ThinkFast: May 23, 2008
ThinkFast: May 23, 2008
Gen. David Petraeus said he expects to recommend additional cuts in U.S. troop levels in Iraq this fall. The WSJ states that the move “could boost the electoral prospects” of John McCain “if voters perceive the war is winding down.”
Three-time melanoma survivor John McCain is apparently cancer-free and otherwise healthy, according to an AP review of his medical records. Today’s release comes after a three-month delay and at least three prior refusals to make the records public.
The Senate passed a bill yesterday “prohibiting federal contractors from avoiding Social Security and Medicare taxes by hiring workers through offshore shell companies.” Earlier this week, the House “also voted unanimously to ban the practice, used by former Halliburton subsidiary KBR” and others to avoid payroll taxes for thousands of American workers in Iraq.
In order to justify the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program in 2001, then-Justice Department lawyer John Yoo argued that FISA was not the “exclusive means” by which the U.S. conducts electronic surveillance. “The statute must be construed to avoid [such] a reading,” wrote Yoo, claiming that Congress had not “made a clear statement,” despite the “exclusive” language in the bill.
Last night, the House overwhelmingly approved an amendment introduced by Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) that forbids “the Defense Department from engaging in ‘a concerted effort to propagandize’ the American people over the war.” The move comes after revelations that the Pentagon sought to use military officials as media mouthpieces for the administration.
“In her most extensive public comments” on the matter, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “defended tough interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects.” “The fact is that after Sept. 11…we were in an environment in which saving America from the next attack was paramount,” Rice said. She “said America was safer because of interrogation conducted on al-Qaeda detainees.”
Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman “asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday to toss out his conviction, saying prosecutors confused campaign contributions for bribes.” Siegelman also “argued that the trial judge improperly sentenced him to more prison time because Siegelman publicly declared that Republicans were behind his prosecution.”
According to projections the Department of Energy issued yesterday, “crude oil prices would probably drop by an average of only 75 cents a barrel” if Congress were to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The report found that ANWR oil production “is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices.”
And finally: “Barack Obama wags the dog.” In a forthcoming book entitled “A Rare Breed of Love,” which offers advice on how to “raise awareness, make a difference, and stop animal suffering,” Obama appears holding a three-legged poodle rescued from a puppy mill. “Lest his presidential campaign ever end up in the doghouse, Sen. Barack Obama has decided to go ahead and appeal to the mutts,” writes the Washington Examiner.
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
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US, on Behalf of Big Pharma, Might Just Choke the WHO
As the 61st annual World Health Assembly gathers in Geneva this week, a major issue that the world’s governments are struggling with is patents on medicines, and whether the option to digress from a strict patent system should be endorsed by the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO).
The United States is the sole country obstructing the ability of the WHO to push for a more flexible intellectual property system, according to several sources. This issue is being negotiated at the WHO’s Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG).
According to the WHO’s website, “developing countries remain largely excluded from the benefits of modern science.” However, the controversial issue of intellectual property has prevented consensus, and negotiations remain ongoing. At issue for the U.S. is the further dilution of its desired strict intellectual property system and the interests of its pharmaceutical industry.
“We think this is a key moment that many countries either developed and developing agree that WHO should do something to improve health in the area of IP (intellectual property). Unfortunately, (complete) consensus is pending because of only one member. Only one member disagrees with the new role of the WHO.”
However, “progress is confined (largely) to AIDS-related treatments. What about other diseases and products? Success is on a case-by-case, drug-by-drug basis, and is highly dependent on civil society actions.”
In the last two years, she said, Thailand issued compulsory licences for anti-retovirals, and for drugs to fight cancer and heart disease, and the country came under considerable political and economic pressure from the United States.
Nicoletta Dentico from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), a non-profit drug development organisation, noted that despite some success stories, the general situation remains bleak. “The 10/90 gap still remains.” The 10/90 gap refers to the developed countries accounting for 90 percent of global pharmaceutical sales, whilst accounting for only 10 percent of the 14 million plus global deaths occurring annually due to infectious diseases. Developing countries represent 90 percent of the 14 million deaths but only 10 percent of pharmaceutical sales.
Said Dentico, “When you have nothing except death as the alternative, you may want to use common sense if a drug should be registered (patented) or not.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/22/9127/
When we start putting people over profits; then we can consider ourselves a moral and caring society. Hopefully, that will be in my lifetime.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:03 amRove’s attorney slams Judiciary Chairman
In response, Rove’s attorney Robert Luskin questioned why the subpoena was necessary and mocked Conyers in a letter copied to RAW STORY.
“I do not misunderstand either the Committee’s procedures or the scope of its interest in Mr. Rove; nor, in light of your reported remarks about the need for ’someone’ to ‘kick his ass,’ am I the least bit confused about the Committee’s motives and intentions,” Luskin wrote. “I confess, however, that I do not understand why the Committee is threating a subpoena to Mr. Rove for information related to the alleged ‘politicization of the Department of Justice,’ when, as the Committee is surely aware, Mr. Rove has already received a subpoena for the same subject matter from the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
The subpoena issued Thursday orders Rove to testify before the House panel on July 10.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Conyers_subpoenas_Karl_Rove_0522.html
Why Mr. Conyers picked July 10th, we will never know, I think it should have been early June. This has been going on for a year, stop wasting time.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:05 am>John McCain is apparently cancer-free and otherwise healthy,
Anyone know whether bush has invoked executive privledge to withold any of mccains medical records, or does he draw the line at invoking it for freindly fire fragged football stars?
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:09 amWhy Bananas Are a Parable for Our Times
Below the headlines about rocketing food prices and rocking governments, there lays a largely unnoticed fact: bananas are dying. It is a fungus called Panama Disease, and it turns bananas brick-red and inedible. There is no cure. Soon — in five, 10 or 30 years — the yellow creamy fruit as we know it will not exist. The story of how the banana rose and fell can be seen a strange parable about the corporations that increasingly dominate the world – and where they are leading us.
There was an entrepreneurial spark of genius there — but United Fruit developed a cruel business model to deliver it. Find a poor, weak country. Make sure the government will serve your interests. If it won’t, topple it and replace it with one that will. Burn down its rainforests and build banana plantations. Make the locals dependent on you. Crush any flicker of trade unionism. Then, alas, you may have to watch as the banana fields die from the strange disease that stalks bananas across the globe. If this happens, dump tonnes of chemicals on them to see if it makes a difference. If that doesn’t work, move on to the next country. Begin again. This sounds like hyperbole until you study what actually happened. In 1911, the banana magnate Samuel Zemurray decided to seize the country of Honduras as a private plantation. He gathered together some international gangsters like Guy “Machine Gun” Maloney, drummed up a private army, and invaded, installing an amigo as president.
The term “banana republic” was invented to describe the servile dictatorships that were created to please the banana companies. President Eisenhower and the CIA (headed by a former United Fruit employee) issued instructions that these “communists” should be killed, and noted that good methods were “a hammer, axe, wrench, screw driver, fire poker or kitchen knife”. The tyranny they replaced it with went on to kill more than 200,000 people.
But how does this relate to the disease now scything through the world’s bananas? The evidence suggests even when they peddle something as innocuous as bananas, corporations are structured to do one thing only: maximise their shareholders’ profits. As part of a highly regulated mixed economy, that’s a good thing, because it helps to generate wealth or churn out ideas. But if the corporations aren’t subject to tight regulations, they will do anything to maximise short-term profit. This will lead them to seemingly unhinged behaviour — like destroying the environment on which they depend.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/21/9126/
The moral is that Government needs to make sure that corporations are profitable, but they are regulated also. This way they are beneficial to the people that work for them and for the consumer who buys from them. Left unchecked these corporations, turn into monopolies that destroy everything in their path. They stop being advantageous to society and generate unfavorable working conditions.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:12 amRice “said America was safer because of interrogation conducted on al-Qaeda detainees.”
This excuse of TORTURING people to “keep us safe” was used by the Nazi’s too, and it didn’t make it right then either.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 amFor His Treatment of Children in the ‘War on Terror,’ Bush Is a War Criminal
Surely nothing that President Bush has done in his two wretched terms of office — not the invasion and destruction of Iraq, not the overturning of the five-centuries-old tradition of habeas corpus, not his authorization and encouragement of torture, not his campaign of domestic spying — nothing, can compare in its ugliness as his approval, as commander in chief, of the imprisoning of over 2500 children.
According to the US government’s own figures, that is how many kids 17 years and younger have been held since 2001 as “enemy combatants” — often for over a year, and sometimes for over five years. At least eight of those children, some reportedly as young as 10, were held at Guantanamo. They even had a special camp for them there: Camp Iguana. One of those kids committed suicide at the age of 21, after spending five years in confinement at Guantanamo. (Ironically and tragically, that particular victim of the president’s criminal policy, had been determined by the Pentagon to have been innocent only two weeks before he took his own life, but nobody bothered to tell him he was slated for release and a return home to Afghanistan.)
I say Bush’s behavior is criminal because since 1949, under the Geneva Conventions signed and adopted by the US, and incorporated into US law under the Constitution’s supremacy clause, children under the age of 15 are classed as “protected persons,” and even if captured while fighting against US forces are to be considered victims, not POWs. In 2002, the Bush administration signed an updated version of that treaty, raising the “protected person” age to all those “under 18.”
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/21/9116/
**This is so far beyond human decency it’s ridiculous. There is not one argument to justify this activity. This current administration needs to be held accountable for crimes against humanity, tried, convicted and pilloried.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 amWhy is the media even studying McCain? I’m going to have to quote Bilbo H. Baggins for a second time in stating that this country cannot survive another four years of Republican rule.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 amSince we did nothing before September 11 to stop the first attack, we had to give the appearance that we were going to do something to stop the next attack.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:16 amLast night, the House overwhelmingly approved an amendment introduced by Rep. Paul Hodes that forbids “the Defense Department from engaging in ‘a concerted effort to propagandize’ the American people over the war.”
Is anyone else getting sick of Congress passing things like this about issues that are already f_cking illegal? Why are they not impeaching and jailing the lawbreakers and the AG that will not enforce the law?
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:17 amThis is just nucking futz.
Gen. David Petraeus said he expects to recommend additional cuts in U.S. troop levels in Iraq this fall. The WSJ states that the move “could boost the electoral prospects” of John McCain “if voters perceive the war is winding down.”
Just because they bring a couple of platoons home in the fall is not going to convince the American public that the war is winding down. Now, if the Bushies announced a timed withdrawal of troops from Iraq, that might work. But even then, I don’t think that the public is in any mood to trust the Fepublicans with our foreign affairs any longer.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:19 amgosh_golly Says:
Only 5 posts (14 min.) until the first “Nazi” reference. Not bad, but certainly you can do better.
If the Nazi boots fit, wear’em, beyotch.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:20 amOff Topic (well sorta):
Every fews months I read this. I read it again this morning during my commute to work. I think it should be required reading for everyone:
here’s the link:
http://ziomania.com/ 9-11/ The%20Unearthing%20-%20An%20Awakening%20Has%20Arrived.htm
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:20 amAgain, if you haven’t picked up on this before, the Government can violate your Constitutional Rights with complete impunity, raising State Secrets and Sovereign Immunity as a total bar to any inquiry. Congress is complicit in all of this, too, ever since impeachment was taken off the table.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:21 amThis reminds me of when Nike wanted to get outright lies used in their advertisements declared “free speech.” Just as genetics makes it possible to find and target gene aberrations for cancer, etc., I do hope the search will expand to find the mutant gene that causes shameless republican dou(hebaggery…hell, just targeting the republican gene alone would solve a host of the shameless and the dou(hebag gene mutations.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:21 amIn preparation for the Republican National Convention, the FBI is soliciting informants to keep tabs on local protest groups Moles Wanted
What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered. “I’ll pass,” said Carroll.
Carroll’s story echoes a familiar theme. During the lead-up the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, the NYPD’s Intelligence Division infiltrated and spied on protest groups across the country, as well as in Canada and Europe. The program’s scope extended to explicitly nonviolent groups, including street theater troupes and church organizations.
http://articles.citypages.com/2008-05-21/news/moles-wanted/
FBI hard at work spying on you, they have been doing that for years. Protesting is one way of saying that we are tired of having our rights taken away and violated.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:23 amwe were in an environment in which saving America from the next attack was paramount
Isn’t that still the case? And by that logic shouldn’t we still be waterboarding every evil-doer we round up?
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:23 amPretty simple message, nazi_golly: This won’t be your free-for-all place to police the threads, especially coming from a right-winger. If that irks your nerves, feel free to post elsewhere. It’s a free internet, go find someplace else suited to your needs.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 amgosh_golly Says:
blah blah blah blah blah
Go away and read something about the differences between the military and civilian government in a republic, and then get back to us with your apologies for being such a prat.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:27 amMcWars Says:
——————————————————————————–
Pretty simple message, nazi_golly: This won’t be your free-for-all place to police the threads, especially coming from a right-winger. If that irks your nerves, feel free to post elsewhere. It’s a free internet, go find someplace else suited to your needs.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 am
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:31 am____________________________________
Pretty simple message McWarz. Unlike you, I will not violate the “terms of use.” I may present opposing viewpoints from time-to-time, but that is what free speech is all about, now isn’t it? Can you handle the expression of an occasional dissenting viewpoint, or do you have to be in a room full of “left-wingers” to be able to function? Man up.
Bush Power Grab Since 911
Scholar Urges Candidates Debate Role of President’s Usurpation of Power
President Bush’s usurpation of power since 9/11 was termed “rapacious,” “predatory,” and “extra-Constitutional,” by presidential scholar Michael Genovese, director of the Institute for Leadership Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Genovese said the “Unitary Theory” of the executive espoused by the Bush White House “is a very strange and ahistorical notion that says, ‘In a crisis all power gravitates to the president. No one, not the courts, not the Congress can interfere with the president and in effect, the president is the state.”
“That ahistorical view runs contrary to everything that we find in the Framers,” Genovese said. “For the president to say that he has all the authority he needs to do all he had to do without Congress, without the courts, is simply dead wrong. He may be the decider but he’s not the only decider.”
Genovese urged the candidates for the White House discuss their views on the nature of the presidency.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9054
**I know Obama has said he will investigate activities by the current administration for law-breaking but this doesn’t come close to being enough. I want to hear a debate about their views of the true power of the presidency and how our 3 branches of government have coequal powers.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:31 am16. boys2men Says: Blaming man convenient excuse; UP prof cites Gore errors HUMANS MAY BE TAKING TOO much of the blame…hee haw..hee haw…
Flagged.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 amI wonder:
after Sen. Obama takes the oath of office of the Presidency next year:
will he want to give up the unitary power that the Bush Crime Cabal grabbed between 200-2008?
or will he be tempted to retain those powers?
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:34 amFrom the Post article:
What does “exclusive” mean?
The answer was at the heart of a highly sensitive memo by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 2001, when Bush administration officials were keen to institute warrantless domestic surveillance after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Part of this is plain wrong. The Bushies were “keen to institute warrantless domestic surveillance” before 9/11. The prosecution of Joe Nacchio, CEO of Qwest, has brought to light that from as early as February 2001 the NSA was asking Telcos to turn over phone records.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5719566,00.html
This is on the record, and amongst other things blows the “9/11 changed everything” hooley to smithereens. The Bushies wanted to run roughshod over the constitution from day 1.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:35 amOh dear goon golly is back. I say let the fool post. It just proves the point that the remaining 23%ers are either brain dead or easily distracted by shiny things.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:35 amgosh_golly Says:
Only 5 posts (14 min.) until the first “Nazi” reference. Not bad, but certainly you can do better.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:18 am
You’ve got it wrong. This message I was referring to was not an “opposing viewpoint” worthy of debate, but a harrassing attempt to monitor our threads.
And you’re hiding behind the TOS (lol!). You’ve been booted out of here numerous times, goon_golly. Your ‘McWarz’ moniker was one of your infractions.
Enjoy your day recommending the comments of ‘bum2mouth’, if TP doesn’t boot you before 10AM EST.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:40 amgosh_golly Says:
Can we possibly get a measure passed to stop House and Senate members from attempting to “propagandize the American people [against] the war?” Or could it be that the House and Senate wouldn’t want to limit themselves in this fashion?
Wow, our resident Godwin’s law scholar can’t tell the difference between politicking and propagandizing.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:41 amgoon golly; the Nazi reference is appropriate. see: Nuremberg trials. The tribunal ruled that the planning and waging a war of aggression(in the Hitler & Bush mold) IS THE SUPREME WAR CRIME(crimes against peace)
Likewise, torture constitutes crimes against humanity
The allies(including the US) hung people after the war for above war crimes.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 amspecialist f: Please don’t assume that every Conservative is a “23%er.” Many of us have been unhappy with both Bush and McCain for being too Liberal on many issues. Put me in with the “68%ers” that approved of Ronald Reagan.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 amponder this from “The Unearthing: An Awakening Has Arrived” by Manuel Valenzuela :
The massive propaganda machine of the corporatist world was unleashed, night and day, on a bewildered and frightened populace. The war on terror had been born, an enemy had been found to replace the dreaded Communist, and scapegoats were chosen to have the fires of hell unleashed onto their lands. In a matter of days after 9/11, the dreaded Patriot Act was introduced and soon passed, at once decimating many civil liberties and rights of Americans. Yet nobody bothered to ask how a document so extensive and complicated, so massive in its regulations and laws, was written in such a short amount of time after 9/11. For if it had been written before 9/11, as many suspect, would this not invite suggestions of premeditation and foreknowledge, of a desire to destroy liberties and freedoms, waiting patiently for a new Pearl Harbor to do just that?
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:43 amdoctors pronounced McPutz is cancer-free and his heart is in good shape, but the silence about his senility was deafening.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 amObama is presidential and McCain is a maniac. We know the AP wouldn’t release a McCain report on his mental health. Too many barbeques at stake.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 amAnd do we really know if this McBush Medical Report is even true? If this govt can kill 3000 of it’s own citizens — nothing is off-limits.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:49 amBill Clinton was always famous for for his refusal to release his medical records either while running for President or as President. Has Obama released his? I don’t think he has.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 amSo goofy,I guess you approved of giving Iran over 2500 TOW missles? How about the cut and run from Beirut? I never liked Ray-gun,always thought he was a putz. I was in a Pershing 2 nuke unit when he betrayed us with the INF treaty.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:52 am“The Senate passed a bill yesterday “prohibiting federal contractors from avoiding Social Security and Medicare taxes by hiring workers through offshore shell companies.” Earlier this week, the House “also voted unanimously to ban the practice, used by former Halliburton subsidiary KBR” and others to avoid payroll taxes for thousands of American workers in Iraq.”
I wonder if this bill is pre-loaded with forgiveness or impunity for their past actions, sorta like the FISA piece of trash???
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:54 amLookie only 36 posts until dufus says “but clinton did it”.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:54 amGen. David Petraeus said he expects to recommend additional cuts in U.S. troop levels in Iraq this fall. The WSJ states that the move “could boost the electoral prospects” of John McCain “if voters perceive the war is winding down.”
Am I the only one who thinks that boosting McCain’s chances might be one of the very reasons why Petraeus is making this recommendation? Of course, the WSJ belongs to Rupert Murdoch now and we all know where he stands politically — for that matter, the WSJ was Republican-friendly even before Murdoch purchased them. Even if the cuts in troops withdrawals won’t have any significant positive impact on McCain’s electoral prospects, it seems unlikely that the WSJ will report troop cuts as being anything other than beneficial to McCain — despite the fact that McCain has spoken out in favor of having a US military presence in Iraq for up to 100 years (although he tried to backtrack on that somewhat by claiming that he envisioned this force being a supplementary and preventative force rather than a combative and defensive one).
The Senate passed a bill yesterday “prohibiting federal contractors from avoiding Social Security and Medicare taxes by hiring workers through offshore shell companies.” Earlier this week, the House “also voted unanimously to ban the practice, used by former Halliburton subsidiary KBR” and others to avoid payroll taxes for thousands of American workers in Iraq.
Good for them. Now the $250,000 question is…are they prepared to override a Presidential veto? Given Cheney’s ties to Halliburton, it seems quite possible that Bush will choose to veto this bill once it reaches his desk. After all, he’s only eight months away from the end of his second term and his approval ratings are already so deep in the tank that passing this bill isn’t likely to change them much. Of course, even if Bush signs the bill into law, what do you want to bet that he tries to put a signing statement on it which prevents the law from applying to any company with which the Defense Department currently has active contracts? I wouldn’t put it past him…hell, I wouldn’t put anything (and I do mean anything) past these characters.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:55 ammore food for thought (from “The Unearthing”) see: #13 for the link:
The altruistic government you cherish cares so much about human rights and freedoms that its multitude number of dictators and puppets are renowned for their human rights violations and their suppression of civil liberties and freedoms. The Middle East, that land of the Arab you hate so much, is a cesspool of torture, abuses, human rights violations and lack of freedoms, all supported by the puppets, kings and dictators your government is in bed with. Your government is the government most despised around the world after the one in Israel, thanks to its newfound affection with torture, mass murder, the preemptive invasion and occupation of Iraq, the death of one million of its citizens, the displacement of two million more and the importation of hell on Earth into its streets. Through a war of choice, based on lies and criminality, a civil war ready to burst and engulf an entire region in flames is afoot, yet your altruistic government is on the verge of attacking Iran, a nation that poses no military threat to America
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 amWell, I did wait 30 posts from the first “Nazi” reference to bring up the First Lady wannabe.
But seriously, has anyone seen Barak Obama’s medical records. How are his lungs and throat with the decades of smoking?
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 amhey gigi,
what does mcbush think of nixon’s appeasement that got him out of that pow camp?
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:59 amObama’s health questioned. Where are the records?
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:01 amone last offering from “The Unearthing”
Every act of criminality done in the past six years has as its genesis the horrific mass murder of 9/11. Every illegal war, every act of torture, illegal imprisonment, destruction of rights and freedoms, all mass murder done in America’s name is attributed to the destruction of the Twin Towers. If the enemy within is capable of such barbarity, if they had the audacity to perpetuate the greatest crime in American history, all to implement their delusional vision, all to enrich and empower their fellow criminals, what is to say that they will not do it again, in greater capacity, killing in greater numbers? One more so-called attack on American soil will destroy the America that we have lived in and enjoy, the one we love and cherish, the one of internal freedoms and rights, of the pursuit of happiness, the one enjoyed by present day citizens
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:02 amone last offering from “The Unearthing”
Every act of criminality done in the past six years has as its genesis the horrific mass murder of 9/11. Every illegal war, every act of torture, illegal imprisonment, destruction of rights and freedoms, all mass murder done in America’s name is attributed to the destruction of the Twin Towers. If the enemy within is capable of such barbarity, if they had the audacity to perpetuate the greatest crime in American history, all to implement their delusional vision, all to enrich and empower their fellow criminals, what is to say that they will not do it again, in greater capacity, killing in greater numbers? One more so-called attack on American soil will destroy the America that we have lived in and enjoy, the one we love and cherish, the one of internal freedoms and rights, of the pursuit of happiness, the one enjoyed by present day citizens
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:02 amsorry about the double posting. i didnt meant o do this.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:02 amabout the mcSAME health records… over at C&L, this from last evening:
[...]
I sincerely hope that McCain’s health is well. It just seems odd that he would pull a Friday dump on an issue where transparency would help, given the concerns voters seem to have about his age. Releasing it like this only fuels speculation that he is hiding something. Age shouldn’t be an issue, IMO. Good health obviously should be though.
UPDATE: It’s even sketchier than I first thought. Via dKos, these are the circumstances under which McCain will make his records “public”:
Nothing to see here, people. Move along.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:04 amIt’s interesting that the McCain campaign chose the AP as the only press allowed to view the medical records (for 3 hours).
These records were not released to the general press.
Over the last year I’ve noticed that the AP seems to have a motive to their reporting, often I’ve read an article noticed some bizarre wording or omissions said wtf! then looked at the byline to see, oh it’s the AP again. I believe they have been corrupted by propaganda operatives, that would be in line with the recent info about the use of the media by the Pentagon for propaganda purposes.
I believe the article said there were !1700 pages! of medical records.
How could they be accurately assessed if they were not released and only allowed to be viewed for a short period.
Also, Friday before a holiday weekend is the time for document dumps….release of info that you do not want scrutinized.
The sheer volume of the medial records sets off a red flag in my mind.
SOMETHING DEFINATELY DOESN’T SMELL RIGHT HERE.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:05 amAS A MATTER OF FACT, THE WHOLE THING GIVES OFF THE STINK OF “SOMEBODY’S UP TO NO GOOD”
But seriously, has anyone seen Barak Obama’s medical records. How are his lungs and throat with the decades of smoking?
Gigi
They’re out there, apparently your overlords haven’t told you about them.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0508/McCain_incentivizing_supporters_to_comment_on_blogs.html
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:05 amBobwurst Says:
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:59 am
___________________________________
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:08 amInteresting that you would refer to the Kennedy/Johnson Democratic Party folly in Vietnam. Would you like to bring up the Democratic Party’s folly in Korea as well?
A Pentagon audit of $8.2 billion in American taxpayer money spent by the United States Army on contractors in Iraq has found that almost none of the payments followed federal rules and that in some cases, contracts worth millions of dollars were paid for despite little or no record of what, if anything, was received.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/world/middleeast/23audit.html?_r=1&hp&oref=login
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:10 amIs Nazi the new “N” word?
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:12 amMaybe so. However, I suggest one reads about the rise of the Third Reich in Germany from 1929-1933.
It is not our fault that the parallels are frightening. To ignore this, or attempt to spare us from political correctness via our words is missing the issue entirely.
If using the word Nazi wakes people up to what is happening to our government, consider me wanting to be offended!
Gee, I wonder if years of alcoholism and cocaine have had a detrimental effect on the mental condition of our current president?
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:12 amObama is 48. McCain is 71. Whose health records am I likely to request to determine fitness for the world’s most demanding job?
Obama quit smoking. Any deleterious effects are gradually reversed. It does not look as if his previous smoking habit will affect his stamina for Presiden’t office, if elected.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:13 amI’m still wanting to know why he would only release the records to a few specially selected reporters and would release only 400 pages of the records and would allow no copies of the records?
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:14 am*the President’s office
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:14 am“The fact is that after Sept. 11…we were in an environment in which saving America from the next attack was paramount,” Rice said.
makes IGNORING the information that would have saved america from the FIRST attack even that much more criminal…
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 amWhy do we have to keep passing amendments to make something that is already against the law, against the law?
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 amWhat right does the right believe they have to win? They invade a country, they catapult the propaganda, they crap on the dollar, they throw the economy into a recession, they pile on deficits, they throw poor and middle class families out of their homes, they send gas prices through the roof, they double our grocery bills, and these idiots feel comfortable running a campaign at all?
The mindset of the right: Power over the people.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:20 amBut seriously, has anyone seen Barak Obama’s medical records. How are his lungs and throat with the decades of smoking?
Gigi
You’re comment is a waste of time as those records have been released.
But, I can’t help commenting that Obama, who happens to be one of the youngest prez candidates in history seems to be quite healthy. I’d like to see Grandpa McSame get out on a b-ball court and run with 20 somethings. I doubt HIS lungs are in condition to keep up.
Also I have to ask where was your concern when the GOP ran a candidate who had a history of DECADES OF ALCOHOLISM!?
I can see why you trolls are disappearing from threads…..
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 amyou really have almost nothing to work with anymore.
**This is so far beyond human decency it’s ridiculous. There is not one argument to justify this activity. This current administration needs to be held accountable for crimes against humanity, tried, convicted and pilloried.
They deserve much more than being pilloried, which is merely being put into a stock and being held up for public derision. For this crew, the guillotine should be brought back (with a dull blade). And since they insist that their military commissions are so fair and provide an accused with adequate legal protections, I think they should be tried in those same “courts.”
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:29 amWe’ll get our news from Google and other AP feeds off-site. Stop posting your crap, bum2mouth.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:29 amwake up britain!
Halliburton Bids for Britain’s Expro
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:30 amTheStreet.com – 58 minutes ago
Oil services giant HalliburtonHAL has bid 1.71 billion British pounds for London-based rival Expro. The all-cash bid is higher than a 1.61 billion British pound offer made in April by a consortium comprising funds managed or advised by Candover …
Halliburton bids for UK oil drilling specialist International Herald Tribune
Halliburton Offers to Buy Expro, Tops Candover Bid (Update4) Bloomberg
Forbes – MarketWatch – Wall Street Journal – Times Online
Coroner says UK Nimrod plane not airworthy
Reuters – 37 minutes ago
By Peter Graff LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) – A coroner looking into the deaths of 14 British service members in an air crash in Afghanistan said the entire Royal Air Force fleet of Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft needed to be grounded because they were not …
“NIMROD”???
um… don’t they know…?
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:34 amboys2men Says:
Barack Obama has begun to edge away from his offer to pursue talks with Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after being hammered by Republicans as an “appeaser”.
This good example of Obama’s lack of judgment with regard to governing, he doesn’t really have a stance on foreign issues other than pandering to loons!
=========================================================
Although I disagree with just about everything you write, I do agree with you that Republicans are loons.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:34 am‘None of the above’ ties Obama for top spot in the ‘Beer Vote’
Rock the Vote says the nation’s bar patrons have cast their ballots and the presidential candidate they would most like to have a beer with is Democrat Barack Obama — though he’s in a tie with “none of the above.”
The get-out-the-young-vote advocacy organization teamed with a company called TouchTunes to put an interactive poll on TouchTunes jukeboxes in bars across the nation. They say they got 72,000 “votes” from April 28 through May 11.
After Obama and “none of the above” at 29% each. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican John McCain each got 20% of the votes. (We assume the missing 2 percentage points are due to rounding of the individual results.)
On more serious matters, 41% of the bar patrons said “jobs and the economy” is the most important issue in this year’s election. In second place: the Iraq war, at 21%.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/05/none-of-the-abo.html
i really wish they wouldn’t even bring up this subject…
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:38 amI have heard two conflicting rumors today —
1. Barack Obama was approached by Clinton and directly asked for the job of VP. He politely but firmly refused.
If true, that might account for her about-face strongly worded speech yesterday threatening to take this to the convention.
2. The Clintons and the Obama team are meeting to discuss the VP possibility today.
How can Obama be the man for the future of change if he brings on a lot of old baggage?
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:42 amDo people who threaten chaos always get what they want?
If the superdelegates would simply stand up and declare, they could put an end to this.
Rice’s claim that America “[is] safer because of interrogation conducted on al-Qaeda detainees” might hold water, but it’s also true that America is less free as a result of the governments willingness to impinge on basic, universal human rights. The ends do not justify the means.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:43 amKay Says:
——————————————————————————–
one last offering from “The Unearthing”
Kay, where is the link to this? I’d like to read the whole thing vs pieces.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:45 ammarie – not so much “rumors”…
Bill Clinton Pushes Hillary for Vice President
ABC News – 58 minutes ago
By MARK MOONEY Bill Clinton has been Sen. Hillary Clinton’s biggest booster in her presidential bid, but is now campaigning for a new job for his wife — vice president.
CNN: Clinton ‘insiders’ have approached Obama team USA Today
Clinton: The push to be veep MSNBC
Bloomberg – New York Times – Chicago Sun-Times – Boston Globe
i’m with you – a big NO to a clinton VP…
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:53 ammakes no sense… at all…
I DO NOT want Hillary as VP. I am begging you Barack, please go your own way as president. The Clintons had their time. Giving Hillary the VP slot would only prove that she’s desperate for power. Obama-Clinton is no longer a dream ticket.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:54 am#72.
Gladly.
here’s the link to one of the most important articles I have ever read:
http://ziomania.com/9-11/The%20Unearthing%20-%20An%20Awakening%20Has%20Arrived.htm
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:56 amYou’ve had your eight years, Bill. Enough is enough.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:57 amYou’ve had your eight years, Bill. Enough is enough.
He just can’t let go of his fond memories of his WH mis-adventures.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 amThanks Kay.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 amSorry for the multiple posts, but I am so damn tired of these people and their obsession with burying Obama. Now Hillary’s strategy is to do what she did to Al Gore: Bury his influence. First it was the first lady pushing aside the VP. Now Hillary wants to be VP to steal the thunder away from the president.
PLEASE RUN FOR SENATE MAJORITY LEADER, HILLARY.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:05 amJUST AS I THOUGHT! The AP article on McCain’s “medical records”
appears to be a blatant attempt to mislead the American people.
Never trust the AP. Pay careful attention to the wording, especially of their headlines and pay even closer attention to what they leave out of their articles.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 aminteresting compilation:
Hillary Fights On
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 23, 2008; 9:10 AM
Liberal bloggers are throwing tomatoes–and a lot worse–at Hillary Clinton.
She’s never been a particularly popular figure in that part of the blogosphere, and now that she seems to be making a new push on Florida and Michigan, the former first lady has really got folks mad.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 am[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/05/23/BL2008052300983.html
The right wing propogandists are pushing the Hillary for VP meme for all its worth. They wanted to run against her in the fall as Presidential candidate and pushed hard for that. Now accepting that that ain’t gonna happen, they are pushing for her to be on the ticket as a pice of red meat for their lobotomized women-hater and family values segment.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:12 amgosh_golly Says:
Only 5 posts (14 min.) until the first “Nazi” reference. Not bad, but certainly you can do better.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:18 am Recommend (0) | Report Abuse
And just 4 minutes between the “nazi” summoning and your first post in the thread. What? You were peeing? Why did take you so long when a oh-so-dear-for-you topic appeared?
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:12 amCan any of you post a link to a story about “former” chain-smoking Barack Obama’s medical records? You keep saying that they “are out there.” If so, please provide a link. Thanks.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:13 amSenator Edward Kennedy on Obama-Clinton ticket: I don’t think it’s possible
Speaker Pelosi: I just don’t think it’s going to happen
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/Story?id=4917397&page=2
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:14 amgosh_golly Says:
No such luck unless you’re wearing a flag lapel pin.
What are you, Un-American or something???
These are such important topics for GOPers.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:20 amWhat did Regan do for you that was so great?
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:27 amThe Senate passed a bill yesterday “prohibiting federal contractors from avoiding Social Security and Medicare taxes by hiring workers through offshore shell companies.” Earlier this week, the House “also voted unanimously to ban the practice, used by former Halliburton subsidiary KBR” and others to avoid payroll taxes for thousands of American workers in Iraq.
Damn good thing they took care of another one after the fact.
They certainly couldn’t have seen it coming, hell no.
Last night, the House overwhelmingly approved an amendment introduced by Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) that forbids “the Defense Department from engaging in ‘a concerted effort to propagandize’ the American people over the war.” The move comes after revelations that the Pentagon sought to use military officials as media mouthpieces for the administration.
This is also a dandy. So now they decide to forbid the Defense Department from propagandizing the American people. Perfect. Nobody was recognizing that while it was going on. No-sir-ee.
“In her most extensive public comments” on the matter, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “defended tough interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects.”
As if anyone but her mommy is listening.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:30 amThe only one’s paying any attention are the media whores because it’s an easy to get, low cost, no effort required story.
Arming your foes for hostages far exceeds talking to your foes
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:40 amReagan most demented criminal to ever be POTUS. Could goon golly be the escaped convict Ollie North?
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:03 pmWhen the World laughs at you:
A car dealership in the United States is offering a free handgun with every vehicle sold.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7416120.stm
“We did it because of Barack Obama.
“He said all those people in the Midwest, you’ve got to have compassion for them because they’re clinging to their guns and their Bibles. I found that quite offensive. We all go to church on Sunday and we all carry guns.”
(falling face-forward onto my Macbook…)
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:17 pmLandmark Ruling Gives Email Same Constitutional Protections as Phone Calls
San Francisco – The government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers, according to a landmark ruling Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their telephone calls — the first circuit court ever to make that finding.
http://www.eff.org/press/releases/2007/06#005321
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:56 pm.
Q U E S T I O N:
Who can the GOP hold up as their Presidential candidate when McChristian denounced their best EVILgelical pastors?
Who will be the Godly adviser to McChristian?
.
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:54 pm