ThinkFast: March 22, 2006
ThinkFast: March 22, 2006
In a policy shift, the Bush administration will now “bar statements made under torture from its Guantanamo Bay military courts.” The reversal is an effort to prevent the special military commissions from being struck down by the Supreme Court, which is to review their legality next week.
$157 Million: The amount the Bush administration has given to “organizations run by political and ideological allies†under the guise of “religion-based initiatives and other federal programs.â€
The government will auction off former Rep. Randy “Duke†Cunningham’s bribery loot on Thursday. Among the spoils: “Silver-plated candelabras. A cedar-lined lingerie cabinet. Persian rugs. An oak hutch carved with lions’ heads, tree limbs and acorns. … A solid cherry sleigh bed. Nearly a dozen rugs. Marble-topped nightstands, armoires and sideboards, many featuring stained glass, brass fittings and intricate carvings.â€
“Did a group financed by Exxon prompt IRS to audit Greenpeace?” From Aug. 2003-Jul. 2004, the nonprofit Public Interest Watch — which wrote to the IRS — received $124,094 in contributions. $120,000 of that money came from Exxon Mobil, a frequent target of Greenpeace.
The government watchdog group Public Citizen filed a lawsuit in the D.C. District Court yesterday asking for the nullification of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The suit argues that the law violated the “bicameral clause” of the Constitution because the House and Senate did not pass identical versions of the bill.
A New York Times study found most Katrina evacuees “have not found a permanent place to live, have depleted their savings and consider their life worse than before the hurricane.†The evacuees “believed that the rest of the nation, and politicians in Washington, have moved on.â€
Black leaders, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, are touring Southern cities rallying opposition to the New Orleans voting plan for the mayoral election next month. They want the election postponed because Louisiana officials have not done enough to ensure that displaced voters will be able to vote.
As conservatives fight against granting citizenship to illegal immigrants because they’re “taking [U.S.] jobs,” a new report shows that “Hispanic-owned businesses now comprise one of the fastest-growing segments the U.S. economy.” “Hispanic immigrants are not just job takers. They’re job creators,” said Michael Barrera, of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Pentagon approves its own propaganda. The Department of Defense has found that “an American public relations firm did not violate military policy by paying Iraqi news outlets to print positive articles.” The firm’s contract remains “fully in effect.”
And finally: “Here’s your *$@#ing report.” Some company executives reportedly appreciate “a potty mouth now and then because it indicate[s] passion.” One CEO “felt that if you weren’t swearing, you probably didn’t care enough.”
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
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So we are admitting torture now?
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:13 amThe story about New Orleans is tragic, and worth a read.
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:13 am#1, exqactly. If we do not torture, then why would we have any statements made under torture?
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:15 amAhh. Another fine day in the United States of Christian Conservatives
*barf*
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:24 amI am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of it’s being a public blessing.
- Thomas Jefferson
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:27 amwasn’t it also Jefferson who said something to the effect that a revolution every couple of hundred years is healthy? We are overdue!!!
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:30 amHere is another depressing bit of information for ThinkFast: Mississippi has just passed a law outlawing sex toys. Joining states only two other states: Texas and Georgia.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Geogria and Texas sent their dildos out of state. Georgia sent theirs to congress to replace Max Cleland and Texas sent theirs to the White House and the whole country has been stimulated every since.
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:31 am7)
I suggest that they start up a dildo cop squad… they need to start off with all the church going people… search every drawer and closet in every house. Once they are done with the church people the law will probably be repealed.
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:34 amI wonder if they included the handgun in their classifications of sex toys……….
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:34 amWe ARE overdue for a revolution. My mother talks of it daily. I love to see the older folks getting involved; it is good for our nation to hear from those with wisdom and the knowledge of recent history. I want to see larger numbers of voters this year. I want to see every person affected by Katrina to vote.
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:41 am“religion-based initiatives and other federal programs” – semantics, probably, worded that way, but could it mean that “religion-based initiatives” are now “other federal programs”? uhhh…
and – good one, joe…
March 22nd, 2006 at 10:29 amwith respect to the $150 million spent on faith based initiatives
i am awaiting to read the investigative journalist who takes a hard look at the use of faith-based initative money for
helping george bush get re-elected in 2004, including possibly using it to pay out walk-around money to christian groups prior to november, 2004.
anybody want to bet against the propostion that the “initiatives ” were a political slush fund?
March 22nd, 2006 at 10:38 amThe government watchdog group Public Citizen filed a lawsuit in the D.C. District Court yesterday asking for the nullification of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The suit argues that the law violated the “bicameral clause†of the Constitution because the House and Senate did not pass identical versions of the bill.
What is this “Con-sta-too-shun” thing you speak of? Is it involved in the way our government works some how? If so, it seems to be ignored a lot of the time recently.
March 22nd, 2006 at 10:51 am#7…
Sigh… can’t believed that passed. So let me get this straight…
Gun in nightstand drawer = okay
Vibratro in nightstand drawer = illegal
Gotcha. When are the Thought Police going to start getting Republican funding?
March 22nd, 2006 at 10:55 amI copied and pasted this from DemocraticUnderground…
The dude hit the nail on the head, plus I like his screen name:
To watch President Bush’s press conference Tuesday morning was to watch a man squarely at odds with reality. We saw Bush the defiant. Bush the angry. Bush the liar. Never has the man seemed less in charge of America.
Taking tough questions from the White House press corps, the president laughed in the face of a grim reality, blamed the media for the disaster in Iraq and boasted of progress that simply isn’t there.
The long, slow march toward irrelevance is over. Bush is officially a lame duck. He doesn’t matter anymore. Today proved that.
It was sad that the president couldn’t even speak for a minute without blaming the media for the unmitigated disaster in Iraq. The last time I checked, Mr. President, the media wasn’t responsible for more than 2,300 Americans dying in Iraq. The media hasn’t operated secret prisons. The media hasn’t violated human rights. The media hasn’t used chemical weapons. You have, Mr. President. And no amount of spin can change that fact. No blame gaming can change the bottom line: This was your disaster.
When he wasn’t blaming the media, he was confronting them. Perhaps the most heated exchange today took place between Bush and Helen Thomas. When she found his answers to her question about why he went to war unsatisfactory, Bush rudely glared at Thomas, repeatedly asking if he could finish. Thomas, apparently, had broken an unwritten White House rule under which no reporters are allowed to question the president when his lies set off their bullshit detectors. No moment better served as a metaphor for the Bush presidency than that callous dismissal of dissent.
Bush’s departure from reality was no more obvious than when asked about his warrantless wiretapping program. No sooner had Fox News reporter Carl Cameron asked Bush to respond to the calls for censure than Bush erected a straw man of massive proportions. The president wondered aloud why Democrats hadn’t simply come out and said that they didn’t support spying on terrorists.
Posted by BobcatJH
March 22nd, 2006 at 11:15 am
The term terrorist itself is losing it’s initial definition, and context…
March 22nd, 2006 at 11:24 amI hear children and teenagers using the term now in their interactions with their peers, and yes, teachers as well……
If they don’t get what they want, their way, the person refusing to participate in their little control dramas is called a terrorist
The juvenile and immature Dubious in yesterdays press conference setting looked just like an elementary school cafateria.
#15 – Excellent post, bobcat. You sure that’s not you?
March 22nd, 2006 at 11:34 amRe Duke Cunningham’s loot:
I’ll give ‘em $5 for the antique commode. It would look real nice in the yard with petunias in it.
Re swearing in the workplace (& elsewhere):
March 22nd, 2006 at 11:39 amThat must be it, I’m passionate. I muzzle the mouth for the most part at work, but sometimes the situation warrants a “Holy sh*t,” or “mother f*cker,” or “Shut the f*ck up, you worthless piece of sh*t,” etc.
Wow, I think I’m good for the day.
#14 The whole dildos/sex toys thing is pretty interesting. It seems to me with my understanding of the commerce clause that these laws unfairly restrict interstate commerce, which is unusual for a party that professes free trade to enact restrictive laws. Other laws have been struck down where the interstate commerce is not evident to the naked eye and the courts would have a hard time justifying the reversal of the decisions as they are very closely tied to civil rights.
A justification for the law might be health and welfare of the community which the constitution grants the making of those laws to the states…yet this supreme court as it sits now seems to pick and choose when they want the states to exercise their health and welfare options. A trial based on this argument might make for some pretty humorous transcripts. Could the witness please explain how the sale or possession of a dildo affects the community health?
Another justification might be community standards. This too might make for some interesting court dialog. The plaintiff might have to show just how many dildos are purchased in Texas each year and with the data made public we will find out how moral these people really are as opposed to how moral they claim to be. Either way the community standards argument baffles me because in any one community there are probably as many different definitions of morality as there are people, so what are the standards and is this a constitutional reason for making laws?
March 22nd, 2006 at 11:48 am#14, I’ve never known anyone to be killed or hurt by a vibrato. They’ve made a few people dizzy, but not seriously hurt….
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:14 pm#14, you know, Gary Ruppert said something about putting a flare gun up his rearend if there was an indictment in the Fitzgerald investigation – maybe he can comment on this? Where are you Gary?
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:15 pm#20, Vibrato? so they are banning guitar parts now too? I knew they would attack music eventually.
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:17 pmBOBCAT
Loved your comment.
Helen Thomas asked the self declared “war president” why he intended to go to war with Iraq from the very start.
He told her he did not want war.
Anyone fact check this for his past statements regarding war? NO
The shrub was telling reporters in 1998 and 1999 that if elected president he wanted to be a “war president” like Reagam – remember – Reagan invaded Grenada on a pretense the Cuban Army was there and had taken several hundred Amurkans hostage.
Bush was saying that if you wanted to go down in history as a great president, you had to be a president that had a war.
The man is obsessed with death and dying by the bullet. Lets give him the chance to prove his metal.
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:22 pm#15 – Excellent post, bobcat. You sure that’s not you?
Comment by Zookeeper — March 22, 2006 @ 11:34 am
Nope, wasn’t me. Captured how I felt about the train wreck of a press conference yesterday.
I’m pleased to see that Bush’s handlers are letting him take real questions from reporters and unscripted questions from people at his public speaking engagements. He’s just providing soundbite after soundbite for the Democrats to use in months running up to November ‘06.
Keep them coming, Dubya.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:40 pmThe issue isn’t torture: The issue is whether someone can be compelled to be a witness against themselves. By saying the torture will now not be acceptable admits that they were doing it. They defeat their own argument.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:46 pmAnother Think Fast item that should be noted is the Enron trial: the Enron former treasurer testified that Ken Lay giggled in delight in the company’s complex financing deals, and gauged the amount of reported loss credit analysts could stomach.
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5655407/c_5655433?f=TodayInFinance032306
It is bad enough that Enron employees lost their retirements, but with this kind of business conduct and attitude, isn’t it scary we are all placing our retirements on this type of guy running businesses. Is this what American business has come to in the 21st century?
March 23rd, 2006 at 1:29 am