Gahzette

West Point Cadets Send a Message?

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:57:00 +0000

Or are they just doing their homework while they wait? Before President Obama's speech at West Point, December 1, 2009, (text and video) several cadets were pictured by Reuters photographer Shannon Stapleton et al. The cadets were reading books. My guess is that they were catching up on reading assignments.
Catching up during finals week(s).

Books assigned by the cadets' professors?

Compilation of five actual cadets reading books, photographed before the President's speech. Two cadets were pictured reading the same book, "Kill Bin Laden", one reading "On Killing", one reading Thor's novel, one reading an unknown book.
(None of the pictures below are photoshopped.)

The cadets deserve a commission for the book sales I'm sure they precipitated. In any case, it's worth having a deeper look due to the minor fuss "some bloggers" on the right are making over it as a planned protest against the president but it sure looks like homework assignments being done while they waited in the auditorium.
~~~~
BOOK ONE:
Company A3 Freshman West Point Cadet Konrad Bunde with the book, Kill Bin Laden by Dalton Fury. "Dalton Fury" is the nom de plume of a former Delta Force Army major who led the secret mission to catch Osama bin Laden two months after the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11/01.

(Photo:Shannon Stapleton Reuters)

Abbreviated Book Description from Amazon: Kill Bin Laden

Non-Fiction. The mission was to kill the most wanted man in the world--an operation of such magnitude that it couldn’t be handled by just any military or intelligence force. The best America had to offer was needed. As such, the task was handed to roughly forty members of America’s supersecret counterterrorist unit formerly known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta; more popularly, the elite and mysterious unit Delta Force. Continued at link.

"Dalton Fury"

Elite Office Recalls Bin Laden Hunt on 60 Minutes.

Shortly after 9/11, the Pentagon ordered a top secret team of American commandos into Afghanistan with a single, simple order: kill Osama bin Laden. It was America's best chance to eliminate the leader of al Qaeda. The inside story of exactly what happened in that mission, and how close it came to its objective has never been told until 60 Minutes and correspondent Scott Pelley reported this story last fall.
The man you are about to meet was the officer in command, leading a team from the U.S. Army's mysterious Delta Force - a unit so secret, it's often said Delta doesn't exist. But you are about to see Delta's operators in action.
Why did the mission commander break his silence after seven years? He told 60 Minutes that most everything he'd read in the media about his mission is wrong and he wants to set the record straight.
"Our job was to go find him, capture or kill him, and we knew the writing on the wall was to kill him because nobody wanted to bring Osama bin Laden back to stand trial in the United States somewhere," the mission commander tells Pelley.
In 2001, just 10 weeks after 9/11, he was a 37-year-old Army major leading a team of America's most elite commandos. Even now, 60 Minutes can't tell you his name or show you his face... Fascinating, continued reading and video at link.

So, the Bush administration stopped Delta Force from capturing Bin Laden and completing their mission; they (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld) didn't want him killed as his family had connections to the Bushies and they didn't want him caught alive as he might tell tales on them. They let him escape. The Neocons didn't WANT Bin Laden caught "dead or alive" or they'd have no "excuse" later to invade Iraq which they'd planned since 1998. Our cadets at West Point are only as good as their "orders" will allow them to be. Perhaps they realize this. Dalton Fury's 60 Minutes video also embedded here. Stymied by "higher-ups"?

...they didn't get approval from a higher level. "Whether that was Central Command all the way up to the president of the United States, I'm not sure,"...[The next option]...But they didn't do that either, because Fury says that plan was also disapproved. He says he has "no idea" why. "How often does Delta come up with a tactical plan that's disapproved by higher headquarters?" Pelley asks. "In my experience, in my five years at Delta, never before," Fury says.

Another West Point student reading the same book.
A class assignment?After all West Point teaches about war. I'm unable yet to identify the book on the right but the cover is possibly an Afghani woman wearing a burqa.

(Photo:Julie Jacobson/AP)

~~~~
BOOK TWO:
The second book being held up by a West Point Cadet (to the Right in the picture) is "The Apostle", a formulaic fictional thriller by Brad Thor.

(Photo:Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Brad Thor, a graduate of the University of Southern California, has served as a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Analytic Red Cell Program and best selling author.

Book Description from Amazon: The Apostle

Fiction
Master of suspense and #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor returns with his most riveting international thriller yet.
A new administration and a new approach to dealing with America's enemies have left covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath without a job. But when American doctor Julia Gallo is kidnapped in Afghanistan, the terms of her ransom leave the president with only one course of action.
In a dangerous assignment that the United States government will deny any knowledge of, Scot Harvath must secretly infiltrate Kabul's notorious Policharki Prison and free the man the kidnappers demand as ransom - al-Qaeda mastermind, Mustafa Khan.
But when Harvath arrives, he quickly learns that there is more to the kidnapping than anyone dares to admit. And as the subterfuge is laid bare, Harvath must examine his own career of hunting down and killing terrorists, and ask himself if he has what it takes to help one of the world's worst go free.

A "new administration" with a different approach? Interesting. Are the cadets learning about the changes in policy since the election of Barack Obama and Joe Biden after a failed eight years under Bush and Cheney? And an interesting choice of fiction by this cadet, if it was in fact HIS choice. The "ending" isn't clear yet. We'll see in a year and a half what reality brings us. Secret operations were the mainstay of the Bush administration's wars in the shadows while spouting "mission accomplished". It's a good thing this is fiction or I might be irritated.
Brad Thor, author, laughing all the way to the bank?

~~~~
BOOK THREE:
West Point cadet with the book On Killing by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, U.S. Army (Ret.), former West Point Psychology Professor, Pulitzer Prize nominee, former Ranger with an inside perspective on how war affects our troops.

(Photo:Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Brief synopsis of book: On Killing

Non-Fiction
The good news is that the vast majority of soldiers are loath to kill in battle. Unfortunately, modern armies, using Pavlovian and operant conditioning, have developed sophisticated ways of overcoming this instinctive aversion. The psychological cost for soldiers, as witnessed by the increase in post-traumatic stress, is devastating. The psychological cost for the rest of us is even more so: contemporary civilian society, particularly the media, replicates the army's conditioning techniques and, according to Grossman's controversial thesis, is responsible for our rising rate of murder and violence, especially among the young. ON KILLING is an important study of the techniques the military uses to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill, of how killing affects the soldier, and of the societal implications of escalating violence.

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society

Close-up of the same cadet.

(Photo:Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

LT. COL. DAVE GROSSMAN, U.S. Army (Ret.) Director, Warrior Science Group, www.killology.com

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is an internationally recognized scholar, author, soldier, and speaker who is one of the world's foremost experts in the field of human aggression and the roots of violence and violent crime.

Col. Grossman is a former West Point psychology professor, Professor of Military Science, and an Army Ranger who has combined his experiences to become the founder of a new field of scientific endeavor, which has been termed “killology.” In this new field Col. Grossman has made revolutionary new contributions to our understanding of killing in war, the psychological costs of war, the root causes of the current "virus" of violent crime that is raging around the world, and the process of healing the victims of violence, in war and peace.

He is the author of On Killing, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; has been translated into Japanese, Korean, and German; is on the U.S. Marine Corps Commandant's required reading list; and is required reading at the FBI academy and numerous other academies and colleges. Col. Grossman co-authored Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence, which has been translated into Norwegian and German, and has received international acclaim. Col. Grossman's most recent book, On Combat, has also placed on the U.S. Marine Corps Commandant's Required Reading List and has been translated into Japanese and Korean. Continued at link.

The meaning(s) of these books to the cadets is only newsworthy if we have actual interviews with all of them stating they "meant" something by their choice(s) of reading material, otherwise all anyone can do is speculate. I'm speculating that they're doing their homework, allowed by the school, as they waited for the President to give his speech. Was a novel assigned for a class or is this the student's personal choice? We don't know yet. The other two books would be good textbooks, especially the third book written by a former West Point professor of psychology.
If they were doing something wrong I doubt their superiors would let them get away with it at a military academy, in front of cameras ready to broadcast the president's speech live nationwide. Making some sort of protest or political statement is probably in violation of West Point's regulations for cadets in the presence of their Commander in Chief. IF that's what they were doing. IF it was to show lack of respect for President Obama I find that perturbing for the double standard since no such displays were EVER allowed around Bush or Cheney. Therefore, it's hard to believe this reading activity wasn't condoned by the professors at West Point. Much ado about nothing.

Before the president's speech the students were studying and reading.

(AFP/Getty Images via Yahoo)

After the speech President Obama was "mobbed" by many of the students who appeared happy to meet him.

(Photo:Jim Young/Reuters)

~~~
UPDATE: December 4, 2009
The reason wingnuts are so excited about "The Apostle" being spotted in the hands of a West Point cadet, Thor is bosom buddies with "Lonesome Roads" Beck. Glenn Beck Talks with Brad Thor
This is just frightening.

June 17, 2009. THOR: I think we have people here who hold office who are under the influence of foreign operatives. I don't think it's a lot but I think there are a handful of them. I think they have been here for a while. You know this whole idea that we were not going to turn to socialism overnight but we were going to do it drop by drop like water on a stone, spoonful by spoonful. Listen, if you understand and Glenn, I've got to tell you one of the neatest things about becoming friends with you has been my desire to learn more about politics, the history of my country.

He's taking "history" lessons from Glenn Beck? The spelling bee OLIGARHY man? Heaven help us. Ignorance comes in many forms. Add Thor to the list.

UPDATE: December 4, 2009: A different take.
Per Raw Story, the cadets were "caught" reading when they shouldn't have been. I beg to differ.
Cadet waiting for president caught reading anti-Obama book
Rawstory's view is that the books in question were meant as insults to President Obama, in particular the fictional "The Apostle" as the "president" in this novel is depicted as:
(a poorly-veiled caricature of Barack Obama) engaging in an adulterous affair, manslaughter, and perjury.
Hogwash. That description bears no resemblance whatsoever to President Obama.

The 60 Minutes video outlines the author's issues in Kill Bin Laden with the Bush/Cheney administration. The Apostle (fiction) is by an author with a right wing following of armchair chickenhawks. A thriller is a thriller, it's written to make money. Mr. Thor states his ultimate hero is Reagan, a man who "thought" he served but only did so in the movies. Lt. Col. Grossman's book "On Killing" is about how war affects the psyches of all involved. He taught at West Point, to produce a textbook is SOP.

Most of the other "sources" on this non-story are from the right wing "media" and they're claiming that the cadets meant to insult President Obama. They're assuming the books were chosen as a protest of some kind by the students. That's highly unlikely. They sure look like textbook assignments in the full picture of events that evening.

Boehner Tanned and Rested

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:44:00 +0000

Palin has a fake tan too, among other things.

She's baaaack to promote her book, written by a ghost writer.
Her religious whackitude is worse than ever. Somebody save us from this woman.

UPDATE:

Hahahaha....thanks and H/T to A. Dent.

Lying Liz Cheney -Chip Off the Old Block

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:21:00 +0000

Nasty piece of work, Liz Cheney is now a "panelist" on Fox News along with PNACer Bill Kristol, winger Juan Williams et al. In her October 11 debut she falsely claimed to speak for "most Americans" while smearing President Obama; she doesn't, she just makes things up like her father always does. She's a chip off the old block, lying almost as well as her war criminal daddy. It's a nifty technique, toss out a lie and claim it's true and of course since she's on Fox there's no challenge. It worked well for the Bush/Cheney gang of thugs and she's using the same methods, coincidentally keeping her name and face out there. Chris Wallace ate it all up with glee. They don't want Dick held accountable for his war crimes.
Liz Cheney's Debut As Fox News Sunday Panelist: Obama's Nobel Is 'A Farce'

"What the committee believes is, they'd like to live in a world in which America's not dominant. And I think if you look at the language of the citation, you can see that they talk about President Obama ruling in a way that makes sense to the majority of the people of the world. Americans don't elect a president to do that. We elect a president to defend our national interest. They may believe that President Obama also doesn't believe in American dominance and they may have been trying to affirm that belief with the prize. I think, unfortunately, they may be right, and I think it's a concern."

It's the same method daddy used, "I think" followed (or preceded) by a lie. She unpatriotically attacked the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and the committee which awarded it to him while defending her daddy and Bush for their failed foreign policies and torture. She has no business commenting on the service of others in the military. Her father refused to serve when his country desperately needed him, he avoided the Vietnam draft via five deferments. What a load of hypocritical crap! She's wearing her little flag lapel pin and has the Cheney Family condescending sneer down pat; she's Dick Cheney in a wig and heels; a Chickenhawk just like her father (and Bush) and equally disgusting.

Liz sez, Leave Dick ALONE!!!!
Liz Cheney: Investigating My Dad Would Prove Americans ‘Can’t Trust’ Democrats With National Security
Jul 13th, 2009

CHENEY: There’s this big piece in the Wall Street Journal this morning that says that it was a number of different concepts for ways that we could capture or kill al Qaeda leaders in the days after 9/11. I am really surprised that the Democrats decide that that’s what they want to fight over. I mean, if they want to go to the American people and say that they disagree with the notion that we ought to be capturing and killing al Qaeda leaders, I think it’s just going to prove to the American people one more time why they can’t trust the Democrats with our national security.

If a Democrat were to do this to Bush while he was "at war" it would be decried as the height of treason. Those who cast aspersions in any way shape or form on Bush and/or Cheney were called Un-American in the mode of "Either you're with us or you're with the terrorists" rhetoric of the Neocons. Yet, Liz Cheney feels free to toss out her lies on the media branch of the GOP, propaganda blastfax central, Fox News.

Lying traitor to the United States Liz Cheney, in her continual attempts to undermine the President of the United States and protect her war criminal father, went again onto Fox to promote her new "organization" Keep America Safe and spread more lies with a two minute slanderous video. Her "group" via this libelous video claims the President Obama is wasting time in the White House and not working hard enough to defend us. She must have forgotten his lazy predecessor's failure to keep America safe while he rested up in Texas. She must have forgotten her own father dragged us into wars, tortured people who hadn't been charged with any crimes and created more terrorists every day during the nightmarish eight year occupation of our White House by her father and Bush.

Part of this Lizzie's organization's mission statement includes not pursuing the CIA investigation of Cheney outing an agent via another fake "grassroots" campaign of calling right wing radio stations. Their first "action" is of course to attack President Obama via this libelous video with the headline, "Welcome To Keep America Safe"

The "board" of Keep America Safe: Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol and Debra Burlingame. (Debra Burlingame is the sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame, III, pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. She is the co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America and a director of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Foundation at the World Trade Center.)

Palling around with the always wrong PNAC loon Bill Kristol, Liz Cheney insinuated that the rest of us DON'T want to keep America safe. This unprincipled woman who via nepotism worked in the state department of the Bush Administration is as ugly as her father in thought and deed. The only question now is what she'll run for in which election. Her family is filthy rich. Cheney/Palin 2012? Or perhaps she'll run for one of the positions up for grabs in Virginia where she lives. Governor? Or maybe she'll challenge Senator Jim Webb for Macaca's former seat. She's busily defending Bush and Cheney's war crimes but also said, "I Very Well May" Run For Office, a frightening thought. She could resort to writing pornographic novels as did her mother, whatever happens she's not going away which is very bad news for America.
May and June of this year alone, 22 appearances on TV (mostly Fox) to defend her daddy.

Has Lizzie forgotten that Bush took more vacations than even Reagan, including the entire month of August 2001 during which time he ignored intelligence reports stating that Osama Bin Laden was determined to attack America? Has she forgotten that his golfing, biking, fishing, fundraising and jogging, and early bed time took precedence over everything else and that "some say" he allowed 9/11 to happen through his sheer negligence. Negligence and stupidity.

"Stop the terrorist killers, now watch this drive" George the Incurious Vacationer:

By this time of year one into the Bush/Cheney administration we had already been attacked by terrorists in planes as predicted by our own intelligence. Bush ignored the warnings. Obama on the other hand has stepped up to the plate and kept us safe from ANY attacks while dealing with the HUGE mess both here and abroad that her daddy and Bush left behind. Bush spent 487 days at Camp David and 490 days during 77 trips to his "ranch" in Crawford, Texas. Of his eight years (2,922 days) occupying our White House he took a total of 977 "official" vacation days alone, a third of his time in office. CBS news correspondent Mark Knoller documented Bush's vacation days. (I emailed him once back in 2003 and asked him if he planned on writing a book, he said he didn't have time as he was busy tracking and reporting on Bush. Other journalists referred to Knoller's stats.) How nice for Georgie to only be present two thirds of the time for his highly paid job. Most folks get two weeks off per year. The average American worker gets 112 vacation days in eight years but Bush took 977 vacation days that we know of. Liz Cheney can try to re-write history but it won't work. Thanks to Knoller we have the facts. And thanks to youtube and the internet we have proof of his lack of a work ethic.
Aside: Dick Cheney had all his medical bills paid for by US, benefiting greatly from taxpayer funded health care he opposes that would more than likely be denied most of us as a pre-existing condition after his heart attack. He also remained obese, causing most of his medical problems himself by drinking and eating fattening foods. His medical claims to a for-profit insurance company out here in the real world would be denied as would his multiple surgeries. His "death panel" would have some questions about whether or not he was a good risk for more surgery. Socialized medicine has worked out really well for Dick; we paid for it all.

Dick should be in prison.

Speaking of propaganda:
I've heard "some people say" that Politico is a fair and balanced news site, their contributors often appear on cable news shows to give their opinions. I have begged to differ for a long time, they're extremely shady, e.g. Labeling President Obama "Radical" by taking, of all people, Liz Cheney's and Bill Kristol's right wing hawkish word for it. In politics framing is everything. Get it out there, report it as fact then report on the report reinforcing the fake fact. They "create" their own "news" then repeat it as truth and factual via right wing TV and radio, newspapers and internet sites. George Lakoff was and is correct. It's all about framing and using questionable headlines, only making corrections or retractions later that usually don't get the same "front page" attention.

The Politico slantedly reported:
Liz Cheney's group 'Keep America Safe' takes on 'radical' White House

Glenn Greenwald asked and answered, May 4, 2007,Who funds and runs Politico? The President and CEO of The Politico, Frederick J. Ryan, is also the Chairman of the Board of the Reagan Library and a known conservative.(Frederick Ryan via the Allbritton Communications Company

The President (Reagan) today announced the appointment of Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., to be Assistant to the President.
November 4, 1987
Since February 1985 Mr. Ryan has been responsible for the White House Office of Private Sector Initiatives as well as serving as Director of Presidential Appointments and Scheduling. Mr. Ryan began serving at the White House in February 1982 as Deputy Director of Presidential Appointments and Scheduling. In February 1983 he was appointed Special Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Appointments and Scheduling. Mr. Ryan was previously an attorney with the Los Angeles law firm of Hill, Farrer and Burrill. While engaged in his practice, he published several articles on various aspects of the law.

Mr. Ryan graduated from the University of Southern California (B.A., 1977) and the University of Southern California Law Center (J.D., 1980). He was born April 12, 1955, in Tampa, FL. Mr. Ryan is married and resides in Washington, DC.

So the President and CEO of The Politico worked in multiple positions in the Reagan White House, and was continuously promoted until he rose to the level of Assistant to the President. And his close connection to the Reagan family and the Reagan presidency continues through today.

Much more from Greenwald:

The Politico's primary (perhaps sole) funding source is the Allbritton Company, of which Frederick Ryan is an employee. The Allbritton family's leader, Joe, was CEO of Riggs Bank when Riggs pleaded guilty to a series of illegal financial transactions with right-wing Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and his brutal military that took place throughout the 1990s and into 2001.

Huffington Post reported this one on October 8, 2009, the DNC is right to be upset.
The offending headline. It's trash.

DNC Understandably Upset At Politico Piece Linking Obama To Roman Polanski

"Top Politico editor" Jim VandeHei defended the story, telling Sargent: "We will look for the political angle in virtually any story where we run a lot of entertainment and personality items. It was quick item based on FEC data alone."

Nothing on The Politico can be taken seriously with this kind of ownership and background.

The Politico's "publisher, Robert L. Allbritton, 37, scion of the banking and media family that once owned the defunct Washington Star, said in an interview that he would finance The Politico for 'the foreseeable future' and has committed to paying for expensive campaign travel. He has hired a staff of about 50 people, almost half of them journalists,"
...
The Politico's biggest boosters are Matt Drudge and George W. Bush, and it is run by a Reagan loyalist. At the very least, those facts are worth considering.
...
When Joe Allbritton was CEO of Riggs Bank, Riggs, in 1997, purchased the company owned by President George W. Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, and Jonathan Bush then became a top Riggs official serving alongside Joe Allbritton. That was discovered when, in 2004, Riggs agreed to "pay a record $25 million in civil fines for violations of law intended to thwart money laundering," apparently allowing Saudi money, among others, to be laundered through its bank while both Allbritton and Jonathan Bush were its top executives.

Media Matters reported on Politico's scurrilous "journalism" back in 2007:
Politico runs correction of DeLay claim that Soros funds Media Matters
(Politico had run a fabricated smear on Media Matters.)

You can't believe everything you read, discriminating minds need to search deeper for the truth. Questioning our sources is part of being informed. Add politico to the list of Conservative News Sources although it's not listed yet. It's time MSNBC stopped having representatives from politico on the air without identifying their intent. It's time people stopped thinking they report the truth in an unbiased manner, they don't. I've witnessed Jim VandeHei (co-founder of Politico) spewing lies on Hardball and Countdown without his true slant exposed nor the source of his funding revealed.

i.e. Question Authority.
Fair AND balanced:
Liberal News Sources

Hypocrite Du Jour

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:16:00 +0000

Steve King, Republican, Iowa, 5th Congressional District. Asshole of the Day.
His BEST vote ever, denying relief funds to Katrina victims. Let's see if he helps out Georgia next...by denying any aid to flood victims there. He ONLY cares about dreaded Government if it benefits HIM and his future in the House of Representative where he gets socialized medicine for which WE the people pay.

Meet the Lawmaker: Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)
By Jordy Yager - 09/21/09 05:53 PM ET
...
Many people’s votes are based on how it will affect their political power and their stay in office, as opposed to the long-term good of the country. That’s the worst.
...
What vote would you like to redo?
Rep. King: I don’t really go back and re-live that sort of thing. Some of the big votes that I’ve thought about, some of the jury’s still out. And at this point, maybe I’d answer that question another way, probably the singular vote that stands out that went against the grain, and it turns out to be the best vote that I cast, was my “no” vote to the $51.5 billion to [Hurricane] Katrina. That probably was my best vote. But as far as doing something different again, I don’t know.

This same "man" believes that Congress is too partisan?
Has he looked in his mirror lately?
King's right...he's the worst.

Strip Congress of their Socialized Medicine

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:14:00 +0000

We the people pay for a national health service plan for our employees in government from the local level up to the national level. Government insurance is paid for by taxpayers to those we elect to represent US. They gladly take it. People who work in government are given their health insurance by US, the taxpayers, as part of an incentive to do a good job for US. People who are "civil servants" are eligible for government insurance WE provide. They gladly take our socialized medicine for themselves yet deny it for the rest of us as "socialism" and anti-American. For the rest of us they advocate that we buy insurance from for-profit companies who deny us care when we need it most. They accept large campaign contributions from insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. WE mean nothing to them because we're not big donors.

I'd love to hear Congressional members' stories (including all their staffers) about how they were denied health care by "the government". I'd love to hear how they were forced to have abortions and forced to appear before death panels. I'd love to hear how they couldn't get the medications they need by their taxpayer funded insurance. I'd love to hear why they don't believe that WE are worthy of the same coverage we provide for THEM.

Why don't these folks support the insurance industry they love so much instead by buying for-profit insurance? Most of the people in Congress are wealthy enough to afford what we can't, yet they take welfare from us.

Senate Finance Committee:
Max Baucus - age 68 Chairman - 39 years with taxpayer funded insurance
"Chuck" Grassley - age 76 - 51 years with taxpayer funded insurance

Jay Rockefeller age 72 - 32 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Kent Conrad age 61 - 35 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Jeff Bingaman age 66 - 31 years with taxpayer funded insurance
John F Kerry age 66 - 37 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Blanche Lincoln age 49 - 25 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Ron Wyden age 60 - 31 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Chuck Shumer age 61 - 35 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Debbie Stabenow age 49 - 28 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Maria Cantwell age 51 - 17 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Bill Nelson age 67 - 33 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Robert Menendez - age 55 - 23 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Thomas Carper - age 62 - 34 years with taxpayer funded insurance

Orrin Hatch age 75 - 33 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Olympia Snowe age 62 - 34 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Jon Kyl age 67 - 23 - years with taxpayer funded insurance
Jim Bunning age 76 - 32 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Mike Crapo - age 58 - 26 years with taxpayer funded insurance
Pat Roberts - age 73 - 42 years with taxpayer funded insurance
John Ensign age 51 - 13 years with taxpayer funded insurance
John Cornyn age 57 - 24 years with taxpayer funded insurance

If Congress believes that government insurance is socialism why do they accept it for themselves? They say they detest socialism in any form. If they hate it so much, why don't they refuse the socialized medicine we the taxpayers provide for them?

Why don't they stand up and fight for their beloved insurance companies instead by getting their insurance from THEM instead of from US? They do what the insurance companies want them to do, they refuse to do what WE want them to do. They even want to TAKE Medicare away from our older population. They take it for themselves, though. They need to be punished by US and handed over to the vicious insurance companies for their own medical needs instead. They need to put their money where their crooked mouths are and support K Street right back, buy their own health insurance just like the rest of us.

It's time to strip Congrss of the same insurance they deny their constituents. Perhaps then and only then will they start to show some justice for all instead of only for themselves and their rich friends.

Sarah, Please Go Away

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:00:00 +0000

We don't need Palin acting as Newt Gingrich's trial balloon tester. First he tossed out the "Death Panel" phrase, then she used it, then he defended HER use of it. C'mon now you liars, how stupid do you think we are? Don't answer that. As long as THE propaganda stations that carry Rush Limbaugh and Fox News dominate, the misinformation will continue to fly. They're pretty desperate to still be using Mrs. Quitter Barracuda as their spokesperson. Her "base" of teabaggers, birthers, and deathers just LOVE her. The rest of us deserve a break from the hot air. She should stay home now and take care of her family, perhaps read a few books...other than The Bible. She seriously needs to broaden her horizons before she opens her mouth in public again.

For a woman who wants the media to leave her children alone she sure exposes them to the cameras a great deal when it suits her purposes. I don't care a whit about her offspring, SHE's the dangerous one. Ignorant opinionated people usually are.

Monstrous Dick and Running Liz

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:36:00 +0000

"Former Vice President Dick Cheney 'a strong believer' in waterboarding"

WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated his praise for waterboarding Al Qaeda terrorists on Monday, calling it a "well done" technique that gathered valuable information from unusually bad guys. "I'm a strong believer in it," Cheney told a National Press Club audience. "I thought it was well done."

I'd like to see those well done techniques used instead on unusually bad guys who were occupying our White House...if it's as effective as Sick Dick claims, (contrary to expert opinions) we might find out the truth about 9/11, the torturing, the rigged linking of Saddam to 9/11 that he now claims he never even intimated, let alone insisted existed...day in and day out until we attacked Iraq. Dick has gone from believing waterboarding is a "no brainer" in October 2006 to strongly believing in it now.

Cheney answered written questions after speaking at a ceremony for reporting awards named for the late President Gerald Ford, whom Cheney served as White House chief of staff. Cheney said the controversial policy of simulating drowning grew out of a CIA request for guidance on "what can you do that's appropriate and what you can do that's not appropriate."

I believe the "questions" were written by Dick himself. BTW, when is torture EVER "appropriate" for ANYONE? Is he saying the CIA begged for "guidance" on whether or not they could waterboard? Is he claiming the CIA wasn't aware of international laws regarding torture; The Geneva Convention? Is he claiming the CIA didn't know that we had hung Nazis as well as Japanese War Criminals for waterboarding because IT IS TORTURE? It seems more like Dick, Don, Fredo and Dubya were testing the waters to see what they could get away with "legally" to satisfy their sadistic need to inflict pain and suffering upon other people, guilty and/or innocent alike.

Notwithstanding Cheney's enthusiasm, waterboarding was banned by the Bush administration in 2003. President Obama has said waterboarding is torture and repugnant to American values. Cheney remains unconvinced. "I don't believe that we engaged in torture," he argued.

The rest of the world "believes" we tortured people. The folks at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and the other facilities in which we tortured them "believe" they were tortured. By now, FINALLY, most Americans "believe" we were torturing detainees. Yet Cheney "believes" we didn't engage in torture. What he "believes" is irrelevant. Torture was committed in our name. Everyone but those who perpetrated and helped enable it "believes" it WAS and IS torture. WE broke international laws. And from the looks on Rumsfeld's sickening face, Cheney's cruel mug, and Dumbya's gleeful cheery countenance while they talk about it they too "believed" they were torturing people, or else why bother to do it? They CLEARLY enjoy doing it to other people, I "believe", if you will. It's time to try out all these techniques on Dick and Liz Cheney since they don't "believe" any of it was really torture. Perhaps they could prove to us how it's really not torture at all. We'll start out with the easy ones...being chained to a wall naked with bags over their heads and snarling dogs very nearby, kept awake for eleven days in a row and not allowed to move...just for starters. I "believe" it will give them far more credibility. Hannity can join them to help prove we didn't actually torture anyone and that instead they were all very "well done" non-painful activities to which the detainees looked forward as part of a fun vacation at a resort; along with all that fabulous medical care, those yummy meals, the delightful hotel spa-like atmosphere at Gitmo.
GOP Senator John Ensign wants to keep Gitmo open until the war on terror is over as all those detainees will immediately head here to kill us all, He said he was impressed by conditions at the prison and that average Americans would be "outraged because the kind of treatment they get is certainly not only better than anybody in an American prison, but they get better health care than the average American citizen does."
"Their food is better than the food that they fed us as senators and staff that went down," he said. Gosh, sign me up...I need some excellent medical care and some awesome food. Perhaps he should ask himself why we Americans get such lousy health care instead? Nah, that might tax his little brain too much to "get" what he said.

Unlike many of his predecessors, the ex-veep has taken a high public profile since leaving office, criticizing the Obama administration for deciding to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and charging that Obama's policies have made America more vulnerable to another mass-casualty terrorist attack like 9/11.

Gee, we never even SAW him for eight years, didn't know where he was, what he was up to, unless he shot somebody and even then it was a day later (after he'd sobered up?) that his "representatives" went public and his victim Whittington APOLOGIZED for being in the way; but now Dick's on the boob toob along with his daughter 24/7 criticizing Democrats and casting aspersions on the voters for choosing such a dangerous man as Obama to be our Commander in Chief over the psychopathic McSame. At least THIS time the electorate sort of got to decide, unlike in 2000 when our choice in Florida was overturned by the Supreme Court and 2004 when Ohio had all those mysterious problems. The speed with which Kerry conceded gave me whiplash but wasn't a surprise at all. Dick's attacks on the Obama administration are unprecedented in their viciousness and frequency...and so soon after Inauguration Day too. Gore didn't start to speak out publicly regarding the Bush administration for three years. And he was correct. Dick waited a couple of WEEKS before commencing with his lying. In the interim he had henchmen such as drug addict Rush Limbaugh carry his water for him along with the rest of right wing radio and TV. Newt the thrice-married philanderer who was removed as Speaker and had to pay a $300,000 ethics fine is on TV just about every day pretending he has virtues and a right to speak out; Steele is out there almost every day at the very least apologizing to Rush Cyst-Boy Limbaugh, and the usual GOP thugs are doing their thing, attack, attack, attack and of course, obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. Do they EVER stop whining and lying? No.

He summoned up grim memories of that day in defending waterboarding, domestic surveillance and other controversial Bush programs.

Grim memories for whom. Surely not for HIM. He just saw "opportunities" coming his way. His commentary included FISA? Yup, spying upon other Americans (apparently just the Democrats) is justifiable in his opinion since we're all terrorists because we don't agree with him. He got that unconstitutional atrocity passed due to DINO help...unforgivable. DINOs are almost as bad as Republicans...and in some ways worse because they pretend to BE Democrats; wolves in sheep's clothing. At least if there's an "R after the politician's name we KNOW what we're dealing with. DINOs have no right to a "D" after their name. Maybe an "RD" for proper identification purposes.
~~~~
We need to purge the Democratic Party of those non-Democrats. They set themselves up to be blamed by wing nuts for the actual torture of detainees and then for being complicit in illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens. They voted along with the GOP to allow Dick, Fredo, Don, George et al to do whatever the hell they wanted. They fell for all of it...hook line and sinker. Not only are they traitors to our party but they're idiots too. They couldn't see a set-up if it bit them on the ass.

~~~~

"I looked at the world the morning after 9/11, and what I saw was 16 acres of ashes in downtown New York City," he recalled. "You could, if you looked closely enough on television, see footage of American citizens jumping out of windows on the upper stories of the Trade Center because it was better than being burned to death."

So he had a TV in the White House Presidential Emergency Operating Center (tuned in to Faux Gnus his fave, no doubt) where he and Lynne, Condi too, were supposedly on top of the whole situation. Yet, our Air Force failed to intercept any of the hijacked planes? For some unknown reason our military, the best trained in the world, didn't scramble immediately per SOPs upon being informed of the FIRST hijacked plane, instead, per Cheney, Bush supposedly ordered them to scramble from Air Force One much later? There should have been no need for that order if it happened that way...as Cheney claims...it should have happened automatically. This topic is for another post but for now just label me (if you must) extremely "skeptical". I don't believe the "official story"...it's not as if Dick and Dubya can be held up as the world's finest most ethical moral men and the most honest truth tellers. They open their mouths....lies just automatically pour out.
Let's not forget the history of the Bush family and the FACT Don and Dick were in the White House to urge Ford to pardon Dick Nixon. Watergate was training ground for those crooks...and Ford wasn't bright enough to know he was being totally used by thugs. They were several steps ahead of him. His "job" was to sell the American public on the notion that it would be too disruptive to prosecute Nixon, that we couldn't handle it as a nation. That to follow up on Dick Nixon's crimes wasn't worth the trauma it would cause Americans and that it would distract us from getting on with the running of the country. It worked. However, we were capable of multi-tasking and we still are. We can prosecute criminals and get on with our current problems as well. Ford's failure to allow us to hold Nixon accountable for his crimes only opened the door for the thugs including the Bush Crime Family to get stronger....we ended up with even worse crimes being committed in our names. If Obama does the same thing and allows the Bush/Cheney administration to "walk" we'll have lost ALL credibility with the rest of the world and the true terrorists, The Bushes, Dick and Don, will have won.
As for Dick looking at the world on 9/12...it was via TV too. Dick sure as hell wasn't out there on the streets of New York surveying the damage first hand the next day as he intimates, he was back at one of his undisclosed locations. On 9/11 Dubya, on Air Force One, went to meet with several WTC CEOs conveniently gathered in Omaha "out of harms way", while Dick was technically "in charge" on 9/11 and our Air Force seemingly stood down. How else can we explain the incredibly long delay in a response of any kind by our Air Force?

Under the circumstances, "We would have been absolutely, totally irresponsible if we hadn't taken the view that we had to do everything in our power in order to prevent that next attack," Cheney added.

What NEXT attack did he mean? The other three hijacked planes on 9/11 or some "other" next attack? Instead of fighter planes arriving immediately in NY to intercept the second plane...they just didn't. Why not? And the third plane, or the fourth? It was up to the passengers to deal with the situation? Oh, and 9/11 happened on THEIR watch. The first attack wouldn't have happened at all if George W. Bush hadn't DELIBERATELY IGNORED the intelligence he received the month before while vacationing in Crawford, Texas. Bin Laden determined to attack...even Condi had to admit that one in front of Congress...using the lamest of all lame excuses that nobody could possibly have anticipated an air attack on American soil.

He admitted he has zero "tolerance or patience" for second-guessers.

And zero tolerance or patience for anyone who ever disagrees with him on ANY topic...he's a brutally cruel fat little man with nothing on his mind but hatred and control. His response to questions..."Go fuck yourself!" or "So?" Again, facts. Yeah, I kinda see his point, I have zero tolerance or patience myself for second-guessers like Dick and Liz who are NOT privvy to the same intelligence the Obama administration is now, and I have even less tolerance and patience for total liars...both of them qualify for my wrath as they lie like rugs each time they part their sneering lips.

"If I had it to do all over again, I would do exactly the same thing. ... Those individuals who wished us harm and who were prepared to kill thousands of Americans ... got what they had coming to them," he said.

Um, does he mean the Iraqis or the Saudis? We were attacked by Saudi Arabians on 9/11 and they all supposedly died in the ensuing explosions. Who exactly was it who "got what they had coming to them?" Iraqis plucked off the streets? Afghanis dragged out of their own houses? Canadians who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Who exactly "got what they had coming to them"...all our detainees since 9/11? Anyone who ever contradicted Dick? Anthrax, anyone?

On other topics, Cheney opposed Obama's decision to force General Motors into bankruptcy - "Some companies succeed, and some companies fail" -

Dick's no-bid contracts for Halliburton and KBR definitely didn't fail...they made a financial killing as successful companies whose headquarters (Halliburton) are now in Dubai. Dick's bailout of his Wall Street buddies didn't seem to bother him...just any company with union workers' jobs at stake. The hypocrisy and lies are just phenomenal, and to think that they've gotten away with any or all of it is untenable and simply unacceptable. Have people simply forgotten the HUGE amounts of money they insisted upon "to support the troops", $700 Billion twice late last year, where did all that money go? Certainly not to protect our troops on fourth and fifth rotations...but to help Dick's "companies" make more and more profits at the expense of our military and their families.

And on he went, expressing his opinions...unchallenged...as usual. Yes, Dick...your opinions are SO well respected. That barn door can't be closed, the horses have already bolted. He took the time to slander President Obama's HIGHLY qualified Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Perhaps he feels his own court cases will end up in front of the Supreme Court after he's officially charged as a war criminal and traitor to the United States so he desperately needs as many Scalias on the court as possible to keep his pasty ass out of jail the same way they got it into our White House in the first place.

-and predictably disagreed with Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.While it's Obama's prerogative to name whoever he wishes, Cheney noted, "I don't think I would have nominated her."

"Nothing personal against the nominee," he carefully added. "The President's made his call. ... He won the election. ... But if it were my nomination to make, I think I would have gone with somebody with a little more conservative bent."

Nothing personal Dick? First of all it wasn't your nomination to make even if you were still Vice President, that's the titular President's job. Dick would have chosen somebody "bent" more like activist judge Scalia with whom he goes shooting? Somebody conservatively bent like Alito who stated his Italian-American status made a difference and would make him a better SC judge, Clarence Thomas, rumored to be an African American, who claimed his pulled-up-by-the-bootstraps-via-affirmative action struggles would make him more fair? Or Roberts the religious wing nut? So, somebody whose rigidity and total lack of compassion for anyone who "thinks" differently from the way they do would have been preferable to Dick? What a surprise. Dick would MUCH prefer another Supreme Court justice who favors corporations' over people's rights. But so much more importantly, Dick would have chosen a nominee who will favor HIM and HIS needs over the people of the United States if he has to rely upon them down the road.

My advice to Dick : Keep on talking. You're brilliantly helping to finish off the GOP. Anyone who agrees with you is also an asshole, including George and the rest of the "administration" from hell, war criminals all.
My advice to Liz: Keep on yammering away about how we didn't torture and how your "father" is such a swell guy. Keep creating those lovely sound bites for when you run for office. Will it be the House or the Senate or Veep to Jebby-the-pig-nosed-boy? Daddy can get you LOTS of donors. He can threaten them with his shotgun if they don't donate to the Liz Cheney for next biggest asshole in politics campaign.. Release ALL the memos, ALL the evidence Dick claims exonerate his actions. ALL OF IT. He and Liz only want "selected" memos released...she's quite the little sidekick, "rhymes with witch" as Bar would say.

Yup, I'd bet my last dollar she's running...maybe an interim "job" in Congress...and then.....

Liz called President Obama "un-American" and ridiculously says Obama Finds it "Fashionable to Side with Terrorists". Fashionable? Is she just as insane and cruel as her old man? Apparently so. Lynne's no softie either. She's hard as nails and writes porn to boot. A morally bankrupt "family" just as bad as the BFEE. But keep it coming Liz, it really does dig a deeper hole for "dad" and his future.

Poppy and Shrub want Jeb to run for president to continue the BFEE Dynasty.

Jeb Would Make a 'Great President,' Bush Says
By Bill Brubaker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 11, 2006
The second -- and current -- President Bush suggested yesterday that his younger brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, would make a "great president." "I would like to see Jeb run at some point in time, but I have no idea if that's his intention or not," Bush said in an interview with Florida reporters, according to a story on the St. Petersburg Times Web site.
If that sounds familiar, the Bush brothers' father, former president George H.W. Bush, made a similar statement last year, telling CNN's Larry King that Jeb Bush would be "awfully good" as president.

"This guy's smart, big and strong. Makes the decisions," the first President Bush said then.

Cheney has the perfect VP choice for him. Bush/Cheney in 2012? Eight more years of BFEE/Cheney rule? Our nation will never survive such a travesty.

Liz Cheney considering run for public office?

"She’s awesome. Everyone wants her to run," said a close friend. [...]

"She’s a chip off the block!" said a longtime friend. [...]

"It’s a two-fer. She comes off a bit better than he does sometimes," a conservative consultant said.

Asked about the possibility that Liz Cheney might make a run for office, Republican operative Karl Rove responded, "She might!"

Daddy has the bucks and inside information on how to lie really, really well...Dick could make it happen. She's got "Conservative" support already. You betcha!

Conservatives: Liz Cheney Should Run for Office
...
A forceful defender of the administration and her dad, Liz Cheney has been appearing on TV with greater regularity. She brings to the screen a combination of her dad's steely focus and her mom's softer touch. "It's a two-fer. She comes off a bit better than he does sometimes," a conservative consultant said.

Some supporters want her to continue in her role and suggested to Whispers a battle plan for the coming year:

"She could start with a major speech on national security," said one. "Heritage [the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank] could have her in for a big speech on national security. C-SPAN would cover it for sure." After that she could set up shop in one of the think tanks and build a base of support and knowledge that would put her in position to take a major position in a future Republican administration. She is a former Bush State Department aide, and some people are even suggesting that she consider doing more military policy so that she could take the policy under secretary's position in a Republican administration when her children are older. Clearly, those supporters are looking past a two-term Obama administration.

I'm sure she already has a nanny or two. So they'll run in 2012 if right wing radio and TV can smear Obama enough to take him down in time, but definitely by 2016 if they can't "fix" it soon enough. All Lizzie has to do is run for a "lesser" position to flesh out her barbaric resume between now and 2016. The Bushes and the Cheneys have NO intention of going gently into that good night. They'll crush anyone's balls who gets in their way.

How bloody DARE she make these statements!! Obama is "siding with the terrorists", not supporting the military and making us more vulnerable to attack? Fuck you, Liz!

Liz Cheney: Obama Finds It Fashionable To Side With Terrorists

Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, Liz Cheney, accused Barack Obama of finding it "fashionable" to "side with the terrorists"...on Fox News. Continuing a media blitz in defense of the Bush administration's interrogation policies, Cheney accused the current president of making the country more vulnerable to attack and not supporting the military. By disclosing photos of detainee treatment -- which the Obama White House has been compelled to do by court order -- she proclaimed the president was aiding and abetting those determined to attack the United States.

"I think that it is really appalling that the administration is taking this step," she said. "I have not seen the pictures, I don't know what is in them. But clearly what they are doing is releasing images that show American military men and women in a very negative light.

At least she admits that the American men and women who were doing her dad's bidding under orders were indeed doing something in a very negative light.

And I have heard from families of service members, from families of 9/11 victims, this question: When did it become so fashionable for us to side, really, with the terrorists? For us to put information out that hurts American soldiers." "If [the president] really cared about" about these soldiers, Cheney concluded, he wouldn't be releasing these photos that show them "in a negative light."

Twice she admits that those photos cast American activities in a negative light...but it's Obama's fault, not her dad's. She's as good as her old man at twisting the truth into "beliefs" and "I think" and putting out false statements based solely on her "views" without allowing any questioning of the validity of her lies. FACT: We tortured. The pictures have already been released and probably "recruited" many more terrorists than if we HADN'T tortured anyone. She should be blaming "dad" for creating more terrorists. Which "family members" of 9/11 victims would call up Liz to complain? She fails to mention the 9/11 victims family members who still BLAME Cheney for creating more terrorism and for torturing people "in our name"...they surely didn't ask our government to crush the testicles of young men in front of their parents to make up for their losses. As for supporting our troops...KBR, the subsidiary of Halliburton who won the no-bid contract to supply our troops have given them electric shocks while they shower, contaminated food and water, inadequate armor, and when they return to the U.S. no support from the VA because Dick and George CUT the budget for veterans. But as I've said many times before, this is perfect for her run for office. Lovely sound bites just like her father's, Democrats will get you attacked, killed, ruined by terrorists; take all your money; take your stuff; enable all terrorists; turn us into a Communist country, take your guns, take your Bible, be mean to you, enable "old Europe" to ridicule you; humiliate you in the eyes of the world and show you in a negative light. Perfect for her run for office. She and Jeb would be the perfect GOP ticket for 2012 and/or 2016. Also as I've said many times, Jeb isn't going anywhere...he'll be running for Prez. mark my words. Not that anyone has marked them before as I've said ad nauseum: They WILL run Jeb and Liz would be his perfect sidekick. Absolutely a dream ticket. (Sorry, Sarah, too bad about that teen pregnancy spanner in the works...hahaha.)

The flame-throwing remarks came on the heels of similar statements Cheney made during an appearance Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Formalities were left at the door. "We are seeing a situation where this administration, for some reason, continues to release information that is helpful to the terrorists," Cheney declared. "Releasing details about what was involved in the enhanced interrogation program, releasing the techniques involved in that program, helps the terrorists. It helps them train to those techniques, it takes those techniques completely out of the realm of possibility for future presidents to use. So it was a very damaging thing to do. ... They seem to be only interested in releasing things that really paint America in a negative light."

In addition to accusing Obama of siding with terrorists, Cheney also argued that Attorney General Eric Holder, by offering to work with foreign governments, was refusing to "stand up and defend American sovereignty."

(Videos of her "performances" at links, btw.) Releasing "technique information" is "helpful" to train their own members how to use them? I think the prisoners themselves at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and our other secret detention centers told a few of their friends and family members and The Red Cross what we'd done to them already...it was hardly a secret. Now she's accusing Holder of failure to defend our sovereignty? How about that pesky "rule of law", Liz? Shouldn't your daddy and George be held to the same standards the rest of us are held to by our laws? Oh, that's right, if Dick doesn't like a law, he has it changed either via a "bill" presented by one of his GOP henchthugs or a signing statement put in front of Dubya made whatever he did suddenly "legal" and above board. Hey, Liz, you know what cast us in a negative light? Torturing people, in violation of international (and human) law. Ignoring Geneva Conventions that are there to PROTECT our own troops too should they be held captive by other countries. Now they can say, well, America does it so it must be okay for us to do it too. What a lying conniving rotten woman she truly is. Apple-tree-rotten. And she's produced five offspring to continue in her horrible pump prints.

If torture was such a swell idea, why did Dick, Don, Fredo and Dumbya deny we were doing it? Why didn't we go up the chain of command THEN to get to the ones who ordered the torture in the first place? Instead, we punished low level troops who were indeed "following orders" and where have we heard that excuse before? Yup, the Nazis. I voss juhst followink orhdurrs.

General Karpinski was the highest ranked member of the military they chose to take the rap. She tried to tell the world what was going on in our name, Rumsfeld's lies and plans...but she was punished severely, first demoted then relieved of her command. The Bushites hate "disloyalty" more than they hate the terrorists.
I'd like to see a split screen of Liz and General Karpinski. Lies vs. Truth.

Maybe some of the people who "got what was coming to them" were the kids at Abu Ghraib?

Children said among Abu Ghraib prisoners
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-12 09:23
Children held by the U.S. Army at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison included one boy who appeared to be only about 8 years old, the former commander of the prison told investigators, according to a transcript.

"He looked like he was eight years old. He told me he was almost 12," Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski told officials investigating prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. "He told me his brother was there with him, but he really wanted to see his mother, could he please call his mother. He was crying."
Karpinski's statement is among hundreds of pages of Army records about Abu Ghraib the American Civil Liberties Union released Thursday. The ACLU got the documents under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records about abuse of detainees in Iraq.

Karpinski did not say what happened to the boy in her interview with Maj. Gen. George Fay. Military officials have previously acknowledged that some juvenile prisoners had been held at Abu Ghraib.
...
Rumsfeld and his spokesmen have repeatedly said that the defense secretary and his aides never authorized or condoned any abuses.
...

Hey, Don...Dick has admitted to torturing detainees making you a liar buddy. Hahahaha. Like we didn't already know that...but he chucked you, his BFF, under the bus.

Karpinski said Maj. Gen. Walter Wodjakowski, then the No. 2 Army general in Iraq, told her in the summer of 2003 not to release more prisoners, even if they were innocent.

"I don't care if we're holding 15,000 innocent civilians. We're winning the war," Karpinski said Wodjakowski told her. She said she replied: "Not inside the wire, you're not, sir."

Perhaps this unfortunate child was one of the detainees whose testicles were crushed in front of his parents in order to make them "talk" as Yoo said Bush could "legally" do if he found it "necessary". 12 years old. Beyond criminal. Rummy, Dick, George, Fredo and the whole lot should be in prison. They are most definitely torturers and war criminals with no morals whatsoever. General Karpinski tried to blow the whistle and tell the truth about what was going on at Abu Ghraib but was punished for her "disloyalty" instead.

Karpinski demoted in prison scandal. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. in June 2004, Karpinski said, "I believe I was a convenient scapegoat" for the Pentagon for the Abu Ghraib scandal.

The Bush "Administration" got its best lawyers (oxymoron) to declare the torturing of children legal. The charming (not) John Yoo covered Bush's ass on that point. The "president" aka Decider, gets to decide who can be tortured "legally" and it includes children. In front of their parents.

BTW Maj. Gen. Walter Wodjakowski is deemed a war criminal by Germany.

It was while General Wojdakowski served under General Sanchez that he became involved in Abu Ghraib. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, a general who was later disciplined for her role in the scandal, placed Maj. Gen. Wojdakowski at a meeting in late November at which there was extensive discussion of a Red Cross report that cited specific cases of abuse.[1]

In November 2006, the German government received a complaint seeking the prosecution of Wojdakowski for alleged war crimes. The complaint alleges that during his tenure he was legally responsible for the U.S. torture programs.[1]

Other co-defendants include: Donald H. Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Stephen Cambone, Ricardo S. Sanchez, Geoffrey Miller, Thomas M. Pappas, Barbara Fast, Marc Warren, Alberto Gonzales, William J. Haynes, II, David Addington, and John Yoo.

Bush Advisor Says President Has Legal Power to Torture Children
By Philip Watts

01/08/06 "revcom.us" -- -- John Yoo publicly argued there is no law that could prevent the President from ordering the torture of a child of a suspect in custody – including by crushing that child’s testicles.

This came out in response to a question in a December 1st debate in Chicago with Notre Dame professor and international human rights scholar Doug Cassel.

What is particularly chilling and revealing about this is that John Yoo was a key architect post-9/11 Bush Administration legal policy. As a deputy assistant to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, John Yoo authored a number of legal memos arguing for unlimited presidential powers to order torture of captive suspects, and to declare war anytime, any where, and on anyone the President deemed a threat.

It has now come out Yoo also had a hand in providing legal reasoning for the President to conduct unauthorized wiretaps of U.S. citizens. Georgetown Law Professor David Cole wrote, "Few lawyers have had more influence on President Bush’s legal policies in the 'war on terror’ than John Yoo."

This part of the exchange during the debate with Doug Cassel, reveals the logic of Yoo’s theories, adopted by the Administration as bedrock principles, in the real world.

Cassel: If the President deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?
Yoo: No treaty.
Cassel: Also no law by Congress. That is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo.
Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.
...
Yoo said, "If you are trying to draw a moral equivalence between the Nazis and what the United States is trying to do in defending themselves against Al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks, I fully reject that. Second, if you’re trying to equate the Bush Administration to Nazi officials who committed atrocities in the holocaust, I completely reject that too…I think to equate Nazi Germany to the Bush Administration is irresponsible."
...

If it thinks crushing a child's testicles is okay, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, acts like a duck, it's a Nazi.

Some people like me just want to know the truth, including David Lynch.German interview re: "Loose Change" a documentary that should be watched by every American...if they have the courage to think critically and have an open enough mind to question authority. We have a RIGHT to know what really happened.

David Lynch video.
Starting at 2:46 on the clock; first he discusses his quest for "knowing" things using the example of Marilyn Monroe's death.

Anyone without questions is either stupid or just doesn't WANT to know the truth. Not wanting to know the truth about EVERYTHING in our lives shows lack of intellect and/or curiosity....and fear. Massive fear. There are far too many American ostriches...how long can they go on believing "History" will tell the true story as Bush the war criminal asserts? Willful ignorance ought to be a crime.

"It's too big. It's like sump'n no one wants to think about..." David Lynch

WHY WOMEN CAN'T SLEEP

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:22:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered how a woman's brain works?
Well....it's finally explained here in one, easy-to-understand illustration:

Every one of those little blue balls is a thought about something that needs to be done, a decision or a problem that needs to be solved.

A man has only 2 balls and they consume all his thoughts.

War Criminals, Inc.

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:10:00 +0000

As you read the "techniques" deemed just fine and "legal" by Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush for use by OUR CIA and/or contracted interrogators, please try to imagine for just one moment the ramifications had any or all of these "techniques" been used on even ONE of OUR troops or OUR personnel. Our shocked and justifiable outrage would have lead to arrests, trials, lengthy prison terms, and possibly death by hanging as was the fate of the Nazis and the Japanese for torturing other human beings. Whether or not these men at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib were/are innocent or actual terrorists hasn't been determined as they STILL haven't been given due process...no justice whatsoever has been administered, they have yet to be PROVEN terrorists. In this country we are INNOCENT unless PROVEN guilty. Not so for the detainees we hold worldwide. They have been labeled guilty by the fact that we arrested them. The burden of proof is on THEM to prove whether or not they're guilty of anything. Even if they ARE the most vile killers on the planet, torturing them is NOT okay. Why even HAVE the Geneva Convention if we have no intention of adhering to them.
And lookee here at who changed his mind since Bush isn't his Commander Guy anymore:

Gen. Petraeus: US violated Geneva Convention, the court of law could try terrorists: we made mistakes after 9/11: Close Gitmo

(Via Crooks and Liars)

Too bad he didn't say all of this to Bush instead of kissing his ass. What a self-serving tool. Bush used him and he used him right back.

Refurbish Alcatraz, new jobs for a big project and there's no way to escape. In fact nobody has ever escaped from a maximum security prison in the U.S. It's not as if Obama wants to turn them loose on Main Street USA to ticker tape parades. Gitmo prisoners? Hardin, Montana wants them

On Capitol Hill, politicians are dead-set against transferring some of the world's most feared terrorists from Guantanamo to prisons on U.S. soil. But at City Hall in this impoverished town on the Northern Plains, the attitude is: Bring 'em on.

Hardin, a dusty town of 3,400 people so desperate that it built a $27 million jail a couple of years ago in the vain hope it would be a moneymaker, is offering to house hundreds of Gitmo detainees at the brand-new, never-used institution.

And yes, Bush said, "Bring 'em on!" not "Bring IT on" as I see misquoted so often. A small complaint but yet another example of the truth being irrelevant to "reporters" and their "audiences" of misinformed sheep.

The real terrorists who blew up the WTC were all Saudis. The men imprisoned in Gitmo are Iraqis, Afghanis, Pakistanis, Canadians, etc. 240+ of them, and surely some of them just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have zero sympathy for terrorists from ANY country, none at all but to lower ourselves to their level goes against everything upon which this country was founded. We have become that which we claim we detest, torturers and terrorists, in the name of God, per the memos sent to Bush by Rumsfeld. A Crusade. With God on our side....Donny knew exactly how to "play" Bush the moron and inflict Dominionism on our troops. More exposure of Dept. of Defense grotesque Christianism. Rumsfeld played to Bush's limited knowledge of "The Bible" in all his briefing cover pages.
MRFF's Response to Rumsfeld Crusade Memos: We Told You So! Onward Christian Soldiers, Slideshow of Rummy's top secret cover pages.

We were NOT founded as a Christian nation as some rabid religious nutjobs claim, but a secular one. Separation of Church and State is clear. Bush said, "God Told Me to Invade Iraq"...."in God's name" or his "higher father" as he has referred to the voices in his head. Perhaps he'll just go for the criminally insane defense. "I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."

Don, Dick, Dubya, Fredo, Yoo, and all of their accomplices MUST be held accountable or we can never again claim to be better than the most savage of terrorists whom we supposedly abhor. This country, once the salvation for so many, this country founded upon liberty, justice, the pursuit of happiness, and freedom from religion has shamed itself via the worst administration in our history by the most cruel people to ever occupy our White House. In God's name. For oil and revenge. I'm ashamed of the actions of our "government" and how easily they got away with it all...so far. I personally INSIST that they should be arrested, tried, and put into prison where they can't hurt anyone else ever again....the entire administration. The truth is the ONLY solution to this ethical and moral violation of the international laws on torture. Accountability and responsibility, trials and jail time, our only hope for redemption.

I can't say this often enough....9/11 happened on Bush's watch. He ignored the intelligence provided to him regarding Bin Laden's plan to attack the United States. It was made perfectly clear back in August of 2001 during one of his lengthy vacations at his fake ranch. "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" (August 6, 2001 transcript.) He DELIBERATELY ignored it...almost as if he didn't care one way or the other if Bin Laden succeeded or not. Post 9/11, stunned Americans understandably livid, enraged, out for blood, attacked Afghanistan to "find" Bin Laden. "Dead or alive", said Cowboy Bush. That wasn't good enough for PNAC which had already announced their plans to attack Iraq as far back as 1998.

Golly, "No One Could Have Anticipated’ Terrorists Flying Planes Into Buildings Before 9/11". In fact, intelligence analysts had been warning for some time that terrorists could hijack planes. On December 4, 1998, for example, the Clinton administration received a President’s Daily Brief entitled “Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks.” The Clinton administration responded by convening its top counter terrorism experts and heightening security at airports around the nation. The whitewashing 9/11 Commission gave us no answers, just more questions. September 11 Coverup. Bush Junta Suppressing Last Chapter of the 911 Commission Report, October 30, 2004. (Well worth reading for those interested in facts.) They waited until AFTER the election.

Moreover, the Federal Aviation Administration “had indeed considered the possibility that terrorists would hijack a plane and use it as a weapon,” and in 2001 it distributed a CD-ROM presentation to airlines and airports that cited the possibility of a suicide hijacking.

In response to that threat warning, the Bush administration did nothing. The 9/11 Commission reports, “We have found no indication of any further discussion before September 11 among the President and his top advisers of the possibility of a threat of an AL Qaeda attack in the United States.”

What an utter load of codswallop that 9/11 White House Whitewash Commission truly was. Every American should be enraged at having been so blatantly lied to. Condi's version, "I mean, no one could have anticipated that kind of attack — or very few people." Right, just about anyone who watches movies, reads books, the newspapers...those "very few" millions of us? And of course, there's Richard Clarke's book, for those of you who read it, Against All Enemies. Dick and Un-Curious George chose to ignore ALL intelligence that didn't suit their goals.

The upshot, Dick got his precious pipeline but wasn't finished there. He and Georgie the frog-blower-upper and red hot coat hanger burner of pledges , (he enjoyed it) hurt and tortured people to get "anything" to make a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein to justify attacking Iraq and taking their oil. Bush LIKES to destroy All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful: The Lord God made them all, even terrorists...so much for George's "religious" side.

In 1967, the Yale Daily News exposed the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity's penchant for branding pledges with red hot wire hangers. The New York Times picked up the story, which featured a former president of the frat, one George W. Bush, dismissing the resulting "insignificant" wound as "only a cigarette burn" that leaves "no scarring mark, physically or mentally." So, Bush's first quote in the national press was a defense of torture.

Did Bar burn him with cigarettes, is that why he knows that nasty little piece of information? Ma Bush is as nasty a piece of work as her son. What a classless old broad, she said of Hillary Clinton, "Rhymes with witch" and is still portrayed as the doting old grandmother and matriarch of that den of snakes.

Keeping in mind that the Bushites had already tried negotiating (and failed) with KNOWN terrorists, the Taliban, to build a pipeline across Afghanistan, "A carpet of gold or a carpet of bombs", when the Taliban refused to cooperate, suddenly Saudi Arabians decided it was a perfect time to attack the United States. Dick must have REALLY pissed them off. Bin Laden ultimately got what he had demanded all along, the removal of U.S. bases from Saudi soil, and the destruction of the Constitution of the United States of America. And where is he, by the way? Dead or alive? Dick and George have CREATED terrorists who, if they didn't already hate us and our "freedoms" when scooped up and put in our detention camps, sure as hell now detest us. The pictures from Abu Ghraib were the ultimate recruitment posters. We destroyed Iraq, ruined their economy, decimated their workforce, supported killing sprees between Shiites and Sunnis...and left many idle young men without any means of making a living to fester and turn their hatred our way. But the Bushites refused to talk with Saddam (this time) and kicked out Hans Blix and his team hunting for the illusionary WMDs from Iraq, telling them they'd get bombed if they didn't exit post haste prior to the scheduled "Shock and Awe" TV show from hell. Rumsfeld had no problem chatting up Saddam when he SOLD military helicopters to Iraq.

Dick and Don, having learned their lessons well from Watergate made sure that everything they did was technically "legal" and forced their Patriot Act down Congress' throats before anyone had a chance to read it. (Akin to Hitler's Enabling Act of 1933 following the Reichstag Fire.) "You're either with us or with the terrorists" and your plane might crash or you might receive Anthrax in the mail or simply be told to "Go fuck yourself" by a rabid mentally ill man from hell. If we the people and our Congress didn't go along with all of Dick's plans, FOR SURE WE'D BE ATTACKED AGAIN. How Dick could be so certain about that is still a mystery.
His main thrust while campaigning for "re-election" in 2004 was that Democrats would get us all killed. He and his daughter are still out there on the airwaves stating that Obama is "un-American" and has made America "less safe"...and they're being given airtime whenever they want it to spout the TPs already approved by the RNC. No challenges on the veracity of the memos whatsoever from the corporate owned media, not until today was a dissenting voice raised from Senator Levin who has also read the famous "memos" Dick wants released that "prove" he saved us from further attacks by torturing people into saying what he wanted them to say. Dick's "release the classified memos" hue and cry is very selective. Why not just release all of it Dick...we can handle the truth, something anathema to you. Unless, like his daily logs they've been scrubbed, along with all of Karl's emails. And of course, after feeble protests, John Warner and John McCain gave George the power to overlook the Geneva Conventions if he felt like it. The Decider, Commander Guy got to choose who got tortured. And let's NEVER forget that the GOP ruled Congress for twelve years, including the first six of ~~Dick's~~ George's illegal occupation of our White House. And the last two years while there were more Democrats in the House and Senate, FAR too many of them are DINOs. Or spineless, or both.
Liz Cheney will indeed run for political office, her loyalty to daddy will not go unrewarded. Another dynastic move by a member of the Bush administrations. Surely Senator Levin knows what danger he's now in...no small plane flights, plenty of bodyguards and food tasters...I'd recommend he keeps copious notes as did Senator Bob Graham. Nancy Pelosi on the other hand sent a staffer to be briefed by the CIA which is incomprehensible to me. She apparently didn't really want to know the truth. Once she "took impeachment off the table" she lost all my respect. How fucking DARE she shut the door on impeachment. She's bungling this situation too in her usual over-surgically wide-eyed blinkitude, interjecting her large veneers in a pretend smile, akin to a grimace, while saying nothing and/or contradicting herself. She should have immediately said, "Wait a cotton pickin' minute, knock off the lying diversionary bullshit! Who DID the damned torturing? Not I!" But she's too "polite" for that or worst case scenario, she DID know what they were doing and didn't stop it by going public and having some spine. She's currently in China. Now the question is "What did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it?" instead of when did Bush and Dick start torturing people and how many detention centers do we really have worldwide where there is no law, no justice, only torture. Whatever happened to "rule of law" where the Bush team is concerned? The GOP plan to make the Democratic Party equally culpable is going well. As long as Democrats don't fight back against the charge that they too were guilty of torturing detainees, we'll be lumped in with the REAL torturers, the Bush/Cheney monsters. One can't help but wonder about all that FISA wiretapping and the results produced in terms of "having" something on Democrats. The only wiretapping of Americans I seem to have heard of are Democrats and their sexual exploits. Were any Republicans wiretapped making their heinous monetary deals that screwed most Americans, or any of their secret chats about making the Department of Justice work only for the GOP, or insider trading by big wheels in the GOP to make more campaign funds for each other. No, just a Democrat, the hirsute Governor Blago, apparently Republicans never made a phone call that couldn't withstand public scrutiny while Democrats were always up to no good. I'm still enraged at the DINOs who voted FOR wiretapping American citizens. They betrayed us and our Constitution yet again.
I'm still pissed off over FISA and the DINOs who voted to make eavesdropping on ALL of us "legal" for Dick and his pals.

House DINOs for wiretapping Americans:

Senate DINOs for wiretapping Americans:

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Was Waterboarded 183 Times in One Month

According to the May 30, 2005 Bradbury memo, (PDF) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 and Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002.

I'm not reprinting the entire 40 page PDF memo even though things sometimes disappear down the memory hole if they're inconvenient. Instead, the Jay S Bybee memo (below) which is proof enough even for those who refuse to believe that George Bush KNEW these torture techniques were going to be or had been used and had the "blessing" of the U.S. Department of Justice... his "loyal Bushies" justice department employees. Ashcroft wasn't quite as loyal as he needed to be, hence good pal, Fredo was relied upon as legal counsel to Bush for torture purposes as it appears Ashcroft balked one time too many until replaced by Gonzo for Bush's second "term" as his Attorney General. A position for which he wasn't qualified in ANY way.
Gonzales totally corrupted our Justice Department. His claim to fame, good buddy of George who "hid" George's criminal records for DUIs, cocaine use and the "time" he served while being AWOL from his TANG unit. His "time" was in the form of doing political work (badly and lazily just like he does everything) instead of going to jail. No wonder George loved Fredo so much. A former real estate lawyer, Gonzo covered up George's crimes just in time for the 2000 "election" that was decided by the Supreme Court and NOT the people.

From insects to waterboarding: 10 'torture' techniques blessed by Bush
From Times Online, April, 2009:

In this August 1, 2002 memo, Jay S Bybee of the US Department of Justice approves ten methods of "enhanced interrogation" on the suspected terrorist Abu Zubaydah. He was writing to John Rizzo, CIA acting general counsel

These ten techniques are: (l) attention grasp, (2) walling, (3) facial hold, (4) facial slap (insult slap), (5) cramped confinement, (6) wall standing, (7) stress positions, (8) sleep deprivation, (9) insects placed in a confinement box, and (10) the waterboard.

You have informed us that the use of these techniques would be on an as-needed basis and that not all of these techniques will necessarily be used.

The interrogation team would use these techniques in some combination to convince Zubaydah that the only way he can influence his surrounding environment is through co-operation. You have, however, informed us that you expect these techniques to be used in some sort of escalating fashion, culminating with the waterboard, though not necessarily ending with this technique.

Moreover, you have also orally informed us that although some of these techniques may be used more than once, that repetition will not be substantial because the techniques generally lose their effectiveness after several repetitions. You have also informed us that Zubaydah sustained a wound during his capture, which is being treated.

Based on the facts you have given us, we understand each of these techniques to be as follows.

Attention grasp

The attention grasp consists of grasping the individual with both hands, one hand on each side of the collar opening, in a controlled and quick motion. In the same motion as the grasp, the individual is drawn toward the interrogator.

Walling

For walling, a flexible false wall will be constructed. The individual is placed with his heels touching the wall. The interrogator pulls the individual forward and then quickly and firmly pushes the individual into the wall. It is the individual's shoulder blades that hit the wall.

During this motion, the head and neck are supported with a rolled hood or towel that provides a c-collar effect to help prevent whiplash. To further reduce the probability of injury, the individual is allowed to rebound from the flexible wall. You have orally informed us that the false wall is in part constructed to create a loud sound when the individual hits it, which will further shock or surprise the individual. In part, the idea is to create a sound that will make the impact seem far worse than it is and that will be far worse than any injury that might result from the action.

Facial hold

The facial hold is used to hold the head immobile. One open palm is placed on either side of the individual's face. The fingertips are kept well away from the individual's eyes.

Facial slap

With the facial slap or insult slap, the interrogator slaps the individual's face with fingers slightly spread. The hand makes contact with the area directly between the tip of the individual's chin and the bottom of the corresponding earlobe. The interrogator invades the individual's personal space. The goal of the facial slap is not to inflict physical pain that is severe or lasting. Instead, the purpose of the facial slap is to induce shock, surprise, and/or humiliation.

Cramped confinement

Cramped confinement involves the placement of the individual in a confined space, the dimensions of which restrict the individual's movement. The confined space is usually dark. The duration of confinement varies based upon the size of the container. For the larger confined space, the individual can stand up or sit down; the smaller space is large enough for the subject to sit down. Confinement in the larger space can last up to eighteen hours; for the smaller space, confinement lasts for no more than two hours.

Wall standing

Wall standing is used to induce muscle fatigue. The individual stands about four to five feet from a wall, with his feet spread approximately to shoulder width. His arms are stretched out in front of him, with his fingers resting on the wall. His fingers support all of his body weight. The individual is not permitted to move or reposition his hands or feet.

Stress positions

A variety of stress positions may be used. You have informed us that these positions are not designed to produce the pain associated with contortions or twisting of the body, Rather, somewhat like walling, they are designed to produce the physical discomfort associated with muscle fatigue. Two particular stress positions are likely to be used on Zubaydah: (1) sitting on the floor with legs extended straight out in front of him with his hands raised above his head; and (2) kneeling on the floor while leaning back at a 45 degree angle. You have also orally informed us that through observing Zubaydah in captivity, you have noted that he appears to be quite flexible despite his wound.

Sleep deprivation

Sleep deprivation may be used. You have indicated that your purpose in using this technique is to reduce the individual's ability to think on his feet and, through the discomfort associated with lack of sleep to motivate him to cooperate. The effect of such sleep deprivation will generally remit after one or two nights of uninterrupted sleep.

You have informed us that your research has revealed that, in rare instances, some individuals who are already predisposed to psychological problems may experience abnormal reactions to sleep deprivation.
Even in those cases, however, reactions abate after the individual is permitted to sleep. Moreover, personnel with medical training are available to and will intervene in the unlikely event of an abnormal reaction. You have orally informed us that you would not deprive Zubaydah of sleep for more than eleven days at a time and that you have previously kept him awake for 72 hours, from which no mental or physical harm resulted.

Confinement with insects

You would like to place Zubaydah in a cramped confinement box with an insect. You have informed us that he appears to have a fear of insects. In particular, you would like to tell Zubaydah that you intend to place a stinging insect into the box with him, You would, however, place a harmless insect in the box. You have orally informed us that you would in fact face a harmless insect such as a caterpillar in the box with him.

Waterboarding

Finally, you would like to use a technique called the "waterboard" in this procedure, the individual is bound securely to an inclined bench, which is approximately four feet by seven feet.

The individual's feet are generally elevated. A cloth is placed over the forehead and eyes. Water is then applied to the cloth in a controlled manner. As this is done, the cloth is lowered until it covers both the nose and mouth. Once the cloth is saturated and completely covers the mouth and nose, air flow is slightly restricted for 20 to 40 seconds due to the presence of the cloth. This causes an increase in carbon dioxide level in the individual's blood. This increase in the carbon dioxide level stimulates increased effort to breathe. This effort plus the cloth produces the perception of suffocation and incipient panic," i.e., the perception of drowning.

The individual does not breathe any water into his lungs. During those 20 to 40 seconds, water is continuously applied from a height of twelve to twenty-four inches. After this period, the cloth is lifted, and the individual is allowed to breathe unimpeded for three or four full breaths. The sensation of drowning is immediately relieved by the removal of the cloth. The procedure may then be repeated. The water is usually applied from a canteen cup or small watering can with a spout.

You have orally informed us that this procedure triggers an automatic physiological sensation of drowning that the individual cannot control even though he may be aware that he is in fact not drowning. You have also orally informed us that it is likely that this procedure would not last more than 20 minutes in anyone application.

We also understand that a medical expert with SERE experience will be present throughout this phase and that the procedures will be stopped if deemed medically necessary to prevent severe mental or physical harm to Zubaydah. As mentioned above, Zubaydah suffered an injury during his capture. You have informed us that steps will be taken to ensure that this injury is not in any way exacerbated by the use of these methods and that adequate medical attention will be given to ensure that it will heal properly.

Oh, well, that's all right then, as long as his wounds still heal properly.

Where is the naked guy whose arms are shackled behind him to a wall with women's underwear on his head and where's the part about miscellaneous things shoved up their rectums? I didn't see that written anywhere. And the violation of their religious beliefs? Imagine if somebody tried to take away George's Spaghetti Monster...he'd be livid.
Inside Guantanamo Photo Essay.

The one thing recently that disappointed me is that Obama isn't just letting HIS Attorney General deal with the rule of law here, properly and within the law. Looking forward is one thing, ignoring our atrocious illegal past is another. Backing down on prosecution does us a serious disservice as a nation. For Christ's sake, Dick has admitted he tortured people and Bush just agreed with him. Isn't that grounds to prosecute them despite their protestations that all they did was "legal" and to protect Americans. Lying sacks of shit!

Hey, Republicans! STFU!

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:47:00 +0000

Dick insists we're less safe, he's on the tubes 24/7 attacking Obama. Unprecedented. Rush the Cystboy Drug Addict harangues everyone to the left of himself. He likes Dick. He likes Bush. He disregards facts. He's an "entertainer" they say, I find him highly unentertaining.
Rush Limbaugh is a rabid radio whore. His horrific opinions need to be kept to himself. He's fat and stupid and filled with hatred.

BTW, how can Dick be "so sure" we'll be "hit again" if we don't torture detainees. What does HE know that WE don't know?

GOP watch: Powell vs. Rush

“Only 30 percent of those polled have a favorable view of Limbaugh, the popular conservative radio talk show host, with 53 percent saying they hold an unfavorable opinion. In poll numbers released Thursday, 37 percent say they have a favorable opinion of Dick Cheney.”

What gives the disgraced Newt Gingrich the right to espouse one single pompous utterance? Why is he all over the place. Running in 2012? Having an affair with a young staffer while he publicly berated Clinton? Something hypocritical there, and the way he dumped his wife while she fought cancer...nice. On wife #3, $300,000 ethics violation fine. Resigned as speaker. And we care what he says now because.......?

"In discussing the future of the Republican Party on NBC’s 'Meet the Press' on Sunday, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) sounded almost like a candidate for president building a platform for the 2012 election," Roll Call writes. "But Gingrich said he would not even decide on a 2012 White House bid until 2011."

video of ethics violator Newt the irrelevant. (Damn you MSNBC for the commercials)
Keep Gitmo open until "the war is over" he says. We've got plenty of terrifying religious zealots already right here in the U.S. Fix up and reopen Alcatraz but shut Gitmo DOWN. Shut up Newt...."the president made a very big mistake"...how dare you, asshole. Spouting Dick's TPs. Fear, fear, fear, fear.

We only waterboarded three detainees...to get an Iraq/9/11 connection. Dick you are a lying vindictive, cruel, asshole of a poor excuse for a man.

GOP Supreme Court Obstructionists

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:30:00 +0000

It wouldn't have mattered who Obama nominated to take Souter's place on the Supreme Court. The GOP will object to anything other than Scalito, Thomas and Roberts. Winger zealots who "interpret" the Constitution based upon their own personal religious rituals. Isn't that the definition of an "activist judge" over which idiots like Hatch drone on and on? Cornyn REALLY wanted the job...as does Ted Olsen. Two more white rich men without an ounce of compassion. I'll bet they're steamed Ginsberg didn't retire before Bush was out of office.
Judge Sotomayor was nominated by George H.W. Bush and by Bill Clinton timeline and serves on the 2nd Court of Appeals. She was born in the Bronx of Puerto Rican parents. Her father died. Her mother was a nurse. Her brother is now a doctor. She won a scholarship to Princeton and was first in her class. She went on to Yale. She married while at Princeton but divorced sans offspring.
I suspect she's in for a rough hearing nevertheless. Sessions is chomping at his bit, Cornyn is ready to lynch, Hatch will always have nasty aspersions to cast. Emotion, empathy, real life experience...characteristics lacking in the mostly wingnut justices currently sitting.

GOP to Label Sotomayor as ‘Activist’

Here are some of the key points Republicans will make against Sotomayor:

* They will call her an “activist” judge intent on making law from the bench, not interpreting law.
* As evidence of her “activist” philosophy, conservatives point a statement she made in 2005 that “court of appeals is where policy is made. I know this is on tape, and I should never say that because we don’t make law. I know. O.K. I know. I’m not promoting it. I’m not advocating it. I’m — you know..” You’ll see THIS CLIP a lot.
* Republicans will also make much of a 2002 speech Sotomayor made, saying that the sex and ethnicity of a judge “may and will affect our judging.” She said: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
* Republicans say that four of her opinions have been heard by the Supreme Court and that all four were overturned.
* Conservatives are also pointing to an article in the liberal magazine The New Republic by Jeffrey Rosen entitled, “The Case Against Sotomayor.” The article is stuffed with anonymous sources saying Sotomayor has temperament issues and is not an intellectual heavyweight.

Although it is highly unlikely that Republicans can defeat the nomination, they can make it extremely difficult for President Obama to reach his goal of confirming Sotomayor before the Senate’s August recess .

Ah, the Grand Obstructionist Party:

Consider this from Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee: "I will focus on determining whether Judge Sotomayor is committed to deciding cases based only on the law as made by the people and their elected representatives, not on personal feelings or politics. I look forward to a fair and thorough process."

Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl, another member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, urged Democrats to allow the minority party plenty of time to examine Sotomayor's record. "Each member of the Senate has a constitutional duty to scrutinize judicial nominees before deciding whether to support their confirmation, and I will take great care in examining her record to ensure that she demonstrates personal integrity, a commitment to the rule of law, and a judicial temperament," he said.

Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also stressed the importance of a long process. "Our Democratic colleagues have often remarked that the Senate is not a 'rubber stamp,'" he said in a statement. "Accordingly, we trust they will ensure there is adequate time to prepare for this nomination, and a full and fair opportunity to question the nominee and debate her qualifications."

Conservative GOP Senator Jim DeMint was more directly skeptical, issuing a statement stating that some of Sotomayor's writings "seem to raise serious questions about her approach to the Constitution and the role of the federal judiciary." He added that he "will withhold judgment about her nomination until she has the opportunity to fully present her views before the Senate."

Senator Tom Coburn wrote that Sotomayor "deserves fair and open hearings," but he signaled that he is unlikely to back the nominee.

"It is critical that the Supreme Court reaffirm, not undermine, our Constitution's limited role for Congress and the President," he wrote. "The American people need judges who will interpret the Constitution, not rewrite it based on ideology or personal opinion."

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele suggested that Republicans will "reserve judgment" on the nominee "until there has been a thorough and thoughtful examination of her legal views."

"Supreme Court vacancies are rare, which makes Sonia Sotomayor's nomination a perfect opportunity for America to have a thoughtful discussion about the role of the Supreme Court in our daily lives," added Steele.

The RNC later sent out a document suggesting that Steele is taking a more open-minded approach than former DNC chair Howard Dean did when Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito were announced. (Here are the RNC's leaked talking points.)

GOP Senator John Thune offered a similar sentiment to his colleagues, saying "it will be important to determine if Judge Sotomayor will decide cases based on her own personal feelings and political views, or the bedrock rule of law." He added that he needs time to see if "she possesses unimpeachable integrity, high intellect, and a commitment to applying the law as it is written, rather than legislating from the bench."

Not only are they mean, they're stupid too.
Is this where they plan on picking their fight?
A Latina (GASP) on the Supreme Court? FIRST in her class at Princeton.
MORE experience than any current SC judge prior to their nominations.
left to right (top) Kyl, Graham, Grassley
Left to right (bottom) Cornyn, Coburn, Hatch
Center Huckleberry Sessions.

Sessions' statement:
...
"Of primary importance, we must determine if Ms. Sotomayor understands that the proper role of a judge is to act as a neutral umpire of the law, calling balls and strikes fairly without regard to one's own personal preferences or political views."
...

Gee, did he determine that with Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts? His voice will always remind me of Huckleberry Hound Dog. But mean.

Here we go...the obstructionists have no intention of confirming her prior to their lovely month-long August vacation. Just another "power play" by The Party of NO. Reid should force them to stay and vote but that would require some sort of spine and he has yet to display one to me.

Senate Judiciary Committee

Jeb Stays in the Public Eye

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:18:00 +0000

The Bush Family Evil Empire has NO intention of going quietly into that good night. Jeb will be running for president. His son will be running for office of some kind. Ooooh, Jeb has 7 principles of improving America's educational system. The one his brother broke?
Let's get one thing straight, the Republicans don't want a literate educated and THINKING America. They want us as dumb and uninformed as possible. Education is only for them...and their friends, and other rich people. Not for the masses. Ignorant folks are SO much easier to manipulate...to vote in their own worst interests for thieves, aka GOPers.
Hannity was thrilled with his "exclusive" interview with Jebby the pig nosed wonder.

Youtube Hannity's Six ideas for saving America. Jeb has seven due to his "passion" for education
Part One.

I can see it all now...."A Passion for Reform" is a delightfully ambiguous campaign slogan.

Part Two.

Hannity just lies and lies and lies. And Jeb, everything was WORSE than bad while your "brother" occupied our White House. Obama is trying to FIX it. STFU!

Jeb is staying bizzy:
April, 2009
Jeb Bush elected to Rayonier board

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was elected to the Rayonier Inc. board of directors at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday.

Bush had previously been appointed to the board after his term as governor ended in 2007. He will serve a term expiring in 2010.

Jacksonville-based Rayonier (NYSE: RYN), which sells and develops real estate, manages timberland and produces cellulose fibers, also added David W. Oskin to its board. Oskin, who will serve a term expiring in 2011, is president of private investment and advisory company Four Winds Ventures.
...

How convenient, an interim job to keep his finger in while he bides his time to run for president?
Jeb Again In '10?
Monday, 25 May 2009

TAMPA - Some fierce Jeb Bush fans are urging the former Florida governor to again run for governor. They've launched a website site called "Jeb Again in '10"-- www.jebagainin10.com says "Run, Jeb, Run," but does not say who's behind the site.

A new Mason Dixon polls finds Bush would win both the Republican primary against state Attorney General Bill McCollum and the general election versus stat Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat. That is, if he were to run.

The polling of 600 likely voters found Bush's approval rating two years out of office is higher than current Governor Charlie Crist, who is running for the U.S. Senate instead of seeking re-election.

Need I say, "Yikes, Ghod help us!"

Former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush speaks at country day school
May 19, 2009

When asked by a local school student whether he would consider a run for the White House, Jeb Bush didn't exactly say no.

When will that "right time" be? 2012? 2016? He was only born in 1953.
Shudder.

Bush, Wolf address Manufacturers' Association of South Central Pa
May 20, 2009

Twice Jeb Bush dodged questions about his own future in politics, before he finally gave in and answered the questions posed by Michael Smeltzer, the executive director of the manufacturers' association.

Bush, 56, a younger brother of former President George W. Bush, served two terms as governor of Florida from 1998-2006. He said he is now working to make sure that the Republican Party becomes more idea driven than it is now.

"I don't anticipate running for anything, but do want to support people that are crazy enough to do it," Bush said.

Jeb Bush also was asked about how he thinks his brother's tenure as president will go down in history.

He said that he thinks history will treat George W. Bush's presidency "much kinder" than the press and opponents did in the final two years of his second term.

"I think he will go down in history as a president that kept us safe in a very traumatic time," Jeb Bush said.

Jeb is as delusional as the rest of his sick evil twisted family. Hey Jeb, 9/11 happened on your brother's watch! He'll go down in history as the worst president in American history. Prescott Bush, H. W., Dumbya, they're all CROOKS!

Gitmo to Abu Ghraib

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Sun, 24 May 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Bush knew:

Lest we forget the atrocities committed "in our name" at Abu Ghraib, let's remember how it happened. Rumsfeld brought in General Geoffrey Miller from Gitmo to "Gitmo-ize" Abu Ghraib. We aren't privvy to all the torturing that really goes on, daily. We only know the tip of the iceberg. All we know is who was in charge.

Bush knew!

Bush knew!

Rumsfeld and Miller both belong in jail as war criminals.

Bush knew!

Mission Accomplished:

Miller brought the dogs, the enhanced interrogation techniques...isn't that what the Nazis did to terrorize all their captives. If it walks and talks like a duck....

The architects....war criminals, war profiteers...assholes.

Enabled by GOPers who are accomplices.

Enabled also by McSame...I wonder how he sleeps at night knowing the lies he's told?

But it was all "legal" doncha know?

Is this how we'd like OUR troops treated?

Hours on end in this position...think we'd like that sort of technique?

Sick of the Spin

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:36:00 +0000

Whoopee, we "get" Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and (sort of) Ed. That's it. That's all the truth one nation is allowed. All on cable.
The rest of it is from the GOP perspective. The 1996 FCC Regulations must be changed NOW. St. Teflon already took away the "Fairness Doctrine" in the 80s.
Sometimes I watch TV other than Olbermann and Maddow, "regular" TV. I'm appalled at the absolute stupidity of most Americans. They have been successfully reduced to help create uneducated, programmed idiots. I won't get into my pet peeve....grammar. And I won't get into accents that make people sound even dumber.

Folks don't understand that Fox News is a total GOP propaganda machine. Why the fuck not? Its existence is to destroy Democrats and hail Republicans. Facts be damned with Fox. RNC spin is their raison d'être. Case in point, they now have Kkkkarl Rove spewing on their airwaves. The GOP is more interested in "political points" rather than face reality. Future ads with which to flood the airwaves in 2010. All lies, but effective. They've used that out of context shit for decades.

Cheney LOVES Faux Gnus. They say whatever he tells them to say.

Karl Rove can say whatever he likes on Fox. It's GET PELOSI TIME per Rove. Distraction.
Rove Evaluates Obama's First 100 Days

Who gives a flying fuck what that little felon has to say about anything?

Liz (spawn) Chee-nee (as Matthews insists we pronounce it) is on every cable channel defending her father's war crimes but never challenged and never corrected. Apple=tree=liar. It's repugnant. Can Chelsea come on now and defend blow jobs? Everyone in America has either given or received one. Or as Carter idiotically said, "I have lust in my heart." What does it take to get a treasured spot on the Sunday Political Cartoon shows? Connections. The GOP owns most of the media. (Look it up.)
On MSNBC Youtube
Fearmongering is the special du jour, touts les jours. Fear!
Same shtick her father pulled out of his ass for the 2004 elections.
Cheney Warns of Attacks

Ahahahahaaaa...who the fuck is she kidding?

Liz Cheney: 'Fantasies' being spread about former VP

Liz Cheney said Sunday that some of the stories in print about her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, were "fantasies" cooked up by some of his old Bush administration rivals.

Is that anything like a vast right wing conspiracy? Projection.

Maybe Liz needs to see some torture up close and very personal.

And yes, whatever the hell they were doing to this "detainee" from the original photo it did indeed show frothing and liquids coming from his mouth and nose...he looked shocked and in pain.

Liz Cheney Spars With Lawrence O'Donnell Over Waterboarding

Liz, STFU, it's been used as torture for centuries. Want to prove it, have it done to you, like Hannity...you'll refuse.
They did women too....

A Comedy of Terrors

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:29:00 +0000

Hope vs. Fear: President Obama vs. Dick Cheney, the true face of the GOP.
Dick at AEI...home turf amongst his fellow un-American friends.
Chiding President Obama for cutting into his time, how droll. Networks complied.

Fixed. Rigged, Propagandized. Given a medal by Shrub.

Come on now, hit the DINOs hard. They might as well be GOPers. 90-6 not to fund closing Guantanamo? Whose lobbying money pays for this bullshit? Upgrade Alcatraz. It's perfect. Montana WANTS 'em. Not one inmate has escaped from a maximum security prison. Money? Costs more to house them at Guantanamo than here. NIMBY their chickenshit ASSES!

Bush feels liberated. Free. Hopefully not for long.

"It's 'liberating' to be out of office!"

Fri May 22, 9:41 am ET

ARTESIA, N.M. – It was a humbling moment for the former commander in chief: President George W. Bush was walking former first dog Barney in his new Dallas neighborhood when it stopped in a neighbor's yard for relief.

"And there I was, former president of the United States of America, with a plastic bag on my hand," he told a group of graduating high school students in New Mexico on Thursday. "Life is returning back to normal."

Bush, in one of his few public appearances since leaving office in January, told the students that leaving office lifted a heavy burden.

"I no longer feel that great sense of responsibility that I had when I was in the Oval Office. And frankly, it's a liberating feeling," he told seniors from Artesia High School.

He received a warm welcome in the southeastern New Mexico community, the Roswell Daily Record reported. Bush declined interviews and no video cameras were allowed inside.

The crowd gave him multiple standing ovations and after his speech he was presented with a sculpture of an eagle taking flight from a torch. The sculpture will be dedicated at City Hall on Memorial Day in honor of Bush and America's veterans.

Bush invoked an Iraq veteran's story to motivate the students to continue their educations. He described visiting Army Staff Sgt. Christian Bagge, a soldier from Oregon who lost both legs in combat.

When he visited Bagge at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Bush told him that someday Bagge would get out of his bed and run.

Then, one day, an aide went into Bush's office and said Bagge was waiting on the South Lawn and wanted to go running with the president.

If Bagge could do that, Bush told the students: "You can go to college."
Bush said he hoped President Barack Obama's administration would be successful. He also said he was writing a book about some of the difficult decisions he made while in office.
Information from: Roswell Daily Record, http://www.roswell-record.com

I remember a few photo ops staged jogging at the White House with troops who helped give Georgie a war hero veneer. I hope Army Staff Sgt. Christian Bagge is getting all that he needs. "Life is returning back to normal" might be true for the affluent Mr. Bush. I doubt the returning vets have it quite so nice.

Enthusiastic high school students. Hmmm....wonder where they dug them up?

Why Artesia?

Located in Artesia

The prinicpal enconomic activities which support Artesia are the oil and gas industry, agriculture and dairy.

Artesia is home to the former Abo Elementary School, identified by One Nation Underground (ISBN 0-8147-7522-5) as the first and most likely only public school which is entirely underground and equipped to function as a fallout shelter. The school, completed in 1962 (the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis), had a concrete slab roof which served as the school's playground. It contained a large storage facility with room for supplies for 2000 people in the event of nuclear warfare. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 and is located at 1802 W Centre Ave.
The city has one of the few residential training sites of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), mostly for United States Border Patrol Agents. The center is located on the former campus of the College of Artesia, which operated from 1966 to 1971.
Artesia has a high-voltage direct current back-to-back station which connects the eastern and western electric grids in Eddy County. This tie, built by General Electric in 1983, can transfer a maximum power of 200 megawatts. The used voltage is 82 kV.

Writing a book? He meant Barney is leaving him clues on topics...piles of shit.
~~~~
Much more inspirational pic stating the case for war:

Lies, Lies, Lies....and More Lies

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Sat, 16 May 2009 10:51:00 +0000

Misc: Mineshaft canary ramblings.
Public Enemy Number One:

Getting people to see the truth about Bush and Cheney has been an uphill battle from day one. These Texas killers were already a known quantity...yet people chose to believe them again and again and "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists" as they slandered and threatened anyone who didn't agree with them. Our patriotism was called into question. Some people are simply delusional sheep and believe anything they're told and they're not too bright. Some people are too weak-minded and frightened by the truth to allow any of it into their consciousness. They need authoritarian rule to maintain order in their lives. Some are plain psychopathic and only care about themselves, their own agendas, such as religious zealotry, dominionism, plus have a cruel streak. And some of us (approximately 30% in 2001) realistically looked at the facts and if they didn't add up (which they didn't) we asked questions...we were (and are) a threat to national security per Dick Cheney. Questioning authority IS patriotic, it IS American, it IS ethical and it most certainly is Constitutional. But the Bushites labeled anyone with questions as the culprits for their own crimes, always have and always will, via projection.

Bush and Cheney did NOT "win" the election of 2000, they stole it, they rigged it, they, via lawyers 3,500 of whom poured into Florida to stop the vote count, Jeb Bush's state, made it a "decision" by the Supreme Court instead of a "vote" by the people of the United States. I don't know why Al Gore conceded defeat, he won the election. I don't know why he "chose" Joe Lieberman to be his running mate, a stealth saboteur from day one. Both were horrible errors on Gore's part and I have yet to figure out the reasons why. Why, Al? Why? Joe AIPAC as his VP? It makes NO sense.
The GOP paid staffers of their own to pose as "rioters" to demonstrate in Miami to stop the vote. Miami Brooks Brothers Rioters. The GOP sent throngs of lawyers to tie up the vote counting in the courts, (John Bolton, "I'm here to stop the counting") they stole our Constitutional right to fair elections by threatening, suing, and forcing Florida to go their way...minus the facts; Gore won. Bush was "declared" the winner by a right leaning Supreme Court, O'Connor staying on the court specifically for that purpose as she was overheard stating in public, lest Clinton have an opportunity to appoint somebody sane in her stead, somebody who understood the role of the courts and the Constitution itself.
Context of 'January 27, 2003: 9/11 Commission Decides It Will Not Issue Subpoenas'

9/11 happened on their watch. Not Bill Clinton's, not Barack Obama's, on THEIR watch. Bush ignored an intelligence memo while on one of his many vacations in Crawford in August of 2001, "Bin Laden determined to attack". And that's okay with Americans...to let him just ignore it? Imagine if Obama did the same thing. He'd be in prison. To suggest they let it happen through either negligence or deliberately was pre-labeled "tinfoil" and plain crazy conspiracy theory. They set up a fake "commission" (Lee Whitewash Hamilton, anyone?) to shut down any real investigation into their lies. They've hidden or simply denied the proof, all we have are facts that don't add up to their version of what happened. The demolition of those buildings doesn't meet scientific evidence. Witnesses were ignored. People at the scene who told of explosions inside the WTC were ignored. The "evidence" of 19 or 20 terrorists was neatly packaged and handed to the "media" for propagandized dissemination. Atta's passport neatly landed on the street in NY intact. Dick Cheney was the president that day, he and Lynne the porn author were in the White House running the show. Bush was "out of harm's way" landing in Omaha where coincidentally many CEOs who would normally have been at work in the WTC were meeting.

The United States of Dick:

Sinister frightening Dick Cheney has been around for a very long time, he was involved in the pardon of law-breaker Dick Nixon with his partner in crime Donald Rumsfeld. They made sure the GOP learned from their mistakes during Watergate and closed all "legal" loopholes for their crimes. It's not illegal if the president does it. Or the Vice President, or the Secretary of Defense. Dick's STILL threatening people in Congress beyond "Go fuck yourself" and Anthrax mysteriously being sent to high ranking Democrats. George and Dick set about destroying our government, they decimated FEMA, put everything else under their control via "homeland security", emptied our treasury into their own pockets and stonewalled for eight years.

Now, you'd think Nancy Pelosi personally tortured prisoners at Gitmo, when did she know is more important than when did Dick started torturing people for his fabricated Iraq connection? George Tenet's apparent role, "It's a slam dunk" to connect Saddam to 9/11 and then cover-up the his CIA's cherry picked by Dick false information. He got a medal for his loyalty. What kind of insanity is that? Business as usual for the BushCheney team. Blame the Democrats no matter what. Attack Democrats no matter what, blame Democrats for what they didn't do, no matter what. Go for the weakest most inarticulate links. Nancy water boarded people herself. "Nancy Pelosi was behind it", Joe Watkins, "analyst" on MSNBC, "It's Obama's CIA" he said. So all of the torturing happened because of Democrats. Pelosi was in favor of torturing people. Right.
As usual Pelosi is mishandling the situation, she's let down her constituency....long before this nonsense. The minute she took impeachment "off the table" she betrayed us as a nation. Should she resign? No. On principle. Will she? Maybe...she's inept but she is innocent of torturing anyone. I'm dumbfounded that she sent an aide to such an important thing as a CIA intelligence briefing instead of going herself, in person, knowing no notes could be taken. Bob Graham took notes later, he was there, appalled, and he spoke out at the time. He was ignored. Should the Republicans take responsibility for their criminal actions while they held all three branches of our government? Yes. Will that happen? Probably not. We're weak as a party, we've been overrun by DINOs and right wingers dressed as Democrats. If it walks like the GOP and votes like the GOP it isn't a Democrat. We need to cleanse our own party.

The fourth branch of government, Dick Cheney, has had most of the power since 2000 and still wields it from the sidelines while our leaders allow him to get away with it, above and beyond all laws. He didn't like people getting close to the truth so he outed a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, who was under cover working on Iran's nuclear capabilities. How convenient. A twofer. Scooter took the fall. Nice and neat.

Anyone who objected to a thing in a "post 9/11 world" was labeled anti-American, unpatriotic, a threat to America's security. They tore up and threw away our Constitution. Yet people believed them. Why? Because some people just can't handle the truth, their reality would be rocked to its foundation to believe that war crimes can be committed by people with American accents. Perhaps if Dick and George had Russian or German accents they would have believed it...but an American-accented liar? They just couldn't or wouldn't deal with it. The Bush lawyers shoved the massive "Patriot Act" down our throats forcing votes on an unconstitutional piece of hell legislation that nobody even read before being forced in mass hysteria to vote. Dick Cheney assured us we would be attacked again if they didn't get their way. How could he be so sure his Saudi friends would do it again? Osama Bin Laden got exactly what he demanded, the removal of all U.S. military bases on Saudi soil and the destruction of the U.S. Constitution. Where is he? Probably dead but we'll never know since Cheney isn't about to admit a thing. Even under oath. Oaths mean NOTHING to Cheney, Rumsfeld, George, Rove, et alia. Dick is best friends forever with Saudi Arabia the UAE, especially Dubai, home of his Halliburtion HQ.
Our media has been corrupted completely since the 1996 FCC Regulations, bought up by a handful of corporations who backed up the lies being disseminated by shitheads like Karl Rove, American traitor.
The NY Times sold the false connection between Saddam Hussein and the Saudis who blew up the WTC. They lied. CNN and the other cable networks harangued us daily with mushroom clouds that didn't exist, fake spin disguised as "information" and threats to our very lives. There has been a slight shift in the last year or so since the majority of Americans finally couldn't add one and one and get three anymore as the economy sank under the theft of the War Criminal Torturers, skimming and making money off the lives of American troops from day one of the invasion of Iraq. Millions of us worldwide hit the streets to protest the attack, we were dismissed by Bush as "a focus group" while distractions such as abortion, gay rights, anything of a social nature were used instead. Look over there, bright shiny objects to glare at instead of the unpleasant truth right over here under our noses. It worked. It worked for almost the entire eight years of the worst administration in this nation's short history. They robbed us blind!

Rush Limbaugh has more power than our elected officials because the media allows it to be that way. Nobody elected that drug addict to office yet he holds court because Clear Channel owns all the "heartland" radio stations. It's all "middle America" can get on their radio dial, right wing nut jobs paid well to spew propaganda. Cystboy is worth every dime of his $400 million salary, he's getting the job done with ease, anyone who crosses him is dead meat. We have a handful of truthful fact finding voices on the left but those are recent additions. In the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq we had nothing, zip, nada. Talking heads spewing propaganda. Phil Donahue couldn't put sentences together, brevity and clarity have always been beyond his ken. He was fired due to "low ratings" which is just as well since he was a terrible representative for "our" side, the truth, and a Naderite to boot. On the radio we had, (if our radios could pull them in off weak Air America) shrill Rhodes, comedian Franken, and Maddow the best of the lot but too "cerebral" for the masses. The right wing has so many coming in loud and clear including Faux News, it's impossible to list them all...yet they lie on, and on and on, facts be damned. They lie. The psychopaths love them and the delusional seek comfort in their lies.

Oral History of the Bush Administration

And now we have the absolute disappointment of Obama backing down on tribunals at Gitmo, prosecuting war criminals, backing up the CIA over the truth...it's getting sickening to me. I like him. I hope he succeeds but giving in to thugs sure isn't the way to do it.

~~~~~~~~~~

Rush and Dick, it's all they've got left. And Faux Gnus, and Karl and Steele, and anyone else on a suicide mission of lying stupidity.

Not a Good Year

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 02:04:00 +0000

For me personally ...more to follow as the pain surfaces and changes. Three months of raw. Hard to know where to begin....there is no end.

On a more cheerful note:

But President Obama is making headway despite "correspondent" Todd's insistence on MSNBC that every single speech even in Germany is a "campaign" stop. Fuck off Chuck! And if I hear "rock star" one more time I'll retch. Keith and Rachel are the only two I can tolerate if I'm able to bear the box for a few minutes. Mostly not. Lately...not much political...except local and personal.

Gotta have a pic....yeah, I know, it never happened.

But THIS DID HAPPEN in an interview in Vanity Fair by the obsequious Peggy Noonan....the Bushes really said these things about 9/11 WHICH HAPPENED ON GEORGE AND DICK'S WATCH BY IGNORING THE INTEL....(Richard Clarke)

9/11 HAPPENED ON GEORGE AND DICK'S WATCH

The entire Bush family and all associates belong in jail. Being the canary in the fucking mineshaft has been damned exhausting. Mindshaft.

Aside factoid: As of now, 13,000 people have looked at my profile and blogger's counters broke. Strange. I know I have only a handful of readers. (Mebbe they's checkin' fer butt ugly per anonymous in his delightful comments.)

I Won't Back Down

Seesles Greetles

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 07:28:00 +0000

Tom the Peruvian cat is humiliated by his owner.

He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice, Santa Dick is coming to town.

Bush's yearly Photo Op calling a couple of troops he sent into war for his profit. He wears special "friendly" attire.
Christmas Eve 2003

Christmas Eve 2004

Christmas Eve 2005
When did Bush ever parachute out of a plane?

Christmas Eve 2006

Christmas Eve 2007

Christmas Eve 2008
A rerun of the blue sweater from 2003.
He must keep it at Camp David just for the occasion.
At least it's his last "holiday" call to insult the troops.

The Bush legacy? Warmongering torturer, killer, and thief.

~~~~
Seesles Greetles to all Democrats.

Getting Up To Speed

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:01:00 +0000

I'm so far behind I can see myself coming.
The Bush misadministration has continued, at an accelerated pace, the raping and pillaging of America, the continued destruction of evidence, the continued dirty tricks of the GOP, the continued crimes of Bush and Dick. And still no impeachment on the horizon. If they get away with it, there's NO justice.

Mission accomplished for the Neocons and BFEE. I'm still waiting for an accounting of the $700 Billion Bush got "for Iraq" in February of 2007, it seems he needs that amount at least once a year, he must think it's his allowance. No accountability.

They didn't care who won this election, #44 will get the blame for the nightmare they've left behind. Then they reckon they can run Jeb and get back into our White House.

Jeb's "the smart one" per his parents.

The bastard has been on a "speaking tour" lying about his so-called legacy. He's just rotten to the core.

With apologies to Mark Knopfler, Postcards From Paraguay

Robbed a bank full of Dinero
Great big mountain of dough
Then it was goodbye Campanero
Cheerio
Couldn't stay and face the music
So many reasons why
I won't be sending postcards
From Paraguay
From Paraguay
From Paraguay

As Bush rides off into the sunset (not on a horse, he's scared of horses) he's leaving us with a mess...financial ruin, wars, a depression. But he and Dick got richer and Bush has bought a house in Dallas and land in Paraguay.

Hey, WHAT housing crisis?

It would be great to see a few Democratic spines right about now.
I won't hold my breath.

An even bigger asshole, Dick Cheney...Go fuck yourself, so what!

Oh, and season's greetings...

Bush the Delusional

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:29:00 +0000

He thinks he helped achieve peace? Is he insane as well as a criminal?
One would have to possess a soul in order to not "sell" it. Bush has NO soul.
Bush wants history to see him as a liberator of millions

~~
George W. Bush hopes history will see him as a president who liberated millions of Iraqis and Afghans, who worked towards peace and who never sold his soul for political ends.

"I'd like to be a president (known) as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace," Bush said in excerpts of a recent interview released by the White House Friday.

"I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process. I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving with the same set of values."

He also said he wanted to be seen as a president who helped individuals, "that rallied people to serve their neighbor; that led an effort to help relieve HIV/AIDS and malaria on places like the continent of Africa; that helped elderly people get prescription drugs and Medicare as a part of the basic package."

Bush added that every day during his eight-year presidency he had consulted the Bible and drawn comfort from his faith.

"I would advise politicians, however, to be careful about faith in the public arena," the US leader said in the interview with his sister Doro Bush Koch recorded as part of an oral history program known as Story corps.

As his second term in office draws to an end, Bush joked he would miss some of the trappings that come with the presidency such as trips on Air Force One, never being stuck in a traffic jam, and the president's residence at Camp David.

But he said he was glad to be stepping back into the shadows.

"Frankly, I'm not going to miss the limelight all that much. It's been a fabulous experience to be the president ... But it will be nice to see the Klieg lights shift somewhere else."

The interview, which Bush recorded with First Lady Laura Bush, will be stored in the library of Congress and a museum devoted to the Bush presidency.

Reporter Bitten by Barney

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:18:00 +0000

A White House reporter, captured on April Ryan's phone video camera, (whose name I know but refuse to report until he learns to say, "I was bitten" instead of "I got bit") is darned lucky it wasn't Miss Beazley instead who is perpetually "napping" due to her bad moods and sharp teeth. I can't repeat his name as it maligns other "journalists", some of whom asked, "You got bit?" Arrgghhh. If I were Barn or Beaz I'd be the White House Grammar Police K-9s and having a rollicking good time making incisive points.

If you stuff your finger into a dog's mouth there's a 50/50 chance said canine will bite at the intrusion. The reporter who was bitten by Barney today should have known Barn's reputation: He bites. He's KNOWN for biting. He's not allowed around people who tour the White House because he has bitten a few of them before. Any dog worth his or her salt would become a chomping machine if trapped around the Bushes. Barney is bitter. Too bad he can't talk.

Yet, this young guy tried to pet the beleaguered Barney and ended up getting his finger bitten. He's lucky to still have an arm. A dog can't be around George Bush all the time and not want to MAUL people. Bush carries him as a prop in a virtual head/body lock so he can't whip around and bite the shit out of him.

Lenny Bush:

If Dick knew about these two they'd already have been sent to Gitmo, waterboarded, tied upside down for hours upon hours until they confessed.

Barney has had it. Looks to me as if the guy was threatening to poke his eye out..hahaha

Dubya once said he didn't care if the only ones supporting him on his Iraq war agenda were Laura and Barney...under duress?

Miss Beazley being assaulted by Pickles Bush in August of 2006:

We can always rely on Youtube.
Hahaha...it's funny every single time.
Go, Barney, Go!

There are limits, even for man's best friend.

The consensus on Bush....THE worst, EVER.

An early Christmas present idea for the outgoing misadministration:WPE shirts from Bartcop. Stocking stuffers to remind them of all the people out here hunting for jobs.

Supposedly, Bush's "approval" rating has dropped to 20%.
That seems incredibly high to me and I recall it having gone as low as 19% last year, also unbelievably high. It should be 1%...the same percentage of obscenely wealthy warmongering swine who will always support the Unitary Excecutive Fascists who get richer and richer while the rest of us get poorer. (Dick's should be 0% ever since he was Chief of Staff to Ford and they pardoned Nixon.)

Rumors are floating about that the Chimp plans (like Turdblossom) to write his "life story". (Theft and Murder for Dummies?) How can a barely functioning illiterate write his autobiography? He has said, "I'm not that good at pronouncing words"...he's not good at using words in any way shape or form and can't read his ~~scripts~~ speeches aloud. Yet we're supposed to believe he can write a book? Then again, perhaps I'm misunderstimating him since he's so good at lying and re-writing current events as well as history. Maybe Barney can type.

President Obama

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:14:00 +0000

Thank god. Thank you, fellow Americans for finally giving us some hope. The last eight years have been hell worldwide. Hopefully, President Obama can rectify most of the damage done by Bush and Cheney but it might take a couple of decades to undo all the harm. Obama and Biden will need ALL our support to make this country whole again.

Delighted Dick

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:15:00 +0000

Cheney: "I’m delighted to support John McCain"

Vice President Dick Cheney made a rare appearance on the campaign trail in Wyoming. During a speech, he offered a wholehearted endorsement of John McCain and Sarah Palin:
"I believe the right leader for this moment in history is Senator John McCain...I’m delighted to support John McCain"

It's impossible to imagine Dick being delighted about anything other than making a killing, financially and literally. His profits during the last eight years have been enormous. His Saudi pals have gotten everything they wanted and more. He's moved his assets to Dubai. Halliburton's no bid contract details are safely hidden in the UAE; mission accomplished. McSame will block any and all investigations into the last eight criminal years if he gains access to the White House. "This moment in history" of theft and murder would be swept under the executive rug by a McCain/Palin administration while receiving access to the truly big corporate donors and use of Dick and Dubya's dirty unethical staffs and lobbyists. Only the names on the letterheads would change, the corruption and impeachable offenses would continue.

Cheney thinks Palin has common sense? Pastor Muthee De-witched her. Is that the same thing to the far right winger base?

"...and I’m pleased that he’s chosen a running mate with executive talent, toughness and common sense, our next vice president in Sarah Palin."

Of course he's pleased with Palin, her executive "talent" is unitary as is his, with no accountability to the people. She's Dick in lipstick. If she gets her tough claws into the VP's office it's no change from Dick's tenure. More of the same stonewalling, secrecy, lying, obfuscation and rigged "investigations" that exonerate them thanks to all that "flexibility there" in the Constitution. She's power hungry and he's got power. Both believe "the people" have no rights only a duty to pay taxes and serve in wars. The Barracuda's perfectly pleasing to Dick. Incompetent compassionate conservatism in high heels.

Cheney Endorses McCain"And in three days we'll choose a new steward for the presidency and begin a new chapter in our history. It's the biggest decision that we make together as Americans. A lot turns on the outcome."

You betcha...stewardship (theft) status quo must be maintained, the "chapter" closed on the worst, most impeachable presidency in history, and continuation of war for profit at the expense of all people here and abroad. When Dick speaks of "Americans" he only means the elite powerful crowd who already have all the power, he does NOT mean US.

I believe the right leader for this moment in history is Senator John McCain. John is a man who understands the danger facing America. He's a man who has looked into the face of evil and not flinched.

Darn tootin'. The danger facing America has been, and still is, Dubya and Dick. THE fear machine to end them all. McSame looked into their faces and flinched in 2000 and 2004. This time he's been lead to believe it's his turn but hopefully the American people will not flinch tomorrow and have the guts to vote in their own best interests and elect Obama and Biden. It's the only chance we have to start to get our country back.

He's a man who's comfortable with responsibility and has been since he joined the armed forces at the age of 17. He's earned our support and confidence, and the time is now to make him commander-in-chief.

Right, he didn't have much choice, family tradition dictated his course. Admirals without whose "support" he wouldn't have been allowed to continue flying our planes after wrecking four of them. He earned no confidence, nepotism saved him from the brig. His connections in high places earned him the thrill of running bombing missions over North Vietnam and his admitted recklessness got him shot down. Hardly confidence inspiring, and most certainly not "commander" material.

Obama responded by saying, "I'd like to congratulate Senator McCain on this endorsement because he really earned it."

He sure did, according to factcheck.org McSame voted with Bush/Cheney 95% of the time, but he's cut 5% slack for non-support of the Neothug agenda for cowardly NVs-not voting, missed votes. I make no such allowance for him. His record is not one of maverick but as Joe Biden says, of sidekick. No change at all from the last eight years.

This is our last chance, America. We can't take another four years of this bullshit. VOTE! Vote as if your lives depended upon it...they do. Obama/Biden...our only hope.

Sarah the Socialist

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:12:00 +0000

Palin backed Alaskan windfall-profits tax

In fact, Palin’s plan looks similar in concept to Barack Obama’s plan. The state gave Alaskans $1200 checks from oil revenues as a one-time bonus to pay for increased fuel prices, a move Palin pushed. That echoes the Obama plan to send one-time rebates to taxpayers, funded by similar levies on oil companies.

It's only "socialism" if the Democrats do it?

Palinomics: Alaska now has some of the highest resource taxes in the world. Alaska’s oil tax revenues are expected to be about $10 billion in 2008.
...
Palin approved gas tax relief for Alaskans, and paid every resident $1,200 to help ease their fuel-price burden.

Alaska 1st, Ariz. last in pork spending
Did McCain "vet" Palin at ALL? Flip flop McCain is against windfall tax profits and redistribution of wealth. Palin has been all for windfall tax profits and redistribution of wealth-for Alaskans. They are polar opposites on Earmarks

Arizona, the second fastest growing state in the nation, will receive just $18.70 per capita in federal earmarks this fiscal year. By comparison, Alaska — with roughly a tenth of Arizona's population — is set to receive $506.34 per capita, the highest in the nation, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group which tracks earmarks.

To the detriment of some of his constituents and to stubbornly make his point, McCain didn't ask for funding for many programs including the health hazard that is Nogales, Arizona; ironically, Senator Kyl (R-AZ) fellow anti-earmarker had to "reach across the aisle" instead to get federal assistance for Nogales.

Windfall tax lets Alaska rake in billions from Big Oil

Democrat Barack Obama supports a national windfall-profits tax, while Republican John McCain opposes it.

Alaska thanks you

It's a fact: For every dollar we Alaskans pay in at-the-pump gas taxes, we get $6.60 back, thanks to you generous, unwitting donors.

According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan watchdog group in Washington, that breaks down to $1,150 for every Alaskan in "earmark" funding for in-state projects alone, 25 times what the average American garners for his or her home state.

Palin record questioned by many in energy industry

One of Palin’s first acts as governor was to support additional taxation of the oil industry, an idea supported by her predecessor, former Gov.Murkowski. Murkowski wanted to use the additional income to finance the natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Canada at an estimated cost of $20 billion. Palin’s new tax will refund the money to “deserving” Alaskans.

Palin’s support of a new tax on the oil industry is patterned after the so-called Windfall Profits Tax. Ironically, her political partner, Sen. John McCain, has opposed such tax policies, but Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, supports a similar tax that would generate enough money to give $1,000 back to “deserving” citizens.

Sarah gets to decide who is "deserving" and who isn't.

Palin's earmark requests: more per person than any other state

Just this year, she sent to Sen. Ted. Stevens, R-Alaska, a proposal for 31 earmarks totaling $197 million — more, per person, than any other state.

Her presidential running mate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., does not sponsor earmarks, calling the practice of doling out favors, often with scant oversight, "disgraceful."
Some of Palin's requests...$499,900 to assess halibut harvesting...lighting village airports in the Alaskan bush, where small planes and gravel runways may be the primary link to the outside world.

Palin's requests to Congress came at a time of huge federal deficits, while Alaska state revenue was soaring due to rising oil prices and a major tax increase on oil production that Palin signed into law in late 2007.

As a result, Alaska this year was in such a money-flushed condition — with no state income tax or sales tax and total state revenues of $10 billion, double the previous year's — that Palin gained legislative approval for $1,200 cash payments to every Alaskan.

In addition, each Alaska resident gets an annual dividend check, about $2,000 this year, from Alaska's oil-wealth savings account, known as the Permanent Fund, now fattened to more than $35 billion.

Alaska received more than any other state for earmarks. Palin, with a HUGE budget, turned around and redistributed the wealth to her constituents who pay NO state income taxes and NO sales taxes. In order to offset being a Socialist and the EARMARK QUEEN, she displayed her "Christian" and GOP credentials by CUTTING funding for unwed pregnant teens thereby pleasing her base of fellow hypocritical Creationists. It's only "wealth redistribution" and/or "Socialism" if it's done by a Democrat since Sarah determines who is "deserving" based upon their religion. Her enormously swollen budget makes the cuts to unwed teens even more repugnant. Do as we say, not as we do. She was pregnant out of wedlock as is one of her daughters. Perhaps she should have increased biology and physiology education funding.

Alaska has a multibillion-dollar budget surplus while here in California, the most populous state, we have a shortfall and pay taxes up the wazoo.
Which states have no personal income tax?

Seven states have no state income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Two others, New Hampshire and Tennessee, tax only dividend and interest income.

Alaska is the only state that does not collect state sales tax or levy an individual income tax.
Oil, baby, oil. Alaska's government primarily depends on oil revenue, hence Palin's desire to drill, baby, drill.

Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group.

McCain hailed Palin as a politician "with an outstanding reputation for standing up to special interests and entrenched bureaucracies -- someone who has fought against corruption and the failed policies of the past, someone who's stopped government from wasting taxpayers' money."
...
"As governor, I've stood up to the old politics-as-usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies, and the good-ol'-boy network," she said Friday.
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As mayor of Wasilla, however, Palin oversaw the hiring of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, an Anchorage-based law firm with close ties to Alaska's most senior Republicans: Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, who was indicted in July on charges of accepting illegal gifts. The Wasilla account was handled by the former chief of staff to Stevens, Steven W. Silver, who is a partner in the firm.

Palin was elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996 on a campaign theme of "a time for change." According to a review of congressional spending by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, Wasilla did not receive any federal earmarks in the first few years of Palin's tenure.

Senate records show that Silver's firm began working for Palin in early 2000, just as federal money began flowing.
...
"She certainly wasn't shy about putting the old-boy network to use to bring home millions of dollars," said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "She's a little more savvy to the ways of Washington than she's let on."

So the "change/reform" she brought to Alaska was to increase funding for Washington lobbyists to get even more earmarks and pork barrel dollars from the rest of us. Plus she kept the money for the "bridge to nowhere" that she was FOR, money out of OUR US Treasury and pockets. That's certainly not putting "Country First" as she claims. She's screwed the rest of us out of tax money WE paid to maintain our own crumbling infrastructures and redistributed it to Alaskans. All in direct opposition to McCain's claimed goals. His "vetting" team leaves a lot to be desired. They have saddled him with a corrupt woman whose only appeal is to fellow right wing theocratic nutcases who believe in Creationism.

McDeregulation

gahzette@gmail.com (Panda) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:40:00 +0000

McCain now claims he's for government regulation and "oversight" of corporations and has been all along. That's yet another LIE.
To quote his good buddy Senator Graham, "The rhetoric and the record don't match", although Graham was lyingly referring to Obama's record, not McCain's. The words match the McSame actions much better.

Q: In 1999, you were one of the senators who helped pass deregulation of Wall Street. Do you regret that now?

McCAIN: No. I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy.

Fact:McCain has ALWAYS been against regulating corporations.

he has no history prior to the presidential campaign of advocating steps to tighten standards on investment firms...

"I’m always for less regulation," he told The Wall Street Journal last March, "but I am aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight" in situations like the subprime lending crisis, the problem that has cascaded through Wall Street this year. He concluded, "but I am fundamentally a deregulator."

McSame needs to learn how to use teh google. Technically he can say he didn't actually vote FOR Gramm's bill at one point. Although a backer of the legislation from day one, he escaped with a recorded Not Voting designation. The bill passed with 90 Yeas at that stage out of many. How mavericky and brave of him. McSame never met a corporation or rich family, aka gang of unscrupulous thugs, he didn't like.

Claiming that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac caused the financial meltdown is a LIE. It's the spin from the right...blame the borrowers, especially if they're not wealthy. A favorite hobby of the GOP is "Blame the Victim". The meltdown in the economy is directly related to deregulation of the BIG BOYS on Wall Street, and the inevitable theft they perpetrated, not the little guys on Main Street trying to pay their mortgages after their jobs were outsourced. It's typical GOP "blame the victim" bullshit.

Federal housing data indicate that the charges aren't true, and that the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.
...
Federal Reserve Board data show that:

•More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.

•Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.

•Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that's being lambasted by conservative critics.
...
Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, and Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., don't lend money, to minorities or anyone else, however. They purchase loans from the private lenders who actually underwrite the loans.
...
But these loans, and those to low- and moderate-income families represent a small portion of overall lending.

Ahahahaaaaa, how conveeenient. He pretends he had no hand act nor part in the mess he eagerly helped to create.
McCain Blasts Wall Street's 'Reckless Conduct, Corruption, and Unbridled Greed'

"I promise you that on my watch, we are never going to let these kinds of abuses go uncorrected or unpunished."

Actions speak louder than words, John.

During the GOP primary debates, March, 2008, Russert to McCain:

"You have said repeatedly, quote, 'I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.' Is it a problem for your campaign that the economy is now the most important issue, one that by your own acknowledgment you're not well versed on?"

McCain: "Actually, I don't know where you got that quote from. I'm very well versed in economics. I was there at the Reagan revolution. I was there when we enacted the first -- or just after we enacted the first tax cuts and the restraints on spending. I was chairman of the Commerce Committee in the United States Senate, which addresses virtually every major economic issue that affects the United States of America. I'm very well versed on economics."

McCain just doesn't know where Russert got those quotes? How about the New York Times and the Boston Globe? Perhaps he considers those to be the "Liberal Media" so how about the Wall Street Journal? John Sidney McCain, Google IS your friend! Honestly! Sid McCain can't handle the truth.

"I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated."-The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 26, 2005

"The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should," McCain said. "I've got Greenspan's book."-Boston Globe, December 18, 2007

And... His foremost economic guru is former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm (who would almost certainly be Treasury secretary in a McCain administration) YIKES! Whiners, begone!

McCain and Bush were on the same page 95% of the time.
Twins. McSame in every way regarding NOT regulating their friends.

~~~~~
Spinning Head Notes:
Craig Crawford's gasps for air are incredibly irritating. (So many "pundits" are fucking irritating.) But for the love of ghod, give the man some oxygen or take him off the air.
MSNBC:Could somebody give Contessa Brewer a few grammar lessons?! She needs to start at square one with the difference between singular and plural modifiers. It's PAINFUL to listen to her "wing it" and breathlessly fracture the English language during so-called "breaking" news stories. Watching her try to think is excruciating.

I whine endlessly about this one but it's been a sharp thorn in my side for years; my MAJOR language manglage pet peeve ever since Dick became the veep: PLEASE networks, Cable news, all television "news" shows... remove "IF YOU WILL" from the repertoire of each and every spinning head on TV. I know, getting rid of this particular piece of filler will limit what the Max and Maxette Headrooms have to say but that might be a good thing. David Schuster, Norah O'Donnell, David supercilious Gregory, Wolf Blitzer, Dana Bash...and on and on and on, just about ALL of them.... ARRRRGGGGHHHH! Make it stop! To them it's filler the same way "um" and "like" are to teens, but to me it's a reminder of Dick; LIES ABOUND.