5 23 2007

Democrats Yield to the Inmate in Charge of the Nuthouse and Condemn Our Troops to More
Deaths: “Withdrawal timetable dropped from war spending bill.”
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/05/withdrawal-timetable-dropped-
from-war.html

Susan Ralston takes the Fifth; After all, Ralston worked for Karl Rove and Jack
Abramoff, you might wonder if taking the Fifth is in the employee manual when you first
start working there. 5/23

Former Rove aide pleads the Fifth on White House contacts with convicted lobbyist
Abramoff
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Former_Rove_aide_pleads_Fifth_on_0522.html

In Case You Missed This Bushevik Incompetence Bombshell: “In one of the most troubling
trends, U.S. officials said that Al Qaeda’s command base in Pakistan is increasingly
being funded by cash coming out of Iraq, where the terrorist network’s operatives are
raising substantial sums from donations to the anti-American insurgency.” Nice Job of
STRENGTHENING Al-Qaeda, George.

Influx of Al Qaeda, money into Pakistan is seen
U.S. officials say the terrorist network’s command base is increasingly being funded by
cash coming out of Iraq.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-
binladen20may20,1,3996913.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Pull the Fire Alarm. It ought to be a crime! It is: Bush administration quietly boosting
troop levels in second ’surge.’ When additional support troops are included in this
second troop “surge,” the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000
now to more than 200,000 — a record high number — by the end of the year.

Bush administration quietly boosting troop levels in second ’surge’
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/184107

As expected, Fred Phelps and his far right-wing church protest Jerry Falwell’s funeral.
5/23

Phelps Clan Pickets Falwell Funeral
Lynchburg, Virginia) About a half dozen members of a Kansas church that denounces
homosexuality protested Tuesday afternoon at the funeral of evangelist Jerry Falwell.

The members of Westobo Baptist Church carried placards accusing Falwell of being in
league with gays and of cozying up to Israel. 

The church, which operates the GodHatesFags Web site, had warned Lynchburg police in
advance they were coming

On its site Westboro, run by Rev. Fred Phelps, called Falwell, a “corpulent false
prophet” and said he”spent his entire life prophesying lies and false doctrines like ‘God
loves everyone.’”

In attacking Falwell the church says he “warmly praised Christ-rejecting Jews, pedophile-
condoning Catholics, money-grubbing compromisers, practicing fags like Mel White (of
Souflorce), and backsliders like Billy Graham and Robert Schuler, etc.”

A spokesperson for the Lynchburg Police Department told 365Gay.com that members of the
group “Christian Bikers” parked in front of the area blocking the Phelps clan from the
view of mourners.

Phelps and the church first came to national attention when he organized a protest by
his followers outside the 1998 funeral for Matthew Shepherd, the gay college student who
was beaten to death in Wyoming. The killing, Phelps’ protest, and the reaction of
townsfolk led to the play “The Laramie Project.”

Church members routinely demonstrate at the funerals of AIDS victims and most recently
at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Falwell, who died last week at the age of 73, was no friend to the gay community
Following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in 2001 Falwell declared that
gays and pro choice advocates were to blame.

Speaking on the 700 Club religious program Falwell said, “The abortionists have got to
bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million
little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the
abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to
make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them
who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you
helped this happen’.”

In 2003 Falwell announced that he was putting aside everything to devote his time to
passage of a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage.

He also denounced the Teletubbies TV show, calling one of the characters gay
None of the GOP presidential candidates attended the funeral.  The Bush White House,
which at one time courted Falwell’s support sent only a midlevel aide.
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/05/052207falwell.htm

May 22, 2007
The Gore Book: Sweeping Indictment, Rousing Challenge, Massive Best-seller (Brent
Budowsky)

The real presidential campaign begins now with the publication of Al Gore’s sweeping,
passionate and uncompromising indictment of Bush, Bushism and American politics in the
Bush era.

If Congress again capitulates to Bush on Iraq policy, the juxtaposition of Gore’s
massive assault on Bushism, his criticism of Congress for not presenting authoritative
opposition and current events in Washington will unleash a major groundswell in many
circles of Democratic and independent politics.

This is not a book about politics. It is a book about American democracy in 2007.

Gore challenges the surrender of major media to false notions, unreason,
misunderstanding and dishonesty that drove America to disastrous war.

Gore challenges the onslaught against the Bill of Rights and fundamental freedoms by an
administration seeking to monopolize its power in ways reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984.

Gore attacks a war that was not just wrong, but in his word “absurd,” an Orwellian
preemptive war attacking a country that did not invade us, in response to a terrorist
attack that could have been prevented.

Gore condemns the exploitation and abuse of 9/11 and the abuse of power, and abuse of
trust, of a politics aimed at driving the nation into a frenzy of fear to justify unwise
war, un-American torture and illegal actions beyond the reach of Congress and the courts.

Gore issues a clarion call for America to rejoin the global community and lead the fight
against global warming, AIDS, the crisis of water and a range of global issues that
threaten a world that hungers for renewed American leadership.

What is striking and powerful about Gore’s book is the sweeping and comprehensive
indictment of Bush and the Bush years,  and the passion, reason and intensity of his
challenge.

Gore is saying that these are deadly serious times that demand highly serious leaders
and that our democracy, too long put to shame by shallowness and deceit, must be
reawakened by a people who say, “No more.”

The power, strength and sweep of this book are words from a man who should have been
president, might well still be president, and provide a call to action for the next man
or woman who will be president.
http://pundits.thehill.com/2007/05/22/the-gore-book-sweeping-indictment-rousing-
challenge-massive-best-seller/
Conservative editorial boards run from Alberto Gonzales; Unfortunately, Bush doesn’t
read newspapers. 5/23
Conservative editorial boards run from Gonzales
With the Senate’s ‘no confidence’ vote coming up on Wednesday, conservatives have just
one day left to separate themselves from the Attorney General before all hell breaks
loose.  Over the last few news cycles, a number of conservative editorial boards across
the country have jumped ship.

1) Conservative bloggers, like Ed Koch of Real Clear Politics, says Gonzales is a “dead
man walking,” and praised Ashcroft for standing standing up to him in the hospital:

Isn’t it awesome that Ashcroft, a very conservative lawyer and former U.S. Senator,
hated by the liberals, in effect, thwarted an attempt by the President’s Counsel and
Chief of Staff to subvert the law?

Even the Asheville Citizen-Times, a right-leaning newspaper, wrote this morning that
Gonzales ought to go:

He no longer deserves or can claim the confidence of the department he runs, of the
Congress or of the American people. He should resign.

Another right-wing newspaper, the Ventura County Star, asks Gonzales to “go quietly” and
not hurt the Republicans any further:

It’s admirable that Mr. Bush is willing to defend his longtime friend and counselor, but
Mr. Gonzales should not put the president in the position of having to do so. It is no
service to Mr. Bush for Mr. Gonzales to stay on.

My hometown newspaper, the Seattle Times — which all of us out here in the Northwest
know is far from liberal — jumped off the Gonzales bandwagon on Sunday:

The only alternative to Gonzales’ staying on as attorney general is an independent
Justice Department that acts in the interests of justice, rather than Bush’s political
and personal interests. That is what Bush fears most, and that is why Gonzales will
almost certainly stay, unless Congress forces him out. Let’s ask them to do it.
The way I see it, there are two main reasons why Gonzales is toast:
The controversial firings affected Republican-appointed attorneys.  Many of these
attorneys have close relationships with GOP Senators and Representatives.
The episode between Gonzales and Ashcroft gives conservatives a way out.  In other
words, Republicans can say, “Hey, all the fuss about the U.S. Attorney firings was
nonsense.  But I don’t like what Gonzales did to our conservative pal Ashcroft.”
http://www.thebluestate.com/2007/05/conservative_ed.html

Dave Lindorff: A Widening Chasm Between House Democrats and the Voters on Impeachment

The divide between Democratic leaders contemplating their re-election prospects in 2008
and rank-and-file Democrats is becoming a chasm — one so wide that Congressional
Democrats may soon find it hard to straddle it.

The issue is impeachment.
So far, Democrats in Congress and at the top of the party hierarchy, out of touch with
public sentiment and worried that impeachment could hurt them with “independents” — whom
they mistakenly consider to stand somehow “in between” Democrats and Republicans — have
been following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s vow that for the 110th Congress, “impeachment
is off the table.” They’ve been doing more than that: they have been actively working to
tamp down, and even to crush, impeachment campaigns in the states.
For example, in Washington state
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/1031

Bush Lied, Soldiers Keep Dying.
3,422 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq
390 U.S. Military Fatalities in Afghanistan
25,378 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (source: DoD Update as of May 15, 2007)
70,023 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: Iraq Body Count)
655,000 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: The Lancet)

38 buzzes
buzz itThe story that should bring down the republican party
scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/5/22/15285/4315
sent by cho since 17 hours 34 minutes, published about 16 hours 54 minutes
Adam Lambert (clammyc) nails it: “Election fraud. Gaming the electoral system from the
inside. To unfairly favor republicans. Favors and promotions for those who go along.
Demotions, firings and blacklisting of those who don’t. Nonexistent charges of voter
fraud and threats or coercion for these charges to be investigated. Illegal
redistricting. Petty lawsuits against the Voting Rights Act. Voter ID laws that border on
illegal, if not overtly illegal.”
With all due respect, while it “should”, if 9/11 can’t do it, this won’t!
understood, but even 9/11 was “only” the Bush administration, and many still won’t
believe it because it is still “somewhat” subjective
http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=13731

May 23, 2007

Incoming British PM Gordon Brown is prepared to risk the future of the “special
relationship” with the United States by reversing Tony Blair’s support for the Iraq war,
President George W Bush has been warned. God bless Brown if it is true. He is a man
interested in saving the world from a psychopath.

Bush gets ready for Iraq U-turn by Brown
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/20/wirq20.xml

Democrats Yield to the Inmate in Charge of the Nuthouse and Condemn Our Troops to More
Deaths: “Withdrawal timetable dropped from war spending bill.”
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/05/withdrawal-timetable-dropped-
from-war.html

Seymour Hersh: In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the
Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has
significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some inside the
White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open
confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening
sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims….The key players behind the
redirection are Vice-President Dick Cheney, the deputy national-security adviser Elliott
Abrams, the departing Ambassador to Iraq (and nominee for United Nations Ambassador),
Zalmay Khalilzad, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national-security adviser.
While Rice has been deeply involved in shaping the public policy, former and current
officials said that the clandestine side has been guided by Cheney.

The Redirection
Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh

State of Virginia Supports Illegal Gun Sales
http://www.gunguys.com/?p=2173

Yes, a Republican — James B. Comey — Actually Wins the Reader-Nominated BuzzFlash
Wings of Justice Award, for His Action in Calling in the Head of the FBI and Personally
Standing Up for the Constitution by Confronting Alberto “Consigliere” Gonzales and Andrew
Card in the hospital room of a Dazed and Medicated John Ashcroft

Normally, we don’t consider Republicans for the BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award. That
is because most Busheviks are like the followers of Jim Jones; they stay loyal to their
psychologically impaired and mentally challenged leader until the last drop of Kool-Aid.

James B. Comey, in particular, is often described as a Republican loyalist and is
currently General Counsel for Lockheed Martin, a senior member of the military industrial
complex.

But, Comey, according to his recent Congressional testimony, did an incredible thing. He
actually stood up to the lawlessness of the Bush Administration.
http://wingsofjustice.com/07/05/woj07021.html

‘I Don’t Believe the NRA Should Get Their Way and Allow Terrorists to Buy Military Guns
in the United States.’
That’s correct.

The NRA and the gun lobby protect the right of possible terrorists to buy guns
According to the Violence Policy Center of Washington, D.C., “Current law is so weak
that being a known member of a foreign terrorist organization does not prohibit a person
from legally buying and possessing guns.”

Tell the NRA you won’t let them compromise our national security:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/FSA/signUp.jsp?key=2143

I am on a call with Al Gore. Gore just responded to White House press secretary Tony
Snow, who said, “I don’t know if they’re going to do a reprinting of the book to try to
get the facts straight. The fact-checkers may have to take a look at it.” Gore said,
“This book, unlike the President’s State of the Union Address, has been fact-checked.”
http://www.seeingtheforest.com/archives/2007/05/gore_responds_t.htm

Robert Parry: Grieving Moms vs. Washington Pols. “But Senate Democrats – faced with a
near-solid phalanx of Republicans standing behind the President – appear eager to run up
the white flag, give Bush pretty much whatever he wants, and break for the Memorial Day
recess.”

Every other month, Gold Star mother Teresa Arciola drives from her home in Westchester
County, New York, to Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, sits on her son’s grave and reads
aloud from “Corduroy,” his favorite baby book. Another mother spent winter afternoons in
a sleeping bag stretched across her son’s final resting place.

The unspeakable suffering of these parents of dead soldiers stands in marked contrast to
the maneuvering over the Iraq War now underway across the river in Washington. There,
George W. Bush appears quietly planning another escalation of the Iraq War – possibly
doubling U.S. combat troops by Christmas – and many members of Congress are frightened of
the political repercussions if they stand up to him.

A possible compromise could come from a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled House
granting Bush only two months of the additional war spending that he wants, rather than
the full amount through the end of September.

At least requiring a second vote sometime in the summer might force serious thinking
about alternatives to continuing the war indefinitely and creating many more fresh graves
at Arlington Cemetery.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/052207.html

Rejoice, The Hummer Is Dead
It might be the end of the world’s most phallically sad SUV. But has the damage been done?
The late Rev. Jerry Falwell? He was exactly like a Hummer H2. Oh yes he was. Bloated,
arrogant, offensive to millions and deeply wrong in a thousand ways and yet blindly
worshipped by a shockingly large and happily uninformed throng of devout minions for no
other reason than he was, well, bloated, arrogant and wrong.

Is that too harsh? Lacking in prudent subtlety? I’m completely OK with that
http://sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2007/05/23/notes052307.DTL&type=printable

US effort in Iraq “abysmal”: top congressman

Raw Story – Cambridge,MA,USA
He used a 6.8 million dollar modernization of a maternity hospital in the Iraqi city of
Arbil as a symbol of US failures in Iraq following the 2003 invasion …
US effort in Iraq “abysmal”: top congressman
Published: Tuesday May 22, 2007  
 
Veteran Democratic congressman Tom Lantos on Tuesday took aim at the Bush administration
for “serious misconduct” in its “abysmal” attempt to rebuild violence-shattered Iraq.

US effort in Iraq “abysmal”: top congressman
Published: Tuesday May 22, 2007  
 
Veteran Democratic congressman Tom Lantos on Tuesday took aim at the Bush administration
for “serious misconduct” in its “abysmal” attempt to rebuild violence-shattered Iraq.

Lantos, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committee, accused top
US officials of wallowing in the “mud of incompetence” and said they were guilty of
“stunning mismanagement” in post-war Iraq.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_effort_in_Iraq_abysmal_top_congr_05222007.html

Giuliani’s 9/11 Response ‘Deeply Flawed’

Rudy Giuliani, one of the leading Republican presidential candidates, has worked hard to
craft an image as a 9/11 hero at the center of New York City’s recovery and rebuilding
after the terrorists attacks.
(Don’t forget the Fire Fighters union (IAFF) was one of the first groups to take
Giuliani to task for some his claims and his handling of the city’s preparedness and 9/11
response.)

In recent days, Mr. Hauer has challenged Mr. Giuliani’s recollection that he had little
role as mayor in placing the city’s emergency command center at the ill-fated World Trade
Center….

And he has contradicted Mr. Giuliani’s assertions that the city’s emergency response was
well coordinated that day, a point he made most notably to the authors of Grand Illusion,
a book that depicts Mr. Giuliani’s anti-terrorism efforts as deeply flawed.
http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/05/22/giuliani%e2%80%99s-911-response-deeply-flawed/

Onetime Giuliani Insider Is Now a Critic
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/us/politics/22giuliani.html?_r=2&ref=politics&oref=slog
in&oref=slogin

Macho Mistakes at Ground Zero

As more and more workers who inhaled the dust at ground zero fall ill, it has become
increasingly clear that much of the problem can be traced to the Giuliani
administration’s failure to insist that all emergency personnel and construction workers
at the site wear respirators.

The then-mayor and his agency heads put their emphasis on a speedy cleanup and return to
normalcy. In that, they were remarkably successful, clearing the site in less than 10
months. Unfortunately, the price is now being paid by thousands of workers who have
developed lung and other ailments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/opinion/22tue1.html

As Comrades Search, Fatal Bomb Wreaks Havoc

MAHMUDIYA, Iraq, May 22 — The ground exploded under an ashen sky at dawn. Dust, dirt,
blood and military equipment filled the air, clearing after several seconds to reveal a
frenzied scene of horror.

Where Sgt. Justin D. Wisniewski, 22, had just been standing there was now a crater five
feet wide and three feet deep. His body lay nearby. The wounded were scattered around
him.

The soldiers swore.
“It was Ski,” one said, using the sergeant’s nickname.

Sgt. Joshua Delgado, 23, the unit’s medic, rushed in and went to work on the most
seriously wounded soldier, who lay with shrapnel wounds to the face, arm and side. Two
other Americans and an Iraqi were also hurt.

One of the wounded, Staff Sgt. Robert Simonovich, 31, knelt off to the right. He had
taken his body armor off and, with just a T-shirt on, it was clear he had not walked far
enough yet to sweat. His hands rested on his knees, his head tilted down. Eyes closed, he
said he couldn’t see.

“It’s not one of our guys, is it?” he said. No one answered.

Capt. Blake Keil, 31, who commanded the group of 11 Americans working with about 50
Iraqis, called for a medevac helicopter.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/world/middleeast/23search.html?th&emc=th

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather
than avenge it?: Eleanor Roosevelt:

I]n such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of
thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners: Albert Camus:
The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic: Joe Stalin,
comment to Churchill at Potsdam, 1945
The aim of military training is not just to prepare men for battle, but to make them
long for it: Louis Simpson

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, “Mother, what was war?” – Eve Merriam

Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America’s War On Iraq – At Least 655,000 + +
http://tinyurl.com/usq4x
 
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’sWar
On Iraq 3,422
http://icasualties.org/oif/
 
The War in Iraq Costs
$427,890,796,831
 
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
A Front-row Seat For This Lebanese Tragedy
By Robert Fisk
There is something obscene about watching the siege of Nahr el-Bared. The old
Palestinian camp – home to 30,000 lost souls who will never go “home.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17746.htm

Another Chapter in Hillary’s Attempt to Rewrite History on Iraq
 
By Arianna Huffington
 
In a 1939 radio address, Franklin Roosevelt declared, “Repetition does not transform a
lie into a truth.” When it comes to Iraq, Hillary Clinton is doing everything in her
power to prove him wrong – repeatedly trying to rewrite history and belatedly catch up
with public opinion against the war.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17748.htm
 
Why Bush Hasn’t Been Impeached
By Gary Kamiya
 
The Bush presidency is a lot of things. It’s a secretive cabal, a cavalcade of
incompetence, a blood-stained Church Militant, a bad rerun of “The Godfather” in which
scary men in suits pay ominous visits to hospital rooms.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17749.htm
 
Why the US Government Is Hated All Over the World
By Fred Reed
 
Something is wrong with the United States. I think most of us have noticed it. There is
a mortal rot in the country, made manifest by many little rots that are hard to integrate
mentally yet are, I think, somehow related. The change is grave, accelerating, probably
irreversible, and fascinating. Things are not as they were.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17747.htm

Get Busy Living, Or Get Busy Dying
By David Sirota
 
Today, American workers’ take-home pay represents a smaller share of the nation’s total
income than at any time in the last forty years. At the same time, corporate profits as a
share of national income are at an all-time high.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17751.htm

Paulson’s Kabuki: Integrating China into the Neoliberal System
By Mike Whitney
 
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is a man who knows what he wants. And what he wants is
to further integrate the Chinese market into the global system—the “American-run”
system.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17750.htm
 
Mob cheers as British soldier dies:
A cheering mob made victory hand signals yesterday after a British serviceman was killed
in an ambush on the streets of Basra.
http://snipurl.com/1lmvi
Bush administration quietly boosting troop levels in second ’surge’ :
 
The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops
in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/184107

Dem’s wimp out:
 
House Democrats Have to Sell Iraq Plan :
 
After weeks of refusing to back down to President Bush on setting a timetable on Iraq,
House Democratic leaders face having to explain to their party’s rank and file why
they’ve now relented.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6652427,00.html
 
Rep. Ron Paul: Fixing What’s Wrong With Iraq: -
 
Many of my colleagues, faced with the reality that the war in Iraq is not going well,
line up to place all the blame on the president. The president “mismanaged” the war, they
say. “It’s all the president’s fault,” they claim. In reality, much of the blame should
rest with Congress.
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst052107.htm
 
Where Nobody Is Accountable:
 
It is the occupation forces, particularly the United States and Britain, that must be
held accountable, many Iraqis say.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37814
 
No water or electricty and Iraq to spend 1.5 billion dollars on weapons: 
Iraq’s defence ministry will buy new weapons worth more than 1.5 billion dollars (1.11
billion euros), including helicopters and US rifles, the minister announced on Monday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070521/wl_mideast_afp/iraqusmilitary
 
Justin Raimondo: The Ron Paul Effect :
Antiwar Republican makes waves – and the Establishment is in shock
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10995
 
More than 100 dead and injured at Nahr Al-Bared camp:
 
Reports range from 50 to over 80 dead, including soldiers, militants and civilians.
According to Al-Jazeera, at least 20 fighters, 32 soldiers and 27 civilians have been
killed since fighting between the army and Fatah Al-Islam fighters erupted early on
Sunday.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6929.shtml
Hersh: Bush administration arranged support for militants attacking Lebanon:
 
In an interview on CNN International’s Your World Today, veteran journalist Seymour
Hersh explains that the current violence in Lebanon is the result of an attempt by the
Lebanese government to crack down on a militant Sunni group, Fatah al-Islam, that it
formerly supported.
http://snipurl.com/1lmw9
In case you missed it:
 
USS Liberty: Dead in the Water :
 
Video; During the Six-Day War, Israel attacked and nearly sank the USS Liberty belonging
to its closest ally, the USA. Thirty-four American servicemen were killed in the two-hour
assault by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5073.htm
Priests claim torture; fort says no:
 
A pair of priests arrested in November for trespassing on Fort Huachuca are determined
to make a court case out of what they contend is torture being taught at the Southern
Arizona Army post.
http://snipurl.com/1lmxi
 
===
 
Bush Anoints Himself as the Insurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency:
With scarcely a mention in the mainstream media, President Bush has ordered up a plan
for responding to a catastrophic attack.
http://progressive.org/mag_wx051807/
 
Claudia Nelson : The Militarization of the United States :
Bush policies increase Pentagon’s role in U.S. government
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=411331
 
===
Dodge says single currency ‘possible’:
 
Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge says North America could one day embrace a euro-
style single currency.
http://snipurl.com/1lmxq
Who Would Jesus Bomb?
By: Nicole Belle on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 4:43 PM – PDT  
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/18/who-would-jesus-bomb/

What Planet Does Kate O’Beirne Live On?
By: SilentPatriot on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 4:03 PM – PDT  

 think it’s a faraway land known as “Planet Beltway.” Apparently Kate O’Beirne doesn’t
think it’s improper for the President of the United States to pressure a bedridden
Attorney General into legalizing a domestic spying program he already considered illegal.
According to the self-proclaimed beltway-bubbled Kate, “there’s no there there.” After
all, the President tried his very hardest to make sure the program was on sound legal
footing (something so rare that he should be applauded for it) and no cases have arisen
to suggest otherwise. Well, except that one case in Michigan. And what kind of program
was in place before Bush sent his goons out? Must have been something pretty radical
considering the usually slavishly loyal Ashcroft, Comey and Mueller threatened to resign
en masse if it continued unchanged.
What was it that Reagan used to say, Kate? Oh yea: “Trust, but verify.” With all the
Reagan nostalgia of late, it’s remarkable that it’s slipped your mind
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/18/what-planet-does-kate-obeirne-live-on/

Bill Richardson’s Energy Plan

Gov. Richardson closed with his goals and how America will face the energy challenges
for this century:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/18/bill-richardsons-energy-plan/

Jon Stewart Catches Gonzales Lying About McNulty
By: SilentPatriot on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 2:03 PM – PDT  

Deputy AG Paul McNulty played a negligible role in the USA purge. Well, until he
announced his resignation; then he was blamed for the entire thing. Memo to Gonzo: We
don’t throw away the old tapes of what you say. Jon juxtaposes the two contradictory
statements and breaks down the significance of the blockbuster Comey testimony.
Gonzales on April 19: “Looking back, things that I would have done differently…? I think
I would have had the Deputy Attorney General more involved, directly involved.”

Gonzales on May 15: “The Deputy Attorney General would know best about the
qualifications and experiences of the minds; it’s a community and he signed off on the
names.”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/18/jon-stewart-catches-gonzales-lying-about-mcnulty/

Melanie Morgan Permanently Banned From “The News Hour”

Well, well, well.  Via Romenesko, we learn that one of our favorite fact-free Righty
screechers has gotten herself permanently locked out in the yard over at The News Hour
with Jim Lehrer. The clip in question is posted above, and frankly, for Morgan (whose
rancor and biliousness are all the way off the charts on a good day), I think it’s pretty
mild. All she did was serially interrupt and talk over Iraq War veteran John Soltz to
accuse him undermining the troops and call him a cheerleader for Al Qaeda. Is that such a
crime?

JON SOLTZ: Well, we are the troops. And there was nothing worse than when I was in
combat in Iraq and a soldier that I sent on a convoy was killed, and I had to hear my
president, the man who never had the courage to serve in Vietnam, entice my enemy with
words like, “Bring it on.”

MELANIE MORGAN: Oh, please! Read more…
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/05/17/late-nite-fdl-and-dont-come-back/#more-9148

Here are some more memorable moments from the sweet and lovable Melanie Morgan

Melanie Morgan’s lunacy: “I think we should have gone in and just blitzed Iraq. We
haven’t had a, a serious war, really, since WWII.”

Melanie Morgan is one of those grade B talk show hosts that’s treated like the almighty
when she appears on Teevee. On Hardball Friday–she proves what she has to say is
downright insane and immoral in defending the war supporters position on Iraq. The
bookers of 24/7 don’t seem to share my opinion.
Morgan is the typical warmonger who believes we should “kill’em all.”–vaporize every
living person without regard to human life—even though Iraq never attacked us. (She’s
also quite comfortable with torture,)  Morgan has no idea how many casualties there are
in Iraq because she doesn’t want to know. And by the way—I believe Korea and Vietnam ware
serious wars. I gather so do the men and women who fought in them. I’m just saying…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/22/melanie-morgans-lunacy-i-think-we-should-have-
gone-in-and-just-blitzed-iraq-we-haven%e2%80%99t-had-a-a-serious-war-really-since-wwii/

Colbert Nails a Clueless Tom DeLay

When Stephen starts off the interview by saying “you’re my first indicted guest,” you
know you’re in for a good Colbert-style skewering. “The Hammer” gets nailed on his dopey
mugshot, his pending legal troubles, his likening of liberals to Adolph Hitler, and Terri
Schiavo — which Tom remembers as one of his finer moments.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/18/colbert-nails-a-clueless-tom-delay/

‘Torture Betrays Us’

Thursday, May 17th, 2007

Just two days after several Republican presidential hopefuls seemed almost desperate to
brag about their appreciation for torture — as Slate’s John Dickerson put it, “Some
candidates appeared ready to do the torturing themselves” — an important WaPo op-ed tries
to set the record straight.
Charles C. Krulak, commandant of the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999, and Joseph P. Hoar,
commander in chief of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994, explained how fear can
drive Americans to tolerate the intolerable — whether that be internment during World War
II, McCarthyism, or more recently, torture.

Donald Rumsfeld once wondered aloud whether we were creating more terrorists than we
were killing. In counterinsurgency doctrine, that is precisely the right question.
Victory in this kind of war comes when the enemy loses legitimacy in the society from
which it seeks recruits and thus loses its “recuperative power.”

The torture methods that Tenet defends have nurtured the recuperative power of the
enemy. This war will be won or lost not on the battlefield but in the minds of potential
supporters who have not yet thrown in their lot with the enemy. If we forfeit our values
by signaling that they are negotiable in situations of grave or imminent danger, we drive
those undecideds into the arms of the enemy. This way lies defeat, and we are well down
the road to it.

Josh Marshall adds, “The legacy of this administration is frightening to behold, its
philosophy of force and violence, its lawlessness.”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/17/%e2%80%98torture-betrays-us%e2%80%99/

If you think you can stomach it, check out how Coultergeist remembers Falwell. Are there
no depths to which this wretched and poor excuse for a human being is willing to sink? I
think that question was answered long ago. 
http://us.f308.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=9144_10758538_9009_1590_30516_0_33795_9
0257_3094235238&Idx=6&YY=38683&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&vie
w=&head=&box=Inbox

White House Opposed Pay Raises For Troops/Widows’ Benefits
By: Nicole Belle on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 2:21 PM – PDT  

Let me see if I understand this: Extending tours of duty is a strategic move.  But
paying our troops more money for putting their lives on the line is “unnecessary”:

Army Times:  The Bush administration had asked for a 3 percent military raise for Jan.
1, 2008, enough to match last year’s average pay increase in the private sector. The
House Armed Services Committee recommends a 3.5 percent pay increase for 2008, and
increases in 2009 through 2012 that also are 0.5 percentage point greater than private-
sector pay raises.[..]

Bush budget officials said the administration “strongly opposes” both the 3.5 percent
raise for 2008 and the follow-on increases, calling extra pay increases “unnecessary.”
Further, as The Gavel cites, the administration has also opposed an additional $40 per
month for widows of slain soldiers; additional benefits for surviving family members of
civilian employees; and price controls for prescription drugs under TRICARE, the
military’s health care plan for military personnel and their dependents.

But here’s where the Irony-meter redlines: in addition to not wanting to pay more to our
troops or support the survivors of fallen troop members, the administration also does not
want to have stricter accountability on contract employees.  That’s right…don’t pay the
soldiers, but don’t ask us to watch what we pay Blackwater.

Remind me again, how is asking for timelines to get them out of an unwinnable situation
is hurting our troops and this isn’t?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/17/white-house-opposed-pay-raises-for-troopswidows-
benefits/

Biggest. Embassy. Ever.

About a month ago, the NYT reported that reconstruction programs in Iraq were an abject
disaster.

Now, contrast this record with news today that we’re in the midst of building the
biggest, most expensive embassy on earth, right there in Baghdad.

The Bush administration designed the 104-acre compound — set to open in September in
what today is a war zone — to be an ultra-secure enclave. Yet it also hoped that downtown
Baghdad would cease being a battleground when diplomats moved in. […]

The $592 million embassy occupies a chunk of prime real estate two-thirds the size of
Washington’s National Mall, with desk space for about 1,000 people behind high, blast-
resistant walls. The compound is a symbol both of how much the United States has invested
in Iraq and how the circumstances of its involvement are changing.

The embassy is one of the few major projects the administration has undertaken in Iraq
that is on schedule and within budget.

That’s bound to make the Iraqis happy, isn’t it? Most of the buildings we’ve built for
the country are crumbling, but look at the enormous embassy we’ve built for ourselves —
within budget! — on prime real estate in downtown Baghdad.

Hears and minds, people. Hearts and minds.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/22/biggest-embassy-ever/

Bush Outsources the Task of Catching bin Laden
By: SilentPatriot on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 2:01 PM

NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reports on how the Bush administration pays the Pakistani
government $1 billion a year to hunt down Osama bin Laden, and demands zero
accountability as to how that money is spent.
So if I understand this correctly, we are paying Musharraf $1 billion a year to strike
immunity deals with the warlords thought to be harboring this man we’re paying him to
catch? This is appalling on so many levels. Given the huge sum of money we’re paying this
man to implement policies that are counterproductive to our national security and yield
few results, how can we possibly consider him our “strong friend and ally”?

Let’s review the Bush administration’s record for a second and how insane it is for them
to suggest (and for his water carriers to defend) that they are “strong on terror”:
First, they ignored countless warnings pre-9/11.

Then they allowed bin Laden to slip across the Pakistani border. Then they propagated a
non-existant link between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein to drag us into a war that has not only
destroyed our military, treasury, and moral credibility, but has also made us infinitely
less safe by creating an entirely new generation of Islamic extremists hellbent on
destroying America. Then, as if all that wasn’t enough, they shut down the CIA unit
dedicated to huting down the man President Bush once pledged to bring to justice “dead or
alive.” Can anybody tell me with a straight face what this administration has done right
in the war on terror? Anybody?

To put this into perspective, that yearly $1 billion could have insured 600,000
children; paid for more than 17,000 teachers; or sent 48,000 kids to college for four
years. But no, it’s smarter to give it to someone who could seemingly care less about
apprehending America’s #1 fugitive.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/22/bush-outsources-the-task-of-catching-bin-laden/

Bush’s new plan is the same as the old plan

The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops
in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.The little-
noticed second surge, designed to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq, is being executed by
sending more combat brigades and extending tours of duty for troops already there.

TSeparately, when additional support troops are included in this second troop increase,
the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than
200,000 — a record-high number — by the end of the year. Read more…

Sam Rosenfeld : “Which is to say, the new plan consists of nothing that we haven’t
already been attempting for the last several years, and nothing that in any way addresses
the underlying political dynamics that are fuelling the sectarian conflict. In this op-ed
genre, there is always — always — “a bipartisan path out of this impasse,” no matter what
that “impasse” may be, no matter how many years it has remained, and no matter how many
thousands of people have been killed as a result of it.”…read on
John Amato: Lift up your hands and shout: Bipartisan! Forget timetables and benchmarks,
there’s too much work left to be done in Iraq; like the building of permanent bases and
the gargantuan U.S. embassy and of course the oil sharing agreements have yet to be
approved or signed by the Iraqi Parliament. Time to contact your representatives…

UPDATE: (Nicole) David Ignatius of WaPo muses on post-”surge” options, but Brad at
Sadly, No! points out some flaws in the logic.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/22/bush-quietly-seeks-second-surge-in-iraq/

Sean Hannity Licks Melanie Morgan’s Wounds

Melanie Morgan appeared on Monday night’s “Hannity & Colmes” to discuss the recent ban
placed on her by “The News Hour With Jim Lehrer” on PBS. As always, Hannity offers a
platform and safe haven to those who are rejected by civilized society. Melanie and Sean
play the expected victim card, claiming that PBS is using taxpayer money to censor voices
from the right. Why, Melanie was so hurt she’s demanding an apology from PBS! Poor
Melanie. What has America come to when a girl can’t go on national television and insult
our veterans returning from Iraq? There’s plenty of comedy goodness packed into this clip
so tear it up in the comments…

Reality check: Melanie was not banned from PBS as the Fox graphic shows, she just won’t
be invited back to The News Hour.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/22/sean-hannity-licks-melanie-morgans-wounds/

Dems Give Rove One Last Opportunity To Testify Before Subpoena

The House Judiciary Committee is prepared to use subpoenas to compel the testimony of
Karl Rove and other White House officials, Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and subcomittee
Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA) warned White House counsel Fred Fielding today.

“We are today writing to express our extreme disappointment in the White House’s rebuff
of efforts by the Judiciary Committee to obtain voluntary cooperation with our
investigation concerning the firing of at least nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 and related
matters,” they wrote. “We write to make one last appeal for such voluntary cooperation.”
You can read the letter here. Read more… 

If you haven’t checked it out yet, in his new book, Armed Madhouse, Greg Palast claims
to have procured some 500 of Rove’s e-mails. You know, the ones he’s refusing to turn
over to the Judiciary Committee? 

Palast: I know because I have Karl Rove’s emails. No kidding. He and his team aren’t the
sharpest knives in the drawer. They sent copies of their plans to GeorgeWBush.ORG instead
of GeorgeWBush.COM addresses — and, heh heh, they ended up in my in-box. Who says this
job ain’t fun?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/22/dems-give-rove-one-last-opportunity-to-testify-
before-subpoena/

Liberty Rose
http://www.raymoreeagles4146.org/liberty.html

 5 9 2007
Ode to Texas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnmDqJHv4lc&mode=related&search=
 
Apology for the Ode to Texas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADvbCWEPEt0&NR=1

What would Bush do if a disaster hit a state with a Republican governor (of course,
there are fewer of them after the last election)? Once again, the Busheviks falsely
attack a Democratic governor (this time Kansas) in response to legitimate concerns over a
lack of National Guard troops, who have their own problems in Iraq.

White House rebuts Guard shortage claim
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration and Kansas’ governor started Tuesday pointing
fingers at each other over the response to last week’s devastating tornado. By lunchtime,
both sides had backed down.

With President Bush set to travel to now-razed Greensburg, Kan., on Wednesday to view
the destruction wrought by Friday’s 205 mph twister, Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
said she planned to talk with him about her contention that National Guard deployments to
Iraq hampered the disaster response.

I don’t think there is any question if you are missing trucks, Humvees and helicopters
that the response is going to be slower,” she said Monday. “The real victims here will be
the residents of Greensburg, because the recovery will be at a slower pace.”

Sebelius said that with other states facing similar limitations, “stuff that we would
have borrowed is gone.”
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_TORNADO?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=
DEFAULT

Pentagon tells 35,000: Prepare to deploy; Unfortunately that destination is Iraq in the
fall; The troops need to start coming back this way, not going the other way.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070508/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_troops;_ylt=AjiFeZqWZFjY6Rq
O9OVKpHis0NUE
‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ — Congressional leaders from both political parties
are amazingly giving the Busheviks until September for Iraq to get better; Isn’t that an
artificial timetable?

 5 4 2007
Administration Used a Fake Letter to Build the Case for War in Iraq (Hardcover)
By Peter Eisner and Knut Royce

The Niger yellowcake deception is at the epicenter of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz
propaganda and deceit machine that led America into a disastrous war.

It is what precipitated PlameGate. It was a key piece in the jigsaw puzzle of deceit
that ended up, despite CIA protests, being employed as a casus belli in a Bush State of
the Union speech. It was nurtured as a lie by the Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz DOD office that
created false intelligence to “rally” Americans into an unnecessary war

This is a comprehensive, compelling account of the stunning Bush/Cheney betrayal of
America that led to the outing of a CIA operative who specialized in tracking REAL
illicit WMDs.

Seymour Hersh writes of “The Italian Letter”: “It’s the best account so far of one of
the enduring mysteries of the Bush White House and its race to sell the Iraq war to the
public people. It’s not just about the 16 words. Everything that would go wrong is
telegraphed in this incident.”
Read The Full Review >>>
http://www.buzzflash.com/store/reviews/604

Idaho Inmate gets 37 Months for Making Threats Against President Bush
http://www.2news.tv/news/local/7313796.html

Busheviks threatens to veto hate crimes law; House votes 237-180 to extend federal
protection to gender, sexual orientation; What will happen to Republican-led attacks if
they can’t use hate anymore? 5/4
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18473074/

Barack Obama now has Secret Service protection, due to a threat against the candidate.
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/05/barack-obama-placed-under-
secret.html
American soldiers are fleeing the Iraq war for Canada — and U.S. officials may be on
their trail. North of the border is no longer the safe haven it was during the Vietnam
era.

Northern exposure

May 3, 2007 | TORONTO — One morning in late February, Canadian police arrived at a
house in the small town of Nelson, British Columbia, and arrested Kyle Snyder, a U.S.
soldier who had gone AWOL from the Army. Snyder, a former combat engineer who left the
United States in April 2005 to avoid deployment for a second tour in Iraq, was detained
for several hours but never charged with a crime. It remains unclear why he was arrested.
The incidents have sparked allegations that Canadian law enforcement has been
collaborating with U.S. officials to help track down American soldiers who have fled to
Canada.

With the Iraq war in its fifth year, an increasing number of American soldiers have been
going AWOL and fleeing to Canada, particularly over the last six months. One lawyer who
works on their behalf puts the number of American war resisters currently living in
Canada at 250 or more. Advocates for them here talk of a kind of “underground railroad”
that has developed south of the border to help war resisters make their way north.

the military, acknowledged only that they were “interested” in talking with Key because
of allegations he has made about the conduct of American soldiers in Iraq. Key recently
wrote a book called “The Deserter’s Tale,” published in February by Grove/Atlantic, in
which he alleges war crimes by his fellow soldiers. Key wrote, among other things, that
he believes American soldiers raped Iraqi women and that he watched soldiers from the
124th Infantry Division playing soccer with the heads of dead Iraqi civilians. (Key also
notes in the book that when torture at Abu Ghraib became public in spring 2004, he was
not surprised, because it struck him as consistent with the brutality he had witnessed.)
Key says he refused to participate in such acts and is now seeking refugee status in
Canada.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/05/03/awol_in_canada/

Next page: “They used lies and plays on words to get us over there, and ordered us to
commit crimes against another country”
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/05/03/awol_in_canada/index1.html
“American forces have completed construction of a concrete wall around the Baghdad
district of Adhamiya despite protests from the Iraqi prime minister and local residents
who claim that they are now at the mercy of militants.”

Anger in Baghdad as Americans finish wall

American forces have completed construction of a concrete wall around the Baghdad
district of Adhamiya despite protests from the Iraqi prime minister and local residents
who claim that they are now at the mercy of militants.

Capt Mohammad Jasim, an Iraqi soldier manning a checkpoint on the Adhamiya bridge, said:
“The Americans did not listen to us. We think this wall has made the area inside the wall
more dangerous for people.

Um Doraid, a middle-aged housewife, said: “We here inside the wall are still as
vulnerable as ever.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/02/wiraq202.xml

World agrees it can tackle climate change
The world has the technology and can afford to limit climate change, scientists and
delegates from more than 120 countries agreed in Bangkok earlier today.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/index.jhtml

“Republican contenders ponder what to say about Bush.” Uh, how about the man is a
narcissistic sociopath who has shredded our Constitution, driven us to unprecedented
debt, lied us into a ruinous war, and has appointed ideologically radical AND corrupt
appointees? Naw, they’ll go with the euphemistic lies, as usual.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/03/news/gop.php

Jon Stewart on ProstitutionGate: “It’s Like We Have Got Our Pre-9/11 Boners Back.”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/Media/Play/16903/1/TDS-ProstitutionGate.wmv/

Congressman Lantos on Rice Planned Meeting With Syrian Foreign Minister: Administration
Admits It Was Wrong to Criticize Pelosi –

As a lifelong internationalist, Secretary Rice knows better than most the great value of
face-to-face discussion, even those with whom we strongly disagree. Now the Secretary
will meet with her Syrian counterpart. This is a marked improvement in the
Administration’s ostrich policy approach, and a tacit admission of how wrong it was last
month in criticizing the Speaker of the House and congressional colleagues, including
myself, for going to Damascus. It is infinitely better to confront in a firm but
civilized way those with whom we disagree than simply to give them the silent treatment.”
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/237

If I could pose one question to the Republican presidential candidates showing up for
tonight’s debate, it would be this:

Do you believe there is such a thing as an “acceptable level” of violence?

I would ask this question because just the other day in an interview with Charlie Rose,
the leader of the Republican Party–President George W. Bush–made the case that there is
such a thing as an “acceptable level of violence.”  Well, is there? 

It is my belief–a conviction held widely by a majority of Americans–that the
acceptable level of violence in American life is zero.  Either we have zero violence or
the situation is unacceptable and we are working hard as a society to get to zero.  We
may never reach a level of zero violence, but we certainly will not accept anything short
of zero.

So, given this belief–this principle of zero violence–I would want to know who among
the Republican Presidential candidates also holds that the only acceptable level of
violence.  And if they do agree that the only acceptable level of violence is zero, how
do they explain the position of the leader of their party–the position that there exists-
-in American life and in American policy–an acceptable level of violence?

That is my question to the entire GOP field.  And frankly, if no other question but that
one were to be asked and answered, tonight, the evening would be worthwhile.

To Bush Violence can be “Acceptable”
The somewhat lengthy exchange between Charlie Rose and President Bush on the question of
“violence” went like this:
http://jeffrey-feldman.typepad.com/frameshop/2007/05/frameshop_my_qu.html

GWB: Even though all violence is to be abhorred, nevertheless, there is — you know,
there’s certain violence — levels of violence that people say, “Well gosh, I can go
about my life, I’ve got [unintelligible]“

CR: We can’t create zero violence, is that you are saying

What we see here is an attempt by President Bush to carve out a definition of “success”
in Iraq that will allow him to change his policy despite the fact that the violence in
Iraq has grown steadily worse.
http://jeffrey-feldman.typepad.com/frameshop/2007/05/frameshop_my_qu.html
A Top Leader of the Southern Baptist Convention Endorsed Domestic Terrorism. Shouldn’t
That Be News? 5/4

There have been some big scandals in the church world in recent years. There is the
ongoing Catholic priest pedophilia scandal. The crimes were first enabled and then
covered-up by high ranking church officials like Boston’s Cardinal Law. Then there was
Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals who was paying a male
prostitute for anal sex — while publicly denouncing homosexuality and campaigning
against gay marriage.

And now there is the vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention who publicly
endorsed the assasination of a doctor by a member of an underground terror organization,
who had been on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted List. The first two scandals created
international news, but the third has not; at least not yet. Since Intelligence Report,
the magazine of the Southern Poverty Law Center broke the story, there has been no press
coverage that I can find, except for Ethics Daily;  and only a handful of blog posts,
notably Mainstream Baptist, Big Daddy Weave, Moiv and me.  This merits further discussion.
Rev. Wiley Drake endorsed the murder in signing a declaration of support for confessed
assasin James Kopp on the web site of the Army of God. He has also, as I reported, had a
long time involvement in antiabortion activism among other things, with an AOG leader
named Robert Ferguson.

As I noted in announcing that Rev. Drake had been named Theocrat of the Week, Army of
God member James Kopp shot Dr. Barnett Slepian to death from the woods behind his home
with a high powered rifle fitted with a telescopic sight. Slepian bled to death in front
of his family after having just returned from the synagogue where he said kaddish for his
dead father. Kopp is suspected in four similar shootings in the U.S. and Canada.

What’s more Kopp and his cohort in the Army of God have waged a covert campaign of
bomings, arsons and strategic assasinations while quietly building their movement.
According to Intelligence Report:

In the wake of 9/11 and the anthrax attacks against congress and media outlets; a
convict named Clayton Waagner escaped from federal custody, posted a manifesto on the
Army of God web site and threated to kill employees of abortion providers. Waagner made
clear in his several internet postings that he had lists of clinic workers and would
spare their lives if they quit their jobs. He stole weapons, robbed banks, hijacked and
stole cars for months while on the lam and driving all over the country.  He described
himself as a terrorist. I covered his escapades for Salon.com. But there was little other
national media coverage.Waagner was celebrated by AOG leaders, and soon, Waagner fed-exed
threatening letters in the name of the Army of God to hundreds of clincs and abortion
rights organizations. Each envelope contained white powder and said the person opening it
had  just been exposed to anthrax. In the post 9/11, post real anthrax attacks period,
the responses were dramatic as people were sometimes forced by first responsers to strip
and be sprayed with bleach, among other indignities, and police, fire and hazmat
resources were moblized on massive scales, closing down several city blocks in some
places.

Waagner today is a an AOG “Hero of the Faith,” just like James Kopp. Here is the link to
his AOG home page and a sample of what you will find there:
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/5/2/155843/5848

‘The President Has Effectively Gone AWOL’ Bush is clearly separated from reality,
especially on the Iraq war. His constant contradictions grow troubling, even if you don’t
have an advanced degree in psychiatry. 5/4 Dave Lindorff: Co-Sponsors for Cheney
Impeachment Bill: They Think They Can, They Think They Can –

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=191844

Bush Lied, Soldiers Keep Dying.
3,357 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq
385 U.S. Military Fatalities in Afghanistan
24,912 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (source: DoD Update as of April 25, 2007)
68,796 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: Iraq Body Count)
655,000 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: The Lancet)

May 4, 2007

Yet Again, George W. Bush is the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week: “There’s no
placating a narcissistic sociopath like Bush. You just need to yank the matches out of
his hand and take him away from the gasoline he has spilled all over the carpet.”

Bush, who is now calling himself “the commander guy,” has made it clear that he is
opposed to timelines, and even benchmarks (even though the benchmarks his administration
set up a long time ago were never met, but the media has forgotten that they even existed
by now.)
But Nancy Pelosi reminded us that Bush was critical of Clinton for not setting up
timelines: “Yet in 1999, on June 5, then-Governor Bush said about President Clinton, ‘I
think it’s important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be
involved and when they would be withdrawn.’”

A timeline is required for Democratic presidents, but not for Republicans? Given that
tens of thousands of Iraqis and Americans are dying for this hypocrisy, it merits more
than passing notice.
He doesn’t need a war-funding bill; he needs an intervention. The Constitution provides
for such a contingency. It’s called impeachment.

This is not a typical titillating GOP hypocrisy. It’s a mortal sin.
http://gophypocrites.com/2007/05/hyp07018.html

Look at this photo and see another victim of the madness of King George. Look at this
photo of Katie Soenksen, of Davenport, Iowa, and ask yourself how much longer we can
allow young women like Katie to die for the delusions of Bush and Cheney? She would be
alive today except for a war without mission, hope or rational leadership.

Daughter’s death in Iraq hits Davenport family “pretty hard”

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070503/NEWS/70503049/1001/NEWS03

In GOP “Debate,” Men of Blind Ambition Sign on to Bush’s Death Warrant on Our Troops and
Decide that Abortion is the Most Pressing Issue of the Day. What Cretins! 5/4

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070504/ap_on_el_pr/republicans_debate;_ylt=AvgM.jTa1pOi4YNx3
mgT5tWs0NUE

Sens. Clinton, D-N.Y., and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., announced they would introduce
legislation that would require the president to seek a reauthorization from Congress to
extend the military effort in Iraq beyond October 11, 2007.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070503/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_iraq;_ylt=AvGeoEnEcWAdH76FRVosRSn
MWM0F
=xx=x=
x=x=x=x=

NASA Science News for May 4, 2007
NASA-supported scientists and engineers have successfully tested a methane-powered
rocket engine. The firing was not only remarkably beautiful (a must-see movie is featured
in today’s story) but also may herald a new type of spacecraft that one day roams the
outer solar system gathering fuel from planets and moons that it visits.

FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/04may_methaneblast.htm?list169474

G.Ho.St
G.ho.st is a free Virtual Computer (VC) that runs in any Internet browser and acts like
a regular PC. But unlike your PC, your VC (including your data and apps) are accessible
from any browser in the world and are always backed up, up-to-date and secured.
http://g.ho.st/

Startup Delayer
Speed up your computer’s startup process! When Windows loads its Startup file, it
attempts to load every program in there at the same time. Therefore if you have quite a
lot of programs starting when Windows starts, each program will try and grab CPU time so
that it can load. If each program tries to do this at the same time, you soon notice the
slow down that occurs, due to your CPU trying to help all the programs to load, and your
hard disk accessing multiple files. Startup Delayer allows you to setup how many seconds
after Windows has started, to load each program.
http://www.r2.com.au

=x=x=
=xx=x==x

US troops admit abusing Iraqis

Almost one in ten US combat troops deployed in Iraq have mistreated a civilian,
according to a new survey conducted by an army mental health advisory team.
The report, released on Friday, also found that less than half of the soldiers and
marines surveyed would report a fellow serviceman for killing or injuring an innocent
Iraqi.
 
Soldiers with high levels of anger, who had experienced high levels of combat or who
screened positive for mental health symptoms were nearly twice as likely to mistreat
noncombatants,” Major General Gale Pollock, the acting army surgeon general, told
reporters at a press conference.
 

The most common mistreatment reported by soldiers and marines was that of insulting non-
combatants in their presence, the report said

The survey showed that 55 per cent of US army soldiers, and only 40 per cent of marines,
would report a fellow serviceman for killing or injuring an innocent non-combatant.
 
The survey, which shows increasing rates of mental health problems for troops on
extended or multiple deployments in Iraq, was the first to include questions on ethics
and ethical training.
 
As such, the report stresses the findings cannot be compared “with any other group of
military personnel”.

Torture
More than a third of the 1,320 soldiers and 447 marines surveyed said that torture
should be allowed to save the life of a fellow soldier or marine, while almost 38 per
cent said torture should be allowed in order to gather “important information about
insurgents”.

The survey showed only 47 per cent of soldiers and 38 per cent of marines agreed that
non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect.
US operations in Iraq have been dogged by claims of mistreatment of Iraqi detainees and
civilians, including revelations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 and reports of the
killing of 24 Iraqi civilians by Marines in Haditha in November 19, 2005.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C0C73A30-3BE5-4F67-B9F7-829B9F188506.htm

White House 2008: Presidential Events Calendar
http://www.missouridems.org/whitehouse2008/events.asp

Who supports hate?

http://ga3.org/campaign/hatecrimes_supporters/wss68un493j637e?

Global Warming: Misinformation Action Center

http://mediamatters.org/action_center/global_warming/

Hillary Blasts ‘Mission Accomplished’ Quote

Democratic presidential candidates made a point of reminding voters that Tuesday was the
fourth anniversary of President Bush’s speech declaring an end to major combat in Iraq.

“One of the most shameful episodes in American history,” Hillary Rodham Clinton’s
campaign Web site read in bold type below a photo of Bush standing on the aircraft
carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in front of a sign that read “Mission Accomplished.”

“Never before has a president pulled a political stunt when so many American lives were
and remain in harm’s way,” the New York senator and former first lady said in a
statement. She said the war “will stand as one of the darkest blots on leadership we’ve
ever had in our nation’s history.”

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/5/2/83752.shtml?s=sp&promo_code=337E-1

Reagan Feared Armageddon Was Near
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/5/1/215939.shtml?s=sp&promo_code=337E-1

Clinton Proposes Vote to Reverse Authorizing War

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/washington/04cong.html?th&emc=th

Family Values, Betrayed
When George W. Bush was running for president in 2000 as a new kind of Republican — the
caring kind — he had a ready answer for those skeptical of his moderate views on
immigration. “Family values do not stop at the Rio Grande,” he said, again and again. He
was standing up for immigrants who come here seeking better lives for their children, and
he repeated the message so often that it stuck.

Now, like so much else in Mr. Bush’s tattered slogan file, it’s in danger of coming
unstuck. Negotiators struggling to draft an immigration bill in Washington are being
pressured by the White House and Republican leaders to gut the provisions of the law that
promote the unity of immigrant families in favor of strictly employment-based programs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/opinion/04fri1.html?th&emc=th

The powerful have invoked God at their side in this war, so that we will accept their
power and our weakness as something that has been established by divine plan. But there
is no god behind this war other than the god of money, nor any right other than the
desire for death and destruction. Today there is a “NO” which shall weaken the powerful
and strengthen the weak: the “NO” to war.: Subcomandante Marcos – Source: No to war,
2/16/03
Patriotism in its simplest, clearest and most indubitable signification is nothing else
but a means of obtaining for the rulers their ambitions and covetous desires, and for the
ruled the abdication of human dignity, reason, conscience, and a slavish enthralment to
those in power. Leo Toystoy
Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America’s War On Iraq – At Least 655,000 + +
http://tinyurl.com/usq4x
 
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’sWar
On Iraq 3,355
http://icasualties.org/oif/
 
The War in Iraq Costs
$422,486,495,189
 
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
 

A World Turned Upside Down
By Michael Bell
The former chairman of the fund for Iraq’s reconstruction no longer believes the country
can be saved.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17639.htm
The Crusaders
“The Christian Taliban is Running the Department of Defense”
By Robert Koehler
 
Can you imagine a contingent of religious zealots, with their contempt for secular
values (and such manifestations of secular order as the U.S. Constitution) – and with
their zest for holy war – in control of the most potent fighting force and weaponry in
human history? Is this possible?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17642.htm

Olmert Undone By The Militia He Said He Could Destroy
By Robert Fisk:
So it has come to this. All those bodies, all those photographs of dead children – more
than 1,400 cadavers (we are not including the 230 or so Hizbollah fighters and the
Israeli soldiers who died) – are to be commemorated with the possible resignation of an
Israeli prime minister who knew, and who cared, many Israelis suspect, little about war.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17638.htm
 
Insurgents ‘right to take on US’ :
 
Insurgents in Iraq are right to try to force US troops out of the country, a former
British army commander has said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6618075.stm

Democrats Back Down On Iraq Timetable
President Bush and congressional leaders began negotiating a second war funding bill
yesterday, with Democrats offering the first major concession: an agreement to drop their
demand for a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq.
http://snipurl.com/1j93h
Iraq’s civilian toll grows:
The recent upsurge in violence continued to exact a heavy toll on Iraqi civilians
Tuesday, while members of the national parliament said they moved a step closer to voting
on a controversial bill to equitably distribute oil revenue.
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes978.html
Convert or die: Baghdad Christians flee :
According to the local Christian Peace Association (CPA), the fatwa, issued by
extremists and distributed in every Christian neighbourhood, said that Christians can
only stay in their homes if they convert to Islam.
http://snipurl.com/1j922

Report Shows Increased U.S. Military Spending Slows Economy:
 
The report, presenting the results of a simulation from the economic forecasting company
Global Insight, shows the increased level of military spending leads to fewer jobs and
slower economic growth.
http://snipurl.com/1j923
 
U.S. may be keeping tactical nukes at Kyrgyz airbase to attack Iran :
 
The U.S. might be keeping low-yield nuclear weapons at its airbase in Kyrgyzstan’s Manas
for possible use against Iran’s nuclear facilities, a Kyrgyz special service expert told
Interfax on condition of anonymity.
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11725853
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.:
William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has
been given a large brain by mistake, science for him the spinal cord would fully suffice.
This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command,
senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this,
how despicable an ignorable war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so
base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an
act of murder.” : Albert Einstein
Big money and big business, corporations and commerce, are again the undisputed
overlords of politics and government. The White House, the Congress and, increasingly,
the judiciary, reflect their interests. We appear to have a government run by remote
control from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and
the American Petroleum Institute. To hell with everyone else: Bill Moyers – PBS
Commentator

One Day You’re Gonna Wake Up, America.
 
By David Michael Green
One day you’re gonna wake up in a hostile world where your country no longer has any
friends. There will be governments of other countries – former long-standing allies -
that cannot afford to have anything to do with you, lest their publics angrily remove
them from office for collaborating with a country as hated as yours. Nor will those
governments trust yours anyway.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17651.htm
Iraqi Lawmakers Demand U.S. Withdrawal
 
By United Press International
 
Some 133 Iraqi lawmakers from different political blocs, calling themselves the “free
deputies,” signed a document demanding a scheduled withdrawal of the U.S.-led
multinational troops from their country, according to the Sadrist bloc in Parliament.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17644.htm

Iraqis Fear Security Forces More Than Insurgents
 
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
 
“Be careful,” warned a senior Iraqi government official living in the Green Zone in
Baghdad, “be very careful and above all do not trust the police or the army.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17645.htm

The man who might save Iraq:
He is a former Sunni Arab mujahid from Ramadi who until recently was fighting the US
occupation. He has only a secondary education and is married with two wives. Now he is
praised even by urban, secular, highly educated Shi’ites as a “conscious man”, or “the
kind of man we need now in Iraq”.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IE05Ak01.html
 
Coalition should ‘admit defeat and leave Iraq’ :
 
General Sir Michael Rose also said he understood why insurgents were attacking coalition
forces and said he believed they were right to try and force invading troops out of the
country.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17646.htm

Weapons of Mass Deception:
 
I watched with a growing sense of horror and disbelief as my badly frightened countrymen
convinced themselves that they had a real leader in the White House, one they could count
on and trust to make them safe again.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/03/941/

Victory vital in Iraq : US Republican hopefuls:
 
A packed field of Republican White House hopefuls vowed to pursue victory in Iraq and
castigated anti-war Democrats Thursday, in their first head-to-head showdown of the 2008
campaign.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=174464

Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel : Get Out!: 2 Minute Video:
“Do you know what’s worse than a soldier dying in vain? It’s more soldiers dying in vain”
http://snipurl.com/1jdmb

Justin Raimondo : America’s Coming Dictatorship :
 
The theory and practice of oligarchical “conservatism”
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10911

Health Care System Puts Troops at Risk:
 
The military is putting already-strained troops at greater risk of mental health
problems because of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, a Pentagon panel said
Thursday in warning of an overburdened health system.
http://snipurl.com/1jcig
 
Greg Palast: Hillary’s Mother-F’ing Tour Business:

Read an official biography of the Senator and you’ll find her six-month stint on a child-
protection task force. Yet you won’t find her SIX YEARS on the board of directors of Wal-
Mart Corporation. -I t takes a Governor’s wife to provide cover for Wal-Mart’s
profiteering off systematic wage-enslavement of children in its factories in South
America.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17649.htm
 
China ‘Frankenstein threat’ to US :
China has come in for heavy criticism from members of the US House of Representatives
with one congressman labelling the country a “Frankenstein” created by the US that now
threatens American interests.
http://snipurl.com/1jdmq
 
Blair’s Labour Battered in UK Elections:
Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour Party suffered a string of embarrassing defeats in
elections – including in Scotland, where the party lost for the first time in a half-
century – in what appeared Friday to be a final rebuke to the outgoing leader.
http://snipurl.com/1jdna
Oil company accused of dumping waste in Amazon:
A US oil company has been accused of contaminating an area of the Peruvian Amazon where
it and its successor company have drilled for oil for the past 32 years, creating misery
for the local Achuar people and widespread lead and cadmium poisoning.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2510907.ece

GM Quarterly Profit Plunges 90% on Mortgage Losse:
 
General Motors Corp. said first-quarter profit plunged 90 percent, dragged down by bad
loans at the GMAC LLC finance unit and continued automotive losses in North America.
http://snipurl.com/1jdmw

Colbert Explains “Doobies” to Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA)
 In the 46th installment of his 434-part “Better Know a District” series, Stephen
profiled Republican Representative Tom Davis of Virginia’s 11th district Thursday night.
Davis says he’s a big fan of the Doobie Brothers, but doesn’t know what a “doobie” is, so
Stephen tries to explain it to him.

Wiki provides some “fun” facts about Rep. Davis:
As Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, he issued 1052
subpoenas for the Clinton administration. He also removed the “Oversight” title, which
Waxman promptly reinstated upon taking over in January.

He was aware of the substandard conditions at Walter Reed in 2004, but didn’t hold
hearings because he didn’t want to “embarass” the Army by publicizing the issue.

During the Schiavo contorversy, he issued a subpoena that ordered the appearance of
Terry, her husband, Michael, and her doctors
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/04/colbert-explains-doobies-to-rep-tom-davis-r-va/

Jeff Gannon spokesman for the International Bible Reading Association
Organizers put out 600 folding chairs on the lawn — the spot where presidents are
inaugurated — and set up a huge stage with powerful amplifiers. But at 9:30 a.m.
yesterday, not one of the 600 seats was occupied. By 11 a.m., as a woman read a passage
from Revelations, attendance had grown — to four people. Finally, at 1 p.m., 37 of the
600 seats were occupied, though many of those people were tourists eating lunch.

Where was everybody? “”This isn’t that kind of event,” explained Jeff Gannon, spokesman
for the host, the International Bible Reading Association. Gannon, actually a pseudonym
for James Guckert, had earned fame in 2005 representing a conservative Web site at White
House briefings until it was revealed that he posted nude pictures of himself on the Web
to offer his services as a $200-an-hour gay escort.

Let us pray for the power to understand how Gannon made his way from HotMilitaryStud.com
to the International Bible Reading Association…read on

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/04/jeff-gannon-spokesman-for-the-international-
bible-reading-association/

Fact-Checking the Republican Debate
David Shuster’s truth squad vetted last night’s GOP debate. Romney makes up facts about
Bush 41, Rudy contradicts himself on abortion, Duncan Hunter inaccurately blames Clinton
and Tommy Thompson underestimates Iraq casualties — by about 20,000.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/04/fact-checking-the-republican-debate/

The NRA has got to be kidding me

This is a joke, right? OK, I was being snarky…
The National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its support
of a bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms. Backed by the
Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block
gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects.

In a letter this week to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, NRA executive director Chris
Cox said the bill, offered last week by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., “would allow
arbitrary denial of Second Amendment rights based on mere ’suspicions’ of a terrorist
threat.”…read on

Sure, just load everybody up with guns. Mental patients, McVeighians, Koreshians,
Rudolph-anti-abortionists and terrorists….Derbyshire might say that as long as enough of
us are armed too than it wouldn’t matter much just as long as Americans didn’t act
cowardly and all
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/04/the-nra-has-got-to-be-kidding-me/
Study Proves Bill O’Reilly Nothing More Than Fifth Grade Bully
By: Nicole Belle on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 2:18 PM – PDT   The Big Giant Head touts
his show as the “No Spin Zone.”  Apparently no spin means resorting to name-calling every
7 seconds.  Indiana University media researchers went through the torturous exercise of
actually watching The O’Reilly Factor for six months to see exactly how O’Reilly filled
in his daily hour of airtime.  Their conclusions?

The IU researchers found that O’Reilly called a person or a group a derogatory name once
every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials
that open his program each night.

“It’s obvious he’s very big into calling people names, and he’s very big into glittering
generalities,” said Mike Conway, assistant professor in the IU School of Journalism.
“He’s not very subtle. He’s going to call people names, or he’s going to paint something
in a positive way, often without any real evidence to support that viewpoint.”[..]

Using analysis techniques first developed in the 1930s by the Institute for Propaganda
Analysis, Conway, Grabe and Grieves found that O’Reilly employed six of the seven
propaganda devices nearly 13 times each minute in his editorials. His editorials also are
presented on his Web site and in his newspaper columns.

The scariest notion?  That according to the 2005 Annenberg Public Policy Center survey,
40 percent of respondents considered O’Reilly to be a journalist. 

O’Reilly’s pathetic response?  It’s all George Soros’s fault. No, seriously
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/04/study-proves-bill-oreilly-nothing-more-than-
fifth-grade-bully/

Tommy Thompson: I Support Sexual Orientation-Based Firings
Is anyone as outraged about this as I am? Too bad the entire bunch wasn’t asked this
question. I’m interested to see who would have given the “wrong” answer (Hell No! That’s
discrimination) or the “right” answer (screw the gays). Sadly, this is what the
Republican party has become: the party of discrimination and rabid right-wing appeasers.

These are the same people who forty years ago would have said it’s OK to fire someone
based on their sex or on the color of their skin. Good thing we have laws outlawing that
kind of stuff now. When this country gets around to treating everyone as equals, this
clip will be a fabulous reminder of the bigots and Pat Robertson Republican party of the
early 21st century.

UPDATE: Thompson has since corrected himself, saying he “misinterpreted” the question
and sexual orientation-based discrimination has “never been [his] position.” Man that was
quick. At least it was a flip-flop in the right direction. It should go without saying
that I don’t buy his “misinterpreted” excuse — watch the video: he took a moment to
process the question, then qualified his answer at the end by saying flat “yes.” As TP
notes:

Maybe Thompson’s still under the weather. Last month, he blamed his statement that Jews
have a “tradition” of “earning money” on “fatigue and a persistent cold .”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/04/tommy-thompson-i-support-sexual-orientation-
based-firings/

GOP Flip Flops On Hate Crime Bill
Steny Hoyer and John Conyers just pulled a fast one on the GOP. The GOP has been
refusing to support the hate crimes bill because it doesn’t include members of the US
Armed Forces and senior citizens. Conyers just rose and basically said, okay, I’ll add
them. The Republicans’ response? Uh, no.

The Republicans have been railing for days about how this legislation doesn’t cover our
Armed Forces and senior citizens, and now that the Dems offer to put our Armed Forces and
seniors in this legislation, the Republicans said no and affirmatively stopped the
Democrats from doing it anyway.

That means the Republicans had no intent on helping our Armed Forces and seniors, on
protecting them. It was just a stunt. The GOP leaders in Congress just got up and used
our Armed Forces and seniors as political fodder when they had no intent on actually
doing anything to help our Armed Forces and seniors.

The bill did eventually pass, although President Bush has vowed to veto this
legislation. Let’s look at this: inadequate equipment, extended tours, Walter Reed, no
armor, and now he won’t sign legislation against hate crimes that supports the troops.
What up, Mr. President?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/04/gop-flip-flops-on-hate-crime-bill/

Daily Show: Time to Rename the Iraq Timetables
Jon Stewart has a great idea for how to get Bush and the Republicans to agree on
timetables for withdrawal from Iraq — rename them “glory goals!” Who can disagree with
“glory goals?!”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/04/daily-show-time-to-rename-the-iraq-timetables/

Who Doesn’t Believe in Evolution?
That’s Brownback, Tancredo and Huckabee with their hands up.)
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/03/who-doesnt-believe-in-evolution/

GOP Debate: Ron Paul Speaks Truth About Iraq And Conservative Values
RNC talking points rule the day so far in the Republican Presidential Candidate Debate
on MSNBC – with the exception of Ron Paul (R-TX).  Paul talked about true conservative
values, all of which run counter to the current reincarnation of the Republican Party.
Notice they made sure that the name Ronald Reagan is in plain view behind each candidate.
If they’re hoping some of his mojo will rub off on one or more of these candidates, I
think they will be sorely dissapointed.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/03/gop-debate-ron-paul-speaks-truth-about-iraq-and-
conservative-values/

Colbert Explains Why We Need To Detain and Torture Some Innocent People
Stephen devoted last night’s WØRD to defending Congressman Dana Rohrbacher’s (R-CA)
assertion that capturing, detaining and torturing some innocent people is necessary to
keep us safe.
It’s very nice for Rohrbacher to say “I hope it’s your families that suffer,” no? Must
be that “compassionate conservatism” we’re always hearing about.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/03/colbert-explains-why-we-need-to-detain-and-
torture-some-innocent-people/

Republican Debate Open Thread
Remember, these are the C&L-submitted questions:
Should the President have power to imprison U.S. citizens without charging them with a
crime and without providing them a judicial forum in which they can contest the
accusations against them, as the Bush administration did to American Jose Padilla?

Do you think the process of waterboarding — where the U.S. takes prisoners, straps them
to a chair, and pours water on their face so they are in terror of drowning to death — is
a practice consistent with America’s moral credibility in the world?

 recent worldwide poll showed that under the Bush presidency, America has become the
third most unpopular country in the world — right behind Iran and just ahead of North
Korea. Why do you believe that has happened?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/03/republican-debate-open-thread/

For fun, you can play “Conservative Failure Buzzword Bingo”
http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/conservative_failure_buzzword_bingo

Did it involve a bathtub by any chance?

Maybe this explains why Fox News was so quick to dismiss the DC Madam case
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/3/1762/68685

You tell’em, Speaker Pelosi

Today, the President faces consequences of his own making.  This is the seventh
supplemental for the war in Iraq.  Certainly, somebody was planning something at the
White House and could have put, over the years, the funding necessary for this war into
the budget. Instead the President did not do that. I don’t know why, maybe they don’t
want the American people to see the real cost of this war in dollars. Certainly, we know
the price that we have paid more seriously, in lives, in health, in reputation, in the
readiness of our military and in probably two trillion dollars now for this war.  
 Point by point, she hits it out of the park.

Again, I ask you, please contact your representatives in the House and Senate . Tell
them you do not support any concessions.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/03/you-tellem-speaker-pelosi/

Daily Show: D.C. Metro Area Prostitution Gate

Jon Stewart runs through the media coverage of the burgeoning DC sex scandal

“By the way, Tobias had been running the Bush administration’s global AIDS prevention
program which emphasized abstinence, because there is nothing the administration can do
that is not ironic.”

Of course the slavishly loyal Sean Hannity is already excusing the scandal away, which
tells me there are some Republicans involved. If it was the Clinton White House that was
implicated in the scandal (like the Bushies have been), I would bet my car that he and
FOX News would obsess about it for the next two years. But that’s just stating the
obvious.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/03/daily-show-dc-metro-area-prostitution-gate/

Bush and the Internets

After a speech to the Associated General Contractors of America, a Bush backer asked the
president, “I would like to know why and what can be done about we, the American people,
receiving some of that [positive] information [from Iraq] from the media.” Bush
emphasized online communication.

“You’ve got a kid in Iraq who is emailing mom daily, talking about the realities of what
he or she sees. Information is moving — you know, nightly news is one way, of course, but
it’s also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets. It’s amazing how many
emails I see from people that are writing in what they think and what they hear.”

First, yes, he really said “Internets.”
Second, Bush probably shouldn’t talk up the troops’ blogs since the Pentagon just
announced a new policy cracking down on milbloggers.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/03/bush-and-the-internets/

 5/5/2007
St. Vincent faculty criticize President Bush in open letter
The Associated Press
LATROBE, Pa. – Faculty members at St. Vincent College criticized President Bush’s
international and domestic policies in an open letter released the week before the
president’s commencement address at the Roman Catholic liberal arts school.

The letter was signed by 29 current and former faculty members, including several
department heads and monks at the school. The college about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh
is run by a Benedictine archabbey.

Bush is scheduled to deliver the commencement address on May 11.

The letter, sent to the news media on Thursday, said the Iraq war runs afoul of Catholic
“just war” teachings.

Bush’s social policies “protect the privileges of rich and powerful Americans” at the
expense of the poor, the letter said.

“(Y)our pre-emptive, unprovoked war in Iraq has lead to the deaths of thousands of
American service personnel and tens of thousands of Iraqi children, women, and men. It
threatens to spread beyond Iraq’s borders and endanger others as well,” the letter said.

The letter criticizes Bush’s environmental policies and accuses him of stifling debate
on various issues through “fear mongering and threats.”

The letter said Bush will be welcomed, but that the faculty hope those who want to
protest that visit will be welcomed to campus, too.

“We honor their witnessing to that sacred Catholic heritage of peace and justice, and
hope that the college will not turn them away on May 11th as they too knock at our door,”
the letter said.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-05042007-1341250.html

Clinton: Revoke president’s war powers
WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Thursday that she’s joining forces
with one of the Senate’s most skilled parliamentary infighters to try to rescind
President Bush’s authority to wage war.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-03-clinton-war-powers_N.htm?csp=34

ANIMATED POLITICAL CARTOONS by Walt Handelsman
http://cagle.com/news/Handelsman/
How Rove Shaped Testimony on Prosecutor Firings; Telling the Truth Requires No Coaching,
All the More Reason to Get Rove’s E-mails, Find out what he did, and bring him to justice.

Thursday 03 May 2007
Two months ago, he helped coach Justice Department officials on how to testify about the
US attorneys’ firings. Was that a harmless part of his job, or an inappropriate attempt
to mislead Congress?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050407A.shtml

The infamous Jeff Gannon aka James Guckert, the gay escort turned conservative blogger,
is now the spokesman for the International Bible Reading Association. As Dana Milbank of
the Washington Post put it: ‘Let us pray for the power to understand how Gannon made his
way from HotMilitaryStud.com to the International Bible Reading Association.’ Amen.

Dozens of Heads Were Bowed

Let us pray that, on next year’s National Day of Prayer, there is better attendance at
the “Bible Reading Marathon” on the West Front of the Capitol.

Organizers put out 600 folding chairs on the lawn — the spot where presidents are
inaugurated — and set up a huge stage with powerful amplifiers. But at 9:30 a.m.
yesterday, not one of the 600 seats was occupied. By 11 a.m., as a woman read a passage
from Revelations, attendance had grown — to four people. Finally, at 1 p.m., 37 of the
600 seats were occupied, though many of those people were tourists eating lunch.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302170.html
Hypocrite alert! Many-times-married Giuliani changes mind, now opposes New Hampshire
civil unions. What’s good for the goose that is into ganders is good for all the flock.
http://woubiyossi.tribe.net/thread/f981f6e4-ad09-47a7-88f7-2de399dba82a#a1a8a65c-7d2b-
4034-9348-ddfdf95e349c

Will Fred Thompson’s racist role have political repercussions? On an episode of
“Wiseguy,” Thompson played a white supremacist, spewing anti-Semitic comments and
fondling an autographed copy of “Mein Kampf” He isn’t that good an actor. 5/5

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/celebrity/la-et-cause4may04,0,7619805.story

Bush’s deputy security adviser resigns

WASHINGTON – Public support for the        Iraq war is low. Lawmakers are battling the
White House over money to pay for the combat. Suicide bombings continue in Baghdad

Despite it all, J.D. Crouch, who is stepping down from his national security post at the
White House, is confident history will prove that invading Iraq was the right thing to do.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070504/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_adviser_exits

Outrageous to those who have suffered through the Iraq War; The Iraq War isn’t
comparable to baseball, not even a Cubs-Cardinals matchup; Republican Congressman John
Shimkus (R-IL) made that comparison on the House floor. The game is over, there are no
winners or losers. The lights are out, let’s go home. 5/5

Shimkus’ Cards-Cubs analogy to Iraq war strikes out, critics say
By Adam Sichko

WASHINGTON — Rep. John Shimkus likened the Iraq war to a baseball game Wednesday, but
his analogy drew few fans and a chorus of boos.

“Imagine my beloved St. Louis Cardinals are playing the much-despised Chicago Cubs,”
Shimkus, R-Collinsville, began in a speech on the House floor.

In his brief but impassioned oratory, Shimkus argued that the Democratic bill calling
for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq was like the Cardinals abandoning the
ballpark during a tied, extra-inning game.

“Who wins? We know it’s the team that stays on the field,”

His remarks brought rebukes from furious Internet bloggers and a demand from the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and others to apologize. A Democratic-leaning
veterans group vowed to remind Southern

Illinois voters of his comments in the next election.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/F88BA1D5099A7AB4862572D000
0E4308?OpenDocument

Unemployment edged upward in April and job creation fell to the lowest pace in two
years, an expected sign that slow economic growth is starting to take a toll on the
country’s labor market. Does Bush even care? 5/5
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/04/AR2007050400642.html

Bush Lied, Soldiers Keep Dying.
3,363 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq
386 U.S. Military Fatalities in Afghanistan
25,090 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (source: DoD Update as of May 2, 2007)
68,832 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: Iraq Body Count)
655,000 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: The Lancet)

May 5, 2007

Bush: I’ll Veto Any Pro-Choice Bill, Because I’m Only “Pro-Life” When It Comes to
Appeasing the Right Wingers on Abortion. Otherwise, I’m Just a Pro-Death Sort of Guy

 Bush vows to veto abortion-rights bills
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bush_abortion;_ylt=Ar0Camlxbycl.kIqFzjsEr6s0NUE

GOP convention papers ordered opened
NEW YORK – The city cannot prevent the public from seeing documents describing
intelligence that police gathered to help them create policies for arrests at the 2004
Republican National Convention, a judge said Friday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV made the ruling regarding documents about
information the New York Police Department says it used.

The city had contended that the documents should remain confidential, saying opening
them would jeopardize the city’s rights to a fair trial. Lawsuits allege that the city
violated constitutional rights when it arrested more than 1,800 people at the convention.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070505/ap_on_re_us/convention_arrests;_ylt=AnNpyzwEB.ha9y7kD
kp0HjjMWM0F

BBC: “Despair stalks Baghdad as plan falters”

Trying to get into the centre of Baghdad earlier this week offered one view of how far
away the Americans and Iraqi authorities are from gaining control here.

We were at the airport. Just before we were due to leave, the entrance car park was hit
by a car bomb.

US troops and private security forces who guard the perimeter locked the whole area down
for the next four hours. No traffic was allowed in or out.

While we waited with scores of other vehicles, mortars were fired at the airport.
Fortunately for us they landed on the other side of the runway, plumes of smoke shooting
into the air.

You won’t have heard about any of this because at the same time a series of other far
more serious attacks was taking place.

One was at the Sadriya market in the city centre, where a massive car bomb killed more
than 140 people

It was placed at the entrance to a set of barriers put up around another part of the
market where a previous single bomb, in February, claimed more than 130 lives.

The market blast “did not penetrate the emplaced barriers” a later US military press
release helpfully pointed out, ignoring the fact that the bombers had yet again adapted
their tactics with vicious perfection – setting off their device at the point where
crowds congregated outside and at the very moment when they were busiest.

Bombers ‘organised’
As we drove into the city, we counted six blast holes left by recent roadside bombs
along just one 100-metre stretch of road.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6575717.stm

NRA: Terror Suspects Have Gun Rights, Too. No, We’re Not Making This Up. It’s a CBS News
Headline.

Group Says Banning Gun Sales To Suspected Terrorists Infringes On Civil Liberties

(AP) The National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its
support of a bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/04/national/main2762113.shtml

May 2, 2007
Nelson Report: Bush, reduced to “bunker mentality,” rants to big money supporters about
being misunderstood

I doubt President Bush is drinking again (although with him, anything is possible). That
being said Bush probably feels like he is living in a pressure cooker (one of his own
making, I hasten to add). And it appears he is not happy with it!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seanpaul-kelley/bush-in-the-bunker_b_47328.html

Generals react to veto: You’ve failed us, Mr. President…

Today, two retired Generals who led troops in Iraq expressed outrage at the President’s
veto of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health, and Iraq Accountability Act.

–Maj. Gen. John Batiste, USA, Ret.

5 1 2007
Broder Tells ‘E&P’ That He Stands by His Blast at Harry Reid
Rich, of The New York Times and New York Times News Service, wrote that Broder “is
leading the charge in ridiculing Harry Reid for saying the obvious — that ‘this war is
lost’ (as it is militarily, unless we stay in perpetuity and draft many more troops).”

And, as E&P reported last Thursday Begala wondered on HuffingtonPost.com why Broder
seemed more upset with Reid than with the way the Bush administration “continues to lie”
about the Iraq War; “neglected our wounded warriors”; “ignored the victims of Katrina”;
“potentially obstructed justice by firing U.S. Attorneys who were pursuing GOP
wrongdoing”; and more.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003578260

Another Historic Step On Impeachment
Sparked by an insurgency among delegates, the California Democratic Party has taken an
historic step forward on the issue of impeachment. In a resolution affirmed by the full
state party convention Sunday, the Democrats called on the U.S. Congress to use its
subpoena power to investigate misdeeds of President Bush and Vice President Cheney – and
to hold the Administration accountable “with appropriate remedies and punishment,
including impeachment.” The delegate insurgency was coordinated by Progressive Democrats
of America and its allies.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/235

Ray McGovern: Sorry They’ve Been So Mean To You, George. Plus a Letter from Six Former
CIA Officers Five Other ex-CIA Officers “calling their former boss ‘the Alberto Gonzales
of the intelligence community,’ and describing his book as an ‘admission of failed
leadership.’” –

Reluctant Scapegoat
George’s concern over being scapegoated is understandable. But could he not have seen it
coming? Not even when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asked him in the fall of
2002 whether he had created a system for tracking how good the intelligence was compared
with what would be actually found in Iraq? The folks I know from Queens usually can tell
when they’re being set up. Maybe Tenet was naive enough to believe that his friend the
president (“President Bush and I are much alike,” he writes) would protect him from the
likes of Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney even when – as was inevitable – someone would
have to take the fall. Or did George actually believe Cheney’s insight that U.S. forces
would be greeted in Iraq as liberators, and at that point, the absence of the weapons of
mass destruction would not matter?

Now George is worried about his reputation. He told 60 Minutes:

“At the end of the day, the only thing you have… is your reputation built on trust and
your personal honor, and when you don’t have that anymore, well, there you go.”

I immediately thought back to former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s response when he
was asked if he regretted the lies he told at the UN on Feb. 5, 2003. Powell said he
regretted that speech because it was “a blot on my record.”

So we’ve got ruined reputations and blots on records. Poor boys. What about the 3,344
American soldiers already killed in a war that could not have happened had not these poor
fellows deliberately distorted the evidence and led the cheering for war. What about the
more than 50,000 troops wounded, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi
civilians whose deaths can be attributed directly to the invasion and its aftermath.
There are blots, and there are blots. Why is it that Tenet and Powell seem to inhabit a
different planet?

Defending Torture…Again
Hewing to the George W. Bush dictum of “catapulting the propaganda” by endlessly
repeating the same claim (the formula used so successfully by Joseph Goebbels), Tenet
manages to tell 60 Minutes five times in five consecutive sentences: “We don’t torture
people.” Like President Bush, however, he then goes on to show why it has been absolutely
necessary to torture people. Do they take us for fools? And Tenet’s claims of success in
extracting information via torture are no more deserving of credulity than the rest of
what he says.

His own credibility aside, Tenet has succeeded in destroying the asset without which an
intelligence community cannot be effective and informed policymaking is at grave risk -
trustworthiness. That is serious. He seems blissfully oblivious to the damage he has done
- aware only of the damage he accuses others of doing to his “personal honor.”
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/969

How Tobias, Bush Administration Tortured Africa With Abstinence; Did They Get Taught
about Massages from Escorts? 5/1

There’s much good fun to be made with the recent resignation of USAID Director Randall
Tobias, in the latest DC sex scandal:

But, behind the scandal lies the horrifying effects, of the religiously charged ideology
Tobias has helped to inject into US foreign aid programs, on Africa’s poor…

Since the early days of the Bush Administration, Randall Tobias played a significant
role infusing Christian right ideology into US international programs providing sexual
education, HIV/AIDS prevention, and family planning: the body count, in the end, may be
considerable. But don’t worry, the dead won’t be American.
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/4/30/152526/666

DC Madam: Stay Tuned to ABC
By Paul Kiel – April 30, 2007, 11:54 AM
Speaking outside after a court hearing this morning, the D.C. Madam, Jeane Palfrey, says
she expects ABC News to track down more clients of her firm, who she says will serve as
“potential witnesses for my defense.”

So who’s up next? ABC News — where Brian Ross and TPM alum Justin Rood are on the case -
- has Palfrey’s phone records for the past four years. This morning, they report that
“also on Palfrey’s list of customers who could be potential witnesses are a Bush
administration economist, the head of a conservative think tank, a prominent CEO, several
lobbyists and a handful of military officials.”

Expect some of that to come out this Friday, during Palfrey’s star turn on 20/20.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003119.php

Cheat Sheet to George Tenet’s Memoir:
Dick, Condi and Plenty of Bull*&$!

On Friday, we got a sneak peek at the new memoir by former CIA director George Tenet,
“At the Center of the Storm.”
But it also contains some new revelations about the War on Terror and the behavior of
its main players:

“They sought to create a connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks that would have
made WMD, the United Nations, and the international community absolutely irrelevant.”
http://www.muckraked.com/wordpress/2007/04/29/scanning-george-tenets-memoirdick-condi-
and-plenty-of-bull/#more-435

Doubling Up on Bush Administration Screwups — Verse-Case Scenario by Tony Peyser
State Department Official Resigns Over D.C. Madam
Randall Tobias said escorts gave him massages
(Gonzales would claim that’s a dumb thing to say)
In fact, it’s precisely the kind of bald-faced lie
That’s going to rub lots of people the wrong way.

Thinking Outside The Box
The thing that this administration soon really oughta
Do is let the fighting in Iraq be done by Blackwater.

Getting our soldiers home should be a priority that’s urgent;
Let the soldiers of fortune take it to each & every insurgent.

The administration’s evolved into privatizing whores
So let’s publicly insist they go fight their private wars.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/peyser/456

Danny Schechter: Media Priorities Assure that Real Crises Will Not Be Covered

Our media remains fixated on misdemeanors, while ignoring felonies
Who is probing why federal regulators at the SEC and compliant Democrats allowed nearly
two million families to fall into the sub-prime mortgage noose and now face foreclosures?

Who is looking into the real accounting of our ever expanding wars of terror, with the
ongoing squandering of government resources and the transfer of billions from the public
treasury into private hands? We know that war profiteers are greedy, but who is supposed
to be watching the public purse

Is it the old story of foxes guarding the chickens? And you can be sure these foxes are
not being investigated by FOX.

Even when the Feds are paying attention, the agencies they monitor resist efforts at
accountability and transparency. The scammers at Homeland Security are particularly
egregious in this regard. The GAO, the agency charged with overseeing government
spending, complains they get a runaround and resistance when they try to track their
expenditures.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/972

Sexual Threats Stifle Some Female Bloggers
A female freelance writer who blogged about the pornography industry was threatened with
rape. A single mother who blogged about “the daily ins and outs of being a mom” was
threatened by a cyber-stalker who claimed that she beat her son and that he had her under
surveillance. Kathy Sierra, who won a large following by blogging about designing
software that makes people happy, became a target of anonymous online attacks that
included photos of her with a noose around her neck and a muzzle over her mouth.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/04/29/AR2007042901555.html?hpid=topnews

Stephen Crockett: When Politics Becomes Criminal
It has recently been reported that prominent Republicans in the Bush Administration are
screening potential federal government employees concerning how they intend to vote in
upcoming elections. This development calls for both Congressional investigation and an
independent federal prosecutor. There is a federal law known as the Hatch Act that
clearly makes such blatantly politicization of the federal government hiring program
illegal. These activities may violate other federal laws, as well.

It is time for Republicans at all levels to distance themselves from the ethically
challenged national leadership of the Republican Party and the Bush Administration. Not
only have the Bush Republicans failed to follow the spirit of the law in many different
ways, but it also now seems obvious they are not complying with the letter of the law.

Scandal follows scandal in our daily news. During the 2006 election, Republicans tried
with mixed success to spin the various illegal activities reported concerning Republican
members of Congress, Republican Governors, and various state Republican Party leaders as
isolated “bad apples.” It now looks like most of the barrel may be rotten to the core of
the Republican Party.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/970

Larry Beinhart: The Republican Disease vs. Reality
This virus of fear is a bizarre disease. More widespread than any flu and more
dangerous. Because in the fever of fear, delirium blocks out reality.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/971

PM Carpenter: Reason’s challenge; Who among the Democrats want a ‘global war on terror’?
Reason’s challenge
When asked last week at the misnomered Democratic “debate” if they believed in a
notional “global war on terror,” Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson and Chris
Dodd raised their hands. To their credit, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich and
Mike Gravel did not.

Like everything else, the Bush administration has politicized the threat of terrorism
for short-term gain only; like everything else, it has given not a second’s thought to
what might, or should, come next. Immediate firepower is the exclusive answer to every
immediate threat, which procreates more threats, which calls for more firepower, and so
and on it goes. Patiently and thoughtfully getting to the root of any problem is simply
beyond the immediate-gratification mentality of the cutthroat, Rovian political animals
who populate this wretched administration.

According to the London Times, the Labourite secretary further argued that “Britain and
America should do more to use the ’soft power’ of values, ideas and reform to bring about
lasting change in the failed and angry states where terrorist groups prosper.”

With Tony Blair rightfully on his way out, Britain “gets it,” and it’s now freer to say
so. To ease this national transformation in attitude and leadership, even the prime
minister has been downplaying the struggle’s martial elements lately.

But it’s going to be a tougher challenge in the U.S., given the nearly seven-year
brainwashing campaign that Americans have undergone at the hands of the exclusively
bellicose. I salute those pols, such as Mr. Edwards, who, be it from brains or political
necessity, have accepted the challenge.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2007/04/reasons_challen.html

Another Key McCain Aide Departs
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — In the midst of the Sen. John McCain’s presidential announcement
tour comes news that Marlene Elwell — one of the Arizona Senator’s leading social
conservative advocates — has parted ways with the campaign.

Elwell, who was one of McCain’s chief liaisons to the faith community, confirmed her
departure in a brief telephone interview this evening. She did not offer any further
explanation on the decision.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/campaign-
trail/2007/04/another_key_mccain_aide_depart.html?hpid=topnews

Kent State victim: Tape may answer shooting mystery
CLEVELAND – A man shot in the wrist when National Guard troops opened fire during an
anti-war protest 37 years ago said he has found an audio tape while doing research on the
shooting that he claims shows a command to fire was issued by a Guard commander.

Alan Canfora said he requested a copy of the nearly 30-minute tape six months ago after
he learned it was kept at Yale University, where a government copy had been stored in an
archive. Just before a 13-second barrage of gunfire, a voice on the tape yells, “Right
here! Get Set! Point! Fire!” Canfora said.

Four Kent State students were killed and nine wounded in a clash with Guardsmen that
followed several days of anti-war protests. In 1974, eight guardsmen tried on federal
civil rights charges were acquitted by a U.S. judge.
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/17154947.htm

War Called Riskier Than Vietnam
Military Experts Fretful Over Long-Term Consequences

Bush recently said that “there’s a lot of differences” between the current war in Iraq
and the Vietnam War.

As fighting in Iraq enters its fifth year, an increasing number of experts in foreign
policy and national strategy are arguing that the biggest difference may be that the Iraq
war will inflict greater damage to U.S. interests than Vietnam did.

“In terms of the consequences of failure, the stakes are much bigger than Vietnam,” said
former defense secretary William S. Cohen. “The geopolitical consequences are . . .
potentially global in scope.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/04/28/AR2007042801167.html?nav=rss_politics

Bush Lied, Soldiers Keep Dying.
3,351 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq
384 U.S. Military Fatalities in Afghanistan
24,912 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (source: DoD Update as of April 25, 2007)
68,593 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: Iraq Body Count)
655,000 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: The Lancet)

May 1, 2007
D.C. Madam Madness! BuzzFlash Thinks She’s Got One or Two Big Fishes That She’s Keeping
to Herself. You Know, Like Guys in the White House or DOJ Who Could Cut a Deal With Her
Attorney and Let Her Off on Probation. She’s Leaking the “Little Fish” to Send a Message
to a Couple of Very High Ranking People. By the Way, How Come There Was No Prosecution of
Jeff Gannon for Running a Male Escort Service Right Into the White House? Oh, Those Pesky
Questions.
http://crimeblog.us/?p=395

More Bushevik Katrina Corruption: Jeb Bush, Defective Water Pumps, And a Sweetheart
Contract We, the Taxpayers, Paid for
Corps asked to explain pump contract
In a letter dated April 13, Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), R-La., called
on the Corps to look into how the politically connected company got the post-Hurricane
Katrina contract. MWI employed former Florida Gov.        Jeb Bush,        President
Bush’s brother, to market its pumps during the 1980s, and top MWI officials have been
major contributors to the Republican Party
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070501/ap_on_re_us/katrina_faulty_pumps;_ylt=AgFGAEznsX8q8wc
hBtwnhYSs0NUE

Bush Fails America: Report says terror attacks up sharply
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070501/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_terrorism;_ylt=Aow4pzC_HWFewBt_B
jk0Ueas0NUE

==xx=
=xx=x=x=x

867360 :the number of people who have already voted in the referendum
to Impeach Bush!
Let’s Make It a Million!
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer

Obama Wins First Democratic Debate
Obama held his own with the others, particularly vis-à-vis his chief rival, Hillary
Clinton. He clearly showed that he belonged on the stage with his longer-serving rivals.
In doing so, he helped vanquish his leading negative: inexperience.

The young senator had shown himself to be just as adept, equally well informed and even
more articulate than his more experienced rival

Hillary’s worst moment in the debate came when she had to “take responsibility” for her
vote in support of the Iraq war in 2002. It was not that she had voted wrong in the
opinion of most Democrats; it was that she was obviously refusing to apologize — a sharp
contrast to the honesty of John Edwards, who asked those who had joined him in backing
the war to “search their consciences.” But Hillary’s best moment was when she criticized
the Supreme Court decision upholding the congressional ban on partial-birth abortion.

The other beneficiary of the debate was Dennis (the Menace) Kucinich, who showed the
sharp differences between his brand of anti-war sentiment and that of the other more
moderate candidates (except for former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska).

Kucinich staked out the far left as his own and even directly challenged the other
candidates for supporting, in effect, a longer war. Kucinich’s critique will echo louder
when the other candidates, predictably, cave in to Bush in voting for a clean war-funding
resolution after the attempt to override his veto fails. And, after Kucinich is defeated,
his banner will likely be carried in the general election by that bête noire of
Democrats: Ralph Nader
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/4/27/173409.shtml
=xx=x=
x=x=x=x

One of the great things about America, one of the beauties of our country, is that when
we see a young, innocent child blown up by an IED, we cry. President G. Bush Washington,
D.C., Mar. 29, 2006

=
We support the election process, we support democracy, but that doesn’t mean we have to
support governments that get elected as a result of democracy. President G. Bush -
Washington, D.C., Mar. 29, 2006

” To be ignorant of one’s ignorance is the malady of the ignorant” Amos Bronson Alcott:

Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America’s War On Iraq – At Least 655,000 + +
http://tinyurl.com/usq4x
 
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’sWar
On Iraq 3,351
http://icasualties.org/oif/
 
The War in Iraq Costs
$421,637,119,694
 
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

The accursed: Widows of Iraq’s torn-apart society
By Hala Jaber
“I shouted and beat my breast and yanked my hair in the street but no one could do
anything. A few minutes later we heard shots. I knew they [Ali and Ahmad] were dead,” she
said. “
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17626.htm
 
Something About “Liberation”…
By Layla Anwar
Never, at least not to my knowledge, has a “liberation” produced so much human filth…
Never has a “liberation” managed to generate so many death mercenaries and contractors
being paid up to 5′000 dollars a day with the sole aim of exterminating…and “pacifying”.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17625.htm

Bush Has Destroyed Iraq and America
By Paul Craig Roberts
The violence and killing that Bush brought to Iraq has spread antagonism between Sunni
and Shiite throughout the Middle East with potentially draconian consequences. Bush’s war
has turned Muslim hearts and minds against America and made terrorism an acceptable means
to resist American hegemony. With his mindless war, Bush has created more terrorism than
the world has ever seen.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17621.htm

Iraq: At least 80 killed in another bloody day of U.S. occupation:
A suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed 32 people when he blew
himself up among mourners at a Shi’ite funeral in the town of Khalis, north of Baghdad.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO054426.htm
 
U.S. April death toll in Iraq passes 100:
Four U.S. occupation force soldiers were killed in separate attacks in the capital this
weekend, including three in a single roadside bombing, the military said Monday, pushing
the death toll past 100 in the deadliest month so far this year.
http://www.startribune.com/140/story/1152433.html

Ex-CIA analyst: Forged ‘yellowcake’ memo ‘leads right back to’ Cheney: 
Appearing on MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson show, Ray McGovern who served in the CIA for twenty-
seven years, said, “the [forged] memo leads right back to the doorstep of the Vice
President of the United States.”
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/ExCIA_analyst_Forged_yellowcake_memo_leads_0430.html

In case you missed it: 
War Is A Racket : 
A speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4377.htm

George Galloway: “What Happened To Iraq Is About To Happen To Iran:
Video – Galloway speaks on Iraq and Iran
http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/1337/1/

Australia, U.S. behave tyrannically, says ex-PM:
Australia’s government and close ally the United States behaved in a tyrannical way and
for “evil purpose” by jailing militants at Guantanamo Bay, former Australian Prime
Minister Malcolm Fraser said on Monday.
http://snipurl.com/1iuec

Thousands protest killing of more than 130 ‘Taliban fighters’:
US-led occupation troops killed more than 130 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan over the
past several days, the coalition said on Monday, the heaviest reported rebel losses this
year amid rising violence in the country.
http://snipurl.com/1iuee

Afghans protest civilian deaths:
Infuriated protesters carrying the bodies of five Afghans killed in a U.S.-led raid -
including the shrouded corpses of a woman and teenage girl – blocked a highway in eastern
Afghanistan with rocks and felled trees, denouncing their government and demanding an
explanation
http://snipurl.com/1iueh

Is Canada’s Defence Minister a War Criminal?:
Political and Military Leadership Has Been Playing Fast and Loose With Torture
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/208200

Lawyers taking Rumsfeld war crimes case to Spain:
German lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck says that he will refile a war crimes complaint against
former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Spain with the help of Spanish
counterparts after the German Federal Prosecutor’s office Friday rejected a bid to
prosecute the suit in Germany under that country’s universal jurisdiction law
http://snipurl.com/1iuel

Clinton and Obama Raiding Donors Who Backed Bush:
In the first quarter of this year, more than 150 former Bush donors pitched in for Mrs.
Clinton’s campaign, while a similar number anted up for Mr. Obama, according to an
analysis of Federal Election Commission data
http://www.nysun.com/article/53420

Justin Raimondo : Blueprint for Dictatorship :
America is headed for a military dictatorship – and recent legislation makes this all
but inevitable.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10895

Credit card companies raising rates without notice :
The credit squeeze is on. The credit card companies are raising their rates silently;
rates go as high as 29.99% easily without any notice. The Fed is watching helplessly as
these loan sharks make the economy collapse.
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/16593.asp

Bush is her feed’
In 2004, New York magazine reported on a DC dinner party, at which Condoleezza Rice was
reportedly overheard saying, “As I was telling my husb–” and then stopping herself
abruptly, before saying, “As I was telling President Bush.” As the magazine explained it,
those who heard her were quite surprised, though the slip seemed “more psychologically
telling than incriminating.” In other words, no one seriously believes Bush and Rice are
romantically involved.

But the alleged “husband” gaffe nevertheless points to a relationship that’s kind of …
creepy. In fact, with this background in mind, consider Newsweek’s Marcus Mabry’s
analysis on Rice’s loyalty to the president (as excerpted from his new biography of Rice).

Rice’s friends insisted the attraction to Bush was platonic, but Brenda Hamberry-Green,
her Palo Alto hairdresser, who had spent years commiserating with Rice over how hard it
was for successful black women to find a good man, noticed a change when Rice started
working for Bush. “He fills that need,” Hamberry-Green decided. “Bush is her feed.”

Like I said, creepy.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/30/%e2%80%98bush-is-her-feed%e2%80%99/

Broder Was For It Before He Was Against It: A Study of IOKIYAR
On the April 30 edition of XM Radio’s The Bob Edwards Show, Washington Post columnist
David Broder asserted that it was “really doubtful” President Bush would be able “to
salvage something that would look like a victory in Iraq.” Broder made this statement
four days after he attacked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for what he called
Reid’s “ineptitude,” because of, as he wrote in his April 26 Post column, Reid’s
assertion that the Iraq war “is lost.” As Media Matters for America noted, in that
column, Broder pointed to Reid’s “war is lost” remark to compare him to embattled
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and accuse him of engaging in “inept discussion[s]
of the alternatives in Iraq” and of not being “a man who misses many opportunities to put
his foot in his mouth.”

And lest you need any further persuasion why Broder needs to be soundly ignored instead
of given a national media platform, let me share a little quote of Broder’s from 2003 in
Harper’s:

BRODER: “Let me disclose my own bias in this matter. I like Karl Rove. In the days when
he was operating from Austin, we had many long and rewarding conversations. I have eaten
quail at his table and admired the splendid Hill Country landscape from the porch of the
historic cabin Karl and his wife Darby found miles away and had carted to its present
site on their land.”

Broder didn’t feel obliged to share that little bit of bias when he soundly went off on
the media, saying they “owed Rove an apology” in 2006.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/30/broder-was-for-it-before-he-was-against-it-a-
study-of-iokiyar/

You knew this was coming
CARY, Illinois (AP) — A high school senior was arrested after writing that “it would be
funny” to dream about opening fire in a building and having sex with the dead victims,
authorities said. Another passage in the essay advised his teacher at Cary-Grove High
School: “don’t be surprised on inspiring the first CG shooting,” according to a criminal
complaint filed this week.

Allen Lee, 18, faces two disorderly conduct charges over the creative-writing
assignment, which he was given on Monday in English class at the northern Illinois
school…read on

I have a feeling there will be a lot of text messages being sent in HS and students will
be writing more of this now…Just a hunch…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/30/you-knew-this-was-coming/

The Extreme-Right Mega-Millionaire Mercenary
By: Nicole Belle on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 4:05 PM – PDT   Liberal Lucy at DailyKos:
For one man, the War of Bush/Cheney/Haliburton Oil was his golden ticket to massive
wealth and an extraordinary level of influence and menacing power. Meet Erik Prince, born
and raised in Holland, Michigan, and one of the country’s most dangerous men.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/30/the-extreme-right-mega-millionaire-mercenary/

Blackwater: The Extreme-Right Mega-Millionaire Mercenary
by LiberalLucy
Sun Apr 29, 2007 at 07:53:17 AM PDT
Since the U.S.’s invasion into Iraq and Afghanistan, many American lives have changed.
So many lives lost in a fight that is viewed by most of the country and world as unjust.
So many families shattered, so many bright futures tragically cut short.

For one man, the War of Bush/Cheney/Haliburton Oil was his golden ticket to massive
wealth and an extraordinary level of influence and menacing power. Meet Erik Prince, born
and raised in Holland, Michigan, and one of the country’s most dangerous men.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/29/10301/1721

Rahm’s speech at Brookings: GOP placed party above Country
 received a bunch of emails asking if I could get a copy of Rahm Emanual’s speech to the
Brookings Institute from last week, so here goes…

Greg Sargent supplies the transcript
…it’s a broad indictment of the Bush administration that argues that all-pervasive
partisanship, not incompetence, is the common thread linking all of the administration’s
manifold failings. Take a look….read on…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/30/rahms-speech-at-brookings-gop-placed-party-above-country/

Dispatches From Iraq: The Women’s Story
I know you know.
But these images aren’t being seen in this country, and they must be.  We must see the
destruction being caused in our name.  We need to see how ridiculously inane it is to
think that Iraqis would be grateful for their “liberation” or that they would want
anything but to see us leave.

It’s a 48 minute video, but well worth your time
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/30/dispatches-from-iraq-the-womens-story/

Bill Kristol Blames Clinton, Calls Tenet “Crybaby”
In response to a question on “FOX News Sunday” yesterday about George Tenet’s accusation
that Bush administration neocons (Cheney, Perle, Feith) were pushing hard for war with
Iraq despite Saddam having no links whatsoever to 9/11, Bill Kristol invoked Bill Clinton
and said Tenet was not only a “mediocre” DCI, but also a “crybaby

Of course, comparing Clinton’s Iraq policy to Bush’s is the height of hilarity. While
it’s certainly true that Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 that supported
regime change, he did not unilaterally invade the country based on false pretense in
defiance of world opinion. Nor did he do so in a reckeless manner that exacerbated the
terrorist threat worldwide. Nice try, William the Bloody. Just take responsiblity for
your misguided war and demented worldview already. Yea right…like that will ever happen.
He’ll just continue to use his FNC and TIME platforms to lecture everyone on how stupid
they are, despite his being wrong about, well, everything.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/30/bill-kristol-blames-clinton-calls-tenet-crybaby/

Reagan’s NSA Chief Tells Bush Not To Veto Iraq Bill
“To put this in a simple army metaphor, the Commander-in-Chief seems to have gone AWOL,
that is ‘absent without leave.’ He neither acts nor talks as though he is in charge.
Rather, he engages in tit-for-tat games…I hope the President seizes this moment for a
basic change in course and signs the bill the Congress has sent him. I will respect him
greatly for such a rare act of courage, and so too, I suspect, will most Americans.”
- Lieutenant General William E. Odom
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/30/reagans-nsa-chief-tells-bush-not-to-veto-iraq-bill/

Immigration is all Satan’s fault
To fully appreciate the ideology of large parts of the Republican Party, one needs to
look past Capitol Hill and consider what state GOP officials are up to. Take Utah, for
example

Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party,
had submitted a resolution warning that Satan’s minions want to eliminate national
borders and do away with sovereignty.

In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants “hate
American people” and “are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they
won’t do.”

Illegal aliens are in control of the media, and working in tandem with Democrats, are
trying to “destroy Christian America” and replace it with “a godless new world order —
and that is not extremism, that is fact,” Larsen said. […]

Republican officials then allowed speakers to defend and refute the resolution. One
speaker, who was identified as “Joe,” said illegal immigrants were Marxist and under the
influence of the devil. Another, who declined to give her name to the Daily Herald, said
illegal immigrants should not be allowed because “they are not going to become
Republicans….”

Wow.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/30/immigration-is-all-satan%e2%80%99s-fault/

 4 29 2007
Retired general urges Bush to sign Iraq withdrawal bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush should sign legislation starting the withdrawal of
U.S. troops from Iraq on October 1, retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom said Saturday.

Odom, an outspoken critic of the war who served as the Army’s top intelligence officer
and headed the National Security Agency during the Reagan administration, delivered the
address at the request of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California. He said he has never
been a Democrat or a Republican.

The general accused Bush of squandering U.S. lives and helping Iran and al Qaeda when he
invaded Iraq. (Watch how political theater may take center stage in funding showdown )

“The challenge we face today is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to recover from a
strategic mistake: invading Iraq in the first place,” he said.

The president has let [the Iraq war] proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections
in the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued.
He lets the United States fly further and further into trouble, squandering its
influence, money and blood, facilitating the gains of our enemies.”

Odom said he doesn’t favor congressional involvement in the execution of foreign and
military policy but argued that Bush had been derelict in his responsibilities.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/28/democrats.radio.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

President Bush’s Approval Rating at an All-Time Low
NEW YORK President George W. Bush’s job performance is currently viewed positively by
only 28% of U.S. adults, according to the latest Harris Poll of 1,001 U.S. adults
surveyed by phone between April 20 and 23, 2007 by Harris Interactive.

These figures include Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who, for the first time is
viewed negatively by half of adults. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ rating also has
also gone down. Only 29% view his job performance in a positive light, while 55% view it
negatively.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=100357762
7&imw=Y

Leave Iraq, Sadr tells “Antichrist” Bush
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070428/ts_nm/iraq_dc_3

April 29, 2007
“Explosion near shrine in Iraq kills 55.” “Major Combat Operations in Iraq are Over.”
Didn’t Bush Say That Four Years Ago? Didn’t He Say Everything Since Would Work, And It’s
Only Worsened? What the Heck is He STILL Doing in the White House? You Wouldn’t Let Him
Run Your Garage Sale.

Saturday: 9 GIs, 163 Iraqis Killed; 222 Iraqis Wounded
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=10891

Bush Administration Betrayed Katrina Victims: “After Katrina, U.S. Did Not Accept Most
Offers of Aid.”
Most Katrina Aid From Overseas Went Unclaimed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/04/28/AR2007042801113.html?hpid=topnews

Here Comes the Draft, Here Comes the Draft….” The Army’s new chief of staff said
Saturday he wants to accelerate by two years a plan to increase the nation’s active duty
soldiers by 65,000.” Uh, does anyone see either of the Bush twins joining up? No, sir!
Too much tequila to drink, and too many boys to ….

Army chief wants to speed up troop hike
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070429/ap_on_re_us/army_chief_iraq;_ylt=Am5hXNkrmt0wXCz6Toqb
MBys0NUE

=xx=x=x=
=x=x=x=xx==x

Rebuilt Iraq Projects Found
Crumbling
Inspectors found that in a sampling of eight projects declared successes by the U.S.,
seven were no longer operating as designed.

 because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent
looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.

The United States has previously admitted, sometimes under pressure from federal
inspectors, that some of its reconstruction projects have been abandoned, delayed or
poorly constructed. But this is the first time inspectors have found that projects
officially declared a success — in some cases, as little as six months before the latest
inspections — were no longer working properly.

The inspections ranged geographically from northern to southern Iraq and covered
projects as varied as a maternity hospital, barracks for an Iraqi special forces unit and
a power station for Baghdad International Airport.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/world/middleeast/29reconstruct.html?th&emc=th

A Saudi Prince Tied to Bush Is Sounding Off-Key

WASHINGTON, April 28 — No foreign diplomat has been closer or had more access to
President Bush, his family and his administration than the magnetic and fabulously
wealthy Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia.

Prince Bandar has mentored Mr. Bush and his father through three wars and the broader
campaign against terrorism, reliably delivering — sometimes in the Oval Office — his
nation’s support for crucial Middle East initiatives dependent on the regional legitimacy
the Saudis could bring, as well as timely warnings of Saudi regional priorities that
might put it into apparent conflict with the United States. Even after his 22-year term
as Saudi ambassador ended in 2005, he still seemed the insider’s insider. But now,
current and former Bush administration officials are wondering if the longtime reliance
on him has begun to outlive its usefulness.

Bush administration officials have been scratching their heads over steps taken by
Prince Bandar’s uncle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that have surprised them by going
against the American playbook, after receiving assurances to the contrary from Prince
Bandar during secret trips he made to Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/washington/29saudi.html?th&emc=th

For $82 a Day, Booking a Cell in a 5-Star Jail

SANTA ANA, Calif., April 25 — Anyone convicted of a crime knows a debt to society often
must be paid in jail. But a slice of Californians willing to supplement that debt with
cash (no personal checks, please) are finding that the time can be almost bearable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/us/29jail.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

William Kristol confronted on CSPAN by a caller: “LIAR”

Faiz caught this the other day and I wanted to post the video. William the Bloody
Kristol was a guest on CSPAN and took a call from an Iraq “war wife,” and she let him
have it. She obviously knew what she was talking about because she brought up the
warmongers over at the American Enterprise Institute as people promoting this war. She
called on the chickenhawks to institute a draft to give these suffering families a
break…As you listen to his response, you know he wants more war and more war.
Kristol:…for the foreign policy obligations we’re likely to have to impose on our
military—for the war fighting obligations we’re going to have to impose on the all
volunteer military…

What obligations is he talking about, Iran? I guess we’re now TEAM America, the World
Police:

Caller: “I’m sure when your head hits the pillow you have a luxury of dreaming about
anything that your mind will allow you to dream about… I sleep with the phone under the
pillow. My kids — if someone rings the doorbell, instead of normal kids they freeze. And
they’re in elementary school. You all don’t understand. We are military people, but we
are people, too. And the stress that we are under is tremendous.”

I like how William has to tell us that a friend just came back from Iraq as if that
makes it all better. WK also is for a draft… TP: “The caller also told Kristol that he
was a “liar” for claiming that it’s “mostly the insurgents attacking us,” versus members
of the Iraqi population. “They don’t want us there,” she said. “I understand you truly
believe what you’re saying but it’s not working. We can’t want it for them more than they
want it for themselves.”

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/28/william-kristol-confronted-on-cspan-by-a-caller-
liar/

What They Said

I was planning to mark the fourth anniversary of the start of the war by looking back at
some of the more remarkable statements pundits made at the time. But I’m a weekly
cartoonist, and this month I just had too many other ideas clamoring for my limited
space, so this one stayed on the back burner and never ended up running. So here’s a
small exclusive for the HuffPo.

In compiling these quotes, I relied heavily on the excellent work of my friends at
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, who have been tracking right-wing and corporate bias
in the media since long before it ever occurred to anyone to coin a word as ungainly as
“blog.” I also want to give a shoutout to Glenn Greenwald, who keeps track of these
things with a methodical relentlessness reminiscent of the Terminator, except, you know,
the one from the sequels, where he’s a good guy. And before he becomes governor of
California.

There’s one other quote that I just didn’t have room for, which I’d like to include
here. In his column of April 15, 2003, Cal Thomas wrote:

When the Berlin Wall fell and Eastern Europe escaped from the shackles of communism, I
wrote that we must not forget the enablers, apologists and other “fellow travelers” who
helped sustain communism’s grip on a sizable portion of humanity for much of the 20th
century. I suggested that a “cultural war crimes tribunal” be convened, at which people
from academia, the media, government and the clergy who were wrong in their assessment of
communism would be forced to confront their mistakes. While not wishing to deprive anyone
of his or her right to be wrong, it wouldn’t hurt for these people to be held
accountable.

That advice was not taken – but today we are presented with another opportunity in the
form of scores of false media prophets who predicted disaster should the U.S. military
confront and seek to oust the murderous regime of Saddam Hussein. The purpose of a
cultural war crimes tribunal would be to remind the public of journalism’s many mistakes,
as well as the errors of certain politicians and retired generals, and allow it to
properly judge their words the next time they feel the urge to prophesy…

All of the printed and voiced prophecies should be saved in an archive. When these false
prophets again appear, they can be reminded of the error of their previous ways and at
least be offered an opportunity to recant and repent.

On that last paragraph, at least, Cal and I are in agreement.

Visit the Tom Tomorrow blog at www.thismodernworld.com.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-tomorrow/what-they-said_b_46907.html

Comments ( Page 1 of 3 > » ):
Wow. The scary thing is:

a) almost all of those people still have their jobs.

b) You could fill up about 8,000 more cartoons with nothing but similar quotes from
rich, know-nothing pundits.

But, hey, Fox and MSNBC still love ‘em. They love ‘em to death. (Unfortunately, the
deaths in questions are those of our soldiers).
By: bobbyjoe on April 26, 2007 at 10:42am

Thank you for the reminder of how the anti-war crowd was treated before and after the
beginning of the Iraq War, and it is not very pretty.

Now the tables have turned but the rhetoric remains the same but now it is turned on the
withdrawal efforts. These same people are now acting as though they have some credibility
to speak on the issue.

After all the lies, malfeasance, errors, and incompetence they are still chewing the
same cud – great for cows, disastrous for Americans.

We need to speed up the investigations on the hill, these people need to go and their
media enablers need to go with them before they make their own version of the rapture in
the form of a mushroom cloud.

Impeachment Is Imminent!
By: LORISNJ on April 26, 2007 at 10:49am
These cartoons are consistently brilliant; this was one of the best.

It fits right in with the PBS special last night about the run-up to to the Iraq war by
the news media, presented by Bill Moyers.

On a nightly basis, in our television world, the best hour of reality is on Comedy
Central with Stewart and Colbert. Olbermann is pretty good, too, but the rest is
propaganda and fluff.

There is nothing about our democracy that is eternal. It rose; it could fail and fall.
If it does come undone, it might be because its citizens preferred infotainment and
distraction over facts and truth.
By: Leftyliberal on April 26, 2007 at 10:56am

 can’t think of another time when I agreed with Cal Thomas but his Cultural crimes
tribunal idea is a gem. He and all of the other right wing idiots should have to do one
hour of community service for each blatant lie spoken or written to promote Bush’s
criminal enterprise(s). This would, for the most part, consume the rest of their lives
and we would be spared having to hear their propaganda any more. It is incredible that
these lying sacks of shit are allowed to pontificate on this ongoing tragedy that they
caused and are considered by the media as pundits, experts, journalists.
By: gary50 on April 26, 2007 at 11:01am

Please consider making this into a you-tube video. Your artistry and the sound from the
actual voices of these utter blowhard imbeciles would make it the most watched you-yube
video since, well, anything related to Anna Nicole. But kidding aside, amazing
compilation, excellant work as usual.
By: gaspare on April 26, 2007 at 11:08am

Would you do a similar cartoon with the people who did speak out against the war? It
seems only fair to give them their due (particularly since they were tarred and feathered
at the time). Al Gore, Robert Byrd, Susan Sontag, The Dixie Chicks, and others.
By: motlo on April 26, 2007 at 11:09am

Absolutely OUTSTANDING!!

Tom Tomorrow: The print companion of The Daily Show.
Truth that the right wing cannot suppress, though they would love to.

For many years, Tom Tomorrow: The Voice of Satirical Reason.
God Bless You.
By: msm on April 26, 2007 at 11:23am

Last night I watched Bill Moyer on PBS. It was a 90 minute program about the runup to
the Iraq war, and I cannot emphasize too strongly that everyone watch this when you get a
chance. This program shows how the administration actually banged the drums so strongly
that the newspapers and TV channels were conned into supporting the war because they were
not doing their jobs properly, and consequently the American people were given false
information. The journalists were lazy and afraid to delve into available information,
and they were afraid to go with negative information for the public. We now have 3000
plus dead troops and countless wounded, and I was horrified and ashamed to see how we
were hoodwinked into believing the propaganda in the newspapers and on TV. Of course no
one will take responsibility for it, but it would be refreshing to see some of the
editors of the papers and presidents of the networks admit they were wrong.
By: Beckyjo on April 26, 2007 at 11:24am

How supremely precient these comments were-except these cheerleaders were premature
(vintners use the term “backward”) and wrong. And while I agree that those who propped up
Bush’s disastrous policies should be held accountable, a’la Cal Thomas’s plan, that will
require disciplined, fact-based reporting by media, and a great deal more citizen
involvement in our government.

Things had to get terribly bad before the American public rose up to demand better of
our government. I think we really had to be to the point of shame, as a people, before we
were willing to act to reverse this disgraceful political direction.
By: Ceesavita on April 26, 2007 at 11:24am

All of these people were wrong about EVERYTHING.

But they continue to pollute our airwaves and newspapers and people actually still pay
attention to them.

Amazing.
By: HoneyBearKelly on April 26, 2007 at 11:31am

BILL KRISTOL THIS MORNING ON CSPAN’s WASHINGTON JOURNAL SAID HE WANTS TO INVITED BACK ON
TO SIT ACROSS FROM BILL MOYER!!!

OMG!!! OMG!!! OMG!!!
By: revko on April 26, 2007 at 11:31am

Motlo,
Why should he do that? Saint Ron Reagan, in his infinite wisdom, did away with the
Fairness Doctrine in ‘87. Bring it back, and then you can make demands about presenting
both sides of the issue.

While you’re at it, go ask the talking heads at FOX News to do similar “reports”
demonizing Republicans the way they do with Democrats.

-Hobo
By: HoboChangBa on April 26, 2007 at 11:33am

Thanks Tom. Don’t think for a second that people haven’t noticed all the hard work you
do. I read every comic as soon as it’s available, and I check your blog every day. Keep
up the great work!
By: stublueca on April 26, 2007 at 11:39am

Bill Moyers nailed this in his PBS program last night.
Glad he is back and thank you, Tom, you’ve been the one ‘pundit’ who’s been correct on
just about everything.
By: GOATSAGE on April 26, 2007 at 11:44am

As usual, Tom Tomorrow fearlessly draws what most of us have tried to forget through
drink and distraction. The earlier suggestion that these panels be YouTube-ed using the
actual excerpts is an inspired idea.

This is how democracy works: each of us takes a moment, every day, to support the
Constitution and expose those who are gutting it.

Voting’s not a bad idea, either.
By: mcquaidtom72 on April 26, 2007 at 11:50am

Great post. I, too, watched the Moyers show on PBS last night, and found it endlessly
depressing. But I consoled myself with the thought that the Blogosphere – with the Huff
Post leading the charge – might just be the solution.
By: mariemeyer on April 26, 2007 at 11:53am

What I have found is what this cartoon illustrates. That is, the “looney libs” are
grounded in reality and know what is going on in the world and “common sense
conservatives” live in a fantasy world and run from reality at every turn.
By: NeverDupedAgain on April 26, 2007 at 11:57am

Bravo, Tom,

Since Frank Zappa left us, no one says “the emperor has no clothes” quite as well as you.

Please don’t get hit in the head with any toilets
By: starboymikey on April 26, 2007 at 12:12pm

A totally brilliant concept that should get a wide distribution. Over the internet, over
the news. A la Presidential speeches by Letterman.
Thank you.
By: annabelle on April 26, 2007 at 12:14pm

This is priceless. It is in the same light of Bill Moyers excellent special “Buying The
War”
I loved the Oprah show where she had all the cheyney-white House ex-Pat Iraqis saying
how many WMDs Sadam had .
When an audience member question the info the Saddam had WMDs or was any threat to the
USA ,Oprah condecendedly said “This isn’t propaganda, these are the facts. she then
dimissively added “You’re entitled to your opinion.
Oprah is a Republican because they let her keep more of her millions and let her media
buddies own more media outlets.
Oprah has never apologized for being an ass about the facts of WMDs in Iraq.
By: drblack on April 26, 2007 at 12:15pm

 love the Chris Matthews quote. I can still remember his gleeful, energetic demeanor as
he spoke those words.

Thanks for memories … not that they make me happy … but they remind me of the value
of our heritage … the pursuit of truth as we honestly understand it out of our own
awareness of our existence … to question when something doesn’t make sense … to not
blindly believe the dogma of those in authority … to question, to question, to question
…

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” – John 8:32 KJV New
Testament
Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for ‘truth shall make you free’ in the
KJV”. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2007. 26 Apr 2007. < http://
cf.blb.org/search/translationResults.cfm?
Criteria=truth+shall+make+you+free&Version=KJV >
By: hglindquist on April 26, 2007 at 12:16pm

Cal Thomas:
“All of the printed and voiced prophecies should be saved in an archive. When these
false prophets again appear, they can be reminded of the error of their previous ways and
at least be offered an opportunity to recant and repent.”

It’s called: THE INTERNET
By: melfeasance on April 26, 2007 at 12:24pm
Love it though I suspect many of the pundits can see a silver lining to this one Tom;
You’ve made them look decidedly more attractive than in reality. Charlie Cabbage-Mallet
in particular never looks so good/less nightmare inducing. You should put in some designs
for the next round of dollar bill redesigns.
By: gappedtoothgodwarrior on April 26, 2007 at 12:25pm

Tom,
Bill O’Reilly called and he said he wants to know why you hate the troops.
By: castlerider on April 26, 2007 at 12:26pm

Moyers is the E.R. Morrow of our time. He is one of the few true journalists left. The
rest (the media princes and princesses who make millions) are just eye candy for the
masses. Great piece!
By: AbbieX on April 26, 2007 at 12:27pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-tomorrow/what-they-said_b_46907.html

x=x=x=
=x=xx=x=x=x

Bill Maher Psychologically Analyzes President Bush
Bill Maher may not be a doctor, but his diagnosis of President Bush is pretty damn
accurate.
Only a delusional person could watch Alberto Gonzales before Congress last week do
everything but say ‘no hablo ingles’ and rip up a picture of the Pope and conclude that
it increased his confidence in the man. That’s called disassociation from reality
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/28/bill-maher-psychologically-analyzes-president-
bush/

DoJ Official Resigns Over Investigation/Ties To Abramoff
This actually happened three weeks ago, but it just got press on Friday.  Hmmm….remind
me again, what was happening at the DoJ about that time?

A senior Justice Department official has resigned after coming under scrutiny in the
Department’s expanding investigation of convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according
to a Justice Department official with knowledge of the case.

Making the situation more awkward for the embattled Department, the official, Robert E.
Coughlin II, was deputy chief of staff for the criminal division, which is overseeing the
Department’s probe of Abramoff.

He stepped down effective April 6 as investigators in Coughlin’s own division ratcheted
up their investigation of lobbyist Kevin Ring, Coughlin’s long-time friend and a key
associate of Abramoff.[..]

Coughlin appears to be the first Justice Department official to come under scrutiny in
the wide-ranging probe that has implicated a veteran congressman, a deputy Cabinet
secretary, a White House aide and eight others. Abramoff has pleaded guilty to three
counts in the corruption probe and could face up to 11 years in prison.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/28/doj-official-resigns-over-investigationties-to-
abramoff/

Sen. Durbin Drops Bombshells on the Senate Floor
Senator Dick Durbin, who was on the Senate Intelligence Committee during the lead up to
the war, fills us in on what was going on behind the intel scenes in 2002-2003 and how
accurately it matched up with what we were being told publicly. Unfortunately for all of
us, he was sworn to secrecy back then…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/28/sen-durbin-drops-bombshells-on-the-senate-floor/

Abstinence only Tobias quits over Escort service

This is rich…This administration is riddled with liars and hypocrites…
Randall L. Tobias, the deputy secretary of state responsible for U.S. foreign aid,
abruptly resigned yesterday after he was asked about an upscale escort service allegedly
involved in prostitution, U.S. government sources said.

I’m sad today,” said one person close to Tobias. “The president loves him and Condi
absolutely loves him.”

White House officials said Rice briefed Bush on the matter early yesterday before he met
with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The president “was saddened and disappointed and
wished Dr. Tobias and his family well,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Condi and Bush are so sad. His actions further prove that abstinence does not work and
never will. We are a Democracy so why is our country being run by Regent University type
zealots and programs? Here’s an interview with Tobias from PBS.

And it’s also not “ABC: Take your pick.” It’s abstinence really focused heavily on young
people and getting them to understand that the best way to keep from getting infected is
to be abstinent and not engage in sexual activity until they are old enough and mature
enough and get into a committed relationship, such as a marriage. B is being faithful
within that committed relationship. And A and B, those two things together clearly had a
huge impact in bringing the infection rates down in Uganda…read on
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/28/abstinence-only-tobias-quits-over-escort-service/

Bill Moyers and Jon Stewart Discuss “Fake News”
Last night on “Bill Moyers Journal,” Jon Stewart sat down for a wide-ranging interview
about “The Daily Show,” Iraq, our barren national media and his heated conversation with
Saint McCain. Here’s just a small taste…

It really shows a side of Jon Stewart that you rarely get to see. You can also be stream
the entire 30 minute episode at the PBS website. Moyers also had a great segment about
Josh Marshall of TPM and the amazing work he’s done on the purge scandal. It’s nice to
have you back, Mr. Moyers.

Update: The Bill Moyers interview with Stewart back in 2003 is also a great watch. Here
it is. (h/t Chris)
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/28/bill-moyers-and-jon-stewart-discuss-fake-news/

Michael Ware On The Surge
Cooper: Where does the so called surge – others would say just escalation, where does it
stand? How’s it going? Too soon to tell?”

Ware: “Oh, way too soon to tell. But what I can tell you right now that, in terms of
Baghdad, if you want to look at it through a microscope without looking at the rest of
the country the surge will have an impact.  But at the end of the day if America wants to
win in Iraq it would need to surge the whole country.  But it can’t.  So what it’s done
in Baghdad, you’re seeing changes in the violence.  You hear these politicians saying
sectarian murders are down, yes that’s true. But at what cost?  American deaths are up.”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/28/michael-ware-on-the-surge/

It’s Only Terrorism When They Are Muslim, Right?
Remember the story of the three Muslim men who were arrested because they bought cell
phones? How many days of coverage did that non-story rate?  Now how much airtime has this
story gotten?:

Birmingham (AL) News:
Simultaneous raids carried out in four Alabama counties Thursday turned up truckloads of
explosives and weapons, including 130 grenades, an improvised rocket launcher and 2,500
rounds of ammunition belonging to the small, but mightily armed, Alabama Free Militia.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/28/its-only-terrorism-when-they-are-muslim-right/

When in doubt, blame Clinton
When the Bush White House was confronted with questions about an unprecedented purge of
eight U.S. Attorneys, one of the key responses was, “Clinton did it, too.” It was false,
Bush aides knew it was false, but they used it anyway.

Now the same officials are confronted with questions about an unprecedented initiative
from Karl Rove’s office to give blatantly partisan campaign briefings to 15 federal
agencies, on government property, shortly before the 2006 elections, despite a federal
law prohibiting these kinds of activities. What’s the new excuse? Take a wild guess.

It appears that, for the second time in as many weeks, Perino simply made it up,
fabricating a story to get herself out of a jam. It’s called “lying” — and Perino has
been doing it quite often lately.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/28/when-in-doubt-blame-clinton/

O’Reilly Attacks MediaMatters for Accurately
Quoting Him
In a “Factor Fiction” segment Wednesday night, Keith highlighted how Bill O’Reilly
attacks MediaMatters for committing the mortal sin of quoting him accurately. It’s
hysterical how he seeks to discredit everything MM does when all they do is accurately
document what he says. It doesn’t matter if he actually said the quote in question; what
matters is if it was documented by MM. If it was, then it’s immediately invalid — even
though they always include the entire context and video/audio.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/28/oreilly-attacks-mediamatters-for-accurately-
quoting-him/

ARQUETTE HAS A ROLE FOR PRESIDENT BUSH IN HORROR SEQUEL
DAVID ARQUETTE is already planning a sequel to his movie directorial debut, THE TRIPPER -
and this time he’s bashing President George W. Bush. In the new film, a serial killer in
a Ronald Reagan mask terrorises music fans at a festival, and Arquette hopes to feature
Bush in the follow-up. He tells Movies.com, “I’ve already written the sequel. George W
has some things to do with it, but he’s not the killer. It’s called The Tripper 2: The
Burning Bush.”
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/arquette%20has%20a%20role%20for%20president%
20bush%20in%20horror%20sequel_1029464

ARQUETTE’S KILLER REMINDS HIM OF REAGAN HORROR
Actor DAVID ARQUETTE insisted the killer in his new comedy horror movie THE TRIPPER wore
a RONALD REAGAN mask because the late former President used to terrify him. In the new
film – Arquette’s big-screen directorial debut – the killer attacks music fans at a rock
festival, and the Scream star admits the imagery of Reagan stalking youngsters gives his
quirky movie a serious edge. He explains, “Reagan’s policies had a direct effect on the
world around me. I remember waking up one morning and you’d see homeless people all
around you. “It happened pretty much overnight and it was pretty bizarre and it was a
direct connection to a cut in mental health. “(I hope) the movie points out how a
leader’s decisions can have an affect on the world.” But he doesn’t want movie fans to
dwell on the serious undertones of the movie too much – because he’d like the film to
become a cult hit, like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where fans gather weekly to watch
the show at late-night cinemas and dress as their favourite characters. He adds, “I hope
people make up games. I hope they sneak things in.”
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/arquettes%20killer%20reminds%20him%20of%20re
agan%20horror_1027884

Protestors Greet President Bush With Jeers
(CBS4) KENDALL While President Bush delivered his commencement speech at Miami-Dade
College on Saturday afternoon, dozens of protestors voiced their disapproval of the
President’s actions in Iraq.

With signs that read “Out of Iraq”, Support Our Troops Impeach Bush” and Bush is a
Criminal”, demonstrators wanted the President to know the war in Iraq needs to end now.

I want Bush at home in Texas without any political office,” said protestor Bruce
Hauptli. “There is no honor in this honorary degree.”

South Florida resident Beatriz Rosaval echoed his sentiment as she protested across the
street from Miami-Dade College.

“I think it’s wrong, said Rosaval.” I think we were lied into going and Saddam is out
anyway. Why are we still there? I don’t understand why we’re still there.”
http://cbs4.com/local/local_story_118193421.html

Crowd Calls For Impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney
About a dozen people rallied Saturday at the federal building, calling for the
impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The message of the event
was that Congress impeaches both men.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich has filed articles of impeachment for what he claims, they
lied to Congress, the American people and the world.

“The U.S. and world laws have been violated,” Juanita Cox said.
“Even if it’s the last day in office,” Richard Haber said. “We need to impeach these
guys.”

More than 120 other cities nationwide are participating in events like this.
http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=6442082

 4 28 2007
freeware files
http://www.freewarefiles.com/
==================================================

Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash.com
http://www.buzzflash.com/

Kennedy: Bush Worst President For Environment
Southwest Times Record Fri, 27 Apr 2007 7:38 AM PDT
CLARKSVILLE ? Environmental attorney and activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday
criticized President Bush, big
business, coal-burning plants and what he calls the right-wing media in his talk about
the eroding environment.

In his speech following Earth Day weekend, Kennedy pointed to a connection between the
environment and Democracy and
urged the public to examine what is going on around them instead of depending on the
news media to inform them through
talk radio and Fox news and other media outlets that are now run by five major
corporations.
http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2007/04/27/news/news02.txt

Republican Candidates Weak on War on Terror
Mitt Romney Says Catching Bin Laden “Not Worth It”
DNC Press
Washington, DC – By telling the Associated Press that catching Bin Laden “is not worth
moving heaven and earth,” Mitt
Romney crystallized exactly why Republican presidential candidates are weak on the war
on terror, and why America needs
real and strong leadership in the White House. [AP, 4/26/07] Romney’s comments in New
Hampshire on Thursday parallel
the Bush Administration’s decisions to back down from catching Bin Laden less than six
months after September 11, 2001,
relegating the war on terror and the war in Afghanistan to second tier status, choosing
to initiate a war with Iraq
under false pretenses, and failing to fund and support basic security measures
recommended by the 9/11 Commission.

Romney is not alone, however, in the field of Republican presidential candidates.
Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani
was Mayor of New York City for almost the entire time between the first bombing of the
World Trade Center in 1993 and
Osama Bin Laden’s attacks on September 11, 2001. During the entire time, Giuliani
refused to implement measures to
improve radio interoperability for first responders, cited as a major problem by the
commission that investigated the
first attack, and which failed our first responders on 9/11. Giuliani also admitted he
did not know how the Bush-McCain
esclation was going in Iraq, nor how much further along Iran and North Korea were with
the development of nuclear
weapons. Romney, Giuliani, and McCain have all also stubbornly backed the President’s
failed strategy in Iraq, with
McCain leading the charge for the Bush-McCain escalation that has yielded minimal
results. [New York Times, 4/7/07; AP,
4/24/07; South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/1/06; Washington Post, McCain op-ed, 4/8/07; New
York Magazine, 3/26/07; Mitt
Romney on "The Big Show," Fox News Channel, 4/3/07]

It seems Mitt Romney and his Republican cohorts need to be reminded that Osama Bin Laden
was the mastermind behind the
September 11th attack on America,” said Democratic National Committee Communications
Director Karen Finney. “Calling
off the hunt for Bin Laden and downgrading the real war on terror in favor of starting a
war in Iraq under false
pretenses has made America less safe. The American people want strong leadership, not
more of the same bumbling and
disastrous foreign policy the Bush Administration has made infamous.”
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/234

As If Bush Hasn’t Screwed Up Our Nation Enough: “The worst economic growth in four years
is raising concern that
troubles in the U.S. housing market will spread and throw the country into a recession
before the year is out.”

Economy crawls, raising recession fears
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy;_ylt=AuNWoKrRBRwT27mfp8IHwD
.s0NUE

Ex-C.I.A. Chief, in Book, Assails Cheney on Iraq
WASHINGTON, April 26 — George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has
lashed out against Vice
President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials in a new book, saying they
pushed the country to war in
Iraq without ever conducting a “serious debate” about whether Saddam Hussein posed an
imminent threat to the United
States.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/washington/27intel.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnn
lx=1177769024-
lzD3cS0GpyrCyjDpFeLt6g

An active-duty Army officer is publishing a blistering attack on U.S. generals, saying
they have botched the war in
Iraq and misled Congress about the situation. 4/27

Army Officer Accuses Generals of ‘Intellectual and Moral Failures’

Yingling’s comments are especially striking because his unit’s performance in securing
the northwestern Iraqi city of
Tall Afar was cited by President Bush in a March 2006 speech and provided the model for
the new security plan underway
in Baghdad.

He also holds a high profile for a lieutenant colonel: He attended the Army’s elite
School for Advanced Military
Studies and has written for one of the Army’s top professional journals, Military Review.

The article, “General Failure,” is to be published today in Armed Forces Journal and is
posted at
http://www.armedforcesjournal.com. Its appearance signals the public emergence of a
split inside the military between
younger, mid-career officers and the top brass.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR2007042602230.html

U.S. media have lost the will to dig deep
A changed news culture has let several important investigative stories slip through the
cracks.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-
palast27apr27,1,200401.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, (R-AZ) could resign from Congress as early as today in the wake of
a federal investigation into
his involvement in a federal land swap deal and FBI raids of an insurance agency owned
by his wife.; Let’s get all the
corrupt Republicans to resign 4/28
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2007/04/23/daily47.html

 M (Johnson) Tschudy: Give Them Enough Rope
We are seeing the true motives and values of the Republicons as they argue for the Bush
Administration and against the
Constitution and the rule of law.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/968

McCain Jests About Putting An IED Under The Desk On ‘The Daily Show’ — Verse-Case
Scenario by Tony Peyser
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 04/27/2007 – 10:07am. Tony Peyser
If John really thinks this is funny & proper
I hope that this provokes
A lot of the late-night comedy guys to start
Telling Hanoi Hilton jokes
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/peyser/454

Shirley Smith: A Dog’s Life Under the Bush GOP?
Anyone who has ever been in sales has probably been taught about the “puppy dog sale,”
and Bush did use it to start
the invasion into Iraq.

Whatever a salesperson is selling, when they ask a person to take the product, use it
for a while and then decide …
like a cute little doggy, they get used to it and many will keep it.

Bush did this when he sold the Congress on giving him what he calls permission to use
his own judgment, and what I
call a worthless piece of paper knowing Bush’s judgment … but, after Bush invaded
Iraq, he knew the US would be stuck
with his product because they would feel that they couldn’t take it back. But, that is
exactly what Congress needs to
do. The US cannot help the Iraqi people by occupying their country.

Does the President think terrorists are puppy dogs? He keeps saying that terrorists will
“follow us home” like lost
dogs. This will only happen, however, he says, if we “lose” in Iraq.

Put Bush’s ‘puppy dog’ terror theory to sleep -

Bush keeps bringing up the threat of al Qaeda and compares them to dogs following him
home, when actually they
followed Bush into Iraq. Maybe he should have thought about that before he invaded Iraq
where no al Qaeda existed under
the dictatorship of Saddam. And, today, due to Bush’s invasion and war for profit,
people, American military, and Iraqi
men, women, and children are “dying like dogs.”

Congress should take another look at themselves and at who they are following and why.
It’s never too late. The US
military can leave Iraq and there will be no reason for the hostility. The International
community can step in. The
people of Iraq, for once, deserve to be the forefront in people’s minds, not al Qaeda or
some other threat that
Republicans can think up. It’s maddening to think that this country is falling into the
same traps (one after another)
that other countries have fallen into when being taken over by a hostile, authoritarian
government. (Germany)

Bush will never change. He is not a leader. He is a dictator. There is no earthly reason
for the US to be in Iraq
today or for four years to the day, other than to be the trained dogs that Bush wishes
to obey him and to ask him no
questions (and he’ll tell you no lies) … just give him the money and follow him. And,
after this slaughter is over,
Bush will blame the Democrats, whatever they do.

Republicans should not be government leaders, and past leaders have also proven this,
because they cannot take the
responsibility for their own actions, and they believe in violence as a way to solve
differences, somehow this is
thought of as being conservative. Just listen to every GOP talking bobble head, always
accusing, talking in vile
language, and shifting the blame onto others for their own abusive actions. In our
airports today if anyone mumbles
some kind of threat they are arrested, yet these Republican talking heads can talk about
assassinations, threats of
violence and nothing happens. Is there any question about what would happen if a
Democrat ever made such threats, while
Republicans are in the White House?
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/smith/178

The marvelously motley GOP crew
I almost feel sorry for Republican voters. Almost. The GOP’s presidential line-up ranges
from the obscure to the
meanspirited to the befuddled to the has-been, and — happy days — the base can’t be
happy.

Then there is the current front-runner — he of tediously recycled fear mongering.
Giuliani must be borrowing some of
McCain’s consultants, because he seems oblivious to the scoop that the fear-mongering
dog has largely stopped hunting.
His would-be White House predecessor has done run that poor animal to exhaustion.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2007/04/the_marvelously.html

Bush Lied, Soldiers Keep Dying.
3,337 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq
382 U.S. Military Fatalities in Afghanistan
24,912 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (source: DoD Update as of April 25, 2007)
68,593 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: Iraq Body Count)
655,000 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: The Lancet)
=xx=x=
=xx=x=x=

April 28, 2007
It is Like Liar’s Poker Played Out With Real Lives and the Bluster of People Playing
With Empty Hands and a Full Tank
of Thuggishness: “The White House Scales Back Talk of Iraq Progress.” Excuse us, and the
Dems are Rumored to be Ready
to “Compromise” on War Funding and Allowing Bush/Cheney to Endlessly Use GIs as Ducks in
a Pond with Targets on Their
Backs. It’s Time to Impeach, Try, Convict and Jail the Busheviks, Not to Negotiate with
Them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/washington/28prexy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Is Their Anyone in the Bush Administration Who is Not Corrupt, a War Profiteer, a
Hypocrite, or Just Plain Immoral? We
Didn’t Think So. Here’s the Latest Culprit: “Randall Tobias, head of the Bush
administration’s foreign aid programs,
abruptly resigned Friday after his name surfaced in an investigation into a high-priced
call-girl ring, said two people
in a position to know the circumstances of his departure.”
http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070427/NEWS09/70427043

E-mail Dump on Friday Clearly Reveals White House Involvement Very Early On in
ProsecutorGate, Specifically the
Appoinment of a Rove “Hit Man” Protege Without Extensive Prosecution Experience to
Replace Little Rock U.S. Attorney
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fired_prosecutors;_ylt=AoGrBNNsbCva
YDjTvkUNiLus0NUE

x=x=x=
x=x=x==xx=

Medicare Fraud and USAt. Firings, Part III [Updated x2]
This is just getting freaky.

Here’s a story from March, 2005, entitled Misuse of USA Patriot Act Leads to Exposure of
Medicare/Medicaid Fraud Scheme Costing Taxpayers Tens of Billions of Dollars.

The Patriot Act raises its ugly head again. Thinking quickly: The article seems to be
saying – it’s not completely drawn out – that the Patriot Act was used to protect
gigantic – really gigantic – health care Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO’s) from
competition. GPOs are the businesses that supply hospitals with the stuff hospitals need
to operate:
http://littlethomsblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/medicare-fraud-and-usat-firings-part.html

Congressional Investigation Reveals Deception in Reporting Iraq …
Kevin Tillman and Jessica Lynch may never earn a medal for heroism in the Iraq war, but
they are heroes for defying the government/media cartel and telling …
http://www.jbs.org/node/3661

McCain calls Iraq war great tragedy

US Republican presidential contender has called the Iraq war “a great tragedy,” yet
still opposes a timetable for a US withdrawal.

John McCain’s remarks came on the heels of a Senate vote which demands to begin pulling
out troops by October 1.

I read the polls… I understand the frustration and sorrow that American people feel
about this war. It’s a great tragedy,” said McCain, who missed the Senate vote on the
bill containing the withdrawal timetable.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=7694&sectionid=3510203

No Iraq Predictions From Gen. Petraeus
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3091469&page=1

U.S. Democratic candidates slam Bush’s Iraq policy

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Xinhua) — Eight U.S. Democratic candidates united to confront the
Bush Administration’s Iraq policy in their first presidential debate held Thursday night
in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

“This war is a disaster. We must end this war,” said New MexicoGov. Bill Richardson, a
former U.N. ambassador who called for all U.S. troops to leave by the end of 2007.

    “The president seems determined not to change course, despite the fact that we are
not gaining ground,” said Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.

    However, Clinton was taken to task by Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio after she said
that if “I knew then what I now know,” she would not have voted for the 2003
congressional resolution authorizing Bush to take military action in Iraq.

    “That information was available to everyone, and, if you made the wrong choice,
we’re auditioning here for president of the United States,” said Kucinich, who voted
against the resolution.

    Clinton and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware were both asked whether they agreed with
assessments by some that the war in Iraq has been lost.

But neither of them answered directly.
  When he was called upon to discuss the war, Obama did draw a distinction between
himself and the former first lady.

    “I am proud that I opposed this war from the start, because I thought that it would
lead to the disastrous conditions that we’ve seen on the ground in Iraq,” he said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-04/27/content_6037483.htm

Noxious Lightning
April 27, 2007: Lightning is more than light and noise: It’s an intense chemical factory
that affects both local air quality and global climate. But how big is the effect?
Researchers aren’t sure. To answer the question they’re developing a new technique to
estimate the factory’s output
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/27apr_nox.htm?list169474

Give ‘Em Hell, Harry
The Senate majority leader is being portrayed as an awkward duck who doesn’t look the
part and can’t talk it either. Harry Reid, it’s true, is given to saying the most
inappropriate stuff, opinions that disturb Washington pundits and the third-string
political consultants who appear of TV talker shows. They tut-tut and scold. The kinder
ones think he must have misspoken. Others insist Democrats should give him the hook and
replace Reid with a more responsible leader.

What did the man say? “This war is lost.” “The President is in a state of denial.” A few
years back, Reid shockingly called Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan “one of the
biggest political hacks we have in Washington.”

What do these and other outrageous remarks have in common? They are all true. A
political leader who speaks the truth in unambiguous ways is naturally suspect in the
capital city. But he ought to become a hero in the hinterland where citizens dwell.
People who care need to rally around Harry Reid now and express their feelings because
the political establishment is coming after him. White House slime agents are leading the
campaign

Reid is being caricatured in ways designed to destroy his legitimacy and influence. If
it really tries, the press can accomplish this. Remember how leading newspapers depicted
Albert Gore as an egotistical goof back in the 2000 campaign?

Honk if you like Harry Reid. Bloggers, unite and bite back in his behalf. Washington
Post columnist David Broder (a friend and former colleague of mine) is the chief tut-
tutterer among media influentials. Broder took a truly ugly swipe at Reid in today’s Post
by comparing him to Alberto Gonzales, the “dead man walking” attorney general.

But wait a minute. Gonzales is ruined goods because he lied and disremembered and ran
away from obvious facts. Harry Reid is guilty of the opposite behavior – saying aloud
what most everyone in Washington knows to be true. Shame on you, David.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=190309

x=x=x=x=x=x

The White House Scales Back Talk of Iraq Progress

WASHINGTON, April 27 — The Bush administration will not try to assess whether the troop
increase in Iraq is producing signs of political progress or greater security until
September, and many of Mr. Bush’s top advisers now anticipate that any gains by then will
be limited, according to senior administration officials.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/washington/28prexy.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnl
x=1177773822-NaFrGhHwCezMIxLDgGrDmQ&oref=slogin

QUOTATION OF THE DAY 
“It is the beginning of jihadi operations leaking out of Iraq. It is clear that this is
some of the effects of what is happening in Iraq, in terms of training and in terms of
learning from the Iraqi experience.”
ABDUL AZIZ AL-QASSIM, a retired Saudi judge, on the arrest of 172 terrorism suspects
there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/world/middleeast/28saudi.html?th&emc=th

The Abstinence-Only Delusion
Reliance on abstinence-only sex education as the primary tool to reduce teenage
pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases — as favored by the Bush administration and
conservatives in Congress — looks increasingly foolish and indefensible.

The abstinence-only campaign has always been driven more by ideology than by sound
public health policy. The program’s tight rules, governing states that accept federal
matching funds and community organizations that accept federal grants, forbid the
promotion of contraceptive use and require teaching that sex outside marriage is likely
to have harmful psychological and physical effects.

At least nine states, by one count, have decided to give up the federal matching funds
rather than submit to dictates that undermine sensible sex education. Now there is
growing evidence that the programs have no effect on children’s sexual behavior.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/opinion/28sat1.html?th&emc=th

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California has warned that he will sue the Environmental
Protection Agency unless it gives him the power to regulate automobile emissions. A New
York Times/CBS News Poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans now want
immediate steps to deal with global warming. And a leaked draft of the next report from
the world’s leading scientists says that the window for action is shrinking — that what
governments do over the next 20 to 30 years will determine whether the world can avoid
the worst consequences of climate change.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/opinion/28sat3.html?th&emc=th

“One of the great attractions to patriotism, it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person
of a nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat while feeling we’re profoundly
virtuous.” : Aldous Huxley
 
=
“A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and a common fear of its
neighbors.” : W. R. Inge
 
=
“Patriotism is fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone and as
irrational as a headless hen.” -Ambrose Bierce
=
“Patriotism is a religion, the egg from which wars are hatched.” : Guy de Maupassant
 
=
“Patriotism is a menace to liberty.”: Emma Goldman

Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America’s War On Iraq – At Least 655,000 + +
http://tinyurl.com/usq4x
 
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’sWar
On Iraq 3,337
http://icasualties.org/oif/
 
The War in Iraq Costs
$420,796,934,978
 
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

Tales Of Terror – Somalia Report -
6 Minute Video – BBC Newsnight For 26/04/07:
Asha Hagi Elmi, a politician, talks about the genocide in Somalia being committed under
the pretext of of “War on Terror”.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17609.htm

Background On The U.S. Sponsored War In Somalia
Audio and transcript
“The Most Lawless War of Our Generation” – Fmr. UN Spokesperson on Somalia.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17612.htm

A Failure in Generalship
By Lt. Col. Paul Yingling
In 2007, Iraq’s grave and deteriorating condition offers diminishing hope for an
American victory and portends risk of an even wider and more destructive regional war.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17613.htm

Stealing from the Poor and Giving to the Rich
By Ramzy Baroud
The plundering of Iraq’s wealth, first by the UN and now by Iraq’s new Green Zone czars,
is the biggest, most shameful financial-political scandal of our times.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17610.htm

Video Proves Most Democratic Presidential Candidates’ Are A Sick Joke
1 Minute Video
Despite their opposition to the war, none of the candidates would join fellow candidate
Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio in urging impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17608.htm

Namibia – Genocide
Video
 A hundred years ago, three quarters of the Herero people of the German colony of
Namibia were killed, many in concentration camps. Today, the descendants of the survivors
are seeking reparations from the German government. This film tells for the first time
this forgotten story and its links to German racial theories.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17611.htm

Serving British soldier exposes horror of war in ‘crazy’ Basra :
“Basra is lost, they are in control now. It’s a full-scale riot and the Government are
just trying to save face,” said Private Paul Barton.
http://snipurl.com/1ihd4

Riverbend; Iraqi Girl Blog: We’ve finally decided to leave Iraq:
It’s difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to
leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing
is certain.
http://snipurl.com/1ihd5

U.S. officer blasts generals’ handling of Iraq war:
An active-duty U.S. Army officer wrote a scathing attack on U.S. generals for their role
in the war in Iraq, accusing them of misleading Congress and the public about the
situation there.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27224739.htm

War criminal complains about ethics of Bush administration:
Former CIA Chief Says Cheney, Others Pushed For Iraq War :
The former director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) says Vice President
Dick Cheney and other administration officials pushed the country to invade Iraq without
“serious debate” about whether Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat.
http://snipurl.com/1ihdb

April 28th Nationwide Impeachment Actions:
George Bush and Dick Cheney have lied the nation into a war of aggression, are spying in
open violation of the law, and have sanctioned the use of torture. These are high crimes
and misdemeanors that demand accountability. Since Congress doesn’t seem to get it, on
April 28 Americans from Miami, Florida to North Pole, Alaska are going to spell it out
for them: IMPEACH!
http://www.a28.org/

Iraq: Amnesty International appalled by stoning to death of girl and subsequent killings:
Amnesty International is appalled by the killing of Du’a Khalil Aswad, aged about 17,
who was stoned to death – for a so-called honour crime. She was killed by a group of
eight or nine men and in the presence of a large crowd in the town of Bashika, near the
city of Mosul. Some of her relatives are said to have participated in the killing.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE140272007

Uncomfortable truth: U.S. troops ignored sex slave atrocity, used Japanese-run brothels:
After its surrender — with tacit approval by U.S. occupation authorities — Japan set
up a similar “comfort women” system for American GIs.
http://snipurl.com/1ihdy

Rice indicates she will resist subpoena:
A day after receiving a subpoena from Congress, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
signaled on Thursday that she would resist the order to appear before a House committee
to answer questions about how the White House handled prewar intelligence about Iraq.
http://snipurl.com/1ihe1

Dave Lindorff: No bees? Not just strange, but scary:
When you consider that perhaps half the plants in nature depend upon pollinators like
bees to reproduce, you have to wonder what a future without bees holds – not just for the
animals that live on those plants, but for human beings.
http://snipurl.com/1ihe9

The militarization of neuroscience: We’ve seen this story before:
The Pentagon takes an interest in a rapidly changing area of scientific knowledge, and
the world is forever changed. And not for the better.
http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/hugh-gusterson/20070410.html

Senate Dems Slap Down Broder for Harry Reid Smear
 in this age of scripted politicians speaking only to their base or claiming that they
“don’t recall” anything, the fact that Mr. Reid speaks his mind should be applauded, not
derided. His brand of straight talk is honest, comes from the heart and speaks directly
to the people.

And yes, those 50 signing members DID include Joe Lieberman.  Bob Geiger has more…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/senate-dems-slap-down-broder-for-harry-reid-smear/

Democratic Caucus Puts Smackdown on David Broder
http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2007/04/democratic-caucus-puts-smackdown-on.html

A Failure In Generalship
An active duty officer criticizing the leadership is nothing short of astonishing.
To reward moral courage in our general officers, Congress must ask hard questions about
the means and ways for war as part of its oversight responsibility. Some of the answers
will be shocking, which is perhaps why Congress has not asked and the generals have not
told. Congress must ask for a candid assessment of the money and manpower required over
the next generation to prevail in the Long War. 
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/a-failure-in-generalship/

Colbert Asks Americans to Sacrifice
Since President Bush won’t ask Americans to sacrifice for the War on Terror (other than
our civil liberties), Stephen does it for him.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/colbert-asks-americans-to-sacrifice/

O’Reilly freaks on Jane Hall over Moyers
Silent Patriot: On “The O’Reilly Factor” last night, BillO accused Moyers of taking his
words out of context in order to make an ideological point, then proceeded to take bits
and pieces of Moyers’ documentary to make….an ideological point. When FOX News
Contributor Jane Hall points out that while Moyers probably should have included his
preceeding remarks, the clip really is contextual and he was only a small part of an
overall important and wonderful documentary, O’Reilly cuts her off and goes ballistic.

It’s really funny how BillO seizes on 8 seconds of a 90 minute documentary to discredit
Moyers. Had he watched the entire thing he would know why (a) Moyers is more of a
journalist than he will ever be and (b) his portrayal in the film is accurate. I won’t
hold my breath, though.

John Amato: “O’Reilly has been really losing it more than usual lately. (Remember
Geraldo?) Good for Jane Hall. She said Moyers piece was excellent and had nothing to do
with O’Reilly. Bill has added a new tactic. Attack those who don’t criticize him enough.
Why didn’t Bill bring up the point that all his other FOX cohorts refused to go on the
program like Kristol and his boss Roger Ailes?”

The Newshounds has much more…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/oreilly-freaks-on-jane-hall-over-moyers/

“O’Reilly was shown only twice which will probably annoy him. Both clips illustrated the
point that anyone not towing the administration’s line was labeled unpatriotic.

1st Clip: ” Anyone who hurts this country, will be spotlighted.”
2nd Clip: ” I will call those who criticize, Bad Americans.”

It will be interesting to see if Bill’s ego wins out compelling him to play the
incriminating clips tomorrow or will he choose to ignore the whole thing.”

O’Reilly is a crappy media analyst. He showed the clips from the film and then broader
clips from which they were taken and claimed absolution, but even in the wider context,
O’Reilly’s point was the same. Moyers just cut to the chase. O’Reilly tried to redefine
and reposition what he originally said, but those darn video clips kept smearing him with
reality. We heard what he said, and we know what he meant. No take-backs in war. In
another stunning case of projection and hypocrisy, O’Reilly called Moyers a “charlatan”
and said “you have no shame.” That must be one on those personal attacks he doesn’t make.
http://www.newshounds.us/2007/04/27/bill_oreilly_loses_it_again_unloads_on_jane_hall.php#more

Daily Show: Monica Goodling and Pat Robertson University
Jon Stewart opines on Monica Goodling’s grant of immunity and Pat Robertson’s
“prestigious” law school.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/daily-show-monica-goodling-and-pat-robertson-university/

Senator Feingold Corrects John Roberts’ Misinformation
On April 15th CNN’s John Roberts falsely implied on “Late Edition” that the proposed
Feingold-Reid bill would “cut off the funds in the middle of a war” for “troops in the
field.” In response, Senator Feingold sent Roberts a letter (.pdf) correcting the record
and appeared on “American Morning” yesterday to confront him about his misleading
characterization

But I want to repeat, this involves not taking away one thing from the troops in the
field, and that’s the reason I wanted to come on this show, to make that absolutely
clear.”

It’s really a shame that Feingold decided against a Presidential run. He’s ahead of the
curve on every single issue and truly “gets it.” When President Bush was caught violating
FISA, it was Feingold who took a stand for the Constitution and proposed taking the
modest step of censuring the President (and was shunned by nearly everyone in Congress —
including Democrats). It also would have been nice to see him at last night’s debate.
There’s no doubt in my mind he would have blown everyone out of the water.

Glenn wrote a fantastic post last November explaining why the Beltway class can’t
comprehend the Russ Feingolds of the world.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/senator-feingold-corrects-john-roberts-
misinformation/

In the anteroom of Hell
Arthur Silber:
I have written extensively about the crucial importance of Guantanamo in the current
regime’s drive to uncontested, absolute power, and the related issue of the destruction
of habeas corpus by means of the profoundly loathsome Military Commissions Act; [..]

Now, the NYT brings us this news:

The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to impose tighter restrictions
on the hundreds of lawyers who represent detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the
request has become a central issue in a new legal battle over the administration’s
detention policies…read on
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/in-the-anteroom-of-hell/

In the Anteroom of Hell
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/04/in-anteroom-of-hell.html

Tenet Blasts Bush Administration: “Men of honor don’t do this”
On Sunday’s “60 Minutes” former DCI George Tenet speaks out strongly about how his “slam
dunk” remark was taken out of context and how he was made into the WMD scapegoat. Tenet’s
new book, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA, is due out on April 30.
Hopefully sparks will fly — it’s about time we re-examine the pre-war lies.

TENET: I remember picking up the phone and calling Andy Card, who is a terrific human
being and somebody I’ve always trusted…[…] Hi, Andy. I said, you know, we believe — I
believed that he had weapons of mass destruction and now what’s happened here is, is
you’ve gone out and made me look stupid. It’s the most despicable thing I’ve ever heard
in my life. Men of honor don’t do this.  
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/tenet-blasts-bush-administration-men-of-honor-dont-do-this/

Tell us the Mission
Robert Greenwald, director and producer of Outfoxed, Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price
and Iraq for Sale, has a new project and he’s looking for your feedback:
In honor of all those who have been killed, whose lives have been destroyed in this
terrible war of choice, we have been working hard on a short film that will not let that
horrific day go unnoticed.
Watch the film and spread it far and wide.

We’ve also got a contest going looking for what SHOULD have been on the “mission
accomplished” banner. Submit your banner and the winning one will be on car bumpers all
over the country! (You’ll get some cool stuff too) For more details, and to enter, click
here.

There’s a petition on the site inspired by a returning Iraq vet’s op-ed questioning why
flags are not lowered to half-mast in honor of the deaths of soldiers.  You can sign the
petition here.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/tell-us-the-mission/

Daily Show: Who’s to Blame for VATech
Massacre?
Lax gun control laws? Strict gun control laws? Liberals? Rosie O’Donnell? Television?
Hollywood? Video games? Society? YouTube? Jon puts together a round-up of the shameful
MSM blame game.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/daily-show-whos-to-blame-for-vatech-massacre/

APRIL 25, 2007: “Buying the War”
BILL MOYERS: Four years ago this spring the Bush administration took leave of reality
and plunged our country into a war so poorly planned it soon turned into a disaster. The
story of how high officials misled the country has been told. But they couldn’t have done
it on their own; they needed a compliant press, to pass on their propaganda as news and
cheer them on.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/transcript1.html

Moyers:
 We wanted to talk to some others in the media about their role in the run up to
warÂ….Judith Miller, who left the TIMES after becoming embroiled in a White House leak
scandal declined our requestÂ…on legal grounds. The TIMES’ liberal hawk Thomas Friedman
also said no. So did Bill Safire, who had predicted Iraq would now be leading the Arab
world to democracy. President Bush recently awarded him the Medal of Freedom.

THE WASHINGTON POST’s Charles Krauthammer also turned us down…so did Roger Ailes the man
in charge of FOX NEWS.. He declined because, an assistant told us, he’s writing a book on
how Fox has changed the face of American broadcasting and doesn’t want to scoop himself.

William Kristol led the march to Bagdad behind a battery of Washington microphones. He
has not responded to any of our requests for an interviewÂ…but he still shows up on tv as
an expert, most often on FOX NEWS.

He gave them a chance to defend their positions. They declined because you can’t defend
the indefensible.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/27/moyers-roger-ailes-didnt-want-toscoophimself-wtf/

 4 27 2007

Senate Dems Join House in Effort to Save Our Troops from the Madness
of King George and Darth Vader Cheney. "The president has failed in
his mission to bring peace and stability to the people of Iraq," said
Sen. Robert Byrd.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070426/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq;_ylt=Agv4bfUR.b2Pefn2FMT_.8.s0NUE

So Much for the "Short-term Surge": Petraeus eyes long commitment in
Iraq 4/26

Petraeus: Iraq needs enormous commitment
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070426/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_military;_ylt=ApnzTTX4iqJa9BtBy4QZY9ys0NUE

Republican Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) demands Senator Harry Reid
leave office, calls him un-American for saying that Iraq is toast;
Read how disturbed Inhofe has been while in office. 4/27

Republican Senator demands Senator Reid leave office, calls him un-
American for saying that Iraq is toast

As we mention often on AMERICAblog, when the Republicans speak about
Democrats they're speaking about themselves. It's called a "tell" in
poker. A nervous twitch that gives away the kind of hand you have. In
Republican politics, it's a verbal twitch - they simply can't help
but describe themselves when attacking Democrats.
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/04/republican-senator-demands-senator-reid.html

Brent Budowsky: Bill Moyers on Media and Iraq: When Lies Become
Truth, Soldiers Die 4/27

http://pundits.thehill.com/2007/04/26/bill-moyers-on-media-and-iraq-
when-lies-become-truth-soldiers-die/

McClatchy Reporters Answer Questions Online After Moyers' PBS Report
on Press and Iraq 4/27
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003576745

Mary MacElveen: Message to Rudy Giuliani: Are you certifiably
insane? 4/27
http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2007/4/26/2906935.html

Yes, Dennis Kucinich did a brave thing and filed articles of
impeachment against Dick Cheney. So what was the response of the
Washington Post's Dana Milbank? A piece that basically made fun of
Kucinich with not one word on why Cheney should be impeached. 4/26
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/24/AR2007042402341.html

Bush Lied, Soldiers Keep Dying.
3,334 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq
381 U.S. Military Fatalities in Afghanistan
24,912 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (source: DoD Update as of April
25, 2007)
68,428 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: Iraq Body Count)
655,000 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: The Lancet)
=x=x=
x==x=xx=

April 27, 2007
George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has lashed out against Vice President Dick Cheney and
other Bush administration officials in a new book, saying they pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever
conducting a “serious debate” about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States. He contends
that the urgent appeals of the C.I.A. on terrorism received a lukewarm reception at the Bush White House through most
of 2001.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/washington/27intel.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Put Bush's 'puppy dog' terror theory to sleep
Does the President think terrorists are puppy dogs? He keeps saying that terrorists will "follow us home" like lost
dogs. This will only happen, however, he says, if we "lose" in Iraq.

The puppy dog theory is the corollary to earlier sloganeering that proved the President had never studied logic: "We
are fighting terrorists in Iraq so that we will not have to face them and fight them in the streets of our own cities."

Remarkably, in his attempt to embrace the failed Iraqi adventure even more than the President, Sen. John McCain is now
parroting the line. "We lose this war and come home, they'll follow us home," he says.

How is this odd terrorist puppy dog behavior supposed to work? The President must believe that terrorists are playing
by some odd rules of chivalry. Would this be the "only one slaughter ground at a time" rule of terrorism?

Of course, nothing about our being "over there" in any way prevents terrorists from coming here. Quite the opposite,
the evidence is overwhelming that our presence provides motivation for people throughout the Arab world to become anti-
American terrorists.

Some 100,000 Iraqis, probably more, have been killed since our invasion. They have parents, children, cousins and
fellow tribal clan members who have pledged revenge no matter how long it takes. For many, that revenge is focused on
America.

At the same time, investing time, energy and resources in Iraq takes our eye off two far more urgent tasks at hand:
one, guarding the homeland against terrorism much better than the pork-dispensing Department of Homeland Security
currently does the job; and two, systematically dismantling Al Qaeda all over the world, from Canada to Asia to Africa.
On both these fronts, the Bush administration's focus is sorely lacking.

Yet in the fantasyland of illogic in which the President dwells, shaped by slogans devised by spin doctors, America
can "win" in Iraq. Then, we are to believe, the terrorists will be so demoralized that they will recant their beliefs
and cease their terrorist ways.

In the real world, by choosing unnecessarily to go into Iraq, Bush not only diverted efforts from delivering a death
blow to Al Qaeda, he gave that movement both a second chance and the best recruiting tool possible.

 military raids in Iraq have uncovered evidence that Iraqis are planning attacks in America, perhaps to be carried
out by terrorists with European Union passports that require no U.S. visas. But such attacks here over the next several
years are likely now no matter what happens next in Iraq - and that is because of what Bush has already done, not
because of any future course we choose in Iraq.

But we can be sure that when the next attacks come in the U.S., if Bush is down on the ranch cutting trees, he and
whatever few followers he retains by then will blame his successor. You can almost hear them now: If only hissuccessor
had left enough U.S. troops in the Iraqi shooting gallery to satisfy the blood lust of the enemy, as Bush did, then
they wouldn't have come here.

The truth: If not for this administration's reckless steps to push America into war - and strategic blunder after
strategic blunder that has satisfied the blood lust of the enemy - fewer evildoers would follow us home like the dogs
that they are.

Clarke served as chief counterterrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council under Presidents Bill Clinton
and George W. Bush. He is now chairman of Good Harbor Consulting
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/04/25/2007-04-25_put_bushs_puppy_dog_terror_theory_to_sle.html

Rudy Giuliani is the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week: "Rudy claimed a couple of days ago that any Republican
presidential candidate would prevent another 9/11, while any Democratic presidential candidate would not. Beyond being
plain stupid, as Keith Olbermann noted, 9/11 happened during the administration of George W. Bush, a Republican, in a
city where the Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, was a Republican."

What do Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani have between them?

Six marriages – and a lot of philandering. Oh, did we mention that Rudy's third wife has been married three times too?
(Until reminded recently by a reporter, she forgot one of her marriages.)

As Olbermann also pointed out, beyond walking around the city looking defiant because the emergency command center he
had placed in the twin towers against professional advice had been destroyed, Rudy G's chief memorable post-9/11
contribution was threatening to cancel the NYC mayoral elections.

Why? Because Rudy felt the city couldn't do without him in a crisis.

In fact, the city could do much better without him, considering how he helped cover up the environmental health risks
that came as a result of 9/11.

Rudy G. is a legend in his own mind, an arrogant S.O.B. who deserves to be sent into permanent retirement, preferably
in another country.

In a political party ripe with hypocrites, Rudy Giuliani's gross hypocrisy on 9/11 is right up there with the criminal
Tom DeLay's assertion that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were close to treason for trying to save the lives of our GIs.
http://gophypocrites.com/2007/04/hyp07017.html

Dems fault Bush over Iraq in 1st debate

ORANGEBURG, S.C. - Democratic presidential hopefuls flashed their anti-war credentials Thursday night, heaping
criticism on        President Bush's        Iraq policy in the first debate of the 2008 campaign.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/ap_on_el_pr/democrats_debate;_ylt=AhA_6PoBRunBSb1M29K2mBys0NUE

===============================================

Rice rebuffs congress on Iraq war subpoena
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signalled Thursday that she would not comply with a subpoena to appear before
Congress to testify about discredited assertions on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Rice_rebuffs_congress_on_Iraq_war_s_04262007.html

Human medical research excluded from life sciences grant
Public schools, universities, health care providers and state employees all seem assured to get more money next year
under a $21.5 billion state budget that senators passed Wednesday.

Despite the flush budget, one area seemed assured to get nothing. Human medical research was intentionally excluded
from the state's first appropriation from a new life sciences research fund - a result of Missouri's continued
controversy over embryonic stem cell research.
http://newstribune.com/articles/2007/04/26/news_state/249state34research.txt

=x=x=xx=x=x=

"OpEdNews is one of the best progressive sites on the web. It's a great source of news and smart, tough Op-Eds I use
it all the time to keep up to date for my show." Thom Hartmann   " ...you're doing really great stuff. I'm very
impressed with it." Greg Palast      "Something Like the Drudge Report, But Designed For People Who Think" Mike Malloy
 "Great stuff. Duly bookmarked ... and thank you for doing this" Antonia Zerbisias      "OpEdNews runs news stories and
sharply smart anti-war/anti-Bush opinion pieces"  Ed Weiner of the Philadelphia Daily News   Progress Towards
Impeachment is Going Well
http://opednews.com/

Help Honor an Unsung Progressive Hero
http://home.ourfuture.org/tba07/maria-leavey-tribute-award.html

THE CHENEY DOCTRINE: UNINFORMED AND MISLEADING
Dick Cheney's attacks on Harry Reid are as disturbing as they are disingenuous. No one has been more wrong about Iraq
from day one than Vice President Cheney.

The Cheney Doctrine has been a recipe for disaster in Iraq that has put American troops in unforgivable danger and
made America less secure. The Vice President has only been consistent in his miscalculations and misdirection.
http://www.johnkerry.com/standingwithharry/

Standing With Harry Reid
They're at it again. When I came here to the Huffington Post and supported Speaker Pelosi when she was attacked by the
right-wing, I said, "They thrive on destroying our leaders - we can't let them." I take no pride in my prognostication.
READ MORE
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-kerry/standing-with-harry-reid_b_46910.html

Visit ajws.org to learn more about the crisis in Darfur.
Help stop the genocide in Darfur.
http://www.ajws.org/2007_field_visit_darfur/darfurflash2007.html

On May 1, 2003, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego, President George W. Bush gave his infamous
"Mission Accomplished" speech stating major combat operations in Iraq had ended. Today, four years later, nationally
renowned spoken word artist Steven Connell joins forces with Robert Greenwald and Brave New Foundation to ask what,
exactly, was ever accomplished.

HONOR OUR FALLEN SERVICE MEMBERS
FLY THE FLAG AT HALF-STAFF
http://tellusthemission.org/

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After the Lawyers
It can be hard to tell whom the Bush administration considers more of an enemy at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp:
the prisoners or the lawyers.

William Glaberson reported in The Times yesterday that the Justice Department had asked a federal appeals court to
remove some of the last shreds of legal representation available to the prisoners.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/opinion/27fri1.html?th&emc=th

Crippling Government From Within
The Bush administration has proved indefatigable at finding industry foxes to upend the regulatory chicken coops. The
result has been an undermining of restraints on everything from strip miners to long-haul truckers and corporate
executives intent on consumer-unfriendly mergers.

One of the most zealous of the antiregulatory ideologues is Edwin Foulke, tapped by President Bush last year to run
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. As South Carolina’s Republican Party chairman and an anti-union
stalwart, Mr. Foulke worked tirelessly to weaken the agency’s enforcement authority on workplace safety. Now that he is
OSHA’s chief, he is moving even more aggressively away from regulations in favor of corporations’ pledges to police
themselves.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/opinion/27fri2.html?th&emc=th

Corporal Tillman Haunts the Pentagon
Despite multiple investigations and hand-wringing by the Pentagon, the full truth has not emerged about the death of
Cpl. Pat Tillman, the football star turned infantryman who was accidentally gunned down by other Americans in
Afghanistan. Details dribble out about how quick Army brass were to burn his battle uniform, concoct tales of heroism
and go into a full public relations blitz.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/opinion/27fri3.html?th&emc=th

Reflections on the New Abortion Ruling and the Roberts Court
By DOROTHY SAMUELS
When justices play doctor, watch out for women’s health.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/opinion/27fri4.html?th&emc=th

Politics During Wartime
By MICHAEL DELONG
In the case of Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch, overzealous politicians and a frenzied press distorted the facts
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/opinion/27delong.html?th&emc=th

Stop the Carnage, Ban the Cluster Bomb!
Sign the petition below to ask President Bush, Secretary of State Rice, your state's U.S. Senators and your Member of
Congress to restrict and limit the use, transfer or sale of cluster bombs.
http://action.atfl.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6966&track=signclusterbombpetition_17772784

=====================================================================

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people
all the time. -Abraham Lincoln
 
"There's an old saying in Tennessee. I know it's in Texas, probably Tennessee.. that says, fool me once, shame on...
shame on you. Fool me... you can't get fooled again." - George W. Bush - http://snipurl.com/1ibs8
 
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." - George W. Bush

Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America's War On Iraq - At Least 655,000 + +
http://tinyurl.com/usq4x
 
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 3,324
http://icasualties.org/oif/
 
The War in Iraq Costs
$420,480,871,714
 
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

Jose Padilla and the Zucchini Prosecution
By Mike Whitney
Get this: Jose Padilla just spent 5 years in solitary confinement for a crime, which the government now admits, never
took place. The notion that a man can be imprisoned without proof of a crime is "preemptive justice", which is no
justice at all. It denies the "presumption of innocence" and cedes absolute power to the state.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17607.htm

Senate Orders Iraq Troop Withdrawal To Begin By Oct. 1
By Anne Flaherty
Associated Press
A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals
from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17604.htm

Knee-deep blood in the land of make-believe
By Carla Binion
A nation that doesn't care enough about the truth to investigate tenaciously and impeach Bush and Cheney if the probe
warrants, is a nation divorced from reality and conscience.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17605.htm

Dying for W
By Robert Parry
George W. Bush admits he has no evidence that a withdrawal timetable from Iraq would be harmful. Instead, the
President told interviewer Charlie Rose that this core assumption behind his veto threat of a Democratic war
appropriation bill is backed by "just logic."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17606.htm

Republicans Equal Life; Democrats Equal Death?
Keith Olbermann: A special comment about Rudolph Giuliani
We - Democrats and Republicans alike, and every variation in between - We Americans! - are sick to death of you and
the other terror-mongers trying to frighten us into submission, into the surrender of our rights and our reason, into
this betrayal of that for which this country has always stood..
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17601.htm

Iraq: At least 67 killed in another bloodt day of U.S. occupation:
Ten Iraqi soldiers were killed and 15 wounded, including civilians, when a suicide bomber rammed his car into an Iraqi
army checkpoint in the town of Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAM628193.htm

Petraeus Eyes Long Commitment in Iraq :
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday that conditions in Iraq may get harder before they
get easier and will require ''an enormous commitment'' over time by the United States.
http://snipurl.com/1ibqa

U.N. report and Times data paint grim Iraq picture:
Academics are being assassinated, prisoners are being tortured, women are being murdered by their own families in so-
called "honor killings," and civilians continue to be cut down by rampant violence, the United Nations said today in a
report painting a grim picture of life in Iraq.
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes965.html

Bush Veto Of Iraq Bill Could Come 4 Years After 'Victory' Speech : 
President Bush next week is expected to receive, and swiftly reject, legislation ordering U.S. troops to begin coming
home from Iraq this fall. The veto could fall on the fourth anniversary of the president's Iraq 'victory' speech.
http://snipurl.com/1ibqf

In case you missed it:
Senator McCain argues for immediate troop withdrawal from Somalia 1993:
2 Minute Video:
http://snipurl.com/1ibqn

Andrew Cockburn: The puppet who cleared the way for Iraq's destruction:
Paul Wolfowitz must bear a large part of the responsibility that is usually laid at the door of his superior alone
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2065440,00.html

US officer in Iraq charged with aiding the enemy:
The officer in charge of a key U.S. military detention camp in Iraq has been charged with "aiding the enemy" and
having improper relationships, including one with a detainee's daughter, the military said on Thursday
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26503062.htm

Somalia: Eye Witness Account: 'The smells and sounds are unbearable.
There are so many wounded people; from babies to 90-year-olds. They are brought to the hospitals near my house in
wheelbarrows and donkey carts, bleeding, missing limbs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2066450,00.html

British think-tank blasts Ethiopia, US over Somalia:
US and Ethiopian military intervention in Somalia has hampered international efforts to bring peace to the war-torn
country, an independent British report said Wednesday.
http://snipurl.com/1ibrf

Sheehan Wants Bush, Cheney to Pay for 'Destruction of the World':
Anti-war activists Wednesday urged Democratic leaders in Congress to pursue articles of impeachment against Vice
President Dick Cheney, introduced the previous day in the House of Representatives.
http://snipurl.com/1ibrh

Impeach Cheney Now!:
CLICK HERE TO ask your Congress Member to support impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/cheney

Judge Says 'Dirty Bomb' Case Is 'Light on Facts':
The allegations of a dirty bomb plot are nonexistent in the government's court papers, and the two sources who made
those allegations most likely will not be witnesses for the prosecution
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070423/23padilla.htm

The Buck Doesn’t Even Stop By For Visits
 know that GW Bush says all kinds of strange stuff, but is this the strangest (I don't mean most mendacious, that's
different) remark of his current term in office?

Bush said (he is) sympathetic to Tillman family. President Bush hopes someone is held responsible for the U.S.
military's mishandling of information about the death of former football star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, the White
House said Wednesday.

That sound you hear is brains leaking out all over America. See, the Tillman case involves many high-ranking people in
the Army - Colonels and Generals and perhaps even high-ranking civilian officials - engaged in a knowing and willful
conspiracy to cover up and then lie to the public about the circumstances of Pat Tillman's death. There is a chain of
command here, and someone is a the top of it, either someone in a uniform or someone in a Pentagon. And either way,
they report to one GW Bush.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/26/the-buck-doesnt-even-stop-by-for-visits/

Riverbend is leaving Iraq
This just makes me so sad, though I doubt very much that I would have lasted as long as she and her family have.
On a personal note, we've finally decided to leave. I guess I've known we would be leaving for a while now. We
discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a
preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where? 
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/26/riverbend-is-leaving-iraq/

Moyers on the Neocons and William Kristol

 often call Bill Kristol–"William the Bloody," a vampire character from Buffy because he's a first degree warmonger
who seems to love death and destruction. These bastards sold the Iraq war to the public every minute of everyday
regardless of the consequences. In Kristol's case—he is one of the worst. Moyers outlined what PNAC is and their
obsession with Iraq.

BILL MOYERS: No one got more air time from an arm chair than Bill Kristol, editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD And a media
savvy Republican strategist. In the 1990s Kristol organized a campaign for increased military spending and a muscular
foreign policy. In 1998 he and his allies wrote President Bill Clinton urging him 'to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

And now, just days after 9/11 with many of their allies serving in the administration, they wrote an open letter to
President Bush calling for regime change in bagdad. Over the coming months Kristol's Weekly Standard kept up the drum
beat.

And what does he get for his dead wrong assertions? A new column in TIME magazine. When you see the carnage this war
has caused you understand why I write about them the way I do. (full transcript below the fold)
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/26/moyers-on-the-neocons-and-william-kristol/

Moyers and Russert and Cheney Oh, My!
Moyers exposes Timmeh for the inside the beltway, message delivery system that he is. Ron Popeil would be proud. The
Scooter Libby trial gave us a look into the way Cheney used Meet the Press to control the message and Moyers confronts
him on it. Russert's response was 'absurd." This clip has the smoking gun/mushroom cloud talking head embarrassment…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/26/moyers-and-russert-and-cheney-oh-my/

Daily Show: Bush’s Band of Idiot-Geniuses

From Monday's show, an instant classic: Jon Stewart and John Oliver evaluate Alberto Gonzales' performance before the
Senate Judiciary Committee last week

Stewart: John, doesn't the President want us to feel that the people that he hires are competent? 

Oliver:  No, no, absolutely not.  No, he wants you-and the American people-to leave him the f@%# alone.  Now, Jon,
legally, Gonzales had to appear before Congress. So his choice was either to expose the administration's political
machinations or appear to be a functioning pinhead.  He went with pinhead.  And if I may say: NAILED IT!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/26/daily-show-bushs-band-of-idiot-geniuses/

Montana Rep. Michael Lange’s “Potty Mouth” in Action
This is what happens when Democratic leaders in Red States stand up for their beliefs…Republicans go insane…via
Scarce: House Majority Leader Michael Lange, R-Billings, attacks Gov. Brian Schweitzer with an angry tirade…

"My message to the Govenor is to stick it up your ass."
Kos: Schweitzer drives his state's Republicans bat-shit insane. Now I can't wait for the blogosphere's corps of Miss
Manners wannabees to start tsk tsk'ing the incivility of Montana's top Republican.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/26/montana-rep-michael-langes-potty-mouth-in-action/

Stats Hurting Your Case? Change The Criteria
Mark Twain's famous quote "There are lies, damned lies and statistics" has never been more true than now.
Particularly in the way the occupation in Iraq is spun by the White House and their flunkies.  However, this is just
ridiculous:

McClatchy:
U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending
more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.

Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration
doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is
beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Bush administration officials have pointed to a dramatic decline in one category of deaths - the bodies dumped daily
in Baghdad streets, which officials call sectarian murders - as evidence that the security plan is working. Bush said
this week that that number had declined by 50 percent, a number confirmed by statistics compiled by McClatchy Newspapers.

But the number of people killed in explosive attacks is rising, the same statistics show - up from 323 in March, the
first full month of the security plan, to 365 through April 24

UPDATE: Evidently, the US isn't the only country who doesn't want to be open about the death toll in Iraq:  Human
Rights Watch: Iraq Must Release Civilian Casualty Data To U.N. 
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/26/stats-hurting-your-case-change-the-criteria/

How many times have we heard…
By: John Amato on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 9:52 AM - PDT   …a variation on this theme?—- "It may get worse before
it gets better," as a description of the violence in Iraq by Bush or one of his Military leaders? Gen. David Petraeus
said the same thing today.

"…conditions in Iraq may get harder before they get easier and will require "an enormous commitment" over time by the
United States."

Thanks for that new revelation General. I wish I had kept count of the number of times I've heard this before…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/26/how-many-times-have-we-heard/

Oregon Governor Lives On Food Stamps For 1 Week
If Gov. Ted Kulongoski seems a little sluggish this week, he's got an excuse: he couldn't afford coffee.

In fact, the Democratic governor couldn't afford much of anything during a trip to a Salem-area grocery store on
Tuesday, where he had exactly $21 to buy a week's worth of food — the same amount that the state's average food stamp
recipient spends weekly on groceries.

Kulongoski is taking the weeklong challenge to raise awareness about the difficulty of feeding a family on a food
stamp budget. Read more…

This is so refreshing to see from a politician. I applaud Governor Kulongoski and his wife for doing this and wish
more would follow suit. The gap between the wealthy and working class in America keeps getting wider and we know Bush
and the Republicans don't give a damn.  He's never had to worry about making choices that many of us are forced to make
every day such as choosing food and shelter over health insurance and medications.  How long do you think King George
would last in the real world, forced to live like the average American? 
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/26/oregon-governor-lives-on-food-stamps-for-1-week/

MSNBC:
Yet the poll shows that 56 percent say they agree more with the Democrats in Congress who want to set a deadline for
troop withdrawal, versus the 37 percent who say they agree with Bush that there shouldn't be a deadline. What's more,
55 percent believe that victory in Iraq isn't possible. And 49 percent say the situation in Iraq has gotten worse in
the last three months since Bush announced his so-called troop surge. Thirty-seven percent say the situation has stayed
about the same, and just 12 percent think it has improved.

According to the poll, only 22 percent believe the country is on the right track. That's the lowest number on this
question since October 1992, when Bush father's was running for a second term — and lost.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/26/america-hates-the-iraq-war/

Tell Congress: Stand firm on Iraq
Congress has passed a bill to end the war by funding the troops with a clear timeline for bringing them home. Bush’s
inevitable veto will probably happen in less than 4 days.

The question is: what will Congress do next? The answer is up to you.

Congress must stand firm. When Bush vetoes, Congress must send him another funding bill with a binding plan to end the
war. And that means we’ve got to speak out now.
Sign the petition today.
http://johnedwards.com/action/sign-petitions/standfirm

==============================================================================================

 4 26 2007

Kurt Vonnegut
In an interview in 2003, he opined, “I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war,
might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened,
though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat
imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or
geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka ‘Christians,’ and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic
personalities, or ‘PPs.’”
http://wingsofjustice.com/07/04/woj07017.html

Indiana Prison Riot Shows Failures in Privatization. GOP Governor/ex-Bush Official sure got his $53 Million’s Worth
What happens when Arizona convicts are locked up in an Indiana prison managed by a Florida corrections company? A
“full scale riot,” that’s what.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/208

In Effort to Get a Modicum of the Truth from the Busheviks, Waxman Given Authority to Subpoena Rice

Democrats slap Rice with subpoena
A CONGRESSIONAL committee in the US has given its chairman authority to subpoena Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s
testimony about now-discredited claims by the US administration on Iraq’s alleged nuclear weapons program.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21623343-5006506,00.html
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, compares Bush endorsement of Gonzales to his
‘praise’ for former FEMA head Michael Brown. 4/26
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Leahy_The_President_said_Heckuva_Job_0425.html
All Those Dead People Just Muck “Beautiful Minds,” Barbara Bush Told Us. Now Her Daughter-in-Law, Laura, Tells Us to
Send Her and George the Funeral Flowers for the Dead GIs. “‘No One Suffers More Than [the] President and I.’” And the
Today Show Interviewer Let Her Get Away With That Self-Serving Victimization When Real American Families are Seeing
Relatives Die in Iraq. Hey, Laura, What are the Twins Up to? Fighting on the Front Lines Yet? Is Any Bush or Cheney?
No. 4/26
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/04/25/laura-bush-no-one-suffers-more-than-president/

Fitrakis and Wasserman: Are Rove’s missing e-mails the smoking guns of the stolen 2004 election? 4/25
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2562
The New York Times Buries Bill Moyers special on the media dropping the ball on Iraq; BTW, it’s on tonight on your
local PBS station. 4/26
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-yourgrau/new-york-times-bur_b_46798.html
Watch John McCain on The Daily Show last night; Stewart gives it to McCain on Iraq 4/25
http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2007/04/25/mccain-on-the-daily-show/

=====================
Comedy central John Mcain
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=================================================
Dan Froomkin: ‘No One Suffers More Than the President’; Laura Bush on watching television footage of Iraq actually
said, ‘ And believe me, no one suffers more than their president and I do when we watch this.’ Laura, the families of
3,334 dead U.S. soldiers, 24,764 wounded U.S. soldiers, and over 650,000 dead Iraqis would strongly disagree. 4/26
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/04/25/BL2007042501330.html

The “Thirty Years War” is taken
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2007/04/the_thirty_year.html

Dave Lindorff: Dropping the First Shoe on Impeachment
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), also a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has dropped the first impeachment
shoe, filing a bill calling for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Kucinich, defying the leadership of the Democratic Party and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who have been
struggling mightily to prevent impeachment from occurring during the waning years of the Bush presidency, filed three
articles of impeachment, claiming that Cheney violated his oath of office and the Constitution, for deceiving Congress
and the American people about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, about alleged but nonexistent links between Saddam
Hussein and Al Qaeda, and finally for making threats to invade Iran.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/965

Bush Lied, Soldiers Keep Dying.
3,334 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq
381 U.S. Military Fatalities in Afghanistan
24,764 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (source: DoD Update as of April 18, 2007)
68,428 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: Iraq Body Count)
655,000 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: The Lancet)

What If God Tells You Your Blender Is Evil ?
More and more, Americans may be turning to magical reasoning, rather than logical and scientific thought, as a
framework to navigate their daily lives.
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/4/24/104632/578/

Obama rebukes Giuliani over terrorism comments

WASHINGTON — Democrat Barack Obama rebuked Republican White House rival Rudy Giuliani Wednesday for suggesting the
United States could face another major terrorist attack if a Democrat is elected in 2008.

Rudy Giuliani today has taken the politics of fear to a new low and I believe Americans are ready to reject those kind
of politics,” Obama said in a statement. “America’s mayor should know that when it comes to 9-11 and fighting
terrorists, America is united. We know we can win this war based on shared purpose, not the same divisive politics that
question your patriotism if you dare to question failed policies that have made us less secure.”
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–obama-giuliani0425apr25,0,4854407.story?coll=ny-region-
apnewyork
=x=x=
=x=xx=x=

April 26, 2007

The House of Representatives brushed aside a veto threat Wednesday and passed legislation that would order Bush to
begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by Oct. 1. Bush Will Veto Because He Only Cares About Himself, And Sends Troops to
Die for Partisan Political Goals and His Own Sociopathology.

Veto awaits House Iraq bill
WASHINGTON -        President Bush next week is expected to receive, and swiftly reject, legislation ordering U.S.
troops to begin coming home from        Iraq this fall. The veto could fall on the fourth anniversary of the
president’s Iraq “victory” speech
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070426/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq;_ylt=AnYARTgMuWu7krkLVj2C1f.s0NUE

Dems vote subpoenas in widening probes as Busheviks unleash the Right Wing Attack Dogs and prepare to defy the rule of
law, yet again

Dems vote subpoenas in widening probes

WASHINGTON – Putting their congressional control to work, Democrats approved new subpoenas Wednesday — and a grant of
immunity — for probes ranging from the prosecutor firings and White House political activities to        President
Bush’s justification for the war in        Iraq.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070426/ap_on_go_co/congress_subpoenas;_ylt=AhQdAL3r6j7QoLc91tD9wNTMWM0F

White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election
for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity,
a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday. In short, this Rovian partisan use of
federal agencies violated the law; specifically, the Hatch Act.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/25/AR2007042503046.html?hpid=topnews

Another Smoking Gun in ProsecutorGate: The top aide to Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) called the office of Arizona’s U.S.
attorney about six weeks before the prosecutor was fired, inquiring about a federal probe into the congressman’s role
in a land deal that benefited a former business partner and political patron. This is what is called obstruction of
justice — and it likely involved Renzi, Rove, Gonzales and Bush.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/25/AR2007042502707.html?hpid=topnews
x=x=x=
=x=x=xx=x

Sadr calls for protest of Iraq wall
http://www.kentucky.com/524/story/52225.html

UN raps Iraq for holding back death toll figures: ‘Baghdad security plan fails to reduce violence’
UN report says over 37,600 detainees in US and Iraqi prisons
BAGHDAD: Sectarian violence continued to claim the lives of a large number of Iraqi civilians in Sunni Arab and Shiite
neighbourhoods of Iraq’s capital, despite the coalition’s new Baghdad security plan, the UN said on Wednesday.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C04%5C26%5Cstory_26-4-2007_pg4_1

Purrint
Make your PrintScreen (and alt-print screen) button work the way it ought. Save to file (bmp, png, jpg), print to
printer, or copy to dumb ol’ clipboard. Works in any version of windows since Win95, and it’s only 114k.
http://www.bcheck.net/apps/

Hoe Key
HoeKey is a teeny (12k) program to assign hotkeys to do most anything. Win-N to run notepad, Win-G to google search on
current highlighted word, etc etc. It’s configurable with a simple .ini file.
http://www.bcheck.net/apps/

=xx==
x==xx=x==x

http://www.raymoreeagles4146.org/liberty.html

http://tinyurl.com/2e4e37

Fire Karl Rove
There is a trail of rot making its way through our government—and it leads straight to Karl Rove.

New evidence shows that Rove has been methodically working to twist even the most impartial branches of the federal
government—including the Justice Department—to serve the Republican Party at the expense of the American people.

Please add your name, so when John speaks out at tomorrow’s debate it’s clear that he’s speaking for thousands. We’ll
keep a signature counter online to show how many have joined the call.
www.johnedwards.com/fire-rove
The Assault on Civil Liberties
Because Gonzales was a chief architect of this administration’s overreaching presidential powers and detainee torture
policies, People For the American Way opposed Gonzales’ confirmation as Attorney General in early 2005. We agonized
then that “the risk that such a lack of independence poses…is simply too great to warrant his confirmation,” and now
our fears have come to pass.

Want to help us get rid of Gonzales? Here’s what you can do:
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=23879

JOIN THE CALL TO RESTORE OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=habeas_petition&s_site=email&JServSessionIdr007=hoofjc1rt4.app20a

U.S. Asks Court to Limit Lawyers
at Guantánamo
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
The proposal would limit lawyers’ contact with their clients and access to secret evidence in their cases.

The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to impose tighter restrictions on the hundreds of lawyers who
represent detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the request has become a central issue in a new legal battle over the
administration’s detention policies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/washington/26gitmo.html?th&emc=th

Another Dubious Firing
The case of Paul Charlton, a United States attorney in Arizona and one of the eight prosecutors purged by the White
House and the Justice Department, adds a disturbing new chapter to the scandal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/opinion/26thu1.html?th&emc=th
Ranting at Reality on Iraq
The sooner President Bush and his allies drop the pretense that military victory is still possible in Iraq, the closer
the nation will be to rescuing what can still be rescued from the debacle
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/opinion/26thu2.html?th&emc=th

Guns and More Guns
It seems that for the National Rifle Association and the gun lobby, the only solution to a gun in the wrong hands is a
gun in the hands of everyone
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/opinion/26thu4.html?th&emc=th
Republican Stem Cell Stupidity
George Bush is continuing to defy the will of the American people with his pledge to veto the Senate Stem Cell
Research Enhancement Act. Millions of Americans are waiting for the cures that stem cell research may provide and it is
completely unacceptable for the president and a small band of ideologues to stand in the way.
Please join Senator Kennedy in demanding that the president put away his veto pen and allow Congress to pass this
vital bill.

It would make a lot of people happy if you would stop blocking medical research that could save and repair thousands
of lives.
It is time for you to stop playing king, go back to school and get the education you admitted you missed while you
were drinking with the scull and boners.
http://www.dscc.org/makeadifference/petitions/20070418_Kennedy.htm

Politically speaking, tribal nationalism [patriotism] always insists that its own people are surrounded by ‘a world of
enemies’ – ‘one against all’ – and that a fundamental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims
its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a
common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man.” -Hannah Arendt, The Origins Of Totalitarianism
p.227
 
===
“Seas of blood have been shed for the sake of patriotism. One would expect the harm and irrationality of patriotism to
be self-evident to everyone. But the surprising fact is that cultured and learned people not only do not notice the
harm and stupidity of patriotism, they resist every unveiling of it with the greatest obstinacy and passion (with no
rational grounds), and continue to praise it as beneficent and elevating.” : Leo Tolstoy
 
=
“Blind patriotism has been kept intact by rewriting history to provide people with moral consolation and a
psychological basis for denial.” -William H. Boyer
 
=
“Patriotism is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a web of lies and falsehoods, robbing us of
our dignity and increasing our arrogance and conceit.” : Emma Goldman
Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America’s War On Iraq – At Least 655,000 + +
http://tinyurl.com/usq4x
 
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’sWar On Iraq 3,333
http://icasualties.org/oif/
 
The War in Iraq Costs
$420,175,284,400
 
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
Kucinich Files Impeachment Bill
By Dave Lindorff
The bill now goes to the House Judiciary Committee, where Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and the rest of the committee’s
members will have to decide whether go hold formal hearings on the charges.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17594.htm
Worse Than Nixon
Cheney Is Wrong About Me, Wrong About War
By George S. McGovern
It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice
President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office after 1972.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17599.htm

Working for the Clampdown
What might the president do with his new power to declare martial law?
By James Bovard
How many pipe bombs might it take to end American democracy? Far fewer than it would have taken a year ago.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17595.htm
Holocaust Redux
By Manuel Valenzuela
In the supposed enlightened nations of the West, the harbingers of mass destruction and suffering are spawned, planned
and executed. For those bastions of morality and exceptionalism we call the First World have realized that war is as
old as humankind itself, and as profitable as well, for the violence that creates war is ingrained into our instincts,
embedded into the most violent species the planet has ever evolved.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17593.htm

How Three Million Germans Died After VE Day
By Nigel Jones 
After the atrocities that the Nazis had visited on Europe, some degree of justified vengeance by their victims was
inevitable, but the appalling bestialities that MacDonogh documents so soberly went far beyond that. The first 200
pages of his brave book are an almost unbearable chronicle of human suffering.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17596.htm
Behind The Mask of Evil
By Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D
It is so very easy for us to condemn acts of evil, to pretend that all is well “with us,” that the evil that has been
committed has emerged from the belly of a beast, that the other fellow, the one who committed the act, is someone very
different than we are, someone beyond our capacity to understand, never realizing that we do such a thing in order to
justify our angered need to condemn our foe.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17597.htm
Marines faulted in Haditha killings :
A US army probe into the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha has found US Marine Corp commanders responsible for
downplaying the seriousness of civilian fatalities.
http://snipurl.com/1i592
UN criticises Iraq human rights : 
The report describes the situation in Iraq as a “rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6591151.stm

Soldier: Army ordered me not to tell truth about Tillman:
A soldier who was in Tillman’s unit testified that Army officials ordered him not to tell the truth about what
happened when the former Arizona Cardinals player was killed.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007145913

Monica Benderman: Truth Revisited: A Letter to our Congress:
My husband spent over one year in prison, losing all pay and benefits, as a result of his stand for truth in support
of the soldiers and veterans who serve.  The Army did not want his voice to be heard by the American people.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17598.htm

Shiite cleric calls for demonstration against U.S. wall:
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr strongly condemned construction of a wall around a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad,
calling for demonstrations against the plan as a sign of “the evil will” of American “occupiers.”
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/25/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Sadr.php

Bill Moyers : A Critical Look at How U.S. News Media Helped Bush Sell the Case for
War:
Legendary broadcaster Bill Moyers is returning to the airwaves of PBS tonight to launch his new series Bill Moyers
Journal. The debut episode is titled “Buying the War.”
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/25/1414222

Israeli Democracy: For Jews Only?:
The time will have to come for Israel to declare its hand: is it “a state of the Jewish people throughout the world”
as it defines itself, or a state of all its citizens, both Jewish and non-Jewish?
http://www.counterpunch.org/karkar04252007.html

GM crop failure a warning, says US adviser:
The 10-year CSIRO trial was abandoned when tests found the peas were making mice seriously ill.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1519962.htm

Olbermann’s Special Comment on Giuliani’s Fearmongering: How Dare
You, Sir?
Keith delivered a scathing Special Comment tonight about the rank partisan fearmongering speech Rudy Giuliani gave
before a New Hampshire Republican meeting yesterday (CSPAN stream).
Claim a difference between the parties on the voters’ chances of survival — and you do Osama Bin Laden’s work for him.

And we — Democrats and Republicans alike, and every variation in between — We — Americans! — are sick to death, of you
and the other terror-mongers, trying to frighten us into submission, into the surrender of our rights and our reason,
into this betrayal of that for which this country has always stood.”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/25/olbermanns-special-comment-on-giulianis-fearmongering-how-dare-you-sir/

Longer tours of duty = less stress on the troops?

If this wasn’t published directly on the Pentagon’s website, I’d swear it was some kind of parody, meant to make the
Bush administration look foolish.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/25/longer-tours-of-duty-less-stress-on-the-troops/

The Right on Pat Tillman
They only support the troops when it suits them…
The NRO had a glowing op-ed to Pat on 05/04/04: “Courage and Honor.” Pat and his family were treated with none of
these. Yesterday—only silence because the propaganda was exposed. I wonder if Derbyshire will write a piece that says
Tillman acted strangely when he tried to warn his “mates’ that he was an American when he got shot and Derby only hopes
that he would have done it differently if he were there….
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/25/the-right-on-pat-tillman/

Colbert on Bush’s Great Global Warming
Successes
Stephen pays tribute to President Bush’s “aggressive yet practical” strategy to combat global warming that’s starting
to yield positive results.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/25/colbert-on-bushs-great-global-warming-successes/

Tom Delay’s “treasonous” rant against Harry is just plain crazy
This giggle-fest from Tuesday’s “Tucker” was priceless. Guests Pat Buchanan and A.B. Stoddard simply couldn’t contain
their laughter before or after watching a video taped interview with Tom Delay where he claims that Harry Reid and
Nancy Pelosi are “very very close to treason.” When the interviewer suggests that treason is a pretty serious charge
Tom assures him that he’s right because he “looked it up while we were driving over here, what the definition of
treason is.”  Pure comedy gold… 
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/25/tom-delays-treasonous-rant-against-harry-is-just-plain-crazy/

Daily Show: Now Bush vs. Old Bush on
Timetables
2007 George Bush debates 2003 George Bush on timetables for Iraq
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/25/daily-show-now-bush-vs-old-bush-on-timetables/

Stewart and McCain debate Iraq on The Daily
Show: It gets heated….
Saint McCain sits down with Jon for a spirited debate over Iraq policy.
John Amato:..If anyone wants to write a transcript for the second half of the interview—that would be great….Stewart
and McCain got into a brawl in that segment…Do you think any of the talking heads would have this kind of debate with
McCain?
Stewart tries to explain a few things to St. McCain about fighting a civil war:

“…but that assumes that we’re fighting one enemy—they’re fighting each other. We’re not surrendering to an enemy that
has defeated us. We’re saying, how do you quell a civil war when it’s not your country?”
McCain got very angry that Stewart called them out for using the ” you’re not supporting the troops,” theme and was
trying to filibuster the segment…He tried to use the troops as a wedge. Stewart got hot and fought back…McCain started
to stutter. (rough transcript)

Stewart: All I’m saying is you cannot look a soldier in the eye and say questioning the president is less supportive
to you than extending your tour for three months when you should be coming home to your family.

McCain: Every American..
Stewart: And that’s not fair to put on people that criticize…

McCain: Jon…

Stewart: And you know I love you and respect your service and would never question any of that—this is not about
questioning the troops and their ability to fight and their ability to be supported. And that is what the
administration does and that is almost criminal.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/25/senator-mccain-on-the-daily-show/

A little perspective
My buddy, SteveAudio, noticed that the media was only too happy to pick up the John Edwards’s $400 haircut for all it
was worth, analyzing it and dissecting it to make judgments on Edwards and Democrats alike.  However, the media has
been curiously disinterested in making the same kind of scrutiny to the purchases made by the Bushes.
http://steveaudio.blogspot.com/2007/04/get-you-room-at-rhythm-ranch.html

Locker Gnome
Dark Room
Dark Room is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on
features, Dark Room is just about you and your text.
http://they.misled.us/dark-room