ThinkFast: August 31, 2006
ThinkFast: August 31, 2006
“A crowd of thousands cheered Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson” at a protest of President Bush’s appearance in town yesterday, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Anderson called Bush a “dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights violating president.”
Gov. Schwarzenegger (R-CA) and Democratic leaders agreed yesterday on the “most sweeping controls on carbon dioxide emissions in the nation,” which call for a 25 percent reduction in emissions by 2020, “and could establish controls on the largest industrial sectors, including utilities, oil refineries and cement plants.”
“As many as one in five members of the armed services are being preyed on by loan centers set up near military bases that can charge cash-strapped military families interest of 400% or more, a new Pentagon report has found.”
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) “will probably be fined” and face other penalties for falsely telling the Tennessee Department of Health he had fulfilled all the requirements that doctors with active licenses must maintain in the state.
In a move to satisfy his “most conservative supporters,” President Bush on Wednesday nominated five “extremely divisive” people as appeals court judges, “including one whom Democrats have threatened to block with a filibuster.”
Violent crime is up for the first six months of 2006, according to statistics shared by 170 local officials. “At the summit, city officials shared stories about their challenges in fighting growing crime, particularly among juveniles, amid cuts in community programs for youths as well as an uneven economic recovery.”
28 percent: The drop in the number of white-collar crime prosecutions from five years ago, according to a new analysis of federal data, apparently due to a shift to homeland security cases.
“The amount of nicotine in most cigarettes rose an average of almost 10 percent from 1998 to 2004, with brands most popular with young people and minorities registering the biggest increases and highest nicotine content.”
And finally: Rochester, Minn., City Council member Pat Carr has apologized for posting anonymous messages on the local newspaper’s Web site, such as, “Pat Carr has done nothing but stand up for the silent majority.” Carr said, “I stand by what I said,” but noted that he didn’t write every one of the self-glorifying posts; “one was written by a friend visiting his office.”
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
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Good for Salt Lake City. I am not a Nazi goddamnit.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:08 amSo much for Shrubs claim to be a “uniter” not a divider.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:19 amEven if Bush were impeached today, the damage he has caused to the judiciary will take decades to undo.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:23 amThe Waxman report, and now this:
http://www.motherjones.com/bush_war_timeline/
August 31st, 2006 at 9:23 amWaxman report pre war misinformation from the big 5:
http://www.bushoniraq.com/iraq_on_the_record_rep.pdf
August 31st, 2006 at 9:28 amComment by RealScientist — August 31, 2006 @ 9:23 am
Assuming humanity is still around that long.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:31 amOff Topic - Keith Olberman opened up a passionate fiery-eyed can of whoop-ass on Donald Rumsfeld last night (for calling all who disagree with him Nazis). They have the video on Crooks and Liars. It might be the best five minutes on TV anyone has seen in years. It was the last segment of his show. When they went to Tucker Carlson, immediately after, it looked like he was choking on his bow-tie.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/ 2006/ 08/ 30/ keith-olbermann-delivers-one-hell-of-a-commentary-on-rumsfeld
August 31st, 2006 at 9:34 amLarry,
thank you for the link. It is heatening to see corporate media finally taking on this administration.
Think Impeachement, it couldn’t hurt, and it just might help.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:45 am#7 - Larry, I agree! I was listening to Rachel Maddow (sp?) this morning, and was quite impressed by his statements that she aired. Stirring!
August 31st, 2006 at 9:47 amOh, and here’s a quickie summary of the stuff about Hastert’s actions…
Some of the voting machines were taken to the cars and homes of election volunteers up to 12 days before the election. There were also issues with absentee ballots. The contestants had filed an election contest and the defendants moved to dismiss, saying that Hastert’s actions deprived everyone else of jurisdiction. They got their wish. But it should appear to people who actually have a brain and can think for themselves that Hastert was covering up for election fraud.
There are plans to appeal, so it’s not over yet.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:52 am#7
Rumsfield called those who disagree with him Nazis? No he didn’t.
“It might be the best five minutes on TV anyone has seen in years.”
It was Oscar worthy. Brought tears of admiration to my eyes. Funny, those that critizes Rumsfield get so flustered when he returns fire.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:53 amFull text of Rocky Anderson’s speech, from his diary at DKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/30/164516/543
August 31st, 2006 at 9:59 amRochester, Minn., City Council member Pat Carr has apologized for posting anonymous messages on the local newspaper’s Web site, such as, “Pat Carr has done nothing but stand up for the silent majority.†Carr said, “I stand by what I said,†but noted that he didn’t write every one of the self-glorifying posts; “one was written by a friend visiting his office.â€
A man his age still has an invisible friend?
August 31st, 2006 at 10:01 amGood news, people! Global Warming is over!
It’s August 31, and there’s frost on my car windows. That’s a first, my friends!
August 31st, 2006 at 10:08 amSo “Red Rocky” got 1500+- to vent and rant with him? Big surprise. Do you all have plnas for the America Hate Fest (AKA Camp Democracy (sic))? The list of sponsoring groups makes one think of anything but “democracy” and should be very entertaining.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:12 amGlad you’re looking forward to it, RRS. Get a life…
August 31st, 2006 at 10:16 amKeith Olbermann’ essay was among the best I have seen in a very long time. He was right on target - if anyone missed it, at least get a transcript, or try to see the video on C&L. It will be worth your time.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:26 amToo bad that the braindead trolls miss the point in Olbermann’s commentary. They could really use the mind opener.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:28 amThis is a MUST READ - we must arm ourselves for the coming onslaught related to 9/11 when ABC airs their mini series blaming Clinton for 9/11!!! Unbelievable, yes, but typical of these people’s penchant for rewriting history, (DOWNRIGHT LYING).
Clinton, 9/11 and the Facts
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 30 August 2006
The fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks is less than two weeks away, but the avalanche has already begun. Oliver Stone’s film “World Trade Center” has been advertised in all corners and is being screened across the nation. CNN has announced that it intends, on the 11th, to rebroadcast all of the coverage of the attacks from 8:30 a.m. until midnight. If you don’t have cable, they say, you can watch it for free on the CNN web site.
ABC intends to mark the occasion in far more grand a fashion. Starting September 10th and ending September 11th, the network will show a miniseries titled “The Path to 9/11.” According to reports from early screenings, the writer/producer of the miniseries, Cyrus Nowrasteh, has crafted a television polemic intended to blame the entire event on President Clinton.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:35 amA man his age still has an invisible friend?
Comment by Zooey — August 31, 2006 @ 10:01 am
Well, he may look like an adult on the outside, but mentally, who’s to say how old he is? My 70 year old mother-in-law, who I’ve known for 20 years, can be one of the most childish, selfish, and immature senior citizen I have ever seen.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:36 amI hope no one minds - but we know how some trolls REFUSE to link to any relevant links we provide - and so I post the entire transcript…
There Is Fascism, Indeed
By Kieth Olbermann
MSNBC
Wednesday 30 August 2006
The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack.
Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.
Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday demands the deep analysis-and the sober contemplation-of every American.
For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence - indeed, the loyalty - of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse, still, it credits those same transient occupants - our employees - with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.
Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as “his” troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.
It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile it is right and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.
In a small irony, however, Mr. Rumsfeld’s speechwriter was adroit in invoking the memory of the appeasement of the Nazis. For in their time, there was another government faced with true peril-with a growing evil-powerful and remorseless.
That government, like Mr. Rumsfeld’s, had a monopoly on all the facts. It, too, had the “secret information.” It alone had the true picture of the threat. It too dismissed and insulted its critics in terms like Mr. Rumsfeld’s - questioning their intellect and their morality.
That government was England’s, in the 1930’s.
It knew Hitler posed no true threat to Europe, let alone England.
It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all treaties and accords.
It knew that the hard evidence it received, which contradicted its own policies, its own conclusions - its own omniscience - needed to be dismissed.
The English government of Neville Chamberlain already knew the truth.
Most relevant of all - it “knew” that its staunchest critics needed to be marginalized and isolated. In fact, it portrayed the foremost of them as a blood-thirsty war-monger who was, if not truly senile, at best morally or intellectually confused.
That critic’s name was Winston Churchill.
Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill.
History - and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England - have taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty - and his own confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can not only make the man, but that the office can also make the facts.
Thus, did Mr. Rumsfeld make an apt historical analogy.
Excepting the fact, that he has the battery plugged in backwards.
His government, absolute - and exclusive - in its knowledge, is not the modern version of the one which stood up to the Nazis.
It is the modern version of the government of Neville Chamberlain.
But back to today’s Omniscient ones.
That, about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this: This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely.
And, as such, all voices count - not just his.
Had he or his president perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience - about Osama Bin Laden’s plans five years ago, about Saddam Hussein’s weapons four years ago, about Hurricane Katrina’s impact one year ago - we all might be able to swallow hard, and accept their “omniscience” as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact, plus ego.
But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance, and its own hubris.
Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to the entire “Fog of Fear” which continues to envelop this nation, he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies have - inadvertently or intentionally - profited and benefited, both personally, and politically.
And yet he can stand up, in public, and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the Emporer’s New Clothes?
In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight? With what country has he confused the United States of America?
The confusion we - as its citizens- must now address, is stark and forbidding.
But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note - with hope in your heart - that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light, and we can, too.
The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought.
And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a “new type of fascism.”
As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that - though probably not in the way he thought he meant it.
This country faces a new type of fascism - indeed.
Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble tribute, I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary journalist Edward R. Murrow.
But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could I come close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew everything, and branded those who disagreed: “confused” or “immoral.”
Thus, forgive me, for reading Murrow, in full:
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,” he said, in 1954. “We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.
“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.”
And so good night, and good luck.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:37 amanother good read -
Bush’s Miserable Vacation
By Larry C. Johnson
I’ve said this before - I read what credentialed people have to say - and for the trolls who think that Larry C. Johnson is nothing but a liberal shrill - as usual you would be so WRONG. I would LOVE for those who worship Fox news whores to post where their beloved “journalists” come from.
Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and US State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:47 am#11 Tracy, Let me do something a neo-troll never does…Admit a mistake. You’re correct. Rumsfeld did not directly call us Nazis. He insinuated that we were like those that appeased, which helped bring Hitler and the Nazis to power. Thanks for pointing out my error. I strive to be accurate. Either way, Rumsfeld’s insinuation was despicable.
I offer you this in return. Grandpappy Bush actually did DIRECTLY help Hitler.
How Bush’s grandfather helped Hitler’s rise to power
Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today’s president
Ben Aris in Berlin and Duncan Campbell in Washington
Saturday September 25, 2004
The Guardian
George Bush’s grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company’s assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator’s action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The debate over Prescott Bush’s behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the “Bush/Nazi” connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis’ plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler’s rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.
Remarkably, little of Bush’s dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make Prescott Bush’s business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:51 amand the bush worshippers are okay with this?
Executives Cash In on War and Oil Bonanza
by Emad Mekay
WASHINGTON - Top oil and defence industry executives in the United States are raking in record personal profits on the backs of the U.S. wars following the terror attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 and sky-high oil prices, two think-tanks said Wednesday.
August 31st, 2006 at 11:35 amDon’t forget, madashell, these people equate financial success with virtue. They believe that if they are making money, then they are doing something good. And if they are making a lot of money, then they are doing a lot of good. It has always amazed me that people who make lots of money making things that kill people somehow see themselves as virtuous. (Of course, they’ll claim that the things they make “defend” people, so that makes them virtuous. There is nothing virtuous about weapons of mass destruction.)
August 31st, 2006 at 12:03 pmOn MSNBC, I see Rita “velvet voice” Cosby is now hot on the Warren Jeffs trail.
August 31st, 2006 at 12:15 pmI wonder if she will try to stare lovingly into his eyes too? lol
Despite the fact he’s spending money like a madman (Which really, I’m democrat, I’m not worried about spending money. I want to progress and get stuff done regardless of cost], Swarzenegger is doing some AWESOME stuff in terms on environment.
He is exactly what that state needed and still needs to turn their energy problems around. I’d much rather spend assloads of money on the environment then on a pointless war.
And since Bush has no energy or environmental policies really at all, I say, get an admendment passed to let him into office [Not one to limit our freedoms]
August 31st, 2006 at 12:34 pm#23
“Tracy, Let me do something a neo-troll never does…Admit a mistake.”
I sure wish some of the neo-Liberals here would follow your lead.
“He insinuated that we were like those that appeased,…”
He was right on that point. Those that did appease Hitler were very much responsible for WW2 being stated by him.
“I offer you this in return. Grandpappy Bush actually did DIRECTLY help Hitler.”
Yes I am aware of this bit of history, although your implication that Bush Jr. is connected to the Nazis of WW2 Germany is just a dispicable as you say Rumsfeld’s insinuation was. Very condesending and hypocritical…to say the least.
August 31st, 2006 at 12:39 pm29, Nowhere in my post did I insinuate that W. is connected with the Nazis of WW2. To clarify my position I do believe that W. is the frontman for an administration of fascist-wannabees.
The Guardian does report…
“he (Prescott Bush) worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler’s rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.”
And he continued to profit AFTER Pearl Harbor was bombed.
My question…Are those profits the ones that set up the Bush family dynasty? If so then you’ll have to draw your own conclusions about whether W. is connected to the Nazis of WW2. I DON’T hold W. accountable for the actions of his grandfather. However, an honorable man would distance himself from dirty money.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:28 pm#30
“Nowhere in my post did I insinuate that W. is connected with the Nazis of WW2.”
Fair enough, however the fact that you brought up an irrelevant fact, i.e. Prescott Bush’s dealings with the Nazis, to this discussion insinuates that was exactly what you were trying to do.
August 31st, 2006 at 2:12 pm#30
Why did you bring up that irrelevant fact if not to insinuate that Bush is connected to the Nazis?
August 31st, 2006 at 2:14 pm#32 - Tracy, I though you were arguing that insinuation was nothing at all and that Sec. Rumsfeld’s “insinuation” that anyone who criticized Pres. Bush and his policies were “like those who supported Nazi’s by not saying anything against them” was just something to gloss over?
I’m a bit confused by your seeming double standard.
August 31st, 2006 at 2:25 pmIf Rumsfeld is trying to tar & feather and scare & silence me with outrageous accusations I will fight back with substantiated facts. The fact is the Prescott Bush made money aiding Hitler and continued even AFTER Pearl Harbor was attacked. Prescott Bush is the appeaser. And while not responsible for his actions, W. has benefitted from them.
Rumsfeld brought the appeasement topic up.
Do you expect us to sit silently by and take ithat crap from Rumsfeld?
You’ve motivated me to write to a few more newspaper editorial sections.
#33 Democratic Soldier…your question is spot on.
August 31st, 2006 at 3:18 pmGov. Schwarzenegger (R-CA) and Democratic leaders agreed yesterday on the “most sweeping controls on carbon dioxide emissions in the nation,†which call for a 25 percent reduction in emissions by 2020, “and could establish controls on the largest industrial sectors, including utilities, oil refineries and cement plants.â€
Boy, how much will this jack up energy prices in CA?
August 31st, 2006 at 4:05 pm#34
“Do you expect us to sit silently by and take ithat crap from Rumsfeld?”
Of course not, but do you expect him to do the same?
My original comment was pointing out that I found it amusing that those who critized Rumsfeld on a daily basis got all bent out of shape and angry when he CORRECTLY drew the analogy that many of a his critics are appeasers.
“Prescott Bush is the appeaser”
appeaser - someone who tries to bring peace by acceding to demands.
http://www.wordreference.com/definition/appeaser
Tell use how Precott Bush fits this definition.
…here is a prime example of those of an appeaser in this very blog…see comment #120
http://thinkprogress.org/ 2006/ 08/ 29/ ahmadinejad-challenges-bush-to-televised-debate/
August 31st, 2006 at 4:33 pm#33
You though wrong…again.
August 31st, 2006 at 4:34 pm[…] Think Progress […]
August 31st, 2006 at 5:11 pmTracy,here,I’ll say it:
George W. Bush & Co. are fascist/NAZI dictatorial wannabes and war-mongers.We just call them by a different name now-NEOCONS.
August 31st, 2006 at 5:18 pm#37 - Wow! I am so astounded by your debating skills!
I see it took you, what, over an hour to think that one up! Did you have to look up the words first or did you have to get help on putting that sentence together? Probably both, right?
Grow up and get a vocabulary, sweet cheeks.
August 31st, 2006 at 5:26 pmSalt Lake City is a well-known hotbed of radical leftists. Nothing to see there, move along.
August 31st, 2006 at 6:34 pm#40
You thought wrong…again.
August 31st, 2006 at 6:38 pmIf you want a link to Rocky’s speach here it is. I can finally say that I am from Utah.
speech here
go here to thank Rocky
August 31st, 2006 at 11:30 pmIf you want a link to Rocky’s speach here it is. I can finally say that I am from Utah.
Let’s try that again.
speech here
go here to thank Rocky
August 31st, 2006 at 11:32 pmWhat a speech!
September 1st, 2006 at 12:08 amComing at a time when the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints are in the news, casting a shadow over much of Utah in general, this was particularly timely.
Bravo to Rockey Anderson and the truth tellers
Rocky Anderson can be just as anti-Bush and anti-war as he wants any other day of the year. I am also both anti-war and anti-Bush. But as the mayor of Salt Lake, he had a professional obligation to be a more gracious host to Bush than he was on the one day Bush was in town. Anchorage’s mayor Mark Begich is also a Democrat, but always plays a gracious host to visiting politicians regardless of party affiliation.
Respect the office even if you can’t respect the officeholder. One of the biggest reasons why America has become so unsavory and nauseating is the loss of etiquette, civility, and high culture in this country. America reminds me of Jed Clampett of the Beverly Hillbillies - means well, but an absolute blunderbuss culturally.
September 1st, 2006 at 2:50 amre: 46 WAAA WAAA WAAA, milk and cookies
When you refer to “graciousness” and “civility” are you refering to the same type of treatment the victims of hurricane Katrina, American Soldiers, the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan receive on a daily basis from our “gracious” commander n thief?
Were the good citizens of America ungracious when they poured the King’s tea in the Boston Harbor?
Don’t insult the good people who would stand up when you would crawl on your belly like a slave.
You reap what you sow.
September 1st, 2006 at 3:48 amThanks for your site!
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:33 pmThis site is put together well!
March 1st, 2007 at 7:41 pmLeora
He visto que muchos sitios antes y la mayor?a de ellos no miran esto bueno. No puedo esperar dej? a mis amigos saber sobre este sitio. Gracias por el contenido excelente.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:18 am