July 16, 2008 archive

Four at Four, at Five

Special guest host?  Nah, It’s just me.

Special edition?  You bet.  We’re in Central time now, folks.

Welcome to the Four at Four, at Five (Four Central).

  • George Bush has decided that the House of Representatives may not have access to documents from the CIA leak investigation, because the documents contain classified interviews with the Vice President and other White House officials, which are protected by executive privilege.

    So the FBI can ask questions, and write down the answers…but they can’t tell anybody about what was said…because of executive privilege…so, what was the purpose of that investigation, if no one but the President is allowed to see the findings?

    Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the panel’s chairman, said in a statement today that Bush’s claim of executive privilege in the case is “ludicrous” and vowed to move ahead with a contempt citation against [Attorney General Michael B.] Mukasey.

    “This unfounded assertion of executive privilege does not protect a principle; it protects a person,” Waxman said. “If the vice president did nothing wrong, what is there to hide?”

    Exactly.  Thank you, Mr. Waxman.  Now do something about it.

  • The Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, among things, has risen 5% over the past year, and in June rose at the highest rate in 17 years…since the end of the last Bush’s reign, in fact.  This report comes just a day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that inflation posed a serious risk to the US economy.

    The report reinforces what many economists, including those at the Fed, have warned about for months: Americans are being forced to pay significantly higher prices even as the job market weakens and big employers like General Motors are laying off thousands of employees.

    “There’s not enough lipstick to put on this pig,” Richard Moody, an economist at Mission Residential, wrote in a note to clients. “No matter how one slices and dices,” he added, “the bottom line is that U.S. workers are falling farther and farther behind.”

    I have no idea what pigs wearing lipstick have to do with this; all I know is, it doesn’t sound good.

  • A meta-analysis of existing research has concluded that monthly breast self-exams do not necessarily lead to cancer detection or prevention, and may instead result in unnecessary medical procedures.

    “At present, screening by breast self-examination or physical examination [by a trained health worker] cannot be recommended,” two of the study authors, Jan Peter Kosters and Peter Gotzsche of the Nordic Cochrane Centre, stated in the review.

    The current review included two studies of almost 400,000 women in Russia and China. Women who did self-exams had 3,406 biopsies compared with only 1,856 biopsies in the group that did not do the exams. Differences in biopsy rates did not translate into differences in breast cancer mortality.

    The China study found that rates of mastectomy and lumpectomy (or “breast-conserving” surgery) were similar regardless of whether women were doing self-exams or not.

  • Kirk Radomski, who has been convicted of distributing steroids, found and turned in evidence against Roger Clemens while moving a broken television.

    “The investigators knew from day one that I sent a package to Clemens’ house,” Radomski told ESPN.com. “They knew before the Mitchell report was released and before Brian went before Congress. So this is nothing new to them.

    “I just couldn’t find the receipt. And just by [accident] this weekend, I moved my TV and whatnot and I found the package, an envelope, and it had [Clemens’] receipt and about seven or eight other receipts.”

    It sounds a little staged, but if it isn’t real I’m sure his attorney will figure it out.

  • Bonus story!

  • Analysis of new pictures obtained by the satellite orbiting Mars indicates that Mars used to be very wet.

    The key to the finding is the discovery that rocks called phyllosilicates are widespread on at least the planet’s southern hemisphere. The water present on Mars from about 4.6 billion to 3.8 billion years ago transformed some rocks into these phyllosilicates, which include clays rich in iron, magnesium or aluminum, mica, and kaolinite (an ingredient in Kaopectate).

    “In a phyllosilicate, the atoms are stacked up into layers, and all of the phyllosilicates have some sort of water or hydroxyl [oxygen and hydrogen group] incorporated into the crystal structure,” said study team member Scott Murchie of Johns Hopkins University.

    Previous data from an instrument called OMEGA – Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l’Eau, les Glaces et l’Activite on the Mars Express spacecraft had revealed only a few large outcrops of phyllosilicates, suggesting they were a relative rarity on Mars.

Contributing Editor for Newsweek: Pardon the torturers.

Yeah, I really wish I was making that up.

Via Sadly, No! comes the distrurbing opinion that, in order to get the truth about all this torture stuff, Bush should just pardon everyone involved so they could feel free to speak without having their lives inconvenienced with things like “investigations” and “court dates.”

The whole piece reads like some odd sort of sketch comedy script, where they were going for humor and instead crashed headfirst into a big pile of Stupid.

How would pardoning people who engaged in and ordered torture going to improve our world image? How would that ensure we get to the truth of the matter, a truth that pretty much everyone in the Ruling Class and The Village seems desperate to avoid?

I’m just stunned that this sort of thing is even being seriously discussed. Our country tortured people, and we’re talking about ways to excuse that behavior and brush it off as partisanship.

Kucinich’s fight to impeach Bush – Part I

July 16, 2008

American News Project: Kucinich’s Fight to Impeach Bush – Part I : Rep. Dennis Kucinich continued his seemingly quixotic crusade to impeach President Bush last week. But with Speaker Pelosi suggesting the House Judiciary Committee may hear his argument, Kucinich might get his day very soon.

Nadler Makes it Official: Politics Trumps Law in the USA

Rep. Jerrold Nadler,(NY) member of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, the committee whose Constitutional duty it is to bring impeachment charges against criminal presidents,  says it as baldly and plainly as it can be said:

The Bush Administration has committed War Crimes.The only thing stopping him from being impeached is politics.

War Crimes. The ultimate crimes. THE definitional worst thing you can do as a human being.

I ask you now to stop for a second, take a deep breath and really think about that.

Party politics and base political expediency is halting the trial of a War Criminal.

Not in some third world banana republic. Here. In America. Not because we can’t find him, or because their is not enough evidence…but because it is not politically advantageous.

The Democratic Party Leadership (Hoyer and Pelosi) is refusing to prosecute a War Criminal…..because of mere politics. The rule of a single man is being allowed to supplant the Rule of Law …because of politics. A War Criminal is not just walking free in plain sight, he is the President of the Land of the free and the Home of the brave. Because of politics….

….when did politics become more important than the law?

By what right do sworn Constitutional officers get to make the decision not to prosecute a War Criminal…ONLY because it is to their advantage?

We are through the looking glass.

Nadler says that when Obama is elected, he HOPES there will be prosecutions. I suppose that depends on if it is politically comfortable to prosecute War Criminals then.  

Jeff Merkley is Heading to Netroots Nation!

Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley is heading to Austin to attend Netroots Nation! Jeff has always believed that the netroots is a critical part of how we make progressive change in this country. He also knows that upstart, passionate Democratic challengers like Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown need the netroots to defeat entrenched incumbent Republicans like Gordon Smith.

Follow me below the fold to find out more about Jeff’s visit to Austin…

Since when did the “Surge” succeed?

Crossposted to ePluribus Media, DailyKos, Docudharma and Below Boston

Maybe I missed something — that can happen. In real life, things can sometimes occur that are unexpected. But this seems almost surreal:

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Obama website’s opposition to successful surge gets deleted

A funny thing happened over on the Barack Obama campaign website in the last few days.

The parts that stressed his opposition to the 2007 troop surge and his statement that more troops would make no difference in a civil war have somehow disappeared. John McCain and Obama have been going at it heavily in recent days over the benefits of the surge.

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“Seeds of Change”

This post was inspired by OPOL’s  Mitakuye Oyasin – All My Relations and pfiore8’s comment last night in notlightnessofbeing’s essay Wondering… that he posted in response to my own essay Change You Can Believe In… or Honestly, Would I Lie To You?, and by Robyn’s Muse In The Morning today.

Bruce Weaver an independent filmmaker journeys into the dream world to paint a picture of our future. “Seeds Of Change” is a message and a warning from those who have a vision of tomorrow. While seemingly bleek with honesty and truth of what we face it is time to face the reality of the situation. We are facing more than just a Global Warming crisis we are facing a crisis in consciousness. We are truly on the brink and the fruit of our seed is something that is needed more than ever from each and every one of us. We must rise to this occasion now. Our guest speakers include Dr. John Todd, Dr. Brian Natrrass and Dr. Peter Russell who help explain the situation we are in and some solutions to our problems. This tapestry of a visual graffatti art from the dreamworld intertwined with our speakers and a situmlating meditative audio track by reknowned shaman musician Byron Metcalf take us on a complelling journey that looks at our situation from many perspeictives including visionaries such as Chief Arvol Looking Horse and Jesse Wolf Hardin.

What kind of world are we creating?

A sinister plot

While we’ve all been worried about another four years of McBush or whether Obama is a closeted neo-con, another sinister plot has been gaining momentum, mostly unnoticed by the blogs, the voters, and (dare I say it?) the world.

No, I’m not talking about Skull and Bones or the Tri-Lateral Commission. Those might, in fact, be groups with hidden and sinister agendas. But then, how hidden can they be if we all know about them? And from what I’ve seen, those kinds of groups have been around for decades. So I’d say…nothing new here, move right along.

But this new group has controlled the White House during the last four out of six presidencies. And no matter who we elect in 2008 (McCain or Obama), they will control it again because both of these men are members of this group.

Curious?

Well, follow me below the fold and I’ll clue you in on this dangerous conspiracy. But here’s a hint.

Photobucket  

Matt Yglesias: A Case for Liberal Internationalism

Crossposted at Huff Post’s Off the Bus.

Photobucket    Photobucket

His colleagues call him “Big Media Matt.” That’s because Matthew Yglesias is a respected voice of the liberal blogosphere. The 28 year-old Yglesias has accomplished much. He graduated magna cum laude, from Harvard, served as editor-in-chief at The Harvard Independent, and upon graduating, he became a writing fellow at The American Prospect. Yglesias began blogging in 2002, focusing on American politics, public policy, and foreign policy. Yglesias now writes for The Atlantic Monthly and blogs at the Atlantic blog.

His new book, Heads in the Sand: How Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats has just been released by Wiley Press. In the book, Yglesias offers a new approach for the Democrats, an outline of how they might restore America’s integrity in conducting international affairs. He talked to OffTheBus last week.

More below the fold.

Freddie, Fannie And Friends

The wonderful world of our capitalist society, small c for the few that capitalize!

With trouble brewing inside mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Armen Keteyian reports that the nation is learning more and more about the companies and their friends in high places.

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XXX (Finis)

Art Link

Brain Scan

The Words

The words have control

command I attend

Through my mind they must flow

I am their vessel

They require writing

demand creation

Pushing boldly forward

whenever I pause

The words I give you

that they may be read

and spead their infection

into the future

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–February 16, 2006

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Obama, McCain clash on what to do about Iraq war

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

31 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – The two major presidential rivals sharpened their long-standing dispute over the Iraq War on Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama calling it a costly distraction that must end while Republican Sen. John McCain insisted it is a conflict the United States has to win.

“Iraq is not going to be a perfect place, and we don’t have unlimited resources to try and make it one,” Obama said in a speech in which he also said the United States must shift its focus to defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

Rebutting swiftly, McCain said Obama “will tell you we can’t win in Afghanistan without losing in Iraq. In fact, he has it exactly backwards.”

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