THE WHITE HOUSE: If they have nothing to cover up, why are they covering everything up? Read more below, but first, this:
Peace activist extraordinaire, the inimitable Teddi Winograd — one of my heroes, mother of the amazing Marcy Winograd who ran for Congress last fall -- and one of the greatest women in America, passed on Tuesday. "During her final hours, my mother took great pleasure in seeing me in my Impeach Bush and Cheney t-shirt. When I changed clothes, she said, 'Where's the Impeach t-shirt? I like to look at it.' Wanting to please my mother, I wore the shirt and read to her about Karl Rove's resignation. Rove's exit made her feel good when her health failed. For more on my fabulous mother, please read on" ... Warm regards, Marcy
Linda Milazzo writes: "What most amazed me about Teddi is how much more stoic she was than those of us who are decades her junior. She never complained. In fact, she wore the rest of us out. But I understand the source of her strength. She was, as Tom Brokaw would come to say, part of the "Greatest Generation." She gave birth to her son Barry while Sam was away in the Second World War. She fended for herself with dignity and strength. Barry was twelve months old the first time he saw his father.
If you want to know how a woman can go from being a millinery worker at thirteen to owning a home on Rodeo Drive, you have to read Teddi's autobiography, "Chit Chat This 'n That." If you want to understand how a woman can know EVERYTHING about owning and operating a multi-million dollar business, how a woman who never went to college self-educated herself to grasp the innermost workings of the stock market, you must read this book. If you want to understand the depth of undying love and devotion to a spouse, how deeply a parent loves her children, how much she'll do for her grandchildren, how she weathers great tragedy with dignity and grace — and how one lives with endless enthusiasm, read it.
If you want to see how Teddi and Sam Winograd dedicated their entire lives to the cause of peace, read it and you will understand why the door to Teddi's home was always open to anyone with a commitment to bettering our world.
What is left for us ... are the very same orders Sam gave Teddi in 1998 when Parkinsons took him away: "CONTINUE TO WORK FOR PEACE."
Teddi, we will!!
For many of us, the only good that has come out of the downfall of our democracy over the past seven years has been the creation of our own progressive community that embraces Teddi's passion for peace. In Los Angeles, Marcy and Teddi have been leaders in the progressive community. Teddi's lovely home has been a welcoming hub for democratic activism, intellectual stimulation, and political and social education for countless guest speakers and eager attendees.
The maternal heart of The Progressive Democrats of America, Teddi hosted the Great Minds Series at her home in Beverly Hills, where she welcomed authors and speakers Gore Vidal, John Dean, Elizabeth de la Vega, John Nichols, Cynthia McKinney, Syd Blumenthal, Cindy Sheehan, Tim Carpenter, Mimi Kennedy, Lila Garrett, Danny Schector, Harvey Wasserman, Joy Horowitz, Joe Mealey, Michael Shoob and others. She was waiting for my book to come out and had invited me to be part of the Great Mind series. I now feel Teddi is sitting on my shoulder, giving me the courage to go forward without fear.
A week before she died of cancer, she enjoyed an anti-war serenade in her peach bedroom, then courageously went to the window to wave to Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich addressing a fundraiser in her backyard garden. (Marcy Winograd: winogradblog
Teddi ready to hit the streets with her placard opposing Schwarzenegger's special election ballot measures. Photos by Margery Epstein.
***************************
WHITE HOUSE SECRETS
If they have nothing to cover up, why are they covering everything up? Not only are they trying to prevent the people from knowing what was contained in the 5 million missing e-mails, but Dick Cheney's lawyer instructed the Secret Service that it "shall not retain any copy" of material identifying visitors to the vice president's official residence. Why? Isn't the government in our country, THE PEOPLE? This administration is the most dishonest bunch of crooks in the history of our nation. Even Nixon didn't go this far.WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Tuesday that records about missing White House e-mails are not subject to public disclosure, the latest effort by the Bush administration to expand the boundaries of government secrecy.
Administration lawyers detailed the legal position in a lawsuit trying to force the White House Office of Administration to reveal what it knows about the disappearance of White House e-mails.
The Office of Administration provides administrative services, including information technology support, to the Executive Office of the President.
The office has prepared estimates that there are at least 5 million missing White House e-mails from March 2003 to October 2005, according to the lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a private advocacy group.
More....
In court papers seeking to end the case, the Justice Department said the White House Office of Administration has no substantial authority independent of President Bush and therefore is not subject to the disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.The issue came into focus early this year amid the uproar over the firing of U.S. attorneys. It turned out that aides to Bush improperly used Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts for official business and that an undetermined number of e-mails had been lost in the process.
The Justice Department Web site, which lists all FOIA contacts inside the government, identifies seven units inside the Executive Office of the President as responding to FOIA requests, including the Office of Administration.
The Office of Administration "has certainly acted like an agency in the past," said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel to the National Security Archive, a private group advocating public disclosure of government secrets.
Fuchs' organization filed a request in February 2006 after Fitzgerald revealed that e-mails might be missing. When the Office of Administration finally denied the private group's request in June of this year, the office said it was not an "agency" as defined by the Freedom of Information Act and was therefore not subject to the law's requirements.
The administration has been resisting disclosure of information on an array of fronts.
In September 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney's lawyer instructed the Secret Service that it "shall not retain any copy" of material identifying visitors to the vice president's official residence. The lawyer, Shannen Coffin, wrote the letter as The Washington Post sought copies of Cheney's visitors.
The letter regarding the vice president's residence was in addition to an agreement quietly signed between the White House and the Secret Service when questions were raised about visits to the executive compound by convicted influence peddler Jack Abramoff.
That agreement, which didn't surface publicly until late last year, said White House entry and exit logs were presidential records not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
When the agreement was signed in May 2006, a number of private groups and news organizations had filed FOIA requests with the Secret Service in an effort to identify how many times Abramoff or members of his lobbying team visited the White House.
(read the entire article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070821/white-house-secrecy
PARTING SHOT
They say you're only as sick as your secrets.
ReplyDeleteThen both George Bush and Hillary Clinton are two sick fucks.
I believe the Founding Fathers had it correct when they enshrined transparency as an American value.
The govt that has been most invasive into our lives has hidden the most from us. I've always thought the people who trust the least are the one's least to be trusted. They are proving me right.
ReplyDeleteFourteen U.S soldiers were killed today in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteThis wouldn't have happened if Bush had not forced a war.
You can still vote in the World Blog Awards on the Left of Centrist blog.
ReplyDeleteLydia has been nominated in several categories and I'm sure would be honored to have your vote.
World Blog Awards
The only reason they are being this secretive is because they have so much to hide.
ReplyDeleteThe missing emails were sent through RNC servers, NOT official govt servers and therefore CANNOT be claimed to be protected.
Gov't secrecy will continue in a HRC administration. Citizens may get a few more more appealing crumbs tossed to us in her presidency, but little else will change. She recently stated the vision of her foreign policy is to be prepared for the next war.
ReplyDeleteNeo Right + Neo left = 2 halfs of whole = Corporate Party.
Mike, I just found out about your donation to our radio show! You must be wondering why I never thanked you sooner.
ReplyDeleteIt was awhile ago, but for some reason I didn't find out about it until now.
Thank you so much Mike. You have no idea how much we appreciate it.
If people don't support Progressive radio, the media will be completely right wing. It is hard for shows like ours to stay afloat.
Best,
Lydia
WORFEUS THE SEER said...
ReplyDeleteThe only reason they are being this secretive is because they have so much to hide.
The missing emails were sent through RNC servers, NOT official govt servers and therefore CANNOT be claimed to be protected."
Right on the Money...........please advance to go and collect $200.........you beat me to the punch once again.
I'm so tired of this Executive privlige crap!
Thanks Lydia........you guys both deserve support, you put out a fantastic product that there is a HUGE market and need for.........look at how Olberman's show is growing, there is a huge need for Progressive Radio it just needs the inintial support to become self sustaining........once many of the corporations and advertisers see that the country is leaning progressive and that there is a market for Progressive Radio some advertising dollars will be directed that way.
ReplyDeleteBTW Lydia Great post..........in particular I really liked the first line!
ReplyDeleteIts about time these clowns were thrown in jail for Obstruction of Justice.
ReplyDeleteLydia, another excellent post. I read the other day that during the 109th, Cheney instructed the GOP leadership that Congress is not allowed to issue subpoenas.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteSenior diplomats retaking foreign policy
MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 13 minutes ago
WASHINGTON -
Senior career diplomats are retaking control of key elements of U.S. foreign policy and have begun to assert significant influence as the Bush administration enters its waning months eager to salvage a legacy marred by the Iraq war.
Since assuming the helm at the State Department in 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has installed veteran foreign service officers with more than 200 years of collective diplomatic experience in seven critical posts from the Middle East to South Asia and the Far East.
By contrast, their immediate predecessors had just 72 years of combined experience and five of them were Republican political operatives with limited or no background in diplomacy, according to an Associated Press survey of senior agency appointees.
While the departure of prominent conservative hawks, including Donald H. Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz from the Pentagon and John Bolton from the State Department, is well-documented, the quiet climb to influence of Rice's choices for top jobs has been less public even as they have started to steer new courses.
Please pardon me for being highly self-promotional here, but I've started a fantasy football league called Bush Bashing Bloggers, and we desperately need one last player to fill the league. Mike has a team too.
ReplyDeleteIf your interested in playing, please open a new window or tab (so you don't leave here in the process) and paste this URL into it to get to the instructions on how to join. There's only one spot left. First there gets it. Thanks!
http://politicsplus.blogspot.com/2007/08/bush-busting-bloggers.html
It seems that our President and company has been up to no good since taking office. If we just look at some of the things done and got information about how or why they were done. This President and his Administration would have been out of office long ago.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Why was it during 9/11 every plane was ordered not to fly, yet the bin Laden family took planes out of this country and was never questioned about anything. Why?
Question: Why has Bush started to threaten Iran, after signing directives that allow him to entrust himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the Executive Branch. Why?
Ex-Nixon advisor blasts Bush's Vietnam comparison .
ReplyDelete'Well, if you've learned so much from history, Mr. President, how did you ever get us involved in another quagmire?'
In his speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention Wednesday, President Bush surprised many people by invoking the example of Vietnam in arguing against a withdrawal from Iraq. CNN invited David Gergen, who served as an advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, to comment on that aspect of Bush's speech.
"He may well have stirred up a hornet's nest among historians," Gergen stated. "By invoking Vietnam, he raised the automatic question, 'Well, if you've learned so much from history, Mr. President, how did you ever get us involved in another quagmire?' ... It's surprising to me that he would go back to that, and I think he's going to get a lot of criticism."
"This is not a man who's talking about compromise," Gergen emphasized "This is not a man who's talking about a Plan B. ... This a man saying, 'I'm hanging tough.'"
CNN asked Gergen about Bush's statement that "there's one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam, and that is the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens, whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps,' and 'killing fields.'"
Gergen acknowledged Bush's point that there were "massive killings" when the US left Vietnam, but insisted, "He's wrong to say that Cambodia only occurred because we pulled back. There are many who believe, had we not gone into Cambodia ourselves ... this country might have been more stable."
Gergen added that "everybody understands" there's going to be a US pullback in Iraq when the surge ends in the spring. "We're not going to stay there forever to prevent killings," he stated. "When we start pulling back, there's likely to be a bloodbath in Iraq, too."
Gergen further pointed out that "Vietnam ... after 30 years has actually become quite a thriving country. ... So there are those who say ... 'Yeah, when we pulled back, there was bloodbath in the immediate aftermath, but after that the Vietnamese started putting their country together.' Is that not what we want Iraq to do over the long term?"
"The reason we lost Vietnam, in part, was because we had no strategy," said Gergen. "And the problem we've got now in Iraq, what is the strategy for victory? ... It's not clear we have a winning strategy in Iraq. That's what cost us Vietnam. That's why we eventually withdrew under humiliating circumstances."
"[Bush] talks black and white," Gergen concluded. "Victory or withdrawal, those are the two options. And Democrats and Republicans are saying, 'Mr. President, there is a third option here, and that is a partial pullback. Stay there, try to prevent a civil war.' ... Today, there was no indication he was willing to do that."
In addition to Gergen's comments, several of the major national newspapers have already printed statements by scholars and historians of the Vietnam War, disputing Bush's comparison of Iraq to Vietnam and his suggestion that the US could have imposed a successful outcome in Vietnam if it had just stayed longer, as Editor & Publisher's Greg Mitchell outlines in a column entitled "Apocalypse...Now? Press Examines Bush Linking Iraq to Vietnam."
"Invoking the tragedy of Vietnam to defend the failed policy in Iraq is as irresponsible as it is ignorant of the realities of both of those wars," Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) said, in a statement sent to RAW STORY.
Somebody should tell the chimpleton, that invoking Vietnam when he got daddy to help him hide out in the Texas Nationasl Guard when he wasn't AWOL, and dead eye and other reichwing blathering talking heads hisd from combat (along with quite a few trolls here) just reminds the nation whan a bunch of gutless chicken hawks the reichwing and their sycophats really are.
Right dolty and gay-dalf?
That and it's a BIG tell that the lack of a coherent strategy since the illegal invasion is beginning to become painfully obvious to even the dumbest of the reichwing, er the president.
Lydia that was very good and it gets worse. Bush can do absolutely what he wants and go unchecked. He answers to know one.
ReplyDeleteIt is sickening listening to him but he can do whatever he thinks is right for the country and in his little mind that means whatever it takes to follow his new order for us and the world.
If he feels the Government is in danger he now has the right to declare martial law and you know to him it is in danger by those of us that are against him, so?
I don't advocate violence, but perhaps its time for a new American Revolution to take our country back from King George {Der Fuhrer[Adolph]Bush.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless.
i wonder that myself. why the secrecy and the texas two step around which branch of government you belong to? why aren't any of them willing to answer any- any!!!- questions whatsoever? what do they know that we don't- and they don't want us to? the answer probably would scare me. but i am willing to take that chance.
ReplyDeleteand- i agree with anon-paranoid.
ReplyDeleteoff topic- do you all have a rogue rss feed somewhere that i don't know about? you can email me at
ReplyDeletebetmo110@gmail.com
thanks :)
Guys, don't fall for the right winger incognito trying to get bloggers to advocate insurrection.
ReplyDeleteJust ignore the trolls.
They're none too bright.
R.I.P. Teddi Winograd, Marcy's mother. Teddi hosted salons in her home on Rodeo Drive, with activists, Congress people, authors and great minds. I can't believe I was out of town 2 weeks ago when she had Dennis Kucinich in her backyard for a garden party.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea she would die so suddenly.
Every week or so she would open her home for the Progressive Democrats to hear authors like James Moore, John Dean, Gore Vidal -- all on CSPAN.
I am so sad. She asked if she could host one of these "Great Mind" series for my book when it comes out.
I will miss her. God Bless Teddi!
What happened to "If you gots nothing to fear, you gots nothing to hide!"
ReplyDeleteThat's the mantra the wingnuts shout at us when we protest being spied on, cavity searched, having our business records seized, or having spy satelites trained on our houses.
If BushCo gots nothing to hide, then why are they so worried?
Obviously they have MUCH to hide.
Lydia-
ReplyDeleteFirst, thanks for posting about that lady who passed. I'd never heard of her. It was nice to read about someone who had a real reason to get up in the morning. Passionate and worthwhile.
Second, your first sentence was perfect:
"If they have nothing to cover up, why are they covering everything up?"
And not just about the information they've destroyed/refused to hand over/whatever...they operate outside the law on EVERYTHING and have from the beginning.
They are snubbing their noses at us. We are the people, the U.S. citizens and they're shitting on us everyday in every way. I am thoroughly OFFENDED every second they are allowed to remain in power.
There are (have been) several justifiable reasons to file the Articles Of Impeachment against (at least) cheney and bush, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER PELOSI & REID THINK THEY CAN "GET IT THROUGH"!
Hats off to Dennis Kucinich for that.
I know. I almost went off on one of my rants. Caught myself in time.
Check out this excellent story by an American who went to Iraq as a contractor.
ReplyDeleteIt is on Sumo's blog and it is quite telling.
Sumo Merriment
A US soldier was killed Wednesday west of Baghdad, the military said.
ReplyDeleteThe Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier was killed and three others were wounded during combat operations in an area west of the Iraqi capital, according to a brief statement that provided no other details.
The death toll of US military personel has reached at least 3,722 since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Another normal day in Baghdad!
A SUICIDE truck bomber targeted a police agency in northern Iraq, killing at least 27 people and wounding 65, police and hospital officials said.
ReplyDeleteYesterday's attack occurred just before noon in Beiji, 250km north of Baghdad and many of the casualties were civilians, according to local officials.
Another normal day in Iraq!
"By their fruits you shall know them.'
ReplyDeleteGood people and good strategies - produce good results.
What is Bush's self-created war and Bush's surge producing?
Voting is still going for the World Blog Awards of which Lydia has been nominated in several categories.
ReplyDeletePlease go to the Left of Centrist blog and cast your vote. I know Lydia would be honored with your support.
World Blog Awards
Chuck and Karen - I agree. WE MUST IMPEACH. We must start impeachment articles, at least start the process. Even if it doesn't get through, it shows we value the principles of a Democracy. We have to show the world, our kids that criminals must be held accountable.
ReplyDeleteOn your blog, these stories are amazing -- people arrested for "peace protests and peace signs."
The thing is, the police are mainly fueled by Rush Limbaugh's drug-addled anger and all the idiotic right-wing liberal bashers that make them feel "manly."
I honestly don't think any of these people have ever studied American history or have an inkling about our Constitution or the rights of citizens in a Democracy. Bush obviously has never had a civics lesson either. He barely passed 4th grade.
She was such an inspirational woman. A loss to many. I think, as an aside, that Progressive Democrats are onto something with respect to changing the party from the inside. The Dems need some pressure to take steps in the left direction!
ReplyDeleteDisgusting! Ari Fleischer raises 15 million dollars to SELL THE WAR in commercials on his new campaign "Freedom's Watch" instead of spending 15 million dollars on actually HELPING our troops get new body armor or helping the grieving widows, or using that money for a much better purpose,
ReplyDeleteAnd he didn't even know the name of the soldier who is appearing in his ads.
The Repugs would rather spend all their money and time SELLING the war, rather than actually devising sensible strategies such as protecting, negotiating and helping people in need.
I sometimes think that Fuchs and his lawyer pals just sit around, get drunk, then write the most outrageous legal briefs they can think of, trying to out-do one another with their blatant disregard for the Constitution, sanity, and reason.
ReplyDeleteThat was a beautiful tribute to Teddi, Lydia!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I thought I would stop by and let you know that your blog was one of the featured spots on the very first BWR at my new place. Drop by any time!
Nice looking site Robert and Congrats for getting away from Blogger and going on your own.
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo said on Thursday the U.S. housing downturn is likely to lead the country into recession, but that the largest U.S. mortgage lender will survive.
ReplyDeleteIn an interview, Mozilo also said that to promote liquidity, the U.S. Federal Reserve should cut the rate it charges banks to borrow.
Countrywide faced a credit shortage this month as mortgage defaults rose and capital markets tightened. On August 16, it announced an unexpected drawdown of an entire $11.5 billion credit line because it had trouble selling short-term debt.
But on Wednesday, Bank of America Corp said it would invest $2 billion in Countrywide, buying preferred securities convertible into common stock.
This eased fears about Countrywide’s fate, which at least two analysts this month had said could include bankruptcy.
Mozilo called the investment a “vote of confidence” and a “priceless endorsement,” but said housing and the economy were not out of the woods.
It's the faltering Bush economy!
Newly uncovered "rules of engagement" show the U.S. military gave elite units broad authority more than three years ago to pursue suspected terrorists into Pakistan, with no mention of telling the Pakistanis in advance.
ReplyDeleteThe documents obtained by The Associated Press offer a detailed glimpse at what Army Rangers and other terrorist-hunting units were authorized to do earlier in the war on terror.
Didn't the Repugs attack Obama for suggesting the same senario?
A lobbying firm with close connections to the Bush administration is aiding the efforts of an opposition leader in Iraq who is seeking Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ouster.
ReplyDeleteThe revelation that lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith and Rogers, whose president is a former US envoy to Iraq, is supporting former interim prime minister Ayad Alllawi, was first reported by IraqSlogger. The firm has sent hundreds of e-mails in Allawi's name from an e-mail address it purchased, DrAyadAllawi@Allawi-for-Iraq.com, and it has purchased the Web domain AllawiForIraq.com.
BGR's president, Robert Blackwill, was presidential envoy for Iraq in 2004. Amid speculation that President Bush would support Maliki's replacement, the administration has stressed its continued support of Iraq's prime minister.
"It's not up to politicians in Washington, D.C. to say whether he will remain in his position -- that is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy, and not a dictatorship," Bush said Wednesday.
CNN correspondent Ed Henry reported Thursday that a senior administration official told him "the White House is aware of this, and they may at some point try to tell the firm to dial this back because it undermines what President Bush has been saying publicly."
Poor Bush even his neocon cronies disageee with him!
US industrial firm Textron has agreed to pay 4.65 million dollars in fines for kickbacks its French subsidiaries made in the now defunct UN oil-for-food program in Iraq, the US Justice Department said Thursday.
ReplyDeleteTextron took responsibility for 600,000 dollars in kickbacks paid to the Iraqi government between 2000-2003 by the three French subsidiaries in its David Brown fluid and power business unit seeking to sell industrial pumps, gears, and other equipment to the Iraqis.
The kickbacks secretly inflated by 10 percent contracts that needed to be approved by the United Nations under the oil-for-food program, set up to help Iraqis cope with punitive sanctions slapped on Saddam Hussein's regime after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The Justice Department said it agreed not to file criminal charges against Textron as the company had early on discovered and reported the payments, as well as others made in other countries.
Another corrupt Bush ally!
This is for Bartlebee...
ReplyDeleteYou said..
" BARTLEBEE said...
Guys, don't fall for the right winger incognito trying to get bloggers to advocate insurrection.
Just ignore the trolls.
They're none too bright.
7:50 PM ".
First of all sir\madam...I am not a troll as both larry and lydia can attest to.
Whether you want to believe it or not we are under a Dictatorship and War with Iran is very likely within the next 6 months.
When one has the same power that Adolph Hitler had one does not give it up. So all the talk about the elections next year are nothing but that. Talk!!!
You believe what you want too, however don't start calling me a right winger since you don't know shit about me and I won't call you a Nazi sympathizer.
God Bless
(AP) -- Wall Street ended a mildly erratic day slightly lower Thursday after anxiety about widening credit problems offset investor optimism about a $2 billion capital infusion into troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.
ReplyDeleteIt's the faltering Bush economy.
It's the Bush Economy:
ReplyDelete(Bloomberg) -- The credit-market freeze that's paralyzing leveraged buyouts, mergers and myriad computer-driven trading strategies may cut Wall Street bonuses for the first time in five years.
``There's a lot of pessimism out there,'' said Gary Goldstein, chief executive officer of executive-search firm Whitney Group in New York. ``Looking at the world today as we see it and the impact the crunch is likely to have, it looks like bonus pools will decline.''
Bonuses, the financial industry's annual rite of compensation typically calculated as a multiple of salary, probably will decline as much as 5 percent from 2006, according to Options Group, the New York-based firm that has tracked pay and hiring trends for more than a decade. While the payouts often far exceeded the average of $220,650 at the biggest U.S. securities firms last year and increased as much as 20 percent from 2005, the subprime-mortgage collapse already has drained the punch bowl.
Hardest hit will be employees who create and sell securities backed by mortgages or pools of debt, Options Group said. One out of every three people in those roles may lose their jobs unless business picks up by the end of the year, the firm estimates. Bonuses may fall as much as 40 percent.
Hedge Funds
Hedge-fund investment managers, whose average payout climbed as much as 15 percent last year, may see a drop of 5 percent to 10 percent in 2007. Bonuses for employees in fixed- income units may fall as much as 10 percent, compared with a 10 percent gain last year, Options Group estimates.
Now even the millionaire stockbrokers are hurt by Bush's economy!
This administration has done so many questionable things and is so secretive that I'm sure whatever they have done is way worse than what Nixon did.
ReplyDeleteI had a dream last night that Bush resigned over some scandal! It was so real that when I woke up and realized it wasn't true I was deeply disappointed! Can we hope my dream was precognitive?
Mauigirl:
ReplyDeleteI wish your dream would come true, but in this mess, it was only a dream!
(Reuters) - Al Qaeda fighters kidnapped 15 Iraqi women and children after attacking two villages north of Baghdad on Thursday and killing a religious leader who had been trying to form an anti-al Qaeda tribal alliance, police said.
ReplyDeletePolice said 32 people had been killed in an hour-long battle between villagers and al Qaeda. The attackers, who struck just after dawn, dragged the imam of the local mosque, Younis Abd Hameed, and three worshippers outside and executed them.
Another normal day in Bush's Iraq!
Facebook is Hotter Than Myspace For Politics:
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - Nineteen-year-old L.J. Tsunis has some advice for his favorite U.S. presidential candidate: start hanging out on Facebook already.
"Rudy Giuliani is absolutely making a big mistake by not being active on Facebook," Tsunis told Reuters in a message posted through the popular social-networking site.
"Millions of votes could be had on here that may swing the election one way or the other."
Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City and the Republican front-runner in many opinion polls, is the only candidate for the November 2008 presidential race who has not gotten the message.
Every other major player has set up shop on the site, which draws millions of predominantly young users looking to flirt, make friends and goof off.
Candidates see social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace as tools to win over young voters who are difficult to reach through more traditional campaigning.
In this early popularity contest, Sen. Barack Obama is the clear favorite so far -- the Illinois Democrat even gained the support on Facebook, however briefly, of Giuliani's Harvard-bound daughter, Caroline.
Obama has drawn nearly twice as many online "friends" who link to his profile than any other candidate, and many of them have become volunteers for the campaign.
Poor Twiggy Coulter:
ReplyDeleteProgressive Democrat Issue 116: INDIANA FOCUS: Continuing the fight against Ann Coulter
As I highlighted last week, Ann Coulter is slowly being dropped by paper after paper because of her hate speech and advocacy of violence. Interestingly, one of the first newspapers to drop her column due to her disgusting rhetoric was, long ago, the conservative National Review. They dropped her column after she responded to the 9/11 attacks by stating that America should "invade their [terrorists'] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." Wow...what kind of anti-Muslim nut case are we talking about here?
Since then her hate speech has only gotten worse. She has compared Islam with the KKK and routinely advocates violence against liberals and insults homosexuals. You can read more about what she advocates and says here. She has the right to say what she wants. And newspapers have the right to carry it. But, we have the right to fight back as well. Last month highlighting her anti-gay rhetoric led to practically all her advertisers (other than Amazon.com) to pull their ads off her website. Now we are asking newspapers that carry her column to stop giving her hate speech a platform.
Keep running your mouth Twiggy Coulter and lose all your revenue!
Larry, Twiggy is a compliment!
ReplyDeleteMaui Girl - that was such a wonderful dream! I love that you are thinking so much about it that you actually dreamed it.
I think our collective unconscious could actually bring justice about: Let's all see Bush in handcuffs... being marched off to jail. Would that it were true.
I wonder how Ann Coulter got away with publicly stating Bill Clinton should be assassinated. She said it 3 times, in different ways, and committed actual crimes to help get him impeached.
Didn't he say this before:
ReplyDeleteWarner: Bush should begin Iraq withdrawal
Republican senator says the president should set timetable, not Congress
President Bush should announce on Sept. 15 a small initial pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq to spur the Iraqi government to take steps toward political reconciliation, an influential Republican senator said Thursday.
Virginia Sen. John Warner said Bush should “announce on the 15th that in consultation with our senior military commanders he has decided to initiate the first step in a withdrawal of our forces.”
Warner, a senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who has pressed Bush to change his Iraq policy, suggested a withdrawal of “say 5,000″ troops, who could be home by Christmas in December of this year.
Warner said the United States needed “to show that we mean business” when it says its commitment to Iraq is not open ended.
Warner and Hagel said the same thing before the funding vote, then both Repugs fell in line with the other sheep in Bush's pathetic flock, and vote to continue the war.
BAGHDAD: Two suicide car bombers attacked a US-led coalition forces outpost in northern Baghdad killing four Iraqi soldiers and wounding 11 American troops, the US military said on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteThe attack took place on Wednesday at the outpost manned by US soldiers from 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division and Iraqi soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division.
The military said four Iraqi soldiers were also wounded in the twin suicide bomb assault.
The exact location of the outpost was not revealed by the military. On Wednesday, 14 American soldiers died when their Blackhawk helicopter crashed before dawn in northern Iraq. The accident was one of the worst suffered by the military in more than four years of conflict in Iraq.
Another normal day in Baghdad!
Larry said...
ReplyDeleteA lobbying firm with close connections to the Bush administration is aiding the efforts of an opposition leader in Iraq who is seeking Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ouster.
The revelation that lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith and Rogers, whose president is a former US envoy to Iraq, is supporting former interim prime minister Ayad Alllawi, was first reported by IraqSlogger. The firm has sent hundreds of e-mails in Allawi's name from an e-mail address it purchased, DrAyadAllawi@Allawi-for-Iraq.com, and it has purchased the Web domain AllawiForIraq.com.
BGR's president, Robert Blackwill, was presidential envoy for Iraq in 2004. Amid speculation that President Bush would support Maliki's replacement, the administration has stressed its continued support of Iraq's prime minister.
"It's not up to politicians in Washington, D.C. to say whether he will remain in his position -- that is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy, and not a dictatorship," Bush said Wednesday."
I had a feeling Bush and the Neo Cons would try to oust Maliki after what he has said the last 2 weeks......Maliki has made it clear he is NOT GWB;s puppet and that is unacceptable for the Neo Con crime syndicate.
I fully expect Maliki to be assassinated or overthrown very soon.
ReplyDeletelook at our own Generals for example.......Any who have dared to disagree with Bush and the Neo Cons has been attacked and/or replaced from Shinseki to Peter Pace who recently stated that Cheney and Bush had absolutely No hard evidence against iran and attacking them was both a mistake and unwarranted.
ReplyDeleteBush will blame Malaki and replace him so he has an excuse to "surge on."
ReplyDeleteBush and his pack of Neo Con fools dont REALLY want to LISTEN to their generals, they want fealty from their generals.
ReplyDeleteBush oulled the bait and switch instead of Petraeus actually writing the Iraq Report, the white House is actually writing it.
Thats like leting a police officer conduct the internal affairs investigation of himself or letting a kid write his own report card and grade himself.
Like Usual Bush has destroyed the credibility and integrity of the process and made a farce out of it.
No Larry, i think Maliki will be most likely killed.
ReplyDeleteI also think Bush will buy time and try to derail the Democrats attempts at pressuring them by offering to listen to Petraeus and make a relatively insignificant withdrawl.......so that even after the withdrawl there will still be MORE troops there than BEFORE the surge.
ReplyDeleteI think Bush needs a fall guy and Malaki is the perfect one.
ReplyDeleteLarry said...
ReplyDeleteI think Bush needs a fall guy and Malaki is the perfect one."
Your right..........but did you ever hear the saying "dead men dont talk".........I think before the end of the year that may apply to Maliki!
Maliki basically just supported iran and told Bush to get out...........That doesnt sit well with the evil emperorors plans for installing a puppet in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteI don't know but they will use Malaki to blame.
ReplyDeleteThe Neo Cons are ALLREADY supporting a rival while Maliki is still in power if that isnt telling I dont know what is.
ReplyDeleteBush is getting ready to continue the "surge" then parlay into Iran.
ReplyDeleteThe number of Iraqis fleeing their homes has soared since the American troop increase began in February, according to data from two humanitarian groups, accelerating the partition of the country into sectarian enclaves.
ReplyDeleteDespite some evidence that the troop buildup has improved security in certain areas, sectarian violence continues and American-led operations have brought new fighting, driving fearful Iraqis from their homes at much higher rates than before the tens of thousands of additional troops arrived, the studies show.
The movement to develop alternatives to mainstream corporate-owned radio got a boost recently with a bi-partisan congressional bill to expand low-power FM (LPFM), a class of frequencies devoted to non-commercial community groups. Though LPFM stations only broadcast a radius of three-and-a-half miles, they offer the chance to bring seldom-heard voices on the air.
ReplyDeleteMedia activists and reform groups see LPFM as a cheap, accessible medium that counterbalances the formulaic music and news of conglomerates like Clear Channel, while offering ownership and control to underrepresented groups. A recent study by the media-policy think tank Free Press found that women own 6 percent of the country’s full-power commercial radio stations; people of color and ethnic minorities control just 7.7 percent. It can cost as little as $5,000 to launch a no-frills LPFM station. About 800 stations have been established since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began licensing them in 2000.
The voices aired on low-power stations include evangelists, social critics, tomato pickers and indie rockers—all linked by the credo that radio should reflect the heterogeneity of the communities it serves.
Low-power broadcasters “are only able to succeed because they are authorized by the local community,” says Hannah Sassaman, an organizer with the Prometheus Radio Project, a Philadelphia-based radio advocacy group.
Prometheus has led the grassroots push for LPFM and is now building support for the Local Community Radio Act of 2007, introduced in June by Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.) in the House, and Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Senate.
The bill would repeal strictures that have stunted LPFM’s growth. In 2000, lawmakers passed rules that in effect restricted LPFM to rural areas, after industry interests alleged that their “interference” would impinge on full-power broadcasters. But new research from the FCC shows that expanding low-power radio, even in denser markets, would not disrupt existing stations. Nonetheless, the National Association of Broadcasters recently reprised its warnings of “inevitable interference,” while opposing the bill.
Media activists say LPFM not only poses no technological hazard, but serves community needs that commercial stations ignore. When Hurricane Katrina hit, low-power outlets emerged as a community-based crisis response in Texas and Mississippi, where volunteer-run stations broadcasted on-the-ground news to survivors and tracked the relief effort.
Prometheus has helped seed new LPFM stations through “barnraisings”—collective construction projects that lay the technological groundwork for stations and train locals in media production.
One barnraising alumnus, the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), has used LPFM over the last four years to organize some of the country’s most vulnerable laborers. CIW broadcasts on political and labor issues to Haitian and Latin American farm workers in their own languages, and provides safety information when hurricanes hit.
“Through LPFM, our communities can have an independent voice, whose commitment is to the community itself and not to any other interests,” says CIW Co-Director Lucas Benitez. “It gives us a place to analyze the problems we face daily, and a place to look for solutions together.”
KOCZ in Opelousas, La., run by the civil-rights group Southern Development Foundation, has helped revive the area’s famed Zydeco music scene by promoting local artists and provided a dedicated forum for community news.
“If we did not have this type of media democracy, people would not have the opportunity to educate themselves and move themselves up,” says John Freeman, one of the station’s founders. “[Full-power media] only wanted to control what these people could hear. It was a disgrace.”
With more frequencies, LPFM might finally gain ground in big cities. REACHip Hop (Representing Education, Activism and Community Through Hip Hop), a New York-based media-activist group, is partnering with Prometheus and like-minded activists to start a station centered on the city’s youth. Activist Rosa Clemente says REACHip Hop envisions the station as an outlet for politically oriented public affairs programming and as an alternative to corporate hip-hop stations.
“This is a perfect way for our generation to create our own institutions, run by our own people,” says Clemente.
Michele Gutierrez, an organizer with the Bay Area-based Youth Media Council, which focuses on media as a tool for social change, says LPFM is only the start.
“We must continue to challenge a media system controlled by the privileged few,” she says. “The power to communicate, and therefore the power to transform society, belongs to everyone.”
A way for Liberal Talk Radio to be heard.
The Official George W. Bush
ReplyDelete"Days Left In Office"
Countdown:
515 DAYS
0 Hrs 0 Min 11.6 Sec
Will this day ever come?
Hi guys I haven't been around for some time but I was looking on other blogs today and noticed several new people have joined you here Lydia
ReplyDeleteMike, Juan Cole is getting some info that says you just might be right,
ReplyDeleteMilitary Coup Planned for Iraq?
A rumor is circulating among well-connected and formerly high-level Iraqi bureaucrats in exile in places like Damascus that a military coup is being prepared for Iraq. I received the following from a reliable, knowledgeable contact. There is no certitude that this plan can or will be implemented. That it is being discussed at high levels seems highly likely.
"There is serious talk of a military commission (majlis `askari) to take over the government. The parties would be banned from holding positions, and all the ministers would be technocrats, so to speak. . . [The writer indicates that attempts have been made to recruit cabinet members from the ranks of expatriate technocrats.]
The six-member board or commission would be composed on non-political former military personnel who are presently not part of the government OR the military establishment, such as it is in Iraq at the moment. It is said that the Americans are supporting this behind the scenes.
The plan includes a two-year period during which political parties would not be permitted to be part of the government, but instead would prepare and strengthen the parties for an election which would not have lists, but real people running for real seats. The two year period would be designed to take control of security and restore infrastructure.
. . .[I]t is another [desperate plan], but one which many many Iraqis will support, since they are sick of their country being pulled apart by the "imports" - Maliki, Allawi, Jaafari et al. The military group is composed of internals, people who have the goal of securing the country even at the risk of no democracy, so they say. "
So the stupid people who thought invading Iraq and overtrowing the government was a good idea.... want to over throw the government they put in place because they can't control it well enough.....
Are they planning on another million Iraqi deaths from this fiasco also?
WASHINGTON -- As of Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007, at least 3,724 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 3,047 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
ReplyDeleteThe AP count is 18 higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The British military has reported 168 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, South Korea, one death each.
These are a result of Bush's Black Heart!
BAGHDAD — Firing back in an escalating war of words, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki on Wednesday chided U.S. officials for expressing impatience with the Iraqi government's failure to unite divided political factions and said Iraq would find other friends if the United States was disenchanted.
ReplyDelete"These statements do not concern us a lot," Maliki said to reporters while he was visiting Syria. "We will find many around the world who will support us in our endeavor."
Nice going Bush: You can't even control your own puppet.
Losing John Warner on the war was a big deal.Warner is a well respected hawk with the neocon types. If Warners out, then watch them all drop out.
ReplyDeletelarry....
ReplyDeleteEven the death count you listed is not correct.
Truth is that if one is wounded the clock stops as they begin transport to a medical base out of Iraq.
If you die of your injuries on the way or at the medical hospital your death don't get listed as being killed in Iraq.
I would more than likely place the death count around 10 or 12 thousand.
Time to hit the sack...
God Bless.
WORFEUS THE SEER said...
ReplyDeleteLosing John Warner on the war was a big deal.Warner is a well respected hawk with the neocon types. If Warners out, then watch them all drop out."
Yeah but Warner has spoken out against the war several times before..........but when it came time to vote he fell right back in line for his Neo Con masters.............i'll let his actions speak this time rather than his words.
clif said...
ReplyDeleteMike, Juan Cole is getting some info that says you just might be right,
Military Coup Planned for Iraq?
A rumor is circulating among well-connected and formerly high-level Iraqi bureaucrats in exile in places like Damascus that a military coup is being prepared for Iraq. I received the following from a reliable, knowledgeable contact. There is no certitude that this plan can or will be implemented. That it is being discussed at high levels seems highly likely.
"There is serious talk of a military commission (majlis `askari) to take over the government. The parties would be banned from holding positions, and all the ministers would be technocrats, so to speak. . . [The writer indicates that attempts have been made to recruit cabinet members from the ranks of expatriate technocrats.]
The six-member board or commission would be composed on non-political former military personnel who are presently not part of the government OR the military establishment, such as it is in Iraq at the moment. It is said that the Americans are supporting this behind the scenes.
The plan includes a two-year period during which political parties would not be permitted to be part of the government, but instead would prepare and strengthen the parties for an election which would not have lists, but real people running for real seats. The two year period would be designed to take control of security and restore infrastructure.
. . .[I]t is another [desperate plan], but one which many many Iraqis will support, since they are sick of their country being pulled apart by the "imports" - Maliki, Allawi, Jaafari et al. The military group is composed of internals, people who have the goal of securing the country even at the risk of no democracy, so they say. "
So the stupid people who thought invading Iraq and overtrowing the government was a good idea.... want to over throw the government they put in place because they can't control it well enough.....
Are they planning on another million Iraqi deaths from this fiasco also?"
Clif, after the interactions between Bush and Maliki over the past two weeks, my money says Maliki is toast before the end of the year.................Bush will probably proclaim his support for him just like he did for Rumsfeld before he fired him then........kaboom.
Theres no honor or loyalty among thieves.
I almost forgot I have another blog called The Peacemakers * The LIght of Truth
ReplyDeleteHere's the address: http://lydiacornell.blogspot.com/
It's also got a link on my home page.
Please visit. I am going to post my spiritual writings and healings soon, all the archived stuff which I have hidden.
(AP) -- A bomb dropped by a U.S. fighter jet was believed to have killed three British soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense said Friday. Two other soldiers were injured.
ReplyDeleteAnother result of Bush's war!
BAGHDAD - Sixty suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters hit national police facilities in a coordinated attack in Samarra, sparking two hours of fighting that saw three people killed and more than a dozen insurgents captured, police said Friday.
ReplyDeleteThe masked attackers drove into the city at dusk Thursday in about 20 vehicles, including pickups with machine-guns, then split into small groups and assaulted four police checkpoints and a headquarters building, a Samarra police official said.
One policeman and two civilians — a woman and an 11-year-old girl — were killed in the fighting in the city 60 miles north of Baghdad, and nine others were injured including a police commando and three children. There were no details on insurgent casualties, but police arrested 14 suspects, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Another normal day in Bush's Baghdad!
BAGHDAD: Armed groups increasingly control the antiquated switching stations that channel electricity around Iraq, the electricity minister said.
ReplyDeleteThat is dividing the national grid into fiefs that, he said, often refuse to share electricity generated locally with Baghdad and other power-starved areas in the center of Iraq.
The development adds to existing electricity problems in Baghdad, which has been struggling to provide power for more than a few hours a day because insurgents regularly blow up the towers that carry power lines into the city.
The government lost the ability to control the grid centrally after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, when looters destroyed automated dispatch centers, the minister, Karim Wahid, said in a briefing Wednesday with U.S. military officials.
Another normal day in Bush's Iraq!
More Republican corruption:
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON — At a time when Congress has moved to ban most lobbyist-funded travel, executive- branch officials are routinely accepting trips from companies and trade associations with a stake in their agencies' decisions, according to a USA TODAY review of public records.
In a recent 12-month period:
•A Department of Transportation aviation analyst went to a conference in Geneva at a cost of $1,900 courtesy of the National Business Aviation Association, which lobbies the department on private jet rules.
• Two Defense Department homeland defense officials attended a conference in Limerick, Ireland, that was sponsored by Rivada Networks, a defense contractor that picked up the $4,200 tab.
•The Consumer Electronics Association, a lobbying group, paid more than $34,000 to host 24 officials from various agencies at the five-star Wynn hotel at its Las Vegas trade show in January, spokesman Jason Oxman said.
Those trips and more than 100 others taken from April 2006 to March 2007 would be out of bounds for members of Congress under the recently passed ethics bill, because they lasted more than one day and were paid for by companies or groups that employ lobbyists. The travel restrictions in the ethics bill, which awaits President Bush's signature, don't apply to the other branches of government.
For executive-branch officials, federal rules say corporate-funded trips are permitted as long as they don't "cause a reasonable person … to question the integrity of agency programs or operations."
You know, I tried wearing a "not my president" t-shirt back in college, and more old folks gave me dirty looks than ever before.
ReplyDeleteToday on Basham and cornell we discussed the nuclear testing site in Nevada and the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository -- we had Steve Ross on, Las Vegas Councilman for Ward 6
ReplyDeleteFalling Falling Falling:
ReplyDeleteStock futures pointed toward a lower opening on Wall Street Friday ahead of data expected to show further trouble in the housing market.
The Commerce Department is expected to report a further slowing of new home sales and a drop in home prices during July. Economists surveyed by Thomson Financial predicted, on average, that sales of new single-family homes will have fallen in July to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 825,000 units, down from 835,000 in June.
It's the Bush economy falling more everyday!
Another neocon turning:
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. effort to install a democracy in Iraq within three to five years was a flawed strategy with little chance of succeeding, U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra said Friday.
The Holland Republican said the Iraq government needs new leadership, but said it's up to Iraqis to change it.
A US soldier has been withdrawn from Iraq after his two brothers were killed in action, echoing the Oscar-winning film "Saving Private Ryan", reports said Friday.
ReplyDeleteJason Hubbard, 33, will return to his family's home in northern California after younger brother Nathan, 21, was one of 14 soldiers killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in northern Iraq on Wednesday.
The death came three years after a roadside bombing claimed the life of another sibling, Jared, 22, in Fallujah in 2004, reports said.
Jason was withdrawn under the military's "sole survivor" regulations aimed at preventing parents losing all of their children to war, reports added.
The case bears a striking similarity to Steven Spielberg's 1998 film about a mission to recover a soldier from northern France after all his brothers are killed during the D-Day landings.
"Art imitates life, and unfortunately sometimes life imitates art," an army official who asked not to be identified told AFP.
Did you enjoy destroying this family Bush?
As a believer in the TOTAL freedom of Information, I am shocked by the incredible secrecy of this White House.
ReplyDeleteOf course, on the other hand I can't blame them. If my policies were such a dismal failure I wouldn't want people knowing what I was thinking either.
Robert - thank you !!!
ReplyDeleteI just left a comment for you at your new place at Left of Centrist.
Thank you for including my blog in your World Report.
Suzi- Q - WHERE ARE YOU?
We miss you!
Don’t miss the return of “Real Time with Bill Maher” tonight, August 24 at 11pm ET on HBO.
ReplyDeletePanelists include Oscar-winner Tim Robbins, host of NPR’s “Tell Me More” Michel Martin, and senior writer for The Weekly Standard Stephen F. Hayes. And, via satellite, Bill will be interviewing former Governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and Damien Cave, Baghdad correspondent for The New York Times, will be joining us live from Iraq.
At last the truth on TV!
Building the Room of Lies:
ReplyDeleteShaping the Bush administration's message on the Iraq war has taken on new fervor, just as anticipation is building for the September progress report from top military advisers.
For the Pentagon, getting out Iraq information will now include a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week Iraq Communications Desk that will pump out data from Baghdad _ serving as what could be considered a campaign war room.
Bush's Handpicked Government is Falling Apart:
ReplyDeleteThe Iraqi National List, an umbrella group of several political parties composed of secular Sunnis and Shiites, had boycotted cabinet meetings since Aug. 7 because of frustrations with what they saw as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's divisive leadership style. The party, headed by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, will now submit the official resignations, National List member Iyad Jamal al-Deen said.
Sen. John Warner's suggestion that some troops leave Iraq by the end of the year has roiled the White House, with administration officials saying they've asked the influential Republican to clarify that he has not broken politically with President Bush.
ReplyDeleteBut Warner said Friday he stands by his remarks and that he took no issue with how his views have been characterized.
Didn't he say all this last time before he voted to fund the war!
Gotta Protect Those Republican Perverts:
ReplyDeleteFormer Congressman Mark Foley is unlikely to face criminal charges for sending sexually explicit e-mails to teenage boys, sources close to the yearlong investigation have told Scripps Howard News Service.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. created a Utah Mine Safety Commission on Thursday, headed by former U.S. Attorney Scott Matheson Jr., to conduct its own investigation of the Crandall Canyon mine tragedy.
ReplyDeleteThe announcement came a few hours after Huntsman publicly chastised the mine's co-owner, Robert Murray, for "unconscionable" behavior toward the six trapped miners' families.
If you feel that way why not throw him in Prison.
Taking advantage of the poor:
ReplyDelete"It's been a common feature of advertising," said Allen Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy at the Consumer Federation of America. "They offer their products not around interest rates but among monthly payments, ease of access, among 'you're more likely to get a yes with us than with others.' I don't think that has changed in this environment."
The Ultimate Republican Hatemonger:
ReplyDeleteAt a recent stop on his "Love Grenade 2007 Shrapnel Tour," rocker Ted Nugent tossed some rhetorical bombs at a few top Democrats, and possible future gubernatorial candidate joked about executing the most prominent African American politician in a generation.
"Obama, he's a piece of shit, and I told him to suck on my machine gun," Nugent said in front of a screaming crowd as he brandishes what appear to be two large assault rifles. He was referring to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination and would become the first black man to occupy the Oval Office.
In a video from a recent performance posted on LiveLeak, Nugent, a prominent pro-gun advocate, paced the stage with a machine gun in each hand as the crowd eggs on his increasingly vulgar tirades.
The video appeared Friday, but the date and venue of the performance is unclear. Nugent performed Thursday in Jackson, California, while a comment left on a YouTube post said that it was taken from an Anaheim performance last Tuesday.
"Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset you worthless bitch," Nugent said, brandishing his weapons.
He also went after Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), suggesting she, too, might like to "suck on my machine gun." Nugent's tirade against California's other Democratic Senator, Diane Feinstein, is too garbled to transcribe, but one can hear Nugent call her a "whore."
War = Profits
ReplyDeleteWhat is the psychology of an administration that creates more enemies? Everybody marvels at how we've somehow created more terrorists out of the Iraqupation yet nobody realizes that may be the truest sign of success for BushCo. Wait, you say- I thought we were supposed to make the US safer and reduce the number of terrorists? Yet we now have a rising number of enemies and are currently firing more than 1 BILLION bullets a year at them. This is actually creating a shortage of ammunition for our own police departments at home. As with any situation, if you follow the money, you get the answers, and the answer is this: the Defense and Munitions industries are making a killing (pun intended) on this war. They have made profits on every war because their greatest customers are enemies. Hence, two important facts: one, the more war and number of enemies, the greater the profits. Two, without war and enemies, there are no profits. Therefore, endless war and increasing enemies because it's all about the bottom line.
We have kept ourselves in military operations since WWII not to make us safer or to bring freedom to the world, but chiefly to keep our Defense and Munitions industries alive and profitable. I'm not saying that there haven't been reasonable and righteous reasons for us to be involved in military conflict at certain times since WWII. But the Iraqupation may be the greatest misuse of our military power in our nations history and contrary to popular belief, it has not backfired, at least not for those making money off it. Aside from Defense and Munitions, don't forget the outsourcing of security to companies like Blackwater, creating a parallel army larger than our official one but without the accountability and honor (lest you think that any Blackwater employee killed will be buried at Arlington with a ceremony and a medal). And do not forget Halliburton and KBR, who have not just made tons of money but have actually managed to lose a bunch of it. They are under investigation for bribery, bid rigging, defrauding the military and illegally profiting in Iran. Their answer? Move their headquarters to the UAE. And did you happen to know that the UAE has no extradition treaty? Check it out. How patriotic of Dick Cheney's favorite nation-building company.
It is too idealistic to hope that the people running the Defense industry would have some sort of act of conscience that would make them more concerned with good policy than with obscene profiteering. And it is also too idealistic to hope that Congress can stop BushCo from this great and treacherous collusion with the Media Industrial Complex. Those of us who voted for Democrats who would put an end to this madness are hugely disappointed that they have been unable to make it happen. Truth is, we need 60 votes for that kind of change and we don't have it. Yet. But more than that, we need outrage from American citizens to build into a roar that our government cannot ignore. And until this government of the people is truly reclaimed, endless war will continue. And enemies will increase in size and animosity towards us.
It's Time For The Annual Bush Photo Op:
ReplyDeleteUS President George W. Bush next week will visit New Orleans and parts of the Mississippi coast ravaged two years ago by Hurricane Katrina, the White House said Friday.
Bush will arrive in New Orleans on Tuesday after a fundraising swing and a speech to a US veterans group to defend the war in Iraq, spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters as the president spent time on his ranch here.
Who Says We're Leaving Iraq:
ReplyDeleteThe United States' largest and costliest embassy, a heavily fortified compound in Baghdad with its own power plant and lighted softball field, is on track to be completed next month, on time and within budget.
"We're going to complete it on schedule," said Charles Williams, director of the State Department's overseas building operations. It took two years to build, he said.
The 65-acre compound will be largely a world unto itself, insulated as much as possible from problems that plague the rest of Baghdad.
The facility sits on the banks of the Tigris River in the Green Zone, a walled-off area that houses Iraqi and U.S. offices. The embassy will have a separate set of 9-foot-high concrete walls to protect it against car or truck bombs. Many of the buildings also will have specially made bulletproof doors and windows, Williams said.
Baghdad experiences frequent utility outages, but the compound will have its own power, water and sewage plants.
Diplomats are limited in their ability to move outside the Green Zone because of violence, so the compound has soccer fields and a commissary for shopping, Williams said. The facility has 619 apartments and can accommodate 1,157 workers.
Building the facility in the middle of an insurgency was costly, but Williams said it will not exceed the $592 million budgeted. By having workers live inside the Green Zone, the U.S. government avoided a lot of the security costs that have hampered other construction projects throughout Iraq.
Protecting the Wealthy:
ReplyDeleteUS Republican Presidential candidate John McCain has pledged to protect Bermuda's international businesses if he is successful in his White House bid. The Arizona Senator, who spent three days on the Island this week meeting business and political leaders, said he understood the concerns of the insurance and reinsurance sectors about draft legislation proposing a clampdown on US business operations in so-called tax havens.
He told The Royal Gazette: "The industry, the re-insurance that's had such phenomenal success has been good for both nations. I would oppose any measures that would upset that."
He also pledged to back Bermuda as a tourist destination, describing the warm welcome the Island extends to thousands of US visitors each year as "frankly, the greatest aspect of Bermuda-US relations."
This Republican Neocon Wants War With Everyone:
ReplyDeleteFormer senator Rick Santorum earned the sobriquet “the believer” during his time in Washington. A staunch Catholic, he made cultural conservative issues his personal crusade, frequently giving impassioned speeches on behalf of the unborn and leading the effort to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Though self-effacing and affable in private, on the Senate floor he became a scourge in the hands of an angry God.
That manner won him few admirers outside the value-voters set, and in 2006 the Iraq War became a political millstone around Santorum’s thin neck. After taking the worst thumping in the contested Senate races, he seemed destined to disappear. But instead of cashing in at a lobbying firm or cruising on his reputation through the conservative dinner circuit, the senator embraced the war issue. Now he is building support for regime change in Iran among social conservatives and reframing the war on terror into a much larger conflict that stretches back over a millennium. In his right hand, he holds a growing list of America’s enemies, and he’s reading off their names to everyone who will listen—at think tanks, on Christian radio, and perhaps soon at a theater near you.
In his post Senate speeches, Santorum has explained how he transformed from culture warrior to foreign-policy warrior: “As I went on the campaign trail, it was very obvious to me that we were losing the war. Yes, we were losing the war in Baghdad to some degree, but more important we were losing the war on the streets of Pennsylvania.” Collapsing public support, in Santorum’s mind, was the result of a failure to “name the enemy” and educate Americans about the nature of the threat. “They didn’t think there was any consequence of losing, they didn’t think we could lose and even if we did, it didn’t matter.”
The former senator is quick to remind, “I still care very deeply about the social conservative issues. Can America continue to be a great country if it is no longer a good country, or a moral country? That is the long-term crisis that America faces. But I saw a more immediate short-term problem in the foreign policy arena.” For Santorum, this short-term problem is global in scope, involving not only “Islamofascists” but also Latin American populists and Russia. Solving it requires the full moral, diplomatic, and military effort of the American people in a struggle he says will demand more than World War II did of the greatest generation.
In many ways, Santorum’s latest project builds on his reputation as a social conservative. After leaving office, he immediately became a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a think tank built to promote what it calls “the Great Western ethical imperatives” in Washington. The EPPC is known for its groundbreaking work on life and family issues. Now the former senator writes up a bulletin for the center called “The Weekly Threat Roundup,” which regularly details the nefarious doings of Iran and Venezuela—an alliance particularly troubling to Santorum.
For years, James Dobson, the Christian psychologist and popular radio talk-show host has been following Santorum’s efforts on behalf of socially conservative values. They both recently made Time’s list of the 25 most influential evangelicals, a true feat for a Catholic like Santorum. Like many evangelicals, Dobson’s interests now include foreign policy. In May, he dedicated two days of his show to broadcasting a Santorum stemwinder. In it, the former senator explained that his current work is “a family issue, because it concerns the security of every family in this nation.” Moving on to his list, Santorum asked impatiently, “Did you know that Venezuela will shortly spend $30 billion to build 20 military bases in neighboring Bolivia, which will dominate the borders with Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil?” And this was of no small concern because Latin American leftism is apparently in alliance with Islamic fascists. “How so? The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
But wait, there’s more. “You have Russia … increasingly looking like the old Russia in the way they support nations that align against the United States.” And so the list grows.
After dipping gingerly into the differences between Sunni and Shi’ite Islam, Santorum concluded that Iran poses the greatest threat to the United States. In previous centuries, he explained, Shi’ite regimes had been at peace with the West. But ever since Khomeini re-interpreted that tradition of Islam, Iran had been radicalized. “And so now we have Iran in a position to project power and to use Sunni-like theology, if you will…” he lowered his voice, “to conquer the world.”
(AP) - Suspected al-Qaida fighters stormed two villages near Baqouba on Thursday, bombed the house of a local Sunni sheik and kidnapped a group of mostly women. Residents were finally able to drive off the attackers and end the deadly rampage.
ReplyDeleteSeventeen villagers, including seven women, were killed in the assaults roughly 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Ten al-Qaida gunmen also died.
Another normal day in Baghdad!
The face of George Orwell's Big Brother and that of the bearded Uncle Sam are morphing into each other at an accelerated rate. Soon, we can take the composite of both as the new face of America, and plaster it on high technology high definition digital Ad Displays from Times Square to the Golden Gate with the caption, "Uncle Sam is Watching You".
ReplyDeleteDid you guys see where washed up rocker and NRA boardmember, Ted Nugent, threatened on-stage to kill both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama?
ReplyDeleteUnreal. A man with a tiny pee-pee, carries a gun to make up for his shortcomings, threatens the two Democratic front runners for president.
These are scary times, folks.
I'm all for attacking any politician for policy and I've been a devoted critic of Hillary Clinton for years for her policy positions. This is what you do in politics. Attack them for their policy positions, but threaten to off them? Aw, sorry, but this is entirely different.
I will be contacting the FBI and demanding they take action against this gun-loving freakazoid and not look the other way as they did with Annthrax Coulter after she threatened a sitting Supreme Court judge.
Christopher:
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't Nugent in jail like we would be if we had done that.
Nugent is on Fox News weekly spewing his guile and obviously he is also above the law.
Ah, but you see Christopher, we wouldnt be in jail if we had done that -- by "that" or course, I mean threaten Hillary or Obama.
ReplyDeleteNow if we were to threaten Bush or Cheney or Rove, we would be on our way to Gitmo.
Laws only apply if you are not a Bush Goosestepper.
Sorr, I got confused, that was directed to Larry, not Christopher
ReplyDeleteChristopher, Larry -- Unbelievable! TED NUGENT should be in jail. Are you allowed to do this?
ReplyDeleteIf anyone publicly threatened a public official like that wouldn't they be put in jail? Or is it just a sitting president and his executives?
Ann Coulter should be in jail for 3 separate impassioned death wishes on Clinton, a sitting president.
Isnt it telling that our great white dope GWB cares more about his corporate cronnies making a buck than protecting our nation like he CLAIMMS ad nauseum.
ReplyDeleteThe White House is siding with Shippers that inspecting cargo containers bound for the USA at foreign ports is burdensome and could impact business and econimic trade.
Despite being recommended by the 9/11 Commission, and opposed by the White House, this system has a 5 year deadline to go into effect and can be extended by the Homeland Security Secrretary another two years..........so we are looking at a date of possibly 2015 for something the 9/11 Commission reccommended about 5 years ago to keep us safe to actually be implemented.
For an assclown where every other word out of his mouth to justify his Orwellian, illegal unconstitutional BS that he CLAIMS is either BECAUSE of 9/11 or to keep Americans taking 14 years to actually take steps to make us safe is a damn disgrace.............CAN YOU SAY IMPEACH!!!!!!!!
Its pretty obvious lining his cronnies pockets and giving them unwarranted tax cuts is MORE important than ACTUALLY keeping our country safe..............Incompetence, lies and cronnyism is the ONLY legacy this pack of fools masquerading as a Presidential Administration will have!
ReplyDeleteBetter Hurry up and declare martial law Bush before Congress actually does something to make us safer at the expense of the cronny capitalists..............err I mean Neo Con fascists.
ReplyDeleteI just went from thinking of Ted Nugent as a misguided kook, to an absolute idiot..........Why is it these nutbags can threaten public officials with no repercussions but if liberals do the same thing they are arrested, put on do not fly lists and spied on and/or harrassed?
ReplyDeleteSo much for equal justice for all.........Dont ya think in an election year the equal justice thing should be an issue to focus on!
Great article, Lydia. Teddi will be missed. She left a proud example for us to follow.
ReplyDelete"If they have nothing to cover up, why are they covering everything up?" That's the question historians will asking about the Bush Administration for generations to come.
ReplyDeleteWho Hijacked Our Country
Christopher, Larry -- Unbelievable! TED NUGENT should be in jail. Are you allowed to do this?
ReplyDeleteLydia,
No, if you threaten to kill a candidate for president, you're in deep bandini.
About Annthrax Coulter, she also threatened to kill a SCOTUS judge.
Is she in jail? Was she questioned by the FBI? Of course not! In George Bush's Murika, threatening to kill presidential candidates or SCOTUS judges is OK as long as they're Democrats.
Remember the Anthrax letters sent to members of the Congress? Only Democrats like Patrick Leahy received one.
Like I said, these are scary times we living in, folks.
But on a happier note, guess who might be resigning? Gonzo! Yep, the embattled Bush family consigliere and scandal-laden AG is rumored to be on his way out to be replaced by Michael "the Skeletor" Chertoff! LMAO!
Lydia Cornell said...
ReplyDeleteSuzi- Q - WHERE ARE YOU?
We miss you!
-------------------
Hi Lydia!
I'M HERE!! :)
Sorry, I haven't been blogging much lately because I've been occupied with personal stuff!
I haven't forgotten all of you! ;)
Christopher said...
ReplyDeleteBut on a happier note, guess who might be resigning? Gonzo! Yep, the embattled Bush family consigliere and scandal-laden AG is rumored to be on his way out to be replaced by Michael "the Skeletor" Chertoff! LMAO!
--------------------
Christopher:
I wish I could be happy with that news!
Chertoff is no better than Gonzo!
Check out the excellent post on the profit of Bush's war:
ReplyDeletePissed on Politics
BAGHDAD -- About 200 gunmen stormed two villages in Diyala province Thursday, killing at least 22 members of a Sunni Arab tribe and taking 15 women and children hostage in an attack thought to be retaliation for their renunciation of Al Qaeda-linked militants.
ReplyDeleteAnother normal day in Baghdad!
"When passions and appetites are stronger than the intellect, men are savages; when the intellect governs the passions, when the passions are servants, men are civilized. The people need education - facts - philosophy."
ReplyDeleteRobert Ingersoll
Racist Rush:
ReplyDeleteWho criticizes Nelson Mandela? Who still calls him a communist? But much more importantly, who argues that we should not have helped to replace the white government of South Africa? Only a racist like Limbaugh. The transcript is right here:
LIMBAUGH: Yeah. This is -- you're not going to believe this, but it's very simple. And the sooner you believe it, and the sooner you let this truth permeate the boundaries you have that tell you this is just simply not possible, the better you will understand Democrats in everything. You are right. They want to get us out of Iraq, but they can't wait to get us into Darfur.
CALLER: Right.
LIMBAUGH: There are two reasons. What color is the skin of the people in Darfur?
CALLER: Uh, yeah.
LIMBAUGH: It's black. And who do the Democrats really need to keep voting for them? If they lose a significant percentage of this voting bloc, they're in trouble.
CALLER: Yes. Yes. The black population.
LIMBAUGH: Right. So you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there. You put sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela -- who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia. You do the same thing.
When I was a Republican, I thought Nelson Mandela was a living legend. He helped transform South Africa into a functioning democracy where everyone was equal without any bloodshed. Look at what has happened in the Palestinian territories and all over the world when you have ineffective leaders who choose violence instead of the path that Mandela took to get to justice. But now I see that I was in the wrong room, with the wrong people. The rest of the people in my party apparently paid lip-service to what I was saying and actually believed what Rush was saying. Did anyone of them ever care about Mandela or the injustice in South Africa at all?
How can anyone say they are a proud Republican anymore? I guess if you disavow all of the people like Limbaugh (and the torturers, and the ones who support wars of aggression and the people who violate the constitution, etc.), then you might be able to begin to rebuild the Republican Party. But what you can't do is claim you support Rush Limbaugh and still pretend not to be a racist.
Remember, Rush earlier in his career also told an African-American caller to "take that bone out of your nose." Let alone his nonsensical comments about how people in the media rooted for Donovan McNabb because he's black and rooted against Rex Grossman because he is white.
They fired Don Imus for a remark, where is the outrage over this and why aren't people trying to get Limbaugh fired.
I’ve got to think that after Bob Beckel and Alan Colmes got through with Sean Hannity tonight (8/24/07), even blind Republican viewers saw through his hypocrisy as he tried to defend rocker Ted Nugent’s vile comments about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama by likening them to Democratic criticisms of Bush administration war policy. With video.
ReplyDeleteBeckel was outstanding as he demanded that Hannity answer “yes or no” whether he would denounce Nugent for calling Obama “a piece of @!$%#” who should “suck on my machine gun” and Clinton, a “worthless @!$%#” who should "ride into the sunset” on his machine gun. But, hilariously, Hannity insisted that his comparison to Obama's comments about the war in Afghanistan was apt.
Doesn't this make sense:
ReplyDeleteOperation Iraqi Freedom, it turns out, was never a war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. It was an invasion of the federal budget, and no occupying force in history has ever been this efficient.
George W. Bush's war in the Mesopotamian desert was an experiment of sorts, a crude first take at his vision of a fully privatized American government. In Iraq the lines between essential government services and for-profit enterprises have been blurred to the point of absurdity -- to the point where wounded soldiers have to pay retail prices for fresh underwear, where modern-day chattel are imported from the Third World at slave wages to peel the potatoes we once assigned to grunts in KP, where private companies are guaranteed huge profits no matter how badly they @!$%# things up.
Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi's in-depth exploration of war profiteering in Iraq.
With intensity that matched the heat, Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards continued his scorching criticism of special interests Saturday, telling voters his trade policies would work for them, not big corporations.
ReplyDeleteAs temperatures hit the upper 90s, the former senator wondered jokingly whether he actually was in his home state of North Carolina before turning serious.
"The question that has been asked as we negotiate our international trade deals has been: 'Is this good for the profits of big multinational corporations?' That's the wrong question," he said outside an elementary school. "The question should be: 'Is this trade agreement good for working middle-class Americans?'"
Edwards said he will insist that the nation's trade partners meet strict labor and environmental standards and will enact regulations barring other countries from manipulating their currencies.
"And we're going to close down these tax loopholes that actually give incentives to take jobs and go overseas," he said. "This is crazy."
In response to an audience question later, Edwards said the measures he outlined would help reduce the nation's debt to China. He said he also would push to enforce existing laws that require goods to be labeled with their country of origin, encourage people to buy locally and give the government more authority to inspect products and food from elsewhere.
"We all know the problems we've seen with Chinese toys and Chinese food products coming into this country," he said. "The basic idea is to have a trade policy that works and to be clearer that we have not just smart trade but safe trade, where we actually identify problems and encourage people to buy locally because it's good for the American economy."
The fascists are coming! Or rather, they're already here, installed in the White House, planning like mad to subvert the Constitution and extend their reign in perpetuity, having first suppressed and eviscerated all opposition and put all of their critics in jail. Thus goes the rant of America's increasingly unhinged left. If only, sigh many Bush partisans, wondering when this administration will get out of the fetal position and show some fighting spirit. To them, as to most reasonable observers, the White House shows the chronic fatigue of a two-term presidency reaching its final year. Nonetheless, paranoia about what Bush and Co. are up to preys on the minds of many progressives, who have progressed, in this case at least, beyond reason.
ReplyDeleteThey're not coming: They are already here!
The dollar fell the most against the euro since March on diminished concern that U.S. housing weakness will slow global growth.
ReplyDeleteIt's the Bush economy!
Hey guys that Ted Nugent is a real pig sorry I said that on your blog Lydia but this guy is a pig
ReplyDeleteFed bends rules to help two big banks
ReplyDeleteIf the Federal Reserve is waiving a fundamental principle in banking regulation, the credit crunch must still be sapping the strength of America's biggest banks. Fortune's Peter Eavis documents an unusual Fed move.
In a clear sign that the credit crunch is still affecting the nation's largest financial institutions, the Federal Reserve agreed this week to bend key banking regulations to help out Citigroup and Bank of America, according to documents posted Friday on the Fed's web site.
The Aug. 20 letters from the Fed to Citigroup and Bank of America state that the Fed, which regulates large parts of the U.S. financial system, has agreed to exempt both banks from rules that effectively limit the amount of lending that their federally-insured banks can do with their brokerage affiliates. The exemption, which is temporary, means, for example, that Citigroup's Citibank entity can substantially increase funding to Citigroup Global Markets, its brokerage subsidiary. Citigroup and Bank of America requested the exemptions, according to the letters, to provide liquidity to those holding mortgage loans, mortgage-backed securities, and other securities.
This unusual move by the Fed shows that the largest Wall Street firms are continuing to have problems funding operations during the current market difficulties, according to banking industry skeptics. The Fed's move appears to support the view that even the biggest brokerages have been caught off guard by the credit crunch and don't have financing to deal with the resulting dislocation in the markets. The opposing, less negative view is that the Fed has taken this step merely to increase the speed with which the funds recently borrowed at the Fed's discount window can flow through to the bond markets, where the mortgage mess has caused a drying up of liquidity.
Typical reichwing big money response, rules are just for the little people.....
and the clowns on CNBC and Fox Noise can screech all they want but the sub prime melt down ain't gonna go away quietly....
at least not without a helping hand, and billions from the Fed and foreign central banks.
More here;
ReplyDeleteSo, how serious is this rule-bending? Very. One of the central tenets of banking regulation is that banks with federally insured deposits should never be over-exposed to brokerage subsidiaries; indeed, for decades financial institutions were legally required to keep the two units completely separate. This move by the Fed eats away at the principle.
Sure, the temporary nature of the move makes it look slightly less serious, but the Fed didn't give a date in the letter for when this exemption will end. In addition, the sheer size of the potential lending capacity at Citigroup and Bank of America - $25 billion each - is a cause for unease.
Indeed, this move to exempt Citigroup casts a whole new light on the discount window borrowing that was revealed earlier this week. At the time, the gloss put on the discount window advances was that they were orderly and almost symbolic in nature. But if that were the case, why the need to use these exemptions to rush the funds to the brokerages?
Subprime may be hitting credit cards, too
Expect the discount window borrowings to become a key part of the Fed's recovery strategy for the financial system. The Fed's exemption will almost certainly force its regulatory arm to sharpen its oversight of banks' balance sheets, which means banks will almost certainly have to mark down asset values to appropriate levels a lot faster now. That's because there is no way that the Fed is going to allow easier funding to lead to a further propping up of asset prices.
Don't forget: The Federal Reserve is in crisis management at the moment. However, it doesn't want to show any signs of panic. That means no rushed cuts in interest rates. It also means that it wants banks to quickly take the big charges that will inevitably come from holding toxic debt securities. And it will do all it can behind the scenes to work with the banks to help them get through this upheaval. But waiving one of the most important banking regulations can only add nervousness to the market. And that's what the Fed did Monday in these disturbing letters to the nation's two largest banks.
Some of the recent bloodshed appears the result of militant fighters drifting into parts of northern Iraq, where they have fled after U.S.-led offensives. Baghdad, however, still accounts for slightly more than half of all war-related killings — the same percentage as a year ago, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.
ReplyDeleteThe tallies and trends offer a sobering snapshot after an additional 30,000 U.S. troops began campaigns in February to regain control of the Baghdad area. It also highlights one of the major themes expected in next month’s Iraq progress report to Congress: some military headway, but extremist factions are far from broken.
In street-level terms, it means life for average Iraqis appears to be even more perilous and unpredictable.
The AP tracking includes Iraqi civilians, government officials, police and security forces killed in attacks such as gunfights and bombings, which are frequently blamed on Sunni suicide strikes. It also includes execution-style killings — largely the work of Shiite death squads.
The figures are considered a minimum based on AP reporting. The actual numbers are likely higher, as many killings go unreported or uncounted. Insurgent deaths are not a part of the Iraqi count.
Another normal time in Baghdad!
(Reuters) - Residents of a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan said on Sunday dozens of civilians including women and children had been killed in aerial bombing.
ReplyDeleteBAGHDAD -- A car bomb exploded in northern Baghdad on Saturday, killing seven passers-by and wounding dozens of others in an apparent sectarian attack near the capital's most important Shiite shrine.
ReplyDeleteThe attack in Kazimiyah came even as parts of Baghdad were shut down to vehicular traffic in an effort to protect Shiite pilgrims leaving for an annual religious commemoration in the southern city of Karbala next week.
Another normal day in Bush's Baghdad!
The median price of American homes is expected to fall this year for the first time since federal housing agencies began keeping statistics in 1950.
ReplyDeleteEconomists say the decline, which could be foreshadowed in a widely followed government price index to be released this week, will probably be modest -- from 1 percent to 2 percent -- but could continue in 2008 and 2009. Rather than being limited to the once-booming Northeast and California, price declines are also occurring in cities.
It's the Bush economy!
BAGHDAD, Aug. 25 -- A bomb placed beneath a parked car exploded outside a prominent Shiite shrine in Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least five people at the start of a major religious ceremony, U.S. military officials said.
ReplyDeleteAnother normal day in Bush's Baghdad!
General Peter Pace
ReplyDeleteChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
400 Joint Staff Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20318-0400
Dear General Pace,
I note with admiration your courage in making clear your private concerns about the safety of the US military and the longterm danger to US national security caused by the President's stubborn refusal to acknowledge the quagmire in Iraq.
Though you are Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President's principal military advisor - President Bush has shown his disdain for your honesty and wisdom. Though you are a decorated Vietnam war hero - who has served his nation honorably for four decades - the President is dispensing with your services. You have one month left in your position before you are tossed out by the President.
President Bush is going to ignore your advice. Just as he has ignored the advice of other Generals who have had the courage to respectfully point out how terribly wrong he is in respect of the Iraq War and the safety of the US military he is sworn to protect. Highly-decorated colleagues of yours such as General Anthony Zinni (Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command), General Eric Shinseki (Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army) and General John Abizaid (Commander of the U.S. Central Command).
General Pace - you have the power to fulfill your responsibility to protect the troops under your command. Indeed you have an obligation to do so.
You can relieve the President of his command.
Not of his Presidency. But of his military role as Commander-In-Chief.
You simply invoke the Uniform Code Of Military Justice.
The United States Code: Title 10, Subtitle A, Part II, Chapter 47, Subchapter X, Section 934.
Article 134 reads:
"Though not specifically mentioned in this chapter, all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, and crimes and offenses not capital, of which persons subject to this chapter may be guilty, shall be taken cognizance of by a general, special, or summary court-martial, according to the nature and degree of the offense, and shall be punished at the discretion of that court."
Article 133 reads:
"Any commissioned officer, cadet, or midshipman who is convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."
A gentleman is understood to have a duty to avoid dishonest acts, displays of indecency, lawlessness, dealing unfairly, indecorum, injustice, or acts of cruelty.
To be crystal clear - I am NOT advocating or inciting you to undertake any illegal act, insurrection, mutiny, putsch or military coup. You are an honorable patriotic man.
I am NOT advocating or inciting you to interfere with any of the civilian duties of the President. That would not be a legal action by you.
However you have the legal responsibility - under Article 134 of the Uniform Code Of Military Justice - to protect the troops under your command by relieving the President of his MILITARY command.
If you have reason to believe that the President is responsible for "disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces" and for "conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, and crimes and offenses not capital" then you have the obligation to act.
In addition to relieving him of his command as Commander-In-Chief, you also have authority to place the President under MILITARY arrest.
Article 7 of the Uniform Code Of Military Justice specifically says:
(b) Any person authorized under regulations governing the armed forces to apprehend persons subject to this Code may do so upon reasonable belief that an offense has been committed and that the person apprehended committed it.
(c) All officers, warrant officers, petty officers, and noncommissioned officers shall have authority to quell all quarrels, frays, and disorders among persons subject to this Code and to apprehend persons subject to this Code who take part in the same.
I understand that it would not be an action to undertake lightly.
In all your 39 years of service you have shown total loyalty to the chain of command.
However, given the current imperilment of US troops, and the "Conduct Unbecoming Of An Officer And A Gentleman" of this President - you have a greater responsibility to your nation, your code of honor and to the US Constitution.
I wish you well as you prepare to undertake the most heroic action of your distinguished career.
General Pace - please save the US.
Respectfully yours,
Martin Lewis
The Official George W. Bush
ReplyDelete"Days Left In Office"
Countdown:
512 DAYS
15 Hrs 52 Min 43.7 Sec
Will this day ever come?
Help Wanted Ads Go Unanswered in West
ReplyDeleteAug 25, 8:26 AM (ET)
By MATT GOURAS
"HELENA, Mont. (AP) - The owner of a fast food joint in Montana's booming oil patch found himself outsourcing the drive-thru window to a Texas telemarketing firm, not because it's cheaper but because he can't find workers.
Record low unemployment across parts of the West has created tough working conditions for business owners, who in places are being forced to boost wages or be creative to fill their jobs.
John Francis, who owns the McDonald's in Sidney, Mont., said he tried advertising in the local newspaper and even offered up to $10 an hour to compete with higher-paying oil field jobs...
...The U.S. Department of Labor reports the mountain West region - covering eight states along the Rocky Mountains - has the lowest overall unemployment rate in the nation. The region hit an all-time low of 3.4 percent in May.
The effects are everywhere. Logging equipment in Idaho sits idle as companies have a tough time finding workers. A shortage of lifeguards has forced Helena to shorten hours at children-only pools. A local paper in Jackson, Wyo., has page after page of help wanted ads..."
Bush hates business! Note how his cronies in the OIL business are FORCING businesses to pay higher wages!
More of the Bush economy!
"A shortage of lifeguards has forced Helena to shorten hours at children-only pools."
ReplyDeleteBush HATES children!
DNC strips Fla. of delegates -- primary wouldn't count
ReplyDelete"The Democratic Party has taken a swipe at the nation's fourth biggest state, stripping Florida of all of its '08 delegates as punishment for jumping the gun with its Jan. 29 primary. Florida's early date could force other states to move up and up to stay at the front of the pack.
Under a nearly unanimous vote taken moments ago by a powerful committee of the Democratic National Committee, if things don’t change, Florida’s primary will be a "beauty contest" — the delegates won’t count toward the party’s presidential nomination."
Bush FORCES DNC to disenfranchise voters!
U.S. Troops Stealing Iraqi Babies Out of Trash Piles
ReplyDeleteYou can now add kidnapping to the list of heinous crimes our troops have committed against the peaceloving Muslim peoples. Just when I thought I'd heard it all, a group of American G.I.'s confessed last week to snatching an Iraqi baby right out of a pile of garbage.
I don't know what compelled them to do it, or why they even thought they could get away with it, but steps must be taken to insure that they don't bring their newly acquired bad habits home with them. After all, we have a thing in this country known as a Woman's Right to Choose. That baby was placed in the dumpster by a woman who made a conscious choice to put it there. It probably wasn't an easy choice, but it was her choice just the same and she doesn't need a bunch of neanderthal pro-lifers rooting around in her garbage and invading her privacy. Steal some credit card statements out of somebody's trash can, and they'll throw the book at you. Pluck a baby out of a dumpster, and they'll hail you as a hero. That's a huge legal loophole that must be closed and quick. Federal funding must also be increased for Iraqi reproductive health centers, such as Planned Parenthood of Bagdhad. More abortions means less babies for G.I.'s to abduct.
Are you happy Bush?
Hey Lydia. Thats a nice picture of George W Bush on the cover of the blog.
ReplyDelete:|
Interesting story behind that photot. It was reportedly taken right after Bush swallowed not one, but 3 super hot jalapeno peppers at a Crawford steak house.
The other picture, the one at the bottom, was reportedly taken right after Bush found out that the Texas state supreme court overturned his decision to execute a mentally handicapped minor.
ReplyDeleteThe middle picture, the one in the center of the article, was reportedly taken the night he locked himself out of the White House.
ReplyDelete:|
Or so I've heard.
Today is Teddi's funeral. Her last wish was to see Bush impeached. This 88-year old American patriot really knew what Democracy meant and what being a real American means. She was a product of WW 2, the Depression and had such geat humility and grace. I loved her.
ReplyDeleteToday she will be buried in Los Angeles, where hundreds if not thousands will be there in person and in spirit.
Please see my updated tribute on the blog. I'll change back to the other post tomorrow.
Lydia, I'm most sorry that she did not get to see it happen.
ReplyDeleteAbout the Florida thing, Voltron, did it escape your attention that the Republican National Committee is ALSO planning to drop Florida's delegate votes if they dont move back their primary?
ReplyDeleteHer last wish was to see Bush impeached.
ReplyDeleteWell, we all know who prevented her from receiving her last wish, don't we?
Speaker Botox said "Bush isn't worth impeaching" before hurrying off to attend a GOP picnic.
Maybe she'll know somehow.
ReplyDeleteWishful thinking- on the impeachment of course. I should have clarified.
ReplyDeleteTomCat said...
ReplyDeleteLydia, I'm most sorry that she did not get to see it happen."
Well she may not get to SEE it, but I for one certainly hope she gets her wish!
She sounds like a great lady Lydia, and I like how you point out what a true freedom loving Patriot is rather thasn the psuedo pretend patriots who are really fascist lovers.
Clif, whats your opinion of the rumors that Gonzalez may resign?
ReplyDeleteI spent a few days in wondrous isolation in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
ReplyDeleteI talked to many people there, and I found one opinion above all others prevails-Chimpy is a disaster and a menace that has to be dealt with.
Being with the Yoopers (and hearing what they had to say) definitely renewed my faith in Americans. They are a fiercely independent and individualistic bunch who are ready to FIGHT for the freedom the US Constitution guarantees ALL OF US.
Can we not ALL be Yoopers? I'm pretty sure Teddi Winograd would have wanted it that way.
I hope your right JR, because the Chimp is most definately a menace.
ReplyDeleteMike said...
ReplyDeleteClif, whats your opinion of the rumors that Gonzalez may resign?
6:57 PM
Rumors are rumors, and the reichwing probably is just playing their normal disinformation campaign, like the gutless chicken hawk dolty boy does here.....
Until Gonzo is frog-marched INTO Gitmo, I won't believe it...
ReplyDeleteA Socialist Plot
By PAUL KRUGMAN
We offer free education because giving every child a fair chance is the American way. And we should guarantee health care to every child, for the same reason.
Makes sense to me, but reichwingers have to make money off everything they can even if children must DIE from the lack of their parents ability to pay.
Four more U.S soldiers were killed in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason for a Bush Barbecue in Crawford today!
Well Mike, according to CNN Gonzo resigned instead of facing the music anymore...
ReplyDeleteChertoff might have a little problem getting past the judiciary given the white house stonewalling attitude, they would be much more likely to get Orin Hatch, or somebody else outside the white house sphere passed this time.
Look for Orin Hatch to replace Gonzo.
ReplyDeleteAlso if they nominate Chertoff, you open the homeland security department up to further scrutinies at this time also, since Chertoff's replacement would have to get senate approval along with the new AG.
ReplyDeleteLook for hatch or another republican who is not connected with the fiasco which is the administration to be nominated at this time.
Staying inside the corrupt administration is a losing proposition.
Old Man Hatch is an ultra-neocon and fits in nicely with the corruption of the Bush Brigade.
ReplyDeleteAnother name the White House could go to who is very respected and also a "loyal Bushie" Is Theodore B. Olson, the former Solicitor General of the United states, and a lead Bush attorney is the stolen election of 2000.................
ReplyDeleteClay Johnson will replace Chertoff at homeland security as Chertoff is moved to the AG's position according to CNN.
ReplyDeleteHere is Clay Johnson bio according to wiki;
Clay Johnson III is the Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget at the White House.
Prior to becoming OMB Deputy Director, he was the Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel. He has served President Bush since his tenure as Governor of Texas, achieving the rank of Chief of Staff prior to leading the Bush-Cheney presidential transition.
He was previous President of Horchow Mail Order and President of Neiman Marcus Mail Order, the Deputy Director/Chief Operating Officer of the Dallas Museum of Art, and held positions at Frito-Lay and Wilson Sporting Goods.
He was a classmate of President George W. Bush's at Phillips Academy, roommate and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity brother at Yale University, where he helped pull down the goalposts after a Princeton game, and received his B.A. He received his S.M. degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1970.
Another Bush crony....to cover up Bush's crimes.
At least he knows all the crimes that have been covered up to date.
ReplyDeleteBTW as a side note, drudge hasn't found this out YET, NADA on their site at this moment.
ReplyDeleteAnd the resignation letter was sent FRIDAY which means some insiders KNEW since then.
Drudge is just a reichwing tool and this is BAD news for them as it shows Gonzo was indefendable, and a Bush crony who covered up crimes Bush ET AL committed.
Anyone think Bush wants the Dems to NOT approve his new Attorney General so he can run without one?
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing more and more about these Neo Con loons plans to attack Iran, its an obsession with them.
ReplyDeleteI think Cheney's plan is to try to stall till things get closer to the election then attack Iran and declare martial law .
The Neo Cons KNOW they cant win in 2008 and once a Democrat gets in in 2009 and declassifies all their crimes........their treasonous crimes will be laid bear for all to see.
While the Democratic Congress do nothing Bush and Cheney are making this one for all the marbles..........perpetual rule has been the goal since these brownshirts have seized the White House and that hasnt changed one bit.
Mike the United States Deputy Attorney General, automatically takes over in case the AG resigns,
ReplyDeletefrom wiki;
is the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice. In the United States federal government, the Deputy Attorney General oversees the day-to-day operation of the Department of Justice, and may act as Attorney General during the absence of the Attorney General.
which is why Ashcroft refused to sign the document because he KNEW he wasn't the AG at that time.
Craig S. Morford is currently the DAG and is NO winner but Bush can't ignore him any more then they could during the Ashcroft hospital fiasco.
Funny the DOJ website has NOTHING about this even though Gonzo offered his resignation three days ago, looks like normal reichwing goberment incompetence in action.
ReplyDeleteINTERESTING;
ReplyDeleteSenator’s Office Is Burglarized
[In Conneticut]
Burglars broke into Senator Christopher J. Dodd’s office here late Saturday, taking undisclosed items and leaving evidence at the scene, the police said.
Investigators declined to say what was stolen or what was left behind at the office, which is on Lewis Street.
Jamie Radice, a spokeswoman for Mr. Dodd, confirmed the break-in, but said she was not sure what was taken.
The police said they believe that the suspects jumped from the roof of a building next door onto the fire escape of the building that houses Mr. Dodd’s office and broke in through a second-story window. The burglary occurred between 10 and 11 p.m., they said.
Mr. Dodd is seeking the 2008 Democratic nomination for president.
Lovely lady...wish I'd known her.
ReplyDeleteQuote Of The Day
ReplyDeleteBy Greg Sargent
“Alberto Gonzales is the first Attorney General who thought the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth were three different things."
-- Rahm Emanuel, in a just-released statement on Gonzo's resignation.
No wonder Bush "loved" his Gonzo so much, he saw the truth to be as elusive as Bush does.
But Gonzo is a true reichwinger in his approach to the truth.....
Nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, gooooodbye...
ReplyDeleteNot Teddi, Gonzo
Saw this on Hardball with Tweety, and this sort of confirms it, why are reicghwingers such HYPOCRITES?
ReplyDeleteID-Sen: Sen. Craig (R) arrested for lewd behavior in bathroom
by kos
So a rumored story outing Idaho Sen. Larry Craig as gay was apparently spiked by the Idaho Statesman. So, um, was Craig feeling particularly frisky in celebration? From the subscription-only Roll Call:
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon.
Craig’s arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.
A spokesman for Craig described the incident as a “he said/he said misunderstanding,” and said the office would release a fuller statement later Monday afternoon.
After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report. At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, “What do you think about that?” the report states.
His retirement announcement can't be far off. His seat is up next year.
[Yes Kos to spend "more time with his family" ....]
*** cough *** cough***
BTW here is the original Roll Call article if their website slows down enough for you to get in......
ReplyDeleteSenator Craig, you have a phone call from a republican state senator from Florida, his name was Bob Allen if I remember right.....something about mens room activities.....and a rev Ted Haggard is on line 2
ReplyDeleteLooooooooooooves me, a Republican sex scandal on a Monday afternoon!
ReplyDeleteLMAO!
One Question;
ReplyDeleteWill the Senator be registering with the Idaho state Sex Offender Registry to protect our children?
Especially the teen age males who use public restrooms?
What a terrible day for Gonzo to resign!
ReplyDeleteAfter all, Gonzo said he needed to "gat back to protecting Murika's children." I'm sure he meant prosecuting Bush worshipping GOP hypocrites like Sen. Larry Craig.
Right, Gonzo? Right? LMAO!
I bet John Ashcroft wonders what Larry Craig was thinking as they sang into the same microphone during their singing days……and has used up three bottles of mouthwash by now……
ReplyDeleteI hear Fawnbot and Widdle Twucker are having a circle jerk to commiserate over Craig's arrest.
ReplyDeleteWiddle Cowboy is wearing his black leather bare ass chaps in mourning. You know, the one he "earned" from the Village People...
Now, Clif, as abhorrent and sinful as Craig's behavior is to many More-men and other conservative Christians, Craig can hold his head high that he has never knowingly solicited sex with a minor.
ReplyDeleteIn 2007, that could be an asset in running for re-election: "Vote Craig, He's NOT a Pedophile!"
Carl, the logical problem with your reasoning is every time a reichwinger denies they are guilty of something, they get outed or resign to be with their families right after they get caught...doing what they denied they were guilty of.
ReplyDeleteThe worst move Larry Craig convicted sex pervert could do at this point is deny any other sexual based crimes.
Jolly Roger - welcome back, sounds like a great trip.
ReplyDeleteJust call me NostraMike from now on............I predicted back in March that Gonzalez would be gone BY LABOR DAY..........just like I predicted the Democrats would take both houses of Congress.
ReplyDeleteNow as much as I having my predictions be proved right, I'd MUCH prefer Worfeus's predictions to be right.
Hopefully this might be the first step to making them both right..........Although as Clif said TIME is fast becoming a factor that will likely impact impeachment and even worse, Bush and Cheney still have an out if things turn ugly, they appear to be laying the groundwork to pull a STUNT and declare martial law.
Lydia said,
ReplyDeleteJolly Roger - welcome back, sounds like a great trip.
It was and it wasn't. The Sleeper Lake Forest Fire was going on a few miles away and people were jittery. They were also aware that Chimpy's wonderful war took some resources they could have brought to bear against it.
Check out Sumo Merriment's excellent post on Bush's manual on stopping dissent.
ReplyDeleteIt's a must read!
Sumo Merriment
Check out Jolly Roger's excellent post on Your Tax Dollars being used to Kill U.S Soldiers.
ReplyDeleteReconstitution
I've been reading about the Chimps ignorant policies financing the insurgents...........I've been meaning to comment on this, but it looks like JR summarized whats going on quite nicely.
ReplyDeleteLydia, I think this could be a good topic for the next thread, possibly.
BTW, in the last week or two, Gonzalez, Rove and Snow have all resigned........either something big and nasty is about to come to light, or the Neo Con fascists are getting rid of the indefensible easy targets with bullseyes on them in preparation for the election.
ReplyDeleteJust posted a new thread about an American psycho
ReplyDeleteLove to all!
Very Interesting;
ReplyDeleteParty Information Lead Attorneys
Defendant CRAIG, LARRY EDWIN
1000 WATER ST SW #6
WASHINGTON DC
20025
from the court documents about larry’s failed attempt at mens room romance……
Jenny’s Asian Fusion ($$$$)
Pan-Asian & Pacific Rim
1000 Water St SW, Washington 20024
At 9th St SW
from here….
Larry was SO proud of his being a Senator he tried to use it to intimidate a cop, but when it comes time for his ADDRESS, he neither uses his HOME address in Idaho NOR his official Washington address, but a restaurant’s address…..what was he trying to HIDE?
And from whom, the little Ms I wonder?
His staff, (those who do not participate in his petulance for mens room romance…)
The dumb reichwing voters?(as if there was any other kind in the party of pedophile protection and criminally organized corruption and perversions.
Clif,
ReplyDeleteCraig denied having sex with underage pages twenty five years ago, and all evidence suggests he was telling the truth.
IMPEACH THEM, for GOD's SAKE!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete