Speaking The Truth

It is refreshing to hear a Presidential candidate speaking the truth rather than pandering, *cough*ClintonMcCain*cough*

Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.

These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies.

The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Bush — showing not one iota of leadership — refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year solar incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, at best, run two years.
----------
While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America’s premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany — 540 high-paying engineering jobs — because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not.

In 1997, said Resch, America was the leader in solar energy technology, with 40 percent of global solar production. “Last year, we were less than 8 percent, and even most of that was manufacturing for overseas markets.”

The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious — the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout.

via Thomas Friedman
emphasis mine

40 percent of global solar production down to 8 percent. We need change, not pandering. We need leadership not sillinessstupidity.

Know The Bible

Eh, not so sure this is very good...

You know the Bible 66%!

 

Congratulations! You know a lot about the Bible - the books, the characters, the events. You are able to remember a lot of what you have heard and read!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

Clinton Has A Problem With The Truth, Part XXVII

INDIANAPOLIS — It's a story Hillary Clinton loves to tell, about how the Chinese government bought a good American company in Indiana, laid off all its workers and moved its critical defense technology work to China.

And it's a story with a dramatic, political ending. Republican President George W. Bush could have stopped it, but didn't.

If she were president, she says, she'd fight to protect those jobs. It's just the kind of talk that's helping her win support form working-class Democrats worried about jobs and paychecks, not to mention their country's security.

What Clinton never tells in the oft-repeated tale is the role prominent Democrats played in selling the company and its technology to the Chinese. She never mentions that big-time Democratic contributor George Soros helped put together the deal to sell the company, or that the sale was approved by the administration of her husband. "Hillary Clinton must have been hoping we Hoosiers have short memories," Ed Dixon of Valparaiso said in a letter to a local newspaper after a recent Clinton visit. "Her husband was president at the time and allowed this to happen."

"They would have us believe Bush was behind this sale," added Fred Sliger of Valparaiso in another letter, "when in fact the Clinton administration rubber-stamped this along with the sale of numerous other high-tech secrets to the Chinese. …Let's get the facts straight."

via McClatchy

Bush Administration Blocked EPA Studies

Big surprise Bush finds science an impediment to...what, exactly. Oh, that's right. An impediment to doing whatever he wants (i.e., what big business wants).

A congressional watchdog agency has found that White House officials repeatedly intervened in the government's scientific process for assessing the health risks of toxic chemicals, prompting Sen. Barbara Boxer to threaten giving Congress control of the program.

The Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday that the White House's budget office, the Pentagon and other agencies had delayed or blocked efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to list chemicals as carcinogens by requesting more research or more time to review the risks.

-------

GAO officials also faulted the administration for setting new rules that keep secret any involvement by the White House or a federal agency in a decision about the risks of a chemical

The White House knows that what they are doing is wrong, why else would they set a new rule to keep secret their involvement?

Fortunately, Barbara Boxer seems to be doing something about this.

Boxer, D-Calif., who is chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and requested the report, called the findings scandalous. If EPA does not speed up its assessments of toxic chemicals, she warned that Congress might step in and start banning substances that threaten the public health.

"If we don't see that happen, colleagues of mine are going to take matters into their own hands," Boxer said.

Does McCain Stand For Anything? Part II

Ezra Klein on McCain's health care plan

Part I

Campaign Ad Roundup

Brought To You By The Department Of Bad Ideas

via SLOG

Does John McCain Stand for Anything?

Good Question.

Matthew Yglesias talks about McCain the Militarist

Dana Goldstein talks about McCains and education

Obama Responds To Wright's Speech

"If Reverend Wright thinks that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well and based on his remarks yesterday, I may not know him as well as I thought either."

"I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church," he said. "But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism – then there are no excuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today."

"It is antithetical to my campaign. It is antithetical to what I’m about. It is not what I think America stands for,"

via Ben Smith

The Plank wonders what took Obama so long to respond.

Like Josh Marshall, I've heard a lot of panic from Obama supporters over the last couple days. His denunciation of Rev. Wright today seems to be pretty much a bullseye. Why did he let the story hang out there so long without a response? I don't know, but I do see a pattern here: Throughout the campaign, Obama has made very good tactical moves, but he's made them slowly. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, has made a lot of mistakes, but she does grasp the 24-hour news cycle and she acts very quickly.

I think a commenter answers the question of why Obama took so long (one day is long?) perfectly:

What I'm looking for in a President is someone who can make a lot of bad decisions in a very small amount of time.

touche!
via The Plank

When Obama has a problem that makes me worry about his candidacy, he comes out and reminds us why America needs him. Obama shows us, again, his intelligence and thoughtful demeanor.

He's back. Not that he ever left, that goodness!

Wright...*sigh*...Again

His speech was not infammatory, but when he came to the Q&A...that is when he became beligerant and damaging.
It's hard to understand what he thinks he is doing, exactly. It's as if he doesn't care one wit about the historic candidacy of Obama and what Obama represents. A few bloggers have commented on how Wright is a throwback to the Vietnam era divisions of the past - a past he seems stuck in.
He showed a complete 180 degree turn from the Moyers interview when he answered the question at the Press club the other day. During the Moyers interview (and during the speech portion of the Press club), Wright seemed nuanced, calm and logical (in a the christian theology sense) when he spoke to Moyers, but as the questions came from the audience at the Press Club, he revealed a side that is disturbing to many, including me.
The question is how will Obama react? Part of me feels Obama will have to go much further in condeming, denouncing (whatever the MSM is defining the correct response to be) that he did before. In some ways, Wright has opened himself up to allow Obama to refudiate Wright in stronger terms.
I can't quite wrap my head around why Wright is doing this. Obama made a speech about race, a powerful speech, and Wright has thrown Obama's speech back at him as if it meant nothing. What Wright has revealed himself as is somenone that is stuck in the past, while Obama is trying to move forward.
This really is a generational thing which we have seen in how the voters are voting - younger for Obama, older for Clinton.

I only hope this doesn't stop Obama, his canidacy is too important - what he stands for is too important to let one man derail it. He can't let himself be defined by other's definitions. He cannot let himself make the same mistakes Kerry made.

Bill O'Reilly and Newt Gingrich Condemn Bill Moyers

If you ever wanted to see an example of the right's use of the "truth", watch the clip of O'Reilly and Gingrich condemning the Bill Moyers interview with Jeremiah Wright. Condemning the interview before the interview is even broadcast. This is how the right wing operates, they don't care about facts (but anyone reading this blog knows that), they simply care about vilifying anyone that disagrees with them - damn the facts!

You probably noticed that O'Reilly concedes the point that he has yet to see the interview, "we’re going to wait and see the whole interview before we really hang Moyers, but Bernie’s warming up."
Now just think about that. He knows he hasn't seen the interview, he says that he hasn't seen the interview, and yet he still says he is going to "really hang Moyers" anyway. The truth is, facts don't matter to the right, only politically moitivated bombs (see: Iraq) designed to maskobliterate the truth.
via Think Progress

Remember That Pentagon "Analyst" Story The New York Times Published?

Well, the only news organization that picked up on the story is The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

via Think Progress

HR 4102 - `Stop Outsourcing Security Act'

This is a good idea.

“To phase out the use of private military contractors.”

via Crooks and Liars

Jeremiah Wright On Bill Moyers Journal Tonight

see below for my thoughts on the Jeremiah Wright interview

I'm planning on watching Bill Moyers Journal tonight to hear what Jeremiah Wright has to say about his "god damn America" sermon that has gotten Obama in so much trouble. Well, while I was walking back from the gym this evening, it ocurred to me that getting up in arms about this sermon is silly. As I was walking, a thought popped into my head, "it's just as silly to say 'god damn America' as it is to say 'god bless America'". Both have zero meaning.

How ridiculous is it to say "god bless America" after two planes were used as missiles in New York and the Pentagon? Seems an odd thing to think that god has just blessed America after two buildings and thousand of lives have been destroyed.
If you believe in the whole 'blessing' thing, isn't it more accurate to say god damned America on 9/11? Logically, as much as logic can be brought into an arguement about blessing, we can't be both blessed and damned at the same time. But, it seems to me, 9/11 was not a blessing at all, it was a horrible tragedy. And to say "god bless America" only diminishes that tragedy so we can perform some psychological jujitsu to feel better about ourselves. Who is more truthful, the person that says god blesses America after the Twin Towers fell or the guy that saw an ugly tragedy and says, "hey, this is not a blessing"?

You know, if you, ahem, believe blessings really exist.

As for Wright? I'll comment on him after I watch Bill Moyers.


I have to say, I was bit worried about how the interview would turnout, but my fears were based selely on the sound bites we have all seen on the news about Wright's sermons. After watching this interview, I now understand how Wright has been wildly mischarachterized in the media. He is intelegent, funny, campassionate - really different from what we have all seen.

During the interview, Moyers played a larger portion of the Wright sermon that has gotten Wright and Obama in such hot water. If, after watching sermon, you come away thinking Wright is anti-American, anti white, and pro terrorist, either you are willfully ignoring the truth, or you simply want to be told what to think without having to think for yourself because following the media's (both the conservative and liberal) is easier for you, you need to wake up.

From watching this interview I have learned a lesson on how the media works, how politicians, commentators and how, as a nation, we are easily lead into a frenzy; as a nation, we need to constantly question what the media and the politicians tell us. I try and keep my sense of skeptism when it comes to politics, but after watching the Wright interview, I realize I need to be even more skeptical of what we are told. For our democracy to function, we need to regain our sense that this is our future and we cannot let it be dictated by the few. Not to be pendantic, but: "To see what is in front of one's nose [really] needs a constant struggle" -George Orwell

Beyond what the interview covered, I am even more impressed with Barack Obama. I now understand why Obama could not possibly disown, dissavow, whatever he was urged to do, Wright. Obama showed true strength of charachter by not throwing Wright under the bus because of the media contraversey over the sound bites we all saw. After watching tonight interview, I know this country needs someone like Obama as President.

I hope you will take the time to download the entire interview.

Quote Of The Day

This was never going to be easy or simple. Real change never is. Abandoning the process in the face of raw cynicism is what the Clintons want. They have to freeze out the millions of new voters if they are to retain their grip over their party. But the truth remains: with these millions of new voters and new donors, they can be defeated - and have been defeated. Despite massive advantages, the Clintons have been singularly unable to close the deal that was theirs' for the asking only six months ago.

What they're doing now is trying to out-psyche us. It's all they have left. Don't let them get into your head!

-Andrew Sullivan

Penn

Hillary won in Penn yesterday by a margin of 9.4% or, if you are the Hillary camp, 10%. Obama camp? 9%.

Most are saying this keeps Hillary alive and viable...um, not so much.

she'll need to win 70 to 80 percent of pledged delegates from here on out in order to do so, and that's not going to happen. Which, of course, is why Terry McAuliffe was on the very same network arguing that the nomination should be decided by the total number of votes cast. If you count Michigan and Florida (the former of which Hillary once upon a time said didn't count), then she could win there.

via TNR

But there is the question of whether Obama can win the general. Valid questions, but the question also can be said of Clinton. Leave it the the Democrats to somehow make the prospect of losing to a Republican, after the Bush disaster, a real possibility!
Okay, I was in the heat of hyperbole with the above statement. McCain's weird ideas on the ecomony, his "maverick" facade will make him easier to beat, I think. The Democrats will simply have to show how out of touch with the reality of everyday American's (not the super rich), and the Dems should...should...be able to beat McCain.

This is worth pondering...

One could just as easily spin these results into a decisive problem for Clinton: In a state where Obama faced brutally inhospitable demographics and weathered two major scandals in the course of six weeks, she saw her lead cut by more than half, rather than expanded by a third. If she couldn't knock him out here, where, and in what circumstances, can she knock him out?

via Ezra Klein

The New York Times Exposes The Pentagon's Propaganda

update below

According to tomorrow's New York Times, The Pentagon has from the beggining of the Iraq war, used ex-General's to talk up the war. These Generals have been used hundreds of times as Network news "analyst". But there is evidence of a conflict of interest...

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration’s war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.

via The New York Times
emphasis mine

It is truly sickening the depth of corruption in Bush Administration. What this says about Bush and his allies in the Pentagon is that the lives of our soldiers are worth nothing as long as a buck can be made from a war that never should have been fought.

Who's patriotic, again?

update
Glenn Greenwald exposes the New Times expose for the fact that this was known 5 years ago by the New York Times

The single most significant factor in American political culture is the incestuous, extensive overlap between our media institutions and government officials. The former is a dependent appendage of the latter far more than they are anything else. This article discloses some new details and proof of how that toxic process functions, but the fact that our major news organizations -- with some exceptions -- largely serve as government propaganda outlets is not news. It's the central fact of American political life, and the NYT itself -- along with every other news organization -- more than five years ago was obviously aware of this specific problem but not particularly concerned about it.

via Glenn Greenwald

How is a democracy to function if we can't even trust the very organizations we get the information we need to make informed decisions from?

Bring Out Your Dead Debate!

Man, that was awful and I don't mean for the candidates, for ABC.

If ABC actually thinks they presented and intelligent debate, someone should really be fired...maybe Charlie Gibson? For the first hour, the questions were completely substance free and of the 'gothca' variety.

The loser of this debate? ABC.

Was I the only one that got the feeling everyone was on life support during the debate? It took a solid hour for both candidate to wake up.

Now onto the substance (what there was of it).

Between the two, Obama clearly showed he was tired and beaten down.. The relentless questions for the first 45 minutes were overwhemingly thrown at Obama about he's an unpatriotic flag hater; his minister is a racist; he thinks small town people are rubes ("do you think you are more patriotic?" - what kind of question is that? Those kind of 'gotcha' questions that the MSM seem to think are relevent to this race does a diservice to the electoral process..

I thought it was interesting how Clinton just went right in and pounced on Obama, while Obama, when Hillary was finally asked about Bosnia, defended her. Character

Clinton did much better, but she was treated with kid gloves for the hour, or so. Her liteny of lies was completely glossed over. That is not to excuse Obama (he will face the same relentless questions if he is the nominee). Obama finally hit his stride after the first hour, or so, but he cannot let himself stumble like he did in the future.

Any question about the MSM treating Obama better than Clinton is clearly not true.

In sum, this was a terrible debate, but not because of the candidates, it was because of Charlie Gibson and his relentless gothca questions.

and the quote of the night

I'd forgotten that for months now Charlie Gibson has been asserting that $200,000 is a solid middle-class income, blissfully unaware that just 3.4 percent of U.S. households have an income of $200,000 or more. You could be richer than 96 percent of your fellow citizens, but still just folks to Gibson. Obviously that's not on a par with being bad at bowling or anything on the "out of touch" scale, but it's still disappointing to learn that even our salt of the earth working class multimillionaire television news personalities aren't utterly infallible.

via Matthew Yglesias
Remind who is out of touch, again?

Oh, and Charlie? That whole vice president thing? That was changed by the 12th Amendment.

Going Easy

Would you like another pillow...Mr. McCain?

At a luncheon for the editors hosted by the Associated Press, AP Chairman Dean Singleton quizzed Obama about whether he would send more troops to Afghanistan, where "Obama bin Laden is still at large?"
"I think that was Osama bin Laden," the candidate answered

and McCain?

McCain's moderators, the AP's Ron Fournier and Liz Sidoti, greeted McCain with a box of Dunkin' Donuts. "We spend quite a bit of time with you on the back of the Straight Talk Express asking you questions, and what we've decided to do today was invite everyone else along on the ride," Sidoti explained. "We even brought you your favorite treat."

McCain opened the offering. "Oh, yes, with sprinkles!" he said.

Sidoti passed him a cup. "A little coffee with a little cream and a little sugar," she said.

...

McCain got a standing ovation -- an honor Obama did not receive when his turn came two hours later.

via Dana Milbank

Think Progress has Video

The question is, how can we accurately gauge the merits of a candidate when the very people that are supposed to report about the candidates are clearly biased towards on or the other? Well, I supposed when the press is invited to a BBQ, you can't blame them.

Can you?

New Link

I'v added another link to the politics link section: The Anonymous Liberal

Gratuitous Puppy Pic

As Hillary goes forward with her suicide run for the nomnation, I think it's a good time for a puppy.

Clinton's True Colors

That's it. If Hillary's agenda is to lose the White House for the Democrats in '09, I fear she has done it. I never thought I would ever say this, but if the super delegates decide to place Clinton as the Democratic nominee for President, I will have to sit this election out. I cannot in good conscious vote someone with the kind of ethics of Hillary Clinton. If someone like me, a lifelong Democrat, has decided to sit this election out, I wonder how all the younger voters Obama has brought to the Party feel? Do you really think they will vote for Clinton? Do you think the Democrats can take the White House without the voters Obama has energized?
If people have yet to wake people up to the type of person she is, then her latest ad shows her true colors in all it pathetic glory.

Hillary has shown that this nomination is not about taking the White House for the Democrats, it is about her. And only her. Screw the Party. If she can't have it, no one will.

I didn't think anyone could sink lower than this. She really is disgusting.

The Republicans must love Hillary. She is writing all the attack ads, spending all the money to destroy Obama so the Republicans don't have to.

Get Ready To Dance...Wee!

May 22nd is when So You Think You Can Dance comes back. So excited! Of all the talent competition shows, SYTUCD is the best.

Obama Pushes Back

You've no doubt heard the up roar over what Obama said at a fundraiser in San Francsico a few weeks ago? While I agree that what he said was inartful, I can't see how what he said makes him out of touch as so many are saying. You just need to listen to him speak on the stump to know that. Well, true to form, Obama is pushing back with the truth (an oddity in politics).

Now some are even calling him a Marxist(!) Uh, yeah, I don't think so. Of course you have to consider the source. A man that routingly backs Bush and his lies. A man that routingly say the most uninformed things about Iraq based on his ideology rather than reality. Read his opinion piece with a larg grain of salt. I can only think that what Obama stands for is really making the establishment nervous. Good.

Artsy...

A while back I blogged about an artist I came across named David Imlay while walking by Reaves Gallery. Tonight, starting at 6:00 pm, Reaves Gallery will be holding its one-year anniversary celebration to benefit leukemia and lymphoma society. Reaves Gallery is located at 2344 Market Street @ Noe in San Francisco (the castro), if you want a chance to meet David and the other artists Reaves shows, come on by.

Also, Reaves Gallery will moving to a new location in the Hayes Valley in May. When they move, David will be exhibiting new works!
The address is: 235 gough street at hickory (on the right between fell and oak) in hayes valley.

Quote Of The Day (Okay, 2 Quotes)

"I really don’t understand why the Republican Party very clearly decided what they were going to do [about the Florida and Michigan delegations], and the Democratic Party can’t decide."
-Hillary Clinton

Actually, Senator Clinton, the Democratic Party did decide what to do. They decided to strip those states of all their delegates. This decision was made through the proper procedures, at the proper time, by the proper decision-makers -- including your own adviser Harold Ickes, who voted "yes" on the delegate-stripping plan. The decision was clear and straightforward: if Florida and Michigan didn't move their primary dates, they'd lose their delegations. Period. That was, and is, the decision.

You initially accepted this decision because it was politically necessary for you to do so -- after all, you couldn't be seen as the only candidate not currying favor with Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Now, you are refusing to accept that very same decision because it is, again, politically necessary for you to do so, as you can't "win" without those "delegates" who were "elected" in those states' illegitimate "primaries."

To make matters worse, you are dishonestly and absurdly cloaking this cynical Machiavellian maneuver under the guise of democratic idealism, arguing that there's some sort of moral imperative to count the votes of citizens who chose to participate in "elections" that everyone knew were non-binding beauty contests. Better yet, you're making this argument while simultaneously advocating the importance of a "popular vote" count that excludes all voters in Iowa, Nevada, Maine and Washington (whose caucuses didn't report raw vote totals, only delegate counts), and all Obama and Edwards supporters in Michigan (whose candidates weren't on the ballot).

And now, on top of all that, you have the unmitigated gall to gripe that your party "can't decide" what to do, when in fact they decided long ago precisely what to do, and you acquiesced in that decision until you realized that you couldn't win without changing the rules in the middle of the game -- i.e., that you can't win without cheating.

You are truly a piece of work, Hillary Clinton.

-Brendon Loy
Emphasis mine

Clinton (Bill This Time), Bosnia Mistatement Happened Because Hillary Was Tired

It's like a mantra with the Clinton's. Now Bill is claiming Hillary's "mistatement" happened because "she was exhausted at 11 o'clock at night and she started talking about Bosnia and she misstated the circumstances under which she landed in Bosnia."
via TPM Election Central

Hillary must have been exhausted on 4 separate occasions when she "mistated" those circumstances.

The Clinton's ease with, ahem, stretching the truth has become a joke (if it were not so serious).
If we have learned one thing over the past 7-plus years, it is that we need to be able to trust our leaders. We must have confidence that our leaders will not lie to us.
What does it say about the Clintons when time and time again, we are told lies? How can we trust them to tell us the truth when they can't even tell the truth even after the truth is known?

Trust.

Spell

I'm of the mind that kind of wants a President that can spell his or her own name correctly.

Reading

Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45, by Max Hastings

Quote Of The Day

"Monsters"
-Atrios referring to our War-Criminal Administration,

Torture Yoo

ABCNews is reporting how intimately involved The White House was with regard to the torture of detainees

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.
The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of "combined" interrogation techniques -- using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time -- on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said.
...
At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
...
Then-National Security Advisor Rice, sources said, was decisive. Despite growing policy concerns -- shared by Powell -- that the program was harming the image of the United States abroad, sources say she did not back down, telling the CIA: "This is your baby. Go do it."

In disbarment news, The National Lawyers Guild has asked Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley's law school to dismiss John Yoo.

"John Yoo's complicity in establishing the policy that led to the torture of prisoners constitutes a war crime under the US War Crimes Act," said National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn.

via Think Progress

If John Yoo should be tried as a war criminal, and he should, then so should Bush, Rice, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Powel and Ashcroft.

To call what happened on September 11 a "game changer" is simply reactionary thinking. The thought processes of small minds with no knowledge of history. The United State is torturing people. For 200 years torture has been verboten. George Washington said this during the infancy of our country,

"Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]. . . I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause... for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country."

-- George Washington, charge to the Northern Expeditionary Force, Sept. 14, 1775

John Adams in a 1777 letter to his wife, "I know of no policy, God is my witness, but this — Piety, Humanity and Honesty are the best Policy. Blasphemy, Cruelty and Villainy have prevailed and may again. But they won't prevail against America, in this Contest, because I find the more of them are employed, the less they succeed."

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln "forbade any form of torture or cruelty" his 1863 letter was used as a model for the 1929 Geneva Convention.

Unfortunately, we have a simpleton in The White House that sees torture as a legitimate war strategy. For all the bluster of Bush, what he is doing is in our name. Bush's short-sighted, simple view of this war is not making us safer, not making us any friends. In the end, Bush's policies will harm us even more than they already have.

Penn's Out. Should Be Out More

...so says Paul Begala

I'm not going to lie to you, there's a lot of pressure among pro-Clinton labor leaders, but also non-labor leaders who've been unsatisfied with Penn's strategy, who've been disappointed in Penn's conflict of interest and there's still a clamor to eliminate him entirely from that campaign.

And, and I don't think the Clinton campaign has done that yet. I think Penn is still very much involved.

via Ben Smith

Why do labor leaders not like Penn? Well, Penn's company has a union busting unit.

One that might be of interest to liberals thinking about whether to support Clinton is "Labor Relations." In this section, Senator Clinton's top advisor's company says, "Companies cannot be caught unprepared by Organized Labor's coordinated campaigns whether they are in conjunction with organizing or contract negotiating ... That is why we have developed a comprehensive communications approach for clients when they face any type of labor situation."

You're kidding me. Hillary Clinton's top pollster runs a public relations firm with a unionbusting department. Has anyone, you know, told the unions?

-Mark Schmitt by way of Ezra Klein

Free Trade With Colombia

Imagine a country where CEO's live in fear. In just the past five years, 400 CEO's -- from manufacturing, banking, real estate -- have been shot down in cold blood. (Thousands over the past 15 years.) Almost none of these murders have been solved. Indeed, over the past five years the percentage of CEO murders simply brought to trial has declined from 30% to zero. CEO's now more or less live in fear.

Can you imagine the US have friendly relations with such a place? Can you imagine a president expending political capital to treat that country favorably in an international agreement? Right. Of course not.

via Christopher Hayes

Bush, playing the national security card, wants this to pass.

[Passing free trade with Colombia] “will advance American national security interests in a critical region,”

Eh, what's a little death when there is a profit to be made?

IT IS ABOUT TRUST AND JUDGEMENT

There is a disturbing pattern with the Hillary Clinton campaign when it comes to, as the media calls it, exagerations. I call them lies.
We have heard the lie about Tuzla:

The lie that she was against NAFTA

Irish Peace?

"I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton] going around," he said. Her recent statements about being deeply involved were merely "the sort of thing people put in their canvassing leaflets" during elections. "She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience. I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player."

Mrs Clinton has made Northern Ireland key to her claims of having extensive foreign policy experience, which helped her defeat Barack Obama in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday after she presented herself as being ready to tackle foreign policy crises at 3am.

via Telegraph

And the latest? Health care:


I know I sound a bit like a harpy when I, ahem, harp on, Clinton, but haven't we had enough exagerations from our current President to allow someone that so cleary finds it so easy, so like breathing, to lie? We need somenone that will tell us the truth. Someone that will treat the American people like adults. Hillary Clinton shows that she doesn't trust the American public to handle the truth - just like George Bush treats the public. Barack Obama has shown time and time again that he thinks the public can handle the truth.
Now all politicians exagerate. I include Obama. The difference is Clinton lies. Her exagerations are so large, so profound, one has to wonder how she will handle herslf if she were to become President. I'm reminded of what Bill Clinton said when he was running for President, "You do what you gotta do". It seems Hillary is carrying the torch for the Bill by doing what she feels she's gotta do. And what she's gotta do is lie, evidently.

Quote Of The Day

From Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic talking about how Mark Penn (Clinton's campaign manager) met with Columbian officials to discuss ways to move the Columbian Free Trade Agreement through Congress - the same trade agreement Hilary Clinton says she opposes.

I've asked several Clinton aides and advisers for their reaction. Some declined to comment. Others responded with pejoratives, but since I don't print anonymous pejoratives as a policy, I will refrain from sharing them.

One of the toughest tasks for a political journalist these days is to try and find someone in Clinton world who is willing to defend Mr. Penn or his sense of political optics.

via The Atlantic

This is another example of how Hilary's left hand doesn't know what her right hand is doing. Or, worse, she doesn't care.

AG Mukaseys' Lies About FISA

As you watch this video, you need to remember the FISA allows warrantless wire taps when a call is coming into the United States from a foreign country. Mukasey asserted in a speech in San Francisco that because FISA's rules, the Bush Admin, if they knew about this "call" he claimed happened, 3,000 lives could have been saved. But remember, FISA allows warrantless wire taps for any calls coming into the U.S. Every step of the way, the Bushies reveal themselves to be liars and or incompentents about everything.

via Glenn Greenwald

Read Rawstory's article on this.

Write you Congressperson and demand they look into this.
House
Senate

Best Web Site Ever

Mikey got me to thinking about my secret weakness.

Hillary Clinton's Rocky Metaphor

Hillary Clinton thinks she's Rocky. Um, Hillary? Rocky lost.

The Yoo Torture Memo

Ever wonder what a sociopath wrapped in legaleaze sounds like? John Yoo's torture memo is a good example. John Yoo is a man that does not believe in our system of democracy, treaties, checks and balances - our system of government. Here's a man that feels "in time of war" the President of the United States has unlimited powers to what ever he wants (one wonders if he has ever, ever read the Constitution). That philosophy goes against 200 years of Constitutional Democracy, but Yoo doesn't care, he inteprets Presidential power to fit with his deranged mind.
Sadly, there won't be any kind of news cycle on this story because it doesn't contain any juicy snipings from the Democrats during the primary.
via Washington Post

Constitution lawyer (the moral kind), Glenn Greenwald, as always, provides a clear, breakdown of what this all means

The Company We Keep

If you have HIV, you are considered a criminal if trying to enter the U.S.

The Surrey, B.C., man was on his way to Bellingham, Wash., for the Remembrance Day long weekend last November to shop, with the Canadian dollar trading at about $1.07 against the greenback. After lining up for four hours to reach the U.S. customs booth, he was asked where he worked.

"I said I was on disability. He said what's my disability. I said I have HIV," said the 47-year-old, who was diagnosed in 1989.

The customs officer told him he needed a special visa waiver to enter the country, even though Canadians do not require a visa to travel to the United States.

"He hauled me into a backroom. ... He put on a set of rubber gloves to hold each of my fingers. Nobody else wore rubber gloves. Then he fingerprinted me, photographed me, ran me through the FBI's most-wanted list and told me to go back to Canada and not return until I came back with a waiver," Mr. Rooney said. "I felt like I was being treated like a terrorist."

via Globe and Mail

Who else bans entry of HIV positive person's into their countries?
Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the Sudan, among others.
via Andrew Sullivan

Fortunately, there is a bill in the House to remove the travel ban.