acting as advocates for administration policy and providing the legal framework so the White House could carry out its plans.

OPR has probed whether Yoo and Bybee deliberately signed off on the March 13, 2002 memo and purposely misinterpreted long-standing case law simply to give the administration legal cover for extraordinary renditions undertaken before a legal memorandum authorizing the policy was drafted.

More on those released memo's from A Time for Change Bush Memos Released By DOJ Are Outrageous Affront to Constitution

The release of 9 memos written by members of the Bush administration have unleashed a firestorm of criticism because as bad as people expected these memos to be, no one expected that the administration would try to sweep away the Constitution in favor of martial law. According to the New York Times, these memos mean that: * the president could use the nation’s military within the United States to combat terrorism suspects and to conduct raids without obtaining search warrants * he president could unilaterally abrogate foreign treaties, ignore any guidance from Congress in dealing with detainees suspected of terrorism, and conduct a program of domestic eavesdropping without warrants * the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally bars the military from domestic law enforcement operations, would pose no obstacle to the use of troops in a domestic fight against terrorism suspects * The memorandum discussed the use of military forces to carry out “raids on terrorist cells” and even seize property of US citizens * any objections based on the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches are swept away * “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.” It added that “the current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically.” * judicial precedents approving deadly force in self-defense could be extended to allow for eavesdropping without warrants * Other memorandums said Congress had no right to intervene in the president’s determination of the treatment of detainees, a proposition that has since been invalidated by the Supreme Court.

Justice League Blogspot. Thank you to Bil for explaining the who, what and why on this subject. The Continuation of Obama Administration Addressing the Disposition of Detainees at Gitmo

On March 8, 2006, Karpinski gave an interview to Dateline on the Australian SBS network. When asked who was ultimately responsible for the actions of torture and humiliation depicted in the photographs, Karpinski stated: "you have to go back to the memorandum that was authored by our now-Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzalez, and John Yoo, from out in California, who was with the current administration at the time, and they did a memorandum, authorizing departures from the Geneva Convention."

"The memorandum, which was certainly discussed at length with the Secretary of Defense and the Vice-President, according to sworn statements by people who were there when those conversations took place, that authorized the initial departure [from the Geneva Convention]. And yes, there was a memorandum that was posted at Abu Ghraib prison, that I only became aware of, after I heard of this ongoing investigation out at Abu Ghraib, and it was signed by the Secretary of Defense." "...the signature on the memorandum was over the signature block of the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and the ink that was used to sign appeared to be the same ink used for this handwritten note in the margin, "make sure this happens", and it was a list of interrogation techniques that were approved, so he obviously had knowledge of those [interrogation] techniques."

Bottom line: Obama Administration and DOJ have lot to piece together every secret memos and legal opinions on authorization of torture to decipher which detainee was a terrorist and who wasn't. As you can see, Bush authorized the detainees to be torture as the President of the United States but there were many more co-conspirators who were given power to torture the detainees. In order to remove the cancer in this issue and on-going investigation, Obama has to hold each individuals given authority to torture detainees accountable.

Quotes of the Day

The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground. ~ Unknown

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Headline of New York Herald Tribune, October 27, 1929 Brokers Believe Worst Is Over and Recommend Buying of Real Bargains

Headlines two days later...October 29, 1929 - Stock Market Crashes!

For Tim Geithner: An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.~ Friedrich Engels

(h/t to WMR) Paraphrasing Denis Diderot: Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last banker. (Banker was originally "priest.")

A Merry Christmas Stocking Stuffer Special

Merry Christmas, Dearest Readers and a Happy New Year to you from all of us here at The Prissy Patriot. The following video was sent to Prissy from IJA. Santa teams up with the Center for Constitutional Rights. Cute, be sure and watch the very end.

A Few Hot Links

Human greed is a threat to the planet, warns Williams

A stark warning that human greed is threatening to destroy the environment was issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his Christmas message, while the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales appealed to people to be more welcoming to immigrants.

Dr Rowan Williams appealed to Christians to do more to safeguard the planet, saying it should not be used "as a warehouse of resources to serve humanity's selfishness".

He told worshippers at Canterbury Cathedral yesterday that people should treat other people and nature with reverence. "More and more [is] clearly required of us as we grow in awareness of how fragile is the balance of species and environments in the world and just how our greed distorts it," he said.

The leader of the Anglican Church added: "When we threaten the balance of things, we don't just put our material survival at risk, more profoundly we put our spiritual sensitivity at risk – the possibility of being opened up to endless wonder by the world around us."

Lakota Freedom. Being a small part Native American, Prissy will be keeping tabs on this development. Legally speaking, it sounds like they are on some solid ground... Lakota Freedom Delegation

"The whole Lakota declaration of withdrawal from the treaty is vested on the power of the Lakota people and our children.

When we undertook the process of announcing the withdrawal, the capacity was far greater than most people anticipated about an individual. But throughout our history, the people have never excluded anyone within their own lifeway and when it becomes a listener's view that its about one individual, one individual does not represent the nation itself, the nation represents the individual, and that is Lakota.

The withdrawal is for the people, the Elders, mothers, fathers, and the children.

Throughout our history and through the enforcement of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, Congress said they would oversee the provisions of 1868 (Fort Laramie Treaty), but they failed to do so. Some minor provisions were kept, but overall the treaty was not honored. Because if the treaty was honored, we would not have this colonial catastrophe of alcoholism, drug abuse and poverty and we wouldn't have the overall high incarceration rate of the male and female in the prison populations. This leads to our children being taking away by Social Services which puts our children out of balance from learning the traditional lifeway.

AP Ft Lewis Soldier Granted Leave Time Extension with Sick Baby

Army Sgt. Chris Williams, 24, of Crown Point, now has until Friday to report for duty in the United States, after which he will be returned to his unit in Iraq. Williams has five months to go in his second tour there.

Williams' son, Gabriel Douglas, was born Dec. 18 and seemed healthy until he developed a lung infection that put him in the intensive care unit at Munster Community Hospital.

The soldier originally was due to return Dec. 22, just after his newborn's illness appeared. Military officials at Fort Lewis initially told Williams his leave had been extended until Jan. 3.

But the extension appeared to be rescinded, and it was unclear whether the Army considered him absent without leave, Williams' family said. The only official word they had was a message on Williams' home answering machine from a platoon leader in Iraq, urging him to return quickly.

Yahoo Israelis and Palestinians responding to a survey believe a recent U.S.-sponsored peace conference was a failure

Israelis and Palestinians responding to a survey believe a recent U.S.-sponsored peace conference was a failure and think their leaders won't manage to sign a peace deal in the next year, according to results released Tuesday.

Israelis were more pessimistic, with 74 percent saying the peace summit last month in Annapolis, Md., was a failure compared with 59 percent of Palestinians, according to the poll.

Only the parties doing the talks are failures or the people would have confidence in them...

Bush "hellbent" on War with Iran

‘Because you can see how dangerous this administration is, Bush continues to threaten Iran, which is prohibited under international law, which is covered in the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions. The facts don’t matter to the president, but it makes it more difficult for him to continue with his designs against Iran.’ —Former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark

Quotes of the Day

Santa Claus wears a Red Suit, He must be a communist. And a beard and long hair, Must be a pacifist. What's in that pipe that he's smoking? --Arlo Guthrie

Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day. --Helen Steiner Rice

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.--Shirley Temple

You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.--Unknown

Never forget the troops

Happy Holidays , May the Merry Bells Keep Ringing, May Your Every Wish Come True...

December 21, 2007-Dearest Readers, Prissy has been away Oh so long! Missing you all, with so many things to post-but no time to post them. Prissy is planning a holiday special on Christmas Day, so be sure and check back.

The blog is now open for comments, please keep it clean. Unless of course your talking smack about Dubya, his parents, his buddies OR telling Prissy how beauuuteefull she, Queen V, Iron J Angel and Betty Buckaneer are;)

Post below is from 2005...kind of interesting to look back. And look, Peter Pace was talking the same lines Gates is now attempting to sell us.

DEC 2005-Remember that old song, Happy Holidays? Today Prissy would like to wish her dear readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah. It is rare that holiday of the various religions and secular festivities happen on the exact same days, thus the lovely expression Happy Holidays to you.

So let us have a Happy Holiday today...May the New Year bring more peace, justice and democracy to our world. Prissy hopes the United States will come together and realize what we should treasure-the ideals we Americans were born with. The pursuit of happiness, with justice and liberty for all.

Prissy hopes God will Bless you and yours... (Photo below Malmoe, Sweden)

Hot Links

Two new ones from 2007:

Columbus Dispatch-and the only daily paper in Columbus,Ohio since the 1980's. The paper hasn't endorsed democrat for president in over a hundred years...family owned, don't ya know...War in Iraq no longer the primary concern (unless you are a military family?) Friday, December 21, 2007

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- An invisible line was crossed this week in New Hampshire. The war in Iraq is no longer the No. 1 issue among likely voters in the Jan. 8 presidential primary.

They are saying the war is not the No. 1 issue, but didn't say its tied for 1st Place, along with health care amongst Democrats. How could anyone still call themselves a republican without shame? Besides most voters these days will be voting democrat. The republican party is damaged beyond repair-look no further than the clowns the RNC is attempting to pass off as "presidential material."

Economics Briefing Tax Refunds Will Be Delayed Up To Seven Weeks December 20, 2007

Tax refunds will be delayed at the start of 2008 because of late passage of the Temporary Tax Relief Act of 2007, which Congress was apparently too busy to pass until now. President Bush is expected to sign the Act that extends the current AMT thresholds with a temporary one year “patch.”

Because this legislation comes so late in the year, e-filing and paper processing of tax returns for everyone may not start until February.

Some IRS instruction manuals will have to be redone because they are now outdated. IRS computers will have to be reprogrammed.

Twelve IRS forms are affected by the AMT including those for child and dependent care credits.

The resulting delay in refunds could be up to seven weeks. It is estimated that a postponement of tax refunds for 15 million taxpayers, including lower and middle class taxpayers who normally file for early refunds, is very possible.

That's the Bushite governments long answer of "the checks in the mail". The prez who believes the economy is "still strong" obviously isn't going to admit he spent our tax dollars like a drunken sailor on leave...

Barrons Editorial Calls for FISA Investigation RAW Story-12/24/05-Barron's editorial page editor Thomas G. Donlan penned a column for Monday's edition entitled "Unwarranted Executive Power" which calls on members of the House Judiciary Committee to investigate if the Bush Administration violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and to either change the law or consider impeachment, RAW STORY has learned.

Kazimierz, Poland - The Jewish Quarter

Federal agents' visit was a hoax-Student admits he lied about Mao book

The story's release came at a perfect storm in the news cycle. Only a day before, The New York Times had reported that President Bush had allowed the National Security Agency to conduct wiretaps on international phone calls from the United States without a warrant. The Patriot Act, created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to allow the government greater authority to monitor for possible terrorism activities, was up for re-authorization in Congress.

There was an increased sense among some Americans that the U.S. government was overstepping its bounds and trampling on civil liberties in order to thwart future attacks of terrorism. The story of a college student being questioned for requesting a 40-year old book on Communism fed right into that atmosphere.

Nice job kid-for the neocons. The real Fourth Amendment violations cannot get into the main stream news and one student makes headline news by making one up...

The Selling of Brand Kurdistan Inter Press Service News

In a parallel strategic track, however, the Kurdish Regional Government appears to be keeping its options open, recently hiring Russo Marsh & Rogers -- a Sacramento, California-based public relations firm with close ties to the Republican Party -- to promote its interests.

Many political observers believe that the future of Iraq may see a full-blown civil war or possible partition. Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh recently wrote in The New Yorker magazine that a United Nations official involved in the elections told him: ”The election was not an election but a referendum on ethnic and religious identity. For the Kurds, voting was about self-determination.”

”Our job” with the Kurds, RM&R's Joe Wierzbicki told IPS, ”is to carry out a public relations campaign that will thank the American people for supporting the war in Iraq, and encourage Americans to visit and invest in the Kurdish region.”

Top US general: Iraqis want us out-Monday 26 December 2005 Al-Jazeera-

The United States' top military commander has admitted that Iraqis want US and other foreign troops to leave the country "as soon as possible".

General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said on Sunday that US troop levels in Iraq were being re-assessed on a monthly basis.

The admission by the top general follows a decision by the Pentagon to reduce its presence in Iraq by two army brigades, which amounts to about 7000 soldiers.

So bring them home!

Before and After the NeoRepublican Makeover

Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) Then:AP Photo

(A dirty looking-pp) Norm Coleman protests the Vietnam War as an undergraduate student at Hofstra University, in this 1970's black-and-white file photo. The Republican senator from Minnesota, who also attended the Woodstock music festival, voted in 2007 against spending $1 million for a museum that commemorates Woodstock. (AP Photo/Hofstra Chronicle,file)

Like many pro-war neorepublicans, Norm loves war-but only if your kind and mine can be ordered to fight it-otherwise its just not his thing...

And Now:Norm feebly attempts to explain in Iraq, to deployed MN National Guard why they and their equipment will be in Iraq should natural disaster strike their state.

Norm is attempting to keep his GOP senate seat away from DINO Al Franken, the comedian and former Air America talking head.

Boy, did Prissy ever tire of hearing that Al whine about why we "couldn't just leave Iraq."

Nor would Al give adequate explanation as to why he wasn't willing to sacrifice his own military age son to "finish the job." Al seems to have used Air America to spring board his senate campaign

Hopefully, Al is the lesser of the two eveels for Minnesota's next Senator in Washington.

Al just got his only Prissy Patriot free ad giveaway...

A Side Note: Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has announced his engagement to a woman much younger than himself- a Head Start teacher. A typical man thing, but certainly a gal with a noble profession.

Now Prissy shall have to get a new invisible boyfriend. Fortunately, they are very easy to come by...

Hot Links

Yahoo Thousands Call for Swift End to War

THOUSANDS? Millions worldwide have protested this war for YEARS...the media acts like this is the first time Americans have protested this war. There were actually larger protests, including military families, BEFORE the war began in Washington.

However, the media was MIA at that time...

Are they afraid Iraqi civilians, military and their families will sue them? Maybe they should be. Did they remember they are Americans? Or was no one buying their fake news.

Remember how Fox news gave these reporters the shaft, as did the courts? The rules are different when plantiffs are hurt because Fox or other media failed to print the truth and people are hurt as a result, as well as having a motivating factor to do $o.

FOX BGH lawsuit NEWS OF LAWSUIT EXPOSING MEDIA COVERUP OF SUSPECTED DANGER IN MILK

FLORIDA MILK SUPPLY RIDDLED WITH ARTIFICIAL HORMONE LINKED TO CANCER; REPORTERS SAY THEY WERE ORDERED TO LIE ABOUT IT ON FOX-TV

TAMPA—Two award-winning investigative reporters at the Fox-owned television station in Tampa are blowing the whistle on a story they say WTVT (Ch 13) and its corporate bosses preferred to coverup rather than broadcast honestly and accurately.

The story, documented in a lawsuit the reporters filed Thursday, reveals the widespread use of a controversial bovine growth hormone Florida dairymen have been secretly injecting into their cows.

NYT Governor Accused of Betraying Principles

Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s retreat from his plan to permit illegal immigrants to obtain the same kind of driver’s licenses as other New Yorkers drew angry reactions yesterday from civil liberties advocates and immigrant groups, some of whom described the shift as a stunning betrayal.

The governor has been under fierce assault from conservative groups and others since proposing last month to allow illegal immigrants to get New York driver’s licenses. But joined by the federal secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, in Washington yesterday, the governor announced a starkly different version of his plan.

It calls for separate tiers of licenses. New Yorkers who could provide stringent proof of legal residency could get the new federally recognized license known as Real ID. The licenses available to illegal residents would not serve as federal identification.

“What a huge political flip,” said Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

Everyone is entitled to a few huge mistakes...apparently Spitzer just used up one of his.

MSNBC Guantanamo remark offends Dutch officials

Dutch lawmakers who visited the Guantanamo Bay military prison this week said they were offended by a testy exchange in Washington with a senior congressional Democrat.

The lawmakers said that Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told them that “Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay.”

Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, was responding to arguments that the United States should shut down the prison, located on a U.S. naval base in Cuba, the lawmakers said.

...“You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany,” Lantos said, according to the Dutch lawmakers.

Apparently, Lantos learned about diplomacy and dialogue from Massah Boosh and Dick the side-kick. Victims should not think that because they are victims that it gives them a blank check to do/say as they damn well please when diplomacy is the job they signed on for, all victimhood aside...others like no shame McCain come to mind.

Where is Lantos sympathy for the survivors of the USS Liberty or the USS Cole?

Postnote: The USS Cole that was attacked had been warned by the "Able Danger" intel days before.

So why did it still happen? Not sure, but the rumor is certain people were hoping the international incident would start a war-but Bill Clinton didn't bite. He apparently knew something the rest of us didn't back then. Like who was really behind it...and how come are all the attackers out of jail already? (The ones who didn't "escape") Hmmm...

IHT As temperatures rise, a greening of Greenland

When using the words "growing" in connection with Greenland in the same sentence, it is important to remember that although Greenland is about four times the size of France, it has only nine conifer forests like Bjerge's, all of them cultivated. It has only 51 farms. (They are all sheep farms, although one man is trying to raise cattle. He has 22 cows.) Except for potatoes, the only vegetables most Greenlanders ever eat - to the extent that they eat vegetables at all - are imported, mostly from Denmark.

But now that the climate is warming, it is not just old trees that are growing. A Greenlandic supermarket is stocking locally grown cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage this year for the first time. Eight sheep farmers are growing potatoes commercially. Five more are experimenting with vegetables. And Kenneth Hoeg, the region's chief agriculture adviser, says he does not see why southern Greenland cannot eventually be full of vegetable farms and viable forests.

"If it gets warmer, a large part of southern Greenland could be like this," Hoeg said, walking through Qanasiassat, a boat ride from Narsarsuaq, a tiny southern community notable mostly for having an international airport. A hectare, or about two and a half acres, near here of imported pines, spruces, larches and firs are plunked in the midst of the scrubby, rocky hillside next to the fjord, as startling as a mirage.

Farther north, Greenland's great ice sheet, a vast white landscape of 1.8 million square kilometers, or 700,000 square miles, covering 80 percent of the island's land mass, is melting rapidly, alarmingly, with repercussions not only for the traditional way of life on an island of 56,000 people, but also for the rest of the world. The more the ice melts, the higher sea levels will eventually rise.

Dubya tells us global warming is all in our minds. You know, like doctors used to say to women about the pain of menstrual cramps...that is, until there were women gyno's! (Sorry in advance to Prissy's doctor friends, but going to a male gynecologist seems too much like going to a Volks Wagon mechanic when your Cadillac needs repaired)

Remember the limbless young soldier exploited by the fascist loving "Freedom Watch"? They are getting sued...collective awww. The plaintiff is claiming Trademark infringement. Ari, still working for the same guys

Klayman v. Freedom's Watch, Inc. cv-22433-PCH

Here are the founders of Fascist watch Inc., aka Freedom's Watch, Inc., Bradley Blakeman, Ari Fleischer, Mel Sembler, William P. Weidner, Matthew Brooks, Anthony Gioia, Kevin Moley, Howard Leach, Ed Snider, Sheldon Adelson and Richard Fox

Here's the list of shameless money grubbers representing the "loyal Bushie" fascists without honor: (mostly of Patton Boggs)Mitchell R. Berger,George Borababy,John J. Dabney,Heather M. McPhee and Justin Brian Uhlemann

The plaintiff is just one man,Larry Elliot Klayman-representing himself. He must be one scary guy to need all those lawyers-or Freedom for Fascists have one very weak case. Maybe you could email Larry Klayman, ask if he needs any help. Email Mr. Klayman here

What these fascists deserve for selling out their country and exploiting injured soldiers and their families, a lawsuit can never make whole. But even an unrelated lawsuit would be nice...

Journal Gazette Ft. Wayne, IN Georgia's reservoirs are already low and could fall below their conservation pools

So Georgia has called for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the amount of water released from federal reservoirs that include Lakes Allatoona and Lanier. Perdue also asked President Bush to declare Georgia a major disaster area, and to use executive powers to slash water releases from the reservoirs.

(Gov's )Riley and Crist responded last week with letters to the president of strong opposition.

Riley noted that the Farley Nuclear Plant on the Chattahoochee River in east Alabama - which produces 19 percent of Alabama Power Co.'s electricity - cannot operate if water flow falls below the minimum needed for cooling.

That, he wrote, "could require a shutdown of the plant, thereby putting the reliability of the electric power grid in the region at risk."

What could a water shortage lead to? Apparently a shortage of hops...Beer drinkers beware: Shortage to boost costs Undersupply of one key ingredient — hops — could impact flavor too

Now the bright spot in the brewing industry is facing mounting costs on nearly every front. Fuel, aluminum and glass prices have been going up quickly over a period of several years. Barley and wheat prices have skyrocketed as more farmers plant corn to meet increasing demand for ethanol, while others plant feed crops to replace acres lost to corn.

A decade-long oversupply of hops that had forced farmers to abandon the crop is finally gone and harvests were down this year. In the United States, where one-fourth of the world’s hops are grown, acreage fell 30 percent between 1995 and 2006.

Australia endured its worst drought on record. Hail storms across Europe damaged crops. Extreme heat in the western United States hurt both yields and quality.

Big brewers can hedge against rising prices for raw ingredients and can negotiate better, longer-term contracts for ingredients, while smaller brewers generally are left with whatever is left.

Andrew Sullivan, the Atlantic Giuliani Makes Light Of Soviet Torture

The ignorance of Rudy Giuliani with respect to the history of torture is almost on a level with his ignorance about Islam and the Middle East. Yesterday, he made this comment: "They talk about sleep deprivation. I mean, on that theory, I'm getting tortured running for president of the United States. That's plain silly. That's silly."

Really? Has Giuliani ever inquired about the history of sustained sleep deprivation as a torture technique? Stalin perfected it. And one of its victims was Menachem Begin, a man for whom presumably Giuliani has some respect. Begin was subjected to the same techniques that Bush has used by Joseph Stalin in the Gulag. In Begin's view, being forced - not choosing - to stay awake for days and even weeks on end (as Rumsfeld approved in Gitmo) is one of the worst forms of torture there is. He described just such a torture victim who is "wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire to sleep, to sleep just a little, not to get up, to lie, to rest, to forget ... Anyone who has experienced the desire knows that not even hunger or thirst are comparable it with it."

Hat tip to fellow blogger SPB Finally! Larry Flynt Gets Ready to Dish the Dirt!

Larry Flynt, editor and publisher of Hustler magazine, just told FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto that he’s “hoping to expose a bombshell” that will stand “Washington and the country on its head.” Within the next week or two, he says his magazine will expose a sex scandal of huge proportions involving a prominent United States Senator. Flynt refused to comment on the Senator’s political affiliation, but alluded that he or she is a Republican.

Outstanding work patriot, Prissy salutes you. Yes, Dearest Readers, Prissy knows who he is. Sometimes it takes a dirty old man to know and find what dirty old men do. BTW, dirty old men? They were dirty young men.

Houston Chronicle Lengthy standoff ends in Spring with man's suicide

A 12-hour standoff ended this morning with a north Houston man lobbing Molotov cocktails at Houston Police before taking his own life rather than vacate a home he'd lost to foreclosure.

James Hahn, a chemist, had told police he would not be taken from the home alive, said Capt. Bruce Williams, an HPD spokesman.

" 'You know what I do for a living and you know what I am capable of,' " said Williams, recalling one of the conversations police had with the man on Wednesday.

The standoff began at 1:10 p.m. Wednesday when police said Hahn pulled a gun on Precinct 4 constable deputies who had attempted to serve him with a warrant for eviction at the home in the 21000 block of Covington Bridge in Spring, authorities said.

A terrible ending, reminds Prissy of stories Granny tells about the great depression...

CBC regarding another war we were duped in to, since OBL is dead. But how could neorepublicans justify two wars without their boogie man? Hillier denies contradicting PM over Afghan mission length

Liberal MP Scott Brison praised Hillier as "a real soldier who dares to tell the truth" and accused the prime minister of misleading Canadians.

"Who is telling the truth — Canada's top soldier or Canada's top spinner?" Brison asked.

NDP defence critic Dawn Black, whose party has called for the immediate withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan, said Hillier's and the Tories' "wildly different" assessments have left the prime minister's office "fuming."

"There's nothing the Conservatives hate more than a script they haven't written," Black said.

She added it also raised questions over whether elected civilians are truly in charge of the Afghan mission.

"Conservatives" (who conserve nothing but liberties of others) appear to be same in Canada as they are in the US.

A blog we'll call wishful thinking and interesting reading, until we can verify... Alcuin and Flutterby

Behind the scenes, elements of civil war are becoming evident within the White House. On the eve of the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings at the end of October 2007, Dick Cheney attempted to steal $45 billion from George Bush Jnr. A long-serving banker of Pakistani origin based at the New York office of Credit Suisse diverted $45 billion for a secret personal account held by Halliburton in Dubai for Vice President Richard B Cheney. The $45 billion represented stolen money held in trust for the President of the United States, George Bush Jnr.

This illegal transaction was frustrated by a covert fail-safe mechanism. The Credit Suisse banker was arrested and shortly afterwards, under interrogation, suffered a mysterious heart attack. At about 2.30pm Eastern Daylight Time on Friday 19th October 2007, Credit Suisse domestic banking in the USA collapsed and was taken over by Union Bank of Switzerland. This story has yet to be covered by the mainline media in the USA. More details here, here and here.

On the 25th October 2007, Patrick Bellringer reported that on several occasions recently The Higher Evolution have stopped the Bush-Cheney White House from nuking major USA cities, nuking the major oil depot in Texas City, and creating artificial earthquakes in California. Should such a 911-style homegrown terrorist attack be accomplished again, the USA government would blame the attack on Iranian terrorists, and the long-planned Iran war would be launched. More details here.

The World Court has lodged ten charges of Treason against George Bush Jnr, the 43rd President of the United States of America. These will shortly be served on him by the Adjutant General for the USA accompanied by the Provost Marshall for the USA (Brigadier General Rodney Johnson). More details can be found in a Casper Update of the 21st September 2007 here. It is said that the President is using Patriot Act emergency powers to prevent news of these Treason charges reaching the mainstream media in the USA.

BBC Iraq warns Turkey over incursion

Iraq's foreign minister has warned of serious consequences if Turkey launches a ground assault against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.

Hoshyar Zebari told the BBC that the current crisis was "dead serious" and accused Turkey of not seeking a peaceful solution. He said Turkey had shown no interest in Iraqi proposals to calm the situation.

Turkey has 100,000 troops near the border and is threatening to attack the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Iraq.

Good job once again Dubya, nothing like a little Armageddon to get the blood flowing...

The Ugly Truth My Weekend with the Survivors of the USS Liberty–Pt 1

The Liberty was attacked–no ifs, ands or buts about it, and attacked–not by militant Islamic fanatics or neo-Nazi, right-wing militia types from the mountains of Montana, but by America’s “only ally in the region”–Israel. Attacked by Israel after 6 hours of low-level, lumbering reconnaissance flights. Attacked by the Jewish state for over an hour with more than 800 rockets, tens of thousands of armor-piercing shells, napalm and 5 torpedoes. As a result of Israel’s actions 34 American men died, 171 were wounded, and what’s worse is the fact that for the last 40 years the survivors have told a version of what happened that does not jibe in anyway with the pathetic excuses offered by the attackers for the event.

Collectively the Liberty fellows are like the guy next door who comes to help you out when a tree blew over in your yard following a night of thunderstorms or the guy who helps an old lady out by changing her flat tire. Unlike the liars who argue that the act of war perpetrated against the United States on 6/8/67 was all a big accident, by contrast the Liberty boys are honest to a fault, like the customer who points out to the cashier that she gave him too much money in change. These simple, unassuming, non-pretentious sailors are not wealthy, ambitious, greedy, blue-blooded bloodhounds following the scent of money and political power. All they want is the truth told. None (to my knowledge) have tried to get rich off of the event. None (to my knowledge) have sought or won any high political offices. None are trying to use the event as a springboard for some high-profile public career. All they want is a fair airing of the facts so that the demons loosed into their unassuming lives 40 years ago can be put to rest and that–once again–they can be proud to call themselves the sons and grandsons of those who 200 years ago caused a foreign, occupying power to scurry off with its tail between its legs as a result of the happy marriage of American arms and resolution.

And these facts (along with the hard, empirical data of what took place on June 8, 1967) are what the pro-Israel groups fear the worst. Instinctively they must know that despite all the propagandizing and bullying they inflict upon the American people that at some point blood will prove to be thicker than water, that the American people will remember who they are and thus will come to the conclusion that siding with the foreign body responsible for the murder of 34 American sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers has no upside to it and that no perks associated with being an FOI–meaning a Friend of Israel–are to be had.

The Part I article was an excellent read, though he'll take some heat for using the term Zionist. Not quite sure why,as it seems to Prissy like referring to someone as Catholic, Lutheran, Mormon or Jehovah Witness...

Quotes of the Day

More than ever before it is now necessary for the whole Party to stand in blind obedience, as one man, behind the leadership...Hilter's man-Voelkischer Beobachter (Sueddeutsche Ausgabe), No. 88, March 29, 1933.

The fox knows many things," he wrote, "but the hedgehog knows one big thing.--Archilochus (and thank you Comrade Tribune)

"I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator."--[Adolph Hitler, _Mein Kampf_, pp. 46]

God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and esI will have to focus on them.-- George W Bush, according to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, from minutes acquired by Haaretz from cease-fire negotiations between Abbas and faction leaders from the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular and Democratic Fronts (circa June, 2003), quoted from Arnon Regular, "'Road map is a life saver for us,' PM Abbas tells Hamas" (Haaretz.com:June 27, 2003)Bush's Grandpa Prescott would be proud

Are You an Ameri-CAN or Are You an Ameri-CAN'T?

For our friends abroad, if we Americans have any left...

Dubya and Cheney want more, more more...Prissy is convinced they could regulate our lives like a prison camp of KBR, and it still would not be enough control for them.

Get to Washington this September. Call your representative and let them know you support military families opposed to the war.

Don't let this be your next bumper sticker

If you call between Sept 15th through the 29th, ask them if they have bothered to become aware that military families and veterans are currently in Washington protesting this war.

Do you love the Constitution and Declaration of Independence? The Prissy Patriot and Betty Buccaneer are calling for a new Constitutional convention. We need a few good lawyers to help! Please contact Prissy if you are interested.Email me!

National March on Congress September 29, 2007 National March on Washington - Encampment in Front of Congress

Prissy is wondering what on Earth happened to the Larry Flynt investigation. Larry hasn't given us any updates on his blog. Prissy predicts he will drop them all at once. Maybe there are more than 20 "notable names" on the list? Stay tuned...

Hot Links

BBC Outbreak source 'linked to lab' (an American owned private lab?)

But either the private company Merial, or the state-run Institute for Animal Health, both based at the Pirbright site, could be the source, they said.

The Health and Safety Executive found there was a "negligible" risk it had been spread by the wind or flooding.

But its report said the disease could have been the result of human movement or "accidental or deliberate transfer".

The National Farmers' Union has said there is "incredulity and shock" that a research facility that works to protect against disease could have been the source of the outbreak.

Remember the Anthrax attacks? Could this be another case of neocons letting Brown know who is boss? Dubya/Dick is terribly disappointed Gordon Brown won't be a good poodle, like Tony was...Prissy is telling you, put nothing past them. The fact that they may get caught or even convicted is no deterrent to these crooks...(see Libby case)

The cabal acts like they aren't being watched. Do they think they are the only ones who spy?

Did you see Rummy's testimony on C-span regarding the Pat Tillman case? The ole boy is senile, couldn't recall much, despite the initial email Rummy sent out to the DOD, when Tillman joined the Army. The email talked about what an example Tillman set, and how "we should keep an eye on him."

And sheesh, you'd think Rummy would have at least taken a shower before appearing on live television. His hair was noticeably greasy, and he probably didn't smell very good. (not that Prissy wants to get close enough say for sure)

Reuters, UK. Grow your own, Dearest Readers. U.S. issues new botulism warning for green beans

Consumers should not eat certain brands of French-cut green beans because of concerns they could be tainted with the toxin that causes botulism, U.S. health officials warned on Friday.

The green beans were manufactured by Lakeside Foods Inc. of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and packaged in 14.5-ounce cans, the Food and Drug Administration said.

Express UK 4,000 PEOPLE A WEEK TRYING TO LEAVE UK

BRITAIN is facing a mass exodus of people looking to escape the crime and grime of modern living.

The country’s biggest foreign visa consultancy firm has revealed that applications have soared in the last seven months by 80 per cent to almost 4,000 a week. Ten years ago the figure was just 300 a week.

Most people are relocating within the Commonwealth – in Australia, Canada and South Africa. They are almost all young professionals and skilled workers aged 20-40.

Project on Government Oversite Another Security Breach at Los Alamos

An incident involving the unauthorized release of classified data via email occurred last week at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The incident, which has been confirmed by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), is rated among “the most serious threats to national security.”

The incident follows the Department of Energy’s (DOE) July decision to slap the Lab with a $3.3 million fine, and to threaten the Lab with another fine if it failed to comply with security rules. The fine was levied because of the October 2006 incident in which classified information was discovered during a methamphetamine drug bust. The discovery was originally revealed by POGO. Last week’s breach follows a series of other incidents in recent months (see links below).

This most recent breach was originally rated an Impact Measurement Index-1 (IMI-1), which is the most serious level security violation. In an attempt to minimize the problem, the breach was downgraded to a less severe category of IMI-4. After another review, however, it was elevated back to IMI-1.

“LANL has been fined, lab officials have been fired, and the lab was even closed for a number of months so that it could get its act together,” said POGO Senior Investigator Peter Stockton. “It’s clear that it just can’t.”

Financial Times The US-UK relationship Q&A with John Bolton, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former US ambassador to the UN, in the Financial Times.

Let me turn the question, Mr Bolton: Can America have two best friends? Is the UK, in turn, America’s best friend, or is that Israel? Which of these two is America’s real best friend? Is it consistent, fair and reasonable for a country to have multiple best friends? And are the rules different for America? Karl Weibye, Edinburgh, UK

John Bolton: As writers of op-eds will tell you, we don’t write the headlines for our articles. The FT wrote ”Britain cannot have two best friends,” so you should address your question to the newspaper. ....................................................................

Considering Sarkozy’s election in France is expected to usher in a new age of French-American relations, and there is a fear of Gordon Brown distancing the UK from the US, what type of implications does this have for the US in terms of its relations with other EU members? Is it a possibility that the US could form stronger ties with France than the UK in the near future? Carl Fitz, Texas, US

John Bolton: My experience in diplomatic dealings with France over many years is that France unfailingly pursues what Paris sees as its core national interests. While such an approach has often put France at odds with the United States, it is at least straightforward and intellectually honest. I respect it.

By contrast, too often in recent years, and frequently in the United Nations, the UK position, as defined by the FCO, has been ideological rather than national, pursuing what the international High Minded set calls ”global governance.”

Independent UK Celebrity priest' in paedophilia probe

A "celebrity" priest, founder of an organisation with more than 280 drug rehabilitation centres around the world, is under investigation in central Italy for alleged paedophilia.

Don Pierino Gelmini is one of the church's best-known faces on Italian television, a close friend of top politicians including former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a rent-a-quote figure with right-wing views on drugs and family values.

In 2004, while still Prime Minister, Mr Berlusconi made the 80-year-old priest, founder of "Comunita Incontro", a public gift of 10 billion lira (£3.5m) for the organisation's work.

But yesterday La Stampa newspaper revealed that the priest has been under investigation, on suspicion of sexually molesting young people, for more than six months. "It seems that the accusations are numerous and coherent," the paper reported. "They revolve around a closed community in which a figure of enormous charisma seems not to have restricted himself to taking care of souls."

ABC News, telling on Thompson The Fred Thompson Watergate Myth

"He gained national attention for leading the line of inquiry that revealed the audio-taping system in the White House Oval Office," his official bio says (LINK).

But the reality is far more complicated than conventional wisdom and campaign puffery would have it.

While some Democrats on the committee to this day profess respect and admiration for Thompson, he was seen as others as a "spy" for the Nixon White House -- an accusation buttressed, at least in part, by Thompson's own writings, which confirm that he tipped off the Nixon White House about internal happenings on the committee.

Moreover, new transcripts from the Nixon White House tapes reveal that the Nixon administration regarded Thompson as a useful idiot -- "dumb as hell," in President Nixon's words, but "friendly." At one point, the White House counsel told Nixon that Thompson insisted he wanted to help the president more than his patron and boss on the committee, Sen. Howard Baker, R-Tenn, would let him.

Hat tip to Valerie's hubby,BBC Losing track of guns, losing track of Iraq?

The report comes from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) which is an independent US government agency that is essentially the watchdog and investigative arm for the US Congress.

The GAO says that, of some 185,000 assault rifles and 170,000 pistols that the Pentagon says it supplied to the Iraqi security forces, it can account for less than half: there is a discrepancy of 110,000 in the case of AK-47s, and 80,000 pistols.

The gaps in the figures for body armour and helmets are even bigger - only 80,000 out of a total of 215,000 sets of body armour accounted for, and only 25,000 out of 140,000 helmets.

The report does not say it knows what has happened to the weapons - only that there are gaping holes in the records.

UK Times Outrage over betrayal of Iraqi interpreters

The 39-year-old officer, who is a director at Lazard bankers, used the interpeter as his “eyes and ears” when he was given the job of trying to restructure the economy of southern Iraq. “He was invaluable to me and took great personal risks, and these sort of people need our protection,” he said.

He fought his case and even appeared on an asylum tribunal in support of him, eventually winning the argument for him to stay in Britain.

“But it was a real struggle. The people on the tribunal didn’t seem to know what was going on in southern Iraq, they didn’t realise that Basra is now as dangerous as it is in Baghdad,” Major Alderson said.

The interpreter, “Mr Ali”, now living in Britain, told The Times: “Anyone who works for the Americans or the British in Iraq gets a visit from the militia and is told to leave the country or face assassination. I had to leave immediately and left everything behind.”

New Scientist Environment Eight-million-year-old bug is alive and growing

Whereas the young ice contained a variety of microorganisms, the researchers found only one type of bacterium in the 8-million-year-old sample. It also grew in the laboratory but much more slowly, doubling only every 70 days.

By examining the average length of DNA fragments found in all the ice samples, the researchers determined that frozen DNA is progressively degraded as time passes. Its half life is 1.1 million years – that is, after 1.1 million years half the original DNA has been degraded.

The researchers believe the DNA is degraded by cosmic rays, which are particularly strong at the poles where the Earth's magnetic field is at its weakest.

Paul Falkowski of Rutgers University, who led the study, describes the ancient bacteria as small round cells that had been in a "suspended state of animation for 8 million years". He says the increasingly rapid flow of glaciers into the ocean as a result of global warming could release new organisms into the sea but he does not believe this is cause for concern because marine bacteria and viruses are typically far less harmful to human health than, for instance, those found on land.

Salon It's easy for soldiers to score heroin in Afghanistan

Just outside the main gate to Bagram airfield, a U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, sits a series of small makeshift shops known by locals as the Bagram Bazaar. For Afghans, it is the place to buy American goods, but the stalls that make up the heart of the bazaar are also well known for what they provide American soldiers stationed at Bagram. Walking through the bazaar it takes less than 10 minutes for a vendor in his early 20s to step out and ask, "You want whiskey?" "No, heroin," I tell him. He ushers me into his store with a smile.

The shop is small, 9 feet wide by 14 feet deep, and dark. The walls at the front are lined with dusty cans of soda, padlocks and miscellaneous beauty supplies. As we enter, a teenager is visible at the back, seated in a chair next to a collection of American military knives and flashlights. The shopkeeper speaks to him in Dari. The teen stands and heads for the door, where he stops and asks my Afghan driver a question. My driver translates, "He wants to know how much you want? Twenty, 30, 50 dollars' worth?" From past experience, for I have arranged this same transaction a dozen times in a dozen different Bagram Bazaar shops, I know that the $30 bag will contain enough pure to bring hundreds of dollars on the streets of any American city. Afghanistan, after all, is the source of 90 percent of the world's heroin. I say 30 and the teen jogs off.

The true extent of the heroin problem among American soldiers now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is unknown. At Bagram, according to a written statement provided by a spokesperson for the base, Army Maj. Chris Belcher, the "Military Police receive few reports of alcohol or drug issues." The military has statistics on how many troops failed drug tests, but the best information on long-term addiction comes from the U.S. Veterans Administration. The VA is the world's largest provider of substance abuse services, caring for more than 350,000 veterans per year, of whom about 30,000 are being treated for opiate addiction. Only preliminary information for Iraq and Afghanistan is available, however, and veterans of those conflicts are not yet showing up in the stats. According to the VA's annual "Yellowbook" report on substance abuse, during Fiscal Year 2006, fewer than 9,000 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) sought treatment for substance abuse of all kinds at the VA; the report did not specify how many were treated for opiate abuse.

Remind Prissy again how different this war is from Vietnam...

Time Why It's Time for Maliki to Go

It's time for Nouri al-Maliki to go. In the 14 months he's been in charge, Iraq's Prime Minister has only ever had tenuous control over his country, but now even that has slipped out of his grasp. To paraphrase what everybody's history teacher used to say about Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire, Maliki's "national unity government" is not national, not united and now, not even really a government.

The resignations of Sunni and secular members of his cabinet only confirm what Iraqis have known for months, but the Bush Administration has steadfastly refused to acknowledge: that Maliki is himself a hindrance to national reconciliation. Even his severest critics in Washington seem to think Maliki is guilty only of incompetence — that he lacks the political skills to bring together Iraq's warring communities. But it's not that he can't reach out to the Sunnis: he just won't.

Reuters Testimony ends in Padilla's terrorism trial

Padilla is heard on only seven calls played for the jury. He did not use any coded language on the calls, the FBI's lead investigator testified, and mostly discussed issues such as the sale of a car he had left in Florida and divorce proceedings with his ex-wife.

Padilla, 36, was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in May 2002 upon returning from Egypt and was accused by the Bush administration of plotting to set off a radioactive bomb.

President George W. Bush declared him an "enemy combatant" in the war against terrorism and ordered him imprisoned by the military. Padilla was held without charge for three years and eight months before being indicted in a civilian court in November 2005 on charges that make no mention of a bomb plot.

The bomb allegations came from alleged al Qaeda operatives who claim they were tortured before being sent to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Padilla's constitutional rights were violated, ala Bush/Cheney rules of law (making them up as they go along)

Telegraph 'Over the top' security sees pilots revolt

Many have registered their anger on the Chirp website, the UK Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme. Although independent, it is sponsored by the Civil Aviation Authority and approved by the Department for Transport.

One pilot said: "When dealing with the police one has certain rights and a well-defined procedure if you are not treated correctly. This is not so with airport security who seem to be a law unto themselves using the knowledge that you are on a tight time schedule to ride roughshod over any rights that you might have."

Feelings are running so high that some pilots have claimed they were prepared to refuse to fly rather than run the gauntlet of what they regard as "over the top" security.

Bloomberg Former Brocade Chief Convicted in Backdating Fraud

Gregory Reyes, the former head of Brocade Communications Systems Inc., was found guilty of all charges in a trial related to the backdating of stock option grants, becoming the first chief executive convicted by a jury as part of a broad U.S. crackdown on the practice.

A jury today convicted Reyes, 44, of 10 counts including conspiracy and fraud after a five-week trial and six days of deliberations in San Francisco federal court. The former chief executive officer faces as much as 20 years in prison for the most serious charges and millions of dollars in fines. Sentencing is set for Nov. 21.

The U.S. ensnared at least 50 companies in its probe of backdating, a practice by which companies change the grant date to a day with a lower stock price, giving recipients built-in profits when they exercise their right to buy stock. Unless disclosed and recorded as an expense, the practice is illegal because it hides costs, prosecutors said during the trial.

Reyes lost a bid to have the conviction set aside when U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, following the verdict, announced that he had decided Aug. 3 to deny an earlier defense motion to throw out the case. The judge had questioned whether prosecutors presented enough evidence that Reyes understood accounting rules.

Quotes of the Day

Humor to a man is like a feather pillow. It is filled with what is easy to get but gives great comfort.--Irish proverb

A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.--Italian proverb

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." -- George Washington

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves." --William Pitt in the House of Commons November 18, 1783