Merry Effing Christmas!

With the budget deficit growing and President Bush promising to reduce spending, the administration has told representatives of several charities that it was unable to honor some earlier promises and would have money to pay for food only in emergency crises like that in Darfur, in western Sudan. The cutbacks, estimated by some charities at up to $100 million, come at a time when the number of hungry in the world is rising for the first time in years and all food programs are being stretched.

Perhaps if Dubbyuh could tap his corporate pimps and johns for some cash for aiding those in need rather than having sumptuous inaugurals topping the $40 million mark, he wouldn't have to cut this aid. Or perhaps if he rolled back a tiny fraction of the $89 billion in tax cuts he wants to make permanent, he wouldn't have to cut food aid.

But no, it is more important to bow and scrape to the money machine that is politics today than it is to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to the homeless, clothe the naked, comfort the sick, or ease the torment of the imprisoned. So much for Christian virtue. It's just another tool in the political bag to be trotted out when the opinion polls drop.

Dubbyuh's religious conversion was one of convenience, not conviction. Were it otherwise, we would see it reflected in his words and actions, but all we hear are words unsupported by action or conviction.

So, despite the horrors we see loosed upon the world, and my being non-Christian, I ask all who read this to remember the true meaning of Christmas...I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Do we see a pattern emerging here?

New allegations of prisoner abuse at both Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay are surfacing, and these events occurred some two months after the whole nauseating mess first erupted. The allegations include, "...strangulation, beatings and the placing of lit cigarettes into detainees' ears...

...shackled to the floor in foetal positions for more than 24 hours at a time, left without food and water and allowed to defecate on themselves..." - BBC World Service.

Such actions clearly violate not only US law, but also international law and the UN Convention Against Torture, which the US has long been a signatory to. And let's not forget Executive Order 13107. Issued by Bill Clinton in 1998, it enjoins the US and its forces to abide by ALL conventtions on human rights, and it's one Dubbyuh hasn't gotten around to rescinding...at least not publicly.

We can see a clear pattern here starting with the memos written by John Yoo, and others, which were vetted and approved by then White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales. Torture is O.K., unlimited and arbitrary presidential power is O.K. In short, anything which furthers the neo-con agenda is O.K., the ends justify the means, reagrdless of where that path might lead.

The Bid for Unchecked Presidential Powers

Just two weeks after the September 11 attacks, a secret memo to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales’ office concluded that President Bush had the power to deploy military force “preemptively” against any terrorist groups or countries that supported them—regardless of whether they had any connection to the attacks on the World Trade Towers or the Pentagon.

The memo, written by Justice Department lawyer John Yoo, argues that there are effectively “no limits” on the president’s authority to wage war—a sweeping assertion of executive power that some constitutional scholars say goes considerably beyond any that had previously been articulated by the department.

Although it makes no reference to Saddam Hussein’s government, the 15-page memo also seems to lay a legal groundwork for the president to invade Iraq—without approval of Congress—long before the White House had publicly expressed any intent to do so. “The President may deploy military force preemptively against terrorist organizations or the States that harbor or support them, whether or not they can be linked to the specific terrorist incidents of Sept. 11,” the memo states.

In addition to providing a rationale for invading Iraq, or any other country, the memo also stated that "...the president's decisions are for him alone and are unreviewable...". While this is in regards to the president's use of military force, it sets a precedent for unlimited...unchecked...unquestioned presidential power. Such power in the hands of the Executive, or any other branch of governement, clearly flies in the face of the intent of the framers of the Constitution, who sought to maintain checks and balances amongst all three branches so that none gains absolute control of the government.

Even more disturbing is that Alberto Gonzales, Dubbyuh's nominee to replace John Ashcroft, vetted and signed off on this memo. Is this really the kind of man we want as Attorney General...? One who would so cavalierly dispense with 200+ years of constitutional government as if it were toilet paper...?

The true colors of the Bush administration are revealed with the release of this memo. They care not one whit for the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. They scoff at the concept of international law, and view the Geneva Convention with utter, unveiled contempt. Power is their only goal, and they care not how many bodies they must climb over to reach it. They are unworthy of the offices they hold and they are a disgrace to the memories of our Founding Fathers.

Civil War...? In Iraq...? Inconceivable...!

According to reports today, car bombs exploded near the Ali Iman shrine in Najaf, one of the most sacred sites to Shia Islam, and at a bus station in Karbala. Both cities are Shia controlled. According the BBC,

"...the aim of the bombers - believed to be Sunni insurgents - is to kill as many Shias as possible and try to stir up sectarian trouble ahead of the 30 January poll, our correspondent says.But leading Shias urged their supporters not to respond in kind.

"The Shias are committed not to respond with violence, which will only lead to violence. We are determined on elections," said one of the most respected Shia clerics, Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum..."

The key to avoiding all out civil-war between the Sunnis and the Shias lies in whether or not the Shia clerics can keep their followers in check. If they cannot, todays car bombings are but the first volley in a bloody internecine struggle between the Sunnis and the Shias. As to what the Kurds will do, that is anyone's guess. They may be content to play wait-and-see, letting the Sunnis and Shias slaughter each other. But should they be regularly attacked by either, or both, the Sunnis or Shias all bets are off. Iraq will become embroiled in a three-way civil war that will make Lebanon look like a Sunday-school picnic, as well as further radicalize and destabilize the entire region. If American forces step in, they will be accused of playing favorites, and will become targets to all involved.

Both British and US intelligence summaries pointed to the very real possibility of a three way civil war in Iraq. But, as is typical of the Bush administration, if the projections donnot pass their ideological litmus test, they are ignored. If civil war does erupt it, and its consequences, can be laid squarely upon the doorstep of the Bush administration. They were warned against going into Iraq to begin with, but they chose to ignore those warnings...The blood, both US and Iraqi, is on their hands.

Orwell Lives!

AUSTIN, Texas -- "The aide (a senior adviser to President Bush) said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." -- Ron Suskind, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 17, 2004.

And the greates impact will be on the environment. The Administration's Empire status notwithstanding, the problems of global warming and environmental degradation will accelerate under another four years of Dubbyuh's gross mismanagement. Among other things, the following are being stripped from Clinton-Era enviromental law:

-- Reducing risk to human health and the environment by identifying, evaluating and, where necessary, remediating contamination resulting from past DoD activities.

-- Protecting, preserving and, when required, restoring and enhancing the quality of the environment.

-- Conserving and restoring, where necessary, the natural and cultural heritage represented on DoD installations within the United States.

There has been no public debate or congressional review of the new policy. The policy was written by the man who watched the looting of Baghdad and said, "Stuff happens."

Also, sewage treatment regulations are being relaxed to allow sewage treatment plants to routinely mix partially treated sewage with treated sewage for discharge into our waterways. This normally should only happen during emergencies like...oh...a hurricaine. Now it can happen anytime it rains. The impacts to public health from this policy will result in higher incidences of disease and death in the elderly, children, and those who are otherwise at risk, from bacteria, viruses and parasites contaminating our watersupplies as a result of this routine sewage discharge.

These, and other environmental issues are not being subjected to congressional scrutiny or public debate. It's just Dubbyuh puttin' out for his corporate pimps and johns. So the Administraion's Orwellian double-speak like, the Clear Skies Initiative, Healthy Forests Initiative, etc. are just that, double-speak. The oligarchs are in control, and the rest of us are just plain fucked. Orwell was right.

Church and State

Since November 2nd, there has been a noticable upsurge in concern with regards to issues of separation of Church and State. Especially since the White House has taken a definite turn towards the religious right.

_A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom_



SECTION I. Well aware that the opinions and belief of men

depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence

proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind

free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by

making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to

influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil

incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness,

and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion,

who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it

by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to

extend it by its influence on reason alone; that the impious

presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as

ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired

men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their

own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible,

and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established

and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world

and through all time: That to compel a man to furnish contributions

of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and

abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to

support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is

depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions

to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and

whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness; and is

withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which

proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an

additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the

instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependance on

our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or

geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the

public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to

offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or

that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those

privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow

citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the

principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by

bribing, with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who

will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these

are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are

those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that the opinions of

men are not the object of civil government, nor under its

jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his

powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or

propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a

dangerous falacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty,

because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his

opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments

of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that

it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government for

its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts

against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and

will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and

sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the

conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural

weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous

when it is permitted freely to contradict them.



SECT. II. WE the General Assembly of Virginia do enact that no

man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship,

place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained,

molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise

suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all

men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their

opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise

diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.



SECT. III. AND though we well know that this Assembly, elected

by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no

power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies, constituted with

powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act

irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare,

and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural

rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to

repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an

infringement of natural right.

(emphasis mine)


This statute, penned by Thomas Jefferson in 1779, is a clear indication of his feeling towards the relationship between church and state. They were, indeed, to kept apart. By providing a religion with the priviledge inherent in government recognition of it, that religion can and does become corrupt. History has shown us this repeatedly.

This does not mean, however, that our elected officials must check their faith at the door. If they are truly devoted to the teachings of their religion, and strive to live by those beliefs in accordance with their conscience, then those beliefs will show in their every action. If it is otherwise, that they simply don the mantle of religion for mere political expediency, then too will their hypocrisy be revealed in their every action.

Star Wars...? Hell, it can't even get off the ground!

For a system meant to be operational by the end of the year, Dubbyuh's fantasy missile defense system ain't workin' too well. The test before this was was cancelled because it was 'overcast' in Alaska. It seems to me that if you're gonna shoot down nukes you oughtta be able to do it any time. After all, someone launching ballistic missiles at us isn't going to cancel their plans due to bad weather.

This time the interceptor couldn't even get off the ground. The system shut down because of an "unknowm anomaly". I know I'm feeling more secure now that we have a recalcitrant and essentially useless missile defense system in place. I'm sure that's going to protect us from some nut-case slipping a nuke into the US in an uninspected cargo-container, or infecting themselves with smallpox and wandering the streets of Anytown, USA and starting a major epidemic.

It seems to me that the $10 billion, yes that's BILLION, a year being poured down this rat-hole could be better used funding our first responders here in the States and purchasing body-armor for our troops caught up in Dubbyuh's dirty little war in Iraq.

Dubbyuh Continues to Reward Failure

Why does Dubbyuh persist in rewarding failure? First he promotes Condi-mima to Secretary of State after her unimpressive and utterly unconvincing testimony before the 9/11 Commission. Next, he keeps Donald Rumsfeld on as Secretary of Defense, even though his miscalculations, underestimations and disregard for the opinions of battle-tested generals have led us to a quagmire in Iraq. Now he awards George Tenet and J. Paul Bremer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

George "Fall-On-Your-Sword" Tenet, stated that the evicence for Saddam's WMD's was a "slam dunk". But, SURPRISE!, they were nowhere to be found. And from the looks of things there never was anything to be found. But Scott Ritter, Hans Blix and Mohammed el-Baradei were telling us that six months before Dubbyuh ordered troops into Iraq. And, there was that little thing about 9/11. George had a plan for dealing with the perpetrators of 9/11, but he wasn't so much able to prevent it.

J. Paul "Proconsul" Bremer took over in Iraq and promptly disbanded the Iraqi army. This left thousands of unemployed, armed, pissed-off men roaming the streets of Baghdad and the country-side. Gosh, I wonder how many of them are fighting for the insurgency now? And, who can forget his throwing Iraq open to pillaging...er...free-market reforms. Just think of all the jobs provided to foreign workers who are willing to work for 25 cents a day. Iraqis have nobody but themselves to blame for refusing to work for anything less than 50 cents an hour. And besides, J. Paul is a "fashion pioneer" (yes, that's an actual quote). Not only was he Proconsul of Iraq, but he looked good doing it too!

Maybe Dubbyuh just roots for the underdog...Nah. He simply prefers blind loyalty over competence. Just look at his 'economic conference'. But that's for another time.

Adulterer and Murderer meet to discuss fate of Crook

Strain Is Seen in Giuliani Ties With President

By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had a Christmas dinner at the White House on Sunday night, and he attended with an important goal in mind: to apologize to his host for pushing Bernard B. Kerik as homeland security secretary and then watching as Mr. Kerik's nomination collapsed in legal problems and embarrassed the president of the United States.

Rudy Giuliani And Dubbyuh met for dinner Sunday night. Among issues discussed was Bernie Kerick. One can only imagine the bowing and scraping Rudy had to do over Keriks hiring of a "Nanny". But further investigation shows that there was far more to Kerik's problems than the immigration status of a nanny.

Before the ink was dry on a contract with Taser International to supply tasers to the NYPD, Kerik was appointed as a "Director" in the company and made a cool $6.2 million on the deal. Can you say "conflict of interest"? I knew you could.

In April, Kerik set up a consulting firm, pimping his NYPD props to wealthy corporate johns. Among his first clients was the pharmaceutical industry. He helped drum up opposition to letting seniors citizen buy FDA approved drugs from Canadian pharmacies for far less than they do in the US. He claimed that reimportation of drugs would place the US at risk for a bio-terror attack under the guise of a legal purchase.

I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point. Bernie Kerik is unfit to be dog-catcher, let alone head of the Department of Homeland Security. I'm certain Rudy ate alot of crow Sunday evening.

It's me

School of the Americas, Not just for fascists from south of the border anymore

Victim of Latin American torture claims Abu Ghraib abuse was official US policy

By Andrew McLeod

FOR many Latin American victims of torture, the infamous pictures of abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison brought back not only chilling recollections of their own experiences, but also confirmed what they have long maintained: that their torturers were following interrogation guidelines set by the US Army School of the Americas (SOA).

“I had flashbacks when I saw the guy with the hood [at Abu Ghraib],” says Carlos Mauricio, a Salvadorean who was tortured in 1983. Founder of Stop Impunity, a group that seeks to prosecute human rights violators, dismisses as a “whitewash” the Bush administration’s view that Abu Ghraib abuse was the work of a few US army misfits.

“What happened at Abu Ghraib was torture by the book; they were implementing US policy,” Mauricio, 51, told the Sunday Herald.

“The US military deny they teach torture and say it happens in Latin America because soldiers have always been brutal. But what happened at Abu Ghraib belies this.”

Among the SOA’s 60,000 graduates are former dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-ranking graduates were involved in the 1980 assassination of Salvadorean Archbishop Oscar Romero and the massacre of 900 civilians at El Mozote, El Salvador, in 1980.

Given the august body of graduates, and their body counts, it should really come as no surprise that the techniques utilized at Abu Ghraib are the same as those taught by the School of the Americas. After all, the faculty of the school wrote the book on 'intelligence gathering' from recalicitrant prisoners, and it seems fairly certain that they were also supervising operations at both Abu Ghraib and Gitmo.

That John Negroponte, who was heavily involved with the Contras and involved in the cover-up of abuses by the US and Argentine-trained Honduran Battalion 316 during his tenure as ambassador to Honduras in the 1980's, is now Iraq's ambassador should give us a good indication of things to come...More cover-ups of human rights abuses of Iraqi prisoners.

It seems to be no coincidence that key figures in the Iran-Contra scandal have made political comebacks that would have left Dick Nixon blushing. Figures such as Elliot Abrams, Otto Reich and others are the intellectual fore-fathers of the neo-con movement. So, with John Negroponte as America's pro-consul...er, ambassador...to Iraq, don't expect any startling new revelations...Just more of the same old, sick shit.

Coalition...? Of the willing...?

It's really long past time to put paid to the Dubbyuh's myth about a "coalition" in Iraq. Of the 28 countries represented in the "Coalition", only 8 have contingents of greater than 500 troops.

As it stands now, 7 countries have pulled out, 3 are planning to pull out and 5 are planning to reduce their troops strenght with upcoming rotations. Only Armenia and Fiji (as part of a UN force) are planning new troop deployments to Iraq.

With few exceptions, the "Coalition" members were strong-armed or bribed into provide support for the war in Iraq, either in terms of manpower or in non-material support, such as flyovers and staging areas or simply statements of support for the war.

We cannot, however, belittle the sacrifices made by those "Coalition" troops anymore than we can those made by our own troops in Iraq. They are there at the orders of their government, just as our troops are. That those orders are in support of an illegal and illegitimate war is no fault of their own. It is the politicians who use them as disposable pawns in a ruthless game of realpolitik who are at fault. And as more and more people around the world and in the US realize the gross error made in invading Iraq, the smaller the "Coalition" will become, and the fewer Americans will be willing to participate in the hugely dangerous exercise in foreign adventurism that Iraq is. At that point, the Administration will either have to change its policy regarding Iraq or institute a draft to provide sufficient numbers of troops to secure the country.

So long as America bears the vast majority of the costs and casualties in Iraq, there really is no coalition...There is only us, and we will pay the price for this debacle for decades to come.

Time to take off the rose colored glasses

The recipe for civil war

By Pepe Escobar

Najaf was bombed in August. Samarra was bombed in September. Sadr City was bombed in October. Fallujah was bombed in November. Mosul may be bombed in December. And Kirkuk may be bombed in January.

This is the calendar in the runup to the Iraqi elections set for January 30 next year. Then there will be another set of questions. Will the Iraqi elections be stolen? Will votes "disappear"? Instead of Florida or Ohio, will there be demands for recounts in Fallujah and Samarra? Like Ukrainians in Kiev, will Sunnis in Baghdad take to the streets contesting the results of their elections? Will interim premier Iyad Allawi - with a little help from his Washington friends - prevail?

With most of the recent insurgent violence directed at Iraqi civilians rather than US forces, the conflict in Iraq is taking a nasty turn for the worse. A similar pattern of attacks heralded the begining of Lebanon's long civil-war. Mosul, which Ayahd Allawi can't even claim to control already in the grips of a bitter internecine struggle as Kurds, Sunnis, Shi'ites and other smaller factions, battle for control of the city. Matters took a turn for the worse in Mosul as Sheikh Faidh Muhammad Amin al-Faidhi was assasinated this past Monday. al-Faidhi, a Sunni, was well respected by Shi'ites and Kurds, and wielded a great deal of influence with the Association of Muslim Scholars, which was calling for an election boycott.

But our American Nero continues to fiddle and his puppet, Ayad Allawi, continues to insist that elections will go forward as planned in January. Unless the security situation changes drastically for the better, however, any meaningful elections are an impossibility. Iraq will continue to degenerate into a full blown civil-war as American forces stand helplessly by in their fortified compounds.



- Why don't they ever listen? -

Bobble-head Congress

Each branch of government -- legislative, executive and judicial -- has some constitutionally structured means of preventing the other branches from abusing power, since all power, in theory, derives from We, the People. Yet, as never before, the three branches are working in collusion. The result is that the office of the presidency is accountable to no body, and the Constitution can be flouted, American people lied to and political enemies destroyed with nary a whimper from anyone in Washington. The Congress is now an assemblage of 535 yes-men and women, as unimpressive a group of lackies as has ever disgraced the hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol. While one need only pick a week, any week, to confirm this, the past week has been particularly instructive.

Imagine, if you would, 535 bobble-head figures all nodding yes and you would have Congress as it now stands. With only a few exceptions, no member in either house of Congress has been willing to tackle the White House head on on any issue. Rather than serving as a check to urestrained presidential power, Congress has become complicit in the Bush administration's rampant disregard for the Constitution they are all sworn to "...protect and defend from all enemies, foreign and domestic..." They have become the enemy. But our founding fathers provided us with the justification neccessary to remove the stain upon their memory and the Republic the fought and died for..."all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

The Bush administration has become destructive to these ends, and it is past time to seek their removal. By impeachment or election or by such means as were used by Mahatma Gandhi to bring down the British rule in India. It is time. No, it is past time...

Social Insecurity

Never mind the $2 trillion spending gap if Dubbyuh's scheme for social security privatization gets pushed through Congress. According to a study comissioned by Paul O'Neil while he was Secretary of Treasury, the Fiscal Imbalance, the current federal debt held by the public plus the value in today's dollars of all projected non-interest spending, minus all projected federal receipts, is somewhere in the neighborhood of $51 trillion. That's nearly 5 years worth of the total current US GDP to pay for future expenditiures, primarily in the form of Social Security payouts as well Medicare and Medicaide claims. Sound fiscal policy mandates a fiscal imbnalance of zero...zip...nada.

This information was supressed by Dubbyuh's White House, but was revealed by economist Laurence Kotlikoff in a book entitled "The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future"which was released last spring, so both presidential candidates had the information available to them, both failed to address it. This is the "economic Armageddon" Stephen Roach, of Morgan-Stanley, spoke of recently. It is a case of "fiscal child abuse" because, unless we deal with this problem now, our descendents will be paying for it for the foreseeable future. According to Mr. Kotlikoff if a 78% tax rate were to be imposed now, we might just cover the expense. If we wait 5 years, that tax rate would jump to 84%. There is no easy way to solve this problem and it will require sacrifices on the part of all of us, and soon, to dodge this bullet. But the easy way seems to be the only way Dubbyuh and his merry band seem willing to entertain. Or at least any way which benefits Dubbyuh' political pimps and johns, the rest of us can suck hind tit.

All hail to Caligula's horse

Bush's new head of homeland security is perfect for the job

Sidney Blumenthal,
Thursday December 9, 2004

In the legend of the war on terrorism, Bernard Kerik, with his trademark shaven head, bristling moustache and black belt in karate, occupies a special place as rough and ready hero. Having risen from military policeman to narcotics detective to New York City police commissioner, he finds himself on 9/11 shoulder to shoulder with Mayor Rudy Giuliani. As the towers crumble the mayor confides in his buddy: "Bernie, thank God George Bush is president."

In line with other second-term cabinet appointments - Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state - Kerik will be an enforcer, a loyalist and an incompetent. The resemblance is less to Inspector Clouseau or Chauncy Gardner than to Caligula's horse.

Dubbyuh is only further insulating himself from the realities of the world he is creating. Unable to acknowledge, let alone accept responsibility for, his errors and their tragic consequences he is appointing dogmatically, fanatically loyal people to his cabinet in order to protect his fragile psyche. We have, ladies and gentlemen, an oedipal, narcisstic psychopath occupying the Oval Office. Be afraid.

In Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania, 1+1 doesn't equal 2

Prof. says vote numbers don't add up

By Rob Zaleski,
December 9, 2004

Surely there must be some logical explanation.

That's the first thing Steven Freeman thought the night of Nov. 2, after exit polls showing that John Kerry would win most of the key battleground states turned out to be wrong, and George W. Bush ended up being re-elected by nearly 3.5 million votes...

Either the exit polls were off or the count was off, says Freeman, who has a Ph.D. in organizational studies from MIT.

"And beyond that, every deviation was in the same direction" - showing more support for Kerry than the actual vote - "so I thought that ought to be explained as well. And the more I looked into it, the more interesting it was."...

...Freeman concluded in a paper on Nov. 10 - a paper, by the way, he has revised twice since - that the odds of exit polls in the critical states of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania all being so far off were roughly 662,000 to 1...

One stands a better chance of dying in a plane crash.

"Citing the disturbing fact that official results diverged sharply from a range of surveys of voters a polling places, Republican Senator Richard G. Lugar said, "A concerted and forceful program of election-day fraud and abuse was enacted with either the leadership or cooperation of governmental authorities." - Greg Palast

But the good Senator from Indiana wasn't talking about US elections, he was talking about elections in Ukraine, whose Supreme Court has since ruled the elections invalid and ordered new elections.

The Scum Also Rises...Part 2

Prisoner abuse was worse than officials admitted, documents show

By Drew Brown

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - More than two months after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq shocked the world, an official memo described how military intelligence officers witnessed further prisoner abuse in Baghdad but were threatened to prevent them from reporting it.

The memo was the most recent in a collection of government documents released Tuesday. It was dated June 25 and written by Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, who directs the Defense Intelligence Agency. Lowell described how two DIA officers, assigned as interrogators to a special operations unit designated as Task Force 6-26, witnessed evidence of prisoner abuse while working at an unnamed "temporary detention facility" in Baghdad.

The extensive collection of government documents suggests that abuse of detainees in Iraq and elsewhere was more widespread and systematic than senior officials have admitted publicly. The officials repeatedly have tried to characterize abuse last year at Abu Ghraib as an isolated series of incidents. A small number of low-ranking soldiers already have been prosecuted or are awaiting trial in these cases.

The documents released Tuesday, however, reveal that senior U.S. officials, who claimed they were unaware of the abuse, were repeatedly informed of accusations of abuse through official channels. They also suggest that these and other reports of abuse failed to trigger investigations into what increasingly appears to have been a widespread pattern of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, Iraq and at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

In a memo sent upranks by Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, the abuse of prisoners was described, but only as a "problem", not as a matter requiring corrective action. This memo went to Stephen J. Cambone, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. Mr. Cambone reports to Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. So knowledge of ongoing abuse of prisoners in Iraq goes all the way up to Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, who...did...nothing.

In condoning what was torture, nothing more or less, the Bush adminstration only further stiffened resistance to US forces in Iraq and further jeopardized the lives of any US troops who should fall into guerilla hands. The aggressive indifference of the Administration to these reports is simply a measure of the unfitness to command, at any level, of the members of this Administration.

The C.A.S.E. for recounting Ohio's votes.

The sunshine and brillant blue sky mocked the enthusiastic crowd in front of Ohio's statehouse today, as biting winds rattled the trees and sent flags snapping on their masts. The crowd had gathered for a rally sponsored by Citizens’ Alliance for Secure Elections. C.A.S.E. is a non-partisan organization of people from all over Ohio working to ensure reliability, security and access for all Ohio voters.

As I arrived, "The Carpenter Ants", warmed the crowd up with their mix of soul/gospel/bluegrass tunes. As they finished their set, Susan Truit, a founding member of C.A.S.E., stepped up to begin presenting speakers at the rally.

The speakers included Anita Rios, Co-Chair of the US Green Party; Judith Powell, a local black activist; Reuben Herrera, Chairman of Adelante - Latino/Latina Democrats, Greg Moore of the NAACP; John Bonifaz, founder of and and general counsel to the National Voting Rights Institute; Harvey Wasserman, senior editor of "The Columbus Free Press"; Bob Fitrakis editor of "The Columbus Free Press" and Greg Palast, BBC documentarian, investigative journalist and irritant to all of the right people.


The goal of the rally was to gather support for action leading to a timely and accurate recount of all of Ohio's ballots from the 2004 election. Standing in the way of this is Ohio Secretary of State and chairman of Ohio's committee to re-elect the president, J. Kenneth Blackwell.

While Mr. Blackwell could have certified the election results as early as December 2nd he has, instead, chosen to wait until December 6th. This is one day before he certifies Ohio's electors. Two lawsuits to attempt to force Blackwell to certify the results earlier were denied in the federal courts as the courts determined "no harm" would be done to the plaintiffs as a result of delaying the vote certification. Of course, the harm done by an illegitimate presidency to the nation as a whole is irrelevant.

For more the full rundown on election issues in Ohio, go here:

The FreePress

Greg Palast at C.A.S.E. rally in Columbus, Ohio

The Scum also Rises

U.S. lawyers file complaint over abuses in Abu Ghraib
Rumsfeld, others named in case taken to German court

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER NEWS SERVICES

BERLIN -- A group of American civil rights attorneys filed a criminal complaint in German court yesterday against top U.S. authorities, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, for acts of torture committed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The complaint also names former CIA Director George Tenet; the former commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez; and seven other military leaders.

Attorneys from the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights said they filed the complaint because they were disappointed in U.S. investigations into the Abu Ghraib abuses and hoped the filing would prompt an investigation by German authorities.

Just how wrong have things gone in this country, when a foreign government is asked to look into the misdeeds of our own government? Ever since the attrocities at Abu Ghraib were revealed, the Bush administration ahs stone-walled or quashed any investigation into it.

But with the revelations of the DOJ memos approved by Alberto Gonzales and IRC reports of conditions at Guantanamo Bay being nothing short of torture, the moral bankruptcy of Dubbyuh's administration is being revealed. The attrocities at Abu Ghraib and the mistreatment and torture of detainees at Gitmo show a government dedicated, not to the ideals of "freedom loving people", but rather one dedicated to power at any cost...achievement of the ends by any means necessary...a callous disregard for human suffering. To win the "War on Terror", our government must live up to the ideals it so blatantly pays lip service to. Otherwise the war is lost, the terrorists will have won, not because of their moral or military superiority, but because of the weakness, the shortsightedness, the hypocrisy and utter moral bankruptcy of our elected leaders.