... The People must not or America fails.

Sherwood Ross: Name Members To Committee To Seek Prosecution of Bush For War Crimes
Published on Oct 14, 2008
By: Sherwood Ross

Oct. 14, 2008 - Massachusetts law school Dean Lawrence Velvel will chair a Steering Committee to pursue the prosecution for war crimes of President Bush and culpable high-ranking aides after they leave office Jan. 20th.

The Steering Committee was organized following a conference of leading legal authorities and scholars from the U.S. and abroad convened by Velvel on Sept. 13-14 in Andover, Mass., titled "The Justice Robert Jackson Conference On Planning For The Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals."

"If Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and others are not prosecuted," Velvel said, "the future could be threatened by additional examples of Executive lawlessness by leaders who need fear no personal consequences for their actions, including more illegal wars such as Iraq."

Besides Velvel, members of the Steering Committee include:

Ben Davis, a law Professor at the University of Toledo College of Law, where he teaches Public International Law and International Business Transactions. He is the author of numerous articles on international and related domestic law.

Marjorie Cohn, a law Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Calif., and President of the National Lawyers Guild.

Chris Pyle, a Professor at Mount Holyoke College, where he teaches Constitutional law, Civil Liberties, Rights of Privacy, American Politics and American Political Thought, and is the author of many books and articles.

Elaine Scarry, the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University, and winner of the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism.

Peter Weiss, vice president of the Center For Constitutional Rights, of New York City, which was recently involved with war crimes complaints filed in Germany and Japan against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others.

David Swanson, author, activist and founder of AfterDowningStreet.org/CensureBush.org coalition, of Charlottesville, Va.

Kristina Borjesson, an award-winning print and broadcast journalist for more than twenty years and editor of two recent books on the media.

Colleen Costello, Staff Attorney of Human Rights, USA, of Washington, D.C., and coordinator of its efforts involving torture by the American government.

Valeria Gheorghiu, attorney for Workers' Rights Law Center.

Andy Worthington of Redress, a British historian and journalist and author of books dealing with human rights violations.

Initial actions considered by the Steering Committee, Velvel said, are as follows:

# Seeking prosecutions of high level officials, including George Bush, for the crimes they committed.

# Seeking disbarment of lawyers who were complicitous in facilitating torture.

# Seeking termination from faculty positions of high officials who were complicitous in torture.

# Issuing a recent statement saying any attempt by Bush to pardon himself and aides for war crimes prior to leaving office will result in efforts to obtain impeachment even after they leave office.

# Convening a major conference on the state secret and executive privilege doctrines, which have been pushed to record levels during the Bush administration.

# Designation of an Information Repository Coordinator to gather in one place all available information involving the Bush Administration's war crimes.

# Possible impeachment of 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee for co-authoring the infamous "torture memo."

Q U E S T I O N:
When The People's elected Representatives FAIL to "faithfully support and defend the Constitution of the U.S.A." and instead postulate "mental reservations" about taking action because "there aren't enough votes in the Senate" or, when they use statements designed for "purposes of evasion" and take accountability and "impeachment off the table" ...
... HOW SHALL THE PEOPLE HOLD THEIR REPRESENTATIVES ACCOUNTABLE?

==============
I M P E A C H
or R E S I G N!!!

... The fat cats insist on squandering our tax dollars.

The 56 Trillion Dollar Deficit:
Bill Maher Interviews Fmr. Comptroller General David Walker

I did NOT consent to be indebted to the tune of <$480,000.00>!
Yet, Congress consents to give away our tax dollars to the rich, enslaving The People further.

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

... Shhhh. America just can't have free exchange of ideas. If She did, it might actually become the Democracy She's not allowed to be. Side question: Why are the debates controlled by the TWO wings of a vulture? Why haven't the terms of the debates been released? What's wrong with allowing alternative points of view into the discussion? When did we cease being America? Informed people?

R E M E M B E R
When Government controlls business, you get Communism.
When Government is controlled by business, you get Fascism.
RFK Jr

James Bamford: “The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America”

The Bush administration’s wiretapping program has come under new scrutiny this week. Two influential congressional committees have opened probes into allegations US intelligence spied on the phone calls of American military personnel, journalists and aid workers in Iraq. We speak to James Bamford about the NSA’s spying on Americans, the agency’s failings pre-9/11 and the ties between NSA and the nation’s telecommunications companies.
DemocracyNOW!

Almost starting to look like we might be able to save Mumia's ass at this rate. If it comes out that these guys were paid off or threatened by the cops (or city officials, or whatever), suddenly philadelphia may begin to see the light also.

start of excerpt:

Dan Satterberg, the Republican prosecuting attorney in King County, Wash., where the first ACORN case was prosecuted, said:

Satterberg: [A] joint federal and state investigation has determined that this
scheme was not intended to permit illegal voting.

Instead, the defendants cheated their employer. ... It was hardly a sophisticated plan: The defendants simply realized that making up names was easier than actually canvassing the streets looking for unregistered voters. ...

[It] appears that the employees of ACORN were not performing the work that they were being paid for, and to some extent, ACORN is a victim of employee theft.

The $8-an-hour employees were charged with providing false information on a voter registration, and in one case with making a false statement to a public official. ACORN was fined for showing insufficient oversight, but it was not charged with masterminding any kind of fraud.

more here http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/factchecking_debate_no_3.html

Need To Fix a Fact?
http://downingstreetmemo.com/memos.html

[This is rumored to be a leaked copy of GW's speech tonight in which he will remind America that's it's a patriot's duty to go shopping. Watch THIS Putt, GW. Fair Use - RS]

I Have A Putt
By G.W (aka Guess Who)

Normally, I start these things out by saying "My Fellow Americans." Not doing it this time. If the polls are any indication, I don't know who more than half of you are anymore. I do know something terrible has happened, and that you're really not fellow Americans any longer.

I'll cut right to the chase here: I quit. Now before anyone gets all in a lather about me quitting to avoid impeachment, or to avoid prosecution or something, let me assure you: there's been no breaking of laws or impeachable offenses in this office.

The reason I'm quitting is simple. I'm fed up with you people.

I'm fed up because you have no understanding of what's really going on in the world. Or of what's going on in this once-great nation of ours. And the majority of you are too damned lazy to do your homework and figure it out.

Let's start local. You've been sold a bill of goods by politicians and the news media. Polls show that the majority of you think the economy is in the tank. And that's despite record numbers of homeowners including record numbers of MINORITY homeowners. And while we're mentioning minorities, I'll point out that minority business ownership is at an all-time high. Our unemployment rate is as low as it ever was during the Clinton Administration. I've mentioned all those things before, but it doesn't seem to have sunk in.

Despite the shock to our economy of 9/11, the stock market has rebounded to record levels and more Americans than ever are participating in these markets. Meanwhile, all you can do is whine about gas prices, and most of you are too damn stupid to realize that gas prices are high because there's increased demand in other parts of the world, and because a small handful of noisy idiots are more worried about polar bears and beachfront property than your economic security.

We face real threats in the world. Don't give me this ~blood for oil" thing. If I was trading blood for oil I would've already seized Iraq's oil fields and let the rest of the country go to hell. And don't give me this 'Bush Lied People Died' crap either. If I was the liar you morons take me for, I could've easily had chemical weapons planted in Iraq so they could be 'discovered.' Instead, I owned up to the fact that the intelligence was faulty. Let me remind you that the rest of the world thought Saddam had the goods, same as me. Let me also remind you that regime change in Iraq was official US policy before I came into office. Some guy named 'Clinton' established that policy. Bet you didn't know that, did you?

You idiots need to understand that we face a unique enemy. Back during the cold war, there were two major competing political and economic models squaring off. We won that war, but we did so because fundamentally, the Communists wanted to survive, just as we do. We were simply able to outspend and out-tech them.

That's not the case this time. The soldiers of our new enemy don't care if they survive. In fact, they want to die. That'd be fine, as long as they weren't also committed to taking as many of you with them as they can. But they are. They want to kill you. And the bastards are all over the globe.

You should be grateful that they haven't gotten any more of us here in the United States since September 11. But you're not. That's because you've got no idea how hard a small number of intelligence, military, law enforcement and homeland security people have worked to make sure of that. When this whole mess started, I warned you that this would be a long and difficult fight. I'm disappointed how many of you people think a long and difficult fight amounts to a single season of 'Survivor'.

Instead, you've grown impatient. You're incapable of seeing things through the long lens of history, the way our enemies do. You think that wars should last a few months, a few years, tops.

Making matters worse, you actively support those who help the enemy. Every time you buy the New York Times, every time you send a donation to a cut-and-run Democrat's political campaign, well, dammit, you might just as well Fedex a grenade launcher to a Jihadist. It amounts to the same thing.

In this day and age, it's easy enough to find the truth. It's all over the Internet. It just isn't on the pages of the New York Times or on NBC News. But even if it were, I doubt you'd be any smarter. Most of you would rather watch American Idol.I could say more about your expectations that the government will always be there to bail you out, even if you're too stupid to leave a city that's below sea level and has a hurricane approaching. I could say more about your insane belief that government, not your own wallet, is where the money comes from. But I've come to the conclusion that were I to do so, it would sail right over your heads.

So I quit. I'm going back to Crawford. I've got an energy-efficient house down there (Al Gore could only dream) and the capability to be fully self-sufficient. No one ever heard of Crawford before I got elected, and as soon as I'm done here pretty much no one will ever hear of it again. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to die of old age before the last pillars of America fall.

Oh, and by the way, Cheney's quitting too. That means Pelosi is your new President. You asked for it. Watch what she does carefully, because I still have a glimmer of hope that there're just enough of you remaining who are smart enough to turn this thing around in 2008.

So that's it. God bless what's left of America. Some of you know what I mean.

The rest of you, * off.

Bush is unconstitutionally making a treaty with Iraq, without Senate approval. If the treaty is put into place and accepted by the Iraqi Parliament and ignored by a spineless Congress, it will sanction three more years of occupation (to be followed by endless years of reduced-size occupation) but require "ending" (meaning reducing) the occupation by 2011. It will also technically take immunity from Iraqi law away from US troops and mercenaries in limited circumstances when off base and off duty, although the likelihood of actual prosecutions seems limited. Oh, and we will have established that a president can make treaties without even going through the pretense that Congress still exists.

If, on the other hand, the treaty is rejected, the occupation will lose its United Nations fig leaf of legality on January 1st, and the general consensus is that all troops and mercenaries will be kept on bases. We will have the oppottunity of pointing out the resulting reduction in violence, of insisting on the rule of law, and of demanding the immediate withdrawal of every man and woman in serving Iraq as occupiers.

We need some brave members of Congress to demand publication of the treaty in English and Arabic, hold public hearings, and insist on the Senate's right to ratify or reject all treaties.

David Swanson

By Any Means Necessary -- The Morality Of A Moron

'Nuff said?

ACORN IS EVIL.

UP IS DOWN.

Why was John McCain so quick to distance himself from the group that had his name on the letterhead as a board member? Does he perhaps have something to hide?

I'm not questioning his patriotism, I just wonder what the hell they are patriotic to.

Let's poke around a bit and see what comes up. I will attempt to disguise the sources so as to render my post utterly irresponsible, which seems to be the standard fare, so if any of this is true, it's probably by coincidence.

Right?

Here we go. John's Connection to Singlaub's group may have been a bit more than he says because in fact Otto Reich as his Latin(?) American policy advisor adds circumstantial evidence to the pile of mounting evidence that John commander-in-chief McCain may indeed have forgotten what country this is.

Singlaub was founder in 1981 of the U.S. Council for World Freedom, the US chapter of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). The chapter became involved with the Iran-Contra affair,[2] with Associated Press reporting that, "Singlaub's private group became the public cover for the White House operation". [3] The WACL was described by former member Geoffrey Stewart-Smith as "largely a collection of Nazis, Fascists, anti-Semites, sellers of forgeries, vicious racialists, and corrupt self-seekers." [4] Singlaub is credited with purging the organization of these types and making it respectable.[5]

[You young guys should know that this was a "patriotic" plan to subvert Congressional oversight by training and waging utterly unconstitutional wars in secret and funded by cocaine smuggling. And pay particular attentio to that word "vicious". You old guys know what a rattlesnake is, so I won't say more than to mention that the forked tongue is used to smell their prey but see if you don't agree that they seem a bit confused anymore. -rs]

In 1977, while Singlaub was chief of staff of U.S. forces in South Korea, he publicly criticized President Jimmy Carter's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the Korean peninsula. On March 21, 1977, Carter relieved him of duty for overstepping his bounds and failing to respect the President's authority as Commander-in-Chief."

[And so now we know. McCain trailing in the polls says "we've got Obama where we want him", because... Well, you know what I'm suggesting. That's right. "Patriotism Uber Alles", sort of thing. Otto Reich's pretty good at "advising" on this subject, too, having had plenty of experience in Venezuela already. This next paragraph is particularly interesting as Hyde apparently came down with the Republican Problem a bit before the others. Check it out. -rs]

U.S. Army General William Westmoreland described Singlaub as a "true military professional" and "a man of honest, patriotic conviction and courage."[citation needed] Congressman Henry J. Hyde, (Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, and Intelligence Committees), described Singlaub as "a brave man, a thorough patriot, and a keen observer" - someone who had been "in the centre of almost every controversial military action since World War II."

[See also William Casey's affidavit about freedom being precious. But if their greatest enemy is now http://usconstitution.net/const.html Well, maybe it wasn't so bright to use "any means necessary" even once. Hyde outed Singlaub, John Conyers. What are you going to do about it?]

Need To Fix a Fact?
http://downingstreetmemo.com/memos.html

Everyone make sure to get a copy of John Conyers' CONSTITUTION IN CRISIS. I'm sure still has a copy if he hasn't sold out.

ROLLING STONE: It's Already Stolen

Posted By Greg Palast On October 16, 2008 @ 11:59 pm In Articles | No Comments

[1]

Investigation by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast released today

Don’t worry about Mickey Mouse or ACORN stealing the election. According to an investigative report out today in Rolling Stone magazine, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast, after a year-long investigation, reveal a systematic program of "GOP vote tampering" on a massive scale.

- Republican Secretaries of State of swing-state Colorado have quietly purged one in six names from their voter rolls.

Over several months, the GOP politicos in Colorado stonewalled every attempt by Rolling Stone to get an answer to the massive purge - ten times the average state's rate of removal.

- While Obama dreams of riding to the White House on a wave of new voters, more then 2.7 million have had their registrations REJECTED under new procedures signed into law by George Bush.
Kennedy, a voting rights lawyer, charges this is a resurgence of 'Jim Crow' tactics to wrongly block Black and Hispanic voters.

- A fired US prosecutor levels new charges - accusing leaders of his own party, Republicans, with criminal acts in an attempt to block legal voters as "fraudulent."

- Digging through government records, the Kennedy-Palast team discovered that, in 2004, a GOP scheme called "caging” ultimately took away the rights of 1.1 million voters. The Rolling Stone duo predict that, this November 4, it will be far worse.

There's more:

- Since the last presidential race, "States used dubious 'list management' rules to scrub at least 10 million voters from their rolls."

Among those was Paul Maez of Las Vegas, New Mexico - a victim of an unreported but devastating purge of voters in that state that left as many as one in nine Democrats without a vote. For Maez, the state's purging his registration was particularly shocking - he's the county elections supervisor.

The Kennedy-Palast revelations go far beyond the sum of questionably purged voters recently reported by the New York Times.

"Republican operatives - the party's elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics," report Kennedy and Palast, under the cover of fighting fraudulent voting, are "systematically disenfranchis[ing] Democrats."

The investigators level a deadly serious charge:

"If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat McCain at the polls - they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering."

Block the Vote by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. & Greg Palast in the current issue (#1064) of Rolling Stone.

[Media enquiries - Dave Falkenstein, Sunshine Sachs & Assoc, via interviews@gregpalast.com.]

Note - Kennedy and Palast are releasing, simultaneously with the Rolling Stone investigative report what they call, the vote-theft 'antidote': a 24-page full-color comic book, Steal Back Your Vote, which can be downloaded or obtained in print from their non-partisan website, [2] StealBackYourVote.org

For updates and video reports, go to RollingStone.com, [3] www.GregPalast.com and [4] StealBackYourVote.org.

Article printed from Greg Palast: http://www.gregpalast.com

click here

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You can lead a republican to the truth, but you can't make him think it...

Hi JC.

You guys have sure learned the "winning strategy" well, I must say.

But what bothers me is that we trusted you and when you get the blame so will we.

1995 was deplorable enough. Need some superglue on that football, Mr. Quarterback?

But in two years of jobs, justice, investigations, and of course accountability, you have managed to run this democracy into a ditch the size of Grand Canyon.

Well done!

Win win win! Go team go!

Win what? We don't know and don't care. Go where? Well, I heard Wallstreet is nice this time of year...

To the rest of y'all, North is...

that-a-way...

[advertisement]
Need To Fix a Fact?
http://downingstreetmemo.com/memos.html
"fixed"
"Congressional"
"spikes"

Don't Worry -- Be Happy

This is serious as a freaking hypnotic turnip bulb from zeta reticuli, Radioactive, and "it's NOT one of OURS".

Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, John.

John. Which side of the issue has Pelosi "asked" you to come down on it.

More to the point, wouldn't that be spelled Creditcard Holder" The other way it sounds like these poor bastards are gambling with their own money.

Now I know this applies to someone reading this but I don't know who. So to whoever you are:

I know you respect the opinions of your faithful fans and all that but you do take your orders from The Pearl (necklass), not from the people. That is clear as clear could be by now.

Why?

Will she (the Black Pearl Necklass who says "let them eat oil") allow you to take cover by sacrificing the facade of some other alleged "Representative"?

And is this the way you think the founding fathers meant this thing to work?

You might be right. We all have ash holes, as the saying goes. But mine speaks volumes.like we feed that huge ash hole or volcano or whatever it is in Camel Lot, the promised land of eternal Arabian Nights.

[{Belch!} Thanks for the grub]

Don't thank me, Volca... whatever. Thank our eternally vigilant bats up in the belfry over there, a stones throw from sanity.

I want Dellums. I want Bonior. I want McKinney. I am truly sick to near-death-experience of politically (or otherwise) "compromised" heroes and champions of the people.

Get out of The People's House. Take a hike and get bent where someone cares more about you than you do about them.

End of Serum ---------------

---------------- Start of Next..

My I.V. bag overfloweth

A big "Hi" to WrongWay Hoyer!

Remind him that it's time to push for an end to Presidential term limits again. This time he can do it without Hyde, et. al holding his hand.

But don't "denigrate yourself", Steny. No, no, no! History will do that for you.

By the way, you (Steny) have proven your own lack of foresight in that exactly what you said wouldn't happen... well, John Conyers wrote a book about it called... what was it again John?

Keystone Crisis? No... but something like that.

He might still have a copy if he hasn't sold out.

Steny, seriously, you are a bit utterly incapable of keeping the President from running wild after all. Big surprise to you, I suppose.

Maybe you're just to close to the problem to see it clearly?

If you aren't in bed with them yourself, you are utterly ignorant of the dangers of a permanent, or perhaps we should say "standing" black operation within the Executive branch which had already gone wildly out of control during iran-contra.

And that was before you offered your repeal of the 24th??

Oh, sorry. I meant "repeal of the 22nd". Gotta keep my deranged ramblings straight.

(Perspective: Iran-Contra was kind of a flashpoint for the "light on the hill". The second one, actually. And both were fatal, but nobody noticed due to an inability to find a pulse.)

It might have been before you were born, Mr. Hoyer, so that could explain your ignorance.

That's "ig" from the Latin meaning full of it, "no" meaning, check both ways before crossing your constituents, and "rance" from the fetid odor of your deceptively humble cleverness slightly past the official expiration date.

And I quote (brace yourself America):

I believe we denigrate ourselves as an enlightened people, and our political process as a whole, in imposing on ourselves still further disability to retain tested and trusted leadership. The Congress and the Judiciary are now and will remain free to utilize their own countervailing constitutional power to forestall any executive overreaching.

Plug in a bit of text here.
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r109query.html

See what I mean? If it were only funny!

What if Bush, Cheney, and Pelosi were impeached who'd be PRESIDENT! Thank your lucky stars.

And thanks to all (especially WrongWay Hoyer) for spiking McKinney's Articles. Almost went completely unnoticed but sure enough, now you see it, now you don't.

He could have been speaker of the House.

To all: These magical performances are really entertaining when you can speed it up a bit.

Well, enough of all this levity and bathroom humor.

mORe SeRUm pLEEz ---------

As always, I enjoy my free speech, JC. I truly do -- as the NSA is my witness!

And on that point about the NSA. Been thinking about this so let me ask you John, since you're an expert in this area of the law.

May I call the NSA as witnesses in my favor?

"compulsory...[something]". Ring a bell? What's that big legal sounding word you lawyers use?

http://usconstitution.net/const.html

And finally thanks in advance for upcoming revelations about the incompetent and/or irrelevant offices of public trust you have allowed yourselves to enjoy.

Credit Card Holders' Bill Of Rights

To all:

Amazing. And you know what? They'll kill it. The Dems will, even if they have to argue for it then vote against it. At least that's what I'm going to be watching for. (They did it in 1995 too.) So in actuality this is just a rerun of the Newt takeover but this time the Dems are doing it to the DEMS.

Love that Barama guy though. These folks holding the high ground on the Hill are gonna really squeak when they figure out that the people might enjoy the same health care the uber-law makers in The People's House enjoy.

So vote Obama/Biden in 1861

PS. I don't mind being embarrassed. I really really like being wrong. What I mind is being right !!! Get a goddam clue, Congress.

The New York Times ran the following editorial this morning.

Another Invitation to Abuse
Published: October 18, 2008

We still don’t know all of the ways that the Bush administration has violated Americans’ civil liberties and undercut the balance of powers in the name of fighting terrorism. Even now, in President Bush’s waning months in the White House, that overreach continues.

Federal Bureau of InvestigationAttorney General Michael Mukasey recently issued new guidelines for the F.B.I. that permit agents to use a range of intrusive techniques to gather information on Americans — even when there is no clear basis for suspecting wrongdoing.

Under the new rules, agents may engage in lengthy physical surveillance, covertly infiltrate lawful groups, or conduct pretext interviews in which agents lie about their identities while questioning a subject’s neighbors, friends or work colleagues based merely on a generalized “threat.” The new rules also allow the bureau to use these techniques on people identified in part by their race or religion and without requiring even minimal evidence of criminal activity.

These changes are a chilling invitation for the government to spy on law-abiding Americans based on their ethnic background or political activity.

Mr. Mukasey has promised that investigations conducted under the new rules will be consistent with the Constitution. Clearly, the Bush administration cannot be trusted to find the right balance between law enforcement and civil liberties. Even before this administration the F.B.I. had its own long history of abusing its powers to spy on civil rights groups and antiwar activists.

Critics also warn that the new rules could impede legitimate law enforcement efforts by alienating communities whose cooperation the F.B.I. needs and by distracting agents from focusing on genuine criminal activity and national security threats.

Mr. Mukasey and Robert Mueller, the F.B.I. director, refused requests from several senators, including Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman, to delay the new rules until Congress and the public could thoroughly review them. Instead they rushed to put the changes in place before President Bush leaves office.

The next president will have to order a full and transparent review of this latest change, and all of the Bush administration’s policies that threaten Americans’ most fundamental rights.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It appears that Pat Leahy is concerned about the prospect of partisan law enforcement officials having unlimited powers to spy on American citizens, but all Johnny-Boy can talk about is a coffee table book.

Maybe Leahy is sophisticated enough to understand how this new dictation from the Urinary Executive's henchmen, is the first step in making the FISA abuses we don't yet know about, more palatable to the American public.

The Pre-2K Democrats infesting Congress, haven't done anything but capitulate, including the FISA violations. But the mantra they regurgitated for justification at first, was because they were fighting terr'rists abroad, and needed the powers to prevent another world trade attack. Then they were found to have violated FISA on American soil, regarding foreign communications. Their response? Only foreigners or those who have communications with foreigners.

Now, the fascist bastards insidiously decree, without public input, that they can do whatever the fuck they want, without justification or worry about accountability.

Many of us always suspected, based on their constant pattern of deception, that BushCo had been doing whatever the hell they wanted since day one. I believe that's why John Bolton was given a recess appointment. This end run around congressional oversight, was probably due to their desire to keep the public from knowing about BushCo's illegal surveillance of Joe Wilson. If they'd admitted back then that they were spying on Americans on American soil for partisan political gain, the pay for propaganda campaign spinning these violations as a good thing, wouldn't have had time to lobby for our support, and someone might have gotten in trouble.

But Pat Leahy probably knew about these things all along. Considering the fact the he's a Pre-2K politician too, he's probably putting himself in a position to steer the direction of the debate, away from his own neglected oversight obligations. Rockefeller is steering one investigation after having a blind eye for years, it makes sense that anyone else saddled with these responsibilities would be focused on edifying the old Pre-2K politicians too.

Or it could be just another building block, needed to legally justify filling the detention centers, after BushCo nullifies the election results.

He has the power, after all, he is the Urinary Executive.

and the poor have grown greatly, particularly, in these past eight years, and beyond. The attempts to “marginalize” the so-called “middle-class” and render them to the “poor-class” are obvious.

Jocelyn Voltaire's story could not be more heart-wrenching! My tears were uncontrollable! Multiply her plight by so many, many Americans -- it simply breaks your heart!

Fortunately, CODEPINK, upon learning of her plight, took immediate action!

. . . . At 9:05 am EST, we sent out an urgent call to our CODEPINK list. Our jaws dropped when we saw the response. Donations of $5, $25, $500, even $1,000! Within an hour, we had raised over $10,000. And the money kept pouring in, along with beautiful messages of support.

Jocelyne was moved to tears. And the mortgage bankers, with our immediate promise of $15,000 at 11am, were "moved" to stop the auction. . . .

Just short of a “miracle.”

And, then, despite the voluminous protests by Americans of the bailout as written, it was passed! The Dems caved right in-line with Bush’s fear cry once again. (Conyers voted against it, BTW!)

10% of $700 billion bailout to cover Wall Street banker pay and bonuses

One tenth of the $700 billion bailout to be footed by U.S. taxpayers is projected to go to the pay and bonuses of Wall Street bankers. The same captains of finance who sent the world into a financial meltdown are now going to be rewarded handsomely.

The Guardian has found that the Top Wall Street bankers are to receive $70 billion in pay deals.

. . . . Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40.4bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash...
Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup will pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bail-out from the US government that has already prompted widespread criticism. The government cash has been poured in on the condition that excessive executive pay will be curbed. . . .

This, as many Americans see their retirement investments vanish in thin air, while the “good ole’ boys” of Wall Street banking are slapping each other on the back, “smirkingly!”

~~~~~

I’ve realized for a long time that there simply is no “WE, the people . . .!” The voices of the so-called “WE, the people,” despite our rallies, e-mails, faxes, phone calls, LTE’s, petitions, and monies, have NOT been heard.

Apart from having passed a measly increase in the minimum wage law, what has this Administration done for this country and the people these past eight years?

But the so-called “WE, the people . . . “ were never a consideration in any respect --- yes, we were only insofar as our monies could be usurped by a government that had absolutely no concern for the people, the country, the infrastructure -- NOTHING -- it was and is WE, the government by the government, for the government and of the government . . . . along with the government’s their wealthy corporate buddies. WE, the people, were and are simply a "median" of their goals via OUR monies!

~~~~~

The Dems have been a huge disappointment, with Nancy Pelosi leading the way. Pelosi should be impeached, along with Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Gonzales and all of the scum in this government. And the Dems should hide their heads in shame.

If Obama does get in, how much will he realistically be able to do? And I do believe that he really wants to effect many changes. But he has tremendous corporate backing number one. And number two, if the scum of this Administration are not impeached, then they, having further embellished their wealth and power (at our expense) will be pushing buttons in the “shadows,” just like so many convicted in the Iran Contra, who have good jobs and some of them behind the scenes’ jobs.

And if Obama does get in and, hypothetically, he is able to achieve some changes, what’s to say the Repugs wouldn’t stage a like “9/11” or such in order to prove the Dems lax on the “war on terrorism” (BS) and make them look bad. I know that’s a stretch, but everything they’ve done has been a stretch, as far as I’m concerned.

"There is nothing to fear but fear itself."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Bush has been working feverishly to get the agreement for the stay of our troops until 2011.

Here is the reaction in Baghdad!

We can only assume that Bush's pressure on the Iraqi government to remain until 2011, would be to twist them until they say "uncle" and sign the Iraq hydro-carbon law, probably, at the expense of another milliion Iraqis!

"There is nothing to fear but fear itself."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

JC, isn't this proof that Congress has failed the public schools? I mean they couldn't have graduated. That's what I mean by "failed".

Block the Vote
By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. & GREG PALAST

"I don't think the Democrats get it. All these new rules and games … could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states."

Rolling Stone Magazine is making this important investigative story available on the net in its entirety, free of charge.

Read this excerpt, then read it all on-line at RollingStone.com Or download it all, with the Kennedy-Palast voter guide, Steal Back Your Vote, at StealBackYourVote.org.

“The new registrations thrown out, the existing registrations scrubbed, the spoiled ballots, the provisional ballots that were never counted - and what you have is millions of voters, more than enough to swing the presidential election, quietly being detached from the electorate by subterfuge.

"Jim Crow was laid to rest, but his cousins were not," says Donna Brazile. "We got rid of poll taxes and literacy tests but now have a second generation of schemes to deny our citizens their franchise." Come November, the most crucial demographic may prove to be Americans who have been denied the right to vote. If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat John McCain at the polls - they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering.

- From the current Rolling Stone

These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort to deter fraudulent voting. For Maez, the shock was especially acute: He is the supervisor of elections in Las Vegas.

Maez was not alone in being denied his right to vote. On Super Tuesday, one in nine Democrats who tried to cast ballots in New Mexico found their names missing from the registration lists. The numbers were even higher in precincts like Las Vegas, where nearly 20 percent of the county's voters were absent from the rolls. With their status in limbo, the voters were forced to cast "provisional" ballots, which can be reviewed and discarded by election officials without explanation. On Super Tuesday, more than half of all provisional ballots cast were thrown out statewide.

This November, what happened to Maez will happen to hundreds of thousands of voters across the country. In state after state, Republican operatives - the party's elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics - are wielding new federal legislation to systematically disenfranchise Democrats. If this year's race is as close as the past two elections, the GOP's nationwide campaign could be large enough to determine the presidency in November. "I don't think the Democrats get it," says John Boyd, a voting-rights attorney in Albuquerque who has taken on the Republican Party for impeding access to the ballot. "All these new rules and games are turning voting into an obstacle course that could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states."

To everyon except John Conyers:

I'll get to the point at the bottom.

http://google.com "obama president"
The first hit took me to a donation page. Done it aleady so I went back and took the second hit.

It was a counterfiet page.

The third required a subscription. (But the NSA already has my number so I backed out again).

Went here.
http://altavista.com "obama president"
first hit was the real page.

I'm not at all sure that these are google bombs but I AM expecting some very dirty (Venezuelan style) politics from McCain/Otto Reich.

--------------
Obama, if you catch wind of this, I wanted to find some info on your stand on guns. Lots of disinfo flowing in the forums, some of which is pretty easy to turn back around, but when I tried your page, there was nothing there.

You might want to just mention that you read a bit better than Conyers here. That would satisfy me, at least, and perhaps I could explain what that means to others.

Thanks to all.

Not much on guns but I found this on the Obama official site. You had to go through the last link in Issues, it was something like additional issues. Then to the paragraph on Sportsmen, at the bottom of the paragraph there's a read more link that takes you to this pdf. Hope it posts right.

pdf on Obama sportsmen and guns

Not a chance. There will be hundreds of Presidential Pardons issued, and then Bu$h will resign and Cheney will pardon him.

Obama's real stand on guns and sportsmen and of course the environment.
http://fightthesmears.com/articles/17/NRAflyer

Thanks again.

In this episode of Keystone Kongress, the Truth Detector is taken to launch. Don't miss the exciting conclusion at the bottom.

Space Ultra-Violet Detector Discovered Outgassing - NASA replies

Answer me this "What A Rush" Limbaugh and you "bipartisan" Congress sycophants.

Rumsfeld modified the U.S. Armny's secret operational Continuity of Government (COG) ten months before 9-11.

"All-hazards COOP planning" is described as the means by which "the Army remains capable of continuing mission-essential operations during any situation, including military attack, terrorist activities, and natural or man-made disasters." While the Army stresses the updates described in AR 500-3 relate to chemical, biological, nuclear attacks, "natural disasters" and "technical or man-made disasters or accidents," current Army doctrine is also heavily weighted towards contingency planning for "civil disturbances."

Cheny was handing out pieces of Iraq 5 months before 9-11.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/printer_iraqi-oil-maps.shtml

They are pdf files. Note the dates.

McCain/Palin, nothing to hide?

An Anchorage judge has ordered Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to preserve
e-mails from private accounts she has used to conduct state business.

The judge issued the orders at the request of Andree McLeod, an
Anchorage activist whose pursuit of Palin's e-mails revealed that the
governor did considerable state business from a Yahoo e-mail address -- an
arrangement that avoided the safeguards and accountability of the state's
secure e-mail system.

Listening Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger? First the Enron deal and now this?

The Christian Way? (excerpted from recently released unredacted SERE
manual that appears to show that torture was condoned all the way to the top.
But that's not what I wanted to point out.)

(3) Worship-the-Gods - The detainee is placed on knees with head and
torso arched back, with arms either folded across the chest or
extended to the side or front. The detainee will not be placed in a
position facing the sun or floodlights.

(5) Standing position - While standing, the detainee is required to
extend arms either to the sides or front with palms up. Light weights
such as small rocks may be placed in upturned palms.

Elsewhere in the document the "typo" that authorizes while not authorizing
more extreme methods reads as follows (note the context of "DO" below.
Typical sadistic Godly humor, I suppose.). I may post links to the photoscans
if this doesn't catch on fire by itself.

3. IT IS CRITICAL THAT INIERROGATORS DO “CROSS THE LINE” WHEN
UTILIZING THE TACTICS DESCRIBED BELOW. Therefore, verbal coded
messages or nonverbal signals will be used by the Watch Officer (or
other interrogators) when giving instructions to adjust interrogation
procedure. For example, two kicks on the door indicated the
interrogator should discontinue the current approach and move on to
another approach. The statement, “Stop wasting time with this pig,”
means to discontinue the current training tactic and take a break.

No wonder they do that in Cuba.

Amendment VIII - Cruel and Unusual punishment. Ratified 12/15/1791.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

wtf? is this the reason for morning prayer? Been reading about the Pelosi congress doing the now famous Midnight Express too. You guys really know how to hurt a guy don't you.

See if you can Detect the error in the following quote, John.

[N]o IQ Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust.

Can you see the problem yet?

Thanks, Joe (Biden):

My concerns about you are largely laid to rest. Beautifully put. Now you two just need to remember... No Marilyn Monroe's ok? ;-)

Just in case you did not already know, Ben Stein, the actor, game show host, and pundit who did the movie "Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed", which advocates the teaching of biblical creationism as science in high school and college, has written an article that puts the blame for the sub prime mortgage mess squarely on poor black people and those politicians active in the Civil Rights movement.

You read correctly; he claims the whole mess was caused by Chairman Conyers and all the 'non-whites'.

Here's an exerpt from his damning accusation:

Start around 1995. Groups involved with civil rights issues and activities for poor people began to complain that poor people and especially non-white poor people got mortgages much less often than white well to do people. Many economists, including me, explained that it was not at all surprising that poorer, less credit worthy people were often turned down for credit. That's how credit is supposed to work: you lend to people who will pay you back.

But the advocates for poor and black people had immense political clout. Under President Bill Clinton, they passed legislation that called on banks to be required to lend to non credit worthy borrowers. The laws, including the Community Reinvestment Act, the CRA, required two large government sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to buy those lower quality mortgages from the banks, guarantee them, and sell them to the public.

You can read the article in its entirety here
Personally, this is blatant white supremacy and should not be tolerated in any public forum. Perhaps you could forward this to someone who has the time and resources to act upon this. Perhaps someone can organize a boycott.
Thank you.

On the House Floor:

The Gentleman from hell is recognized for long enough for the stock market to drop 100 points.

Thank you mister Speaker.

My good friend Satan, on the other side of the aisle raises some good points, but the devil is in the details of this mean-spirited amendment.

The fundamental errors are these.

1. Comedy is spelled with a 'd', not with a 't'. Look at this chart..

This is their plan to rescue the economy! Deregulate gun sales at gun shows. This blue line is their projected improvement in the economy. And this red line is what happens if you don't play the stock market when you get home after sweeping floors and flipping bergers.

And this infra-red line is what happens if you do play the stock market and your reflexes are slow or you lose your nerve.

2. I ask that the truth be stricken from the Record.

So it has been unwritten, so it shall be undone.

ARE YOU LIVING IN THE CONSTITUTION FREE ZONE?

Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.

The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This " Constitution-Free Zone" includes most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas.

We urge you to call on Congress to hold hearings on and pass legislation to end these egregious violations of Americans' civil rights.