Sliming Clinton -- Corporate Media Spins Out Fox Lies

In this handout photo provided by Fox News Sunday, former President Bill Clinton responds to host Chris Wallace during a taping of an interview for 'Fox News Sunday', on Friday, Sept. 22, 2006, in New York. (AP Photo/Fox News Sunday, Michael Simon)
Chris Wallace, the weaselly son of real newsman Mike Wallace, ambushed Bill Clinton on FoxNewsSunday today. [From here on in, he will be referred to as 'Wallace the Weasel'] Surprised? Of course not. Clinton was invited on the show to talk about the Clinton Global Initiative and all the money he raised to fix the world's problems last week. So of course the first question out of Wallace the Weasel's mouth was, essentially, don't you feel responsible for 9/11 'cause you didn't get Bin Laden. Good for Clinton, he defended himself with his best weapon -- the truth, and his enormous capacity to marshall the facts to support his case.

And the truth is, as he said, Clinton tried to stop Bin Laden, and Bush sat on his hands then went on vacation. And Clinton also pointed out the hypocrisy of FoxNewsSunday in pushing him on these issues when they have never asked the Bush Administration officials who appear regularly on their in-house propaganda channel the same questions. As ThinkProgress points out, Wallace the Weasel himself interviewed Condoleeza Rice days after she testified in front of the 9/11 Commission, and unbelievably didn't ask her about the August 6, 2001 PDB, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside US". While Wallace the Weasel hammered Clinton about the USS Cole bombing, Fox had never before asked a Bush Administration official about their failure to act after the FBI and the CIA certified that Bin Laden was responsible for the Cole bombing early in 2001, despite FoxNewsSunday having interviewed Cheney 6 times, Rumsfield 9 times, Rice 23 times, and Hadley 4 times since then.

And Wallace the Weasel has interviewed those same 4 officials forty-two (42) times and never once asked the sensible question, Why did you demote Richard Clarke, the most experienced anti-terrorism official in government.

So all that is bad enough. And Clinton was mad, and he was wagging his finger as he responded point by point with the truth. Today as I drove home from the Craft Center after a nice Sunday afternoon of making pots, I had WBZ Radio on to see what the weather report is (the clouds were black). And the perky little Clear Channel announcer said, I kid you not, "Bill Clinton was angry and defensive while being interviewed about Bin Laden. Story in a few minutes." Can you say 'slant'? Clinton was being interviewed about the Clinton Global Initiative. He was being interviewed by Fox News. And the question was unfair and had never before been asked of any Bush Administration official on the same network. But all those facts are dropped so the corporate media can spin out the lies that Commander Codpiece needs to keep his sorry ass in office. It just makes me sick.

Crooks & Liars has the video.

The Real Bush Doctrine

Torture R'US

HuffPo: Maverick Senators Cave in to The Torture President

Unclaimed Territory: America to legalize torture (this leads to a salon.com article, you have to watch an ad to get through, but it's worth it(

WaPo: THE TORTURE DEBATE

Dempsey Wants Premier League

Clint Dempsey wants desperately to go play in England. Why not? He's not going anywhere playing in a low-level league like MLS, and Bob Kraft is paying him $75,000 a year. Go Clint and good luck to ya.

Daily Mirror (uk): EXCLUSIVE: CLINT EYES PREM DEAL

AMERICA'S most controversial footballer Clint Dempsey is destined for the Premiership after rejecting a new contract in the MLS.

The New England Revolution midfielder, a former target for West Ham and Charlton, plans to quit the States in January before his deal expires next summer.

And the Premiership is bracing itself for plenty of outrageous behaviour from the colourful star, who grew up in a Texas trailer park and was suspended in March for attacking Revolution captain Joe Franchino in training.

"England is a great country to play in and I want to leave MLS," said Dempsey, 23.

"Teams abroad are willing to pay me 10 times more money and I don't want to be here.

There is no way I am staying in the MLS."

Getting Away With It

Reuters: French paper says bin Laden died in Pakistan

Eat Locally

Looks like a factory to me. Without a union. {Original caption: Fields of greens in California near Natural Selection Foods, which has been implicated in the outbreak.} (Peter DaSilva for The New York Times)
E coli in spinach? Weird, huh? It's all about the corporate farming. It's cheaper to feed cows grain than let them graze on open fields. On their crappy diet, lowering acidity in their stomachs, E coli flourishes. Instead of taking up space on land that can be turned into McMansions, cows are penned cheek to jowl in feedlots, which generate huge amounts of manure: poop. Poop is left in great open ponds that flood when it rains, sending E coli out into the world. So now even your spinach is suspect.

DailyKos: The Poop on Spinach

Starting a few decades ago, Americans outsmarted Mother Nature. We switched our cows' diets from grass and hay to grain. Eating grain isn't particularly good for the cows, but together with antibiotics and hormones, we can house them in feedlots, fatten them up, and slaughter them quicker than if we had let them graze at their own speed in a pasture. Mother Nature, it would seem, is anti-business.

The new diet changed the acidity in cows' digestive tracts and the close living quarters led to a lot of cows and a lot of poop living side by side. That's when the new strain of E. coli, O157:H7, came on the scene. When cows eat grass, the acidity in their digestive tracts usually kills the bacteria, but grain fed cows' tummies do not.

So the mere fact that E. coli O157:H7 got into the water at all is a result of our need for cheap feedlot beef - and one could take it a step further in exploring the interconnectedness of the food system, because cheap feedlot beef is possible due to cheap corn, soy, oilseed, and other commodities, subsidized by government policies that encourage high production and rock bottom prices. Those policies hurt the farmers who produce the commodities (corn, soy, wheat, etc), but they provide an incentive to anyone who wants to use the commodities as cheap inputs for their products - such as feedlot beef.

So many cows in such a small space contaminated the water that presumably flooded the spinach fields. This was the 20th such epidemic linked to lettuce and spinach from Monterey County in the past decade. The outbreaks have caused over 400 sicknesses and 2 deaths. The current epidemic was also felt economically by everyone from growers to farm workers, truckers, packagers, restaurants, grocers, and more.

The LA Times gives us the scope of the problem, without ever mentioning the important connection between corporate farming methods (grain vs. grazing) and its contribution to the E coli outbreaks:

LATimes: E. Coli Pervades Harvest Area
Salinas Valley waterways are known to carry the bacteria that poisoned at least 145 people and killed one who ate tainted spinach.

There IS Such a Thing As Bad Publicity

And Senator George Felix Allen has ably proved that in the last week.

After he freaked out about being asked by his Jewish heritage in a debate, he's lurched from awkward moment to awkward moment. Or did every recent person who discovered Jewish ancestry start talking about pork?

Today's news is that the Allen family now claim that Allen only learned of his Jewish heritage last month, although he has known for decades that his grandfather had been imprisoned by the Nazis during WWII. And that his mother swore him to secrecy, which I guess would explain why he said this week: "My mother's French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her. And I was raised as she was, as far as I know, raised as a Christian."

Convenient, his mother swearing him to secrecy. I'm just saying.


ThinkProgress: Allen continues effort to downplay his Jewish heritage.

“I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops,” Sen. George Allen (R-VA) said yesterday, explaining how news that his grandfather was Jewish is “just an interesting nuance to my background.”

ABC News: Allen Campaign Hits Another Awkward Moment
This Time It's a Question About His Jewish Ancestry That Roils His Virginia Senate Race

WaPo today: Allen's Mother Revealed Jewish Heritage to Him Last Month

My favorite blog headline on the matter is from Majikthise: George Allen, self-hating Jew

Iraq is FUBAR

A must-read article from yesterday's LATimes, the personal story of a reporter who lives in Baghdad and has for over 20 years. He is so frightened he writes this story for his own newspaper under a pseudonym. This is what the Bush Doctrine has wrought.

No One Dares to Help
The wounded die alone on Baghdad's streets. An offer of aid could be your own death sentence, an Iraqi reporter writes.

Fear dictates everything we do.

I see my neighbors less and less. When I go out, I say hello and that's it. I fear someone will ask questions about my job working for Americans, which could put me in danger. Even if he had no ill will toward me, he might talk and reveal an identifying detail. We're afraid of an enemy among us. Someone we don't know. It's a cancer.

In March, assassinations started in our neighborhood. Early one evening, I was sitting in my garden with my wife when we heard several gunshots. I rushed to the gate to see what was going on, despite my wife's pleas to stay inside. My neighbors told me that gunmen had dropped three men from a car and shot them in the street before driving off. No one dared approach the victims to find out who they were.

The bodies remained there until the next morning. The police or the American military probably picked them up, but I don't know. They simply disappeared.

The sounds of shootings and explosions are now commonplace. We don't know who is shooting whom, or who has been targeted. We don't know why, and we're afraid to ask or help. We too could get shot. Bringing someone to the hospital or to the police is out of the question. Nobody trusts the police, and nobody wants to answer questions.

I feel sad, bitter and frustrated — sad because a human life is now worth nothing in this country; bitter because people no longer help each other; and frustrated because I can't help either. If I'm targeted one day, I'm sure no one will help me.

Katrina Update

Mud and debris covers the perimeter of St. Rita's nursing home in Chalmette, La., in this 2005 file photo. (AP Photo/Steve Senne, FILE)
The owners of the St. Rita's nursing home, where 35 patients died during Hurricane Katrina, have been indicted on charges of negligent homicide and cruelty to the infirm.

This is just sad. Government failed everyone, yet the private citizens who made poor decisions are prosecuted. Why not charge George W. Bush with murder for the failure of the levees? Mayor Nagin with murder for failing to order mandatory evacuation, or for ignoring New Orleans' disaster plan? Only the little people pay.

AP: New Orleans nursing home owners indicted

First Draft: St. Rita's Nursing Home Owners Indicted

Sweeney Dirty: Is It a Twofer?

Yesterday Congressman Blutarsky, a/k/a John Sweeney, Republican who currently represents the NY-20 district, was named one of the most corrupt membrs of Congress by CREW, the Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington.

On the same day, the Albany Times-Union, the largest newspaper in the district, announced that it had discovered and banned a "sock puppet" from its politics blog, Capitol Confidential. A sock puppet in modern usage is one internet user who posts under separate identities as though more than one person is speaking. This sock puppet went so far as to compliment a posting by its alter ego. Wanna bet it was someone supporting John Sweeney? I'll make that bet. Links below.

CREW: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress

Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY)

John Sweeney is a fourth-term Congressman representing the 20th district of New York. His ethics issues stem from a ski trip to New York, the exchange of legislative assistance for campaign contributions and the hiring of his wife as a campaign fundraiser.

Misuse of public funds to pay for a trip to New York

Rep. Sweeney invited 53 people to join him from January 6-9, 2006, for a “Congressional Winter Challenge” at the Lake Placid Olympic facilities. There, Rep. Sweeney and his guests enjoyed pretending to be Olympic athletes by participating in events including skiing, bobsledding and hockey, all paid for with New York taxpayer dollars. The trip appears to violate several provisions of the House gift and travel rules, including the prohibition on recreational travel.

Relationship with National Marine Manufacturers Association

In May 2006, Rep. Sweeney introduced the Boating Safety Tax Incentive Act, legislation that the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) strongly supported and even helped draft, allowing boat manufacturers to supply new boats with free safety equipment, including up-to-date lifejackets, in exchange for a tax deduction. In apparent exchange, NMMA’s PAC has supported Rep. Sweeney and contributed to his campaign committee for the past three years. In the 2006 election cycle alone, NMMA donated $4,500 to Rep. Sweeney, making him the third highest recipient of contributions from NMMA’s PAC. Additionally, NMMA has hosted fundraisers for Rep. Sweeney on its luxurious yacht, raising a total of $12,150. If Rep. Sweeney received campaign donations in return for campaign contributions he may have violated federal bribery and honest services fraud as well as violated House rules.

Employment of Spouse Gayle Ford

Rep. Sweeney has hired his wife’s firm to fundraise for his campaign, despite the fact that she has no fundraising experience and appears to have no other clients. She receives a 10% commission on the money she brings in, the campaign paid her $42,570 during the 2004-2005 election cycle, and as of April 2006, she received $30,879 for the current election cycle. Notably, records show that Rep. Sweeney has had a fundraising consultant on monthly retainer since June of 2004, who is paid $8,583 a month. The facts suggest that Rep. Sweeney is converting campaign funds to personal use in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act and House rules.

Son Avoids Jail

Rep. Sweeney’s son, John, brutally beat another teenager, but avoided jail for his offense. The ethics committee should investigate whether the young man received special treatment because of his father’s position in violation of House rules.

The Nation: Congress's Most Corrupt

Highlights include .... New York Rep. John Sweeney (news, bio, voting record), who a few months back showed up drunk to a local frat party, threw a taxpayer funded Winter sporting weekend and hired his wife as a fundraiser even though she had no previous fundraising experience;

Times Union 'Capitol Confidential' Blog: Sock Puppets and Ethics

If you haven’t read our “rules of engagement” in a while, we’ve added a new policy:

The use of multiple identities (aka “sock puppets”) on this blog is not permitted.

We’ve also included a link to a Wikipedia item that offers a fuller explanation of these aliases.

This policy was sparked by the admitted use of multiple identities by a visitor to this blog. We discovered this rather by accident, and at a time when he happened to post a comment referring to his other identity - somewhat glowingly, no less - as if it was a different person.

That’s clearly deceptive and unethical.

[]

Editor’s Note: The individual has been blocked from the site (to the best of our ability).

First Round: Anucha Browne Sanders 1, Knicks/Isiah Thomas 0

The EEOC, the federal administrative agency that enforces employment law, has found "probable cause" to believe Anucha Browne Sanders was sexually harassed by Isiah Thomas, and that the New York Knicks retaliated against her by firing her when she complained.

Under Title VII, the federal employment law, and under New York State law, a plaintiff is required to present her claims at the agency level first prior to going to court. Because of the very short time limits to file employment cases, her case is also filed in federal court, and according to these articles settlement discussions have been initiated there.

The probable cause finding by the EEOC is admissible in court, but that doesn't mean that the case is over, or that Sanders will necessarily win at trial. At trial it is just another piece of evidence in her favor.

This is the result I expected, as Browne Sanders is a respected professional with years of accomplishments on her resume, and she has one of the best plaintiff's employment law firms in New York City representing her. They wouldn't have taken her claim if it wasn't a winner. However, the EEOC doesn't always get it right; the agency has been under attack from within for years, as the Bush Administration has choked off funds and prefers the agency to bring cases for whites claiming reverse discrimination. So it is a victory for her to get this ruling.

It will be interesting to see if the Knicks continue to take this hard stand, or if they face reality and put some real money on the table. They can take this to trial, but they'll lose. Isiah Thomas hasn't had a winner since he left the court for the Detroit Pistons. He destroyed the CBA, tried to destroy the Indiana Pacers (he was interrupted from the mission when GM Larry Bird fired his ass), and is in the process of destroying the New York Knicks. You've got to have a big ego to fire Larry Brown.

NYTimes: [EEOC] Report Supports Claims in Suit Against Thomas

The commission’s investigation supported Browne Sanders’s contention that she had been a victim of more than one incident of harassment and that “she was subjected to a hostile work environment including, but not limited to, severe and pervasive verbal sexual harassment.”

The determination, by Spencer H. Lewis Jr., the district director of the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]’s New York office, said the Garden had failed to take “reasonable care to prevent or correct discrimination and harassment in the workplace.”

Lewis made his determination last Friday, and it was released yesterday. His two-page letter did not describe the scope of the commission’s investigation or name witnesses.

Lewis found that the commission’s inquiry supported Browne Sanders’s contention that the Garden had fired her in retaliation for reporting her claims to her supervisors. Lewis also wrote that there was probable cause to believe the Garden violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Garden, but not Thomas, was the subject named in the commission’s investigation.

NYDaily News: Ruling supports accuser's suit

Newsday: Point for MSG accuser
Agency affirms executive's claim she was harassed, fired for complaining and clears way for settlement talks

SI: Mess at MSG
EEOC: Evidence supports Knicks exec's claims

In The News Today, Oh Boy

Sen. George Allen's, R-Va., black cowboy boots, left, are a contrast to Democrat Jim Webb's combat boots as the two appear for their first debate Sunday, Sept. 17, 2006, on NBC's 'Meet the Press' in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)[Actually, Webb's boots are the combat boots of his son Jimmy, 24, a lance corporal in the Marines, who shipped out to Iraq this month.]

Maybe I should be looking at real estate further north, like at the North Pole. Billmon discusses British scientist's James Lovelocks predictions that within 10 to 20 years, irreversable climate change will raise global temperatures by 10 degrees: And People Call Me a Pessimist

You know that Canadian citizen, completely innocent, that we tortured? He confessed to attending training camps in Afghanistan, even though he'd never been there. Yeah we need more bogus intelligence like that. Glenn Greenwald, The fruits of the President's interrogation policies

Senator Macaca, George Allen, freaked out when a reporter asked him about reports that his mother is Jewish (which would make him Jewish). I guess he was hoping it didn't come out: Allen's efforts to hide his Jewish roots

Gee, I can't imagine why women don't report sexual harassment in the workplace, when employers are so committed to stopping it. Like our government. In today's Washington Post, we read the story of a 22 year old woman who's been arrested for failing to report for a second tour in Iraq after she reported sexual harassment by her superiors. And in contrast, the story of how the U.S. Postal Service's public affairs chief, accused of sexual harassment by several subordinates, went on a 4-month paid vacation. And now says he is due another 2 months of paid vacation.

More not-news-to-those-of-us-of-the-female-persuasion: Report finds bias keeping women out of science jobs; Academia urged to tackle gap in faculty numbers

And the creepiest news story of the day: that the US intends to nuke Iran's nuclear facilities, then lie about it and say we didn't use nukes. Any radiation is from the facilities we bombed. Scariest of all: I believe George W. Bush and Dick Cheney capable of this.

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism in Iraq: A Story That Comes Three Years To Late From the InBed Media

U.S. troops relax in Baghdad's Green Zone, where many Coalition Provisional Authority staffers spent their days.
Photo Credit: 2003 Photo By Marco Di Lauro -- Getty Images Photo

The foxes fouled the henhouse! Who'da thunk it?

WaPo: THE EMERALD CITY
Early U.S. Missteps in the Green Zone
Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

The decision to send the loyal and the willing instead of the best and the brightest is now regarded by many people involved in the 3 1/2 -year effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq as one of the Bush administration's gravest errors. Many of those selected because of their political fidelity spent their time trying to impose a conservative agenda on the postwar occupation, which sidetracked more important reconstruction efforts and squandered goodwill among the Iraqi people, according to many people who participated in the reconstruction effort.

The CPA had the power to enact laws, print currency, collect taxes, deploy police and spend Iraq's oil revenue. It had more than 1,500 employees in Baghdad at its height, working under America's viceroy in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, but never released a public roster of its entire staff.

Interviews with scores of former CPA personnel over the past two years depict an organization that was dominated -- and ultimately hobbled -- by administration ideologues.

It took the Washington Post and the rest of the corporate media three years to report on what was happening in the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq? It's not like it was boots-on-the-ground in-the-trenches work. These guys were sitting at desks squandering taxpayer funds, while the corporate media was covering bullshit terror alerts as though they were real. Which they still do.

I'll be impressed when the Post or some other organ of the Mighty Wurlitzer reports truthfully about how the Bushies are getting ready to do it again in Iran. Second verse, same as the first.

Clueless Dems

Why would anyone ever vote for these pusillanimous posers?

Submitted for your consideration, statements by two of the Democrats vying for the 2008 Presidential nod:

1. Evan Bayh (rhymes with 'sigh')

Quote of the Day
"I'm concerned that we not come across as whiners and that kind of thing, like a bunch of wimps who say mean old Karl Rove is on us again."

-- Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), quoted by the AP, about the Democratic party.

(Political Wire, via Suburban Guerrilla)

Ahhh....fighting for self-control, failing miserably.....note to Evan, you're supposed to trash THE OPPOSING PARTY, not YOUR OWN. Moron.

2. John Kerry

And today's "Shut the Fuck Up and Go Away" award goes to

...Senator John Forbes Kerry of Massachusetts, who, having allowed an unpopular president and a bunch of psychotic liars to kick the shit out of him in 2004 and then running home with his tail between his legs before the votes were even counted in Ohio (but not before stuffing his pockets with $14 million in leftover campaign cash), is now talking tough -- when it doesn't matter:

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) doesn't believe that Hillary Clinton has the inside track on the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and says he would vigorously defend himself against new attacks by the Swift Boat team, according to an interview with The Examiner.

"I’m prepared to kick their ass from one end of America to the other," said Kerry, in a strong hint that he intends to run for president once again.

Typical of Kerry, too little, too late. If you want to vote for a Democrat who'll fight for your votes in Massachusetts, vote for John Bonifaz for Secretary of State on Tuesday. While John Kerry was running home with his campaign war chest, John Bonifaz bought a plane ticket to Ohio and fought there for a year to have all Kerry's votes counted.

Good News For Kirsten Gillibrand

The first ad should morph Abramoff's face into Sweeney's
NYTimes: Democrats Open Purse Strings for a 2nd Upstate House Race

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee plans to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into an advertising campaign trying to unseat John Sweeney, a Republican congressman from upstate New York, Democratic officials said on Thursday.

Now if we can just get Gillibrand or the party's ads to hit Sweeney hard. Enough with the namby-pamby getting to know you ads. Time to fight. Because if you don't fight, you don't win.

I like the tactics of Charlie Brown, who's running against John Doolittle, another Abramoff bagman, in California.

From TurnTahoeBlue: "It's Time For Doolittle To Give Back The Wages Of Sin"

Charlie Brown just started a new radio ad, accompanied by a new website, attacking Doolittle on his connections to indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his client the government of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory.

This is a transcript of the ad:

Most Americans have never heard of a place called the Northern Marianas Islands .

Most of us don’t know that in this far away American territory, forced abortions, sex slavery and sweatshops are all too common.

Most Americans don’t know about these terrible abuses. But Congressman John Doolittle does – and he has for almost ten years.

How did Congressman Doolittle respond after he learned about forced abortions, sex slavery and sweatshops?

Doolittle actually helped fund the local government that tolerated forced abortions. And he refuses to return campaign contributions tied to this corrupt government.

It’s time for Doolittle to give back the wages of sin. Time for John Doolittle to stop tolerating forced abortions and sex slavery.

Time for a change...

Please, find out more at Doolittlefacts.org.

I’m Charlie Brown and I approve this message. Join the fight at CharlieBrownforCongress.org. Paid for and authorized by Charlie Brown for Congress.

Gillibrand should be running similar ads. Why was the Congressman from the 20th New York Congressional District giving a speech in the Marianas Islands to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in January of 2001? Why did he say he'd seen worse sweatshops in New York? Why did he have so many meetings with Tom Delay's chief aide in 2001, now-convicted felon Tony Rudy?

For an excellent review of Sweeney's role as Abramoff's bagman, see Lisa M.'s post at 20TrueBlue: Sweeney Defended Sweatshops and Lobbied for Abramoff (July 28, 2006)

See Also dailykos: CA-04: Brown Hits Doolittle Hard on Abramoff, Forced Abortion and Sex Trafficking

....Republicans tied to Jack Abramoff are vulnerable to attacks for their work to protect a system of sweatshops, human trafficking, forced prostitution and forced abortion on the Commonwealth of North Mariana Islands (CNMI)--a US Territory in the Western Pacific.

Entitlement

From Lamontblog:

A Thousand Words

Sen. Lieberman's car parked at Fairfield University this morning:

We're Melting

San Francisco Chronicle, via commondreams:
Even in Winter, Arctic Ice Melting
Alarmed Scientists Warn that Polar Thawing Threatens Wildlife and is 'Strongest Evidence Yet of Global Warming' in Region

The vast expanses of ice floating in the Arctic Sea are melting in winter as well as in the summer, likely because of global warming, NASA scientists said Wednesday.

[]

The size of this summer's Arctic ice won't be known for a few weeks because it usually reaches its smallest size the third week of September. Last year, scientists found that polar ice twice the size of Texas had melted since NASA started compiling satellite data 27 years ago. Scientists said there could be no ice left in the Arctic in the summer by the end of the century.

Until 2005, the wintertime sea ice -- which is thick and multilayered -- had been relatively stable. In the summer, the ice is thinner, more mobile and melts at the edges every spring before freezing up again in the autumn.

In the last two winters -- 2005 and 2006 -- the size of the sea ice was 6 percent smaller than average, the data show. The sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere covers nearly 10 million square miles in the winter. The melting -- most of it occurring in the eastern Arctic near the North Pole -- correlates with a rise in the ocean's surface water temperature.

If you saw An Inconvenient Truth (if you haven't, rent or buy it when it comes out Sept. 26th) this will send chills down your spine:

Serreze [senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.] said he was surprised to see a new lake, or polynya, the size of Maryland, opening up in the sea ice north of the Beaufort Sea.

Another Reason To Support Eric Massa (NY-29) For Congress

Cheney is campaigning for his opponent, the Shotgun Senator, Randy Kuhl:

Raw Story: Cheney to stump for GOPer who bullied wife with guns

Roll Call excerpt:

If readers recall, widely reported divorce records showed that Kuhl, currently running for his second term, pulled not one but two shotguns on his wife during a 1994 dinner party at their home. Kuhl's ex-wife also described him as an abusive drunk who "hustled women."

Cheney, the man who may always be remembered for accidentally shooting his good friend on a hunting trip, has agreed to do a private photo-op at a Sept. 22 fundraiser for Kuhl in Rochester, N.Y. And, yes, you guessed it, Kuhl is considered vulnerable this year.

As one Democratic operative told HOH, "I can't tell what Cheney likes best about him—Kuhl's penchant for rubber-stamping the president or for combining beer with firearm use."

Eric Massa for Congress 2006

MainStUSA ActBlue Page

We Love Lists

Project Censored has issued its list of the Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007 (the stories you should be reading about, but won't).

#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media

#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran

#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger

#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US

#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo

#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy

# 7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq

#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act

#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall

#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians

#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed

#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines

#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup

#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US

#15 Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner

#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court

#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda

#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story

#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever

#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem

#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers

#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed

#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe

#24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year

#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

Via BoingBoing

Operation Photo Op, September 11th Edition, Day 1825

Surrounded by all the New Yorkers who love them, President My Pet Goat and the Laurabot snuck into Ground Zero for a photo op yesterday.


U.S. President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush pay their respects at a pool of water after laying a wreath at the site of the World Trade Center in New York September 10, 2006. (Gary Hershorn/Reuters)

So they could take closeups like this, like it's a real ceremony:


U.S. President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush lay a wreath into a reflecting pool at the site of the World Trade Center in New York September 10, 2006, during a ceremony to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. (Keith Bedford/Reuters)

Hat tip to STOPGeorge on dailykos.

The Bush Economy

From the Detroit Free Press, a graphic showing how median incomes have dropped under C+ Augustus:



Via Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly.

Do Kids Rule Your World?

Kidworld
Where adults revolve around children, their teams
Adulthood as we know it is vanishing. KidWorld is replacing it.

Adulthood as we know it is vanishing. KidWorld is replacing it.

Not so long ago, adults lived grown-up lives. They stayed home when their kids played in backyards, school yards or streets.

It's a new world today.

Tens of thousands of local parents spend much of their lives shuttling tens of thousands of local kids to youth football, soccer, cheerleading or Little League. They're so busy driving, coaching, refereeing or fundraising they don't have time for adult activities like dinner. Why, many husbands and wives can't even remember the last time they spent an evening together. An adult evening, that is, away from the diamond or field or pool.

Tee Hee

I received this in email:

An old Arab lives close to New York City.

He would love to plant potatoes in his garden, but he is old and weak. His son is in college in Paris, so the old man sends him an e- mail.

"Beloved son, I am very sad, because I can't plant potatoes in my garden. I am sure if you were here you would help me dig up the garden."

The following day, the old man receives a response e-mail from his son at 3:45 pm: "Beloved father, please don't touch the garden. It's there that I have hidden 'the THING'. Love, Ahmed".

At 4:02 pm, the US Army, the Marines, the Rangers, the local police, officers from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA, visit the house of the old man, take the whole garden apart, search every inch, but can't find anything. Disappointed, they leave.

A day later, the old man receives another e-mail from his son: "Beloved father, I hope the garden is dug up by now and you can plant your potatoes. That's all I could do for you from here. Love, Ahmed.

Had Enough?

via needlenose, via toughenough

Operation Photo Op, Katrina Edition, Day 362

U.S. President George W. Bush speaks beside Hurricane Katrina survivor Rockey Vaccarella at the White House August 23, 2006. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES)

Cake eating, guitar strumming President Bush is continuing to fight Hurricane Katrina with.....more and more powerfully staged photo ops.

Will Bunch at Attytode deconstructs the latest fakery.

"Rockey I": If it sounds too good to be true...

The good news is that CNN seems to have finally stop obsessing over John Mark Karr. Instead, they've found a new soap opera to go ga-ga over, Katrina survivor Rockey Vaccarella, who drove his FEMA trailer from his home in ravaged St. Bernard Parish to Washington with "the hope" of convincing President Bush to meet with him.

[]

And, whaddya know? Turns out that the earthy Vaccarella -- a highly successful businessman in the fast-food industry -- is indeed a Republican pol, having run unsuccessfully under the GOP banner for a seat on the St. Bernard Parish commission back in 1999.

[]

And in fact, Vaccarella seemed very confident that he would be meeting with Bush when he left home, to the point where he had a date scheduled and everything:

Dinner with the President is planned for the evening of August 22nd

Couldn't they just spend the money on the victims? I guess not.

Rockey even got a swag bag! Karl thinks of everything.
Rockey Vaccarella shows off some of the gifts given to him by President Bush, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006, after meeting with Bush at the White House in Washington. Vaccarella, 41, of Mereaux, La., said he wanted to thank Bush for the federally provided trailers that have provided temporary housing to many in the region who lost homes, but also to keep the pressure on. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Dead Again

The bipolar computer is now catatonic. (It has a hard drive, it can't find the hard drive, it has a hard drive, it can't find the hard drive....whatever.) I'm at the local public library, posting from a computer supplied by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as the mousepad helpfully tells me.

The new computer is ordered, and most of it has arrived, but they've back-ordered one piece -- the keyboard.

So, maybe I'll be back in three days, or not until after Labor Day. It's catch as can for a few weeks here.

Beautiful Dead Girls

The stories you should be reading, while the news media obsesses over Jon Benet Ramsey; from dailykos:

Beautiful Dead Girls

by hrh

Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 08:19:05 PM PDT

[From the Diaries - MB]

We hear a lot about beautiful dead girls in the US media.  Here are some that we haven't heard about much.  Their smiles haven't been plastered over the supermarket tabloid press, and they're not likely to be.  One of the reasons is that they don't fit the popular stereotype of beautiful-woman-as-helpless-victim.  Another reason is that many people still haven't focused on the reality of women in the military.  Even here on DKos, I see comments about "sons and fathers" who have been killed and maimed.  Almost NO MENTION of women in the military.

Here, in no particular order, are some American heroes who were killed in combat in Iraq:

• hrh's diary :: ::

(expanded from my comment in georgia10's diary)

Army Sgt. Amanda Pinson, age 21, killed in mortar attack, March 15, 2006.

She told a reporter in 2003,  "I thought, `This is what I want to do -- and I'm going to do it, no matter what.' I tell everybody, `It just feels right.'"

"She loved being in the Army and she loved doing her job," Ehlen said. "She felt like her work saved American lives. That's what she did."

Air Force Airman 1st Class Elizabeth Jacobson, age 21, killed by roadside bomb, September 28, 2005.

"She loved what she was doing and she loved to be able to say that people should give her respect because without her and those like her we wouldn't be free. She stood up for her beliefs and made everyone around her be aware of them," said her grandmother, Sondra Millman-Cosimano of Riviera Beach.

Marine Lance Cp. Juana Navarro-Arellano, age 24, killed by small arms fire, April 8, 2006.

"She was the toughest girl I've ever met," said Pfc. Gustavo Navarro Cristales, a bulk fuel specialist with 9th ESB and close friend of Navarro-Arellano. "She demanded to be treated equal."

Her incredible strength and tenacity was something learned from their mother, Navarro-Arellano's brother explained.

"Juana saw our mother raise six kids by herself," Lorenzo said. "That made her tough. She saw the entire struggle."

Marine Lance Cpl. Holly Charette, age 21, killed by roadside bomb, June 23, 2005.  

"She wanted to become a Marine after 9-11," Charlene Wheetman, Charette's aunt, said Saturday in a statement on behalf of the family. "She wanted to do something for her country. She was a very proud Marine."

Army Spc. Carrie French, age 19, killed by roadside bomb, June 15, 2005.

French said his daughter had an adventurous spirit and loved the outdoors. She had plans to travel Europe and study law after her tour of duty in Iraq.

For her high school graduation gift she asked her father to take her skydiving.

"She was willing to try anything, really," Rick French said.

[...]

He said she died doing what she wanted to do.

"I was scared (when she deployed), but I was very, very proud of her," he said. "She's my hero."

Army Spc. Toccara Green, killed by roadside bomb, August 14, 2005.  

Toccara Green's desire to be in the military was evident early: for four years in high school she got up early and stayed late to participate in her campus ROTC.

Family and friends say her devotion to her country is what inspired her.

"The only thing that puts my mind at ease is that she died for what she believed in," said Garry Green Jr., her brother. "She said her ideal situation: go out fighting for our country."

Army Staff Sgt. Tricia L. Jameson, age 34, killed when a roadside bomb blew up her Humvee ambulance on July 14, 2005.  She was a health-care specialist responding to a casualty incident.

A friend of hers said she "wanted to go get her hands on some serious injuries and fix some things."

Marine Cpl. Ramona M. Valdez, age 20, killed by roadside bomb on June 23, 2005.

Ramona, a communications specialist who wanted to become a policewoman, had originally been expected home in May. But she died Thursday in an attack on her convoy in Fallujah.

Fiorela Valdez said the family is bitter about the war it increasingly regards as senseless, and blames President Bush.

"Why doesn't he send his daughters over there? If he had a family member there, he'd end the war right now," Valdez said.

Army Pfc. Sam W. Huff, age 18.  killed by roadside bomb on April 18, 2005.

Eighteen-year-old Pfc. Sam Huff was born with a man's name.

But she was a consummate "girlie-girl," said her father, Robert Huff.

She liked to wear false eyelashes and played flute in her high-school band. Last July, she joined the Army, the first step in a career she hoped would take her to the FBI.

On April 18, Huff, an only child, became the 37th U.S. female to die in combat since 2003.

Yesterday, her parents and comrades gathered in a Fort Lewis chapel to recall Huff's independent spirit and her unfulfilled ambitions.

But what they remembered most was that she loved soldiering, and she was good at it. The memorial became, in part, a testimonial to the growing role women are playing in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Born in Tucson, Ariz., on July 12, 1986, Huff was 16 when she announced her intention to enlist in the Army, go to college to study psychology and become an FBI agent....

"We just stood there, dumbfounded," said Robert Huff, a retired Tucson police detective. His wife, Margaret Williams, served as an air traffic controller in the Marines.

But there wasn't any family talk of women not belonging in the military, he said: "Not in our house, are you kidding?"

[...]

"Beneath that beautiful young lady was a backbone of steel," Sgt. Sam Jones wrote in a letter read aloud during her funeral.

Army Sgt. Jessica M. Housby, age 23, killed by roadside bomb on February 09, 2005.

Lt. Archie Rose of the Illinois National Guard said Housby received an award in 1999 after taking part in a training exercise at Fort McCoy, Wis.

She was chosen as the top cadet out of a group of 187 because of her "hard work, enthusiasm and the responsibility," he said.

Army Sgt. Shawna M. Morrison, age 26, killed in mortar attack September 05, 2004.

It was Shawna Morrison's adventurous spirit that propelled her to seek the new, the different, the stimulating, in life.

"She liked to try things, go new places, try new food," said her brother, Allan Morrison. "She liked to test stuff out."

The family often took fishing trips that Shawna looked forward to, [her father] said, and his daughter never minded threading a worm onto a hook.

"She always had a smile. She had a super personality and was great to be around. She would laugh at anything," he said.

Army Spc. Jessica L. Cawvey, age 21, killed by roadside bomb on October 6, 2004.

She had a 6-year-old daughter named Sierra.  Her uncle said, "She joined the service because she wanted to provide the right future for her daughter."

The Cawveys keep the medals and ribbons their daughter earned during her military career in a special wooden box. Sierra recognizes many of the ribbons, and as she showed them to a visitor, she called them by name: "Good Conduct . . . Purple Heart . . . Bronze Star . . ."

"Why did she get that one?" asked her grandma, pausing.

"Because she died."

Army Pfc. Leslie D. Jackson, age 18, killed by roadside bomb on May 20, 2004.

"The Army is what she wanted. That's why there are no regrets," said her aunt, Pearl Roberts. Jackson exchanged e-mails with school principal Earl M. Pappy about her decision to enter the military and her experiences in Iraq. "The students are very upset because she was respected very, very much," he said.

[...]

She viewed the Army as a way to further her education, Roberts said. Jackson grew up in a close-knit family and "loved to shop and dress up and do her nails."

Army Spc. Isela Rubalcava, age 25, killed by mortar attack, May 8, 2004.

Her cousin said, "She's always been a happy person, always smiling. When she came back from boot camp, she was cheerful and told us about how great it was."

Army Sgt. 1st Class Linda Ann Tarango-Griess, age 33, killed by roadside bomb on July 11, 2004.

Her husband said, "She really loved her military career."

Army Sgt. Tatjana Reed, age 34, killed by roadside bomb July 22, 2004.

"She loved the Army," her mother said.

She had a 10-year-old daughter.

Army Capt. Kimberly N. Hampton, age 27, killed when her Kiowa helicopter was shot down on January 02, 2004.

Her parents said she had wanted to be a pilot since she was a child.  In third grade she wrote a paper about how she always wanted to fly.

While in Iraq, she wrote her mother an email:

"If there is anything I can say to ease your mind ... if anything ever happens to me, you can be certain that I am doing the things I love," she wrote. "... I'm living my dreams for sure, living life on the edge at times and pushing the envelope. ...

"So, worry if you must," she added, "but you can be sure that your only child is living a full, exciting life and is HAPPY!"

Army Pfc. Rachel K. Bosveld, age 19, killed in mortar attack October 26, 2003.

She enlisted in the Army when she graduated in June 2002, following in the footsteps of her father, who served in the Army in Italy from 1967-1969, and Craig, who served in the Army in Alaska.

"She idolized her brother," Marvin Bosveld said, pointing to a photograph of Craig holding a toddler-sized Rachel on a tree branch. "I had some reservation because she was a girl. She asked me not to worry about it. She was as good as anyone."

Her mother said she desperately tried to talk her daughter out of it.

"I would have done anything to have her choose a different career," Mary Bosveld said. "She said, `I know, Mom, but I have to do this. ... I want to keep up the family tradition. Except, Mom, I'm going to be the first girl in our entire family."'

There are many more.  If you want to see their names and how and where they died, go to Coalition Casualties and search on "Female".

I'd like everyone who has some kind of problem with feminism to look long and hard at the faces of these women and consider the fact that they died for YOU and they were doing a man's job.

Will Wonders Ever Cease?

The dead computer rises from the ashes yet again. I think it's bipolar.

See You in September

Catskill sunset taken from east of the Hudson River
I seem to be on a hiatus. My computer, which came back to life for two weeks, has once again bit the dust, and its replacement is on its way.

Here's what I did last week:

Funnel Cake, Prized Cows, and Defiance After a Devastating Flood

So I'll return to full-time blogging in September. Until then, ciao.

Driving While Democratic

I received this in email:

These bumper stickers were compiled by Jerry Paull, a former Methodist minister in Lakeside, Ohio, who writes: The following actual bumper stickers are now on cars. I didn't write any of them. I'm only the messenger. If they make you laugh, good. If they make you cry, good. If they make you angry, that's good too. If you don't want to read them, hit the delete button.


BLIND FAITH IN BAD LEADERSHIP IS NOT PATRIOTISM


IF YOU'RE NOT OUTRAGED, YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION


IF YOU SUPPORTED BUSH, A YELLOW RIBBON WON'T MAKE UP FOR IT


POVERTY, HEALTH CARE & HOMELESSNESS ARE MORAL ISSUES


OF COURSE IT HURTS. YOU'RE GETTING SCREWED BY AN ELEPHANT


BUSH LIED, AND YOU KNOW IT


RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM: A THREAT ABROAD, A THREAT AT HOME


GOD BLESS EVERYONE
(No exceptions)


BUSH SPENT YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY ON HIS WAR


PRO AMERICA, ANTI BUSH


WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?


IF YOU SUPPORT BUSH'S WAR, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? SHUT UP AND SHIP OUT


FEEL SAFER NOW?


I'D RATHER HAVE A PRESIDENT WHO SCREWED HIS INTERN THAN ONE WHO SCREWED HIS COUNTRY


JESUS WAS A SOCIAL ACTIVIST - THAT IS A LIBERAL


MY VALUES? FREE SPEECH. EQUALITY. LIBERTY. EDUCATION. TOLERANCE


IS IT 2008 YET?


DISSENT IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF PATRIOTISM -- Thomas Jefferson


DON'T BLAME ME. I VOTED AGAINST BUSH -- TWICE!


ANNOY A CONSERVATIVE; THINK FOR YOURSELF


VISUALIZE IMPEACHMENT


HEY BUSH! WHERE'S BIN LADEN?


CORPORATE MEDIA = MASS MIND CONTROL


STOP MAD COWBOY DISEASE


GEORGE W. BUSH: MAKING TERRORISTS FASTER THAN HE CAN KILL THEM


KEEP YOUR THEOCRACY OFF MY DEMOCRACY


DEMOCRATS ARE SEXY. WHOEVER HEARD OF A GOOD PIECE OF ELEPHANT?


ASPIRING CANADIAN


CORPORATE MEDIA: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION


DON'T CONFUSE DYING FOR OIL WITH FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM


STEM CELL RESEARCH IS PRO LIFE


HATE, GREED, IGNORANCE: WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION


HONOR OUR TROOPS; DEMAND THE TRUTH


REBUILD IRAQ? WHY NOT SPEND 87 BILLION ON AMERICA?


FACT: BUSH OIL
1999 - $19 BARREL
2006 - $70 BARREL


THE LAST TIME RELIGION CONTROLLED POLITICS, PEOPLE GOT BURNED AT THE STAKE


I'LL GIVE UP MY CHOICE WHEN JOHN ROBERTS GETS PREGNANT


SUPPORT OUR TROOPS; IMPEACH BUSH


HOW ON EARTH CAN 59,411,287 PEOPLE BE SO DUMB?

I'm Just Saying

If I have to walk into the airport carrying a clear plastic bag of tampons, the terrorists have won.

I Am a Sick Puppy

Harbor, Tyre, Lebanon
Watching CNN as the soon-departed Daryn Kagan interviews a foreign correspondent standing in front of an empty beach in Tyre, Lebanon. The poor guy keeps looking over his shoulder as the sound of bombs falling increases. Daryn says, 'Those bombs seem to be getting closer. If you need to go, you need to go.' And the intrepid correspondent says, 'No, Daryn, I'm here for you.' Yes, that's what he really said. Unfortunately, I missed his name.

Is it so wrong of me that I want to see these war whores get blown up on live TV?

It is wrong, I know. I just can't help it. And I know I'll feel really bad if my secret wish comes true. But they're masquerading as journalists, doing an empty standup outside their hotel, adding nothing to the world's understanding of what is happening here.

Now CNN switches to a shot from that godforsaken hellhole, Crawford, Texas, which they are describing as "The Western White House." Can't they just call it what it is, the second home of President Eternal Vacation? There's no crisis great enough for him to give up his constant vacations. If he'd been in Crawford on 9/11 they would have waited even longer to tell him what was going on. And he wouldn't have been pretending to read. Did you see that the White House issued a list of books Brush Cutter is reading on his vacation? The guy doesn't read. Why the charade?

Grumpy today despite the cessation of blistering temperature.

Posting will be spotty for the next few days as other life responsibilities predominate. Sorry. Maybe on my return I'll be in a better mood.

It Was 108 in Central Massachusetts Last Wednesday

Yeah, that's my excuse for missing all these stories:

National Tennis Center to be named after foremother Billie Jean King.

The Iraqi blogger Riverbend describes the exodus from Baghdad, and why it's happening.

Tom Friedman has run out of six month segments (Friedmans), and even he now says we must 'disengage' from the civil war we created in Iraq. Better late than never.

Hillary Clinton, finger in the wind, ripped Donald Rumsfield a new one in a Senate Hearing. Five years too late, baby. It was the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Brent Wilkes, Duke Cunningham's benefactor, told the New York Times how he funneled bribes to Republican Congressman to get government contracts.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites marched in Baghdad chanting 'death to Israel.' I love to see democracy flowering in the middle east. Great job by the Cheney Administration.

In a new book, our former ambassador to Croatia says Bush didn't know there were two different sects (Shia and Sunni) in Iraq before the invasion. I'm shocked. At this point it would be news to learn that Bush understands anything.

Two nuclear power plants in Sweden shut down after almost melting down. As we said after Three Mile Island, We All Live In Pennsylvania. We all live in Sweden.

There's a parody making fun of Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth on YouTube. Guess who made it? A PR firm that works for Exxon Mobil.

Mel Gibson, drunk as a skunk, goes on a tirade about Jews. You know, when I get drunk I don't go on racist tirades. I might say 'men can be such pigs', but that's because I believe that. You think Mel is really sorry? Neither do I.

The Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and The Poodle, Tony Blair, had a big press conference announcing a new initiative to combat global warming. Its centerpiece? Voluntary cooperation by industry. That should do the trick. It's been working so well so far.

Daryn Kagan to leave CNN to start a blog. Hah! Nobody leaves a job to start a blog. She's getting shitcanned. Her blog is supposed to be inspirational. I'd be inspired if she started posting dirt on former boyfriend Rush Limpaugh. Daryn?

And here's a story I missed two weeks ago. The US rushed a shipment of laser-guided missiles to Israel after the Israel-Lebanon war started. Maybe that's why we're having a hard time getting Lebanon to talk to us about a cease fire.

The US Has FUBAR'd Iraq

From R.J. Eskow's HuffPost article: Communication Breakdown: Army Major Describes Yet Another Example of GOP Military Mismanagement; he took the image from the Times of London.

12,000 of 34,000 doctors have left Iraq; perhaps because 2,000 have been killed, and 250 kidnapped.

I've Got an ActBlue Page

Main St USA is the name of my ActBlue page. I've got five candidates so far, and if there's someone you think I should add, send me an email (edwardssupporter@aol.com) or tell me about your candidate and your argument as to why I should support her, or him, in the comments section.

Here are my 5:

(1) Kirsten Gillibrand: Running for the NY-20 Congressional seat (my mom's district); David Boies' partner, smart lawyer, and running against the evil oaf, incumbent John Sweeney, the jerk who led the Brooks Brother riot in Dade County during the 2000 Florida vote counting fiasco, and more recently a Jack Abramoff bagman, working hard to keep sweatshops open in the Marianas Islands.

(2) John Bonifaz: Running to be Secretary of State in Massachusetts. When John Kerry took his millions and his promise to fight for every vote and left Ohio in 2004, John Bonifaz bought a plane ticket and went to Ohio and led the fight to have all the votes counted. Running against incumbent Bill Galvin, our comical Secretary of State who never saw a TV camera he didn't ham up to.

(3) Eric Massa: Running for the NY-29 Congressional seat, western New York where many friends and relatives live. One of the Fighting Dems, the large group of military veterans running to bring a realistic view of the military into government. Had enough chickenhawk leadership yet? Vote for the Fighting Dems. Oh, and Massa's opponent is a real piece of work, the Shotgun Senator (when he was in the NY State Senate, he fired a shotgun at his now ex-wife), incumbent Randy Kuhl.

(4) Jon Tester: Running for the Montana Senate seat against incumbent Conrad Burns, Abramoff bagman, and the Senator most famous recently for accosting a group of firefighters from Virginia in the Billings, Montana airport and accusing them of doing a poor job. Tester is a rancher, a gun owner, and a progressive.

(5) Joe Sestak: Running for the PA-07 seat currently held by Curt Weldon, one of the dumbest wingnuts in Congress (he keeps issuing statements saying we've found the WMDs in Iraq. Right.) Sestak is a retired 31-year Navy veteran with a Doctorate in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. Weldon, on the other hand, is a typical corrupt Republican; his 29-year-old daughter is a lobbyist trading on Daddy's contacts. Plus he publicly criticized Sestak's choice of cancer treatment for his 5-year-old daughter. Yucch.