June 19, 2008 archive

About your tiny sample size…

You know you may need to take a two month break from polling results if…

NFTT: Six (free or inexpensive) Ways You Can Help

For the last few weeks, the IGTNT and Mojo Friday  communities have been asking you to help them with Netroots For The Troops — a project planned for  Netroots Nation 2008 in Austin, July 17-20 — that hopes to send 101 troop care packages to American soldioers curently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, supplying them with everyday sundries — including work gloves, phone cards, underwear and protein bars — that the government refuses to provide them, despite spending billions of dollars a week.

What we realized, however, is that while we’ve been primarily asking for money, there are a number of other free-yet-equally-important and relevant ways that you can support this effort.

For details, join me on the flip side…

What In The Hell Are “Vital National Interests”?

The endlessly repeated term “Vital National Interests”, as near as I can figure, is from the point of view of those in power, the corporatists and the puppets they fund into congress and the oval office, a euphemistic term, a way of saying they’ll do whatever it takes, invade whatever country they have to, kill whoever they need to, and steal whatever resources are required, to keep the “empire” from collapsing.

“Their” empire. The one that enables them to sit in luxury at the top of the pyramid of bodies, American and other, that they climb over to get to the top of.

I think that Iraqis are no more likely to give up, roll over, play dead, and hand their country to an occupier, any occupier, than the Mujahideen the Soviets tried to conquer in Afghanistan were.

No matter how long it takes, Iraqis will have their country back. The question is, what will be the ultimate price. To Iraq, and to America.

Afghanistan is still there. The USSR is not…

Four at Four

WAR CRIMES
  1. Just in case you missed it. McClatchy Newspapers now joins Meteor Blades, buhdydharma, and others in reporting the General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes.

    The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing “war crimes” and called for those responsible to be held to account.

    The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who’s now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices.

    “After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes,” Taguba wrote. “The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.

    Impeach, convict, imprison, throw away the key. Speaker Pelosi, your Constitutional and legal duty urgently calls. You must put impeachment back on the table.

Four at Four continues below the fold.

McCain: Lock-step and (oil) barrel

Cross-posted from THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

Wonderful rant from our Managing Editor that ties McCain to Big Oil:

In a campaign year where John McCain is seemingly doing everything he can to publicly distance himself from George W. Bush, he’s also been emulating the historically unpopular president by walking in lock-step with him along the path to Texas oil.

While Barack Obama was in Illinois shoveling sand in bags to hold back the Bush-neglected infrastructure crumbling around him — resulting in a multi-state version of Katrina with both an oblivious Republican president and Republican presidential candidate — John McCain just happened to be on his way to Texas to accept the whoops and cheers (and money) from oil industry insiders for his proclaimed flip-flop on offshore drilling as the answer to America’s oil-supply woes.

Want something worse? Aside from the fact that he did it while Senator Obama was showing empathy to those impacted by an unstable climate and deteriorating infrastructure, it turns out that John McCain gave his oil pandering speech CONCURRENT to the release of his new ad-buy proclaiming his independence from the Bush Administration on global warming.

The entire article here.

John McCain: A Punk and A Mean Little F*cker

   Just ask his schoolmates…


  A classmate, Malcolm Matheson, described him as a “tough, mean little fucker”, according to Robert Timberg’s ‘The Nightingale’s Song.

McCain’s nicknames at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA, were Punk, Nasty and McNasty.

Prior to attending EHS, McCain was bounced from school to school as a result of his father’s military career. McCain wrote of his early education in his autobiograpy.

My first purpose during my brief stay in these schools was to impress upon my classmates that I was not a person to suffer slights lightly. My second purpose was to prove myself as an athlete. When I was disciplined by my teachers, which happened regularly, it was often for fighting.”

McCain, Faith of My Fathers, p. 100.

A Government Out Of Control

A large majority of Americans don’t want to be in Iraq.

Yet the Democrats just gave Bush $162 billion of those Americas tax dollars to continue the occupation.

A large majority of Americas don’t want to have their Fourth Amendment rights stripped and the President and Telcos that stripped them immunized.

Yet the Democrats just gave the President and Telcos immunity while codifying the death of the Fourth Amendment.

A large majority of Americas would be shocked and appalled if the media truthfully reported the War Crimes committed in their name.

Yet the Democrats have take the only remedy for a criminal Presidency off the table and show no signs of bringing it back.

Rogue Corporations and Oil Companies are looting our economy and getting bailed out by American’s tax dollars or making record, obscene profits while receiving tax breaks…while Americas are throw out of their homes and struggle to survive in the face of inflation and $4 gas. This is government for the sake of the government. This is government for the sake of their corporate campaign donors. This government no longer represents the will of The People.

Our Government is out of control. Out of touch. Out of their minds.

And the leadership of both parties needs to be put out of a job.

Ask House Dems to say no to latest Iraq sellout

It’s such a “business as usual” story that the NY Times relegated it to page 21.

House Democrats have made another deal to fund the war in Iraq.

They’re voting today to give the Bush administration another $162-billion for Iraq and Afghanistan.

In return, Bush and the Repubs have apparently agreed to a better, expanded GI bill for veterans, extended unemployment compensation, and some helped to flooded areas.

A bad deal.

Call your House member today — right now — and say that.

It seems like the fix is in.  The deal is probably done.

But let’s not let it happen quietly on page 21.  Speak up.

The Washington Post says there will be two votes, one on the domestic spending and one on the money for the war.

Tell them to just say no.  Call now. The House switchboard is 202-225-3121. Or find your member here.

And on Friday, take some action yourself to end the war and occupation.  It’s Iraq Moratorium day, a day to take some action, individually or collectively, to interrupt your normal routine and make a statement.  

A postscript: Mission Accomplished:

BAGHDAD – Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP – the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company – along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.

 

WAR CRIMES! WAR CRIMES! WAR CRIMES!

Headlines across our nation this morning should have read: Two Star General Charges WAR CRIMES by Bush Administration.

As the web of lies….the coverup…on torture unravels in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Army General in charge of the investigation of Abu Ghraib says the words out loud. Not some outside agitator or loony lefty. Not a blogger. The two star general who was assigned to investigate…and then forced to retire after his investigation and report.

.

“After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

U.S. Army Major General Anthony Taguba, Ret.

The former chief of staff to Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson states before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights hearing on torture that at least 25 detainees have been outright murdered.

United States Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee, said yesterday: “Senior officials in the United States government sought out information on aggressive techniques, twisted the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees.”

Snip

“When Secretary Rumsfeld approved the use of abusive techniques, he unleashed a virus which ultimately infected interrogation operations,”

George Bush and Dick Cheney knew and authorized what Rumsfeld did.

The chain of testimony from high government officials with inside knowledge leads right to the top.

“Democrats Give White House Another Blank-Check For Iraq”

A Democratic engineered emergency supplemental bill to continue funding the occupation of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan to the tune of $162 billion is expected to win bipartisan support, aides to leaders in the House said late Wednesday.

The bill, as currently drafted, does not contain any conditions for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq nor does it restrict how President Bush can conduct military operations. The legislation ensures both wars are funded well into 2009 and comes nearly two years after Democrats won majorities in Congress and the Senate largely on promises to resist handing the Bush administration “blank-checks” for Iraq and a pledge to immediately bring U.S. troops home.

A spokesperson for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was unavailable for comment.  

Congressional leaders intend to hand the legislation to the Senate Thursday. The White House indicated Bush will sign the legislation into law if it passes both Houses, which Democratic leaders said is the likely outcome.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told Reuters the bipartisan legislation tackles “important domestic needs” in addition to the war funding. Hoyer and House Minority Leader John Boehner, (R-Ohio), announced the compromise between their political parties.

The latest round of funding comes two weeks after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued a scathing prewar Iraq intelligence report that accused Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other senior administration officials of knowingly lying to the public and Congress about Iraq’s arsenal of chemical and biological weapons as well as its ties to the terrorist group al-Qaeda in order to win support for a U.S. led invasion.

Democrats Give White House Another Blank-Check For Iraq

By Jason Leopold, The Public Record, Wednesday, June 18, 2008  

Pony Party……Busy

We’ve been very, very, very busy…moving our girl out, moving our stuff in, sorting, unpacking, not to mention the regular farm chores: weeding & watering the garden, making plans for more garden….feeding the rooster (going to get some hens today!), the dogs, the finches….hacking back 10 years of rampant growth…..

How’s your summer going?

Pony Party is an open thread! Hang out & chit-chat or drop your questions, concerns here.

But Do Not wRECk the pony!!!

***ANNOUNCEMENT***

geomoo is writing RAW tonite!!

Front Page~10PM eastern

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NEW SUMMER PONY PARTY SCHEDULE: 11AM & 8PM

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Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XII

It has taken years of learning and self-examination to come to an understanding of myself and gender as it applies to my experience, tentative though they still may remain.  According to some, it was unnecessary labor.  Everyone is an expert on gender.  Without any study…or even very much thought.  They know so much more than I do, to the point where they can so easily invalidate my existence.  

Art Link

Shades

Uncommon Wisdom

“Gender is ENTIRELY a social construct”

How easily is my existence denied

my experience dismissed

squashed like a bug

my motivations questioned

in front of everybody

How different are

testosterone and estrogen?

I know

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 7, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

This is an open thread.

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