Did George W. Bush restart the cold war?

Crooks and Liars had this yesterday.

Vladimir Putin: US Wants To Dominate The World.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in one of his harshest attacks on the United States in seven years in power, accused Washington on Saturday of attempting to force its will on the world.

The White House said it was “surprised and disappointed” by Putin’s accusations but added Washington expected to continue to work with Moscow in areas such as counter-terrorism and reducing the spread and threat of weapons of mass destruction.

In a speech in Germany, which one U.S. senator said smacked of Cold War rhetoric, Putin accused the United States of making the world a more dangerous place by pursuing policies aimed at making it “one single master”.

Attacking the concept of a “unipolar” world in which the United States was the sole superpower, he said: “What is a unipolar world? No matter how we beautify this term it means one single center of power, one single center of force and one single master.”

“It has nothing in common with democracy because that is the opinion of the majority taking into account the minority opinion,” he told the gathering of top security and defense officials. Read more…

Unfortunately Vlad is correct regarding the neo-conservatives current in power. They have openly stated their goal is American dominance.

The 11th Hour

I have been looking forward to this movie. It comes out here in the Detroit area this weekend.

Cheney's Biographer on the Daily Show

Once again, Jon Stewart absolutely puts to shame every talking head that the conservative corporate media puts forward as "Journalists" by having the conversation that the public needs to have.

Thanks to the rise of progressive media like Air America and the blogosphere, we are now able to see confrontations like this in the more mainstream media and the audience knows exactly what Jon is talking about when he mentions "The clip of Cheney from 1994".

The conservative corporate media sure as hell wasn't bringing that up in 2002!




The Democratic Underground has a great list of the claims made by Bush Administration officials and their supporters, against the patriotism, integrity and intelligence of progressives who just happened to be concerned about the same things Cheney mentioned in 1994 and that have all since come true!

What the hell is wrong with Chris Matthews?

This is so typical of the conservative mindset. Erin Burnett thinks China is our best friend for sending us poison food on the cheap.
Chris Matthews is too busy leering at Erin and telling her she is "a knockout" to bother calling her out on this outrageous nonsense. Would someone please get that letch laid so he can start doing his job as a journalist for a change?



“A lot of people like to say, uh, scaremonger about China, right? A lot of politicians, and I know you talk about that issue all the time. I think people should be careful what they wish for on China. Ya know, if China were to revalue it’s currency or China is to start making say, toys that don’t have lead in them or food that isn’t poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the United States are going to go up too. So, I would say China is our greatest friend right now, they’re keeping prices low and they’re keeping the prices for mortgages low, too.”

Rumsfeld Busted

Here is a great video of Rumsfeld getting busted for his lies leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Ironically it is a conservative who was a cheerleader for the war, Tom "Globalization is great" Friedman, who busts Rummy.

Cheney was right the first time

Dick should have stuck to his original assessment, seeing as how we all now know Iraq is a quagmire.

Here is Dick in 1994 describing why invading and occupying Iraq would be a huge mistake.

We will file this under... "Duh."

Candorville Slams Obama

I have to admit this is a legitimate slam on Obama and every other Democrat who shares his incorrect opinion about Impeachment of Bush and Cheney.

The Rising Undercurrent of Popular Discontent in America

I have noticed something recently, both around the "water cooler" at work and creeping into the public discourse.

I keep hearing the same sentiment expressed in conversations between ordinary Americans: "things in this country are only going to continue getting worse until we have an armed insurrection."

And it isn't just progressives and liberals. I have heard some conservatives say the same thing.
Everyone is thinking the same thing; Are we headed toward another civil war?

A woman recently asked Michael Moore about this on Hardball.

"UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Michael, my name is Becka Baker. I‘m from Tulsa, Oklahoma. My question for you is with 71 percent of the American people dissatisfied with this country today, dissatisfied with the war, health care, education, that the sky is blue, you name it, they‘re dissatisfied. Do you think America is ripe for a revolt? Will a revolution put this nation back on track?"

Also recently, Hugo Award winning Author Orson Scott Card wrote "Empire", a fiction about a near-future revolution in the United States between liberals and conservatives.

This thought is on every one's mind, because there are no practical solutions being offered. The corporate control of our government seems total and immovable without violent overthrow. The conservative world-view that government cannot do anything right and that only private, for-profit enterprises can do anything for America infects our media and therefore infects a great many Americans, to the detriment of all Americans. We are being polarized into classes again and the media is keeping everyone ignorant to that fact.

That is what John Edwards is talking about when he talks about "Two Americas". My brother delivered a truckload of relief supplies to the Gulf Coast after Katrina and afterwards he told me that "those people needed those supplied desperately... before Katrina had ever hit."

There is a new book, "Richistan", that talks about how the wealthy live in a completely isolated world of their own. They send their kids to private schools and use private hospitals. Executives have private parking spaces and private entrances in most of the largest corporations. They live in gated communities and use personal assistants to do their shopping.

The corporate media keeps telling us that the economy is doing great, but their only evidence for that is that corporate profits have been going up.
At the same time, for average workers, real wages have been falling and our benefits have been drying up right before our eyes. We are watching our neighbors and families going bankrupt and losing their homes because of medical costs, outsourcing of jobs or because they were patriotic enough to go over and serve in Iraq.

Protests have not worked.
Writing letters has not worked.
Calling our Representatives has not worked.
They just caved-in AGAIN and gave into Bush on his warrentless wiretapping.

And the rightwing is thinking about it too. They are waiting and watching for the straw that breaks the camels back.

After Supreme Court Justice Roberts collapsed this week, rightwing radio host Michael "Savage" Wiener claimed that it was because of a "conspiracy by Democrats".

This country is headed straight for another civil war.

The signs are right under all our noses.

A Democratic victory in 2008 will only prolong the inevitable unless something radical happens and a real progressive populist is not elected. That will only happen if enough concerned Americans get together and take back the Democratic party.

A Republican victory in 2008 will only guarantee that the next American civil war happens sooner rather than later.

This is why I love Rachel Maddow

Rachel has a way of going straight to the heart of a matter and exposing the "soft white underbelly" of politics in our society.

What is wrong with America?

This is a good clip from Michael Moore's appearance on Hardball the other day. He is absolutely correct that Universal Health Care is Christianized Health Care. It is what Jesus would do.

Hilareous! M.C. Hawking

RFK Jr. and Greg Palast discuss "Caging"

FYI - "Caging" is the term for the Republicans' election fraud program.

Obama Girl vs Guliani Girl

This is pretty funny. It has some great lines like, "I want Rudy to Guli-on-me."
From here.

Conservative Christian Bigots Disrupt Senate Floor

For the first time in American history a Hindu led the opening prayer for the Senate on Thursday. A conservative group calling itself, "American Family Association" disrupted the Senate and interrupt the prayer to protest the prayer being led by an "evil" Hindu. I recommend that everyone write them and let them know what you think of their behavior.




They call themselves "Christians" but they certainly do not appear to be very familiar with the teachings of Jesus.

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
- Matthew 5:43-48

More information can be found here.

Robert Kennedy Jr. at Live Earth 2007

Robert Kennedy Jr. at Live Earth 2007

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of GoLeft.tv and Air America's Ring of Fire gives a speech at the 2007 Live Earth concert in New Jersey. An estimated 2 billion people viewed the concerts online and on television, and they featured performances from such acts as Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna, Jack Johnson, Lenny Kravitz, and Garth Brooks.

Friday Funny

Bush and Rove discuss Net Neutrality.

Crime Paid Off Big Time for Scooter Libby

Enjoy this Fourth of July because this may be our last.

This has been a horrible couple of weeks for Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam.

The Fascist Five have been dominating the Supreme Court in decision after decision, ignoring precedent and legislating from the bench so brazenly they have openly written about how they would do away with Roe v Wade "if they could" and how they think that forcing a school not to discriminate is somehow "a form of racism". They have overturned the standing opinion that "A student's right to free speech does not end at the classroom door." and have now said that a school officials right to discipline a student extends outside the classroom and have left gaping legal questions in their wake... "How far does a teacher's right to discipline a student extend? ...Into the home?"

I should also mention that Justices Thomas, Alito and Roberts are all guilty of Lying under Oath to Congress. They all said under oath that they would abide by Stare Decisis (precedent) during their confirmation hearings before Congress, but in four of their last five decisions they have purposely ignored precedent, thus putting the lie to their words.

And to top it all off, yesterday Bush commutes "Scooter" Libby's sentence because he said it was "harsh"...

Yes, this is the same guy who bragged about how many people he executed as governor of Texas.

Lets remember what Scooter was convicted of:

two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice in a grand jury investigation, and one of the two counts of making false statements to federal investigators

And lets remember what this case is ultimately about, the outing of an entire undercover operation run by the CIA that has cost an untold number of lives as the undercover operatives of Brewster Jennings were all left exposed and it severely damaged America's intelligence about nuclear proliferation worldwide and ironically, especially towards Iran.

What does Bush do with this guy who got caught covering up what should be one of the biggest scandals in American history?

He lets him walk.

Oh, he has to pay a "fine" of $250k...pocket change for a multimillionaire like Scooter and his friends.

He already has that covered with a very tidy profit on top of it.

Yes, crime certainly did pay for Scooter Libby.

I am forcibly reminded of Barbara Jordan's words:

James Madison, from the Virginia ratification convention. "If the President be connected in any suspicious manner with any person and there be grounds to believe that he will shelter him, he may be impeached."

But it won't happen and we all know it. Why?

Because the Democrats only barely have control of Congress. They lack the seats.

And instead of seeing the "Checks and Balances" at work, we all get to witness as our system is perverted to benefit the privileged few right in front of our eyes... with more than impunity... with contempt.

And instead of seeing badly needed action to remedy these critical wounds to our Democracy, true Patriots like myself are left furious and frustrated this Fourth of July, wondering what happened to America and why we celebrate this holiday anymore anyway...

But enjoy this Fourth of July anyway, because we are only one disaster away from Bush instituting Presidential Directive 51 and ending the existence of the United States of America anyway.

Sunday Funny

The evidence continues to pile up... the investigations in Congress are showing a clear pattern of corruption from the GOP. This is the kind of stuff I would expect from Organized Crime, not a political party.


Source: http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1362
Monday, June 18, 2007
Administration Oversight, White House Use of Private E-mail Accounts

The Use of RNC E-Mail Accounts by White House Officials

The Oversight Committee has been investigating whether White House officials violated the Presidential Records Act by using e-mail accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee and the Bush Cheney ‘04 campaign for official White House communications. This interim staff report provides a summary of the evidence the Committee has received to date, along with recommendations for next steps in the investigation.

The information the Committee has received in the investigation reveals:

The number of White House officials given RNC e-mail accounts is higher than previously disclosed. In March 2007, White House spokesperson Dana Perino said that only a “handful of officials” had RNC e-mail accounts. In later statements, her estimate rose to “50 over the course of the administration.” In fact, the Committee has learned from the RNC that at least 88 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts. The officials with RNC e-mail accounts include Karl Rove, the President’s senior advisor; Andrew Card, the former White House Chief of Staff; Ken Mehlman, the former White House Director of Political Affairs; and many other officials in the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Communications, and the Office of the Vice President.

White House officials made extensive use of their RNC e-mail accounts. The RNC has preserved 140,216 e-mails sent or received by Karl Rove. Over half of these e-mails (75,374) were sent to or received from individuals using official “.gov” e-mail accounts. Other heavy users of RNC e-mail accounts include former White House Director of Political Affairs Sara Taylor (66,018 e-mails) and Deputy Director of Political Affairs Scott Jennings (35,198 e-mails). These e-mail accounts were used by White House officials for official purposes, such as communicating with federal agencies about federal appointments and policies.

There has been extensive destruction of the e-mails of White House officials by the RNC. Of the 88 White House officials who received RNC e-mail accounts, the RNC has preserved no e-mails for 51 officials. In a deposition, Susan Ralston, Mr. Rove’s former executive assistant, testified that many of the White House officials for whom the RNC has no e-mail records were regular users of their RNC e-mail accounts. Although the RNC has preserved no e-mail records for Ken Mehlman, the former Director of Political Affairs, Ms. Ralston testified that Mr. Mehlman used his account “frequently, daily.” In addition, there are major gaps in the e-mail records of the 37 White House officials for whom the RNC did preserve e-mails. The RNC has preserved only 130 e-mails sent to Mr. Rove during President Bush’s first term and no e-mails sent by Mr. Rove prior to November 2003. For many other White House officials, the RNC has no e-mails from before the fall of 2006.

There is evidence that the Office of White House Counsel under Alberto Gonzales may have known that White House officials were using RNC e-mail accounts for official business, but took no action to preserve these presidential records. In her deposition, Ms. Ralston testified that she searched Mr. Rove’s RNC e-mail account in response to an Enron-related investigation in 2001 and the investigation of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald later in the Administration. According to Ms. Ralston, the White House Counsel’s office knew about these e-mails because “all of the documents we collected were then turned over to the White House Counsel’s office.” There is no evidence, however, that White House Counsel Gonzales initiated any action to ensure the preservation of the e-mail records that were destroyed by the RNC.

The Presidential Records Act requires the President to “take all such steps as may be necessary to assure that the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented … and maintained as Presidential records.” To implement this legal requirement, the White House Counsel issued clear written policies in February 2001 instructing White House staff to use only the official White House e-mail system for official communications and to retain any official e-mails they received on a nongovernmental account.

The evidence obtained by the Committee indicates that White House officials used their RNC e-mail accounts in a manner that circumvented these requirements. At this point in the investigation, it is not possible to determine precisely how many presidential records may have been destroyed by the RNC. Given the heavy reliance by White House officials on RNC e-mail accounts, the high rank of the White House officials involved, and the large quantity of missing e-mails, the potential violation of the Presidential Records Act may be extensive.

There are several next steps that should be pursued in the investigation into the use of RNC e-mail accounts by White House officials. First, the records of federal agencies should be examined to assess whether they may contain some of the White House e-mails that have been destroyed by the RNC. The Committee has already written to 25 federal agencies to inquire about the e-mail records they may have retained from White House officials who used RNC and Bush Cheney ’04 e-mail accounts. Preliminary responses from the agencies indicate that they may have preserved official communications that were destroyed by the RNC.

Second, the Committee should investigate what former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales knew about the use of political e-mail accounts by White House officials. If Susan Ralston’s testimony to the Committee is accurate, there is evidence that Mr. Gonzales or counsels working in his office knew in 2001 that Karl Rove was using his RNC e-mail account to communicate about official business, but took no action to preserve Mr. Rove’s official communications.

Third, the Committee may need to issue compulsory process to obtain the cooperation of the Bush Cheney ’04 campaign. The campaign has informed the Committee that it provided e-mail accounts to 11 White House officials, but the campaign has unjustifiably refused to provide the Committee with basic information about these accounts, such as the identity of the White House officials and the number of e-mails that have been preserved.

Breaking News: Judiciary Committee votes to restore Habeus Corpus

This is great news! Putting the Democrats back in control of Congress is paying off! This is specifically because the Democrats now control the agenda. This would never have even been considered if the Republicans remained in power. The Nation has the story:

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee passed an important bill to restore habeas corpus, the sacrosanct Constitutional right to challenge government detention in court, by a vote of eleven to eight.

Habeas corpus was revoked by last year's Military Commissions Act, which has been assailed as unconstitutional and un-American by leaders across the political spectrum.

Today's vote means the habeas bill can now be brought to the Senate floor at any time. One source with knowledge of the legislative plan said Majority Leader Harry Reid has committed to bringing the bill to a vote within the month.

The Republicans, who are politically reeling from the backlash to their draconian rule, are desperately trying to spin this to make themselves look better but they are insulting the intelligence of everyone who can remember past November 2006.

Today's habeas bill was backed by the Judiciary Committee's Democratic Chairman, Patrick Leahy, and its Republican Ranking Member, Arlen Specter. "The drive to restore this fundamental right has come from both sides of the aisle," said Sharon Bradford, an attorney at the bipartisan Constitution Project, in response to today's vote. "Restoring America's commitment to the rule of law is not a partisan cause; it is a patriotic one," she added.