Impeachable?

This is clearly unconstitutional and illegal. When will the impeachment begin?

Oh dear loard

Now, I hate the BCS bullshit as much as anyone...really I do. It's the sport, competition in the world where 118 teams compete for 5 months and then they have a two-team one game playoff to determine the champion. Never mind that 4 or 5 teams could all be undefeated and obviously have never met each other, but only two play for the title.

BUT, the Federal government should keep it's nose out of it, because if there is one body more inept and incompetent that the NCAA, especially when they deal with Div 1-A Football, it must be Congress.

sure they clap

Has Bush spoke to a Non-military crowd in the past 3 months? I guess when only 37% of America thinks you don't suck, speaking to an audience that has orders to applaud all your lies, name-calling and rhetorical talking points is a good idea.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/30/us.iraq/index.html


AND CB, still waiting for your response to my thorough destruction of your bragging about Bush's impact on the Dow. You're probably doing some research, eh? I suggest you go back to Herbert Hoover for historical parallels.

a multi part series: Why I wouldn't want to be a child in Florida

In my continuing series "I'd hate to be a kid in Florida" comes the
latest:


http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/11/29/vodka.baby.ap/index.html

I LOVE the Parlimentary system

Such immediate accountability and 6 week election cycles. Awesome


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051129/ts_nm/politics_can_dc

College Football wrap up

I don't blog much about college football although Im a huge fan. In fact, I'm a season ticket holder for the Ducks. But here's some comments:

Reggie Bush should win the Heisman. WHy? because he should have won it last year. Matt Leinhart wasn't even the best player on his team last year let alone in the country. But the DAC screwed up and gave it to Matt. NOw they screwed themselves b/c Leinhart his having an even better year this year and is more deserving than last year, but come on ...if you asked any college coach in the country who'd they LOVE to have on their team, I'd bet 90% would say Bush. Leinhart's good, even great, but Bush is magical. After you ask the coaches, ask the linebackers and cornerbacks what player they would NOT want running at them in the open field...again Bush would win that one.

Sorry Vince, next year

What's the difference between the "Fighting Irish" and the "Fighting Illini". YOu may say nothing, both are names of college sports teams that either denigrate or honor an entire people. But there is a difference, one of those names belongs to Notre Dame. So, they do what they want. They get special TV contracts, an extra 7 spots in every football poll that comes out weekly, they even get a special deal with the BCS. BUT they aren't not held to the same standard when it comes to names that honor/denigrate an entire people. Don't expect the NCAA to be forcing the priests at Notre Dame to be shedding their name anytime soon.

Finally, Please Fiesta Bowl comittee, take the Ducks...

According to Fox News

This one goes along with how George W. Bush has failed his base in almost every single way to this point (fiscally responsible, bringing integrity to the office, a humble superpower etc.): According to the Fox News Report I saw a few hours ago, the illegal Immigrant population is up 30% since 2000. 30% talk about a failure. And this is while we are supposedly protecting ourselves from terrorists and yet we now have 30% MORE illegal immigrants since Bush took over…that’s pathetic.

How the Bushies can support this guy who has delivered NOTHING (except that $300 rebate check a few years ago) on what he promised shows how far zealotry can allow people to depart from reality.

Why don't Cheney and the right wing zealots question HER patriotism?

Nice piece by John Powers

T.O.s suspension upheld, come on you were surprised...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10182233/from/RS.3/

GOP strategy: disparage true heroes then lie about saying it...pathetic

Daily there is evidence that America is really sick of the GOP attack machine

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10169562/from/RS.2/

So, in this case, calling a decorated veteran a coward and attributing those words FALSELY to someone else shows how classless and immoral many in this party really are.

if they were decorated American vets, Cheney could call them "cowards"

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/22/iraq.conference.ap/index.html

Latest Church news

No Gays Allowed

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/11/22/vatican.gays.ap/index.html

Pedophiles...well that might be ok
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,176294,00.html

Even the vatican thinks American zealots are out of line with that "intellegent design" mythology
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,176050,00.html
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms,

Will the entire GOP end up in jail?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/21/politics/21cnd-scanlon.html

I guess if you engage in criminal activity long enough, you'll get caught.

Draft Dodger tones down rhetoric

Must be the calling war heroes "cowards" by people who are draft dodgers isn't polling well.
Regardless, America knows that Vice President Deferment must have a lot of balls to call a decorated, wounded vet's patriotism into question and are sick of these draft dodgers names.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/21/cheney/index.html

A friend sent me the following article with the subject line:

Glad to see God will now be part of the FDA approval board

My hope is that the zealots keep pushing their agenda b/c they are eventually going to piss of the majority of Americans that BELIEVE in science and technology, and even though they believe in God and attend church they understand the place of religion in their lives. They understand that while God may give them strength, it was science that gave them pills to lower their cholesterol and give them boners.

And a question for Pat Robertson, where exactly in the Bible is the concept of Intelligent Design? His defense of that mythology as coming from God seems pretty heretical to me.

Freedom on the march...again

We replaced one horrible dictator with another. Good job...all for the cost of 2000 American lives and a few hundred billion dollars.

"I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating -- one or two cases were
paralyzed, and some cases of skin peeled off various parts of the body," the
official, Hussein Kamal, told CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/15/iraq.main/index.html


"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"

Do you think more lying is going to help these numbers?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/14/bush.poll/index.html

"We have a proud record of accomplishment and a positive agenda for the future,"
White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Wednesday. "We look forward to continuing to talk about it. I mean, you can get caught up in polls; we
don't. Polls are snapshots in time."

They don't get caught up in polls? That's a lie, otherwise the WH wouldn't be trying to change eveyone's mind about how the adminstration lied about Iraq and sending everyone back to ethics class. A vicious cycle that lying. Lying about how you don't care if people call you a liar just makes more people think you're a liar.

Why does Bush hate veterans?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/12/dems.radio.ap/index.html


I guess maybe if he took his own "military service" seriously he would take seriously the great Americans that served their country honorably.

Jesse turns his sights elsewhere, now that all racial and economic injustice has been fixed

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/nfl/11/13/owens.jackson.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

Thanks Jesse, for protecting the interests of one of the highest paid athletes in America from the evil, evil NFL that made him a multi-millionaire. I didn't know that racial and economic injustice had been solved so that you could now devote your time to helping out millionaire assholes.

(I love TO on the field, but you don't try to start fights in the media with your QB, especially the one that has thrown you 20 TDs in a year and a half, even worse to start a fight with a guy you really don't have problem with...McNabb's didn't negotiate your deal with the Eagles YOU DID. Don't worry TO, you can ruin another franchise next year)

As for Jesse, shut up. Defending spoiled multimillionaires is beneath you, or least it used to be.

Bush Lies

Bush is going to challenge the critics of the war and those who say he misled America about the intelligence, but he's going to say he got BAD intelligence (like incompetence in his departments is some sort of excuse). I hope he keeps going on in it b/c more and more evidence of his lies will come out.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/10/iraq.intel/index.html

Spies at the White House

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9978481/

Another campaign?

This time to repair is image as a liar:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/08/Bush.retaliates/index.html

That Social Security road show turned out so well they decided to give it another shot.

George Bush: has done more damage to the GOP than Dems have in 35 years

George Couldn't deliver the Virginia Gov mansion and he didn't help in NJ:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9972632/


Arnie was never competent to be governor, he's done nothing that Gray Davis wouldn't have done (he borrowed more money), hasn't accomplished anything, it's too bad Californian's took this long to realize their error:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20051109/cm_huffpost/010373;_ylt=A86.I1gpXXJDj7AApCr9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

Proving America still accepts science of religous hokum:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9973228/


Bush's coattails extend across the Atlantic:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/11/09/security.britain.law/index.html

Rice to meet with Iranian spy...

Why is the Sec of State meeting with an Iranian spy and liar in Washington? This man should be in prison, not dining with the administration.

Shameful

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/07/chalabi.us.reut/index.html

God helping to sort out the hypocrites?

When the House voted in early September for a $1.4 billion relief bill for victims of Hurricane Katrina, Rep. John Hostettler (Ind.) was one of 11 Republicans to oppose it.

Yesterday, the congressman, who is facing a tight race next year, and several other Indiana members asked President Bush for money to help victims of another natural disaster -- the tornado that ripped through many areas in his 8th District [...]

More Bush incompetence/lies/disinformation/etc proven

And more Bush errors on Iraq:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1106intelligence06.html

WASHINGTON - In February 2002, the Defense Intelligence Agency questioned the
reliability of an al-Qaida operative whose claims became the basis of Bush
administration claims that terrorists had been trained in chemical and
biological weapons in Iraq, according declassified material released by Sen.
Carl Levin, D-Mich.

I wonder, considering the incompetence of this administration, how they even FOUND Iraq.

Arnie more like Bush every day

Right down the the private audience for those who give him money:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-arnold06.html

A Schwarzenegger aide told the ''Bulworth'' star he was not on the guest list
and did not have the appropriate wristband to get inside.
''You have to have a wristband to listen to the governor?'' Bening asked. ''He represents all of us, right?

''

Shameful and Unamerican

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/06/congress.detainees.ap/index.html

Of course, you can always justify torture by “protecting national interests and security”. It’s how Stalin justified the gulags and every two bit despot justifies torture, they are always “enemies of the state” and the torturer is just trying to protect their country. I NEVER thought I’d hear Americans doing the same rationalization. But this is the era of Bush, an era of amorality, pathological secrecy, lying and lack of ethics…torture is just the logical next step.

You’re either for torture or against it. It’s either wrong or it’s not.

Makes me sick.

No WMD and Saddam would have left Iraq...

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/International/2005/10/30/1284645-sun.html

Boy, the Bushies really wanted this war didn’t they?

Bush's Watergate

From the Independent in UK.

Sleaze, leaks and an indictment add up to the worst presidential crisis
since Nixon. And it will get worse. The White House has lost one key man but the
whole chain of command may be engulfed by a scandal slowly revealing the lies
that led to war.

I wish I could get this deal

You get fired, lie to Congress and you keep your job, but without the responsibility or accountability. All so you can share your expertise, expertise you were so sorely lacking that it got you fired.

Is this what they taught you in your MBA program? Keep the incompetents on the payroll so they can share their incompetence? Doesn't seen very MBA-like to me, but then again this idiocy happens every day with this crew.

Apparently, Brownie's influence is still being felt in disasters (so I guess they are getting their money's worth as Brown shares his incompetence with others), even if Jeb plays the team player and takes a bullet for his incompetent brother.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9823799/

Jeb Bush accepts blame for slow aid efforts

A victory for the people rebuilding New Orleans

What a tragedy for Bechtel and other Bushie supporters, they have to pay prevailing wage to the very people who were left homeless and unemployed by the Bushie’s incompetence and lack of foresight in fixing the levees BEFORE the storm. Especially since the contracts they awarded were no bid and no oversight, the ability to screw employees doing the work was just a Bushie Bonus. Shameful.

Not a defeat for Bushies, but a victory of for the people of the Gulf Coast.

They won! Rep. George Miller (D-CA) played a pivotal role in organizing
cosponsors for a bill to overturn the president's Gulf Coast Wage Cut. Later, he
found a way to force a vote on the legislation. Unwilling to face that prospect,
today the White House caved in and revoked the wage cut on their own.

She taught us a small act could change the world

Lying is one thing, being dumb is another

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9805923/
Frist didn't think these letters would come to light?

Managers of the trusts that Frist once described as "totally blind," regularly
informed him when they added new shares of HCA Inc. or other assets to his
holdings, according to the documents.

In January 2003, after winning election as majority
leader, Frist was asked on CNBC whether his HCA holdings made it difficult for him to push for changes in Medicare, a federal health program for seniors that added to the hospital company's revenue.

'I have no control'

"I think really for our viewers it should be understood that I put this into a blind trust," Frist replied. "So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock." He added that the trust was "totally blind. I have no control."

MY FAVORITE PART:
"He [Frist] could have been more exact in his comments," said Bob Stevenson, spokesman for Frist

"he could have been more exact"????, yeah could have told the truth. He was very exact in his comments. "I have no control" is VERY EXACT. It's absolute and it turns out it was an ABOLUTE LIE.
Shameful.

The UN helping Bush with some convenient timing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,13031,1598038,00.html

The Bushies are going to get all indignant about this and try to pretend like they care in a pathetic attempt to make America forget about the criminal actions of Rove, Libby, Frist, DeLay and dozens of others and the general incompetence of this administration. Let's invade Syria, third times the charm.

Was the UN convened when the US assassinated Ngo Dinh Diem? I can't remember? Or any number or Latin American rulers? Again, just askin.


BREAKING NEWS President Bush calls for United Nations to convene after
"deeply disturbing" report implicates Syrian officials in assassination.

More recruiting material for the terrorists

I know the Bushies love this stuff, but so does bin Laden. Makes his recruitment efforts so easy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9755213/


I took a Business Ethics class a while back. One of the things it suggests is to foresee your actions and think if you'd want your mother or grandmother to read about in the newspaper.

Obviously war is a different environment, but I'd suggest a wartime version to that. As a US soldier, you should ask if you'd want your actions to appear as the lead on Al-Jazeera or on the cover of Crazy Terrorist Daily, knowing specifically that any explanation or context will be absent.

Just a thought. I know war is hell, but if this is a war on terrorism, the goal should be eliminating terrorism, not creating more terrorists.

Hearts and Minds people.

It's never there fault

"I'm not a hurricane expert," Chertoff said several times in responding to criticisms from members of a special House panel set up to investigate the dismal federal response to Katrina, which killed more than 1,200 people, flooded New Orleans and forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands.

Will he say the same thing when there is a terrorist attack?

More amoral actions by the GOP

Haliburton and the president's lobbyist friends get no bid/no oversight contracts in Iraq and New Orleans

…but we’re going to let old people freeze to death this winter.

Seems like a pretty amoral way to start displaying fiscal responsibility

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9765654/

What exactly would Jesus do?

I wonder how many homes the Alaskan Pork Bride to nowhere would provide heat for?

DeLay Arrest Warrant

http://dailydelay.blogspot.com/2005/10/arrest-warrant.html

The blame game continues as long as it's the Bushies covering their own asses

Will he say the same thing when there is a terrorist attack? I"m not a terrorism expert?

Take some accountability you spineless sissy.

"I'm not a hurricane expert," Chertoff said several times in responding to
criticisms from members of a special House panel set up to investigate the
dismal federal response to Katrina, which killed more than 1,200 people,
flooded New Orleans and forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands.

While you were out

A friend of mine was married a couple of weekends ago. Upon he return he asked if Bush was still on the ropes. I assured him that everything had been fixed while he was gone:

Oh no, it’s all sorted out.

He’s got an exit strategy for Iraq and fired Rumsfeld for his overseeing of the erosion of America’s moral authority in the world
He caught bin Laden
He fired Rove and Libby for committing treason
He withdrew Harriet Miers nomination and nominated someone whose qualifications extend beyond “he knows her heart”
He’s fixed the economy, FEMA and the budget
He’s eliminated pork from the budget
Everyone has healthcare
He fixed global warming and the endangered species act.
Provided money to AIDS that he promised for Africa

And a bunch of other little things. He’s had a busy week.

Somehow he managed to fit in a completely scripted “impromptu” conversation with some soldiers in Iraq and despite a videotape of the soldiers being told what to say and how to say it, Scotty M denied that it was scripted. PRICELESS

Everything in NOT "surreal"

From the land of overused and MISUSED words comes "surreal". For the past few years it seems like EVERY time something happens to somebody it's "surreal". Well, NO IT"S NOT. Everything can't be surreal so stop saying it. You don't sound smart, you sound like an idiot to anyone with half a brain.

From Penn Jillette

A quote from Penn that appeared in Time Out New York (as quoted in Playboy)

“It’s so weird that these theists, these cranks are so anti-science yet so
willing to reap the benefits. They’re so willing to give everything to God
but not willing to suffer polio”

Will...again

Last week, Will pointed out the Bush is not and hasn't been a Conservative since he took office. This week, Will puts another nail in the coffin of the fake form of Conservativism that the Bushie's and their ilk have been peddling for the past 6 years. I've been telling some of you that you aren't really Conservatives. As you don't believe me, maybe George Will is a more acceptable bearer of the truth for you.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9629463/site/newsweek/

In 1987 Reagan vetoed a transportation bill because it contained 152 earmarks-pork-costing $1.4 billion. The bill President Bush signed contained 6,371, costing $24 billion. The total cost of the bill-$286 billion-is more, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than the combined costs of the Marshall Plan and the interstate highway system.

More proof that they lie about EVERYTHING

They have an inability to tell the truth about ANYTHING.

Read the article and then read this:


On Oct: 12th:
Scott McClellan was asked whether the teleconference the president had with troops in Tikrit was scripted. Here's what he said ...
QUESTION: How were they selected, and are their comments to the president pre-screened, any questions or anything...
MCCLELLAN: No.
QUESTION: Not at all?
MCCLELLAN: This is a back-and-forth.

The US government is such a joke

Shame on Canada, Shame on the US government for pursuing a sick pot grower.

The war on drugs is over idiots...and drugs won. Now get your shit together and spend your resources fighting terrorism and fixing Iraq...and the budget and New Orleans and etc etc. Then you can move on to the real important stuff like kidnapping sick pot growers and stopping boys from kissing.

Shameful

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/10/13/patient.arrest.ap/index.html

Pathetic Pandering

Bush keeps saying that he doesn’t have a litmus test for SC Justice, yet when his evangelical base starts griping he has to admit that he has one litmus test that is completely irrelevant to the job. Especially, when he and his Bushie minions keep talking about how Judges should put their personal opinions aside and interpret the Constitution in it’s original form. We all know they really mean impose Bush’s drastically misguided version of a Christian Theocracy and not the Constitution, how else do you square it’s continued trampling of State’s democratic process through exceedingly lame expansions of the Interstate Commerce Clause to invoke Federal Authority where NONE existed 10 years ago, let alone when the framers got together.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/12/miers.religion/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush suggested Wednesday that Harriet Miers'
evangelical Christian beliefs were part of the reason he nominated her to the
Supreme Court. But later a White House spokesman said her religion played no
role in her selection.

"People are interested to know why I picked Harriet
Miers," Bush told reporters at the White House. "They want to know Harriet
Miers' background. They want to know as much as they possibly can before they
form opinions."

"Part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion," Bush said
during Oval Office comments with visiting Polish President Aleksander
Kwasniewski. "Part of it has to do with the fact that she was a pioneer woman
and a trailblazer in the law in Texas."

The right wing media fails again

And the Bushies got all riled about this, despite it being WHOLLY IRRELEVANT to their irrational fear of boys kissing:

On an Illinois radio show I did last week -- available on our website or at this
link -- one anti-gay caller characteristically avoided offering a reason why
the government should continue excluding same-sex couples from marriage and, as
usual, went to the "slippery slope" diversion of "polygamy." As new proof that
the sky was falling, the caller said that the Netherlands, which has ended the
exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage, has now also allowed a trio of man
and two women to wed. Before yet another right-wing scare tactic gathers
traction, please note that this claim -- that the Netherlands registered a
multi-partner "civil union" -- is untrue.

Following the radio interview, we looked into the caller's claim and found an erroneous September 27 report in something called the Brussels Journal -- www.brusselsjournal.com -- misusing the term "civil union" and talking about something "registered by a notary." Once we checked this with a leading Dutch expert who follows legal developments in family law, we learned that the only legally relevant thing that happened was that three people, with the help of a notary, signed a private cohabitation contract -- and did not enter into any kind of legal state-recognized union. Such personal agreements are not registered, and do not have legal implications for third parties. In both these respects, as well with regard to the state's imprimatur, a personal agreement or contract is different from both marriage and registered partnership. (And civil union, as such, is not a legal status in the
Netherlands).

Again, this was a private arrangement among three people, not a
marriage or partnership or union. According to our Dutch expert, there is no law
in the Netherlands (nor in most other countries) that limits the number of
parties who can among themselves make a personal agreement or cohabitation
contract. Dutch law does not regulate cohabitation contracts as such. Some Dutch
laws (for example in the fields of tax and social security), however, attach
certain legal consequences to the de facto cohabitation of two people (whether
or not these cohabitants have signed a cohabitation contract), but never to the
de facto cohabitation of three or more people. With respect to de facto (i.e.
unregistered) cohabitation there has not been any recent change in Dutch law.

Do I hear 37?

Bush approval dips below 40 percent
NBC-WSJ poll shows only 28 percent believe U.S. headed in right direction

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9672058/

I'd like to know about the disconnect between the 39% who approve of the President and the 28% who think we're headed in the right direction. Who are the 11% who think we're headed in the wrong direction, but still approve of the President? Doesn't the President steer the ship?

"public intoxication" in New Orleans?

Back to the cops who gang up to beat on old men.

If cops arrested everyone in NO who was publically intoxicated, wouldn't they have to arrest EVERYONE?

Why America hates Unions

Here is the union's response to a group of white officers beating on an old man who was immobilized with his head against a wall:

The head of the New Orleans police union said the officers told him they
had acted appropriately.

"They feel they were justified in their actions and they were using the amount of force necessary to overcome the situation," Lt. David Benelli told WDSU in New Orleans.

Now, I have a Master's Degree in Labor Relations and I once thought Unions were a noble cause. that was until I worked part time at the Post Office. Unions basically seem to exist today to give multi-millionaires bigger salaries and defend racist and incompetent cops. They also defend incompetent employees. I saw it at the Post Office, the only people to need the union were the ones who did the least work and the most bitching.

Unions had their day, but when the Union defends beating an old man without question it proves how truly irrelevant they are to defending the rights of the DECENT working man and woman who don't act inappropriately.

In Other FOotball news

Just got home from Sun Devil stadium where I watched my Ducks defeat the ASU Sun Devils. First game I've seen this year, since I moved from OR to AZ and had to sell all of my tickets.

Terrence Whitehead ends up with the Double Triple (100 yds rushing and 100 yd recieving)...a beautiful night for football in Tempe, even better for those of us in green.

Defense wins football games

My son's flag football team (2-0) was playing another undefeated team today. Most of the game his team was a mess, but with 44 seconds left the game was tied 12-12. My son lines up in linebacker spot and their QB drops back. He throws. Ball goes up, into a group of 4 boys. My son jumps a little bit higher and at full stride he intercepts the ball. He never breaks stride as he alludes the entire team to run 3/4 the length of the field for what turns out to be the game winning touchdown.

Sweet

Al Hamilton...spinning in his grave

I guess Alexander Hamilton never presumed we'd have an utterly shameless president

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers,

"The Appointing Power of the President," No. 76 To what purpose
then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of
their concurrence would have a powerful, though, in general, a silent operation.
It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and
would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State
prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to
popularity. . . . He would be both ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the
most distinguished or lucrative stations, candidates who had no other merit than
that of coming from the same State to which he particularly belonged, or of
being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the
necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments
of his pleasure.

Let’s not forget that the Imperial Presidency we see today is not what the framers envisioned. So, Al and his pals would likely be quite shocked at today’s goings on.

This is not so much what we’ve seen in our lifetimes, but remember Congress is designed to be the superior body.
The Senate’s consent is required on major appointments
Congress can remove a President or a Supreme Court Justice, not vice versa
Congress controls the purse
Congress declares war

Congress over the years has allowed the Executive to act in ways not envisioned by the framers and Bush is just the best example of why that’s bad for America.

Those pesky states

I'm making the assumption that the Bushies (who still claim some Conservative street cred despite the fact that they have less Conservativism in them than Barry Goldwater had in his pinkie) , support the Federal Government's dramatic usurpation of state powers to dictate to the people of Oregon on an issue they have TWICE voted for directly. If my assumption is correct, please tell me how that opinion squares with your rantings of about the State's democratic rights about banning gay marriage.

I suppose they are hoping for a little judicial activism here, right. Dictatorship of the judiciary and all that...

Right to Die

"The John Roberts Court will hear its first high-profile
arguments today, when the justices take up a case involving doctor-assisted
suicide. Oregon law allows terminally ill people to take lethal drugs to end
their lives. But the Bush administration has tried to override this law by
threatening to prosecute doctors involved in such cases. The Supreme Court
should make it clear that Oregon can allow doctor-assisted suicide," The New
York Times reports. In Cato's friend of the court brief http://www.cato.org/pubs/legalbriefs/gonzales-oregon.pdf
,
co-author Mark Moller, a Cato senior fellow in constitutional studies, argues
that the federal government must respect the special role of states as
laboratories of experiment in our constitutional framework.

George Will calls out the President on Conservativism

This would appear to be the nail in the coffin that was the Bush Presidency. Will has called out Bush on Conservativism, something I've said for years. Will joins the chorus of other real Conservatives, who still believe in smaller government and state's rights. But will is more mainstream than Pat Buchanan and I think this represents the true end of the President's effectiveness within his own party.

More Proof of the President's Lame Duckness

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9601116/

As I said earlier today after reading George Will call out the President is NOT a Conservative, that this presidency is over.

Connecticut: democracy inaction

Democracy in action. As such those Bushies who keep complaining that the courts should stay out of this and let the legislatures decide will wholly support this:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051002-11084100-bc-us-gayunions.xml

In today's "GOP without ethics" feature

In today's GOP Lack of Ethics news:

Frist admits his lack of ethics.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/26/frist.stocksale.ap/index.html

"I had no information about HCA or its performance that was not publicly
available when I directed the trustees to sell the stock," Frist said, referring
to the sale by administrators of his blind trusts.

For those of you playing at home, if you have a blind trust, you wouldn't even know what was in it, let alone be able to direct the trustees to do anything with it's contents.

And when your brother is the director of the company in question and you sell the stock a couple of weeks before it tanks, along with all of the other insiders (who should probably be investigated to for insider trading), it seems pretty clear that you're a criminal.

But for now, I'll just call him unethical. The criminal charge will come in time, well it would if the Bushies don't make the Feds stop investigating him.

This should make every American sick

How many times do we have to hear this before some people accept that this is systemic and that Rumsfeld should have been fired 2 years ago?

How many times does the Bushies have to hear this before they accept this isn’t just 4 or 5 sick individuals?

How many times does the hypocrisy that we are fighting to save these people from Taliban’s/Saddam’s torture rooms while we have our own torture rooms have to be proven before America wakes the hell up? The Arab world sure as hell sees it.

This should make everyone who loves America and what we used to stand for before Bush came to power sick. Anyone who defends it is no better the Saddam apologists. Torture is torture and it IS worse when America engages in it, especially when we are supposed to be protecting the world from the tortures.

We have met the torturer, and he is us.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1108972,00.html?cnn=yes

Tip of the immoral crooked iceberg

Watergate unfolded slowly too.

Let's hope, for America's sake, this be the removal of the first thread that shows how utterly corrupt this administration and the top of the GOP leadership is? Bush has NO political capital left and just like with Watergate, it could be the Republicans that do the unraveling (Chuck Hagel on line 1).

One hopes that those members of the GOP with Integrity (or at least a will for political survival) will step up and finally admit to what they've seen all along.

The Rovian/Delay model of patronage, bribery, character assignation and incompetence is crumbling, for the sake of America...Cue patriotic theme music (preferably Ray Charles doing America the Beautiful).

Former White House Official Arrested
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed
at 7:24 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former Bush administration official was arrested
Monday on charges he made false statements and obstructed a federal
investigation into his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to court
documents and government officials.

David Safavian, then-chief of staff of the General Services
Administration and a former Abramoff lobbying associate, concealed from federal
investigators that Abramoff was seeking to do business with GSA when Safavian
joined him on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002, according to an FBI affidavit and
the officials.

Old thoughts

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/13/katrina.impact/index.html

I might as well say "I take responsibility". In the real world, if you're responsible for something you suffer the consequences of your failures. Unless Bush resigns or takes a pay cut, his "responsibility" is meaningless.

He expects to get a pass because he SAYS he's responsible, but nothing more.
Accountability, something this WH was going to restore and it's done nothing but hand out medals and contracts to cronies that fail in their duty to America.

If he's responsible...Impeach him. That's RESPONSIBILITY.

Oops...again...again

For a family that keeps telling me how to best live my life and raise my kids, you’d think the progeny of George H.W. Bush would get their own damn house in order before they preach to me about it.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/16/jeb.bush.son.arrest.ap/index.html

Are there any of Jeb or George’s kids that HAVEN'T been arrested?

More suffering caused by Bush

So much for helping the poor.

The president’s friends get No bid NO LIMIT contracts for the death and destruction that his incompetence caused and he has the sickening nerve to screw the very people that will do the rebuilding, those that need it most. It’s shameful, especially when you understand that the contracts awarded in this disaster are valued at WHATEVER the contractor bills to the Feds…NO LIMITS. Every dollar saved by under paying workers go right into Dick Cheney’s pocket.

Sickening, but typical for this incompetent lame excuse for a President

09/12/2005Bush Suspends Prevailing-Wage Law in Katrina Zone

The Davis-Bacon Act, which requires federal contractors to pay the prevailing or
average pay in the region, has been suspended in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged
areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi by President Bush.
In a
letter to Congress, Bush said he has the power to suspend the law because of the
national emergency caused by the hurricane. "I have found that the conditions
caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute a 'national emergency,' " he wrote.
He went on to justify the decision by claiming that Davis-Bacon--enacted in
1931, amid the Great Depression--increases construction costs. Suspending it, he
said, "will result in greater assistance to these devastated communities and
will permit the employment of thousands of additional individuals."
The
Washington Post reports that Bush's action "infuriated labor leaders and their
Democratic supporters in Congress, who said it will lower wages and make it
harder for union contractors to win bids."
AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney
denounced the Bush announcement as "outrageous."
"Employers are all too
eager to exploit workers," he said. "This is no time to make that easier. What a
double tragedy it would be to allow the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to
depress living standards even further."
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
noted that the Davis-Bacon Act was signed into law at "a time when scurrilous
employers were taking advantage of the desperation of American workers to care
for their families. At that time, and for more than 70 years since then, the
federal government has demanded that when taxpayer money is spent, workers
should be paid a livable wage.
"But today," she continued, " the Bush
Administration demonstrated the latest example of its anti-worker agenda, with
an executive order rescinding the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act for areas
hit by Hurricane Katrina. That means that as workers return to their lives and
livelihoods on the Gulf Coast, the Bush Administration wants to use federal
money to exploit them by paying less than the prevailing
wage."

Arizona violating anti-immigrant law by helping Katrina victims...oops

A lesson in why representative democracy may be better than every Tom, Dick and Harry with a bankroll and an agenda writing laws.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0912ruelas12.html

Last week, the state of Arizona started giving out welfare money to people who
can't prove their citizenship. It was a show of goodwill to victims of Hurricane
Katrina. It's also a clear violation of a recently passed state
law.

...

Unfortunately, under the new state law, that is not good
enough. Meaning a portion of the aid being distributed is technically illegal.
The state employees could be found guilty of misdemeanors. Someone could halt
the state's "Operation Good Neighbor" by filing a civil court case.

...

The law is clear. Each state agency or local government must verify the identity and immigration status of everyone who applies for benefits. The law also states it "shall be enforced without regard to race, religion, gender, ethnicity or national origin."There is no provision for emergencies. There is no provision for compassion.

Disgusting

Bush cuts money to prevent the tragedy, more people die because of his inaction, yet his friends still get rich. He’s like Richard Daly, without the competence, but with dictatorial powers.

Makes me sick.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9282533/

Entourage

In case you still didn't know. Entourage is the best show on TV, hopefully you caught it before the season finale, but I'm sure HBO will be bringing out the DVDs soon.

Ari Gold is the best character in years.

So, "Let's hug it out, bitch"

COWARD

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9247775/

He can’t even keep his promises or stand up for what he believes in. Typical unprincipled GOP pantywaist.

With regard to "God's Wrath" or the hypocrisy and blashamy of the "Christian Right"

I know everyone has read about last week that the anti-abortion group Columbia Christians for Life claimed that Katrina is God's punishment for America's tolerance of abortion rights as well as the general sinful nature of the people of New Orleans. So, a question for the religious folks.

If Christ died for our sins, why did these people die for other people's sins? Did Christ die for the sins of a select few? Or are the dead in NO, who died for the sins of others, martyrs or messiahs?




And I’ll pose another question.

If you say that God is killing people for their sins, or in an entirely different scenario, the sins of others…and God being omnipotent would know that innocent people would die if he sent a hurricane, doesn’t that pretty much show a complete disavowal of Christianity in general.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t pretty much the main part of the New Testament (which makes Christians Christians) that a)God gave his only begotten son and b)that son died for our sins. To say that God is killing people for their sins pretty much denies that Christ died for them, no?

A friend of mine recently made the point earlier that the god who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, was replaced in the NT, by the aforementioned (John 3:16). Couldn’t it be said that the people who made these statements don’t believe in the NT and therefore, can’t be called “Christians”?

New Orleans

Haven't blogged on this, but I've sent a bunch of emails to friends. Don't really have much to add that hasn't been said. Bush failures, complete disconnect from reality (especially the reality of poverty in America...see his mother comments on how the people in the Astrodome are really better off now anyway), the Far Right's wrath of God crap. (if Jesus died for our sins why would God kill innocent people for the sins of others? Would that not make them like Jesus?).

On and on it goes.

But the Daily Show nailed it tonight when Ed Helms "reported" that Bush planed to build a dam in Arkansas so that "we could fight the flood waters over there, rather than over here". Summing up brilliantly the disaster that is the Bush administration and it's unexperienced political cronies that get rewarded with FEMA jobs for being a good fundraiser.

despicable.

"a country founded on the bible" ???

a friend of mine claimed once again today that "the foundation for American society is the Bible". He made this claim in defense of the ideology that passes for Christianity these days...the Pat Robertson type.

This is my response:

My point is that to claim the Deists of Virginia, the Calvinists in
Massachusetts, the religious toleration (and belief in complete separation of
Church and State) of Roger Williams in Rhode Island, the tenets of the Quakers
and William Penn in Pennsylvania, the secular capitalism of the Dutch in New
York, the Catholics in Maryland and assorted Jews, Muslims, atheists, Mennonites
and whoever else, agreed on religion’s role in society and government is to show
an ignorance of the history of this country.

They couldn’t even
agree on what the Bible said, let alone that is should dictate how society
should operate (Rhode Island banned slavery on religious grounds before the
Revolution, and yet the Southern states defended slavery on religious grounds
until 1865 and beyond)

And they sure as shit didn’t agree
with the current crop of “Christians” led by the intolerance and hatred of the
Pat Robertsons and Eric Rudolphs that believe they hold a monopoly on what
Christianity means today, while acting in very Unchristian ways. After all
these are the ones who do all the chest beating about the down trodden majority
and how they are so oppressed while they shout it from their TV networks,
Magazines, newspapers, the floor of the Senate and a ranch in Crawford.

While I believe “the media” is very often incompetent and generally lazy (and gutless when it comes to this administration) I think most often the reason for their lameness is the desire to sell the story. Think about the missing pretty white girl in Aruba, contrasted with the thousands of other missing children in America. But I digress.

In recent (and especially in the past couple of) years there have been a series of bad hurricanes and the media has been quick to look for answers in the “dramatic increase” in hurricane activity. So, as I was browsing the National Hurricane Center’s website, I came across this:

Hurricanes by Decade:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml

You’ll notice it appears we have come out of a period of relative calm in this area. Look at the 30’s and 40’s, it would appear that we are about on pace to match those, not dramatically increase the totals. So, I think this shows the media’s lack of knowledge of history and it’s love of sensationalism.

But I’m sure some will find a conspiracy, but methinks it's more ignorance and laziness.

With "moral authority" like this...who needs "godless liberals"

So, I go on some business trips and vacation and Pat Robertson shows his true colors again. Not only mixing his politics with his religion (how DOES his group maintain a religous organization designation?) and while dispensing with the Sixth Commandment.

Maybe Pat should fight to have the 10 commandments installed in his home and his TV studio instead of trying to put them in my kids' classroom. Then he wouldn't call for the murder of people he "don't like".

Really, it's not like we didn't know him and his cabal of similar "Christians" are hypocrites, especially after the "prayer-in" to have God strike down some Supreme Court Justices.

Do you REALLY think Jesus wants this hypocrite speaking for him? I've had trouble finding the biblical passage where you turn the other cheek, unless you happen to be a South American Government Executive, maybe someone could show me that passage? Or the asterisk next to the 10 Commandments?

Anyway, good to be back.

Maybe we can teach that the world is flat too?

Maybe that the sun revolves around earth?

This is just religion dressed up in pseudo-science. This man’s disconnect from reality is truly amazing. This just proves the mythical nature of religion. Religion has always been based on saying “God” or Thor or Vishnu or whatever exists because we don’t know why X happens.

This is just the latest modern creation myth. No different than the one I learned about the Native Americans whose reservation I lived a mile from:

Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Creation Myth
The Iroquois creation myth is a fascinating one, it tells of a world inhabited by all living things, all except humans... It is interesting to note that they tell of the earth being covered by water, and that these waters are inhabited by monsters. Perhaps the story was passed down from generation to generation, from the prehistoric Iroquois on... As the story goes, the birds which fill the air witness a woman falling from the heavens, and prevent her from hitting the water by spreading their wings as a safety net. But then the monsters in the water also try and prevent her from the dangers of the deep, but realize they cannot help her, so they send a giant tortoise to carry her across the waters. the tortoise magically begins to grow, until it becomes an island; an island upon which the woman gives birth to twin sons, a Good Spirit, and an Evil Spirit.
The Tortoise continues to grow, covering the earth, and when it moves, the earth quakes. Years pass, and the Sky-Holder decides to put humans upon the earth, so he creates six pairs of humans to populate the planet; the first are the Mohawk, the second the Oneidas, the third the Onondaga, the fourth are the Cayuga, the fifth are the Seneca, and the sixth are the Tuscarora.

Alterman on : Wouldn't it be nice if the Bushies were held to a standard

Speaking of an inability to distinguish between fact and fiction…

Great Quotes in History or, Why Can’t Life be More Like Baseball?

"I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period."

The guy who said that was slapped with a ten day suspension. But what about these guys?

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." Dick Cheney Speech to VFW National Convention, Aug. 26, 2002.[i]

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons." George W. Bush Speech to U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 12, 2002.[ii]

"We know they have weapons of mass destruction … There isn't any debate about it." [It is] beyond anyone's imagination" that U.N. inspectors would fail to find such weapons if they were given the opportunity. Donald Rumsfeld, September 2002.[iii]

"If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world." Ari Fleischer Press Briefing, Dec. 2, 2002.[iv]

"We know for a fact that there are weapons there." Ari Fleischer Press Briefing, Jan. 9, 2003.[v]

"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more." Colin Powell Remarks to U.N. Security Council, Feb. 5, 2003.[vi]

"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have." George W. Bush Radio Address, Feb. 8, 2003.[vii]

"So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad?... I think our judgment has to be clearly not." Colin Powell Remarks to U.N. Security Council, March 7, 2003.[viii]

“Does Saddam now have weapons of mass destruction? Sure he does. We know he has chemical weapons. We know he has biological weapons. . . Defense Policy Board Chair, Richard Perle, speaking to a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing, March, 2003. [ix]

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." George W. Bush Address to the Nation, March 17, 2003. [x]

"Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly... all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes." Ari Fleisher Press Briefing, March 21, 2003[xi]

"There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction." Gen. Tommy Franks Press Conference, March 22, 2003. [xii]

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." Donald Rumsfeld ABC Interview, March 30, 2003. [xiii]

"I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there " Colin Powell Remarks to Reporters, May 4, 2003. [xiv]

From Salon

Don't anybody tell Dick Durbin

Do you ever feel like you don't recognize your country anymore?

Maybe the moment came for you when five Republican justices on the U.S. Supreme Court handed a presidential election to one of their own. Maybe it came when the president took America to war based on pretenses that turned out to be false. Maybe it came when you saw those photographs from Abu Ghraib, or when you learned that the man who helped orchestrate America's torture policies would become its attorney general. Maybe all of those things built up in your mind until your idea of America started to seem a long way off from the reality around you.

Maybe that hasn't happened to you yet. And maybe it will when you read about the plight of two young men from China who have spent the last three years locked up inside the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay.

Abu Bakker Qassim and A'del Abdu al-Hakim are Muslims who left their homes in China to flee religious persecution there. As their lawyer has told the Boston Globe, Qassim and al-Hakim met each other at a market in Kyrgystan right around the time of the attacks of Sept. 11. They decided to make their way together to Turkey, where they apparently planned to set up new lives for themselves and the families they hoped would follow. Instead, Qassim and al-Hakim were arrested by Pakistani police, who thought they might be al-Qaida members. The Pakistanis turned them over to the United States -- apparently in exchange for a $5,000-per-head bounty. And the United States shipped them off to Guantánamo Bay, where they have been held ever since.

Why? Well, for no reason at all, it turns out. In March of this year -- which is to say, three years after the United States took Qassim and al-Hakim into custody -- a U.S. Combatant Status Review Tribunal concluded that the two men were not enemy combatants but merely had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the America in our minds, that means that they were released immediately with the nation's apologies, with something approaching fair compensation and with a guarantee of safe passage back to wherever it is they wanted to go. But that's not what happened in the America in which we're actually living.

Although Qassim and al-Hakim were cleared in March, the United States didn't bother to share that fact with anyone outside Guantánamo. And having been denied contact with their lawyers or their family members, the men had no way to spread the word themselves. So for four more months, they sat in Guantánamo, cleared but not freed.

The men were finally allowed to meet with the lawyers in late July, and they were able then to reveal the news that they had been cleared. The government confirmed that fact for the lawyers last week. So are the men free now? No. Their lawyers asked a federal judge in Washington to order their release yesterday, but the government is resisting. The U.S. says it can't send the men back to China because it fears they'll be persecuted there, and it hasn't found any other country that is willing to take them. Why not release them into the civilian population at Guantánamo until something better can be arranged? Can't do that, either, the government says. "They have been detained in here with some very bad people, under some very bad influences," Guantánamo spokesman and Army Maj. Jeff Weir tells the Globe. "We can't just release them into a hotel amongst the civilians on the base ... We understand the point of what the lawyers are saying, but it's an impossibility."

Of course, Qassim and al-Hakim weren't surrounded by "very bad people" and "very bad influences" until the United States purchased them from the Pakistanis and locked them up at Guantánamo. Maybe we're naive, but it seems to us that the United States had a moral obligation to find a good solution for Qassim and al-Hakim four months -- if not three years -- ago. U.S. District Judge James Robertson seems to be thinking the same way. At a hearing yesterday, Robertson said he may order the Bush administration to deliver the two men to his courtroom in Washington in order to get them out of Guantánamo Bay -- or at least require that the men be moved outside the barbed wire of Guantánamo's detention facility and into housing the U.S. provides there for Cubans and Haitians who are seeking asylum in the United States.
That would be a start toward making things right -- and a small step toward making this nation something like the one we remember.
-- Tim Grieve

The President's Best Friends

Bush vowing his continued support of one of the most repressive regimes in the world:

Saudi Arabia will continue to pump oil "to the best of our capability, with a
reasonable price" under its new leader, King Abdullah, a top Saudi diplomat said
Monday. Saudi Arabia holds a quarter of the world's known oil supplies, and
crude futures set a new record of $61.57 a barrel on news of King Fahd's death.
President Bush said: "I have spoken today to the new king, and the United States
looks forward to continuing the close partnership between our two
countries."

And Russia proving Freedom doesn't have to be in the march once Bush has looked into your leaders eyes and seen a good man.

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/08/909d8cf2-3f4d-4cd8-9aa6-5d40efca4578.html

Why do these AF officers hate America?

From Salon:


"A fraud on the American people"

Just last month, John G. Roberts joined two other federal appellate judges in a decision that cleared the way for the Bush administration to use military tribunals to try detainees at Guantánamo Bay. Here's a question an enterprising senator might pose to Roberts in his upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings: If he knew then what we're learning today, would he still have subjected the detainees to the military tribunal process?

As the Wall Street Journal is reporting today, two Air Force lawyers quit their jobs on the Guantánamo prosecution team last year in protest over trials before military tribunals that they believe were rigged against the detainees. Read that last bit again: The lawyers quit their jobs on the prosecution team. These weren't defense lawyers, from whom one would expect to hear -- and, in fact, from whom one has heard -- complaints that the military tribunal process is unfair. Maj. John Carr and Maj. Robert Preston were Air Force prosecutors, and they quit their jobs on the prosecution team because even they thought that the tribunal process amounted to a kangaroo court.

In e-mail messages provided to the Journal and to the New York Times, Carr and Preston accused their superiors of rigging the tribunals against the detainees and charged their fellow prosecutors with ignoring allegations of torture, failing to protect evidence that could have exonerated some detainees and withholding information from their superiors.

In one March 2004 e-mail message, Carr said that Col. Frederick L. Borch, then the chief Guantánamo prosecutor, had "repeatedly" told the prosecutors who worked for him "that the military panel will be handpicked and will not acquit these detainees and we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel" and academicians who would study the cases later. Preston said in another e-mail message that moving forward with the tribunals would be "a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even a fraud on the American people." Preston wrote: "I lie awake worrying about this every night ... writing a motion saying that the process will be full and fair when you don't really believe it will be is kind of hard -- particularly when you want to call yourself an officer and a lawyer."

What if you want to call yourself a Supreme Court justice?

Nate Died

So, I'm watching the end of Six Feet Under and Nate dies. What's up with that? I for SURE didn't see that coming.

Did you?

F/u to my letter that appeared in Altercation on Tuesday

Re: Second Amendment

I'm glad Matt from Denver mentioned technology advances in guns. Which seems to be the one of the other major argument gun control advocates claim proves that the 2nd Amendment doesn't give anyone the right to own any longer. Matt makes the very correct point that this isn't the same country as the late 18th century. And the fact that technology has advanced diminishes none of the ideas in the Bill of Rights. Otherwise, one could say that the First Amendment doesn't apply to anything but newspapers, pamphlets and shouting on a street corner. If improvements in technology since 1789 preclude these rights wouldn't that mean that the First amendment doesn't apply to the telegraph, telephone, television, radio, satellite, cable, walkie talkies, bullhorns, cell phones,the internet and a host of other communication methods that didn't exist then? No, of course not.

I do not now and never have owned a gun, in fact I've only shot a .22 once...about 25 years ago as a kid. I just happen to believe in the entirety of the Bill of Rights, and as Matt pointed out, specifically in its Spirit. I'm not a cafeteria civil libertarian.

Look at this "liberal" rag...supporting free trade

From the NY TIMES

July 29, 2005
Applauding the Cafta 15

In the wee hours yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement by a sliver of two votes. Fifteen Democrats joined 202 Republicans in voting to open up trade between the United States and El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. Anyone who believes, as this page does, that the benefits of free trade outweigh those of protectionism should give a pat on the back to the Democrats who chose principle over politics and defied their party's leaders to vote for the trade pact.

Trade votes are always cliffhangers, and Cafta was no exception. The vote, which started just after 11 p.m., took almost an hour as some Republicans, many from textile states, jockeyed over who would be allowed to vote against the bill and save face back home. But the Republicans who voted for Cafta at least did so knowing that they were ensuring for themselves the approval of their party leaders, including President Bush. Many of the Democrats who voted for the pact knew that they were practically guaranteeing themselves a primary fight come next election. Indeed, organized labor was already talking yesterday morning about extracting revenge. "Punish the Cafta 15" was a headline in Working Life, a pro-labor blog.

Labor unions should obviously give their support to anyone they deem fit. But the Cafta 15 deserve respect for their independence and good judgment. Cafta is a modest trade pact, hardly likely to lift the six countries' economies into the 21st century. But it may be enough to lift them into the 20th century by lowering tariffs and helping job growth in a needy region. It should help export growth in America as well. The American Farm Bureau Federation estimated that Cafta could increase United States agricultural exports by nearly $1.5 billion a year; the National Association of Manufacturers said it would add about $1 billion a year to the value of United States exports of manufactured goods.

Finally, Cafta will benefit the most underrepresented constituency in America: consumers, particularly the lower-income consumers who find that a 50-cent difference in the price of a T-shirt actually means something.

More Fakery from the Pentagon

If you’re going to make up the news… you can’t be lazy about it. We deserve better lies than that.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/07/24/military.release/index.html

Following are the two quotes as provided by the U.S. military in news releases:

Sunday's news release said: "'The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the ISF and all of Iraq. They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists,' said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified."

The July 13 news release said: "'The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the children and all of Iraq,' said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified. 'They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists.'"

Musical Rant for Monday

You may have heard this before, but I HATE cover songs that are done exactly like the original (or at least the most famous version). Worst example of this is Natalie Merchant’s “Because the Night”, for so many reasons. (First of which is that Natalie Merchant is the anti-Patti Smith). I heard 311 cover “Love Song” by the Cure this AM on the way to work…LAME.

Do you think Toby Keith sits down to write a song and thinks about how many “patriotic” TV specials he can sell the song to? I can almost see him “This song will be great for a Fox News special about how great America is”. Anyway, somehow my clock radio was set to a lame “country” station this morning and I awoke to Keith’s “American Soldier”. It’s a fine sentiment, but the subtlety of his work is that of a jack hammer.

I love Interpol.

Yet Dwight’s new album is still not doing it for me….(Shut your mouth)

Other recommends: LCD Soundsystem and M.I.A.

Now, get back to work

Freedom on the march

Conservatives always bragging about how Bush saved Afghanistan and brought peace and prosperity to the whole place, while I’ve continued to point out that the US didn’t finish the job before turning to Iraq and left the place in ruins and in a state of Anarchy. Recent bombings in Egypt and the UK prove we didn’t finish the job, not to mention what a disaster the “Flypaper Strategy” is for the Iraqis.

How desperate do you have to be to attack a US military base with rocks?


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8702657/

Don't mean to be hatin'

I know I'm getting very near sacrilege here, but here goes. I, like everyone else, is impressed by Lance Armstrong's domination of the Tour de France, but probably less so than most. What he's done is amazing no doubt, but as far as I know he trains year round for one event. Just one. Again, my knowledge of road racing is limited to when the media pays attention to the sport for 3 weeks in July, but other racers, I believe, race in other events.

So, what if Tiger Woods played one event a year. Let's say he trained exclusively for the Masters. Would it be safe to say that he might win it every year, if he trained exclusively for that and competed only in that event?

I'm just askin.

Traitor Karl

Greetings from the Santa Nella, CA.


My favorite part is how Rove’s own lawyer and other Bushie-traitor lovers claim that “Rove didn’t mention her name”. He just said that it was Wilson’s wife. Unfortunately, the law states that it is a crime to provide information that reveals the identity of a covert agent. Which Rove clearly did…hence he’s a traitor.

To use the Rove lawyer logic. Rove could stand across the street from a Covert agent and tell anyone who will listen that “that person over there is a CIA agent”, but he wouldn’t be committing a crime because he didn’t mention her name. Obviously that is not the case, and not the law.

That type of logic would be funny if his actions weren’t treasonous.

Fox News's new Motto?

“We buy Futures, you mourn the dead:”

From Sheppard Smith and Britt Hume…

From Fox News' July 7 breaking news coverage between 1 and 2 p.m. ET:

SMITH: Some of the things you might expect to happen, for instance, a drop
in the stock market and some degree of uncertainty across this country -- none
of that really seen today, and I wonder if the timing of it -- that it happened
in the middle of the night and we were able to get a sense of the grander scheme
of things -- wasn't helpful in all this.

HUME: Well, maybe. The other thing is, of course, people have -- you
know, the market was down. It was down yesterday, and you know, you may have had
some bargain-hunting going on. I mean, my first thought when I heard --
just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the
futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, "Hmmm, time to
buy." Others may have thought that as well. But you never know about
the markets. But obviously, if the markets had behaved badly, that would
obviously add to people's sense of alarm about it. But there has been a lot of
reassurance coming, particularly in the way that -- partly in the way the Brits
handled all this, but also in the way that officials here handled it. There
seems to be no great fear that something like that is going to happen here,
although there's no indication that we here had any advance warning.

His First Thought…Buy Futures…WOW

Traitor Bob walks while someone else goes to Jail...astounding

Novak commits Treason, thanks to a felony from Karl Rove’s office and Judith Miller goes to jail.

Astounding:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/07/06/reporters.contempt/index.html


Is it really the "liberal media" that hates America? Or is it Karl Rove and Bushie hacks like Bob Novak. Both of whom should be in jail for treason.

The Bushies LIE ABOUT EVERYTHING

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/30/AR2005063002158.html


GABORONE, Botswana -- As global leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum in January, officials from President Bush's $15 billion anti-AIDS program issued a news release citing their accomplishments. Nowhere were the numbers more impressive than in Botswana, where 32,839 AIDS patients were receiving life-extending treatment with the help of the U.S. government, they said.

But thousands of miles away in Botswana, the Bush administration's claim provoked frustration and anger among public and private partners that had built Africa's most far-reaching AIDS treatment program, recalled those involved. Although the Bush program had promised millions of dollars of support, no money had yet arrived, they said.
…


They agreed on the number of patients in Botswana who had been put on treatment because of the Bush program: zero.

I've said this before, but Abrams says it better

After I read Abrams piece on MSNBC.com, I've seen other raise the same questions about Traitor Bob.


Travesty of justice: Valerie Plame case (Dan Abrams)

A serious travesty of justice continues. Someone leaked a covert CIA
operative's name to a reporter. That reporter published the name in his
column, violating a federal law. Then, as the criminal investigation
into the source of the leak proceeded, that reporter miraculously appears to be
in the clear. But another reporter who never even published the name is
going to prison for failing to disclose her source? Huh?

That's the situation
New York Times reporter Judith Miller faces today. The U.S. Supreme Court
declined to hear her case which sought First Amendment protection for her
refusal to divulge the confidential source in the case of Valerie Plame — a
former CIA agent. Robert Novak first unmasked Plame in a 2003 column. Even
though Miller never published the agent’s name, she now faces jail time.
Time magazine's Matt Cooper did actually publish Plame's name on the Time’s website, but only after Novak's column ran.In addition to the fact the Supreme Court refused to consider the case — a real shame — Robert Novak seems to be in the
clear legally. I've said this before, but with both Miller and Cooper out
of legal options and facing up to 18 months in federal prison today, it's more
of a plea...

Robert Novak needs to step forward and take
responsibility. If he doesn't want to disclose his source, that's
fine. But we don't even know if he was called before the grand jury or
what he did or didn't tell prosecutors.

Novak's silence puts Miller and Cooper at a distinct legal disadvantage, the prosecutor has indicated the case is all but finished and no one has been charged. But if Novak did testify, Miller and Cooper might be able to argue that their testimony isn’t even needed in the investigation or that they shouldn't be forced to testify before Novak does.

In the spirit of full disclosure, my father Floyd Abrams, is defending
Miller in this case. But this is an easy one. Two reporters may be
going to jail because they won't reveal who told them a secret. Meanwhile,
the guy who heard the secret first and made the initial decision to publish it
will be enjoying his summer vacation out of the reach of federal
prosecutors...

If that's not warped justice, I don't know what is.

Secrecy is bad for Democracy...check your history books

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002356455_files03.html

But there is concern the hoarding of information could backfire. Thomas
Kean, chairman of the Sept. 11 commission and a former Republican governor of
New Jersey, said the failure to prevent the 2001 attacks was rooted not in leaks
of sensitive information but in the barriers to sharing information among
agencies and with the public.

"You'd just be amazed at the kind of information that's classified;
everyday information, things we all know from the newspaper," Kean said. "The
best ally we have in protecting ourselves against terrorism is an informed
public."

How did I live with 2000 songs in my pocket

For Father's day I got a Creative Zen Micro. I had been looking at the Creative products and was ready to pull the trigger on a 30G model, but the wife beat me to it.

Let me say this. How did people live with out having 2000 songs in their pocket? Fortunately, I'd been ripping songs to my PC for a couple of years, so most of the good stuff from my CD collection was on my PC and ready to go. HOnestly it only took a couple of hours to get 1300 songs on my Zen. But these songs were MP3s at 128kps. So, I did so more research and figured I could convert songs to WMA at a lower bitrate and have more songs. So, I used Creative's software to convert over 1850 songs to WMA at 80kps. HOnestly I can't hear the difference and all the audio snobs who tell you your MP3 player should have songs at 160kps or higher and in MP3 are nuts.

You might be able to tell the difference with $300 headphones in a sound proof room, but that's not the reality of listening to your MP3 player.

I can tell you though that with the Creative stock ear buds (which I hate and just bought some mediocre Sennheiser phones from amazon the other day) at 80kps WMA I'm hearing instruments I've never heard before.

Anyway, along with TiVo and Netflix, the multigig MP3 player are the three greatest products of the 21st century.

I can't wait until all our computers are Zen (or iPod) sized devices with Internet access, phone, full MS office sweet all for about $400. Probably about 5 years

Tom Cruise...losing his shit

So, Tom's losing his mind.

The Katie Holmes thing. I really don't care too much about this, but I think Tom's a little careless here. Katie looks at him like a dream. She had a poster of him on her wall growing up for God sake. It would be like if Selma Hayek asked to marry me, it wouldn't matter what she was like in real life. Katie is in love with the image of Tom...this marriage (if it happens) won't last 2 years.

I don't care about what happened on Oprah, he's just a guy in love.

As for the "fight" with Matt Lauer. This is were Tom jumped the shark. Tom "knows the history of psychiatry", but no one else does. Puh-leeze. Tom gets his info from some a Science Fiction writer who started a cult. Hardly seems like robust education. Tom apparently knows that there is no chemical reason for mental issues, wow, I didn't know he had a medical degree.

Do you think Rummy "thinks about Iraq every single day" too?

Rummy apparently not getting the memo on how to lie about Iraq. This truth telling is going to get him in trouble. I mean everyone else who tells the truth gets their patriotism questioned, so how will they destroy his character after he says the insurgency could go on for 12 more years?




He “DOESN”T REMEMBER”? (See below) He’s the freakin Sec of Defense and he can’t remember what he warned the President about as we prepared for war. He’s either a liar or incompetent.

Before the war, Vice President Dick Cheney predicted that Iraqis freed from
Saddam Hussein's rule would greet Americans as liberators. Rumsfeld said Sunday
he gave Bush a list of about 15 things ``that could go terribly, terribly wrong
before the war started.'' He said they included Iraq's oil wells being set
on fire; mass refugees and relocations; blown-up bridges; and a moat of oil
around Baghdad, the capital. Asked if his list included the possibility of
such a strong insurgency, he said: ``I don't remember whether that was on there,
but certainly it was discussed.''

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5101278,00.html

Novak the Traitor

Isn’t it ironic that the one man who engaged in aiding and abetting the enemy by disclosing the names of US spies is not facing jail time?

I guess it helps when your on the payroll of the White House, no?
Although, Judith Miller has been quite the Bushie Cheerleader too.

Regardless, it is Novak that released the information and the guy who should be facing serious jail time for his treasonous acts. Why does this obvious WH lapdog and a man who put US foreign agents in jeopardy still have a job in the “liberal media”? Why, I ask, Why?



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062700489.html

I've been away from the bloggin'

Have to do some make up posts to catch up...here goes

More Conservative Media Bias

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050704&s=gitlin

It was left to an opinion columnist, the New York Times's Thomas Friedman, not a news reporter, to declare on May 27 that "the abuse at Guantánamo and within the whole U.S. military prison system dealing with terrorism is out of control. Tell me, how is it that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody so far? Heart attacks?"


I used the LexisNexis database to see what major US news organs have reported about deaths of prisoners in US hands since the beginning of 2005. Here are the results. On television: nothing on CBS, one brief mention on NBC, another on ABC. Nothing on CNN, nothing on Fox, nothing on MSNBC. On public television and radio, now under fire from the head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for "liberal bias": After Friedman's column appeared, Jim Lehrer cited 100 deaths, considering twenty to be "homicide," and NPR's Talk of the Nation interviewed Amnesty International's William Schulz, who said, "Twenty-seven of those detained by the United States have been ruled to be the victims of homicide by medical examiners." That's it from the broadcasting subversives. Nothing from Time--or Newsweek.

"Entourage" reaches a new level

Do you have the HBO? If not you should get it if only for Entourage. A show that last year was very funny. So far this year, 2 eps in, it's even better.

You're familiar with the concept of "Jumping the Shark", well Sunday's episode of Entourage was the opposite of that. An episode that took the show from good to great. Kevin Dillon and Jeremy Piven are fantastic.

Anyway, if you like the comic gold, tune into HBO tomorrow as they re-run the first two episodes of the season.

Can you guess if this 1950's Russia or 2005 America?

Holding prisoners in perpetuity, without charges, without trial, without access to attorneys, and without basic human rights oversight. No, that’s not Stalin…that’s your President…GO AMERICA…Freedom is on the March…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican senators called on Wednesday for the rights of foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay prison to be legally defined even
as the Bush administration said the inmates could be jailed there "in
perpetuity."
.

Go Howard Dean

YOu want to know why the Democrats have absolutely no power in Washington these days. JUst listen to the whining about Howard Dean being tough on the GOP. That is is his job and apparently the only person in the Democratic party with the balls to do it.

The GOP can lie about Kerry's war record, lie about reasons to go to war, lie about EVERY single thing the Bushies do and by hypocritical about every single issue they discuss, but as soon as Dean calls them on it, the rest of the party abandons him. It's this wimpy behavior that allows the GOP to controll the WH, Senate, House and Supreme Court. It's about damn time the Dems showed some muscle.

Dean called the GOP "a mostly white Christian" party. YEAH? It's not? that's what the GOP tells us every single day and when Dean says it that's a bad thing?

It's almost as if the Dems want to remain powerless for the next 8 years.

Grow up people, this is how the GOP got to where it is. It wasn't about playing nice.

Debt Relief

From what I have heard from people this debt relief is supposed to be a good thing. So, here are my questions.

What happened to the money that was borrowed? Apparently it didn’t go into infrastructure or helping eliminate poverty, AIDS, and a host of other ills that fall upon the poor of these countries. We all know it most likely went to corrupt officials who may or may not still be in power. If they’re not in power, someone just like them most likely is.

So, now they’ve got debt relief, they don’t have to pay back the money they wasted, so how does this help the farmer who lives on $1 a day? Does this trickle down to him? I would guess not. What I envision is the same despots who borrowed the money before, nationalized industry, stole private property, waged tribal and regional wars will continue to squander this goodwill the G8 gives them.

Until these economies have a rule of law, are rid of dictators and have a capitalist incentive (supported by a rule of law) this money does nothing but make the rulers richer.

Am I wrong?

Remember when countries were either "with us or against us" in the fight for freedom?

If you do, how do you reconcile these two items. It should be very troubling for the Bushies that Bush’s two favorite leaders are this guy and the Russian Dictator?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8085619/


Photo of Bush nuzzling with the Prince
http://www.american-buddha.com/fah911.vignettej1.htm

Shameful

Remember when Bush stood on top of the rubble pile and promised more money for First Responders. Well, he lied then. Then, the WH forced the EPA to lie about the safety of the air around the site to rescue workers and New Yorkers…now he won’t even own up to the responsibility to help the people he lied to for the health problems their bravery and the WH lies resulted from.

Appalling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/nyregion/03air.html?

Shameful.

My take on the new Sleater-Kinney album

As Carrie Brownstein alluded to in her recent SPIN interview, you aren't going to hear this CD in the GAP. You won't hear it on the radio either and having lived in their hometown of Portland since they moved from Olympia, I can assure that S-K doesn't even get any love locally. But that's ok, S-K isn't for everyone. Just go to their website these days and the opening chords from the CD hit you as soon as the page loads, be forewarned...turn down your PC Speakers.

After the first listen all I could think of was how hard, no, HEAVY it was. I initially described it to a friend as if the band had only been listening to Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground and Jimi Hendrix whle recording it. But upon further listens you realize that it's not all heavy. There are moments were it becomes quiet, but not for long.

I saw SK in Portland last night and it was then that it occurred to me that THIS is Carrie's record. She sings a lot of songs and it just seems to exude her whole attitude. I don't know of the true dynamics of the group, but it would seem that with Corin now being a mom and Janet doing a lot of work with her other band, Quasi, Carrie had more influence in the direction of this ablum. Just my take really. For what it's worth.

Others have called this their best album yet. Well, you'll have a tough time convincing me that "Dig Me Out" will ever be surpassed. Nonetheless, after about 5 complete listens and seeing the songs performed live, this album is in their top 3. That may not seem like much, but when you're the "Best band in America" that's saying something.

it's been a while

I guess nothing to unusually hypocritical going on with the Bushies in the past weeks, and I've been out of town so little time for "the bloggin".

Some random thoughts. purchased Sleater-Kinney's new CD (actually pre-ordered it and it was at my home when I returned from my trip). I've only listened through a couple of times, but I like it. It's different, more "Sonic". Almost like all those listens to Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth finally took over. There is some serious noise on this record, it's not your sister's Coldplay.

You see the S-K Interview in SPIN? Carrie B said (paraphrase) All these new bands sound like Gang of Four if Gang of Four sucked. THAT"S FUNNY.

in the same trip to Amazon.com I purchased LCD Soundsystem and let me tell you, if "Daft PUnk is playing at my house" doesn't get into your head, there is something wrong with that part of your brain that controls "that song in your head". This CD gets better with each listen and it's a recommend for every fan of funk-disco-punk-house.

Newsweek just retelling an old story...

Uh, people, I hate to tell you this, but the story about Americans abusing the Koran in order to enrage prisoners has been out there for quite some time. The first mention I found of it is March 17, 2004, when the Independent of London interviewed the first British citizen released from Guantanamo Bay. The prisoner said he had been physically beaten but did not consider that as bad as the psychological torture, which he described extensively. Jamal al-Harith, a computer programmer from Manchester, said 70 percent of the inmates had gone on a hunger strike after a guard kicked a copy of the Koran. The strike was ended by force-feeding.
-----
The reports kept coming: Dec. 30, 2004, "Released Moroccan Guantanamo Detainee Tells Islamist Paper of His Ordeal," reported the Financial Times. "They watched you each time you went to the toilet; the American soldiers used to tear up copies of Koran and throw them in the toilet. ..." said the released prisoner.

----

On Jan. 9, 2005, Andrew Sullivan, writing in The Sunday Times of London, said: "We now know a great deal about what has gone on in U.S. detention facilities under the Bush administration. Several government and Red Cross reports detail the way many detainees have been treated. We know for certain that the United States has tortured five inmates to death. We know that 23 others have died in U.S. custody under suspicious circumstances. We know that torture has been practiced by almost every branch of the U.S. military in sites all over the world -- from Abu Ghraib to Tikrit, Mosul, Basra, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
"This is America? While White House lawyers were arguing about what separates torture from legitimate 'coercive interrogation techniques,' the following was taking place: Prisoners were hanged for hours or days from bars or doors in semi-crucifixions; they were repeatedly beaten unconscious, woken and then beaten again for days on end; they were sodomized; they were urinated on, kicked in the head, had their ribs broken, and were subjected to electric shocks.
"Some Muslims had pork or alcohol forced down their throats; they had tape placed over their mouths for reciting the Koran; many Muslims were forced to be naked in front of each other, members of the opposite sex and sometimes their own families. It was routine for the abuses to be photographed in order to threaten the showing of the humiliating footage to family members."
---
The New York Times reported on May 1 on the same investigation Newsweek was writing about and interviewed a released Kuwaiti, who spoke of three major hunger strikes, one of them touched off by "guards' handling copies of the Koran, which had been tossed into a pile and stomped on. A senior officer delivered an apology over the camp's loudspeaker system, pledging that such abuses would stop. Interpreters, standing outside each prison block, translated the officer's apology. A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans."

---
Here’s Olberman’s take on the issue: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/\

But, "wacked out liberal" Eric Alterman comes down hard on Newsweek for bad journalism: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/

Sullivan Says: Call McClellan’s bluff: http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2005_05_15_dish_archive.html#111637021330032892

Kill em all

This defies logic: By remaining perfectly still you are being hostile. Orwell is pounding on his casket right now.

"

Accordingly, it was reasonable to believe that the corporal fired on the AIF
after reasonably believing that the individual was committing a hostile act" by
feigning death and subsequently moving his concealed arm.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/05/falluja.marine/index.html

I thought that if the enemy was wounded you were to provide medical treatment to him, not shoot him because he’s not dead yet. Can you IMAGINE THE OUTRAGE if an Iraqi did this to an American solider?

To repeat:

the individual was committing a hostile act" by feigning death

If this is progress...what does failure look like?

Context:

The number of serious international terrorist incidents more than tripled last
year, according to U.S. government figures, a sharp upswing in deadly attacks
that the State Department has decided not to make public in its annual report on
terrorism due to Congress this week.

Overall, the number of what the U.S. government considers "significant" attacks grew to about 655 last year, up from the record of around 175 in 2003, according to congressional aides who were briefed on statistics covering incidents including the bloody school seizure in Russia and violence related to the disputed Indian territory of Kashmir.

So, the State Department doesn’t release the report for the first time in 19 years.

THEN, the President is asked at his press conference:

QUESTION: Mr. President, your State Department has reported that terrorist attacks around the world are at an all-time high. If we're winning the war on terrorism, as you say, how do you explain that more people are dying in terrorist attacks on your watch than ever before?

BUSH: Well, we've made the decision to defeat the terrorists abroad so we don't have to face them here at home. And when you engage the terrorists abroad, it causes activity and action.
And we're relentless -- we, America and our coalition partners. We understand the stakes.

BUSH: And they're very high, because there are people still out there that would like to do harm to the American people.
But our strategy is stay on the offense, is to keep the pressure on these people, is to cut off their money and to share intelligence and to find them where they hide.
And we are making good progress. The Al Qaida network that attacked the United States has been severely diminished. We are slowly but surely dismantling that organization.
In the long run, like I said earlier, the way to defeat terror, though, is to spread freedom and democracy. It's really the only way in the long term.
In the short term we'll use our troops and assets and agents to find these people and to protect American. But in the long term, we must defeat the hopelessness that allows them to recruit by spreading freedom and democracy.
But we're making progress.