Now where was I...

This is good:

We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore

By Garrison Keillor

August 26, 2004

Something has gone seriously haywire with the Republican Party. Once, it was the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships. They were good-hearted people who vanquished the gnarlier elements of their party, the paranoid Roosevelt-haters, the flat Earthers and Prohibitionists, the antipapist antiforeigner element. The genial Eisenhower was their man, a genuine American hero of D-Day, who made it OK for reasonable people to vote Republican. He brought the Korean War to a stalemate, produced the Interstate Highway System, declined to rescue the French colonial army in Vietnam, and gave us a period of peace and prosperity, in which (oddly) American arts and letters flourished and higher education burgeoned - and there was a degree of plain decency in the country. Fifties Republicans were giants compared to today's. Richard Nixon was the last Republican leader to feel a Christian obligation toward the poor.

In the years between Nixon and Newt Gingrich, the party migrated southward down the Twisting Trail of Rhetoric and sneered at the idea of public service and became the Scourge of Liberalism, the Great Crusade Against the Sixties, the Death Star of Government, a gang of pirates that diverted and fascinated the media by their sheer chutzpah, such as the misty-eyed flag-waving of Ronald Reagan who, while George McGovern flew bombers in World War II, took a pass and made training films in Long Beach. The Nixon moderate vanished like the passenger pigeon, purged by a legion of angry white men who rose to power on pure punk politics. "Bipartisanship is another term for date rape," says Grover Norquist, the Sid Vicious of the GOP. "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." The boy has Oedipal problems and government is his daddy.

The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong's moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt's evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we're deaf, dumb and dangerous.

Rich ironies abound! Lies pop up like toadstools in the forest! Wild swine crowd round the public trough! Outrageous gerrymandering! Pocket lining on a massive scale! Paid lobbyists sit in committee rooms and write legislation to alleviate the suffering of billionaires! Hypocrisies shine like cat turds in the moonlight! O Mark Twain, where art thou at this hour? Arise and behold the Gilded Age reincarnated gaudier than ever, upholding great wealth as the sure sign of Divine Grace.

Here in 2004, George W. Bush is running for reelection on a platform of tragedy - the single greatest failure of national defense in our history, the attacks of 9/11 in which 19 men with box cutters put this nation into a tailspin, a failure the details of which the White House fought to keep secret even as it ran the country into hock up to the hubcaps, thanks to generous tax cuts for the well-fixed, hoping to lead us into a box canyon of debt that will render government impotent, even as we engage in a war against a small country that was undertaken for the president's personal satisfaction but sold to the American public on the basis of brazen misinformation, a war whose purpose is to distract us from an enormous transfer of wealth taking place in this country, flowing upward, and the deception is working beautifully.

The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few is the death knell of democracy. No republic in the history of humanity has survived this. The election of 2004 will say something about what happens to ours. The omens are not good.

Our beloved land has been fogged with fear - fear, the greatest political strategy ever. An ominous silence, distant sirens, a drumbeat of whispered warnings and alarms to keep the public uneasy and silence the opposition. And in a time of vague fear, you can appoint bullet-brained judges, strip the bark off the Constitution, eviscerate federal regulatory agencies, bring public education to a standstill, stupefy the press, lavish gorgeous tax breaks on the rich.

There is a stink drifting through this election year. It isn't the Florida recount or the Supreme Court decision. No, it's 9/11 that we keep coming back to. It wasn't the "end of innocence," or a turning point in our history, or a cosmic occurrence, it was an event, a lapse of security. And patriotism shouldn't prevent people from asking hard questions of the man who was purportedly in charge of national security at the time.

Whenever I think of those New Yorkers hurrying along Park Place or getting off the No.1 Broadway local, hustling toward their office on the 90th floor, the morning paper under their arms, I think of that non-reader George W. Bush and how he hopes to exploit those people with a little economic uptick, maybe the capture of Osama, cruise to victory in November and proceed to get some serious nation-changing done in his second term.

This year, as in the past, Republicans will portray us Democrats as embittered academics, desiccated Unitarians, whacked-out hippies and communards, people who talk to telephone poles, the party of the Deadheads. They will wave enormous flags and wow over and over the footage of firemen in the wreckage of the World Trade Center and bodies being carried out and they will lie about their economic policies with astonishing enthusiasm.

The Union is what needs defending this year. Government of Enron and by Halliburton and for the Southern Baptists is not the same as what Lincoln spoke of. This gang of Pithecanthropus Republicanii has humbugged us to death on terrorism and tax cuts for the comfy and school prayer and flag burning and claimed the right to know what books we read and to dump their sewage upstream from the town and clear-cut the forests and gut the IRS and mark up the constitution on behalf of intolerance and promote the corporate takeover of the public airwaves and to hell with anybody who opposes them.

This is a great country, and it wasn't made so by angry people. We have a sacred duty to bequeath it to our grandchildren in better shape than however we found it. We have a long way to go and we're not getting any younger.

Dante said that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral, so I have spoken my piece, and thank you, dear reader. It's a beautiful world, rain or shine, and there is more to life than winning.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Garrison Keillor is the host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion, now in its 25th year on the air. This adapted excerpted from Keillor's new book, Homegrown Democrat (c 2004) is reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Don't express the wrong views outside that designated free-speech zone!

And she was also FIRED from her job.

July 08, 2004
FEMA worker ordered home
Woman, husband wore T-shirts with anti-Bush logo at July Fourth rally

By Paul J. Nyden
Staff Writer

A worker with the Federal Emergency Management Agency who wore an anti-Bush T-shirt at the president’s July Fourth rally in Charleston has been sent home to Texas.

Nicole Rank, who was working for FEMA in West Virginia, and her husband, Jeff, were removed from the Capitol grounds in handcuffs shortly before Bush’s speech. The pair wore T-shirts with the message “Love America, Hate Bush.”

The Ranks were ticketed for trespassing and released. They have been given summonses to appear in court, Charleston Police Lt. C.A. Vincent said Wednesday.

The whole story:
http://www.wvgazette.com/webtools/print/News/2004070734

BushCo orders up Bin Laden for Dem Convention delivery

From The New Republic:

PAKISTAN FOR BUSH.
July Surprise?
by John B. Judis, Spencer Ackerman & Massoud Ansari

(excerpt)

"But The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs by the election. According to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections." Introducing target dates for Al Qaeda captures is a new twist in U.S.-Pakistani counterterrorism relations--according to a recently departed intelligence official, "no timetable[s]" were discussed in 2002 or 2003--but the November election is apparently bringing a new deadline pressure to the hunt."

and:

""The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq's] meetings in Washington." Says McCormack: "I'm aware of no such comment." But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston."

The whole story:
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040719&s=aaj071904

They'll stop at nothing. They're ready to steal Florida *again*.

Florida List for Purge of Voters Proves Flawed
By FORD FESSENDEN

Published: July 10, 2004

lorida election officials used a flawed method to come up with a listing of people believed to be convicted felons, a list that they are recommending be used to purge voter registration rolls, state officials acknowledged yesterday. As a result, voters identifying themselves as Hispanic are almost completely absent from that list.

Of nearly 48,000 Florida residents on the felon list, only 61 are Hispanic. By contrast, more than 22,000 are African-American.

About 8 percent of Florida voters describe themselves as Hispanic, and about 11 percent as black.

In a presidential-election battleground state that decided the 2000 race by giving George W. Bush a margin of only 537 votes, the effect could be significant: black voters are overwhelmingly Democratic, while Hispanics in Florida tend to vote Republican.

The whole story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/10/national/10florida.html?hp

And here it comes. Are you still capable of outrage?

Please read the linked story. The last two paragraphs explain what the real issue of concern is.

Officials discuss how to delay Election Day
Talks stem from recent fears of terror attack timed to election

Sunday, July 11, 2004 Posted: 5:24 PM EDT (2124 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. officials have discussed the idea of postponing Election Day in the event of a terrorist attack on or about that day, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said Sunday.

The department has referred questions about the matter to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.

The department wants to know about the possibility of granting emergency power to the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission, authority that Roehrkasse said was requested by DeForest B. Soaries Jr., the commission's chairman.

"U.S. Election Assistance Commission" does Orwell proud.

If the election is cancelled, the terrorists have won.

I don't mean Al Qaeda.

The whole story:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/11/election.day.delay/

Liar!

President Bush in his radio address on 2/8/2003:

One of the greatest dangers we face is that weapons of mass destruction might be passed to terrorists who would not hesitate to use those weapons. Saddam Hussein has longstanding, direct and continuing ties to terrorist networks. Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al Qaeda. Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training. And an al Qaeda operative was sent to Iraq several times in the late 1990s for help in acquiring poisons and gases.

We also know that Iraq is harboring a terrorist network headed by a senior al Qaeda terrorist planner. This network runs a poison and explosive training camp in northeast Iraq, and many of its leaders are known to be in Baghdad.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030208.html

That Moyers guy again...

Perhaps I should just cojole people into reading anything and everything Bill Moyers has to say. I don't know that he can do wrong. I love the way he reasons and I love the utter lack of hysterical tones. I'm very sensative to the fact that ranting or reading rants can be cathartic for the true believers but it has a tendency to cause potential converts to turn a deaf ear. Look what the right is doing with just the tone of Al Gore's recent, brilliant speech.

Here, Moyers is addressing the causes and consequences of America's widening economic inequities. I find it convincing and terribly discouraging in some ways but he articulates the issue as well as I've ever seen

The Fight of Our Lives
Bill Moyers , AlterNet
Viewed on Jun 18, 2004

Editor's Note: This was a speech given at the Inequality Matters Forum on June 3, 2004 at New York University.

It is important from time to time to remember that some things are worth getting mad about.

Here's one: On March 10 of this year, on page B8, with a headline that stretched across all six columns, The New York Times reported that tuition in the city's elite private schools would hit $26,000 for the coming school year -- for kindergarten as well as high school. On the same page, under a two-column headline, Michael Wineraub wrote about a school in nearby Mount Vernon, the first stop out of the Bronx, with a student body that is 97 percent black. It is the poorest school in the town: nine out of ten children qualify for free lunches; one out of 10 lives in a homeless shelter. During black history month this past February, a sixth grader wanted to write a report on Langston Hughes. There were no books on Langston Hughes in the library -- no books about the great poet, nor any of his poems. There is only one book in the library on Frederick Douglass. None on Rosa Parks, Josephine Baker, Leontyne Price, or other giants like them in the modern era. In fact, except for a few Newberry Award books the librarian bought with her own money, the library is mostly old books -- largely from the 1950s and 60s when the school was all white. A 1960 child's primer on work begins with a youngster learning how to be a telegraph delivery boy. All the workers in the book -- the dry cleaner, the deliveryman, the cleaning lady -- are white. There's a 1967 book about telephones which says: "when you phone you usually dial the number. But on some new phones you can push buttons." The newest encyclopedia dates from l991, with two volumes -- "b" and "r" -- missing. There is no card catalog in the library -- no index cards or computer.

Something to get mad about.

Here's something else: Caroline Payne's face and gums are distorted because her Medicaid-financed dentures don't fit. Because they don't fit, she is continuously turned down for jobs on account of her appearance. Caroline Payne is one of the people in David Shipler's new book, The Working Poor: Invisible in America. She was born poor, and in spite of having once owned her own home and having earned a two-year college degree, Caroline Payne has bounced from one poverty-wage job to another all her life, equipped with the will to move up, but not the resources to deal with unexpected and overlapping problems like a mentally handicapped daughter, a broken marriage, a sudden layoff crisis that forced her to sell her few assets, pull up roots and move on. "In the house of the poor," Shipler writes "...the walls are thin and fragile and troubles seep into one another."

Here's something else to get mad about. Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives, the body of Congress owned and operated by the corporate, political, and religious right, approved new tax credits for children. Not for poor children, mind you. But for families earning as much as $309,000 a year -- families that already enjoy significant benefits from earlier tax cuts. The editorial page of The Washington Post called this "bad social policy, bad tax policy, and bad fiscal policy. You'd think they'd be embarrassed," said the Post, "but they're not."

The full text:
http://alternet.org/module/printversion/18954

Jon Stewart...he funny.

The Daily Show host Jon Stewart gave this year's commencement address at his alma mater, William and Mary.

Thank you Mr. President, I had forgotten how crushingly dull these ceremonies are. Thank you.

My best to the choir. I have to say, that song never grows old for me. Whenever I hear that song, it reminds me of nothing.

I am honored to be here, I do have a confession to make before we get going that I should explain very quickly. When I am not on television, this is actually how I dress. I apologize, but there’s something very freeing about it. I congratulate the students for being able to walk even a half a mile in this non-breathable fabric in the Williamsburg heat. I am sure the environment that now exists under your robes, are the same conditions that primordial life began on this earth.

I know there were some parents that were concerned about my speech here tonight, and I want to assure you that you will not hear any language that is not common at, say, a dock workers union meeting, or Tourrett’s convention, or profanity seminar. Rest assured.

The complete remarks:
http://www.wm.edu/news/index.php?id=3650

My last post on the expiration of Reagan's meat suit

http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks/2004/06/14/

MoveOn.org takes on Cheney

I just received the following from MoveOn.org

The Halliburton Controversy is growing rapidly. Can you help air an ad starting TOMORROW that exposes how Halliburton and Bush administration officials took U.S. taxpayers for a ride? To watch the ad and contribute, click the button below:

Dear MoveOn member,

Just this morning, the L.A. Times released a new Halliburton bombshell: it's now clear that over the protests of an Army official, Vice President Cheney's office helped ensure that Cheney's old company Halliburton would receive a $7 billion no-bid contract for rebuilding Iraq.[1] Faced with a choice between serving our troops and helping out his corporate buddies, Cheney chose the latter.

The timing for our new ad exposing how Halliburton and Bush administration officials took taxpayers for a ride couldn’t be better. And starting tomorrow, Congress will be holding hearings on whether Halliburton used its close ties to administration officials to get sweetheart deals, shortchanging both our troops and U.S. taxpayers. Since Thursday afternoon, we've already raised about $420,000 to air the ad. But in order to get the ad in front of swing-state voters for a week starting tomorrow, we’ll need to raise about $1.1 million. Together, if we all pitch in what we can, we can make it happen.

Take a look at the finished ad and help get it on the air at:

https://www.moveonpac.org/donate/halliburton.html?id=2940-1281434-JOuxnZ0zcuKV9sE3Qwl.ag

The list of governmental investigations against Halliburton just keeps on growing. Just last Friday, Halliburton disclosed yet another one -- the SEC is investigating one of its subsidiaries for foreign corruption. Halliburton's unethical behavior is in the news this week, and with your help we can get it in front of key voters in battleground states as well.

Thanks for all of your help. We've attached the original email on the ad – which has a lot more detail about Halliburton's shady deals with the Bush administration – below.

Sincerely,

--Eli Pariser
MoveOn PAC
June 14th, 2004

PAID FOR BY MoveOn PAC
P.O. Box 9218, Berkeley, CA 94709

Visit the URL in the e-mail:
https://www.moveonpac.org/donate/halliburton.html?id=2940-1281434-JOuxnZ0zcuKV9sE3Qwl.ag

Mr. President, what did you know and when did you know it?

I'm sure it has to do with the circles I run in but the military (current and former) personnel I communicate with are, to an individual, outraged by the prisoner abuses and allegations of torture. The New York Times now reports that even (at least some of) the interrogators are stand-up guys.

Here's the latest news about the lying liars they work for:

Unit Says It Gave Earlier Warning of Abuse in Iraq
By ANDREA ELLIOTT

Published: June 14, 2004

FRANKFURT, June 13 — Beginning in November, a small unit of interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison began reporting allegations of prisoner abuse, including the beatings of five blindfolded Iraqi generals, in internal documents sent to senior officers, according to interviews with military personnel who worked in the prison.

The disclosure of the documents raises new questions about whether senior officers in Iraq were alerted about serious abuses at the prison before January. Top military officials have said they only learned about abuses then, after a soldier came forward with photographs of the abuse.

"We were reporting it long before this mess came out," said one of several military intelligence soldiers interviewed in Germany and the United States who asked not to be identified for fear they would jeopardize their careers.

The complete story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/international/middleeast/14ABUS.html

Saying farewell to a great American

Our nation must remember and mourn the end of a great American life. A unique original. A man of vision and principal that gave us and the world so much for so long.

Rest in peace brother Ray...you finally have the backup singers you deserve.

Ray Charles Robinson 1930-2004

Ray Charles, national treasure

How do you pay for a war and crazy tax cuts at the same time?

Why you make soldiers and veterans pay for it of course!

Read what Molly Ivans has to say about this:

Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
06.08.04

Bush's kiss of death
Look out if the president starts praising your program -- you're next on the chopping block

AUSTIN, Texas -- As Lily Tomlin observed, "No matter how cynical you get, it's impossible to keep up." But as Con Ed used to say, dig we must. Courtesy of David Sirota at americanprogress.org, we find the following matches between word and deed:

Just before Memorial Day, Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi said, "Our active military respond better to Republicans" because of "the tremendous support that President Bush has provided for our military and our veterans." The same day, the White House announced plans for massive cuts in veterans' health care for 2006.

Read the rest:
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=17076

Aren't you pissed off YET?!

When is it too much already?

Army Now Says G.I. Was Beaten in Role
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 9, 2004

OUISVILLE, Ky., June 8 — Reversing itself, the Army said Tuesday that a G.I. was discharged partly because of a head injury he suffered while posing as an uncooperative detainee during a training exercise at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The Army had previously said Specialist Sean Baker's medical discharge in April was unrelated to the injury he received last year at the detention center, where the United States holds suspected terrorists.

Mr. Baker, 37, a former member of the 438th Military Police Company, said he played the role of an uncooperative prisoner and was beaten so badly by four American soldiers that he suffered a traumatic brain injury and seizures. He said the soldiers only stopped beating him when they realized he might be American.

The rest of the story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/09/international/09SOLD.html

Ok, maybe I can actually pitch in and do something

I took an interesting phone call today. My congressman is Jim Ryun...you know, the guy that ran fast. I don't care for him. I'd like a different congressman...or congresswoman...or congress-small-brown-stain for that matter...anyone else. I confess I don't want this as badly as I'd like a new President but still.

I can't really do that much about the President. I live in a state where our few electoral votes would go to small-brown-stain if that's who the G.O.P. nominated. How republican is Kansas? For the second consecutive go-round, an incumbent Republican senator is running for re-election UNOPPOSED. That's a subject for another day.

Yet like most sparsely populated, agricultural states, a significant portion of the population lives in urban areas. This is how we happen to have a Democrat in the Governor's residence. This is how my congressional district happens to be in play.

Today Nancy Boyda called me. She's running against Ryun. She's doing her own fundraising calls...or at least some of them. And apparently her call list hasn't been screened to limit her time to contacting A-list contributors...obviously...she called me. I'm unemployed. I turned her solicitation down. Then I offered my labor.

Evidently she has Governor Sebelius' donor list. I was employed when she ran and I gave some money. Ms. Boyda asked about my being a journalist. I must have filled out some form when I gave the Governor money. I told her that I was but that politics isn't my beat. She said her communications staff needed people and turned me over to her campaign manager, Jeff.

Jeff and I had a nice chat and on Thursday I'm going to go help get a mailing out and meet the folks...see if there are ways for me to lend a hand.

Shifting a seat in the House of Representatives will be of major importance this year. Helping to do so seems like a worthy endeavor...and then some. Nice to be getting up out of my armchair.

http://www.nancyforcongress.com

Are we living in a constitutional monarchy?

Or are we about to see a constitutional breach to dwarf Nixon's excesses uncovered?

I'll let Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo explain this to you:

The Wall Street Journal has an extraordinary article in today's edition. The Journal has taken to making an article a day open to the public for bloggers and others to link to. This wasn't the one they chose today; but I hope they'll make an exception and make this one available too.

The article describes a confidential Pentagon report providing legal rationales and interpretations by which US personnel could use torture and methods of near-torture in contravention of various international treaties and US laws. The bulk of the arguments rest on arguments of 'necessity' and the powers of the president as commander-in-chief. They also go into some depth about how people acting at the president's order could avoid prosecution for demonstrably criminal acts.

The article is well worth reading for this alone.

But that whole discussion is different in kind from one passage in the report. I quote from the piece...

'To protect subordinates should they be charged with torture, the memo advised that Mr. Bush issue a "presidential directive or other writing" that could serve as evidence, since authority to set aside the laws is "inherent in the president."'

Chilling.

More at:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_06_06.php#003046

At least Greg Palast has the balls to say it...

BBC television's Greg Palast throws a little fair balance our way to offset the tidal wave of Reagan hagiographies we're currently drowning in.

KILLER, COWARD, CONMAN - GOOD RIDDANCE, RONNIE
MORE PROOF ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG
Sunday, June 6, 2004

by Greg Palast

You're not going to like this. You shouldn't speak ill of the dead. But in this case, someone's got to.

Ronald Reagan was a conman. Reagan was a coward. Reagan was a killer.

The rest:
http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=336&row=0

I think I'll just keep my TV off this month...

I always viewed Ronald Reagan as the singular example of stupidity combined with evil, risng to power...that is until the current resident of the White House raised the bar.

Now the Bush administration and the right wing echo chamber will wring a Republican love-fest out of Dutch's passing right when they need the distraction so desperately. They'll do everything to shift the dominant talking points to Reagan...to talking points the left can't with any civility , counter.

I'm counting on the voices of opposition to not let the right get away with this...to not be distracted from focusing attention on what's at hand RIGHT NOW.

Reagan's been gone a long time already. His body finally joined his mind wherever minds and bodies go when they're done here. I'm sorry for his family's loss and pain. I'm also sorry that his legacy is getting one last shot at doing some meaningful damage. I wish he'd have lived about five more months.

Please watch this and pass it along.

http://www.ericblumrich.com/gta.html

Reagan's dead.

Door. Ass. Bang.

From a man that knows a thing or two about Oval Office criminals...

"The Serious Implications Of President Bush's Hiring A Personal Outside Counsel For The Valerie Plame Investigation By JOHN W. DEAN ---- Friday,

Recently, the White House acknowledged that President Bush is talking with, and considering hiring, a non-government attorney, James E. Sharp. Sharp is being consulted, and may be retained, regarding the current grand jury investigation of the leak revealing the identity of Valerie Plame as a CIA covert operative....

This action by Bush is a rather stunning and extraordinary development. The President of the United States is potentially hiring a private criminal defense lawyer. Unsurprisingly, the White House is doing all it can to bury the story, providing precious little detail or context for the President's action....

The Fitzgerald investigation has not made friends with the Washington press corps, many of whom are being subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. Those journalists with whom I have spoken say they are not willing appeared before any grand jury to reveal their sources. So this issue is headed toward a showdown. And under existing law, a journalist cannot refuse to provide information to a grand jury.

Nor, based on the few existing precedents, can a sitting president refuse to give testimony to a grand jury. And that appears to be the broad, underlying reason Bush is talking with Washington attorney James Sharp.

Why might the grand jury wish to hear Bush's testimony? Most of the possible answers are not favorable for Bush....

Instead, it seems the investigators are seeking to connect up with, and then speak with, persons who have links to and from the leaked information - and those persons, it seems, probably include the President. (I should stress, however, that I do not have access to grand jury testimony, and that grand jury proceedings are secret. But the facts that are properly public do allow some inference and commentary about what likely is occurring in the grand jury.)

Undoubtedly, those from the White House have been asked if they spoke with the president about the leak. It appears that one or more of them may indeed have done so...."

more at:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20040604.html

Bless Frank Lautenberg's pointy head!

New Jersey Senator, 80, Has a Second Act, and Sharper Teeth
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

WASHINGTON, June 4 - The junior senator from New Jersey marched onto the Senate floor a few weeks ago and did something that stunned the normally decorous chamber:

The senator, Frank R. Lautenberg, pulled out a huge chart with the cartoon image of a chicken dressed in a military uniform, placed it on an easel and began ridiculing Vice President Dick Cheney with an attack that gave even some of the senator's fellow Democrats pause.

"The chicken hawk has no idea what it means to have the courage to put your life at risk to defend this nation," said Mr. Lautenberg, incensed that Mr. Cheney had questioned the national defense credentials of Senator John Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, when Mr. Cheney himself avoided serving in the war.

That moment captured, in many ways, the kind of fierce partisan warrior - some say loose cannon - Mr. Lautenberg has been since coming out of retirement two years ago and returning to the Senate, where he is one of the most surprising and talked-about members of that staid body.

More:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/05/nyregion/05lautenberg.html

Dubya and the CIA, tight as ticks...the Tenet thing means nada...

27-Year CIA Vet Ray McGovern: "I am more frightened now than at any time over the last three and a half years, that this administration will resort to extra-legal methods to do something to ensure that there are four more years for George Bush."

From an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/03/1626202

"... RAY MCGOVERN: Yeah, I’m just fresh actually from writing an Op-Ed on the general question of the president seeking private counsel....to get advice on the Valerie Plame case.

I think he’s probably by now read the memorandum of 25 January 2002 that Alberto Gonzalez, his chief White House counsel wrote to him. This is the one that says, well you know, Geneva Conventions, that’s kind of a nettle here. We have US law actually, dated 1996 which makes it a crime punishable by death to rescind from or to ignore or to exempt people from the Geneva Conventions on prisoners of war. But Ashcroft says it’s okay as far as the Al Qaeda people are concerned, and I think it’s probably okay to exempt the Taliban as well. And the only downside is that exempting people is a slippery slope and people might come up with some ambiguity with respect to which prisoners qualify for such protection and which do not. And so he finished up by saying, there’s a reasonable basis in law Mr. President, that you will not be prosecuted for war crimes under the US code, War Crimes Act of 1996.

Now if I’m President Bush and I finally read that thing because Newsweek has it printed, and I say, my goodness, there’s a reasonable basis in law that I won’t be prosecuted? I’m going to have a couple of really second thoughts here. One is that next time I’m in a situation like this I’m certainly going to seek independent counsel. But another is, my God, four more years becomes even more important to me and to Ashcroft and to Rumsfeld. Gonzalez specifically warns that who knows, some future administration or some future group might sue you for violating the Geneva Conventions. And not only the Geneva Conventions but to the degree that they are embedded in this US law of 1996, and so you’re really, we have a strong basis in law but we can’t exclude the possibility. So four more years?

Why do I say all this? I say all this because I am more frightened now than at any time over the last three and a half years, that this administration will resort to extra-legal methods to do something to ensure that there are four more years for George Bush. And Ashcroft’s statement last week, gratuitous statement, uncoordinated with the department of, CIA, with the Department of Homeland Security, his warning that there is bound to be a terrorist strike before the US elections. That can be viewed and this can be reasonably viewed as the opening salvo in the justification for doing, taking measures to ensure that whatever happens in November comes out so that four more years can be devoted to maybe changing that war crimes act or protecting at least these vulnerable people for four more years."

I don't know...jokes? Maybe....

President Bush gets out of his helicopter in front of the White House carrying a baby pig under each arm.

The Marine guard snaps to attention, salutes, and says: "Nice pigs, sir."

Bush replies: "These are not pigs, these are Texan Razorback Hogs. I got one for Vice-President Cheney, and I got one for Defence Secretary Rumsfeld."

The Marine again snaps to attention, salutes, and says, "Nice trade, sir."

E.B. White rocks.

Mike Godwin just posted the following quote on The WELL, attributing it to E.B. White from "The Elements Of Style." I thought it was just gorgeous.

'The language is perpetually in flux: it is a living stream, shifting, changing, receiving new strength from a thousand tributaries, losing old forms in the backwaters of time. To suggest that a young writer not swim in the main stream of this turbulence would be foolish indeed, and such is not the intent of these cautionary remarks. The intent is to suggest that in choosing between the formal and the informal, the regular and the offbeat, the general and the special, the orthodox and the heretical, the beginner err on the side of conservatism, on the side of established usage. No idiom is taboo, no accent forbidden; there is simply a better chance of doing well if the writer holds a steady course, enters the stream of English quietly, and does not thrash about.'

'"But," you may ask, "what if it comes natural to me to experiment rather than conform? What if I am a pioneer, or even a genius?" Answer: then be one. But do not forget that what may seem like pioneering may be merely evasion, or laziness — the disinclination to submit to discipline. Writing good standard English is no cinch, and before you have managed it you will have encountered enough rough country to satisfy even the most adventurous spirit.'

Gotta love the guy...

"You know, back in 2000, a Republican friend of mine warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we'd lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Al Gore, he did win, and I'll be damned if all those things didn't come true."
--JAMES CARVILLE

Who's there?

I have no problem with anonymity per se, but I have an abiding curiosity about who's actually reading and commenting. So far all my commentors have been unnamed. Some include a clue so I, if no one else, know who it is...those are cool.

The Resident tosses one to the wolves...

The New York Times describes Dubya's announcement of the Tenet resignation thusly:

Mr. Bush announced the resignation in a way that was almost bizarre. He had just addressed reporters and photographers in a fairly innocuous Rose Garden session with Australia's prime minister, John Howard. Then the session was adjourned, as Mr. Bush apparently prepared to depart for nearby Andrews Air Force Base and his flight to Europe, where he is to take part in ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the Normady invasion and meet European leaders — some of whom have been sharply critical of the campaign in Iraq.

But minutes later, Mr. Bush reappeared on the sun-drenched White House lawn, stunning listeners with the news of Mr. Tenet's resignation, which the president said would be effective in mid-July. Until then, Mr. Bush said, the C.I.A.'s deputy director, John McLaughlin, will be acting director.

The president praised Mr. Tenet's qualities as a public servant, saying: "He's strong. He's resolute. He's served his nation as the director for seven years. He has been a strong and able leader at the agency. He's been a, he's been a strong leader in the war on terror, and I will miss him."

Then Mr. Bush walked away, declining to take questions or offer any insight into what Mr. Tenet's personal reasons might be.

the full Times story...

Anyone think Tenet wasn't fired...by his boss...Cheney?

Anyone think this will staunch the bleading? Anyone else hope it won't?

Schadenfreude? Probably. I do worry about that a lot these days...please let these bastards *keep* fucking up all the way till November.

Screw Dubya and Cheney and Rove, Wolfowitz, Ashcroft, Kristol, Perle, Rice, Powell and all the rest of these clowns.

Why you should never put your picture on the Internet ...

http://www.matt.unitedhosting.co.uk/why/

Ok, this is gold.

http://airamericaplace.com/archive.php has recently begun building an audio archive in MP3 format of the programming at Air America. I know what will be filling my portable player whenever I leave the house. I do most of my bicycling on a paved trail here in Topeka so I don't have to worry much about traffic so I feel safe wearing earphones. I've been recording The O'Franken Factor myself with Total Recorder but I think I'm done with that.

Feel the love

My dad passed the URL for my blog around and got this back from his brother, mon oncle Bob:

'After reading Mike's self-description I couldn't believe he said the following about Michael Moore: "I find him an insufferable ass. To say he puts himself in the way of his message is an understatement." (It takes one to know one.)'

Dad's pal Mary Jo also took exception to my remark about Moore. To amplify, I think his methods almost guarantee that he isn't changing any minds. He's a hero to certain people that agree with the opinions that he champions. I agree with the opinions that he champions but feel that his shrillness and his capacity to put his own aggrandizement on a par with the issue at hand won't win any converts...and converts is what matters.

Similarly, on the online conferencing system The WELL, which I've called home for nearly 14 years, I find myself defending my criticisms of Air America's Randi Rhodes.

There I wrote:

"She does 'blather and spew'...that she does *liberal* blather and spew doesn't really mitigate that. She doesn't back up her righteous indignation with much of anything. If you're in the amen corner you may not notice that she offers no arguments to actually alter anyone's perception or raise anyone's awareness. It's all voice-raising informed by the assumption that the bad guys are obviously the bad guys and we're the good guys. Fine, as far as it goes which isn't really anywhere. Pointing out an outrage is ok...yelling about the same outrage for an hour isn't really compelling. She also tosses around a lot of bathroom/bedroom/locker-room quips to poor effect. She's bawdy without being funny and she doesn't notice because she doesn't stop to breathe. The stuff today about the 80-pack tampon supply was just beneath her audience if not her. I'm left thinking that all the shows on AAR hit the same set of talking points, albeit liberal talking points and each host is aiming at a different "brow". Rhodes aims low for people that don't want to have to remember too much information but just like to say "attaboy girl" when she gives the other team hell. In truth she reminds me more of the other team than the rest on the schedule."

I appreciate the red meat but I want my green leafy vegetables too.

He heads for the house. We put out a dish of water. He climbs in.

© Michael Newman

I wonder how long I'll have to wait...

I live in Topeka, Kansas and unless it shows up at the art house in Lawrence I probably won't see Michael Moore's new film "Fahrenheit 9/11" till it's out on video. I haven't seen all of Moore's films and generally, while I share his worldview to a great degree, I find him an insufferable ass. To say he puts himself in the way of his message is an understatement. However, word is he stayed out of the way this time and the trailer looks good.

Have a look:

http://www.fahrenheit911.com/trailer/quicktime/large.php

This did NOT make me laugh.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/an_eye_on_power.php

"As secrecy grows, and media conglomerates put more and more power in fewer and fewer hands, we have witnessed the rise of a new phenomenon - a quasi-official partisan press ideologically linked to an authoritarian administration that is in turn the ally and agent of powerful financial and economic interests that consider transparencies a threat to their hegemony over public opinion. This convergence dominates the marketplace of political ideas in a phenomenon unique in our history. "Stretching from the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch's empire to the nattering nabobs of know-nothing radio to a legion of think tanks bought and paid for by corporations circling the honey pots of government, a vast echo chamber resounds with a conformity of opinions, serving a partisan worldview cannot be proven wrong because it admits no evidence to the contrary. When you challenge them with evidence to the contrary - when you try to hold their propaganda to scrutiny - you're likely to wind up in the modern equivalent of a medieval iron maiden, between the covers, that is, of an Ann Coulter tirade, or wake up in an underground cell at FOX News, force fed leftovers from a Roger Ailes snack, and required for 24 hours a day to stare at photographs of Rupert Murdoch on the walls of the cell while listening to a piped-in Bill O'Reilly singing the Hallelujah Chorus in praise of himself."

-Bill Moyers, May 19, 2004

When a guy like Moyers says something this clear and bold, please, consider the source, read it agan, take it to heart and act like a patriot.

This made me laugh.

http://www.rototillerman.com/Politics/BushAds/Seriously.mpg

Thanks for the pointer to arewereally on The WELL.

I don't really know what I'm doing but that's not stopping me.

I’m a dilettante. There are some things I do well enough to do professionally and some things I just fake. There are avocations I am devoted to and others I dabble in. I’m loyal to some areas of interest where I’ve never achieved the level of immersion required to provide me with any depth of knowledge or expertise. I have other interests where I become so focused that I mount steep learning curves rapidly. In other words I’m probably very similar in many respects to you…and utterly different in as many others.

I’m a photographer and a good one. I’m a writer but less confident about that, though some people have been more complimentary about that work than my photography. I’m a web geek with waning geekiness due to my failure to continually advance my skill set. In all these things I am self-taught. The lack of formal training imposes a forced humility that I would sometimes like to shake off and other times am grateful for.

I’m insecure and arrogant. I’m a narcissist and an altruist (though more in intention than in deed which I need to work on). I care about humanity more than I like people. Sturgeon's law states that 90% of everything is crud. Not only do I think he was being generous, I, without pride confess, that I extend his concept to people as well as places, things, ideas, etc.

I have noticed that any list of my interests is a) always in hindsight both aggrandizing and incomplete and b) always just a snapshot of my distractions at a particular point in time. That said, I’ll do an inventory since these are some of the things I may be blogging about.

In no particular order:

Growing tomatoes, the Grateful Dead, bicycling and following international cycling as a fan, the Chicago Cubs, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, scuba diving, skiing, kite flying, bird watching, University of Nebraska Cornhusker football, reading, writing, photography, graphic design, web design, cooking, low-carb dieting, left-leaning politics, the venal right, cars, money, gadgets, the Internet, smoking ribs and other meats, cats, suburban wildlife, classic cinema, music…and not the least, finding employment.

I hope I have something to say or a perspective worth sharing from time to time. I may just be blogging for the sake of lexographical calisthenics. I can live with that.