Bring the troops home now.

As the President delivers his annual State of the Union message, 55% of the voting public favors a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq, believing the U.S. has accomplished all it realistically can in the Middle Eastern nation.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that these numbers are running low, as I'm hearing from more and more senior citizens who have taken up protesting the war in Iraq, and they're quite proud to do so.

Also:

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows health care at the top of Americans' priority list, with 76% calling increased access and lower costs "an absolute priority" for 2006. Two-thirds say it is time to reduce troop levels in Iraq, while just 28% support maintaining existing troop levels.

Possibly an even more telling result in the same poll:

The proportion of Americans who credit the president with being "honest and straightforward" has fallen to 38% from 50% in January 2005; the proportion that gives him high marks for "strong leadership qualities" is 42%, down from 52%.


Ouch. Heh. Now, will tonight's sotu change these numbers at all?

Relax, it's over.

Ben Lee: Something borrowed, Something blue.

enjoy.

What time was Alito confirmed?

9:28 this am:

Legislators in at least five states are proposing bold anti-abortion measures as the Bush administration reshapes the U.S. Supreme Court, a report said. With the goal of challenging the Roe vs. Wade ruling that ensured a woman's right to an abortion, lawmakers in Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota and Tennessee propose banning all abortions except when the woman's life is in danger, Stateline.org reported.

[hat tip to :-7 from the comments]

SOTU Thread

I'll be here on and off throughout the evening, but it looks as if ThinkProgress is going to be *the* headquarters for all things SOTU tonight.

I just have one thought to add before things get going. I see Bush plans to tell America that we're addicted to foreign oil and have to break our habit. I'd like to see someone get his administration to admit exactly how much of our own oil the oil giants are exporting. I've not seen anyone do anything but tap dance around that question since this administration came into power.

Cantwell sells out her supporters.

January 30, 2006 Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., the Supreme Court nominee, draws media attention on Capitol Hill as he leaves a courtesy visit with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). I hope she hears these sentiments everywhere she goes for all of her days.
(Photo: Melina Mara / The Washington Post)

Live Think Progress SOTU Coverage

8 PM ET — Live Pre-SOTU Video Webcast: We’re teaming up with Air America’s Majority Report for a live panel at the Center for American Progress previewing President Bush’s speech. Watch the video webcast live on ThinkProgress.

Hosted by:
Sam Seder, Air America

Featuring:
Duncan Black (Atrios), Eschaton
Chris Bowers, MyDD.com
Anna Greenberg, V.P., Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research
John Halpin, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Matthew Kerbel, Editor, Get This Party Started
Judd Legum, Editor, ThinkProgress
John Podesta, President and CEO, Center for American Progress
Amy Sullivan, Editor, The Washington Monthly

See Think Progress for the rest of the evening's schedule, on video webcast, radio, and live blogging.

We are Fucked.

This man could live to be 112. Think about it.

~Music

Yellowcard: Lights and Sound

Heh heh.

The General, being the kind-hearted heterosexual that he is, has decided to help Maria Cantwell out by laying claim to her uterus. She is more than deserving the honor.

In a world gone mad

Thank jeebus for The Night of the Living Dead . . . in 30 seconds.

Women in Rumsfeld's military: What comes with the Territory

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark.

The latrine for female soldiers at Camp Victory wasn't located near their barracks, so they had to go outside if they needed to use the bathroom. "There were no lights near any of their facilities, so women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night," Karpinski told retired US Army Col. David Hackworth in a September 2004 interview. It was there that male soldiers assaulted and raped women soldiers. So the women took matters into their own hands. They didn't drink in the late afternoon so they wouldn't have to urinate at night. They didn't get raped. But some died of dehydration in the desert heat, Karpinski said.

Karpinski testified that a surgeon for the coalition's joint task force said in a briefing that "women in fear of getting up in the hours of darkness to go out to the port-a-lets or the latrines were not drinking liquids after 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and in 120 degree heat or warmer, because there was no air-conditioning at most of the facilities, they were dying from dehydration in their sleep."

"And rather than make everybody aware of that - because that's shocking, and as a leader if that's not shocking to you then you're not much of a leader - what they told the surgeon to do is don't brief those details anymore. And don't say specifically that they're women. You can provide that in a written report but don't brief it in the open anymore."

For example, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Sanchez's top deputy in Iraq, saw "dehydration" listed as the cause of death on the death certificate of a female master sergeant in September 2003. Under orders from Sanchez, he directed that the cause of death no longer be listed, Karpinski stated. The official explanation for this was to protect the women's privacy rights.

Sanchez's attitude was: "The women asked to be here, so now let them take what comes with the territory," Karpinski quoted him as saying. Karpinski told me that Sanchez, who was her boss, was very sensitive to the political ramifications of everything he did. She thinks it likely that when the information about the cause of these women's deaths was passed to the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld ordered that the details not be released. "That's how Rumsfeld works," she said.

I doubt your teen daughters will hear this from the recruiters that visit them at school.

Coretta Scott King

Rest in peace.

A Classic

John Belushi: Samurai Deli

Jib-Jab

205

It's supposed to be funny . . .

This is the state of the union:

Zogby:

In September 2005, 51% said they felt safer with Bush as President, down from numbers above 60% in earlier polls. Now, just 43% said they feel safer with Bush as President, while 53% said they feel less safe, the survey shows. This decline comes as both the new Zogby Interactive survey and a Zogby America telephone survey conducted last week showed the President’s job approval rating hovering at 39%.

Highlighting public fears about safety, 87% said they expect the U.S. to be hit by another terrorist attack inside our country, with 54% believing such an attack will come before the end of Bush’s second term in office. Almost half of those expecting an attack said they think it will come in the form of a suicide bombing, probably in a major U.S. city. Eleven percent expect a blast at a shopping mall, while 9% expect terrorists to strike at a sporting or other entertainment event at an arena somewhere in the country.

The new poll shows little decline in peoples’ concern over terrorism on American soil, despite billions spent on homeland security and the elevation of the department created in the wake of the 2001 attacks to presidential cabinet level prominence. In June 2002, 89% said it was likely America would suffer another terrorist attack on American soil resulting in the loss of life.

In a sign of widespread concerns over terror, more than one in four (27%) believe their hometown is a likely terrorist target.

After all the dead Arabs in the middle east -- to be precise I should include Persians, no? -- and all the dead soldiers, America doesn't feel any safer now than it did in that first year after 9/11. The government surplus gone, the deficit now skyrocketing, and this is it? This has to be the very definition of a failed Presidency.

Pre-SOTU Thread

Kraft Foods Inc., the nation's largest food manufacturer, said Monday it would eliminate 8,000 more jobs, or about 8 percent of its work force, and close up to 20 production plants as it broadens an ongoing restructuring effort.

As we endure yet another of Bush's SOTU addresses, I hope every American thinks of the 8,000 people who just lost their job at Kraft. The 5,000 that Dell just outsourced to India. The 30,000 pink slips delivered at Ford last week, and most importantly the 2,242 US troops who returned from Iraq in coffins, the 31891 Iraqi civilian casualties, the 1,417 casualties of hurricane Katrina, and the over 3,200 still unaccounted for victims of Katrina.

Don't forget the Republican corruption in office, the violations of the Constitution, treason, and the cruel neglect by indifference towards humanity in general.

Tuesday, Bush will either spin this all into tales of the Emerald City, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, or he'll attempt to scare you to death with tales of Armageddon and Osama. Buy your popcorn ahead of time -- and remember it's just the land of make believe -- where only children and madmen live. It's okay to visit, just don't get lost.

Round-Up

It's official -- Wednesday is going to be the regular round-up day here @ Mia Culpa. If you have a submission, please try to get it to me by 9pm on Tuesday. I'll try to post as many as I can, and if there aren't enough submissions, I'll go looking for you. :)

Jill Carroll update

Al Jazeera is airing a video-tape of Jill Carroll appealing for her captor's demands to be met, on now. More as verifications of the tape become available.



CBS:
(AP) Al-Jazeera aired a new videotape Monday of kidnapped U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, showing her wearing a veil and weeping. The video had no sound, but the station said she appealed for the release of women Iraqi prisoners.

Carroll is visibly crying in the video and wears a conservative Islamic veil as she speaks to the camera. The footage has a time signature with the date Jan. 28.

The al-Jazeera newscaster said Carroll appeals to the U.S. military and the Iraqi Interior Ministry to release all women in their prisons and that this "would help in winning her release."

Armed men abducted Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, on Jan. 7 in Baghdad and threatened to kill her unless all Iraqi women prisoners were released.

The U.S. military said Thursday it would release five Iraqi women detainees, a move demanded by the kidnappers of an American reporter to spare her life. A U.S. official said the release had nothing to do with the kidnappers' demand.

There's reality, and then there's the bush zone.

White House photographers aren't looking for a handout these days. In fact, they've gotten far too many.

While the practice of providing news organizations with staged photos of events involving the president goes back decades, veteran shooters at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue say it has become almost a regular occurrence with the Bush Administration. A review of Associated Press archives found that during the entire eight years of the Clinton administration, only 100 handout photos of events were released to the press. During the first five years of Bush's presidency, more than 500 have been distributed.

The key is that each of these events was closed to news photographers.

When you read the news and view the accompanying photos, you're likely seeing a very controlled version of any given event by the Bush administration. I can't think off hand of anyone more guarded in this aspect except for Kim Jong of North Korea.

[Via Inflatable Dartboard]

Pentagon investigation stumbles into Donald Rumsfeld

Pentagon investigation into pre-war intelligence stalled by internal Pentagon investigation into Douglas Feith. Larisa @ Raw Story has the details.

Breaking on al-jazeera

Al qaeda's Al-Zawahari: "You missed, HA!"

~Music

Elliot Jokelson: Dreams

Dale Butland joins Hackett team for Ohio Senate Race

Paul Hackett, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and Iraq War veteran, announced today the addition of Dale Butland to his campaign team as a general consultant and senior advisor. Butland brings 25 years of experience working in the trenches of Ohio politics to the campaign.

“It’s fantastic to have Dale fighting with us in our campaign for real change,” Paul Hackett said. “He is committed to this campaign for all the right reasons; fixing the mess in Iraq, cleaning up Washington through real reform and making sure that all Ohioans can take care of their families.”

Butland served as Senator John Glenn’s chief of staff and has experience at all levels of government. He has been at the helm of various Ohio campaigns in multiple capacities – from consultant to communications director to campaign manager. He also enjoys the distinction of being the last campaign manager to win a statewide election in Ohio for U.S. Senate or Governor.

Anyone questioning Paul Hackett's experience might just take another look now.

Waiting for the Gift of Life

NicK Draper, left, and his brother Nate have hearts that barely pump, a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy. They are both awaiting transplant surgery at UCLA Medical Center.
(Anne Cusack / LAT)

More than 6 Billion Dollars

YAKIMA — Just a few miles north of town, the National Security Agency (NSA) is eavesdropping on the world with satellite dishes that pick up satellite and microwave signals from cellphones, e-mails and home phones.

The listening post has a view of Interstate 82 from its location on the Army's gigantic Yakima Training Center, but it may be one of the best-kept secrets in the Pacific Northwest.

That could change during the debate over Bush administration surveillance of domestic communications with parties overseas.

"In the entire country, it happens to be in your backyard," said James Bamford, a former network-news investigative producer who documented the Yakima installation in his 1982 book about the NSA, "The Puzzle Palace."

"It doesn't make noise, doesn't send smoke," he said. "It's almost invisible. The whole agency is virtually invisible."

Bamford and others keyed into electronic eavesdropping say the Yakima Research Station has played a major role for decades in Echelon, the global-surveillance network operated by the NSA and its counterparts in the British Commonwealth — Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

According to Bamford, the low-profile NSA has 58,000 employees in the United States and abroad, more than the CIA and FBI combined. Its budget, reportedly more than $6 billion, is classified.

Damn, paranoia is expensive.

Will isolating Hamas make it more popular?

In an op-ed from the Toronto Star, Haroon Siddiqui says that by isolating Hamas, the US is proving to Arabs that we only support democracy when it suits us:

Yes, we accept the will of the voters. (What else is there to say, having advocated democracy?) But, no, we won't deal with the people's choice.

Washington would boycott Hamas, the president said, because, among other things, it "has an armed wing."

But so does Fatah. Its Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade has attacked Israel. Yet that has not stopped the U.S. from dealing with Abbas. In Iraq, the Shi'ite and Kurdish groups, the winner and the runner-up in the election in December, also maintain powerful militias. The U.S. works with both groups intimately.

Hamas, however, is also a terrorist organization dedicated to destroying Israel. But so was the Palestine Liberation Organization at one time. Circumstances and groups change, as the examples of the Irish Republican Army, the African National Congress and others show.

"It's always possible to find reasons and the pretext not to deal with those whose ideas and views you don't want to deal with," said Professor James Reilly of the University of Toronto's department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations.

"For a long time, the complaint against the Palestinians was that we can't deal with them because they are not democratic. Now we can't deal with them because it's the wrong kind of people who have been elected.

Condi Rice says that we failed to predict how terribly unhappy the Palestinians were with their currect government. How could we not see it? The oppressive conditions did not stop. Now the people are trying to participate in government democratically. Shouldn't we encourage them to continue to pursue this route?

[Hat tip Perceval Press]

The Queen of Iraq writes Letters.

Loooong letters. From E&P:

NEW YORK Michael Massing’s Dec. 15, 2005, article in The New York Review of Books, titled “The Press: The Enemy Within,” has triggered an angry response from one reporter mentioned in it, Judith Miller. This elicited a strong reaction from Massing, both published in the Feb. 9 edition of the publication.


I don't really care about Miller's diatribe, but Massing's response to Miller's moaning is priceless:

“Judith Miller's letter leaves the impression that my entire article was devoted to her. In fact, she was the subject of a single paragraph; her own letter is twice as long….

“Ken Auletta, in an article in the December 19, 2005, issue of The New Yorker , cites Miller's own lawyer, Robert Bennett, as saying that he was ‘astonished’ that Keller and Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. had not inspected Miller's notebook from her interview with Lewis Libby before deciding to resist the Patrick Fitzgerald subpoena. ‘How could the Times have embarked on this venture without knowing all the facts?’ Bennett is quoted as saying. If Miller has a complaint on this point, it's with Keller, not me.

“Auletta also asked Keller about his claim that Miller kept drifting back on her own into the national security realm. Keller described an extraordinary call he received from Miller in 2004 in which she said she was in the house of Iraqi exile Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, who had been a source for one of Miller's ‘discredited WMD stories,’ as Keller put it. The man was about to be deported and Miller wanted to write about it. Astonished, Keller told her to leave the man's house. This, he told Auletta, was a case of someone ‘who was way too invested in her sources.’

“Miller's oft-repeated defense that she was wrong on WMD ‘because my sources were wrong’ ignores the fact that it's a key part of a journalist's job to assess the credibility of those sources. "


Crikey! The sun doesn't rise and set upon the Queen of Iraq? Is that muffled sobbing I hear in the distance?

What you don't know about your local news promos may hurt you.

From Jimmy Kimmel.

Wanker of the Day

Chris Matthews, of course.

All the King's Men

Feb. 6, 2006 issue - James Comey, a lanky, 6-foot-8 former prosecutor who looks a little like Jimmy Stewart, resigned as deputy attorney general in the summer of 2005. The press and public hardly noticed. Comey's farewell speech, delivered in the Great Hall of the Justice Department, contained all the predictable, if heartfelt, appreciations. But mixed in among the platitudes was an unusual passage. Comey thanked "people who came to my office, or my home, or called my cell phone late at night, to quietly tell me when I was about to make a mistake; they were the people committed to getting it right—and to doing the right thing—whatever the price. These people," said Comey, "know who they are. Some of them did pay a price for their commitment to right, but they wouldn't have it any other way."

One of those people—a former assistant attorney general named Jack Goldsmith—was absent from the festivities and did not, for many months, hear Comey's grateful praise. In the summer of 2004, Goldsmith, 43, had left his post in George W. Bush's Washington to become a professor at Harvard Law School. Stocky, rumpled, genial, though possessing an enormous intellect, Goldsmith is known for his lack of pretense; he rarely talks about his time in government. In liberal Cambridge, Mass., he was at first snubbed in the community and mocked as an atrocity-abetting war criminal by his more knee-jerk colleagues. ICY WELCOME FOR NEW LAW PROF, headlined The Harvard Crimson.

They had no idea. Goldsmith was actually the opposite of what his detractors imagined. For nine months, from October 2003 to June 2004, he had been the central figure in a secret but intense rebellion of a small coterie of Bush administration lawyers. Their insurrection, described to NEWSWEEK by current and former administration officials who did not wish to be identified discussing confidential deliberations, is one of the most significant and intriguing untold stories of the war on terror.

These Justice Department lawyers, backed by their intrepid boss Comey, had stood up to the hard-liners, centered in the office of the vice president, who wanted to give the president virtually unlimited powers in the war on terror. Demanding that the White House stop using what they saw as farfetched rationales for riding rough-shod over the law and the Constitution, Goldsmith and the others fought to bring government spying and interrogation methods within the law. They did so at their peril; ostracized, some were denied promotions, while others left for more comfortable climes in private law firms and academia. Some went so far as to line up private lawyers in 2004, anticipating that the president's eavesdropping program would draw scrutiny from Congress, if not prosecutors. These government attorneys did not always succeed, but their efforts went a long way toward vindicating the principle of a nation of laws and not men.

The rebels were not whistle-blowers in the traditional sense. They did not want—indeed avoided—publicity. (Goldsmith confirmed public facts about himself but otherwise declined to comment. Comey also declined to comment.) They were not downtrodden career civil servants. Rather, they were conservative political appointees who had been friends and close colleagues of some of the true believers they were fighting against. They did not see the struggle in terms of black and white but in shades of gray—as painfully close calls with unavoidable pitfalls. They worried deeply about whether their principles might put Americans at home and abroad at risk. Their story has been obscured behind legalisms and the veil of secrecy over the White House. But it is a quietly dramatic profile in courage. (For its part the White House denies any internal strife. "The proposition of internal division in our fight against terrorism isn't based in fact," says Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheney. "This administration is united in its commitment to protect Americans, defeat terrorism and grow democracy.")

Minimizing dissent has been the theme of the Bush administration. Whether that meant keeping people in the dark, or walking away from their positions at the White House. Republicans with principles? Who'da thunk it. An interesting read that certainly someone in the administration will quickly denounce.

Bloody Hell!

Congress has granted unusual authority for the Pentagon to spend as much as $200 million of its own budget to aid foreign militaries, a break with the traditional practice of channeling foreign military assistance through the State Department.

The move, included in a little-noticed provision of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act passed last month, marks a legislative victory for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who pushed hard for the new powers to deal with emergency situations.

MORE power for Rumsfeld?!? The guy whose resignation we've been screaming for? I want to know exactly how the vote on this went down. Will update when available.

~Music

This one goes out to NTodd.

You're not alone, darlin'.

Chimpy Business

I'm finally getting around to addressing this:

President Bush said General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. should develop "a product that's relevant" rather than look to Washington for help with their heavy pension obligations, and hinted he would take a dim view of a government bailout of the struggling auto makers.

First of all, I've not heard anyone from Ford or GM speak about requesting a government 'bailout'. How dare Bush dismiss the loss of over 30,000 jobs in the nation just this past week alone so blithely, and how can he speak of relevant products when he is chauffered around in limosines, billion dollar helicopters, and jeebus knows how much air force one cost. [readers?]

I'm generally alone in my defense of the *big three*, but for Bush to kick them in the ass at such a time I find inexcusable.

I Grieve.

A Shi'ite Iraqi resident weeps after smearing his face with the blood of his slain brother in Baghdad January 29, 2006. The man said his brother was killed by insurgents and his head had been severed. [REUTERS/Ali Jasim]

Global warming weather

The thermometer outside my treehouse here in the middle of Loon lake says '51', but not to fear, there's snow on the way. I can see the clouds already.

Iiiiiiiieeeeeeeee . . .

Obama cast Alito as a judge "who is contrary to core American values, not just liberal values."

But Obama joined some Democrats, including Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Charles Schumer of New York, in expressing his unhappiness with the filibuster bid.

"There's one way to guarantee that the judges who are appointed to the Supreme Court are judges that reflect our values. And that's to win elections," Obama said.

Contact info for Obama:

Washington D.C. Office
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2854
(202) 228-4260 fax
(202 228-1404 TDD
Email

Republican Monkeys

Ohio Auditor Betty Montgomery, who last week announced she was running for her old job as the state's attorney general, blamed a lack of state lawyers for why she didn't review the contract that gave GOP contributor Tom Noe the first $25 million in state money to invest in rare coins.

There "aren't enough lawyers to review all the contracts that are written" by the state, Ms. Montgomery said in an interview last week - the first time since last spring she's agreed to discuss in detail with The Blade the state's failed $50 million rare-coin investment.

She was attorney general in 1998 when the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation signed a contract to invest $25 million in a rare-coin fund set up by Mr. Noe, who was indicted last year on three felony counts of laundering money to President Bush's re-election campaign and is being investigated for allegedly stealing up to $4 million from the state's coin funds.


Certainly it's too much to expect someone -- like the attorney general -- be responsible with state contracts in such large amounts of the Ohio taxpayer's money when the state can only afford to hire a limited number of lawyers to go over the fine print. I like that for a republican campaign slogan "I can't watch everything, damnit."

SNL Classic

Eddie Murphy goes undercover as a white man to find out just how great the racial divide really is.

Media in Iraq

ABC's Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were reported seriously injured in Iraq by an improvised explosive device.

[Fark]

~Music

3 Doors Down: Give the latest cd 'Seventeen' a listen.

Lunar New Year

[REUTERS/Nir Elias]
Chinese artistes perform a traditional dance for the Lunar New Year at a park in Beijing, China January 28, 2006. Spring Festival, also known as the Lunar New Year, falls on January 29 this year.

I used to enjoy a good murder mystery.

On Dec. 8, 2004, a blue BMW station wagon riddled with blood and bullet holes was found on the side of a one-lane road used as a shortcut from the Taji military base, just past the point where it makes a hard right along the Tigris River.

The occupants were missing.

Stoffel had been in the passenger seat. Driving was American engineer Joseph Wemple, an expert carpenter who worked for Disney World and knew little about living in the kind of shadow world Stoffel embraced.

They had left Taji earlier that day, accompanied by an Iraqi worker, and were headed to their fortified compound outside Baghdad, a 15-minute drive. They never arrived.

After a series of calls, desperate colleagues located the Americans' bodies in a Baghdad morgue. They had been shot to death. The Iraqi employee survived. He has since disappeared.

The killings remain unsolved. The FBI is still investigating, though family members say little has happened in the past several months. A previously unheard of insurgency group continues to post Internet videos for no apparent reason, showing documents from Stoffel's laptop computer, which was stolen in the attack.

And in the passage of time, the deaths of these men have become one more turn in a twisting road of corruption leading ultimately to the interim Defense Ministry, to the issuance of 27 arrest warrants for its members - and to the disappearance of nearly the entire procurement budget for rearming the Iraqi military.

That money was to be used so that Iraq could stand on its own, and so that its occupying soldiers, most of them Americans, could go home.
. . .
To Stoffel and CLI, the deal was worth nearly $300 million. It also represented a windfall for the Iraqi government, which would get whatever funds were leftover from selling the military scrap, after the refurbishing was done.

But Wye Oak and CLI were never paid, both companies claimed.

After the contract was signed, Defense Minister Shaalan "came in and said, 'Oh, by the way, we're putting this guy in charge as an intermediary,' " Irey said. The intermediary was Raymond Zayna, an enigmatic Lebanese businessman who was given control of financial transactions between the contractors and the ministry. "We sent an invoice. The Ministry of Defense paid him. But we never saw any of the money," Irey said.

Stoffel believed that Zayna was skimming funds and kicking some back to the Defense Ministry, Irey said.

Fed up, Stoffel flew home for Thanksgiving.

He met with staffers from Republican Sen. Rick Santorum's office, who promised to look into the matter. The senator wrote to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, asking for an investigation of Stoffel's complaints, according to documents supplied to The Associated Press by Santorum's staff.

Heartened, Stoffel went back to Iraq, where he was summoned to a series of meetings in the Green Zone to discuss his complaints. Eventually, after arguing back and forth, it was agreed that Zayna would make an initial payment to the contractors.

Five days later, Stoffel and Wemple were shot to death.

This article is definitely a *must read*. Surprisingly, Ahmed Chalabi is mentioned, as well as assorted other members of the newly installed Iraqi puppet regime. Most intriguing is the mention of the internet web sites where various documents from one of the deceased contractor's laptop computer appear. The mystery is still being written, but by whom?

The Wand

I loved this short animated film: The Wand

The Lobby Hobby

The lobbying firm of Grimes and Young Inc. is not on K Street, famous address of some of the nation's most influential lobbyists. In fact, Grimes and Young is about a 2 1/2 -hour drive from the halls of Congress, in politically remote Media, Pa. (pop. 5,469).

The firm has no office. It has no website. It has only one lobbyist — Cecelia Grimes. And she's a real estate agent. Her resume shows no past experience working on Capitol Hill or for the federal government.

But Grimes and Young has emerged as a niche lobbying firm with access to one powerful member of Congress — Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee.

It is not clear how a small-town real estate agent moved from selling bungalows in suburban eastern Pennsylvania to trading access and influence in the nation's capital.

But with a scandal looming over Congress since lobbyist Jack Abramoff agreed to cooperate in a federal influence peddling probe, congressional ties to lobbyists are coming under renewed scrutiny.

Grimes, 40, who calls herself a longtime family friend of Weldon's, represents firms from as far away as California with business involving one or both of Weldon's House committees. Her services typically command a $20,000 annual retainer.

Weldon has taken steps to help at least three lobby clients of Grimes and Young, records and interviews show. And the representative of another company said he was referred to Grimes by a Weldon aide who said Grimes would "help our cause."

The congressman declined to be interviewed and referred all questions to his lawyer, who denied that the aide had recommended Grimes or that Grimes received any special treatment from Weldon's office.
. . .
It is not the first time the 10-term congressman has attracted controversy over unusually close ties to a lobbyist. In 2004, a report by The Times disclosed that Weldon's daughter landed about $1 million in lobbying contracts with foreign clients who were assisted by the congressman. A House Ethics Committee inquiry remains unfinished.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said she saw troubling similarities between the lobbying relationship Weldon had with his daughter and the one with his longtime friend.

"There is an appearance that Weldon may be using his office to benefit family or friends," said Sloan, a former federal prosecutor.

Since 2003, records show, Grimes has signed up at least eight corporate clients, four of which are located in Weldon's district. The companies are mostly small firms seeking federal defense and domestic security funding.
. . .
A representative from another company that has lobbied Weldon's office said a senior Weldon aide suggested the firm retain Grimes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his company from retribution.

"He didn't flat out say to hire her," the official said, recalling the aide's advice. "But he said … it would be good to have her on our side."

The company did not retain Grimes because "the situation didn't feel right," the firm's representative said.

Not having any legal expertise to speak of, it would seem -- to me -- that there is something at least 'improper' about a member of congress recommending a lobbyist. At least that's what seems to be implied by the cited denials of attornies for their clients mentioned in the article.

Continue reading the LA times piece HERE.

Violence begats . . .

The brother of a slain Iraqi professor is forced away from the police vehicle removing his brother's body from the shooting scene, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2006, in Baghdad, Iraq. Gunmen shot dead university professor and political analyst Abdul-Razzaq al-Na'as in central Baghdad on Saturday, said police Lt. Nadum Nasser. Al-Na'as often appeared on Arab TV talkshows to discuss Iraqi politics. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hato)

Who would Jesus sue?

Four pharmacists who refused to sign a pledge promising to dispense the morning-after birth-control pill sued Walgreen drug stores Friday, alleging they were illegally fired.

The lawsuits accuse Walgreen Co. of violating the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act. The pharmacists were being represented by the American Center for Law and Justice, a public-interest group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson.

A new state rule requires pharmacies that sell federally approved contraceptives to fill prescriptions for emergency birth control "without delay" if they have the medication in stock. The rule is being challenged in federal court.

If Walgreen's is forced to re-hire these motherfuckers, they should at least be allowed to require they wear t-shirts whilst on duty that read "I Don't Care if Your Daddy Raped You, Bitch!" Not that this would necessarily be the only reason one would requestion the pill, but I believe it quite eloquently describes the mindset the public is dealing with.

As for Pat Robertson, well, I've already stuck another pin in his doll sitting atop my puter.

~Music

The Beatles: All You Need is Love

Caption this.

He died on a Monday.

In a photo provided by family Army Pfc. Peter D. Wagler, 18, who was assigned to the 1st Batallion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team stationed at Fort Hood, Texas is shown. He served with the Multi-National Division in Baghdad. Wagler died from injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Iraq on Monday, Jan. 23, 2006. (AP Photo/The Hutchinson News, via Wagler family)

The spread of Democracy?

A protestor holds a Fatah badge and a Palestinian flag next to a burning car inside the courtyard of the Parliament in Gaza City Friday Jan. 27, 2006. Thousands of members of Fatah, which badly lost Palestinian parliament elections to Hamas this week, burned cars and shot in the air in demonstrations across the Gaza Strip, demanding the resignation of corrupt officials and insisting that Fatah form no coalition with Hamas. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Why would you do this?

The Agriculture Department is seeking to allow shipments of poultry processed in China, where thousands of birds and several people have died from bird flu.

Despite 'safety' guidelines that it states would be in place, don't we have enough to handle monitoring poultry that's processed here in the US? Why make any move that could possibly even unknowingly precipitate the spread of the bird flu virus?

Someone's Brother

MOUNT VERNON, IL - JANUARY 19: John Hunsell (L) embraces his sister Rachel as they view the body of their brother U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jonathan Kyle Price January 19, 2006 in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Price, who was serving with 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, was killed January 13, by small arms fire in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. The schools in Woodlawn, a community of less than 700 people, will be closed Friday so that students and staff will be able to attend the funeral. Price was due to return next month and was expecting his first child in March. Jonathan was 19 years old at the time of his death.(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

SOTU 2006

James Abomian does an impersonation of GWB giving the SOTU address. Get a look at the guy playing Hastert in the upper right corner whilst GWB is speaking.

~Music

Pink: Stupid Girls

Wanker of the Day

Scott McClellan.

"I think it was a historic day yesterday. It was the first ever call for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos, Switzerland," McClellan said. "Maybe Senator Kerry needs to be spending more time in the United States Senate so he can refresh his memory on Senate rules. Senate rules say you have to have the votes in order to filibuster."

This is just comical coming from a guy whose boss had logged in 5 1/2 months of vacation time already back in 2003.

Filibuster!

Phoned the offices of Senator Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin just a bit ago, and they are both against the nomination of Samuel Alito and will support the filibuster.

I'm on hold with Maria Cantwell's office, she is going to give a statement in just a moment. More in a minute.

Just off the phone. Senator Cantwell is meeting privately with Samuel Alito on Monday, and will make her decision after that. She is still accepting comments/input, but time is running short. Let your voice count, too: Call (202) 224-3441.

TGIF

That means it's Monkey Blogging day?

Vegetables: The Growing Threat

For example, more than two dozen government surveillance photographs show 22-year-old Caitlin Childs of Atlanta, a strict vegetarian, and other vegans picketing against meat eating, in December 2003. They staged their protest outside a HoneyBaked Ham store on Buford Highway in DeKalb County.

An undercover DeKalb County Homeland Security detective was assigned to conduct surveillance of the protest and the protestors, and take the photographs. The detective arrested Childs and another protester after he saw Childs approach him and write down, on a piece of paper, the license plate number of his unmarked government car.

"They told me if I didn't give over the piece of paper I would go to jail and I refused and I went to jail, and the piece of paper was taken away from me at the jail and the officer who transferred me said that was why I was arrested," Childs said on Wednesday.


Thank Jeebus our government is on top of this. We can't have people just eating lima beans and brussel sprouts all willy-nilly . . . not as long as there's processed ham in America.

America wants to go Fishin'

WaPo:

A strong bipartisan majority of the public believes President Bush should release records of meetings between disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and White House staffers despite administration claims that media requests for details about those contacts amount to a "fishing expedition," according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that three in four--76 percent--of all Americans said Bush should disclose contacts between aides and Abramoff while 18 percent disagreed. Two in three Republicans joined with eight in 10 Democrats and political independents in favoring disclosure, according to the poll.

Just my opinion, but I think the motor in the White House paper shredder has gone out by now.

Woo~Hoo

From Quinnipiac University Polls:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as President?


Approve 36%
Disapprove 59%
DK/NA 5%

Lowest approval rating during Bush's terms in office by Quinnipiac University. Who's in charge of giving Holden the pony?

Fillibuster

Have you contacted your senators yet? While you're at it, maybe write a 'thanks' to John Kerry.

Aw, man. I don't know how many senators I emailed today and spelled filibuster with 2 'l's. *sigh*

Roar, people!

As the State of the Union Draws Near, Two-Thirds of U.S. Adults Rate Current State of the Country as Poor, According to Latest Harris Poll.

"The State of the Union is a chance to not only look forward, but to also reflect on the past year. Adults were asked their opinions of how damaging some of the events in 2005 were to President Bush and his administration, and more than three in five adults (63%) feel the war in Iraq was damaging. Majorities also believe the responses to Katrina and Rita (57%) and the recent wiretapping revelations (53%) were damaging. Substantial numbers, albeit not majorities, think the indictment of Congressman Tom DeLay (42%), the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby (40%) and the investigation of Karl Rove (40%) were all damaging. Interestingly, Baby Boomers are more likely than other generations in every instance to believe that these items are damaging to the president and his administration."

Guess which generation makes up the lion's share of voters?

~Music

Greenday: Wake me up when September Ends

"We don't do body counts."

Friends and relatives carry the coffin of Deputy Director of the State Food Agency's Kirkuk branch Jomaa Rasheed to the cemetery, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2006, in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Rasheed was killed Thursday by unknown gunmen while working in southern Kirkuk city. (AP Photo/Yahya Ahmed)

Will Chris Matthews respond to my email today?

From my letter:

Dear Mr. Matthews,

Lying is wrong. Please stop lying.

Lying Liars

Chris Matthews is going for the 2006 Lying Media Shill Award, followed closely by Dana Milbank, and Anne Kornblut. From Media Matters:

On the January 25 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews falsely attacked a television ad that associates former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) with money laundering. Matthews falsely claimed that the ad -- produced by Americans United for Change -- accused DeLay of bribery, saying, "That's not a charge against him. His charge is this thing about hard money, soft money." In fact, contrary to Matthews's accusation, a video clip he played of the ad showed pictures of DeLay, former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby while an announcer said, "What time is it when Republican leaders are indicted for money-laundering, bribery, and obstruction of justice, while political friends get appointed to run life-or-death agencies?" The ad showed the image of DeLay while the announcer said "money-laundering," then switched to Abramoff as the announcer said "bribery," and to Libby as he said "obstruction of justice."

Matthew's 'guests' -- Milbank and Kornblut -- don't dispute Matthew's attack, but go right along with him. Did they watch the commercial? Hell, did Matthew's watch the commercial? Media Matters also has the video of the Hardball segment, watch for yourself. But warning, Anne Kornblut 'laughs' before she starts speaking. *shudder*

Jeebus!

You can borrow my spine for chrissakes.

Level of Taint

The Daily Show, January 19.

Wanker of the Day

Katie Couric -- watch the video.

Thank-you, Blogger!

I finally have my 'old' site moniker back in my control from the porno spammers. Of course, the posts are all gone, but it's mine.

Whilst I go cry some bittersweet tears in a cup of hot cocoa, how 'bout watching Tina Fey's report on the Golden Globes.

Do the Math

ConocoPhillips announced today that its fourth-quarter profits were 50 percent higher at the end of 2005 than for the same period ending in 2004.

Let's see, how much higher is gas this year compared to last year?

Caption this.

Jill Carroll

The deadline given by Jill Carroll's kidnappers has come and gone, and now 5 of the 8 Iraqi women prisoners whose release was demanded as a condition to Carroll's release are scheduled to be freed.

There's still no word on Jill to report. I'll continue updates with anything worth noting.

Desiree's Round-up

NTodd has an important message for our Dem leaders: "Fillibuster, you Idiots!" I'll second that emotion. While you're there, he's got some really cute pics of the latest addition to the family menagerie.

KC @ RoguePlanet is out due to a sudden, serious illness in her family. If you have a moment, maybe you could leave a few positive thoughts for her? If you've not seen her site yet, give it a look. She's a very creative writer. Hopefully she'll return in the very near future.

From Echidne, my 'best writer' nominee for the 2005 Koufax Awards: The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White House officials available for sworn testimony before two Congressional committees investigating the storm response.Cont.reading.

Michael @ Informed Dissent wonders who's watching him: I'm just an average guy with an average life
I work from nine to five, hey hell I pay the price
But I want is to be left alone in my average home
But why do I always feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone
— Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell Con't reading HERE.

SSquirrel is a shocked squirrel: The first official history of the $25 billion American reconstruction effort in Iraq depicts a program hobbled from the outset by gross understaffing, a lack of technical expertise, bureaucratic infighting, secrecy and constantly increasing security costs, according to a preliminary draft.Con't.

StealthBadger brings us ~ The Reality-Based Slippery Slope Or: Drugs, Polyamory, the Pledge Of Alliegance, and Wiretapping. Read the whole story.


The EconAtheist says he's had enough of blogging. I say, gotdamnit Mike, if I can do this daily then gotdamnit you can, too! I certainly understand how he feels at times, but perhaps if we offer him a bit of encouragement to keep fighting the good fight?

Elayne @ PenElayne has a 'round-up' of her own for your enjoyment.

Grace @ Scriptoids shares her thoughts on Minter's idea of Presidential personal accountability.

And last, but not least Eric of SpeakSpeak gives us a review of his favorite movie with the late actor Tony Franciosa -- who just passed away last Thursday. I'm going to have to see if I can find this movie now, as the description is reminding me of a certain obnoxious right-wing nut show host.

This was a fun way for me to catch up with some of you that I don't get around to reading as often as I'd like -- especially when I'm on the road -- perhaps we'll make it a weekly feature. What say you?

It's not Patriotic to take away Veterans Benefits.

Over 260,000 Veterans locked out of VA benefits by Bush administration.







Out of food and coffee, must shop. Be sure to send in those posts whilst I'm out.
Culpaenator@gmail.com

~Music

Wintergreen: When I Wake Up

Round-up

Just a note to my regulars: I'm back home today, hooray, and after I try to get a bit more sleep I plan on posting a round-up of what y'all are talking about on your sites. It works out to be a good way for me to catch up with everyone.

So, if you've got something you'd like to be sure I don't miss, please email it to me today and I'll get them posted as soon as I can today.

"Say it Loud, I'm a Crook and I'm Proud!"

Undaunted by speculation within his own party that he may have to quit Congress because of a corruption probe, Rep. Bob Ney announced Wednesday he's running for re-election.

It seems I'm going to have to visit home in Ohio and go freeway bloggin' on someone's ass.

Wednesday Monkey Blogging

Orphaned squirrel monkey Loki clings to his toy duck at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2006. Loki, who lost his mother shortly after birth eight weeks ago, has been hand raised by zoo staff and will be introduced to the rest of the Squirrel Monkey's when once he is weaned and learns to regulate his body temperature. (AP Photo/Paul Miller)





















[Skating monkey Photo: Reuters]

Uh-oh.

Reps. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) and Don Young (R-Alaska) sought to intervene with a federal agency in September 2002 on behalf of American Indian clients of lobbyist Jack Abramoff as part of Abramoff’s effort to gain control of the Old Post Office Pavilion in downtown Washington, D.C.

Who else will we find in Abramoff's back pockets before this is over?

just noticed . . .

Veronica's mommy is now part of jammies media. BWA HAA HAAA!!!

I know. I'm sure she laughs all the way to the bank, too.

The Incomprehensible Genius of George W.

Apparently, Bush's Medicare drug plan is going so well that we also need a new health plan.

Eww.

Anyone even thinks about slapping some santorum on my bumper, and things will get ugly real quick.

Be a patriot, santorum your car? It's just wrong on so many levels.

Via Atrios.

Michigan Senate

Worker safety? Bah. Humbug.

Conan O'Brien

James Lipton reads Federline.

The Fourth Amendment

"Those who would sacrafice liberty for security deserve neither." -- Benjamin Franklin

Liz Holtzman @ The Nation:

On December 17 President Bush acknowledged that he repeatedly authorized wiretaps, without obtaining a warrant, of American citizens engaged in international calls. On the face of it, these warrantless wiretaps violate FISA, which requires court approval for national security wiretaps and sets up a special procedure for obtaining it. Violation of the law is a felony.

While many facts about these wiretaps are unknown, it now appears that thousands of calls were monitored and that the information obtained may have been widely circulated among federal agencies. It also appears that a number of government officials considered the warrantless wiretaps of dubious legality. Reportedly, several people in the National Security Agency refused to participate in them, and a deputy attorney general even declined to sign off on some aspects of these wiretaps. The special FISA court has raised concerns as well, and a judge on that court has resigned, apparently in protest.


FISA was enacted in 1978, against the backdrop of Watergate, to prevent the widespread abuses in domestic surveillance that were disclosed in Congressional hearings. Among his other abuses of power, President Nixon ordered the FBI to conduct warrantless wiretaps of seventeen journalists and White House staffers. Although Nixon claimed the wiretaps were done for national security purposes, they were undertaken for political purposes and were illegal. Just as Bush's warrantless wiretaps grew out of the 9/11 attacks, Nixon's illegal wiretaps grew out of the Vietnam War and the opposition to it. In fact, the first illegal Nixon wiretap was of a reporter who, in 1969, revealed the secret bombing of Cambodia, a program that President Nixon wanted to hide from the American people and Congress. Nixon's illegal wiretaps formed one of the many grounds for the articles of impeachment voted against him by a bipartisan majority of the House Judiciary Committee.

Congress explicitly intended FISA to strike a balance between the legitimate requirements of national security on the one hand and the need both to protect against presidential abuses and to safeguard personal privacy on the other. From Watergate, Congress knew that a President was fully capable of wiretapping under a false claim of national security. That is why the law requires court review of national security wiretaps. Congress understood that because of the huge invasion of privacy involved in wiretaps, there should be checks in place on the executive branch to protect against overzealous and unnecessary wiretapping. At the same time, Congress created special procedures to facilitate obtaining these warrants when justified. Congress also recognized the need for emergency action: The President was given the power to start a wiretap without a warrant as long as court permission was obtained within three days.


FISA can scarcely be claimed to create any obstacle to justified national security wiretaps. Since 1978, when the law was enacted, more than 10,000 national security warrants have been approved by the FISA court; only four have been turned down.

Two legal arguments have been offered for the President's right to violate the law, both of which have been seriously questioned by members of Congress of both parties and by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in a recent analysis. The first--highly dangerous in its sweep and implications--is that the President has the constitutional right as Commander in Chief to break any US law on the grounds of national security. As the CRS analysis points out, the Supreme Court has never upheld the President's right to do this in the area of wiretapping, nor has it ever granted the President a "monopoly over war-powers" or recognized him as "Commander in Chief of the country" as opposed to Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy. If the President is permitted to break the law on wiretapping on his own say-so, then a President can break any other law on his own say-so--a formula for dictatorship. This is not a theoretical danger: President Bush has recently claimed the right as Commander in Chief to violate the McCain amendment banning torture and degrading treatment of detainees. Nor is the requirement that national security be at stake any safeguard. We saw in Watergate how President Nixon falsely and cynically used that argument to cover up ordinary crimes and political misdeeds.


I hope you'll read the whole piece if you haven't already. You should have three thoughts when you're done: Impeach. Remove. Jail.

[Tip o' the hat to reader uess]

Two films that drag on forever . . .

Via Politicalhumor.com

Spin, spin, spin . . .

The hamster in the wheel of Scottie's brain had to be exhausted after today's White House Press Briefing:

Q I have two questions that can be dismissed with a yes or no. One, is the President going to seek any legal -- more legal permission from Congress to spy on Americans without a warrant? And two, does he think, does he believe that his new designation of the spy program, terrorist surveillance, will tarnish people who are spied on and are guilty or not guilty?

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me take the first part of your question, and I think it's important to give a clearer picture of where things are with the American people, and so I want to make a few comments about it.

Q I want to know where you stand --

MR. McCLELLAN: And I'm going to do that. I've already previously answered this question with reporters and stated our view; the Attorney General stated it earlier today in some interviews. This is an important tool that helps to save lives by preventing attacks. It is a limited, targeted program aimed at al Qaeda communications, as the President pointed out yesterday. This program is focused only on communications in which one person is reasonably suspected of links to al Qaeda or affiliated terrorist organizations. And it involves international communications.

I reject your characterization to suggest it's domestic spying. That's like saying someone making a phone call from inside the United States to another country is a domestic call. It is billed the international rate and it is labeled --

Q The law says he has to seek a court warrant.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- it is labeled an international call --

Q Why doesn't he seek a warrant? What's the big problem?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, actually, we've walked through this repeatedly over the last few days. It's important for the American people to understand what the facts are. There is a lot of misinformation about --

Q Why can't you seek a warrant?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- this program. And we do use the FISA tool, as well. That's an important tool, as well. But we have briefed members of Congress more than a dozen times on this. We continue to brief members of Congress in an appropriate manner. This is a highly classified program and it is a vital program to our nation's security. The 9/11 Commission criticized us for not connecting the dots --

Q Is it vital to go through legal steps?

MR. McCLELLAN: This is helping us to connect the dots in a very targeted and focused way.

Q Why can't he seek a warrant?

MR. McCLELLAN: It is about detecting and preventing attacks. FISA was created for a different time period. General Hayden walked through that yesterday; the Attorney General talked about it more. This is about moving with speed and agility, not some long-term period of time. It's about detecting --

Q You can get one retroactively.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- it's about detecting and preventing attacks. And we are a nation at war, and the courts have upheld the President's authority to engage in surveillance. Surveillance is critical to prevailing in the war on terrorism.

Q He doesn't have a blank check.

MR. McCLELLAN: And we talked with members of Congress about whether or not there needed to be legislation that reflects what the President's authority already is, and the congressional leaders felt that by doing so it could compromise this program. This is a vital program and it's important that we don't show the enemy our play book. And talking about it --

Q Getting warrants doesn't show the enemy a play book.

MR. McCLELLAN: Okay. Next question.

Apparently it's important not to show the American people Bush's 'play book' as well.

~Music

Postal Service: Such Great Heights

Wanker of the Day

Mary Matalin.

Lil' Ricky

It's time to kick him and his black kettle out of Congress.

Bobo's Kids

Four suburban teenagers have been charged with felony hate crimes, accused of shouting slurs at a gay University of Wisconsin-Madison student and vandalizing his property, authorities said Monday.

No one was injured in the early morning altercation in Ogg Residence Hall on Dec. 21, and property damage was limited to torn photographs and posters promoting a campus center for lesbians, gays and others.

But the nature of the attack and the fact that it was directed at a student based on his sexual orientation prompted Dane County, Wis., prosecutors to elevate misdemeanor disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property charges to felony hate crimes.

"The fact that they went back to the room three times [that night], that says a lot," said UW-Madison Police Detective Carol Ann Glassmaker. "They were truly victimizing this person."

Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte

If children live with criticism,
They learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility,
They learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule,
They learn to be shy.
If children live with shame,
They learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement,
They learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance,
They learn to be patient.
If children live with praise,
They learn to appreciate.
If children live with acceptance,
They learn to love.
If children live with approval,
They learn to like themselves.
If children live with honesty,
They learn truthfulness.
If children live with security,
They learn to have faith in them-
selves and others.
If children live with friendliness,
They learn the world is a nice
place in which to live.

The Raids

The raid began about 5 a.m., when seven carloads of gunmen rolled into the neighborhood, witnesses and police said. The gunmen fanned out, entering one mosque and several homes. They dragged males out of their beds and herded them into the street.

Hooded figures, presumably informants, identified those to be taken away, witnesses reported. Three men were shot dead and about 20 were forced into trucks and driven away, witnesses said.

Three men were later freed in eastern Baghdad but the rest remained unaccounted for, witnesses added. One of those released, Yasser Khalil, 24, said he was beaten.

"They took us away and put us into a room in a building I didn't recognize, where they beat us and asked us questions about who we were," he said. "Then they took a few of us in their cars and dumped us on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad, saying if we said anything or looked at them they would kill us."

He said his uncle, Ismail Mohsen, 44, was one of the three men killed.


While it's true enough that Iraqi security forces uniforms are easy enough to pick up for one to pose as such -- especially when you can just pick one off the body of any dead Iraqi policeman's corpse after it's dumped on an isolated road to rot -- we've heard these reports often enough to know that's not the case. The Shiite's are exacting their own form of retribution on their old Sunni oppressors. With our military equipment, training, and administration putting their blinders on whilst screaming "Saddam had rape rooms!"

Shame on you.

Now be a good soldier and go back to Iraq, but try not to suffocate any more of them. M'K?

~Music

Three Dead Trolls -- in a baggie: The War of 1812

I know, sounds strange? It's really interesting. About what happened when the US tried to take Democracy to Canada. ;)

"terrorist surveillance program"

President Bush pushed back Monday at critics of his once-secret domestic spying effort, saying it should be termed a "terrorist surveillance program" and contending it has the backing of legal experts, key lawmakers and the Supreme Court.

If even my own civil rights weren't possibly being violated here, this would all be almost comical as much of the Bush agenda diatribe tends to be. I just wish the man could tell us why when he couldn't do anything to prevent 9/11 when at least one intelligence agency knew that known terrorists were in the country taking flying lessons in Florida, and at least one intelligence agency knew of the talk of using planes as weapons possibility, [These past 6 years it's gotten extrememly difficult to keep track of all of the who, what, when and wheres without a graph, so to save time I think I can safely claim here that 'at least one intelligence agency' had knowledge of these]and the FAA had sent out warnings of imminent terrorist attacks on the US and it's allies in the months before 9/11.

Okay, if you followed all that, now why is it he needs to have the nsa listening in on our telephones, and reading our email when more than likely if they come across terrorists communicating it would be something like "Uncle Larry, the moon will be full tonight." George Bush is going to figure out what the gotdamn hell that means when things were spelled out in plain english clearly detailing what al qaeda was up to, he missed it all?

Okie-dokie.

Share your support

The Christian Science Monitor is posting messages of support for Jill Carroll. Please stop in and add your positive energy.

Bravery

Ava does it again -- Bravery.

36

The percentage of people who approve of the job Bush is doing as POTUS.

I bet Holden will get another pony. Now if I could just get blogrolled . . . Atrios?

"We don't do body counts."

50 Most Loathsome People in America 2005

#49 Michelle Malkin

Charges: A curious case of racial Stockholm syndrome with a palpable lust for violent ideological oppression and displays of imperial power. Rose to prominence in conservative circles by congratulating white America for its most shameful chapter since slavery, and encouraging a return to form in her book, In Defense of Internment: The Case for “Racial Profiling” in World War II and the War on Terror. Malkin thinks it’s hunky-dory to detain an entire demographic indefinitely if it makes the rest of us feel more comfortable. Her newest, Frenzy, argues that liberals have lost their minds, because they are upset with the direction their country is taking. Her evidence is a carefully collected selection of the dumbest things liberals have ever said, as if she couldn’t have just as easily filled an entire library with the insane ravings of right-wingers. Her accusations of blind hatred and vitriol mimic soul sister Ann Coulter’s classic tactic of psychological projection: whatever Malkin is, she sees in her opponents.

Exhibit A: Internment was so irresponsible that it prompted 40 history professors to sign a letter condemning it.

Sentence: Detained indefinitely without charge and waterboarded hourly for looking at a cop “all slanty-like.”

Only 40 history profs condemned it? Maybe that was just in one day.

#1 Most Loathsome person in America:



1. Pat Robertson

Charges: If Pat Robertson’s local Starbucks caught fire, he would claim that God was punishing them for giving him a caramel latte when he ordered vanilla. Robertson has always been a demonic charlatan with the credibility of Miss Cleo and a lust for Armageddon in his vile, rat-toad heart, but this was really his year to shine. In 2005, Robertson called on God to vacate seats in the Supreme Court (the almighty obliged, killing Rehnquist), advocated assassinating Hugo Chavez, said ‘judicial activists’ were a more serious threat to America than terrorists, called criticism of the war treason, said John Roberts should be thankful for Hurricane Katrina, which he implied was “connected” to Roe v. Wade, attributed Ariel Sharon’s stroke to divine retribution for the Gaza pullout, said “the Antichrist is probably a Jew alive in Israel today,” and implied that God would wipe the residents of Dover, PA off the map for rejecting Creationism. Not to mention raising huge sums of cash from his zombie army, much of which is diverted from his charity operations to his business interests, including African diamond mines. Has long advocated that America simply ignore the Supreme Court. Robertson’s God is an insecure, misogynistic, homicidal fanatic—just like Pat.

Exhibit A: Vehemently opposed to voluntary abortion in America, but okay with forced abortion in China, where his cable investments depend on the good graces of the government.

Sentence: Repeatedly struck by lightning.






I think the picture is too . . . generous. I mean, they even gave him testicles.

What's a little Felony amongst Friends?

April 2002:

In his most recent success, Abramoff lobbied successfully in behalf of the Coushatta Indians in southwest Louisiana to block the construction of a casino that would have competed with the tribe's own casino and drained off much of the Coushattas' revenue.

The Coushattas vice chairman, William Worfel, said Abramoff deserved the $1.76-million that the tribe paid to Greenberg Traurig, which employs Abramoff, for his success in fending off the proposed rival casino.

Worfel said he only needs to call Abramoff and he gets results. "You get everything you pay for."
. . .
Abramoff is also considered an important Republican fund-raiser. According to him, he expects to raise as much as $5 million this year for the Republican Party and plans to donate as much as $250,000 personally.

Abramoff was chairman of the College Republican National Committee in the early '80's, where he made important contacts, such as Grover Norquist, a leading conservative strategist in Washington D.C. and president of Americans for Tax Reform, and Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition, who is a prominent Republican political consultant.

Abramoff's interest in raising money for Republicans and conservative causes is the foundation of Abramoff's relationship with DeLay.

"We are the same politically and philosophically. Tom's goal is specific-to keep Republicans in power and advance the conservative movement. I have Tom's goal precisely," said Abramoff.

Norquist, who is friendly with both men, said of Abramoff, "He walks in to see DeLay and DeLay knows that he is representing clients whose views are in sync with DeLay's views."

The 'conservative movement'? Okie dokie.

Another good-bye.

The relative of one of the men killed while returning from Baghdad last week mourns over his coffin during a funeral, Monday, Jan. 23, 2006, in Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. The bodies of the 23 men were found partially buried near Dujail, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, said Interior Ministry police Lt. Thair Mahmoud. They had been abducted Wednesday while traveling from Baghdad to their homes in Samarra after failing to be accepted at a police recruit center. (AP Photo/Hameed Rasheed)

He gets around.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, left, shakes hands with Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday Jan. 22, 2006. (AP Photo)















Iraqi radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr (R) looks at Saudi King Abdullah (L) at the Royal Palace at Mena outside the holy city of Mecca January 12, 2006. [REUTERS/Saudi News Agency]