Listen to Dick Cheney now, denying that the Bush administration used torture. What a sonofabitch. We have a PRESIDENT who is loathe to start an investigation into the lawbreaking actions (too numerous to mention) of the Bush administration. We have a PRESIDENT who seems to be hiding behind the White House curtains, which are still as opaque as when Bush was president.
When are the politicians going to be held accountable--when are investigations going to reveal the truth? Probably never. I am considering moving out of the former United States of America---I'm tired of the trickery and slickery dickery cocksuckers running the country into ruin. I'm tired of promises, lies, and deceit. If they can't be held responsible, how are the citizens of the country to react?
Jim Pankey, USN (Ret.)
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Rush Limbaugh: 20 Years of Lies and Hate
Saturday, 02 August 2008
Jeff Koopersmith reviews OxyContin addict Rush Limbaugh's twenty years of hate-filled moronic mockery that has helped destroy our nation.
Welcome, Wingnuts!
And props to the good people at propeller.com and American Review who are sending all this great Web traffic our way. We're compiling the funniest and stupidest hate mail you've been sending our way for our very popular Cro-Magnon Mail feature! And remember to visit us regularly… but only after you've taken your blood pressure and psych meds; APJ takes no responsibility for health problems caused by exposure to the truth.
August 2, 2008 – Geneva (apj.us) – The dim bulbs at Human Events had to think of something to celebrate this week so they could send their several hundred readers more spam from their “advertisers” – which include fraudulent “health care providers” and everyone who types for them giving away their stockpiled books which never sell, for free.
Human Events also had to find a hero, which is a difficult thing for the ultra right. Father Coughlan, Heinrich Himmler and Joe McCarthy are all dead, so they chose today's outstanding hate monger: Rush Limbaugh, the radio drug addict who used his maid as his “connection” to buy illegal heroin-based drugs and risked her life in doing so.
Of course, we could count of Ann Coulter – the wannabee Rush – so in love with that pig that she moved next door to him a few years ago. Of course, Rush lives in a house – a thirty million dollar compound. Ann lives in a dump – a two family atrocity on a questionable street in Palm Beach which lost half it’s value the moment she bought it. Of course, Rush must have been delighted she moved sort of “into the neighborhood.” Now they can have lunch or dinner together in a real restaurant instead of having to make bologna sandwiches at home. You see, when Rush first moved to Palm Beach he found out that when he walked into a restaurant, half the people would walk out, shouting at him – even threatening him.
In other words, Rush is a pariah – even in Republican stronghold Palm Beach. Coulter is a piranha and a pariah. Together they can at least try to go out without being stoned by people who don’t think that Condi Rice is a God.
To get to the point – Ann felt she just had to really kiss the very fat rump of Limbaugh this week, so she decided to rewrite history and claim that Rush “invented radio”.
In a way, that’s true. Limbaugh invented modern hate radio, radio for the stupid and insane, radio the paranoid and ignorant, radio for those fearful of change and longong for a return to the imaginary “values” of a past America, and radio that liberals love to listen to – because Rush is just one big comedy act to us. Dark humor it’s called.
Ann Coulter thinks that Rush’s “story” is like something from a movie. She actually writes, in a breathless gush worthy of Leni Riefensthal, “Forging his own path against all odds and under constant attack, in the end, the hero triumphs!”
The reader barfs.
I think what she meant was that he was fired over and over again for unacceptable deceitfulness and bigotry and finally, after this mode became popular in certain redneck parts of California, he finally found his niche: appeal to the dumbest asses on earth and make them think they’re brain surgeon material.
The father of Western education, John Locke, said it best: “The masses are asses”.
Ann mentions that she clerked for a federal court judge in Kansas City after she barely made it out of law school. She probably did that because, deep down, she wanted to be a prosecutor – and imprison all those black people who used and sold drugs so white people could be safe, white people like Limbaugh who could freak out all day and night on Oxycontin by using his poor maid as a drug mule – and get away with it.
I might mention that the judge she clerked for, Pasco Bowman II, was a Reagan appointee and, just by chance (wink wink), his court – the 8th Circuit Court in St. Louis, made up of Pasco Bowman, James Loken and Clarence Beam – accommodated Big Loser Kenneth Starr by removing Judge Henry Woods of Little Rock from one of Starr's sham Whitewater frauds.
Judge Bowman was frightened that Judge Woods would be far too smart for Starr’s weasel-based fables. Starr was known to be most interested finding the “Right,” as in a right wing Judge rather than finding justice. Even that ruse failed – and Coulter was probably part of it in one way or another (let's not forget Ann's role in passing around tapes of “private” conversations between Monica Lewinsky and Divine lookalike Linda “Judas” Tripp). Starr couldn’t find even a corrupt judge who would listen seriously to his hoodwink arguments.
Anyway, Coulter lets us in on what must be the world’s best kept secret: that Rush is part of the “prominent” Limbaugh family! She claims every lawyer in the Midwest has heard of the Limbaughs. Wow! Well I guess every family has to have at least one disgrace and Rush is it.
Coulter claims that Rush “spurned” the law, spurned college and “went on radio.”
She forgets why he “spurned the law and college” – but if I told you why you wouldn’t believe me. I will anyway: he was a clown. The funniest conclusion Ms. Coulter draws here that Limbaugh laughed at education – “because he wanted to” – this, naturally, being evidence that he was a “conservative.”
Huh? Well, I guess that is correct in a way – the so-called conservatives who have somehow become Neofascists in the last thirty years do just that, don’t they? They do whatever they feel like: declaring illegal wars, killing a million innocent women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan, throwing the Constitution in the toilet, enriching themselves personally drenched in the blood of our soldiers who they make believe they care for, destroying America’s economy, and making the world detest our wonderful country.
Yes, those conservatives! They do what they want.
Even Coulter has to admit – and she does – that Limbaugh was fired over and over again from radio – not because of his “distinctive brand of conservatism,” but for hate-baiting blacks, gays, lesbians, liberals (also known as people who can read and comprehend rather than using Cliff Notes), and any other typical Nazi target he could find.
Liberals never said that Rush was in radio for the money as Coulter claims. Liberals believed Rush should be exposed for the fraud he is: a liar, a bigot, a hate-filled evil fat clown, and worse.
Coulter believes Rush Limbaugh is a success. Of course she does – because people like her measure success by how much money you earn. Rush earned every nickel and he did it by hawking fraudulent and misleading products. Reliable companies that advertised on radio wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole. I’ve always wondered how much money his kind of advertisers stole from Rush’s audience – who, by definition, must be dumber than wood.
This is Coulter’s best sentence: “Perhaps some of Rush’s imitators are in it for the money, but when Rush was coming up, there was absolutely no reason to believe three hours of conservative talk radio was the path to big bucks.”
She forgot to add – imitators “like me”
Coulter thanks Limbaugh for making it “easier” for people like her to become successful at bigotry and hate mongering. I guess he deserves her thanks, but that’s like saying that Hitler made it easier for Saddam or George W. Bush for that matter.
She applauds Rush for “flushing out” liberals and making us use our “talking points” against him. This is her biggest lie. In fact, we liberals love Rush’s free-for-all use of the radio waves – he makes liberals look smarter every day. How Coulter can use the word “us” referring to herself and Rush is the biggest laugh.
Here’s a fact: Coulter is nothing. Limbaugh, like Stalin, is monumental – a monumental hate-filled fraud.
Coulter goes on with her weasel comparisons – “there was no FOX News, no Drudge Report. Rush just had to stand there taking the bullets by himself.” Bullets? You mean Treasury Bills, don’t you?
Even more ridiculous is putting Matt Drudge in a league alongside FOX. As I recall, FOX briefly broadcast Drudge – then fired him! Further, Drudge often tells the truth – which is more than I can say for Coulter or Limbaugh. Both are merely hired ideological whores for evil in my judgment.
I’m not sure anyone criticizes Mr. Limbaugh any longer. Why bother? He’s now a bit player on a very big stage. There are so many Rush Limbaughs who are so much dumber and more mean-spirited than he that he’s merely another egg in the rotten dozen. Look at Sean Hannity, for instance: a high school dropout thug with an IQ that matches my dog’s.
As for Coulter’s rehash of how “large” the Neocon audience is today, I remind her that her ludicrous books are taking up a football field’s size warehouse and that Rush’s numbers are way down. However, he is popular.
Again, “the Masses are Asses” – or at least that’s the theory Rush works from, the same one that thrust Hitler to power: “the Big Lie.” Rush is the certainly one of the biggest liars.
Coulter couldn’t find any recent criticism of Limbaugh because no one really cares to bother. So, she dug up a 17 year-old list of criticisms against conservatives from a world renowned news source, The Syracuse Post-Standard, that published a list of Rush-based tag lines. I won’t bother you with the full list, but she misses the point – as usual – because she measures success by money. That’s the only thing she knows. She counters Limbaugh’s thoughtful critics not by defending his hate-mongering, but by reminding us how much money he has accrued.
As always, in these days of Obama, Coulter manages to inject some anti-black racism into her column, this time talking about Limbaugh’s lies and hate speech and actually quoting him: “When the [black] illegitimacy rate is raised, the Rev. Jackson and other black leaders immediately change the subject."
Then Coulter follows telling us that Jesse Jackson decries “children having children”?
Yes, and…?
She must be drinking again.
Coulter feels that liberals believe Rush Limbaugh is stupid. This is absolutely not true. Limbaugh is uneducated. He is a dolt. He knows nothing of what he speaks about. Yet he isn’t at all stupid. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer – a clown, a Bozo of bluster, a hate-filled puppet who does a great job of it.
I would wager he is close to genius on that scale – but then, so are a lot of serial killers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Koopersmith is an internationally renowned political consultant, opinion research authority and policy analyst. He has lobbied for causes including the alternative fuel sector and women's health, and is an expert on the international real estate market. He lives in Philadelphia, Washington and Geneva.
Saturday, 02 August 2008
Jeff Koopersmith reviews OxyContin addict Rush Limbaugh's twenty years of hate-filled moronic mockery that has helped destroy our nation.
Welcome, Wingnuts!
And props to the good people at propeller.com and American Review who are sending all this great Web traffic our way. We're compiling the funniest and stupidest hate mail you've been sending our way for our very popular Cro-Magnon Mail feature! And remember to visit us regularly… but only after you've taken your blood pressure and psych meds; APJ takes no responsibility for health problems caused by exposure to the truth.
August 2, 2008 – Geneva (apj.us) – The dim bulbs at Human Events had to think of something to celebrate this week so they could send their several hundred readers more spam from their “advertisers” – which include fraudulent “health care providers” and everyone who types for them giving away their stockpiled books which never sell, for free.
Human Events also had to find a hero, which is a difficult thing for the ultra right. Father Coughlan, Heinrich Himmler and Joe McCarthy are all dead, so they chose today's outstanding hate monger: Rush Limbaugh, the radio drug addict who used his maid as his “connection” to buy illegal heroin-based drugs and risked her life in doing so.
Of course, we could count of Ann Coulter – the wannabee Rush – so in love with that pig that she moved next door to him a few years ago. Of course, Rush lives in a house – a thirty million dollar compound. Ann lives in a dump – a two family atrocity on a questionable street in Palm Beach which lost half it’s value the moment she bought it. Of course, Rush must have been delighted she moved sort of “into the neighborhood.” Now they can have lunch or dinner together in a real restaurant instead of having to make bologna sandwiches at home. You see, when Rush first moved to Palm Beach he found out that when he walked into a restaurant, half the people would walk out, shouting at him – even threatening him.
In other words, Rush is a pariah – even in Republican stronghold Palm Beach. Coulter is a piranha and a pariah. Together they can at least try to go out without being stoned by people who don’t think that Condi Rice is a God.
To get to the point – Ann felt she just had to really kiss the very fat rump of Limbaugh this week, so she decided to rewrite history and claim that Rush “invented radio”.
In a way, that’s true. Limbaugh invented modern hate radio, radio for the stupid and insane, radio the paranoid and ignorant, radio for those fearful of change and longong for a return to the imaginary “values” of a past America, and radio that liberals love to listen to – because Rush is just one big comedy act to us. Dark humor it’s called.
Ann Coulter thinks that Rush’s “story” is like something from a movie. She actually writes, in a breathless gush worthy of Leni Riefensthal, “Forging his own path against all odds and under constant attack, in the end, the hero triumphs!”
The reader barfs.
I think what she meant was that he was fired over and over again for unacceptable deceitfulness and bigotry and finally, after this mode became popular in certain redneck parts of California, he finally found his niche: appeal to the dumbest asses on earth and make them think they’re brain surgeon material.
The father of Western education, John Locke, said it best: “The masses are asses”.
Ann mentions that she clerked for a federal court judge in Kansas City after she barely made it out of law school. She probably did that because, deep down, she wanted to be a prosecutor – and imprison all those black people who used and sold drugs so white people could be safe, white people like Limbaugh who could freak out all day and night on Oxycontin by using his poor maid as a drug mule – and get away with it.
I might mention that the judge she clerked for, Pasco Bowman II, was a Reagan appointee and, just by chance (wink wink), his court – the 8th Circuit Court in St. Louis, made up of Pasco Bowman, James Loken and Clarence Beam – accommodated Big Loser Kenneth Starr by removing Judge Henry Woods of Little Rock from one of Starr's sham Whitewater frauds.
Judge Bowman was frightened that Judge Woods would be far too smart for Starr’s weasel-based fables. Starr was known to be most interested finding the “Right,” as in a right wing Judge rather than finding justice. Even that ruse failed – and Coulter was probably part of it in one way or another (let's not forget Ann's role in passing around tapes of “private” conversations between Monica Lewinsky and Divine lookalike Linda “Judas” Tripp). Starr couldn’t find even a corrupt judge who would listen seriously to his hoodwink arguments.
Anyway, Coulter lets us in on what must be the world’s best kept secret: that Rush is part of the “prominent” Limbaugh family! She claims every lawyer in the Midwest has heard of the Limbaughs. Wow! Well I guess every family has to have at least one disgrace and Rush is it.
Coulter claims that Rush “spurned” the law, spurned college and “went on radio.”
She forgets why he “spurned the law and college” – but if I told you why you wouldn’t believe me. I will anyway: he was a clown. The funniest conclusion Ms. Coulter draws here that Limbaugh laughed at education – “because he wanted to” – this, naturally, being evidence that he was a “conservative.”
Huh? Well, I guess that is correct in a way – the so-called conservatives who have somehow become Neofascists in the last thirty years do just that, don’t they? They do whatever they feel like: declaring illegal wars, killing a million innocent women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan, throwing the Constitution in the toilet, enriching themselves personally drenched in the blood of our soldiers who they make believe they care for, destroying America’s economy, and making the world detest our wonderful country.
Yes, those conservatives! They do what they want.
Even Coulter has to admit – and she does – that Limbaugh was fired over and over again from radio – not because of his “distinctive brand of conservatism,” but for hate-baiting blacks, gays, lesbians, liberals (also known as people who can read and comprehend rather than using Cliff Notes), and any other typical Nazi target he could find.
Liberals never said that Rush was in radio for the money as Coulter claims. Liberals believed Rush should be exposed for the fraud he is: a liar, a bigot, a hate-filled evil fat clown, and worse.
Coulter believes Rush Limbaugh is a success. Of course she does – because people like her measure success by how much money you earn. Rush earned every nickel and he did it by hawking fraudulent and misleading products. Reliable companies that advertised on radio wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole. I’ve always wondered how much money his kind of advertisers stole from Rush’s audience – who, by definition, must be dumber than wood.
This is Coulter’s best sentence: “Perhaps some of Rush’s imitators are in it for the money, but when Rush was coming up, there was absolutely no reason to believe three hours of conservative talk radio was the path to big bucks.”
She forgot to add – imitators “like me”
Coulter thanks Limbaugh for making it “easier” for people like her to become successful at bigotry and hate mongering. I guess he deserves her thanks, but that’s like saying that Hitler made it easier for Saddam or George W. Bush for that matter.
She applauds Rush for “flushing out” liberals and making us use our “talking points” against him. This is her biggest lie. In fact, we liberals love Rush’s free-for-all use of the radio waves – he makes liberals look smarter every day. How Coulter can use the word “us” referring to herself and Rush is the biggest laugh.
Here’s a fact: Coulter is nothing. Limbaugh, like Stalin, is monumental – a monumental hate-filled fraud.
Coulter goes on with her weasel comparisons – “there was no FOX News, no Drudge Report. Rush just had to stand there taking the bullets by himself.” Bullets? You mean Treasury Bills, don’t you?
Even more ridiculous is putting Matt Drudge in a league alongside FOX. As I recall, FOX briefly broadcast Drudge – then fired him! Further, Drudge often tells the truth – which is more than I can say for Coulter or Limbaugh. Both are merely hired ideological whores for evil in my judgment.
I’m not sure anyone criticizes Mr. Limbaugh any longer. Why bother? He’s now a bit player on a very big stage. There are so many Rush Limbaughs who are so much dumber and more mean-spirited than he that he’s merely another egg in the rotten dozen. Look at Sean Hannity, for instance: a high school dropout thug with an IQ that matches my dog’s.
As for Coulter’s rehash of how “large” the Neocon audience is today, I remind her that her ludicrous books are taking up a football field’s size warehouse and that Rush’s numbers are way down. However, he is popular.
Again, “the Masses are Asses” – or at least that’s the theory Rush works from, the same one that thrust Hitler to power: “the Big Lie.” Rush is the certainly one of the biggest liars.
Coulter couldn’t find any recent criticism of Limbaugh because no one really cares to bother. So, she dug up a 17 year-old list of criticisms against conservatives from a world renowned news source, The Syracuse Post-Standard, that published a list of Rush-based tag lines. I won’t bother you with the full list, but she misses the point – as usual – because she measures success by money. That’s the only thing she knows. She counters Limbaugh’s thoughtful critics not by defending his hate-mongering, but by reminding us how much money he has accrued.
As always, in these days of Obama, Coulter manages to inject some anti-black racism into her column, this time talking about Limbaugh’s lies and hate speech and actually quoting him: “When the [black] illegitimacy rate is raised, the Rev. Jackson and other black leaders immediately change the subject."
Then Coulter follows telling us that Jesse Jackson decries “children having children”?
Yes, and…?
She must be drinking again.
Coulter feels that liberals believe Rush Limbaugh is stupid. This is absolutely not true. Limbaugh is uneducated. He is a dolt. He knows nothing of what he speaks about. Yet he isn’t at all stupid. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer – a clown, a Bozo of bluster, a hate-filled puppet who does a great job of it.
I would wager he is close to genius on that scale – but then, so are a lot of serial killers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Koopersmith is an internationally renowned political consultant, opinion research authority and policy analyst. He has lobbied for causes including the alternative fuel sector and women's health, and is an expert on the international real estate market. He lives in Philadelphia, Washington and Geneva.
a bill went before the senate yesterday that would allow homeowners who
are facing foreclosure to file bankruptcy so that a court could
renegotiate the terms of their contract with the banks. this is common
for all business and for people who own 2 or more homes, yachts, jets,
etc. anyone rich may file bankruptcy if they find themselves in
trouble.. the house of representatives passed this bill overwhelmingly
with more than a 2/3rds majority. in the senate, corporate democrats
crossed party lines to vote with 100% of republicans for the banks and
not for the people. they did not pass this bill and they did not pass
it because they are in the pockets of the banks. (they're also trying
to keep a bill protecting consumers from predatory lenders credit card,
rate hikes and fees, bogged down as well. we know who republicans work
for, now we're finding out who the corporatist democrats are working for
too.) we cannot stop the economic melt down until the banks take the
losses for the bad, unsustainable loans they made. they must
renegotiate terms so people can stay in their homes. they need to take
their losses and stop foreclosing on the American people because they
know that the government will keep throwing money at them to make sure
they don't have to take that loss. until that loss is taken, any
recovery is just an illusion based on another empty bubble.
here are a list of the democrats who voted against the people and for
the banks. please pass this on so that people who voted for these
crooks will know them come next election and give them the boot they
deserve. if we'd wanted corporate interest and corporate interest along
served, we would have voted for republicans AGAIN.
Baucus, Bennet, Byrd, Carper, Dorgan, Johnson, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson
(NE), Pryor, and Tester.
From Shelley's blog...
are facing foreclosure to file bankruptcy so that a court could
renegotiate the terms of their contract with the banks. this is common
for all business and for people who own 2 or more homes, yachts, jets,
etc. anyone rich may file bankruptcy if they find themselves in
trouble.. the house of representatives passed this bill overwhelmingly
with more than a 2/3rds majority. in the senate, corporate democrats
crossed party lines to vote with 100% of republicans for the banks and
not for the people. they did not pass this bill and they did not pass
it because they are in the pockets of the banks. (they're also trying
to keep a bill protecting consumers from predatory lenders credit card,
rate hikes and fees, bogged down as well. we know who republicans work
for, now we're finding out who the corporatist democrats are working for
too.) we cannot stop the economic melt down until the banks take the
losses for the bad, unsustainable loans they made. they must
renegotiate terms so people can stay in their homes. they need to take
their losses and stop foreclosing on the American people because they
know that the government will keep throwing money at them to make sure
they don't have to take that loss. until that loss is taken, any
recovery is just an illusion based on another empty bubble.
here are a list of the democrats who voted against the people and for
the banks. please pass this on so that people who voted for these
crooks will know them come next election and give them the boot they
deserve. if we'd wanted corporate interest and corporate interest along
served, we would have voted for republicans AGAIN.
Baucus, Bennet, Byrd, Carper, Dorgan, Johnson, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson
(NE), Pryor, and Tester.
From Shelley's blog...
Friday, April 17, 2009
'TORTURE MEMOs'
I voted for Obama, thinking he would get us out of Iraq, thinking he would pursue criminal charges against the Bush regime for torture policies (see the TORTURE MEMO---how would you like your son or daughter to be subject to that cruel and inhuman treatment?) and spying against the citizens of the U.S.
I was wrong. Obama seems hell bent to appease the Republicans and drink their tea.
With such policies of continued appeasement of criminality and ignoring the law, we have everything to fear.
Jim
I voted for Obama, thinking he would get us out of Iraq, thinking he would pursue criminal charges against the Bush regime for torture policies (see the TORTURE MEMO---how would you like your son or daughter to be subject to that cruel and inhuman treatment?) and spying against the citizens of the U.S.
I was wrong. Obama seems hell bent to appease the Republicans and drink their tea.
With such policies of continued appeasement of criminality and ignoring the law, we have everything to fear.
Jim
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Deliverance from the Fox in the Hen House
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The verge of bankruptcy brought me to California. Spurred by a boom-and-bust cycle in western Colorado, packing up the kids and the trailer and moving further West was the only way to survive.Looking back now, dueling banjos play the tune from "Deliverance" in my head, providing levity -- for a brief moment. But the parallels between then and now are no laughing matter.
Place: Western Colorado.
Time: Early 1980s.
Political situation: Arab oil embargo; President Jimmy Carter initiated the Synfuels Corporation -- a publicly-funded investment bank designed to free Americans of dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
Plan: Pump 88 Billion dollars of tax payer's money into Synfuels to encourage domestic fuel production. In Colorado, it was oil shale, a sedimentary rock that can be heated to release hydrocarbons that can be distilled into synthetic oil.
Problem: Heads of major oil companies flooded into Grand Junction with joy abundant, an implausible plan, and both hands held out. Trusting those in the oil industry to find alternative forms of domestic fuel was not a good idea. Jimmy Carter trusted the fox to guard the hen house.
Thus, the oil shale industry was born, bringing tens of thousands of people and hundreds of businesses to western Colorado. By golly, it was a boom! Towns with names such as Rangeley and Rifle were born -- prosperity for all! Reporters were silent.
But this is where the Rorschach test pattern, which looked like a picture of progress and hope at first, began morphing into demonic ink blots painting a long-term picture of despair. We reporters had not put the pixels together...yet.
Ronald Reagan got elected, proclaiming big government was the problem, not the solution, and some key government subsidies were, according to Mr. Reagan, part of that problem. By 1986, the Synfuels program was terminated and the flow of money stopped.
But it was too late. Mountains were bombed and giant grain mill-sized distilleries were filled with shale rocks containing precious fossil fuel.
I witnessed it all as a very green cub reporter. Just 24 years old when the Synfuels program peaked, I found myself gazing up at the skyscraping retort with breathless awe other reporters/cheerleaders openly shared. We hoped it would work. People in Grand Junction were happy and buying lots of everything, including advertising on radio and television.
The retorts roared and shook from the intense heat "experts" assured us would easily seduce the fuel from the shale. What came out? Well, to be proper, it was the sound of deflating tires. To be Colorado Crude, it sounded like a wet fart.
Those who speculated on the rapid boom, those who built the buildings and homes and businesses supporting tens of thousands of newcomers to western Colorado went suddenly, and shockingly, bust.
One acquaintance, who built a high-rise to house oil company executives, took the elevator to the top of his boom-time building and threw himself off. A temporary millionaire, he died a pauper. Does this sound familiar? At this point, the boom was in the rear-view mirror and the only things in demand were a U-Haul trailer and an on-ramp to Interstate 80. The housing market collapsed, jobs evaporated, and my girls and I hit the road -- arriving in the Bay Area, which, ironically, was booming.
Lesson learned: Had reporters done some research and reporting, we might not have lifted our pom-poms with so much enthusiasm when the oil companies came to call. We did not have Google's library at our fingertips, and Grand Junction's Mesa County library did not have books explaining the particulars of oil shale. Oil shale was never a promising source of crude and it was used mostly at that time by backwards Eastern European countries with dictators -- places Like Romania -- where, if one was lucky enough to have a fireplace, the shale rocks were used like coal.
If only I had known then what I know now: that corporate greed is insatiable and when coupled with a little collusion from the government, the little guys paying taxes get a good butt-kicking.
Today, those working to get Wall Street out of trouble are the same people who used to run it. They cannot conceive of any plan other than shoring up an already broken, corrupt, inadequate, unpatriotic, every-man-for-himself system.
Putting Wall Street "experts" in charge of changing Wall Street is much like putting oil company CEOs in charge of finding alternatives to fossil fuels. Is the fox loose in the hen house again?Concerned and cautious of those who criticize without offering potential solutions, here are two from a gal who's seen one too many booms turn into boondoggle.
Most Americans work for corporations. Most corporations require employees to invest their retirement money in the stock market. That should stop. (I hear you gasping!) It's the employees' money; let them do what they want to with it. We now know that even giants fall.
On the housing front, empower average, regular workers, the real worker-bees of this top-heavy management world. Challenge the workers of this country to put their rage and sense of impotence aside and help. How, you ask? Here's one plan.
Why not give those willing to buy repossessed homes at bargain basement prices a one-time pass on capital gains taxes? Construction workers now drawing unemployment checks could do their magic on fixer-uppers and, without paying capital gains, they might be able to sell them and make a few bucks. It's a lot like the formula the "go-to guys" who started this mess are using.Finally, here's my most defining boom and bust cycle lesson. The size of the government has doubled since 1995 and the number of investigative journalists watching over that government has, well, dwindled. That's a formula for more greed and corruption.
Warnings need special delivery from reporters before the tsunami hits and the strumming of the banjos delivers us to despondency. Reporters cannot be government and corporate mouthpieces.
As I write this, down the block from my home sit two repossessed homes. A wonderful, older couple -- both former hippies -- built the homes with their own hands. Strangled by mortgage payments they could not make, they threw the keys on the banker's desk, packed up the U-haul, hugged the neighbors goodbye, and pulled out the driveway looking for the nearest freeway on-ramp. Waving goodbye, I heard the banjo play.
Painfully Ironic P.S: There is talk of reviving the oil shale industry.
Financial Crisis
The Recession
Economy
The verge of bankruptcy brought me to California. Spurred by a boom-and-bust cycle in western Colorado, packing up the kids and the trailer and moving further West was the only way to survive. Looki...
The verge of bankruptcy brought me to California. Spurred by a boom-and-bust cycle in western Colorado, packing up the kids and the trailer and moving further West was the only way to survive. Looki...
More in Politics...
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The verge of bankruptcy brought me to California. Spurred by a boom-and-bust cycle in western Colorado, packing up the kids and the trailer and moving further West was the only way to survive.Looking back now, dueling banjos play the tune from "Deliverance" in my head, providing levity -- for a brief moment. But the parallels between then and now are no laughing matter.
Place: Western Colorado.
Time: Early 1980s.
Political situation: Arab oil embargo; President Jimmy Carter initiated the Synfuels Corporation -- a publicly-funded investment bank designed to free Americans of dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
Plan: Pump 88 Billion dollars of tax payer's money into Synfuels to encourage domestic fuel production. In Colorado, it was oil shale, a sedimentary rock that can be heated to release hydrocarbons that can be distilled into synthetic oil.
Problem: Heads of major oil companies flooded into Grand Junction with joy abundant, an implausible plan, and both hands held out. Trusting those in the oil industry to find alternative forms of domestic fuel was not a good idea. Jimmy Carter trusted the fox to guard the hen house.
Thus, the oil shale industry was born, bringing tens of thousands of people and hundreds of businesses to western Colorado. By golly, it was a boom! Towns with names such as Rangeley and Rifle were born -- prosperity for all! Reporters were silent.
But this is where the Rorschach test pattern, which looked like a picture of progress and hope at first, began morphing into demonic ink blots painting a long-term picture of despair. We reporters had not put the pixels together...yet.
Ronald Reagan got elected, proclaiming big government was the problem, not the solution, and some key government subsidies were, according to Mr. Reagan, part of that problem. By 1986, the Synfuels program was terminated and the flow of money stopped.
But it was too late. Mountains were bombed and giant grain mill-sized distilleries were filled with shale rocks containing precious fossil fuel.
I witnessed it all as a very green cub reporter. Just 24 years old when the Synfuels program peaked, I found myself gazing up at the skyscraping retort with breathless awe other reporters/cheerleaders openly shared. We hoped it would work. People in Grand Junction were happy and buying lots of everything, including advertising on radio and television.
The retorts roared and shook from the intense heat "experts" assured us would easily seduce the fuel from the shale. What came out? Well, to be proper, it was the sound of deflating tires. To be Colorado Crude, it sounded like a wet fart.
Those who speculated on the rapid boom, those who built the buildings and homes and businesses supporting tens of thousands of newcomers to western Colorado went suddenly, and shockingly, bust.
One acquaintance, who built a high-rise to house oil company executives, took the elevator to the top of his boom-time building and threw himself off. A temporary millionaire, he died a pauper. Does this sound familiar? At this point, the boom was in the rear-view mirror and the only things in demand were a U-Haul trailer and an on-ramp to Interstate 80. The housing market collapsed, jobs evaporated, and my girls and I hit the road -- arriving in the Bay Area, which, ironically, was booming.
Lesson learned: Had reporters done some research and reporting, we might not have lifted our pom-poms with so much enthusiasm when the oil companies came to call. We did not have Google's library at our fingertips, and Grand Junction's Mesa County library did not have books explaining the particulars of oil shale. Oil shale was never a promising source of crude and it was used mostly at that time by backwards Eastern European countries with dictators -- places Like Romania -- where, if one was lucky enough to have a fireplace, the shale rocks were used like coal.
If only I had known then what I know now: that corporate greed is insatiable and when coupled with a little collusion from the government, the little guys paying taxes get a good butt-kicking.
Today, those working to get Wall Street out of trouble are the same people who used to run it. They cannot conceive of any plan other than shoring up an already broken, corrupt, inadequate, unpatriotic, every-man-for-himself system.
Putting Wall Street "experts" in charge of changing Wall Street is much like putting oil company CEOs in charge of finding alternatives to fossil fuels. Is the fox loose in the hen house again?Concerned and cautious of those who criticize without offering potential solutions, here are two from a gal who's seen one too many booms turn into boondoggle.
Most Americans work for corporations. Most corporations require employees to invest their retirement money in the stock market. That should stop. (I hear you gasping!) It's the employees' money; let them do what they want to with it. We now know that even giants fall.
On the housing front, empower average, regular workers, the real worker-bees of this top-heavy management world. Challenge the workers of this country to put their rage and sense of impotence aside and help. How, you ask? Here's one plan.
Why not give those willing to buy repossessed homes at bargain basement prices a one-time pass on capital gains taxes? Construction workers now drawing unemployment checks could do their magic on fixer-uppers and, without paying capital gains, they might be able to sell them and make a few bucks. It's a lot like the formula the "go-to guys" who started this mess are using.Finally, here's my most defining boom and bust cycle lesson. The size of the government has doubled since 1995 and the number of investigative journalists watching over that government has, well, dwindled. That's a formula for more greed and corruption.
Warnings need special delivery from reporters before the tsunami hits and the strumming of the banjos delivers us to despondency. Reporters cannot be government and corporate mouthpieces.
As I write this, down the block from my home sit two repossessed homes. A wonderful, older couple -- both former hippies -- built the homes with their own hands. Strangled by mortgage payments they could not make, they threw the keys on the banker's desk, packed up the U-haul, hugged the neighbors goodbye, and pulled out the driveway looking for the nearest freeway on-ramp. Waving goodbye, I heard the banjo play.
Painfully Ironic P.S: There is talk of reviving the oil shale industry.
Financial Crisis
The Recession
Economy
The verge of bankruptcy brought me to California. Spurred by a boom-and-bust cycle in western Colorado, packing up the kids and the trailer and moving further West was the only way to survive. Looki...
The verge of bankruptcy brought me to California. Spurred by a boom-and-bust cycle in western Colorado, packing up the kids and the trailer and moving further West was the only way to survive. Looki...
More in Politics...
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Submitted by Lullaby Academy on Wed, 02/11/2009 - 8:10pm.
from The Huffington Post...
Obama: Reopen the 9/11 Investigation -- Part 1by Melissa RossiFebruary 10, 2009
Patrick Leahy has a point when he urges President Obama to open investigations about the Bush administration. However, he's not pointing at the issue that we need to start with. Namely, September 11th. What really happened? More than a few people know - and I am not alone in calling for those who know to start talking and fess up. Let's not let this go the way of the JFK assassination - and whether with subpoenas or on their own volition, I demand that Dick Cheney, George W. Bush - both of whom refused to testify under oath during the 9/11 Commission proceedings -- Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, Larry Wilkerson, George Tenet, Robert Mueller and the rest - as well as Bill Clinton and Al Gore (both of whom also refused to testify under oath) -- start talking, and in a public arena. And I'm calling on the Obama administration to open up a probe and unravel the web of deceit.
Before we tuck the Bush administration into bed and hiss, "Nighty Night, you lying scoundrels," before we go on to lock the door on that heinous era of American history, we do indeed need to probe what happened under their watch. But the event that most concerns me is what happened on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Oh yeah, that's history, old news, the 9/11 Commission figured it all out, right? Except that members of the 9/11 Commission say it was "set up to fail" and that the investigation was severely hampered. So do assorted former members of the CIA, who demand a fresh look at the events of that day.
So, President Obama - leader of a new era in the United State - serve your people: pull out that can opener and pry open that can of worms.
In following posts, I will outline some of the most mysterious coincidences and events that deserve re-examination - and there are many, including how strange things happen whenever Dick Cheney's around and the missile defense program is slated to be cut as I note here and here. But let's start with the premise that all was not told, and we deserve to know the truth about this catastrophic event that so changed the world -- and boosted the military budget to new highs.
While the Obama administration is fresh - and even though we're all grappling with this economy - I urge Americans to demand that this be a top priority, and not to let Obama shrug off this "mystery" that was cloaked by his predecessor.To be continued....
Obama: Reopen the 9/11 Investigation -- Part 2by Melissa RossiFebruary 11, 2009
So many dastardly acts were committed during the Bush administration (many of them by the Bush administration) that it's hard to nail down the worst. Senator Patrick Leahy recently suggested formation of a "Truth Commission" to investigate the interrogation, torture, and shredding of civil liberties that occurred as part of the Bush administration's "War on Terror" and as Sam Stein reported here directly approached Obama about opening investigations.
I humbly suggest that the Obama administration should start by investigating the event that set the dominoes tumbling and would so shake the world that it would lead to a panicked Congress giving the previous administration a blank check for military funding (which now chomps more tax dollars than anything else in the government budget including Social Security) and a steadfast nod to questionable military adventures that sucked us into a black hole (Iraq and Afghanistan), while Congress effectively shut its eyes to the erosion of Americans' rights, the boosting of power of the executive office, the gagging of the press, and a nonstop disinformation campaign to hoodwink the American people - as well as the Bush administration's approval of extreme treatment of suspects and prisoners that might constitute war crimes.
I'm still troubled by September 11, 2001. Not merely the terrifying events of the attacks that day, but the fact that it still hasn't been fully explained. It could be and it should be. The Bush administration never came clean with "what really happened" - but the Obama administration needs to set history straight on what unfolded that day, and detail the role played by the Bush administration in it.
As more new information has emerged contradicting the official 9/11 Commission report or appearing to fill holes in it - reports about finding the black boxes of the hijacked airplanes, inconsistencies about Flight 93 (did it explode from a bomb onboard, was it shot down, or did it indeed crash as a result of the passenger rebellion?), contradictory reports about the identities of the hijackers and other reports that point to a number of Cheney-commissioned war games ongoing that day that the Bush administration never fully brought to light - and as the weakness of the 9/11 commission itself has come into the public arena -- the Obama administration owes it to the American people to reopen that can of vipers and in this sifting through the events try to figure out what really happened to debunk the fallacies - be they conspiracy theories that don't hold water or the suffocating blanket of disinformation continually dropped on Americans by the Bush administration.
Only with a new investigation into 9/11 can the needed light be shed on this dark moment. This time we need a commission:• that is properly funded (the previous commission started with a piddly $3 million budget compared to $50 million to investigate the Space Shuttle disaster ),• duly empowered (the previous commission, noted its co-chair Lee Hamilton "had a lot of trouble getting access to documents and to people" and was hesitant to use its subpoena power),• given unfettered access to needed information and parties (Bush, Cheney, Bill Clinton and Gore refused to testify under oath),• with members that owe and want no favors to or from the parties involved (executive director of the 9/11 commission Philip Zelikow had been vying for a job with the Bush administration when he served on their transition team in 2000-2001 and post-investigation was appointed to the weighty federal post of counselor of the State Department in 2005).• Willing to "name names" and point fingers• Conduct its hearings in the light of day - not behind closed doors - and make interviews part of the public record.
To aid future historians and to help the American people understand what truly unfolded over the past eight years, to set the record straight and answer the many unanswered questions, we need to petition Obama to spend but a few million dollars to dig further into the details of 9/11. And as part of that investigation, the investigation needs to look long and hard at how the Bush administration's (particularly Dick Cheney's) preoccupation with missile defense, which it was making the number 1 focus of its lobbying efforts, directly influenced the tragedy that unfolded on that tragic Tuesday in September 2001.
Melissa Rossi is the author of What Every American Should Know about the Middle East and What Every American Should Know about Who's Really Running the World, among other books in her series with Plume/Penguin Books.
» Lullaby Academy's blog login to post comments printer friendly version
» login to post comments 9 points
You guys know what to do...
Spread this far and wide. This is a breakthrough in the left-hood gatekeeper community. The blocks could start falling real quick now.
The biggest obstacle has been the taboo of the topic. This may help push it through and force it to be confronted in which we know what happens then.
from The Huffington Post...
Obama: Reopen the 9/11 Investigation -- Part 1by Melissa RossiFebruary 10, 2009
Patrick Leahy has a point when he urges President Obama to open investigations about the Bush administration. However, he's not pointing at the issue that we need to start with. Namely, September 11th. What really happened? More than a few people know - and I am not alone in calling for those who know to start talking and fess up. Let's not let this go the way of the JFK assassination - and whether with subpoenas or on their own volition, I demand that Dick Cheney, George W. Bush - both of whom refused to testify under oath during the 9/11 Commission proceedings -- Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, Larry Wilkerson, George Tenet, Robert Mueller and the rest - as well as Bill Clinton and Al Gore (both of whom also refused to testify under oath) -- start talking, and in a public arena. And I'm calling on the Obama administration to open up a probe and unravel the web of deceit.
Before we tuck the Bush administration into bed and hiss, "Nighty Night, you lying scoundrels," before we go on to lock the door on that heinous era of American history, we do indeed need to probe what happened under their watch. But the event that most concerns me is what happened on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Oh yeah, that's history, old news, the 9/11 Commission figured it all out, right? Except that members of the 9/11 Commission say it was "set up to fail" and that the investigation was severely hampered. So do assorted former members of the CIA, who demand a fresh look at the events of that day.
So, President Obama - leader of a new era in the United State - serve your people: pull out that can opener and pry open that can of worms.
In following posts, I will outline some of the most mysterious coincidences and events that deserve re-examination - and there are many, including how strange things happen whenever Dick Cheney's around and the missile defense program is slated to be cut as I note here and here. But let's start with the premise that all was not told, and we deserve to know the truth about this catastrophic event that so changed the world -- and boosted the military budget to new highs.
While the Obama administration is fresh - and even though we're all grappling with this economy - I urge Americans to demand that this be a top priority, and not to let Obama shrug off this "mystery" that was cloaked by his predecessor.To be continued....
Obama: Reopen the 9/11 Investigation -- Part 2by Melissa RossiFebruary 11, 2009
So many dastardly acts were committed during the Bush administration (many of them by the Bush administration) that it's hard to nail down the worst. Senator Patrick Leahy recently suggested formation of a "Truth Commission" to investigate the interrogation, torture, and shredding of civil liberties that occurred as part of the Bush administration's "War on Terror" and as Sam Stein reported here directly approached Obama about opening investigations.
I humbly suggest that the Obama administration should start by investigating the event that set the dominoes tumbling and would so shake the world that it would lead to a panicked Congress giving the previous administration a blank check for military funding (which now chomps more tax dollars than anything else in the government budget including Social Security) and a steadfast nod to questionable military adventures that sucked us into a black hole (Iraq and Afghanistan), while Congress effectively shut its eyes to the erosion of Americans' rights, the boosting of power of the executive office, the gagging of the press, and a nonstop disinformation campaign to hoodwink the American people - as well as the Bush administration's approval of extreme treatment of suspects and prisoners that might constitute war crimes.
I'm still troubled by September 11, 2001. Not merely the terrifying events of the attacks that day, but the fact that it still hasn't been fully explained. It could be and it should be. The Bush administration never came clean with "what really happened" - but the Obama administration needs to set history straight on what unfolded that day, and detail the role played by the Bush administration in it.
As more new information has emerged contradicting the official 9/11 Commission report or appearing to fill holes in it - reports about finding the black boxes of the hijacked airplanes, inconsistencies about Flight 93 (did it explode from a bomb onboard, was it shot down, or did it indeed crash as a result of the passenger rebellion?), contradictory reports about the identities of the hijackers and other reports that point to a number of Cheney-commissioned war games ongoing that day that the Bush administration never fully brought to light - and as the weakness of the 9/11 commission itself has come into the public arena -- the Obama administration owes it to the American people to reopen that can of vipers and in this sifting through the events try to figure out what really happened to debunk the fallacies - be they conspiracy theories that don't hold water or the suffocating blanket of disinformation continually dropped on Americans by the Bush administration.
Only with a new investigation into 9/11 can the needed light be shed on this dark moment. This time we need a commission:• that is properly funded (the previous commission started with a piddly $3 million budget compared to $50 million to investigate the Space Shuttle disaster ),• duly empowered (the previous commission, noted its co-chair Lee Hamilton "had a lot of trouble getting access to documents and to people" and was hesitant to use its subpoena power),• given unfettered access to needed information and parties (Bush, Cheney, Bill Clinton and Gore refused to testify under oath),• with members that owe and want no favors to or from the parties involved (executive director of the 9/11 commission Philip Zelikow had been vying for a job with the Bush administration when he served on their transition team in 2000-2001 and post-investigation was appointed to the weighty federal post of counselor of the State Department in 2005).• Willing to "name names" and point fingers• Conduct its hearings in the light of day - not behind closed doors - and make interviews part of the public record.
To aid future historians and to help the American people understand what truly unfolded over the past eight years, to set the record straight and answer the many unanswered questions, we need to petition Obama to spend but a few million dollars to dig further into the details of 9/11. And as part of that investigation, the investigation needs to look long and hard at how the Bush administration's (particularly Dick Cheney's) preoccupation with missile defense, which it was making the number 1 focus of its lobbying efforts, directly influenced the tragedy that unfolded on that tragic Tuesday in September 2001.
Melissa Rossi is the author of What Every American Should Know about the Middle East and What Every American Should Know about Who's Really Running the World, among other books in her series with Plume/Penguin Books.
» Lullaby Academy's blog login to post comments printer friendly version
» login to post comments 9 points
You guys know what to do...
Spread this far and wide. This is a breakthrough in the left-hood gatekeeper community. The blocks could start falling real quick now.
The biggest obstacle has been the taboo of the topic. This may help push it through and force it to be confronted in which we know what happens then.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
From Commondreams.org:
djprof March 27th, 2009 3:14 pm
Like most wars the US has instigated and engaged in via proxy corporate-connected dictators, this war is also an invisible war to most Americans. In relation to real reporting during the Vietnam war: the media tried, and tried very hard to disguise and deceive the public. It simply wasn't as sophisticated in that kind of business, and wasn't as completely controlled by corporations as it is today. There is one question that I feel must be answered in full: What role did the US play in generating what is now a war against terror in Afghanistan? Obama and others might say that it's a moot question; better to focus on what is now. But any shrink will tell you: until and unless the roots of a malady are confronted and resolved, the chance of a long term cure is slim. Obama needs to say what everyone there and throughout much of the world knows; namely that WE, the US of A were the ones who began the whole thing. We did it by funneling vast amounts of money and weapons to religious factions, while encouraging them to foment fundamentalist beliefs. Sure, there have always been fundamentalists (we have more than our share here in the US), but it was the US with the guidance of the CIA who baited the trap for Russia to invade Afghanistan in response to a growing instability associated with extreme fundamentalists. WE were the greatest perpetrators of what is now the war on terror. WE created the terror. And we did it for two main reasons. First, to suck the USSR into a Vietnam type quaigmire that would accelerate its decline. And second, to gain yet another foothold in the countries that surround Iran. Look at the map folks!!! WE were the ones who created Saddam. WE were the ones who courted Pakistan, even though we knew they were developing nuclear bombs. WE were the ones who, again and again, propped up dictators throughout most of the ring of countries surrounding Iran. Turkmenstan is now being courted by western companies for its natural gas (and, of course, the control that goes with it). France is currently hot to trot for the energy.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/18/business/AS-Turkmenistan-Franc...
Will Obama address the deep, deep involvement of the US that has brought Afghanistan from a peaceful and beautiful country to the hell hole it now is? Sure! As soon as he addresses our true motives for decimating Iraq, maintaining the best of ties with Saudi Arabia- that land of true 'corporate democracy/ AKA fascism), and labeling Iran as the world's leading exporter of terrorism. This is all such a crock of merde!!! We march into any country, under any pretense no matter how absurd, destroy that country, and yet, should a neighbor of that country try to help it resist, it is labeled a terrorist state. This economic meltdown has a silver lining to it: As falls the value of the dollar, so falls the power the US has to continue it rape of other countries. And as those rapes decline, the raping of Americans who are not among the elite will accelerate. Painful to watch it happen. But countries have karma just s people do.
djprof March 27th, 2009 3:14 pm
Like most wars the US has instigated and engaged in via proxy corporate-connected dictators, this war is also an invisible war to most Americans. In relation to real reporting during the Vietnam war: the media tried, and tried very hard to disguise and deceive the public. It simply wasn't as sophisticated in that kind of business, and wasn't as completely controlled by corporations as it is today. There is one question that I feel must be answered in full: What role did the US play in generating what is now a war against terror in Afghanistan? Obama and others might say that it's a moot question; better to focus on what is now. But any shrink will tell you: until and unless the roots of a malady are confronted and resolved, the chance of a long term cure is slim. Obama needs to say what everyone there and throughout much of the world knows; namely that WE, the US of A were the ones who began the whole thing. We did it by funneling vast amounts of money and weapons to religious factions, while encouraging them to foment fundamentalist beliefs. Sure, there have always been fundamentalists (we have more than our share here in the US), but it was the US with the guidance of the CIA who baited the trap for Russia to invade Afghanistan in response to a growing instability associated with extreme fundamentalists. WE were the greatest perpetrators of what is now the war on terror. WE created the terror. And we did it for two main reasons. First, to suck the USSR into a Vietnam type quaigmire that would accelerate its decline. And second, to gain yet another foothold in the countries that surround Iran. Look at the map folks!!! WE were the ones who created Saddam. WE were the ones who courted Pakistan, even though we knew they were developing nuclear bombs. WE were the ones who, again and again, propped up dictators throughout most of the ring of countries surrounding Iran. Turkmenstan is now being courted by western companies for its natural gas (and, of course, the control that goes with it). France is currently hot to trot for the energy.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/18/business/AS-Turkmenistan-Franc...
Will Obama address the deep, deep involvement of the US that has brought Afghanistan from a peaceful and beautiful country to the hell hole it now is? Sure! As soon as he addresses our true motives for decimating Iraq, maintaining the best of ties with Saudi Arabia- that land of true 'corporate democracy/ AKA fascism), and labeling Iran as the world's leading exporter of terrorism. This is all such a crock of merde!!! We march into any country, under any pretense no matter how absurd, destroy that country, and yet, should a neighbor of that country try to help it resist, it is labeled a terrorist state. This economic meltdown has a silver lining to it: As falls the value of the dollar, so falls the power the US has to continue it rape of other countries. And as those rapes decline, the raping of Americans who are not among the elite will accelerate. Painful to watch it happen. But countries have karma just s people do.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Arianna Huffington: Larry Summers: Brilliant Mind, Toxic Ideas
Larry Summers is one of the top economic minds of his generation, but his core beliefs and assumptions helped lay the groundwork for the current crisis. As Treasury Secretary under Clinton, he played an important role in allowing commercial banks to get into the mortgage-backed securities game. He also backed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which allowed financial derivatives to be traded without any oversight or regulation. So it was on his watch that the credit-default swaps warhead that has blown up our economy was launched. In 2000, Summers declared: "The traditional industrial economy was a Newtonian system of opposing forces, checks and balances... While, in contrast, the right metaphors for the new economy are more Darwinian, with the fittest surviving." He forgot to add the part about the fittest surviving by being bailed out by the rest of us.
Larry Summers is one of the top economic minds of his generation, but his core beliefs and assumptions helped lay the groundwork for the current crisis. As Treasury Secretary under Clinton, he played an important role in allowing commercial banks to get into the mortgage-backed securities game. He also backed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which allowed financial derivatives to be traded without any oversight or regulation. So it was on his watch that the credit-default swaps warhead that has blown up our economy was launched. In 2000, Summers declared: "The traditional industrial economy was a Newtonian system of opposing forces, checks and balances... While, in contrast, the right metaphors for the new economy are more Darwinian, with the fittest surviving." He forgot to add the part about the fittest surviving by being bailed out by the rest of us.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Colin Powell’s former chief of staff: Cheney is ‘evil,’ his fearmongering is ‘assisting’ al Qaeda.
Weeks after President Obama was inaugurated, Dick Cheney gave an interview to Politico slamming Obama’s detainee policies and warning that he was making America less safe (charges he repeated again last Sunday). Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff who left the Bush administration in protest, wrote an essay on the Washington Note last evening slamming Cheney’s fearmongering. Wilkerson calls Cheney “evil” and says his detainee policies were only “assisting” terrorists:
Cheney went on to say in his McLean interview that “Protecting the country’s security is a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business. These are evil people and we are not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.” I have to agree but the other way around. Cheney and his like are the evil people and we certainly are not going to prevail in the struggle with radical religion if we listen to people as he. […]
But al-Qa’ida will be back. Iraq, GITMO, Abu Ghraib, heavily-biased U.S. support for Israel, and a host of other strategic errors have insured al-Qa’ida’s resilience, staying power and motivation. How we deal with the future attacks of this organization and its cohorts could well seal our fate, for good or bad. Osama bin Laden and his brain trust, Aman al-Zawahiri, are counting on us to produce the bad. With people such as Cheney assisting them, they are far more likely to succeed.
Wilkerson also writes that Powell and Richard Armitage “labored to ameliorate the GITMO situation from almost day one” but that Rumsfeld and Cheney were “[s]tanding resolutely” in the way and would “have none of it.”
Weeks after President Obama was inaugurated, Dick Cheney gave an interview to Politico slamming Obama’s detainee policies and warning that he was making America less safe (charges he repeated again last Sunday). Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff who left the Bush administration in protest, wrote an essay on the Washington Note last evening slamming Cheney’s fearmongering. Wilkerson calls Cheney “evil” and says his detainee policies were only “assisting” terrorists:
Cheney went on to say in his McLean interview that “Protecting the country’s security is a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business. These are evil people and we are not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.” I have to agree but the other way around. Cheney and his like are the evil people and we certainly are not going to prevail in the struggle with radical religion if we listen to people as he. […]
But al-Qa’ida will be back. Iraq, GITMO, Abu Ghraib, heavily-biased U.S. support for Israel, and a host of other strategic errors have insured al-Qa’ida’s resilience, staying power and motivation. How we deal with the future attacks of this organization and its cohorts could well seal our fate, for good or bad. Osama bin Laden and his brain trust, Aman al-Zawahiri, are counting on us to produce the bad. With people such as Cheney assisting them, they are far more likely to succeed.
Wilkerson also writes that Powell and Richard Armitage “labored to ameliorate the GITMO situation from almost day one” but that Rumsfeld and Cheney were “[s]tanding resolutely” in the way and would “have none of it.”
Friday, March 13, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Friday, March 06, 2009
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
WORST WEEK EVER: REPUBLICANS UNHINGED
from Huffington Post article by Paul Jenkins (pjpolitics.com)
When Republicans suffered a disastrous beating in November's election, it would have been fair to assume that things could not get worse for them: the-most-liberal-Senator was to be president, Nancy-Pelosi-from-San-Francisco was going to lead a massive Democratic majority in the House, and assorted socialists were going to run things. That was bad, yes, but this week, just like the stock market (funny how that goes), Republicans hit yet a new low. In recent days, Republican leaders were called cheesy, off-putting, disastrous, untrustworthy, and inconsequential, not by Democrats, but by their party's own members, from high-profile commentators to Governors.
The highlight of the GOP week was, of course, Governor Bobby Jindal's response to Barack Obama's Congressional address. The best that can be said for Jindal's performance is that it channeled Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock, presumably not the objective, even for someone who willingly changed his name to "Bobby." But the past seven days have offered so many moments of breathtaking inanity by the GOP that our head spins at trying to organize them cohesively. With the country on the verge of being swallowed up in its entirety by the spiraling economy, Republicans obsessed over Obama's citizenship, gay people, pregnant women with HIV, helicopters, primary challenges to their own Senators from porn stars and Christian fundamentalists, registration forms, hopeless recounts, and assorted variations on the 1981 theme of "Government Is The Problem."
In Alabama, Senator Richard Shelby took it upon himself to try to fan the fires set by Republican psychopaths, including Clarence Thomas: Obama is not really American because, Shelby said, he had "not seen any birth certificate." It is quite understandable that Shelby would want to detract our attention from the fact that he chaired the Senate Committee on Banking (!), Housing (!!) and Urban Affairs from 2003 to 2007, but in the end it only serves to increase the focus on the tragic consequences of his ineptitude. On the subject, John McCain this week became preoccupied with the order for a new presidential helicopter fleet, ordered by George W. Bush and, no surprise, dreadfully mismanaged. And, since McCain still can't chew gum and walk, this is now his sole obsession, a "good idea" that would "cost taxpayers an enormous amount of money," making it sound as if building Marine One was somehow akin to, say, the New Deal. Or perhaps akin to testing pregnant women for HIV or extending health care benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian government workers, both of which were decried this week by Republicans in the Colorado Senate because: a) pregnant women with HIV (or is just pregnant women?) are promiscuous and their unborn children should not be protected "from the negative consequences of their actions;" b) homosexuality is murder.
Other Republican nut jobs, convinced that the party lost power because it was too rational, moderate and accommodating, are circling like vultures. In Louisiana, Senator David Vitter, himself a right-wing madman, realized this week that he will likely face a dual primary challenge: by porn star Stormy Daniels (it is still unclear whether she -and we assume it is a she-- was involved in Vitter's pay for sex diaper play, but let's not rule it out); and by Family Research Council Tony Perkins, who is as sexually obsessed as Vitter, and is probably even more insane. Another barmy Republican, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky, whom his Republican colleagues are desperate to get rid of (yes, he is that cuckoo), has threatened to sue his own National Republican Senatorial Committee if they do not support his reelection in 2010. This week, he also said of the head of the Committee: "I don't believe anything John Cornyn says."
The ostensible new leader of the Republican National Committee, Michael "Hip Hop" Steele, also thinks that the party has veered way too far left, this week leaving open the possibility that the three moderate GOP Senators who voted for the Obama stimulus package could face retribution. "Oh, yes, I'm always open to everything, baby, absolutely," he told an interviewer when asked whether he may withdraw funds from those Commie Republicans ("Baby?" It was on Fox News, but still). Is it any wonder that moderates everywhere are mulling party changes? Mortified by his Republican colleagues, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week made sure we realized that he had recently considered leaving the party, although why he did not is unclear. At the same time, New York City Republicans (sounds weird, no?) also took steps to remain out of power forever by refusing to support Mayor Michael Bloomberg's bid for a third term, unless he becomes a card-carrying Republican. Again.
Other GOP members don't bother leaving the Party, they just assault it from the inside. Some do it subtly, such as once-lifelong bachelor Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, who said this week that there is "a national leader, his name is President Obama," clearly meaning there are no Republican leaders. Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah also gave us a sense of how low his GOP has sunk, saying of the party's Congressional leaders: "I don't listen or read whatever it is they say because it is inconsequential -- completely." This is not from a strange leftover Vermont Republican, it is from the Governor of the most consistently Republican state in the country. In New Hampshire, former Senator Bob Smith, an early victim of the state's leftward tilt, is also intent on destroying any comeback for his Republican party in the state. This week, he appeared to threaten to move back from Florida to New Hampshire (one more sign of his madness if any was needed) to challenge his Republican nemesis, former Sen. John Sununu, himself humiliated just this November in his reelection effort (all very complicated for a small party in a small state.) Not even their favorite cheerleader/pundit Stuart Rothenberg's irrational prediction that "2009 and 2010 could be the beginning of a rebound for the party in the Northeast" (ha!) is likely to save Republicans from their cannibalistic instinct.
That said, Republicans are not only molesting one another. Yes, they are powerless against Obama or Pelosi, but they have shifted their time and money to a Democratic threat even bigger, or at least one they think they have a shot at: Al Franken, who won his challenge to Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman by a slim margin. Coleman, who has already taken a new job but actually seems to want to remain a Republican, this week called for a do-over, and Republicans everywhere are throwing money at his challenge to the November election. From an electoral perspective, it is not entirely clear why, however. Republicans are busy trying to kick out the three Northeastern GOP moderate Judases from the Senate (and surely they know they don't have a shot at replacing them with anything but a Democrat, whatever Rothenberg may hope for), but they are fighting tooth and nail to keep the Minnesota moderate? The truth is, of course, that the GOP's Minnesota focus has to do with the fact that Franken is the author of Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and that Limbaugh, besides being a big fat drug-addled idiot, is also the actual leader of the Republican Party in 2009. Presumably this would explain why Republicans, to their dying breath, are fighting the slanderous Franken. In return, they can expect various favors to be bestowed by the head big fat idiot, and even be saved from political death. "I love Bobby Jindal [...] he's brilliant," Limbaugh said this week, in what is sure to be the Republicans' determining verdict on Jindal's very Bobby-ish performance.
With the sweet smell of defeat lingering in Republican Washington, three of the party's biggest losers are back. Tom DeLay, run out of the capital because even by its standards he was woefully corrupt, called Obama's Congressional address "the most irresponsible, hypocritical speech I have ever witnessed." This from the man who blamed the Columbine shootings on "school systems [teaching] our children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup of mud." Speaking of irresponsible, hypocritical, primordial and muddy, Newt Gingrich is also back and you will be stunned to hear that he is "disappointed" with Obama's performance so far. Mitt "Who Let The Dogs Out" Romney, who drained $100 million on a creepy presidential campaign, this week decided to come to the financial rescue of embattled Republicans who are "standing up for fiscal responsibility and saying no to spending abuse" (ie, the stimulus package). Yes, that's right, the man who spent $400,000 per delegate in the Republican primary is proudly lecturing others about fiscal responsibility. Any moment now, we expect Rudy Giuliani, who outdid Romney by spending $59 million for just one delegate, to share some of his own financial wisdom, probably spicing it up with his usual light-handed touch of 9/11 doomsday.
In just seven days, Republicans have offered up more amusement and fodder for an election campaign than even the most hopeful among us could have expected. What is especially thrilling is that it comes at little expense: Obama is competently in charge, as are, by and large, Democrats elsewhere, and change is happening at a mind-blowing pace. In the long run, yes, there should be concern that having buffoons in opposition is not healthy, but for now let's enjoy the moment. Of course, you ask, what about Sarah Palin, one of the likely buffoons-in-chief in 2012? Well, her very serious documentarian took charge of her faltering public relations this week. He went on national television to tell us emphatically that she is not a "moron."
--------------Obama should ignore Republicans and Limbaugh, Palin, and the like and forge ahead with what Americans elected him for: bring Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld to justice, stop the war in Iraq, remove all troops from that country.
from Huffington Post article by Paul Jenkins (pjpolitics.com)
When Republicans suffered a disastrous beating in November's election, it would have been fair to assume that things could not get worse for them: the-most-liberal-Senator was to be president, Nancy-Pelosi-from-San-Francisco was going to lead a massive Democratic majority in the House, and assorted socialists were going to run things. That was bad, yes, but this week, just like the stock market (funny how that goes), Republicans hit yet a new low. In recent days, Republican leaders were called cheesy, off-putting, disastrous, untrustworthy, and inconsequential, not by Democrats, but by their party's own members, from high-profile commentators to Governors.
The highlight of the GOP week was, of course, Governor Bobby Jindal's response to Barack Obama's Congressional address. The best that can be said for Jindal's performance is that it channeled Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock, presumably not the objective, even for someone who willingly changed his name to "Bobby." But the past seven days have offered so many moments of breathtaking inanity by the GOP that our head spins at trying to organize them cohesively. With the country on the verge of being swallowed up in its entirety by the spiraling economy, Republicans obsessed over Obama's citizenship, gay people, pregnant women with HIV, helicopters, primary challenges to their own Senators from porn stars and Christian fundamentalists, registration forms, hopeless recounts, and assorted variations on the 1981 theme of "Government Is The Problem."
In Alabama, Senator Richard Shelby took it upon himself to try to fan the fires set by Republican psychopaths, including Clarence Thomas: Obama is not really American because, Shelby said, he had "not seen any birth certificate." It is quite understandable that Shelby would want to detract our attention from the fact that he chaired the Senate Committee on Banking (!), Housing (!!) and Urban Affairs from 2003 to 2007, but in the end it only serves to increase the focus on the tragic consequences of his ineptitude. On the subject, John McCain this week became preoccupied with the order for a new presidential helicopter fleet, ordered by George W. Bush and, no surprise, dreadfully mismanaged. And, since McCain still can't chew gum and walk, this is now his sole obsession, a "good idea" that would "cost taxpayers an enormous amount of money," making it sound as if building Marine One was somehow akin to, say, the New Deal. Or perhaps akin to testing pregnant women for HIV or extending health care benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian government workers, both of which were decried this week by Republicans in the Colorado Senate because: a) pregnant women with HIV (or is just pregnant women?) are promiscuous and their unborn children should not be protected "from the negative consequences of their actions;" b) homosexuality is murder.
Other Republican nut jobs, convinced that the party lost power because it was too rational, moderate and accommodating, are circling like vultures. In Louisiana, Senator David Vitter, himself a right-wing madman, realized this week that he will likely face a dual primary challenge: by porn star Stormy Daniels (it is still unclear whether she -and we assume it is a she-- was involved in Vitter's pay for sex diaper play, but let's not rule it out); and by Family Research Council Tony Perkins, who is as sexually obsessed as Vitter, and is probably even more insane. Another barmy Republican, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky, whom his Republican colleagues are desperate to get rid of (yes, he is that cuckoo), has threatened to sue his own National Republican Senatorial Committee if they do not support his reelection in 2010. This week, he also said of the head of the Committee: "I don't believe anything John Cornyn says."
The ostensible new leader of the Republican National Committee, Michael "Hip Hop" Steele, also thinks that the party has veered way too far left, this week leaving open the possibility that the three moderate GOP Senators who voted for the Obama stimulus package could face retribution. "Oh, yes, I'm always open to everything, baby, absolutely," he told an interviewer when asked whether he may withdraw funds from those Commie Republicans ("Baby?" It was on Fox News, but still). Is it any wonder that moderates everywhere are mulling party changes? Mortified by his Republican colleagues, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week made sure we realized that he had recently considered leaving the party, although why he did not is unclear. At the same time, New York City Republicans (sounds weird, no?) also took steps to remain out of power forever by refusing to support Mayor Michael Bloomberg's bid for a third term, unless he becomes a card-carrying Republican. Again.
Other GOP members don't bother leaving the Party, they just assault it from the inside. Some do it subtly, such as once-lifelong bachelor Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, who said this week that there is "a national leader, his name is President Obama," clearly meaning there are no Republican leaders. Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah also gave us a sense of how low his GOP has sunk, saying of the party's Congressional leaders: "I don't listen or read whatever it is they say because it is inconsequential -- completely." This is not from a strange leftover Vermont Republican, it is from the Governor of the most consistently Republican state in the country. In New Hampshire, former Senator Bob Smith, an early victim of the state's leftward tilt, is also intent on destroying any comeback for his Republican party in the state. This week, he appeared to threaten to move back from Florida to New Hampshire (one more sign of his madness if any was needed) to challenge his Republican nemesis, former Sen. John Sununu, himself humiliated just this November in his reelection effort (all very complicated for a small party in a small state.) Not even their favorite cheerleader/pundit Stuart Rothenberg's irrational prediction that "2009 and 2010 could be the beginning of a rebound for the party in the Northeast" (ha!) is likely to save Republicans from their cannibalistic instinct.
That said, Republicans are not only molesting one another. Yes, they are powerless against Obama or Pelosi, but they have shifted their time and money to a Democratic threat even bigger, or at least one they think they have a shot at: Al Franken, who won his challenge to Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman by a slim margin. Coleman, who has already taken a new job but actually seems to want to remain a Republican, this week called for a do-over, and Republicans everywhere are throwing money at his challenge to the November election. From an electoral perspective, it is not entirely clear why, however. Republicans are busy trying to kick out the three Northeastern GOP moderate Judases from the Senate (and surely they know they don't have a shot at replacing them with anything but a Democrat, whatever Rothenberg may hope for), but they are fighting tooth and nail to keep the Minnesota moderate? The truth is, of course, that the GOP's Minnesota focus has to do with the fact that Franken is the author of Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and that Limbaugh, besides being a big fat drug-addled idiot, is also the actual leader of the Republican Party in 2009. Presumably this would explain why Republicans, to their dying breath, are fighting the slanderous Franken. In return, they can expect various favors to be bestowed by the head big fat idiot, and even be saved from political death. "I love Bobby Jindal [...] he's brilliant," Limbaugh said this week, in what is sure to be the Republicans' determining verdict on Jindal's very Bobby-ish performance.
With the sweet smell of defeat lingering in Republican Washington, three of the party's biggest losers are back. Tom DeLay, run out of the capital because even by its standards he was woefully corrupt, called Obama's Congressional address "the most irresponsible, hypocritical speech I have ever witnessed." This from the man who blamed the Columbine shootings on "school systems [teaching] our children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup of mud." Speaking of irresponsible, hypocritical, primordial and muddy, Newt Gingrich is also back and you will be stunned to hear that he is "disappointed" with Obama's performance so far. Mitt "Who Let The Dogs Out" Romney, who drained $100 million on a creepy presidential campaign, this week decided to come to the financial rescue of embattled Republicans who are "standing up for fiscal responsibility and saying no to spending abuse" (ie, the stimulus package). Yes, that's right, the man who spent $400,000 per delegate in the Republican primary is proudly lecturing others about fiscal responsibility. Any moment now, we expect Rudy Giuliani, who outdid Romney by spending $59 million for just one delegate, to share some of his own financial wisdom, probably spicing it up with his usual light-handed touch of 9/11 doomsday.
In just seven days, Republicans have offered up more amusement and fodder for an election campaign than even the most hopeful among us could have expected. What is especially thrilling is that it comes at little expense: Obama is competently in charge, as are, by and large, Democrats elsewhere, and change is happening at a mind-blowing pace. In the long run, yes, there should be concern that having buffoons in opposition is not healthy, but for now let's enjoy the moment. Of course, you ask, what about Sarah Palin, one of the likely buffoons-in-chief in 2012? Well, her very serious documentarian took charge of her faltering public relations this week. He went on national television to tell us emphatically that she is not a "moron."
--------------Obama should ignore Republicans and Limbaugh, Palin, and the like and forge ahead with what Americans elected him for: bring Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld to justice, stop the war in Iraq, remove all troops from that country.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Special Prosecutor for Bush War Crimes
Submitted by Bob Fertik on December 18, 2008 - 9:45pm.
39464 of 100000 people have signed this petition.
BackgroundDear Attorney General Eric Holder,
We the undersigned citizens of the United States hereby formally petition you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in torture and other war crimes.
Update 1: Initially, we emailed Mr. Holder at his law firm. On 12/20/08 we received a reply from Mr. Holder: "Enough folks. I hear you." So out of respect we stopped forwarding each signature individually.
Update 2: After his Senate confirmation on 2/2/09, we began forwarding each signature to the Justice Department. We are trying to schedule a meeting to deliver the full list of signatures.
(Thanks to buhdydharma and the Docudharma community for the petition, and to Edger for the logo.)
Petition
Dear Attorney General Eric Holder,
We the undersigned citizens of the United States petition you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in torture and other war crimes.
These crimes are being euphemistically referred to as "abusive interrogation techniques" by such respected figures as Senator John McCain. These are euphemisms for torture. Torture is a war crime. Waterboarding is a war crime. The CIA has admitted waterboarding detainees. Former Vice President Cheney brazenly admitted authorizing the program that led to waterboarding, other forms of torture too numerous to list, and ultimately, the deaths by homicide of detainees.
As Major General Antonio Taguba, the Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison has stated:
"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
The Washington Post summarized the Senate Armed Services Committee Report on detainee treatment:
A bipartisan panel of Senators has concluded that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and that their decisions led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere.
We the undersigned citizens demand a full and thorough investigation immediately. This investigation should be pursued no matter where it may lead and no matter what the political implications may be. To this end, we remind you that you work not on behalf of or for the President or the Congress, but for the People of the United States of America and for Justice itself.
The United States is a representative democracy. The actions of our government officials are done in the name of its citizens. War Crimes have been committed in our name. Torture has been done in our name. The only way to clear our name of war crimes is to repudiate them through the aggressive prosecution of each and every person involved to the fullest extent of the law through the appointment of a Special Prosecutor.
Submitted by Bob Fertik on December 18, 2008 - 9:45pm.
39464 of 100000 people have signed this petition.
BackgroundDear Attorney General Eric Holder,
We the undersigned citizens of the United States hereby formally petition you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in torture and other war crimes.
Update 1: Initially, we emailed Mr. Holder at his law firm. On 12/20/08 we received a reply from Mr. Holder: "Enough folks. I hear you." So out of respect we stopped forwarding each signature individually.
Update 2: After his Senate confirmation on 2/2/09, we began forwarding each signature to the Justice Department. We are trying to schedule a meeting to deliver the full list of signatures.
(Thanks to buhdydharma and the Docudharma community for the petition, and to Edger for the logo.)
Petition
Dear Attorney General Eric Holder,
We the undersigned citizens of the United States petition you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in torture and other war crimes.
These crimes are being euphemistically referred to as "abusive interrogation techniques" by such respected figures as Senator John McCain. These are euphemisms for torture. Torture is a war crime. Waterboarding is a war crime. The CIA has admitted waterboarding detainees. Former Vice President Cheney brazenly admitted authorizing the program that led to waterboarding, other forms of torture too numerous to list, and ultimately, the deaths by homicide of detainees.
As Major General Antonio Taguba, the Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison has stated:
"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
The Washington Post summarized the Senate Armed Services Committee Report on detainee treatment:
A bipartisan panel of Senators has concluded that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and that their decisions led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere.
We the undersigned citizens demand a full and thorough investigation immediately. This investigation should be pursued no matter where it may lead and no matter what the political implications may be. To this end, we remind you that you work not on behalf of or for the President or the Congress, but for the People of the United States of America and for Justice itself.
The United States is a representative democracy. The actions of our government officials are done in the name of its citizens. War Crimes have been committed in our name. Torture has been done in our name. The only way to clear our name of war crimes is to repudiate them through the aggressive prosecution of each and every person involved to the fullest extent of the law through the appointment of a Special Prosecutor.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Dick Cheney: War Profiteer
by Tom Turnipseed
Questions persist about Vice-President Cheney’s role in the ongoing investigation and scandal swirling about the White House. His chief of staff and confidante Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. Let’s take a look at some personal incentives for Cheney’s selling war to our country.
Cheney has pursued a political and corporate career to make himself very rich and powerful. He is the personification of a war profiteer who slid through the revolving door connecting the public and private sectors of the defense establishment on two occasions in a career that has served his relentless quest for power and profits.
As Defense Secretary, Mr. Cheney commissioned a study for the U.S. Department of Defense by Brown and Root Services (now Kellogg, Brown and Root), a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton. The study recommended that private firms like Halliburton should take over logistical support programs for U.S. military operations around the world. Just two years after he was Secretary of Defense, Cheney stepped through the revolving door linking the Department of Defense with defense contractors and became CEO of Halliburton. Halliburton was the principal beneficiary of Cheney’s privatization efforts for our military’s logistical support and Cheney was paid $44 million for five year's work with them before he slipped back through the revolving door of war profiteering to become Vice-President of the United States. When asked about the money he received from Halliburton, Cheney said. "I tell you that the government had absolutely nothing to do with it."
The Bush administration has dished out lucrative reconstruction contracts in Iraq to favored U.S. based corporations including Halliburton and denied contracts to many Iraqi and foreign based companies. To the conquerors go the spoils was the message on December 11, 2003 when Bush said, “The taxpayers understand why it makes sense for countries that risk lives to participate in the contracts in Iraq, It's very simple. Our people risk their lives, friendly coalition folks risk their lives, and therefore the contracting is going to reflect that.”
Bush’s statement is a stunning admission of how much corrupt corporations control our foreign policy. Under Cheney’s leadership Halliburton out did Enron in using offshore subsidiaries as tax shelters to hide profits to bilk U.S. taxpayers. Halliburton also utilized off-shore subsidiaries to contract for services and sell banned equipment to rogue states like Iran, Iraq and Libya. This would be illegal if done directly by Halliburton.
At last count Halliburton had 58 offshore subsidiaries in Caribbean tax havens. With Cheney at the helm Halliburton’s tax payments to the U.S. went from $302 million in 1998 to zero in 1999, when they also received a refund of $85 million from the Internal Revenue Service.
During Cheney’s tenure as CEO from 1995 to 2000, Halliburton Products and Services set up shop in Iran. The Halliburton subsidiary does approximately $40 million a year worth of oil field service work for the Iranian government. 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl visited the subsidiary in the Cayman Islands and found that it had no office and no employees. The mailing address was a local bank with which the subsidiary is registered. Stahl was met there by the bank’s manager who informed her that all mail to the subsidiary is forwarded to Halliburton headquarters in Houston. Halliburton had created the subsidiary to allow itself to do illegal business with a rogue state and to skip out on its taxes in the process.
With Iran’s president vowing to destroy Israel and being accused by the Bush administration of harboring and aiding al-Qaeda operatives, Cheney’s company is doing business with Iran through a subsidiary and dodging its tax obligations to the U.S.
Halliburton has been more closely associated with the invasion of Iraq than any other corporation. Before the Iraq War began, it was 19th on the U.S. Army's list of top contractors and zoomed to number 1 in 2003. In 2003 Halliburton made $4.2 billion from the U.S. government. Cheney stated he had , "severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest."
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) recently asserted that Cheney's stock options which were worth $241,498 a year ago, are now valued at more than $8 million-- for an increase of 3,281% . Cheney has pledged to give the proceeds to charity. Cheney continues to received a deferred salary from the company. He was paid $205,298 in 2001; $162,392 in 2002; $178,437 in 2003; and $194,852 in 2004.
The Congressional Research Service has concluded that holding stock options while in elective office does constitute a “financial interest” whether or not the holder of the options donates the proceeds to charities, and deferred compensation is also a financial interest.
Calling on Cheney to sever his financial ties to Halliburton, Lautenberg points out that the company has already raked in more than $10 billion for work in Iraq, and was handed some of the first Katrina contracts. The company has been criticized by auditors for its handling of no-bid contacts in Iraq, and there have been numerous allegations of over charging for services. Auditors found the firm marked up meal prices for troops and inflated gas prices in a deal with a Kuwaiti supplier. The company also built the American prison at Guantanamo Bay. Lautenberg said, "It is unseemly for the Vice President to continue to benefit from this company at the same time his Administration funnels billions of dollars to it.”
Cheney’s war profiteering requires redress and justice.
Tom Turnipseed is an attorney, writer and political activist in Columbia, South Carolina. www.turnipseed.net
by Tom Turnipseed
Questions persist about Vice-President Cheney’s role in the ongoing investigation and scandal swirling about the White House. His chief of staff and confidante Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. Let’s take a look at some personal incentives for Cheney’s selling war to our country.
Cheney has pursued a political and corporate career to make himself very rich and powerful. He is the personification of a war profiteer who slid through the revolving door connecting the public and private sectors of the defense establishment on two occasions in a career that has served his relentless quest for power and profits.
As Defense Secretary, Mr. Cheney commissioned a study for the U.S. Department of Defense by Brown and Root Services (now Kellogg, Brown and Root), a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton. The study recommended that private firms like Halliburton should take over logistical support programs for U.S. military operations around the world. Just two years after he was Secretary of Defense, Cheney stepped through the revolving door linking the Department of Defense with defense contractors and became CEO of Halliburton. Halliburton was the principal beneficiary of Cheney’s privatization efforts for our military’s logistical support and Cheney was paid $44 million for five year's work with them before he slipped back through the revolving door of war profiteering to become Vice-President of the United States. When asked about the money he received from Halliburton, Cheney said. "I tell you that the government had absolutely nothing to do with it."
The Bush administration has dished out lucrative reconstruction contracts in Iraq to favored U.S. based corporations including Halliburton and denied contracts to many Iraqi and foreign based companies. To the conquerors go the spoils was the message on December 11, 2003 when Bush said, “The taxpayers understand why it makes sense for countries that risk lives to participate in the contracts in Iraq, It's very simple. Our people risk their lives, friendly coalition folks risk their lives, and therefore the contracting is going to reflect that.”
Bush’s statement is a stunning admission of how much corrupt corporations control our foreign policy. Under Cheney’s leadership Halliburton out did Enron in using offshore subsidiaries as tax shelters to hide profits to bilk U.S. taxpayers. Halliburton also utilized off-shore subsidiaries to contract for services and sell banned equipment to rogue states like Iran, Iraq and Libya. This would be illegal if done directly by Halliburton.
At last count Halliburton had 58 offshore subsidiaries in Caribbean tax havens. With Cheney at the helm Halliburton’s tax payments to the U.S. went from $302 million in 1998 to zero in 1999, when they also received a refund of $85 million from the Internal Revenue Service.
During Cheney’s tenure as CEO from 1995 to 2000, Halliburton Products and Services set up shop in Iran. The Halliburton subsidiary does approximately $40 million a year worth of oil field service work for the Iranian government. 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl visited the subsidiary in the Cayman Islands and found that it had no office and no employees. The mailing address was a local bank with which the subsidiary is registered. Stahl was met there by the bank’s manager who informed her that all mail to the subsidiary is forwarded to Halliburton headquarters in Houston. Halliburton had created the subsidiary to allow itself to do illegal business with a rogue state and to skip out on its taxes in the process.
With Iran’s president vowing to destroy Israel and being accused by the Bush administration of harboring and aiding al-Qaeda operatives, Cheney’s company is doing business with Iran through a subsidiary and dodging its tax obligations to the U.S.
Halliburton has been more closely associated with the invasion of Iraq than any other corporation. Before the Iraq War began, it was 19th on the U.S. Army's list of top contractors and zoomed to number 1 in 2003. In 2003 Halliburton made $4.2 billion from the U.S. government. Cheney stated he had , "severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest."
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) recently asserted that Cheney's stock options which were worth $241,498 a year ago, are now valued at more than $8 million-- for an increase of 3,281% . Cheney has pledged to give the proceeds to charity. Cheney continues to received a deferred salary from the company. He was paid $205,298 in 2001; $162,392 in 2002; $178,437 in 2003; and $194,852 in 2004.
The Congressional Research Service has concluded that holding stock options while in elective office does constitute a “financial interest” whether or not the holder of the options donates the proceeds to charities, and deferred compensation is also a financial interest.
Calling on Cheney to sever his financial ties to Halliburton, Lautenberg points out that the company has already raked in more than $10 billion for work in Iraq, and was handed some of the first Katrina contracts. The company has been criticized by auditors for its handling of no-bid contacts in Iraq, and there have been numerous allegations of over charging for services. Auditors found the firm marked up meal prices for troops and inflated gas prices in a deal with a Kuwaiti supplier. The company also built the American prison at Guantanamo Bay. Lautenberg said, "It is unseemly for the Vice President to continue to benefit from this company at the same time his Administration funnels billions of dollars to it.”
Cheney’s war profiteering requires redress and justice.
Tom Turnipseed is an attorney, writer and political activist in Columbia, South Carolina. www.turnipseed.net
Iraq's Shocking Human Toll: About 1 Million Killed, 4.5 Million Displaced, 1-2 Million Widows, 5 Million Orphans
By John Tirman, The Nation
Posted on February 2, 2009, Printed on February 2, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/123818/
We are now able to estimate the number of Iraqis who have died in the war instigated by the Bush administration. Looking at the empirical evidence of Bush's war legacy will put his claims of victory in perspective. Of course, even by his standards -- "stability" -- the jury is out. Most independent analysts would say it's too soon to judge the political outcome. Nearly six years after the invasion, the country remains riven by sectarian politics and major unresolved issues, like the status of Kirkuk.
We have a better grasp of the human costs of the war. For example, the United Nations estimates that there are about 4.5 million displaced Iraqis -- more than half of them refugees -- or about one in every six citizens. Only 5 percent have chosen to return to their homes over the past year, a period of reduced violence from the high levels of 2005-07. The availability of healthcare, clean water, functioning schools, jobs and so forth remains elusive. According to Unicef, many provinces report that less than 40 percent of households have access to clean water. More than 40 percent of children in Basra, and more than 70 percent in Baghdad, cannot attend school.
The mortality caused by the war is also high. Several household surveys were conducted between 2004 and 2007. While there are differences among them, the range suggests a congruence of estimates. But none have been conducted for eighteen months, and the two most reliable surveys were completed in mid-2006. The higher of those found 650,000 "excess deaths" (mortality attributable to war); the other yielded 400,000. The war remained ferocious for twelve to fifteen months after those surveys were finished and then began to subside. Iraq Body Count, a London NGO that uses English-language press reports from Iraq to count civilian deaths, provides a means to update the 2006 estimates. While it is known to be an undercount, because press reports are incomplete and Baghdad-centric, IBC nonetheless provides useful trends, which are striking. Its estimates are nearing 100,000, more than double its June 2006 figure of 45,000. (It does not count nonviolent excess deaths -- from health emergencies, for example -- or insurgent deaths.) If this is an acceptable marker, a plausible estimate of total deaths can be calculated by doubling the totals of the 2006 household surveys, which used a much more reliable and sophisticated method for estimates that draws on long experience in epidemiology. So we have, at present, between 800,000 and 1.3 million "excess deaths" as we approach the six-year anniversary of this war.
This gruesome figure makes sense when reading of claims by Iraqi officials that there are 1-2 million war widows and 5 million orphans. This constitutes direct empirical evidence of total excess mortality and indirect, though confirming, evidence of the displaced and the bereaved and of general insecurity. The overall figures are stunning: 4.5 million displaced, 1-2 million widows, 5 million orphans, about 1 million dead -- in one way or another, affecting nearly one in two Iraqis.
By any sensible measure, it would be difficult to describe this as a victory of any kind. It speaks volumes about the repair work we must do for Iraqis, and it should caution us against the savage wars we are prone to. Now that Bush is gone, perhaps the United States can honestly face the damage we have wrought and the responsibilities we must accept from it.
John Tirman is Executive Director of MIT's Center for International Studies.
© 2009 The Nation All rights reserved.
By John Tirman, The Nation
Posted on February 2, 2009, Printed on February 2, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/123818/
We are now able to estimate the number of Iraqis who have died in the war instigated by the Bush administration. Looking at the empirical evidence of Bush's war legacy will put his claims of victory in perspective. Of course, even by his standards -- "stability" -- the jury is out. Most independent analysts would say it's too soon to judge the political outcome. Nearly six years after the invasion, the country remains riven by sectarian politics and major unresolved issues, like the status of Kirkuk.
We have a better grasp of the human costs of the war. For example, the United Nations estimates that there are about 4.5 million displaced Iraqis -- more than half of them refugees -- or about one in every six citizens. Only 5 percent have chosen to return to their homes over the past year, a period of reduced violence from the high levels of 2005-07. The availability of healthcare, clean water, functioning schools, jobs and so forth remains elusive. According to Unicef, many provinces report that less than 40 percent of households have access to clean water. More than 40 percent of children in Basra, and more than 70 percent in Baghdad, cannot attend school.
The mortality caused by the war is also high. Several household surveys were conducted between 2004 and 2007. While there are differences among them, the range suggests a congruence of estimates. But none have been conducted for eighteen months, and the two most reliable surveys were completed in mid-2006. The higher of those found 650,000 "excess deaths" (mortality attributable to war); the other yielded 400,000. The war remained ferocious for twelve to fifteen months after those surveys were finished and then began to subside. Iraq Body Count, a London NGO that uses English-language press reports from Iraq to count civilian deaths, provides a means to update the 2006 estimates. While it is known to be an undercount, because press reports are incomplete and Baghdad-centric, IBC nonetheless provides useful trends, which are striking. Its estimates are nearing 100,000, more than double its June 2006 figure of 45,000. (It does not count nonviolent excess deaths -- from health emergencies, for example -- or insurgent deaths.) If this is an acceptable marker, a plausible estimate of total deaths can be calculated by doubling the totals of the 2006 household surveys, which used a much more reliable and sophisticated method for estimates that draws on long experience in epidemiology. So we have, at present, between 800,000 and 1.3 million "excess deaths" as we approach the six-year anniversary of this war.
This gruesome figure makes sense when reading of claims by Iraqi officials that there are 1-2 million war widows and 5 million orphans. This constitutes direct empirical evidence of total excess mortality and indirect, though confirming, evidence of the displaced and the bereaved and of general insecurity. The overall figures are stunning: 4.5 million displaced, 1-2 million widows, 5 million orphans, about 1 million dead -- in one way or another, affecting nearly one in two Iraqis.
By any sensible measure, it would be difficult to describe this as a victory of any kind. It speaks volumes about the repair work we must do for Iraqis, and it should caution us against the savage wars we are prone to. Now that Bush is gone, perhaps the United States can honestly face the damage we have wrought and the responsibilities we must accept from it.
John Tirman is Executive Director of MIT's Center for International Studies.
© 2009 The Nation All rights reserved.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
David LattEmmy-Winning Television Writer, Producer
Posted January 30, 2009 | 09:48 AM (EST) BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index
Bush Punk'd Us Again
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Share Print CommentsA lot of ink was spilled by many writers, myself included, who were convinced that President Bush would pardon key members of his administration before he left office. We were certain he would protect Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Gonzales and others who were important architects of his expansion of executive power. As January 19th approached we beat the war drums ever more loudly, hoping to keep the issue in the public's eye. We believed that by publicizing the issue Bush wouldn't be able to hide in the shadows and sign pardons without public notice.
And then on January 20th Barack Obama was inaugurated as our 44th president. We took a collective breath and relaxed. Apparently Bush really didn't believe in granting pardons.
Think again.
Michael Isikoff reported for Newsweek that while many of us were fomenting about Bush preemptively pardoning at-risk members of his administration, he and his lawyer Fred Fielding (White House Counsel) were concocting one last expansion of executive privilege. Four days before he left office, Mr. Bush authorized Fielding to write letters to Harriet Miers and Karl Rove giving them "absolute immunity" from Congressional inquiry and prosecution. Preemptively. In perpetuity. Absolute and irrevocable.
The letters set the stage for what is likely to be a highly contentious legal and political battle over an unresolved issue: whether a former president can assert "executive privilege" -- and therefore prevent his aides from testifying before Congress -- even after his term has expired.
These letters were delivered before Congress or any prosecutor had initiated action against Miers and Rove. Clearly Bush sought to inoculate Rove and Miers from all attempts to prosecute them for their actions during his administration. Only when John Conyers (Chairman, House Judiciary Committee) subpoenaed Mr. Rove did the letters come to light. Waving his letter in the air, Karl Rove refused to appear before the committee.
In December while Bush was giving a round-robin of legacy interviews proclaiming his two terms as successes, Vice President Dick Cheney was taking his own victory lap. In two of those interviews he said something interesting: I authorized the CIA's use of torture and I did it because my boss wanted me to. The Vice President had pointed a smoking gun right at Bush's heart. Cheney was clearly prodding Bush to issue pardons to protect his underlings AND to protect himself.
Every protective measure by Bush is self-protective. If Karl Rove and Harriet Miers don't testify under oath, then they can't reveal what Bush agreed to and authorized. How many more such letters did Bush have Fielding write?
With so much public attention focused on whether Bush would pardon his associates, the ex-president did an end-run around the issue. Ultimately, his claim to broad powers of executive privilege may be overturned in the courts. But how long will that take? And at what expense? Clearly Bush hopes that by making inquiries so difficult, he will dissuade Congress and prosecutors from even trying to look into the dark recesses of his administration's activities.
Back home in Texas, surely Bush is having a good chuckle right now. He punk'd us again!
Karl Rove
A lot of ink was spilled by many writers, myself included, who were convinced that President Bush would pardon key members of his administration before he left office. We were certain he would protec...
A lot of ink was spilled by many writers, myself included, who were convinced that President Bush would pardon key members of his administration before he left office. We were certain he would protec...
Related News On Huffington Post: Bush Lawyer Fred Fielding Told Rove: Ignore Subpoena
Just four days before he left office, President Bush instructed former White House aide Karl Rove to refuse to cooperate with future congressional inquiries into...
Posted January 30, 2009 | 09:48 AM (EST) BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index
Bush Punk'd Us Again
stumble digg reddit del.ico.us mixx.com ShareThis
Read More: Bush Administration, Bush Pardons, Harriet Miers, Karl Rove, Miers Immunity, Rove Immunity, Politics News
Show your support.
Buzz this article up.
Buzz up! Get Breaking News Alerts
never spam
Share Print CommentsA lot of ink was spilled by many writers, myself included, who were convinced that President Bush would pardon key members of his administration before he left office. We were certain he would protect Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Gonzales and others who were important architects of his expansion of executive power. As January 19th approached we beat the war drums ever more loudly, hoping to keep the issue in the public's eye. We believed that by publicizing the issue Bush wouldn't be able to hide in the shadows and sign pardons without public notice.
And then on January 20th Barack Obama was inaugurated as our 44th president. We took a collective breath and relaxed. Apparently Bush really didn't believe in granting pardons.
Think again.
Michael Isikoff reported for Newsweek that while many of us were fomenting about Bush preemptively pardoning at-risk members of his administration, he and his lawyer Fred Fielding (White House Counsel) were concocting one last expansion of executive privilege. Four days before he left office, Mr. Bush authorized Fielding to write letters to Harriet Miers and Karl Rove giving them "absolute immunity" from Congressional inquiry and prosecution. Preemptively. In perpetuity. Absolute and irrevocable.
The letters set the stage for what is likely to be a highly contentious legal and political battle over an unresolved issue: whether a former president can assert "executive privilege" -- and therefore prevent his aides from testifying before Congress -- even after his term has expired.
These letters were delivered before Congress or any prosecutor had initiated action against Miers and Rove. Clearly Bush sought to inoculate Rove and Miers from all attempts to prosecute them for their actions during his administration. Only when John Conyers (Chairman, House Judiciary Committee) subpoenaed Mr. Rove did the letters come to light. Waving his letter in the air, Karl Rove refused to appear before the committee.
In December while Bush was giving a round-robin of legacy interviews proclaiming his two terms as successes, Vice President Dick Cheney was taking his own victory lap. In two of those interviews he said something interesting: I authorized the CIA's use of torture and I did it because my boss wanted me to. The Vice President had pointed a smoking gun right at Bush's heart. Cheney was clearly prodding Bush to issue pardons to protect his underlings AND to protect himself.
Every protective measure by Bush is self-protective. If Karl Rove and Harriet Miers don't testify under oath, then they can't reveal what Bush agreed to and authorized. How many more such letters did Bush have Fielding write?
With so much public attention focused on whether Bush would pardon his associates, the ex-president did an end-run around the issue. Ultimately, his claim to broad powers of executive privilege may be overturned in the courts. But how long will that take? And at what expense? Clearly Bush hopes that by making inquiries so difficult, he will dissuade Congress and prosecutors from even trying to look into the dark recesses of his administration's activities.
Back home in Texas, surely Bush is having a good chuckle right now. He punk'd us again!
Karl Rove
A lot of ink was spilled by many writers, myself included, who were convinced that President Bush would pardon key members of his administration before he left office. We were certain he would protec...
A lot of ink was spilled by many writers, myself included, who were convinced that President Bush would pardon key members of his administration before he left office. We were certain he would protec...
Related News On Huffington Post: Bush Lawyer Fred Fielding Told Rove: Ignore Subpoena
Just four days before he left office, President Bush instructed former White House aide Karl Rove to refuse to cooperate with future congressional inquiries into...
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