still MORE screw-ups in Iraq!

From msnbc :

What happened to Iraq’s oil money?
Former U.S. official says billions of dollars were ‘squandered’

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the United States took control of all of the Iraqi government’s bank accounts, including the income from oil sales. The United Nations approved the financial takeover, and President Bush vowed to spend Iraq’s money wisely. But now critics are raising serious questions about how well the United States handled billions of dollars in Iraqi oil funds.

Iraq's oil resources generate billions of dollars — money the United States promised to protect after overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

Now, Frank Willis, a former senior American official in Iraq, tells NBC News the United States failed to safeguard the oil money known as the Development Fund for Iraq.

---

In one example of insufficient controls, the United States stored hundreds of millions of oil dollars in a vault in a Baghdad palace. Government auditors found that the key to the vault was kept “unsecured” — in a U.S. official’s backpack.
Iraq’s U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer, pledged last year to hire a certified public accounting firm to ensure proper controls.
But the United States gave the contract not to an accounting firm but to a tiny consulting company, Northstar — which NBC News found is headquartered at a private home near San Diego.
"They violated the rules. They picked a contractor who didn’t meet their requirements," says Paul Light, a government contracting expert and professor at New York University.

---

But NBC News has learned that a draft government audit faults the United States for “inadequate stewardship” of up to $8.8 billion in oil money, handed over to Iraq’s ministries but never fully accounted for

Is there ANYTHING that "we" did correct over there?! How can anyone think that we're doing a good job in Iraq?!

more on halliburton

From FoxNews

Auditors Can't Find Property Managed by Halliburton in Iraq

WASHINGTON — A third or more of the government property Halliburton Co. search) was paid to manage for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq could not be located by auditors, investigative reports to Congress show.

Halliburton's KBR (search) subsidiary "did not effectively manage government property" and auditors could not locate hundreds of CPA items worth millions of dollars in Iraq and Kuwait this summer and fall, Inspector General Stuart W. Bowen (search) reported to Congress in two reports.

Bowen's findings mark the latest bad news for Vice President Dick Cheney's (search) former company, which is the focus of both a criminal investigation into alleged fuel price gouging and an FBI inquiry into possible favoritism from the Bush administration.

The fact that the "oil-for-food" "scandal" is such a big deal to the right-wingers, but this is dismissable is amazing! Why is the fact that our VP had business dealings with Iraq even while sanctions were in place is ok, but a relative of the head of the UN doing similar things causes an uproar? Hypocrisy knows no bounds, I suppose!

i've seen this before, but it's pretty good

This is from a post from www.newshounds.us, though i've seen it other places, as well.

Letter to President Bush
Dear President Bush;
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Laws. I have learned a great deal from you and understand why you would propose and support a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. As you said"in the eyes of God marriage is based between a man a woman." I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can.

When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination... End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements ofGod's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus21:7. What do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is, my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

4. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2.clearly states he should be put death. Should I do it or should I ask the police to do it?

5. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there degrees of abomination?

6. Lev.21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20 or is there a little wiggle room there?

7. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they die?

8. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

9. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.
Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
Posted by: Switchblade at November 29, 2004 12:15 PM"

Just another example of how absurd it would be if we followed every decree in the Bible to the letter. It is an ancient book, translated many times over, and is meant to be a book of parables, not literal fact! How people can believe that this is the literal word of "god" is incredible to me. But, as we saw on Nov 2, the gullibility of the public should never be underestimated!

interesting point of view

Random Searches

This is an interesting article on freerepublic – a brit complaining about being detained because of a terrorist-threat related random search. Wonder if the Americans responding to this post and who are up in arms about this realize that they voted for this type of action to happen here regularly? Do they not know what the Patriot Act is?! Guess if it doesn’t happen to them, then its ok!

another reason to love canada!

From CNN

Demonstrators greet Bush in Canada

OTTAWA, Canada (AP) -- Holding up signs calling U.S. President George W. Bush a "war criminal" and "liar," a few thousand demonstrators rallied in the Canadian capital Tuesday to protest his visit, the U.S.-led war in Iraq and a host of other issues.
Organizers said about 5,000 people, many of whom rode buses overnight from across Ontario and Quebec, held a rally at Ottawa's City Hall before a planned march on Canada's Parliament buildings. Police put the figure at between 2,500 to 3,000.
Making his first official visit to Canada, Bush arrived Tuesday for talks with Prime Minister Paul Martin. Bush was welcomed by many placards and signs along his motorcade route, including a truck parked nearby that was emblazoned with the phrase "Bush is a war criminal." Another placard branded him an "assassin."
---
"Canada is not against America. We're totally against Bush," explained Fredric White, a 40-year-old who works for an entertainment company, who stood by the Parliament building as the president's motorcade arrived.
"He's arrogant and ignorant. We totally disdain his policies on the war and his treatment of the U.N.," White said. "The administration has an imperialist attitude where he thinks he can take over countries by bombing them."

From Canada's CBC news:

Anti-Bush protesters scuffle with police

Last Updated Tue, 30 Nov 2004 18:05:55 EST
OTTAWA - As many as 5,000 protesters thronged the streets around Parliament Hill Tuesday, hundreds of them briefly scuffling with police as they demonstrated against visiting U.S. President George W. Bush.
---
Police officers in riot gear pushed back a thick crowd of anti-war activists, some of
whom were shouting at the security forces and trying to jostle them with the sticks of their placards.

---

Bush's version of events is slightly different: "Bush said he received a very warm and hospitable" welcome in Ottawa."

Up is down, black is white, right is left, but the left sure ain’t right!

I freely admit that I have been extremely naïve. I surround myself with intelligent, educated, liberal, like-minded people, so I was very surprised at the ignorance of the people who voted for bush (a majority thinking that there actually were WMDs in Iraq, etc). But now that I have been exploring some right-wing sites & blogs, nothing surprises me anymore! The racism, sexism, the gay-bashing, the religious fanaticism, the blind patriotism, etc etc, is phenomenal! Here are just a few random quotes (no, I have not made these up!) from 1 day’s worth of posts on freerepublic.com:

"My favorite quote: "...we can now expect more wars and mayhem during the next four years."
Excellent - go with what works. This is just long overdue justice, with a very thoughtful strategy for protecting innocent life around the world."

---

(An article was posted on the ted binion murder trial and all the posts were simply requests for pictures of the “stripper” who was accused!)

---

“Poor Arnold Schwarzenegger had to find out the hard way. Fresh from his stirring speech at the Republican convention where he endorsed President Bush, the governor came home that night knowing he would have some explaining to do.

For wife Maria Shriver is known to be of the liberal Democratic persuasion. Sure enough, Maria put Arnold in the doghouse -- and that meant no sex for a fortnight “

(Wow! Unbelievable sexism in this entire article!)

---

"Identifying Moderate Muslims "
"They are room temprature. "
"They have toe tags. "

---

(a post on iran and al qaeda having access to nuclear weapons – of course no one asks why we went to iraq instead!)

---

(response to an article about france wanting to put differences behind them and help re-build iraq):

"Screw them!!!! "
"Too bad the emasculated surrender monkeys have absolutely
nothing to offer. "
"It's too late for these "Back-stabbers". "
"Keep the French crapweasels out of Iraq. "
"Up yours, Chirac. "

---

"I told my children that if an adult EVER tells me they misbehaved in any way, I automatically believe the adult. I don't even want to hear their side of the story. "

---

"As each day passes, the better it will get. It's a simple fact of who we are, and what we will do to make their life easier. "

(this is re:Iraq!!!!)

---

"I am getting to the point that even the Chinese press is more reliable than the US press. "

(yes, the press of most other countries are more reliable than our conservative media!)

---

"Next time, shoot the cameraman first!"

---

"The NRA should file suit against GM or Ford for a member killed in a car crash. Then the NRA should file suit against meat producers on behalf of a member who died of heart disease. And against a knife-manufacturer and so on and so on."

(ohmigawd – what amazing logic!)

---

"That's O.K. My ENTIRE family does NOT recognize MLK day anymore. We celebrate 21 Jan as it should be properly noted....General Robert E. Lee's BIRTHDAY! :-) "

---

"It's way past time to dissolve the UN. Bush could accomplish this and provide the world with a lasting legacy. "
"Save it (the UN) by relocating it the the geological anus of some third world sh*thole country where it would be more comfortable with its own kind. "

---

"I wish they would put some special character in the "Humor" headlines to alert everyone"

(this post because they cannot distinguish between real news stories and obvious satire!)

---

"First, in most Moslem countries, the general attitude towards science and reason is subordinate to fantasy and speculation. "

(as opposed to the religious right?!)

---

"We're gonna need to kill 1,000,000,000 of them (Muslims) before the threat is over"

"They forget the fact that the Koran is a vile, evil book written by a insane epileptic pedophilic murderer. "

---

"Women are now wrestling with turkeys and pumpkin pies — and with the realization that only 30 shopping days remain before Christmas. This holiday weekend kicks off a whirlwind of shopping, wrapping, baking, and decorating. "

(wow – is this all that repub women do?!)

---

"Heck, I'll bet even Halliburton's approval ratings are over 50%.....
LOL! Haven't heard that word since the elections. "

(they are so happy that their scandals are being swept under the rug!)

---


Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School!
(This obvious satire rec’d 134 indignant posts! Guess they have to be gullible to vote for bush!)

---

"The United States is losing the war of ideas in the Islamic world"
"Winning the hearts and minds of people who have neither is a near impossibility."
"We can't lose a war of ideas with a bunch of lunatics, whose sole "ideas" consists of terrorist acts, hatred and suicide bombings."
"If they're all dead, who cares what they think?"
"We need to find a way to preach the gospel to them. That's the only way to change hearts and minds."

---

"Does each state have a ghoul in government, demanding that stem cell Nazis be funded to the extreme, by tax-payers who abhor such practices?"

---

"Illinois is clearly in the camp of satanists and morons. "
"And, it has Osama bin Bama as a senator. "

---

"Scripture says that vegetarianism is a pagan practice."

(guess they don't remember that their Adam & Eve were vegetarians!)

---

"Never talk to the authorities. It's NEVER in your best interest"

---

"Democrat Party Must Be Destroyed"

"I feel your pain... NOT!"

(do people really still say this?!)

---

Again, i guess that i'm just naive, because this amount of hate and bile, racism, sexism, xenophobia, etc is incredible to me! This is from the party that WON the election! Can you imagine how angry they would be if they had LOST?!

more lies from the "right"

Uncorrected Lies

Obviously, i've been reading MediaMatters this morning! Check out this link for a great list of false statements from the likes of FoxTV, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc... I haven't read everything but just perusing it i saw several items that i didn't see corrected anywhere, including the out-of-context quote from Edwards of "get out of the wheelchair and walk" and the Teresa Heinz quote about "scumbags". Amazing how meanings change when put in their proper context! Another staple of the republican campaign!

the "right" doesn't seem to understand humor!

Conservative blogs promote NRO's apocryphal church "newsletter" to ridicule Hillary Clinton

Thanks again MediaMatters!

I saw this story on FreeRepublic, too! The "right" hates the Clintons so much (does ANYONE know why?!) that they took this satirical story as fact and used it as a springboard to spew their bile. As evidenced in the campaign, truth and facts have nothing to do with the vileness that they espouse. In fact, facts get in the way, since the truth about the Dems and their records makes it hard to come up with something bad to talk about!

more on the myth of "liberal media"

What campaign was Chris Matthews watching?
In discussing the reasons for the Democrats' defeat in the November 2 election, MSNBC host Chris Matthews claimed that Democrats ignored the difficulties facing working-class Americans and had been concerned only with "tort reform and protecting trial lawyers." A look at the words of the Democratic candidates for president and vice president proves otherwise.

(Thanks to MediaMatters.org)

This is an amazing quote! I know that the Republicans continually pounded on the "issues" of tort reform and trial lawyers, but the Dems talked about real issues facing real people throughout the campaign. Kerry & Edwards constantly spoke of the plight of the working-class - in fact, that was one of the corner stones of their campaign! The fact that a reporter could say, with a straight face, that they "ignored the difficulties facing working-class Americans" is far more than a irresponsible quote, it is an outright lie! How do they get away with things like this?!

reverse racism rears its ugly head again

I am truly sick of the reverse racism that is running rampant on the internet these days. Any disparaging words regarding someone’s service is now twisted to be a condemnation of their racial background!
Bush (or someone) was smart enough to hire ethnic yes men so that any criticism of them would be construed as racist. It doesn’t matter if they’ve lied to the American public so that a war could be started for personal reasons, it doesn’t matter that they condone torture, that they consider the Geneva Convention “quaint”, that they have put us in danger, that they ignored warnings previous to 9/11, etc etc etc....
Anything that we say negatively about Rice, Gonzales, etc, regardless of the facts, shows that liberals are inherently racist. The fact that the left continues to promote civil rights and the “right” continues to disenfranchise and remove rights that have been hard-won, means nothing to these people.
The unfortunate words of a few – in this case a single talk show host – have been blown up to mean that the entire left is in full agreement with him. This shows a complete disregard for the many racist remarks of the “right” – including this recent interview with radical-right talk show host G. Gordon Liddy where he expresses his admiration for Hitler.
So now, not only can no one in his staff be critical of bush, but no one can be critical of any of his staff, as long as they are people of color. What would truly be racist is to condone someone’s actions solely on the basis of the color of their skin.

feeling safe or safely being felt up?

Many Women Say Airport Pat-Downs Are a Humiliation
By JOE SHARKEY,
The New York Times

At a security checkpoint recently at the Fort Lauderdale airport, Patti LuPone, the singer and actress, recalled, she was instructed to remove articles of clothing. "I took off my belt; I took off my clogs; I took off my leather jacket," she said. "But when the screener said, 'Now take off your shirt,' I hesitated. I said, 'But I'll be exposed.' " When she persisted in her complaints, she said, she was barred from her flight.
-----
"Routinely, my breasts are being cupped, my behind is being felt," Ms. Chekowsky said. "And I feel I can't fight it. If I were to say anything, I picture myself being shipped off to Guantánamo."
-----
"There is this thing about putting your name out there," she said. "Am I going to end up on some kind of list?"
-----
She has also learned not to express her objections.
If you do, she said, "They really feel you up, and then check every section of your wallet and every item in your carry-on, including your makeup and toiletries; it's disgusting."

---
Doesn't this make you feel so much safer? Males can conduct these searches on women, also! Isn't it nice that people feel if they complain about personal violations they will, at minimum, be exposed to further humiliation, possibly be put on a list of troublemakers so that future flights will be disrupted (or worse) and even being sent off to a prison?!

Clinton-bashing in 2004!

I find it fairly amazing the amount of Clinton-bashing that is still going on these days by the “right” (see http://www.freerepublic.com/ ).

I can’t quite figure out why they are so angry at him. It seems to all stem from the fact that he lied about getting blow-jobs, so I guess it’s just that they’re jealous ‘cause they aren’t getting any!

I can’t imagine that any of these people – if they are married or in a relationship – would NOT lie about having sex with another woman!

The only other explanation is that he did such a great job as president that he makes their current guy look so bad in comparison!

Apparently the only lie that is an impeachable offense is lying about sex! Lying about the reason for taking our country to war and murdering thousands of innocents is fine! The same must go for lying about the economy, the environment, taxes, civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, the military, the success of the war, etc etc etc....

We’re the ones that should be angry at Clinton – if not for him getting caught with his cigars where they shouldn’t be, Gore would obviously have won in 2000 by a landslide and we wouldn’t be in the disastrous situation that we are now!

So, these people should be grateful and thank Clinton! Unless they simply enjoyed having a Democrat in the White House so that they could bash him unmercifully!

taking lessons from America?

the similarities are frightening:

Ukraine gripped by poll turmoil

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have thronged major cities, protesting at an election result they consider flawed.
Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko told supporters to stage a civil disobedience campaign.
The cities of Kiev and Lviv refused to recognise the official victory for Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
While Russia accepted the result, a US observer alleged "concerted and forceful" fraud, and the EU called on Ukraine to review Sunday's election.

The central electoral commission said with more than 99% of the vote counted, Mr Yanukovych had 49.4% while Mr Yushchenko had 46.7%.
But the opposition says it has recorded many thousands of irregularities - including very high turnouts in government strongholds.

Exit polls earlier suggested that Mr Yushchenko had been on course for victory with a lead of at least six percentage points.

"The abuse of state resources in favour of the prime minister continued, as well as an overwhelming media bias in his favour," Mr George said. The group said Sunday's violations also included intimidation of observers and voters.

During the campaign, Mr Yushchenko, prime minister between 1999 and 2001, claimed to have been the victim of intimidation and dirty tricks, including an alleged poisoning attempt.

I guess the biggest difference is that these people are fighting back. I'm still not certain one way or another if our election was rigged, but it would be nice if people weren't apathetic about it!


UPDATE!

In a supreme example of Irony:

U.S. Threatens Punitive Steps Over Ukraine Election

I honestly don't know whether to laugh or cry over this!! The hypocrisy is unbelievable!!!!

more on bush's "loyalty oaths"

From Slate:

Specter Resurrected:Sworn fealty to the president as the answer to everything.

Just to clarify: In order to claim the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter was forced to abandon future personal or independent judgment—the very judgment the people of Pennsylvania elected him to exercise. He has pledged—in advance of knowing who they are—to endorse the president's judicial nominees and to vote for a highly controversial GOP rule change to end filibusters and effectively terminate dissent of any sort in the Senate. Is it ironic that judicial nominees may not speculate at their confirmation hearings about how they will vote in future cases, but the chairman of the Judiciary Committee himself cannot be seated until he's pledged in advance to confirm those unknown nominees?

Just to clarify: Courts that don't interpret the law in the ways the president wishes to have it interpreted are, in the view of the attorney general, no longer performing their judicial function. Loyal judges should uphold not the Constitution but the rule of the president.

Bush Plans to Purge the 'Disloyal' at CIA

WASHINGTON -- The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources. "The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda.

quote from bush: "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

Looks like he's doing his best to make his life easier! He kept complaining of the "hard work" it is being president, so he's going to try for a dictatorship!

A Health Care Plan for Every Child - from John Kerry

Petition:

Every parent knows the fear of waking up to the cries of a sick baby or a child with an ear infection that will not go away. As parents, we both remember the countless times we called that first pediatrician to get answers to every last question.
But far too many parents have another fear, on top of their child’s health. They worry that a sick child means financial ruin. There are more than eight million uninsured children in our nation. These children are less likely to get a routine checkup, or to get treatment for common ailments like asthma. They miss more days of school. It is a disgrace that eight million children lack health insurance in the richest nation on earth.
Our plan starts by providing health insurance for every child in America. Under the Kerry plan, the federal government will pay the full costs for the 20 million children in the Medicaid program. In return, we will ask states to expand coverage to children in families with higher incomes than are currently eligible, as well as low-income adults. This plan will expand coverage to millions of people and provide much needed relief for states that are struggling under persistent growing budgetary pressures.
The plan will also simplify the health care system so we can prevent children from falling through the cracks. Right now, there are millions of kids who are eligible for federal/state health insurance programs but are not signed up.
There are lots of reasons—sometimes the enrollment forms require the skills of an accountant to figure out. Some states make parents sign up every six months in person, making it virtually impossible for a parent who cannot get time of for afford to lose a whole day of work. Some parents do not even know these programs are available.
Under our plan, kids will be signed up automatically at hospitals, community health centers, and schools. And $5 billion in enrollment bonuses will be available to states as an incentive to find uninsured children and keep them covered. Children do not choose their parents. They do not choose whether to have health insurance. Children deserve a good start—with both high quality education and health care. Under our plan, every child in America will have health insurance, and every parent will have a little more peace of mind.


You can sign the petition at the link above

Kill church-goers - a sure way to bring people to our side!

From CommonDreams:

As U.S. Forces Raided a Mosque

U.S. soldiers raided the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least four and wounding up to 20 worshippers.
”We were here praying and now there are 50 here with their guns on us,” he said. ”They are holding our heads to the ground, and everyone is in chaos. This is the worst situation possible. They cannot see me talking to you. They are roughing up a blind man now.” He evidently could talk no further then.
About 30 men were led out with hoods over their heads and their hands tied behind them. Soldiers loaded them into a military vehicle and took them away around 3.15 pm.
A doctor with the Iraqi Red Crescent confirmed four dead and nine wounded worshippers. Pieces of brain were splattered on one of the walls inside the mosque while large blood stains covered carpets at several places.

I suppose this reporter will receive death threats, also!

Here's another report on this:


Interesting that MSNBC tends to blame the worst of the events on the Iraqi National Guardsmen.
But, they do report that there were raids on several mosques, as well as at least one "insurgent hospital" - so-called because of bodies of suspected insurgents in the morgue. It also mentions stealing relief funds from a mosque.

Glad that the adminstration keeps telling us what a good job we're doing over there, because otherwise we might think that it's a disaster!

NO! you're KIDDING!

From CNN:

"Source of Powell's Iran intelligence under scrutiny"

No, surely Powell wouldn't lie about a country having nuclear weapons or other WMD, or being a threat to the US, would he?! oh wait........

hard to believe in this day and age!

A Gallup Poll:

Third of Americans Say Evidence Has Supported Darwin's Evolution Theory
Almost half of Americans believe God created humans 10,000 years ago

Belief that Darwin's theory has been well supported by the evidence is strongest among those with the most education, liberals, those living in the West, those who seldom attend church, and among Catholics.
The lowest levels of belief that Darwin's theory is supported by the scientific evidence is found among those with the least education, older Americans (many of whom say they are unsure about the theory in general), frequent church attendees, conservatives, Protestants, those living in the middle of the country, and Republicans. "

I know that i am somewhat insulated because all of my friends and most of my acquaintances are well educated and most are very liberal, but some of the statistics in the article are pretty incredible! Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, almost 1/2 of America believes that humans were created no more than 10,000 years ago magically in the form that we now have. I guess i should never be amazed at the ignorance of the American people.

shoot the messenger - literally!

Freedom of the Press in 2004!

Repubs are demanding that the reporter who video-taped the soldier killing an unarmed, wounded Iraqi, at least be charged, and, in some cases, are demanding that he be killed himself!

I can't imagine life on a battlefield and I know that personally, I would not be able to survive because I could not bring myself to murder someone for my lying government. But these young people are taught to murder and that the enemy is less than human, so it is not surprising that something like this can and does happen all of the time. It shouldn't happen, because we are supposed to be better than that, but the soldiers are living in conditions that most of us can (thankfully) not imagine (so far anyway). Emotions and paranoia (some certainly justified) run high, so no one can really say what they would have done in this situation without having lived it themselves.

That said, the reporting of an incident like this should not be considered a treasonable offense and certainly should not be a call for the reporter's death! I think it is apparent that a majority of America has no idea what happens in war and what we have done to Iraq and it's people. Reporting in a war zone is important so that the people back home know why we are there and that we really are better than our enemies. Unfortunately, we have proven ourselves to be just as bad in a number of situations so far. Let's learn from the mistakes and make some changes!

By the way, every post from every repub site is filled with so much hatred and anger that it is astounding! The Dems are still trying to be positive and move forward with our agenda. Didn't they win? Don't they know that they are the ones in power? Where has all this vitriol come from?

a reminder of what being a democrat means

From Oliver Willis

More common sense from another great site.

that's some scandal!

From Newshounds:

Fox News and the UN Oil-for-Food "Scandal"
The first segment today (November 17, 2004) on Your World w/Neil Cavuto featured a report by Eric Shawn on the UN Oil-for-Food "scandal." Opening the show and introducing Shawn, Cavuto said this, with absolute seriousness:
"Well, Fox on top of the United Nations, suddenly looking anything but united. Welcome everybody, I'm Neil Cavuto and this is your world. To Eric Shawn on some stunning developments in a scandal that has officially grown to dwarf all others in the history of man!" (Emphasis added.)"

The "oil-for-food" scandal will dwarf all other in the history of man?!?!?! I know that Fox is not known for understatement, but yeesh!!! This is a bit much for anyone to believe!

I think that the biggest scandal will be when the sheep that voted for him find out what a lying scumbag bush really is and how badly he has screwed them! But, i'm not holding my breath for that one to be released!

more kerry-bashing

From Yahoo:

Democrats Question Kerry's Campaign Funds
WASHINGTON - Democratic Party leaders said Wednesday they want to know why Sen. John Kerry ended his presidential campaign with more than $15 million in the bank, money that could have helped Democratic candidates across the country.

I guess this is another story that was written by the "liberal media"! Obviously, someone published this to further discredit Democrats in general and Kerry in particular and to cause more dissention in the ranks. Everything is total conjecture at this point, no details of any sort have come forth, but this is more ammunition against us and everything that we stand for. Kerry hasn't had time to respond yet, so something that could have a reasonable explanation is built up to the exploding point until we hear from him. Sounds a lot like the Republicans campaign strategy, doesn't it? So now we have all sorts of in-fighting and this takes a lot of attention away from all of the horrible things that bush is doing these days. Please calm down at least long enough for an explanation before condemning Kerry and destroying everything that we have been working for all this time!

on a roll!

www.angryfinger.org is on a roll today!

Check out today's stories:

Most. Obvious. Headline. Ever.
The AP is on it. Iraq Assessments: Insurgents Not Giving Up You don't say.

FDA says FU to USA
Since Bush has taken office the Food & Drug Administration has been sleeping on the job. The agency that was created to protect you and me from, among other things, harmful drugs by greedy pharmeceutical companies has been pretty much doing the opposite since our friend Bushy got in office.
In the past four years, the Food and Drug Administration has taken a noticeably less aggressive approach toward policing drugs that cause harmful side effects, records show, leading some lawmakers, academics and consumer advocates to complain that the agency is focusing more on bolstering the pharmaceutical industry than protecting public health.
Apparently all of the 59 million people that voted for Bush are super healthy and don't have to worry about taking any prescription drugs that might get rid of their allergies and give them heart failure at the same time. But this is still something the rest of us have to worry about.
Every single decisive act the Bush administration has taken since 2000 has been in the best interests of corporations and not that of the American people.
John Lennon was right when he said, "living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see." I know it's not easy to come to terms with a government that is constantly giving you the shaft. I know that it's easier to believe that it's still all Leave it to Beaver and Donna Mills out there and that we can play stupid and trust our government to do what's right for the people, but that's just not the case anymore.
The evidence is overwhelming, we just have to figure out how to get people to open their eyes and see it.

Multi-National Conglomerates - 1 Everyone Else - 0
Why are our politicians so bold and unashamed about completely dicking over the American people?
Telling consumers where their meat, fruit and vegetables came from seemed such a good idea to U.S. ranchers and farmers in competition with imports that Congress two years ago ordered the food industry to do it. But meatpackers and food processors fought the law from the start, and newly emboldened Republicans now plan to repeal it before Thanksgiving.
The most telling quote in this article though is this one by the GOP's whipping boy Roy Blunt:
"I can't find any real opposition to doing exactly what we want to do here," Blunt said.
No real opposition? How about the American farmers and ranchers that want the law passed? How about the American public that deserve to know where the food they are buying is coming from?
That quote goes deeper than repealing this law though, it's exactly what the Republicans feel about anything they want to do right now. They have no qualms about pushing their religious/corporate agenda through as fast and as much as they can until 2006.

and more!!!

noah's flood caused the grand canyon!

Faith-Based Parks? Creationists meet the Grand Canyon

"... some four million people annually visit Grand Canyon National Park, marveling at the awesome view.
In National Park Service (NPS) affiliated bookstores, they can find literature informing them that the great chasm runs for 277 miles along the bed of the Colorado River. It descends more than a mile into the earth, and along one stretch, is some 18 miles wide, its walls displaying impressive layers of limestone, sandstone, shale, schist and granite.
And, oh yes, it was formed about 4,500 years ago, a direct consequence of Noah’s Flood.

How’s that? Yes, this is the ill-informed premise of “Grand Canyon, a Different View,” a handsomely-illustrated volume also on sale at the bookstores

So, a national park is overriding science and selling books that spout nonsense!

Even more troubling, PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)charges that Grand Canyon National Park no longer offers an official estimate of the age of the canyon, and that the NPS has blocked publication of guidance intended for park rangers that reminds them there is no scientific basis for creationism.

And now the park cannot even tell people known scientific facts about the canyon!

This is really getting out of hand! Are all of these stories about religious whack-jobs being published now because the stories are new or is it just because there is a religious rift in the country and the press is just trying to piss people off?! Has this been going on and no one gave these wingnuts the time of day before? Are they just getting press because of the election? I only hope that all of these stories will get people off of their complacent asses and do something about all of this before its too late!

the land of the free

From DailyKos:

The new EU constitution, currently being considered by the member states, is an unwieldy, jargon-laden document that runs to 265 pages in English (and even more in Spanish and French).

It should also serve as an inspiration to progressives around the world.

It bars capital punishment in all 25 nations and defines such things as universal healthcare, child care, paid annual leave, parental leave, housing for the poor, and equal treatment for gays and lesbians as fundamental human rights.

Most of these are still hotly contested questions in the United States; as Rifkin says, this document all by itself makes the European Union the world leader in the human rights debate. It is the first governing document that aspires to universality, "with rights and responsibilities that encompass the totality of human existence on Earth."

Makes you kinda wanna move back to the old country, doesn't it?

Whatever happened to the days of the US being the leaders in human rights?

house republicans say a felon is ok as Majority leader!

From CNN:

House GOP change rules to shield DeLay

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans approved a party rules change Wednesday that could allow Majority leader Tom DeLay to retain his leadership post if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury on state political corruption charges.

Amazing! So, if DeLay is actually convicted of a felony, he could still be Majority leader!

How's that for "moral values"?!

surprise - bush will not tolerate dissent!! Did anyone think he would?!

From CBS News:

Bush Places Loyalists At Helm

"I think you can expect a harder line from the administration," he added, "in not tolerating dissent from within and really not listening to dissent from outside."

Could he possibly be WORSE at not listening to dissent?

Someone else trying to turn kids gay!!!!

From CBS News:

Cross-Dress Tradition A Real Drag

(CBS/AP) A homecoming tradition in which boys dress like girls and vice versa in a tiny Texas school district won't be held Wednesday after a parent complained about what she regarded as the event's homosexual overtones. As a substitute for "TWIRP Day," the two schools, an elementary and high school, decided to hold "Camo Day" — with black boots and Army camouflage to be worn by everyone who wants to participate.

"It's like experimenting with drugs," Davies said. "You just keep playing with it and it becomes customary. ... If it's OK to dress like a girl today, then why is it not OK in the future?"

I just keep thinking – “WOW”! It’s like the 60’s & 70’s never happened, though I’m not sure if even the 50’s were this conservative!


So, its not ok to goof off and dress up and play role reversal, but it is ok to dress up like killers?!

just how absurdly conservative are we going to get?

From AOL:

ABC Apologizes for Intro to 'Monday Night Football'
Opening Spoofed ABC Show 'Desperate Housewives'

Before the game, ABC showed the actress and the Philadelphia Eagles star in an empty locker room in an attempt to spoof the network hit "Desperate Housewives.'' Sheridan, who stars in the show, was wearing only a towel and provocatively asked Owens to skip the game for her.

After she dropped her towel, he smiled, agreed to be late for the contest and she jumped into his arms. Sheridan was shown only from behind and above the waist after she dropped the towel The NFL called the intro "inappropriate and unsuitable for our 'Monday Night Football' audience.''

"While ABC may have gained attention for one of its other shows, the NFL and its fans lost,'' NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said."

Man, this is even more absurd that the big stink about J. Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction"! This is completely innocent and silly and something that is shown millions of times every day on TV. I cannot believe that football-watching lunks would object to the suggestion of a naked, pretty woman. Maybe they were complaining because they couldn't see anything?! I guess watching guys in tight pants grab each other's asses is ok, but a woman's naked back is not!

Lighten up, people - it was a skit! How far back in time are we going to go?!

PS - The poll on the above link shows that 61% of the people thought this was innappropriate! Amazing!

PSS - Just looked at cnn.com and their headline is "ABC apologizes for nudity on NFL show"! Maybe they're just trying to get people to read the story, but, this is hardly nudity!!

don't you feel 'safe"?!

From Time:

Bordering On Nukes?
New accounts from al-Qaeda to attack the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction

Don't you wish that the president was actually FIGHTING al Qaeda instead of helping to grow their ranks?!
Sorry, but we can't safeguard our borders because we've spent trillions in Iraq!

I only hope that there are some Democrats left alive after Armageddon to tell the Repubs "I TOLD YOU SO!"

does this person deserve a promotion?!

Scary, Very Scary, Very Very Scary

Rice to be 'America's face to the world'

While Powell was seen as a moderate in a cabinet of hawks, Rice is viewed as a conservative. When relations between the United States and some European countries were deteriorating over the war in Iraq, Rice raised eyebrows when she suggested Washington should punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia. "

"It did not warn of attacks inside the United States. It was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States."— Rice's testimony on the Aug. 6, 2001 presidential daily briefing (PDB) entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."
"I really don't remember, commissioner, whether I discussed this with the president."— Rice answers a question on whether she told President George W. Bush about the presence of al-Qaeda cells in the U.S. before the Aug. 6 PDB

---


Her evasiveness before the 9/11 commision is astounding. It doesn't really come across in the transcripts as much as when you see her get upset about being asked to answer a direct question. But that is par for the course in this administration!

Don't you wish that you worked for the bush administration? What other job could your f'kups that caused the death of thousands be rewarded?! What other job would you never be held accountable for anything, as long as you agreed with the boss?! Of course, you have to be an accomplished liar and have no morals - except for the kind of "morals" that make you take away people's rights!

if this is true, this is truly horrific

From Daily Kos and Angry Finger

[The Bush Administration] in Washington is pushing a law through Congress that would "acknowledge God as the sovereign source of law, liberty [and] government" in the United States. What's more, it would forbid all legal challenges to government officials who use the power of the state to enforce their own view of "God's sovereign authority." Any judge who dared even hear such a challenge could be removed from office.
The "Constitution Restoration Act of 2004" is no joke; it was introduced last month by some of the Bush Regime's most powerful Congressional sycophants. If enacted, it will effectively transform the American republic into a theocracy, where the arbitrary dictates of a "higher power" -- as interpreted by a judge, policeman, bureaucrat or president -- can override the rule of law.

Next step will be bush declaring himself as the high priest and the only person who can legitimately interpret god's word - since he already says that god speaks to him!

I can't even comprehend what is to come!

bush will lead to armageddon - not that this is news!

From CommonDreams:

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr Helen Caldicott fears US President George Bush's re-election will lead to Armageddon and she isn't sure if mankind would survive another four years.
"This is the most serious election that has ever occurred in the history of the human race, without a scrag of doubt," she told smh.com.
"I don't know if we'll survive the next four years ... I don't think the Americans have, on the whole, the faintest idea - and I have to say also I don't think most Australians do either. But it's not just the threat from nuclear war. It's the threat of what's happening to the environment, the global warming which is occurring rapidly now, to ozone depletion, to species extinction, to deforestation - it's the whole thing."

The Blame Game

I’m getting damn sick and tired of everyone – Dems & Repubs – playing the “blame game” for the election. Everyone and everything is getting blamed – “moral values”, gays, liberalism, polls, voting machines, elitism, and, most unfairly, Kerry himself. He was a great candidate with a superb, consistent record that backed up everything that he spoke about on the campaign trail. The fact of the matter is that we only lost by a couple of percentage points! That’s it! Our message and our stance on the issues resonated with 48% of the people.

Only a SLIGHT majority of people disagreed with us and I firmly believe that was because of ignorance. With a large number of the public not knowing about major facts like the lack of WMDs in Iraq or the lack of connection between Hassain & 9/11, how could we expect them to know things like a senator’s record or details about the economy or the environment – despite the evidence of their own senses?

Yes, we have to rethink our strategy, but not our message. If we were able to educate a small percentage of the people who voted for bush on the facts and the issues, then I believe that we could have won. A large number of bush supporters still do not know his stance on basic issues! But, bush has the conservative media juggernaut on his side that has spoon-fed his propaganda constantly to the public.

They covered bush, his supporters, and his lies, with very little coverage of the truth behind the lies. The biggest “controversy” was about a forged memo that simply supported known facts about bush’s lack of service in the National Guard. But, the proven liars, the swift boat veterans, are STILL getting coverage! Anything anti-Kerry was repeated endlessly – how many times have you heard the term “flip-flop”? – despite no evidence whatsoever to back up the claims. The only stories that could have been construed as anti-bush were factual news stories about the disasters that he has created! On those stories the media continually fed people the administrations’ lame excuses – no matter how desperate - and never demanded accountability. The need for non-partisan news coverage is critical.

The Democratic Party also needs to work on their PR angle. It is true that they let things go for too long and let the Repubs’ baseless attacks define Kerry in the eyes of America. He didn’t have the time and money to make himself known to the public, so he was typecast as cold and rigid. Somehow bush has been made to be a “man of the people”, despite being a multi-millionaire who has had everything handed to him throughout his life. Kerry concentrated on issues and thought that the public would see through the obvious fabrications and distortions. Unfortunately, too many people didn’t know or care about the issues.

We naively thought that people would research issues and see through the lies. Instead they believed a vicious attack campaign based on character assassination and twisted words.

It’s like the schoolyard bully – only by standing up to him will he stop. And if you try to take a higher moral ground and not lower yourself to his level, people will think that you are weak. We need to organize ourselves and not be afraid to be as dirty as they are. When they start fighting nasty, we have to be ready to fight back immediately. They have proven that they will stop at nothing, say anything, twist everything, and that no trick is too low, too dirty or too evil for them to use. We don’t need to lie – the truth about their record is enough to convince any sane person – but we need to retaliate to any insult and any lie as soon as they start spreading them. We know that we are morally superior in regards to the issues, but we can’t afford to be when campaigning. It is the only thing that the average bush supporter will respond to!

We need to quit trying to assign blame and get to work on education and PR! We need to demand that major media do their job and not simply toe the Republican Party line. We need to appeal to the LCD – the lowest common denominator - as well as our current base. It will be a tough tight-rope act, but it needs to be done. I hope that we have the people to do it!

a letter to the people in the red states

From OpEdNews:

A well-written letter from a New Yorker who truly lived through the terror and continues to live with it every day. She makes a lot of the same points that many of us have talked about recently, but with the added viewpoint of someone who has been directly affected by the attacks. It is somewhat ironic that those who lived through the Sept 11 attacks are the ones who overwhelmingly voted against bush and his policies.

religious censorship, anyone?

From Newsday:

Conservative/religious groups are protesting a movie called "Kinsey", a biography of the pioneering professor, Alfred Kinsey. He is being blamed for STD's, pornography, abortion, AIDs, the divorce rate, and anything else they can think of! All because he did a study of sex!

'"Instead of being lionized, Kinsey's proper place is with Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele or your average Hollywood horror flick mad scientist," said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women of America's Culture & Family Institute.'

Whew! Even though the movie shows a negative side of Kinsey's personality, these groups don't think that it is negative enough! It's a MOVIE people! Film writers don't tell you how to write your little religious tracts, do they?!

never-ending madness!

There certainly is no shortage of mind-boggling news these days!

From: Newshounds :

FoxTV interview with Lt. Col. Ralph Peters:

"One thing Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Hamas leaders all have in common is they send the poor young saps out to die, the deluded young people. But they duck out themselves."

This sound like any president that you know?

"PETERS: Well, the best outcome, frankly, is if they’re (insurgents) all killed. But we obey the laws of war. If they at the last minute throw up their hands, before we can kill them, we will accept their surrender. But the prisoners, frankly, are a liability. "

How crazy does this guy sound? I guess the only good insurgent is a dead insurgent! I can only wonder how many of us would be "insurgents" if our country were invaded?

Investigate the Vote!

With the incredible number of voter fraud allegations, please sign the petition below to have an investigation done. We need to know if the election was stolen once again!


investigate the vote

church & state + we are so f'k'd - a never ending saga!

A letter from Bob Jones, of Bob Jones "University" - "A liberal arts, nondenominational Christian university, BJU stands without apology for the old-time religion and the absolute authority of the Bible." He is also an old friend of bush's. Excerpts:

"In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn't deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. "

"You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ."

Yikes! I bet a lot of god-fearing "liberals" who believe in real values - not the trumped-up bs that bush spouts - will be surprised to find out that they actually "despise Christ"!

It appears -again - that not ruling based on your personal religion means that you are a pagan!

Christ must've said something like that in the Bible, didn't he?

more on tort reform

I guess it's just terrible to be able to sue companies like this one who endanger our lives for a profit:

Apparently, bush taking away rights of ours like these will make us all safer! (Or, at least, it will increase the offenders' gross margin!)

Gonzales replaces Ashcroft - one loon for another!

See the record of this former Enron attorney who believes that the Geneva Convention is "quaint" and that torture is ok! Boy, i'm sure that the rest of the world is impressed with this selection!

I cannot even comprehend how bad this country is going to get!

now that the election is over, suddenly we're "safer"!

From MSNBC :

Funny, despite increased warnings of al Qaeda attacks, the Homeland Security Dept has LOWERED the threat level now that the election is over. Notice that they RAISED the threat level shortly before the election. Just coincidence? Or just needed to remind people of the "terror threat"? See, just electing bush has made the threat level go down! Don't you feel so much better?!

Surprise! More on this administrations' inept handling of al Qaeda!

More on the fact that bush has helped al Qaeda to grow and has refused to realistically fight it.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 - The Bush administration has failed to recognize that Al Qaeda is now a global Islamic insurgency, rather than a traditional terrorist organization, and so poses a much different threat than previously believed, says a senior counterterrorism official at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Michael Scheuer, the former chief of the C.I.A.'s Osama bin Laden unit and the author of a best-selling book critical of the administration's handling of the fight against terrorism, said in an interview with The New York Times this weekend that the government "doesn't respect the threat" because most officials still regard Al Qaeda as a terrorist organization that can be defeated by arresting or killing its operatives one at a time.
He noted that President Bush and other officials had repeatedly said two-thirds of the leadership of Al Qaeda has been killed or captured, but he said the figure was misleading because it is referring to the leaders who were in place as of Sept. 11, 2001.
Al Qaeda has replaced many of those dead or captured operatives and continues to thrive as a guiding force for Islamic extremists around the world.

How do people believe that this man has made us safer?!

anti-choice-of-any-sort!

From Daily Kos :

For a year, Julee Lacey stopped in a CVS pharmacy near her home in a Fort Worth suburb to get refills of her birth-control pills. Then one day last March, the pharmacist refused to fill Lacey's prescription because she did not believe in birth control."

So now, people think that they can restrict our rights to AVOID having a child, not just our rights to have a choice about terminating a pregnancy! The lack of logic makes the head spin! They don't want people to have abortions, but they don't want them to have access to anything that will stop them from getting pregnant in the first place! Whatever happened to common sense?!

more scare tactics

What a surprise! More lies and scare tactics from the anti-choice brigade:

From Yahoo :

Women Wrongly Warned Cancer, Abortion Tied

Boy - no lie is too outrageous, is it?!

help stop discrimination!

Sign this petition to help stop gay discrimination:

http://www.millionformarriage.org

We need to counteract the american axis of evil!!

will we ever really know what really happened?

Now, i'm normally not a conspiracy nut and i am willing to believe that a (slight) majority of americans just haven't been paying attention and just don't really care about the big issues, so they left the shrub in office. But, given all that, there is a lot of evidence to say that we didn't fail and that the repubs did the very thing we were supposed to be watching for. Considering that everything showed that we did everything right and we were winning right up until the last second, there is reason for skeptisism. We may never really know, but here's some horror stories:

Voters Unite

282 stories! And i have read about problems that were not listed!

here's more from buzzflash :


Wouldn't it be nice to be able to trust the government again?

why i moved out of indiana

More fuel for my contention that people just haven't been paying attention:

From the LA Times:

This is, basically, what one hears over and over in the suburbs of this city. They trust the guy, know where he stands. They like his values. And by "values," they do not mean his views on gay marriage and abortion. They cite the president's stance on terrorism and Iraq, his passion for lower taxes.

So many people find views like these literally incomprehensible. How can they trust a proven liar that went to war for no reason? How can they trust someone who has aided terrorists and helped their numbers grow? How can they trust someone whose "passion for lower taxes" essentially means lower taxes for the wealthy?

People just realize they have faith and trust in this president to make the right decisions,

I cannot even imagine that kind of faith in this person. What is this based on? What "right decision" has he made so far?

... does not worry about an Oval Office takeover by the radical Christian right, yet he does fret about what he calls the "aggressively secular" attitude he sees on the left.

Why are people afraid of someone who will NOT base their decisions on their personal religion? I always thought that is what this country was founded on. Maybe i'm just wrong....Why is it better to have a radical christian right-winger in the office than someone who bases their decisions of facts?

Every day i find more reasons to be terrified of the future....

can even republicans believe this one?!

From the LA Times :

Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans resigned today, the first members of President Bush's Cabinet to leave as he headed from re-election into his second term.

"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved," Ashcroft wrote in a five-page, handwritten letter to Bush.

Wow! I had no idea! Glad that we are now safe from terror!!! And Crime!!!!! I feel so much better now!!!

bush does wonders for the economy!

from www.americablog.blogspot.com :

Did someone mention jobs?

by David - 11/9/2004 08:33:16 AM
The president had something to celebrate with his first Clinton-esque jobgrowth number last week. (the unemployment rate actually went up, but hey, nobody's perfect.) A week later, it's back to reality.
Thousands of job cuts at Marsh and SBC announced this morning. Delta's now giving us some details on their previously announced cuts, where a little more than one out of every ten people working there now won't be soon. Just in time for the holidays.
For those about to lose their jobs -- stop whining. This administration will get another corporate tax cut over to the Hill for rubber-stamping in no time.

we are so f'k'd......

From CBS News :

Religious leaders close to the Republicans have high hopes that the White House will press for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, enact a constitutional ban on gay marriage and, if the opportunity arises, make conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.

Robertson said his first priority is for Congress to disable the ability of “obnoxious filibustering” Democrats who stand in the way of conservative judicial appointments. “What I want to see is the filibuster rule changed at the beginning of this new Congress,” Robertson insisted.

So now a TV evangelist believes that he can change the rules of Congress!

At the core of the effort, social conservatives believe that secular liberals are forcing their values on America. “We have watched an erosion of our basic religious freedoms,” Robertson said.

Incredible!!!! By separating church & state and not using religion as a basis for laws, we are taking away their religious freedoms! So, to get back at us, they want to take away gay rights, women's rights and scientific advancements and are going to threaten bush until he does this. Surprisingly, he has not been talking much about these issues, but that doesn't mean he's not going to institute them.

more on bush's version of "civil rights"

From Cox News :

Some of the 550 prisoners from more than 40 countries have been held for nearly three years, but few have had access to attorneys and only four have been charged.

Good old America! Land of the free!

a "uniter"

I'm sure that most everyone heard this quote by now, but bush actually said:

"I will reach out to everyone who shares our goals".

Wow! How magnanimous! He's willing to reach out to everyone who already agrees with him! So, 48% of the country is f'k'd! But, we already knew that!

twisted logic - a never-ending saga

from www.atrios.blogspot.com :


Gay Marriage==Slavery:

COOPER: But Democrats argue look, John Kerry doesn't support gay marriage. I mean he doesn't want a constitutional amendment about it, but he didn't support gay marriage. Why is it that the Republicans have been able to benefit from that whereas the Democrats did not? Is it simply the question of the constitutional -- the federal amendment?
FALWELL: Well, nobody believes John Kerry on that because his voting record, pro choice, his voting record on the family issues, does -- belies his statement. And the fact that he would not support a federal marriage amendment, it equates in our minds as someone 150 years ago saying I'm personally opposed to slavery, but if my neighbor wants to own one or two that's OK. We don't buy that.

separation of church & state - a never-ending saga

More people who prefer fiction to fact:

Book Battles: Evolution, Marriage

They just can't get over the Scopes trial!!

How far back in time are we going?!

thanks george! global warming continues unabated!

From CNN :

Study: Arctic warming at twice the global rate
Species, including polar bears, may go extinct as ice melts President George W. Bush pulled the United States, the world's top polluter, out of the 126-nation Kyoto protocol in 2001, arguing its curbs on greenhouse gas emissions were too costly and unfairly excluded developing nations.
"Kyoto is only a first step," said Norwegian Environment Minister Knut Hareide, a strong backer of Kyoto. "The clear message from this report is that Kyoto is not enough. We must reduce emissions much more in coming decades."

Apparently, according to the bush, it will just cost too much to save the planet - after all, we have to spend that money murdering innocents in Iraq!

has anyone even noticed...?

Just how close we truly are to WWIII?
Iraq is a terrifing disaster.
France and Ivory Coast.
Palestine/Israel.
Iran.
North Korea.
Bin Laden and al Qaeda alive and growing.
on & on....

Thanks for making us safer, GWB! I hope we live through these next 4 years! Obviously, America will take more hits on our soil due to the world's fear and hatred of us. We can only hope that they will be relatively, comparatively minor catastrophies....

Do people really think that bush is FIGHTING terrorists?!

From Yahoo :

Terror Financing Fines Fall After 9/11
The average penalty for a company doing business with Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan or Libya dropped nearly threefold, from more than $50,000 in the five years before the 2001 attacks to about $18,700 afterward, according to a computer-assisted analysis of federal records.

We are so f'k'd - a never-ending saga

I know that a lot of people are talking about the so-called “moral values” that won this election for the wrong side. Everyone with a conscience is flabbergasted that people who are anti-gay and anti-choice feel that they have superior morals to those of us who are anti-war-for-no-reason, anti-torture, anti-terrorism, pro-civil-rights, pro-women’s rights, pro-economy, pro-environment, etc etc etc. It is pretty incredible that people are more afraid of gays having rights than they are of bin Laden attacking our country!

They seem to forget that this country was founded on the principle of “separation of church and state” and that people fled to this country to escape religious persecution. I suppose that they are simply very selective in their separations and their persecutions.

Maybe they would be surprised to find out that a number of us are somewhat skeptical (or downright frightened) of having someone who claims to talk to god as the leader of the most powerful country in the world. Most people who say something like this are put away – our country elects him president!

Everyone is saying that the Democrats have to rethink their strategies and plan differently next time. I guess this is true – we have to stop thinking that people are going to be informed and use common sense when voting. I suppose that we should be grateful that 48% of the people voted logically and were paying attention to what has been going on around them. I’m not sure how we can have an intelligent campaign that actually talks about the issues that these 48% obviously cares very strongly about, while also catering to the fears and superstitions of the other 51%.

It appears that the only way to win is to make up blatantly false accusations about the opponent (“he wants to take away your bible and turn your kids queer!”) over & over and make them spend all of their time & money addressing these ridiculous claims, since actual “issues” are boring! I certainly don’t have the answers, but I know that we are going to be paying for this for years to come.

We know that bush & co. are going to be working hard to take away the rights that people have fought and died for. I only hope that people have the will to continue fighting so that we can retain an America that truly is a democracy and that will once again stand by the principals on which it was founded. It will be a long, hard, road, though!

(It would be interesting to find out how many of these people who voted for bush because of his "moral values" are aware that he ditched out on his service to his country, has been arrested, has drinking convictions on his record, has been accused of using drugs, etc. Not to mention the fact that he has no problem murdering 1000's of people for no reason....But, again, I suppose that their "morality" is selective.)

another well written commentary on the "missing" munitions

From the LA Times

For Bush, Too Late for Honesty
Missing munitions spark an explosion of administration excuses

On Monday morning, the New York Times reported that 380 tons of powerful explosives had disappeared from a military complex in Iraq that the American military didn't safeguard. An honest supporter of President Bush would reply to this by arguing that, despite this mistake, there are plenty of good reasons to reelect him anyway.

The week before the election, though, is too late for honesty, especially for a campaign so committed to the infallibility of its candidate. And so Bush and his allies have been forced to argue that no, neglecting to guard a lifetime supply of bomb-making material does not in any way reflect poorly on Bush's military strategy. Indeed, if anybody is tainted here, it's Kerry. This exercise in defending the indefensible offers a kind of morbid hilarity. So far, I count seven distinct lines of argument:

1. Look at the bright side. Kerry, insists Vice President Dick Cheney, fails to "mention the 400,000 tons of weapons and explosives that our troops have captured and are destroying." This is sort of like arguing, "Your honor, the record should reflect the countless times I've driven to work without swerving onto the sidewalk and mowing down dozens of pedestrians."

2. Consider the source. Why, Republicans ask, are we finding out just now about this? Well, for starters, it was less than two weeks ago that the International Atomic Energy Agency informed our government of the lost explosives. A Wall Street Journal editorial imputed dark motives to the fact that the information leaked, without explaining why the U.S. government was keeping it secret in the first place, or why the fact that it leaked detracts from the substance of the story.

3. Don't judge. As the Journal pleaded, "Some 380 tons of frightfully powerful stuff has gone missing, and the objective before us should be to locate it, not locate blame." In other words, the military can't search for the bombs unless the voters withhold
judgment about Bush.

4. Kerry reads newspapers. "What would he do as president? Get up every morning and say, 'I'm going to govern based on what I find in the newspapers?' " sneered Karl Rove. "John Kerry will say anything he believes will help him politically," wrote Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman, "and today he is grasping at headlines to obscure his record of weakness and indecision in the war on terror." The horror — Kerry is letting world news infect his judgment.

5. Kerry's a hypocrite. "After repeatedly calling Iraq the wrong war and a diversion," Bush declared, "Sen. Kerry this week seemed shocked to learn that Iraq was a dangerous place full of dangerous weapons." This is a bizarre inversion of reality. Bush justified the war primarily as a way to keep weapons out of the hands of terrorists, yet his handling of it led to exactly that result.

6. Kerry hates the troops. "The senator is denigrating the actions of our troops and commanders in the field," Bush insisted. By this logic, any criticism of Bush's military plan amounts to blaming the troops. By the same Orwellian logic, statements like the one from Bush supporter Rudy Giuliani — "The actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough?" — do not count as blaming the troops.

7. It was like that when we got here. Republicans seized on an NBC News report that a U.S. Army brigade had inspected the site in April 2003 and found no weapons. This claim fell apart after NBC and the brigade commander said the Americans merely stopped at the site without inspecting it. Bush and his allies have since retreated to claiming that the explosives may have been moved before the war started. This is possible, though highly unlikely. David Kay, the man Bush chose to search for WMD in Iraq, said such a transfer probably would have been detected by U.S. satellites. And KSTP, a Minneapolis TV station that had staff embedded with troops who went into the area, has footage of U.S. troops coming across what look to weapons inspectors very much like the explosives in question, cracking open locks and then departing. There have been reports of systematic looting since.

But even in the unlikely event that the weapons disappeared before the war, it would hardly forgive Bush's policy of invading without enough troops to secure vital weapons caches. The point is that he didn't plan for the peace, which included safeguarding weapons. Suppose it turned out that the pedestrians struck by our reckless driver all suffered fatal heart attacks moments before they were run over. Sure, the driver would be exonerated of their deaths. But as far as evaluating his driving skills — or Bush's war-planning skills — it makes no difference at all.

bush does wonders for the dollar!

From Financial Times :

The greenback's weakness was also attributed to the re-election of President George W. Bush. Since the start of Mr Bush's first term the dollar has fallen 20.8 per cent in trade-weighted terms and observers do not expect a change in dollar policy in his second term.

Jesus Christ!

Literally!

From Time :

Jesus and the FDA

A quiet battle is raging over the Bush Administration's plan to appoint a scantily credentialed doctor, whose writings include a book titled As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now, to head an influential Food and Drug administration (FDA) panel on women's health policy. Sources tell Time that the agency's choice for the advisory panel is Dr. W. David Hager, an obstetrician-gynecologist who also wrote, with his wife Linda, Stress and the Woman's Body, which puts "an emphasis on the restorative power of Jesus Christ in one's life" and recommends specific Scripture readings and prayers for such ailments as headaches and premenstrual syndrome. Though his resume describes Hager as a University of Kentucky professor, a university official says Hager's appointment is part time and voluntary and involves working with interns at Lexington's Central Baptist Hospital, not the university itself. In his private practice, two sources familiar with it say, Hager refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. Hager did not return several calls for comment.

Yikes! So much for separation of church and state!

Man, we are going to go back to the middle ages!

It's already begun

From Cox news :

The anti-gay movement is now gaining momentum and is stronger than ever - just days after the election! Boy, is our prez a uniter or what?!

talk about an understatement!

"Some Kerry supporters glum after loss"!!!!!

"Glum"! Wow! I wish i felt that good!!!

Check out the "quick vote" - "Are you optimistic about bush's 2nd term in office?". So far the majority says no!!!!

the "liberal media" - a neverending saga!

CNN Money say "Job Growth Soars"

OK, the headline shows "job growth soars"! But, 3 paragraphs in, they offhandly mention that the unemployment rate has risen! And they say that the gains are "not likely to be repeated soon". There's a lot more bad news intersperced in the article, but it ends with "clearly our economy is quite strong and growing stronger"!

Damn that liberal media for putting a sunny spin on mediocre-to-bad news!

we are so f'k'd, part 2

I realize that I am still trying to grasp the enormity of the consequences of Tuesday. Since bush did not discuss any issues throughout his campaign, and because of our hope that people were paying attention and wouldn’t stand for this nonsense any longer, I never really thought about how much worse he can make things. Besides now believing that a majority agree with the mess he has already created, he now gloats with omnipotent glee that it’s now time to get things done. Just the plans that he has spoken of since Tuesday will literally add trillions to our current debt.

I think that the biggest disappointment we all feel is that, by electing him, the majority is implicitly okaying torture, the murder of at least 100,000 innocents, bungling a war that was started for no reason, the unbelievable number of lies, twists, deceits, cheats, steals, the revocation of basic human rights, of civil rights, of women’s rights, the detention of innumerable people with no cause and no charges, the lack of security, the increase in terrorism, the fact that we are ignoring the person who caused the 9/11 tragedy, the suppression of massive amounts of information on everything from the 9/11 commission to missing munitions to the Halliburton debacle, and on & on. We feel that America should be better than this.

And despite all of this, there is still talk of a “liberal media” that “almost cost bush the election”, instead of the conservative media that gave bush the election. If there really was a “liberal media”, other than the (unfortunately) extremely small, grass roots contingent, then all of these disasters would have received more reporting and the average person would know about all of these (and many more that have been covered up) as well as basic facts like there is no connection between Iraq & 9/11 or that we did not find WMDs in Iraq.

Just this morning I read an editorial in the ultra-conservative Las Vegas Review Journal that I initially thought was a satire, since it was so over the top. An actual quote: “can you imagine what it would be like to have a Massachusetts liberal filling the federal courts across the country, including the Supreme Court, with liberal judges who would be turning more criminals loose for decades to come, as well as repeatedly overruling the voting public’s right to govern themselves on such things as gay marriage?” Wow! I’m not sure where any of that came from, since, for instance, Bush wants to pass a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages, which WILL take away the public’s right to govern themselves on this issue. Twisted logic!

He goes on to talk about the choosing of members of the Supreme Court. He says “those consequences could be tragic if they are replaced with more justices who think their job is to impose their own pet notions...instead of what is set forth in the Constitution of the United States that they are sworn to uphold.” Again, interesting in that bush freely admits that he governs according to his own agenda and his faith and not by the will of the people.

Now here’s the most amazing part: “If there were not alternative media like talk radio, Fox News and the internet, the public would have heard nothing but pro-Kerry spin masquerading as news”!!!!! Boggling! One of his examples is that calling the Swift Boat loons on their proven lies was “sleazy”! Apparently, bringing forth the fact that bush ditched out on his National Guard service – despite the never-ending “reporting” of the baseless attacks on Kerry’s heroic service – was also “sleazy”.

So it is this type of mindset that we are up against! I believe that a big problem is that we thought that once the public was given proven facts, then they would vote for the good guy. The influence of the overwhelmingly conservative media steamrollers over facts and logic. It seems like the lies make better news stories!


All sources saying that the reason the Dems lost was because we didn’t fight dirty and stuck to the issues and assumed people would see through the lies. Of course, the resources that the president has at his command far outnumber that of any other candidate. When bush started with his baseless attacks as far back as last spring, the Dems tried to rise above it all and not demean themselves to even respond and hoped that the media would expose the truth. Unfortunately, the media loved the lies and repeated them endlessly.
By the time that the Dems realized that no one else was going to defend them, they didn’t have the time and money to both counter the lies and press the issues – which, of course, this administration was terrified of discussing. Kerry was “defined” by the attacks, even though he continued to try to simply talk about the issues, he had to spend more & more time refuting the lies. Bush appeared on TV endlessly (attacking his opponent, instead of discussing anything of substance) and Kerry received small snippets of airtime, which usually discussed the current fabrication from the repubs, rather than his solid Senate record or his plans for the presidency. It was so bad that people were surprised that Kerry was so strong and resolute and logical and clearly spoke on the issues during the debates! It’s a bit of a “catch-22” – the only way to defeat this monster is to lower ourselves to their level, which will make us just as bad. But, apparently the majority loves the villain these days.

good luck to the world!

From Common Dreams :

World Wants Changes from Bush to Open a New Era
by Timothy Heritage

PARIS - World leaders at odds with George W. Bush are hoping he will change his policies to rebuild global trust shattered by the Iraq war, but his strengthened mandate means they could be the ones left making the changes.

yeah, sure he'll change this term! what possible reason would he have for doing that?!

more horrors to come

More from Common Dreams :

Some Bush Supporters Say They Anticipate a 'Revolution'
by David D. Kirkpatrick

ARLINGTON, Va. - Exulting in their electoral victories, President Bush's conservative supporters immediately turned to staking out mandates for an ambitious agenda of long-cherished goals, including privatizing Social Security, banning same-sex marriage, remaking the Supreme Court and overturning the court's decisions in support of abortion rights.

Ultra-Conservatives are already trying to screw us all (even more than we already have been)!

what a way to curb the deficit!

From Yahoo

Not even a day after he is elected and more bad news!

we are so f'k'd!

It seems that half of this country is still in shock. I think that a lot of people – myself included – didn’t think that we could lose. We thought that people were paying attention. When we found out things like 60% of bush supporters thought that Saddam had something to do with 9/11, we tried to get even more information out. We were amazed that people didn’t know basic facts & issues involved in this election. We couldn’t imagine how anyone would want to continue on the course that we’ve been on for the last 4 years.
But we didn’t anticipate the power and the resources of the lie machine. We thought that we could counter stations like FoxTV and all of the conservative stations, radio shows, newspapers, blogs, etc etc etc. We thought that people would see through the obvious lies. We were wrong.
We thought that people would see that Kerry truly wanted to unite this country and fix the problems that bush has created over the years. We are not angry, depressed, frustrated and terrified because the Democrats lost, but because this country has lost.

I had hoped that on Nov 3, I could have discontinued this blog, along with many others. It is not to be. We have to continue to inform the uninformed.

From a bush press release:
“His second term secured, President Bush is reaching out and asking the 55 million people who voted to oust him from office to get behind the ambitious agenda he's laid out for the next four years.
The work of making good on a raft of tough-to-keep campaign promises begins Thursday, when Bush sits down with his Cabinet for their first such meeting since Aug. 2.”

I’m not sure what this “ambitious agenda” and these “campaign promises” are. All I heard bush and cheney say throughout the entire campaign were lies, insults and attacks about Kerry and no plans of any sort. Now, since the majority of the people have implicitly told him that they agree with the way the country has been led during the last 4 years, he has no reason to do anything positive at all.

“the next four years, a period he termed ‘a season of hope.’"

I guess he’s ‘hoping” that people will continue to not ask for truth or results!

“He pledged to keep up the fight against terrorism”

Since, as bin Laden has shown us last week along with the numbers of dead and the numbers of lost munitions, he’s been doing such a great job!

“press for stable democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan”

Regardless of ours!

“continue to raise accountability standards in public schools”

Even though his plans have failed miserably so far.

“and ‘uphold our deepest values and family and faith.’"

In other words, force his religion on the masses.

“Other items include reforms to the nation's intelligence community”

I’m not sure why, since he has been ignoring them for the past 4 years.

“halving the record $413 billion deficit”

As far as I have heard, he has not even pretended to have a plan for this. Since he has asked for another $70 billion for Iraq alone and has initiated another tax cut for the rich, I rather doubt that this will happen!

“expanding health care coverage”

Again, has he even talked about a plan to help this?

“a constitutional ban on gay marriage”

Boy, this will help to unite this country! Even his VP is against this!

“and moving ‘this goodhearted nation toward a culture of life.’"

In other words, sorry ladies, we are overturning roe vs. wade and your body is no longer your property, but the governments!

"I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust," he said. "When we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America."

This is true – if only we had someone we could trust who was working to unite this country.

“But first, some time for rest after a grueling, bitter campaign. After the Cabinet meeting, Bush was headed to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for a long weekend.”

In all fairness, it is true that this campaign had to have been hard on the candidates. Let’s just hope that he doesn’t go on vacation for 40% of his first year, like he did last time!

All of these statements don’t even encompass all of the problems that we are facing. There is the horrendous economy (which he has no plans to repair because he doesn’t think there is a problem), the continued damages to the environment (which he embraces because they help big businesses), incredibly dangerous projects like Yucca Mountain Nuclear Depository (which is an invitation to easy terrorists’ activities), and on & on. The list is endless. Kerry at least was addressing these issues. Bush has either ignored them or is simply, resolutely determined to continue on his collision course with disaster.

I do truly believe that America can be the greatest country in the world. Unfortunately, now we are just the most feared. With the republicans running all levels of the government and the president convinced that the majority believes in what he has been doing, there is no reason to believe that anything will change. We need to continue to fight and make our voices heard. No matter how much we would like to, we cannot separate the 2 Americas that currently exist, so we must continue to try to educate the ignorant and bring about positive change.