wizardkitten: December 2005

Saturday, December 31, 2005

GOP attacks on Granholm vetoes go too far
See? I'm not crazy.

To the GOP-ruled Legislature, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's veto pen is a terrible swift sword that's likely to make election-year relations with her all the more contentious on economic, welfare, transit and other issues.

"Gov. Granholm has sent a terrible signal to taxpayers and job providers today by vetoing needed welfare reform," House Speaker Craig DeRoche, R-Novi, said Tuesday. That day she vetoed eight bills, bringing her 2005 total to 12. She's signed 327 and has six pending.

But what elicited a more extreme reaction was her veto of a bill allowing Kent County to levy a property tax for public transportation. Rep. Jerry Kooiman, R-Grand Rapids, correctly described his bill as enabling Grand Rapids to secure $14 million in federal matching funds toward a streetcar or rapid transit bus corridor.

But he went over the edge in contending Granholm "has no concern for Kent County or residents of western Michigan (and) is attempting to cripple Kent County in the same way she has Michigan's economy."

The original bill applied to transit authorities throughout Michigan, and Granholm praised it. But it was amended to apply only to Kent County, prompting her to declare: "The crass political motivation that would provide funding flexibility to one county while leaving behind the rest of the state is bad for jobs in Michigan and cynically fosters division in a state that cries out for unity."

She says it so much better than I can. Must be that Harvard education. I would just call him a shithead and be done with it. ;-)

DeRoche, as Graholm requested, called the House back to vote today on a Senate-passed bill to extend the current welfare law, set to expire at year's end. He said reforms "can still be made in the future."

Looming largest in the near future is the 2006 election. Neither party will allow the other notable victories in Lansing.

Granholm will be attacked by Republicans with all the vigor that Democrats used in 1994 in assailing "mean-spirited" first-term Gov. John Engler -- who ended up as a national leader in welfare reform efforts ultimately embraced by both parties on Capitol Hill.

Welfare reform was a proud legacy for Engler, who championed the Michigan requirements now criticized by state Republicans as among the weakest in the nation.

Creators.com - Creators Syndicate - Molly Ivins
A must-read this week.

For those of you who have forgotten just what a stonewall paranoid Nixon was, the poor man used to stalk around the White House demanding that his political enemies be killed. Many still believe there was a certain Richard III grandeur to Nixon's collapse because he was also a man of notable talents. There is neither grandeur nor tragedy in watching this president, the Testy Kid, violate his oath to uphold the laws and Constitution of our country.

The Testy Kid wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it because he is the president, and he considers that sufficient justification for whatever he wants. He even finds lawyers like John Yoo, who tell him that whatever he wants to do is legal.

The creepy part is the overlap. Damned if they aren't still here, after all these years, the old Nixon hands -- Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the whole gang whose yearning for authoritarian government rose like a stink over the Nixon years. Imperial executive. Bring back those special White House guard uniforms. Cheney, like some malignancy that cannot be killed off, back at the same old stand, pushing the same old crap.

I loved this bit:

You will be unsurprised to learn that, first, they lied. They didn't do it. Well, OK, they did it, but not very much at all. Well, OK, more than that. A lot more than that. OK, millions of private e-mail and telephone calls every hour, and all medical and financial records.

And this:

As many have patiently pointed out, the entire program was unnecessary, since the FISA court is both prompt and accommodating. There is virtually no possible scenario that would make it difficult or impossible to get a FISA warrant -- it has granted 19,000 warrants and rejected only a handful.

I don't like to play scary games where we all stay awake late at night, telling each other scary stories -- but there's a reason we have never given our government this kind of power. As the late Sen. Frank Church said, "That capability could at any time be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capacity to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide." And if a dictator took over, the NSA "could enable it to impose total tyranny."

Go read.

It's All About the Last Week of Football...

I don't expect a very good record with teams resting starters, protecting stars, or trying out the "B" team for evaluation of next year's plans.

Denver at San Diego
N.Y. Giants at Oakland
Arizona at Indianapolis
Baltimore at Cleveland
Buffalo at N.Y. Jets
Carolina at Atlanta
Cincinnati at Kansas City
Detroit at Pittsburgh
Miami at New England
New Orleans at Tampa Bay
Seattle at Green Bay
Houston at San Francisco
Tennessee at Jacksonville
Chicago at Minnesota
Washington at Philadelphia
St. Louis at Dallas

Justice Dept. Probing Domestic Spying Leak - Yahoo! News
I thought that the Attorney General of the US worked for the people, not as a personal lawyer for the President to persecute the whistleblowers of executive crimes.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has opened another investigation into leaks of classified information, this time to determine who divulged the existence of President Bush's secret domestic spying program.

Yes, we must find this person. Many rewards, parades and shiny medals to bestow!

The inquiry focuses on disclosures to The New York Times about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials said.

The newspaper recently revealed the existence of the program in a front-page story that also acknowledged that the news had been withheld from publication for a year, partly at the request of the administration and partly because the newspaper wanted more time to confirm various aspects of the program.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Justice undertook the action on its own, and Bush was informed of it Friday.

"The leaking of classified information is a serious issue. The fact is that al-Qaida's playbook is not printed on Page One and when America's is, it has serious ramifications," Duffy told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where Bush was spending the holidays.

Now, I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that if leaking this information is such a serious offense, with it's serious ramifications, then perhaps the White House should be charged with obstruction of justice for not investigating this leak for a whole year. They knew about it. Why didn't they investigate before?

As a side note, who thinks Trent Duffy is lined up to take the place of Scott McClellan? But, I digress...

Disclosure of the secret spying program two weeks ago unleashed a firestorm of criticism of the administration. Some critics accused the president of breaking the law by authorizing intercepts of conversations — without prior court approval or oversight — of people inside the United States and abroad who had suspected ties to al-Qaida or its affiliates.

The inquiry launched Friday is only the most recent effort by the Bush administration to determine who is disclosing information to journalists.

Two years ago, a special counsel was named to investigate who inside the White House gave reporters the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, an effort that led to perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, Lewis I. "Scooter" Libby.

Time it took to start the Plame investigation- four months. Time to start this one- two weeks.

More recently, the Justice Department has begun examining whether classified information was illegally disclosed to The Washington Post about a network of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

Parades from them, too.

It is unclear whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will recuse himself from the inquiry. He was White House counsel when Bush signed the executive order authorizing the NSA, which is normally confined to overseas operations, to spy on conversations taking place on American soil.

For the past two weeks, Gonzales also has been one of the administration's point men in arguing that the president has the constitutional authority to conduct the spying.

"It's pretty stunning that, rather than focus on whether the president broke his oath of office and broke federal law, they are going after the whistleblowers," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Romero said a special prosecutor from outside the Justice Department needs to be appointed. "This confirms many of the fears about Gonzales' appointment — that he would not be sufficiently independent from the president and that he would play the role of a crony," he said.

And if you don't think that Bush's Supreme Court nominations will behave the same way, think again. Does this explain the appointment of Harriet Miers? What does Mr. Alito think of the use of executive power in cases such as this? Perhaps that should be in the line of questioning come January. Hint, hint, Senators.

Friday, December 30, 2005

United Press International - Security & Terrorism - German media: U.S. prepares Iran strike
Well. Won't that be fun.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The Bush administration is preparing its NATO allies for a possible military strike against suspected nuclear sites in Iran in the New Year, according to German media reports, reinforcing similar earlier suggestions in the Turkish media.

The Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel this week quoted "NATO intelligence sources" who claimed that the NATO allies had been informed that the United States is currently investigating all possibilities of bringing the mullah-led regime into line, including military options. This "all options are open" line has been President George W Bush's publicly stated policy throughout the past 18 months.

But the respected German weekly Der Spiegel notes "What is new here is that Washington appears to be dispatching high-level officials to prepare its allies for a possible attack rather than merely implying the possibility as it has repeatedly done during the past year."

The German news agency DDP cited "Western security sources" to claim that CIA Director Porter Goss asked Turkey's premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide political and logistic support for air strikes against Iranian nuclear and military targets. Goss, who visited Ankara and met Erdogan on Dec. 12, was also reported to have to have asked for special cooperation from Turkish intelligence to help prepare and monitor the operation.

The DDP report added that Goss had delivered to the Turkish prime minister and his security aides a series of dossiers, one on the latest status of Iran's nuclear development and another containing intelligence on new links between Iran and al-Qaida.

DDP cited German security sources who added that the Turks had been assured of a warning in advance if and when the military strikes took place, and had also been given "a green light" to mount their own attacks on the bases in Iran of the PKK, (Kurdish Workers party), which Turkey sees as a separatist group responsible for terrorist attacks inside Turkey.

Goss's visit to the Turkish capital followed the rising international concern over recent statements by the new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be "wiped off the map," denying the existence of Holocaust, and suggesting that Israel's Jewish population might be re-located to Europe.

In a December 23 report, the DDP agency quoted an anonymous but "high-ranking German military official" telling their reporter: "I would be very surprised if the Americans, in the mid-term, didn't take advantage of the opportunity delivered by Tehran. The Americans have to attack Iran before the country can develop nuclear weapons. After that would be too late."

Let's hope this is a bluff.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly three years after President George W. Bush created the Department of Homeland Security after the September 11 attacks, the sprawling agency still faces management problems that were partly to blame for the poor response to Hurricane Katrina, an internal audit showed.

In a report issued on Wednesday, the inspector general outlined a series of problems with the agency that was created in early 2003 in the largest reorganization of the federal government in 50 years.

Inspector General Robert Skinner said Hurricanes Katrina in August and Rita, a month later, exposed weaknesses in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's information systems and its management of contracts and grants.

"When one considers that FEMA's programs are largely administered through grants and contracts, the circumstances created by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita provides an unprecedented opportunity for fraud, waste, and abuse," the report said.

The hurricane contracts went to the buddies of Republican lobbyists and lawmakers. We will see an investigation into the fraud, waste and abuse?

October 13, 2005 | The political ties of several contractors hired to help with Hurricane Katrina cleanup efforts are being called into question by some lawmakers and government officials who have said they fear those ties could lead to abuse.

Of the $2.3 billion in contracts awarded by the federal government in the weeks since Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, at least 15 exceed $100 million; including five that are valued at $500 million or more, according to a New York Times analysis. More than 80 percent of those contracts were awarded with little or no competition.

Several of the companies that won huge contracts have close ties to Washington lobbyists, as well as lawmakers. They include AshBritt Environmental, based in Pompano Beach, Fla., and Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root. Baton Rouge, La.-based Shaw Environmental, a subsidiary of the Shaw Group, is the largest local company, with 18,000 employees, to receive Katrina contracts, according to government records.

Anyone? Is anyone going to look into this and perhaps charge these people for the fraud (especially!), waste, and abuse? Apparently not. FEMA just needs a "re-organization", which I take as, "hire more of our buddies and spend more money on worthless directives that still will be rife with fraud, waste and abuse."

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said reorganization at FEMA was one of the department's top priorities.

"The American public will be hearing from us in short order about how we intend to build the capability of FEMA into a 21st century agency with 21st century capabilities ... and restore the agency's core focus on response and recovery missions," he said on Thursday.

Knocke said the department would detail the changes early next year. Some changes to FEMA could include state-of-the-art communications equipment and improved capabilities to track emergency supplies -- like through bar codes -- in order to better distribute goods in an emergency.

As part of an effort to have FEMA focus mainly on response and recovery, the department has also created a new preparedness directorate that will be responsible for consolidating all preparedness functions, Knocke said.

Barcodes on the supplies! That will solve all the problems!

What a joke.

The DHS budget (warning: government link) has doubled from $20 billion to $40 billion since 2001. The hurricane money comes on top of that.

Isn't it about time to ask what the hell they are doing with all the money? Isn't it time to hold some of these firms liable for fraud?

Not as long as they are friends of the Culture of Corruption.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

NSA Web Site Places 'Cookies' on Computers - Yahoo! News
To anyone who clicked through to the NSA to look at the "NSA For Kids" link that I posted, my deepest apologies.

NEW YORK - The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them.

These files, known as "cookies," disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week, and agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake. Nonetheless, the issue raises questions about privacy at a spy agency already on the defensive amid reports of a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States.

"Considering the surveillance power the NSA has, cookies are not exactly a major concern," said Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy advocacy group in Washington, D.C. "But it does show a general lack of understanding about privacy rules when they are not even following the government's very basic rules for Web privacy."

Until Tuesday, the NSA site created two cookie files that do not expire until 2035 — likely beyond the life of any computer in use today.

Don Weber, an NSA spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday that the cookie use resulted from a recent software upgrade. Normally, the site uses temporary, permissible cookies that are automatically deleted when users close their Web browsers, he said, but the software in use shipped with persistent cookies already on.

"After being tipped to the issue, we immediately disabled the cookies," he said.

Uh-huh. I bet you did. "When they caught us, we stopped."

So, I'm supposed to believe that the NSA didn't know what their own software and web site was doing? The NSA? That's comforting.

Who made the software? And how much did they contribute to the Republican Party?

From now on- If I link to a government site and you get cooties, it's not my fault! You have been warned!

Courtesy of the ACLU.

WOODTV.com & WOOD TV8 - Grand Rapids news and weather - Local politicians upset over governor's veto of transit system funds
After reading crap like this, one has to wonder- Just how much is Mr. DeVos paying Mr. Albin?

By vetoing House Bill 4994, Governor Granholm has denied $14 million in federal funds to Grand Rapids for further study of a mass transit plan in the area.

It’s a move that has some area politicians wondering why.

Really, Rick? With a few clicks of a mouse I figured it out. I'm a bit perplexed as to why you and the "area politicians" can't do the same.

Governor Granholm has used her veto pen liberally this week. In addition to saying “no” to welfare reform, she turned back the $14 million from the federal government to study two transit routes in West Michigan.

Ah, nice trick. Slip the words "liberal" and "welfare" in there, even though that has no bearing on this particular story. That will get the juices boiling.

One idea was to develop some type of high-speed travel from the Cutlerville area to downtown Grand Rapids. The other idea was a route from the airport to downtown. The federal government was willing to pay for the study, but the governor said no.

So government spending is okey-dokey fine when it comes to the pork that benefits West Michigan, but when it comes to feeding women and children, not so much. Gotcha. Glad to know where your priorities lie. Big business - yes. People - no. Or why bring up the "welfare reform"? Moving on-

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell tried to get the governor to approve the bill, “I urged her, I pled with her not to veto it. I understand why she did it. It's a political game that's being played. But it's a high stakes game and Grand Rapids -- the whole Grand Rapids region -- is the loser on this.”

This little quote is taken out of context and made to look as if Granholm is the one playing the "political game". Let's go to the Grand Rapids Press for the rest of Heartwell's quote, shall we?

Heartwell blamed the Republican leadership in the state House for scuttling Kooiman's bill.

"House Speaker (Craig) DeRoche was not about to let anything hit the floor of the House that could help Detroit," he said.

Puts it in a little different perspective, doesn't it? But I guess Rick didn't want to tell you that part. Hmmmm.

Representative Jerry Kooiman sponsored the bill and says it was designed specifically for Kent County, “It's not for your typical grid bus system throughout the state. There is only one transit agency in the state that has been designated by the federal transit agency for this type of program and that is Grand Rapids. Her reasons for vetoing it are highly suspect.”

No, not really. She told you why. Let's go to Liz Boyd in case you have forgotten the explanation. It was short and sweet, and pretty clear.

Granholm said she liked the bill, but did not like that House Republicans tailored it to benefit the Grand Rapids system alone.

"She believes very strongly that the options outlined in the bill should be an option available to every community in Michigan, not just Kent County," said Liz Boyd, the governor's press secretary.

"The Republican leadership has put politics over policy on this issue."

If you want to talk "highly suspect", Mr. Kooiman, explain this next piece of information to me.

Since the $14 million from the federal government was only designated for Kent County, no other area could have benefited from the legislation.

My, that's odd. I wonder why Mr Kooiman didn't target his original bill just for Kent County then. I wonder why House Republicans felt the need to deny other communities this authority if the above sentence is true. Back to the Press.

State Rep. Jerry Kooiman, R-Grand Rapids, said his original bill did not restrict the authority to Kent County. But other legislators were worried about granting other transit systems the same authority and limited it to Kent County, he said.

So, which is it? Did the Fed money specifically say "Kent County"? If so, why the worry about other locations? Back to the Free Press for a little more information.

The best remedy is for Granholm to ask the Legislature for a bill like the one Kooiman initially introduced, giving transit agencies the same extended levy authority for rapid transit and rail projects.

Grand Rapids should have the authority provided in the bill. The region's Interurban Transit Partnership plans to develop a streetcar or rapid transit bus corridor serving its downtown and is seeking a $14.4-million federal grant for engineering work on the project. The Grand Rapids area has become the state's leader in transit and land use planning, and the Legislature ought to encourage its efforts.

But, without change, the bill on Granholm's desk could also block a proposed Detroit-Ann Arbor rapid transit line that would also serve the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Congress has already approved $100 million to design the system. The federal government could also chip in up to 80% of the costs of building such a line, but not if the region doesn't have a long-term plan to pay for operating costs. The Legislature's bill would prevent such a plan by limiting levy authority to five years. Either way, local voters would have to approve any plan to pay for transit systems through property taxes.

This part makes it seem like the Fed money could be used by anyone as long as they pony up the long term bucks to pay for it. So, Rick's statement is, well, a lie. The House Republicans changed the bill so other areas could not benefit. I wonder why Rick and Jerry didn't want to tell us that part.

And now for the grand finale- time to drag up the East vs. West divide, proving once again that Republicans can't govern unless they make someone the enemy. Turning the citizens against each other is such a wonderful tool, isn't it?

On the eve of the 2006 election cycle this move by the governor will be seen by some as an east-west issue with Granholm favoring southeast Michigan.

In a statement yesterday, Representative Kooiman said that the governor's action, "Sends a clear message that the future of West Michigan is not something that matters to her."

Yes, of course, back to the old canard that "Detroit gets all the money". I honestly don't see how the governor's move "favors southeast Michigan" at all. Seems to me she wanted this available to all communities. And had Kooiman's original bill gone through, that's what would have happened. But now Mr. Kooiman wants to play both sides of the fence and claim her actions are a direct slap at West Michigan, which I hope I have proved is complete and utter bullshit. House Republicans are the ones that jacked this bill around. House Republicans can fix it.

The question is, will they? Or will they continue to obstruct progress for the sake divisive politics that hurt the citizens of Michigan? And will Mr. Albin be there to fuel that fire? My guess is yes to all the above.

Granholm would have passed the damn tax cuts except for one thing. (and those finally did go through after a compromise. See how easy that was?). She would have passed the welfare reform except for one thing. She would have passed this bill except for one thing. She has been willing to compromise and negociate on all of these proposals- House Republicans are the ones who have shown that they will not bend at all on these issues, and not only that, seem to go out of their way to find things that provoke a veto and divide us all.

But Mr. Albin chooses to leave out those little pesky details. Gee, I wonder why.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

WZZM 13 Grand Rapids - Heartwell: Granholm Veto Hurts GR
So, who were these Republicans that limited the bill to only Grand Rapids? Seems to me that they had a hand in defeating this bill all on their own.

Sorry George. As much as I love this idea, you know damn well that if all the money had gone to Detroit, the usual suspects would have been screaming about "favoritism".

Grand Rapids - Mayor George Heartwell spent 20 minutes on the phone with Governor Jennifer Granholm Tuesday. He tried in vain to convince her not to veto a law she feels unfairly benefits Grand Rapids to the exclusion of the state's other cities.

Governor Granholm and Heartwell are allies on the vast majority of issues, but not this one. "I believe that she's made a mistake - I told her that - that her veto will hurt Grand Rapids" Heartwell said Tuesday night.

In question is money, $14.4 million that would be used in the early study phases of an expanded mass transit system for greater Grand Rapids. Congress approved the money earlier this year, but its receipt was linked to action in Lansing. That action, sponsored by Grand Rapids republican Jerry Kooiman, would have extended the length of time local transit authorities could levy taxes to fund their systems. Kooiman's bill ended up applying only to Grand Rapids' Interurban Transit Partnership, something Granholm called "restrictive" and "short-sighted" in her veto letter.

I was all ready to jump down Kooiman's throat over this- but it turns out that "other" Repubs changed the provisions. Funny how party discipline falls apart on this one. Or suspicious. Take your pick.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm ought to veto a transit bill that would deny southeast Michigan, and other regions around the state, the same taxing options as the Grand Rapids area. As it stands, the bill is another slap by Republican leaders at southeast Michigan's efforts to improve public transportation.

The bill, as originally introduced by Rep. Jerry Kooiman, R-Grand Rapids, gave certain transit agencies uniform authority, with local approval, to levy property taxes for up to 25 years for rapid transit and rail projects. But other Republicans pushed to change the bill to apply to Kent County only. Current law limits transit levies to five years.

The best remedy is for Granholm to ask the Legislature for a bill like the one Kooiman initially introduced, giving transit agencies the same extended levy authority for rapid transit and rail projects.

Grand Rapids should have the authority provided in the bill. The region's Interurban Transit Partnership plans to develop a streetcar or rapid transit bus corridor serving its downtown and is seeking a

$14.4-million federal grant for engineering work on the project. The Grand Rapids area has become the state's leader in transit and land use planning, and the Legislature ought to encourage its efforts.

But, without change, the bill on Granholm's desk could also block a proposed Detroit-Ann Arbor rapid transit line that would also serve the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Congress has already approved $100 million to design the system. The federal government could also chip in up to 80% of the costs of building such a line, but not if the region doesn't have a long-term plan to pay for operating costs. The Legislature's bill would prevent such a plan by limiting levy authority to five years. Either way, local voters would have to approve any plan to pay for transit systems through property taxes.

Other than petty politics, there's no reason to give only one region the tools to move ahead on major federally funded transit projects. Michigan's local finance law should apply uniformly.

OK, I'm missing something here. What possible gain do the Repubs get by changing this bill so it's certain to get vetoed? And why did Kooiman allow it? Was this designed on purpose to strengthen the divide between Detroit vs. Everyone Else, and make the governor look like the bad guy in the process?

And why would I be so shocked that Michigan Republicans would hurt their constituents based on petty politics alone? Will I ever learn?

On another note- I had to go through three different sources to learn the full story here. A big "boo" to the Grand Rapids media for not presenting the all the details. Let's see if later editions present a balanced picture of why this happened, rather than taking this as just a slap at Grand Rapids.

Defense Lawyers in Terror Cases Plan Challenges Over Spy Efforts - New York Times
It seems there is a little problem with King George's plan...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 - Defense lawyers in some of the country's biggest terrorism cases say they plan to bring legal challenges to determine whether the National Security Agency used illegal wiretaps against several dozen Muslim men tied to Al Qaeda.

The lawyers said in interviews that they wanted to learn whether the men were monitored by the agency and, if so, whether the government withheld critical information or misled judges and defense lawyers about how and why the men were singled out.

The expected legal challenges, in cases from Florida, Ohio, Oregon and Virginia, add another dimension to the growing controversy over the agency's domestic surveillance program and could jeopardize some of the Bush administration's most important courtroom victories in terror cases, legal analysts say.

Disclosure of the N.S.A. program has already caused ripples in the legal system, with a judge resigning in protest from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court last week. The surveillance court, established by Congress in 1978 to grant warrants in terrorism and espionage cases, wants a briefing from the Bush administration on why it bypassed the court and ordered eavesdropping without warrants.

At the same time, defense lawyers in terrorism cases around the country say they are preparing letters and legal briefs to challenge the N.S.A. program on behalf of their clients, many of them American citizens, and to find out more about how it might have been used. They acknowledge legal hurdles, including the fact that many defendants waived some rights to appeal as part of their plea deals.

Government officials, in defending the value of the security agency's surveillance program, have said in interviews that it played a critical part in at least two cases that led to the convictions of Qaeda associates, Iyman Faris of Ohio, who admitted taking part in a failed plot to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge, and Mohammed Junaid Babar of Queens, who was implicated in a failed plot to bomb British targets.

David B. Smith, a lawyer for Mr. Faris, said he planned to file a motion in part to determine whether information about the surveillance program should have been turned over. Lawyers said they were also considering a civil case against the president, saying that Mr. Faris was the target of an illegal wiretap ordered by Mr. Bush. A lawyer for Mr. Babar declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the WH continues it's haughty arrogance.

Trent Duffy, a spokesman for the White House, declined to comment in Crawford, Tex., when asked about a report in The New York Times that the security agency had tapped into some of the country's main telephone arteries to conduct broader data-mining operations in the search for terrorists.

But Mr. Duffy said: "This is a limited program. This is not about monitoring phone calls designed to arrange Little League practice or what to bring to a potluck dinner. These are designed to monitor calls from very bad people to very bad people who have a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings and churches."

He added: "The president believes that he has the authority - and he does - under the Constitution to do this limited program. The Congress has been briefed. It is fully in line with the Constitution and also protecting American civil liberties."

I love how they manage to sneak Little League, churches and weddings into the statement. Playing to the base once again- why, if you're for God, Mom, and apple pie, you have nothing to worry about! But if you're dark skinned and have relatives overseas, we are just going to assume that you are "very bad people" and monitor your calls. Perhaps we will even lock you up and worry about the charges later.

That's the American way, right?

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Ouch:

Tampa Bay 27, Atlanta 24 (OT)
Buffalo 37, Cincinnati 27
Dallas 24, Carolina 20
Detroit 13, New Orleans 12
Jacksonville 38, Houston 20
Washington 35, N.Y. Giants 20
Pittsburgh 41, Cleveland 0
Kansas City 20, San Diego 7
San Francisco 24, St. Louis 20
Miami 24, Tennessee 10
Arizona 27, Philadelphia 21
Seattle 28, Indianapolis 13
Denver 22, Oakland 3
Chicago 24 Green Bay 17
Minnesota 23 Baltimore 30
New England 31 N.Y. Jets 21

9-7. The only good thing about this week- BUCCANEERS!

Mobile phones to announce 'you've been indicted' - Yahoo! News
We need to order a whole bunch of these for the Bush Administration.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Koreans may look at their mobile phones with some trepidation in the new year because prosecutors will start telling people they have been indicted via text messages, an official said Monday.

In a country where about 75 percent of the population carries mobile phones, prosecutors felt it was time to move away from sending legal notices on paper and send them electronically instead, said Lee Young-pyo, an administrative official.

"Most people in South Korea have mobile phones and since the notices don't reach them immediately by regular mail, this is a more definite way for the individuals to know they have received a legal notice," Lee said.

The indictments by text messages are not intended to take people by surprise. "People will receive a text message of a legal notice only after they apply for the service," he said.

Don't everybody rush in to sign up at once.

Monday, December 26, 2005

ABC Bids Farewell to Monday Night Football - Yahoo! News
The end of an era...

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - If you were ready for some football, it was the place to be for 35 seasons on Monday nights. Tonight, the NFL bids farewell to ABC, with the New England Patriots playing the New York Jets.

The second longest-running series on network TV shifts to ESPN beginning next season.

The series began in 1970, with Keith Jackson handling the play-by-play.

ESPN is paying about $1.1 billion over eight seasons for the Monday night contract.

...but with NBC picking up Sunday Night Football, it could be a nice trade.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

It's All About Me:

Four jobs you've had in your life: Record Store/CD store Clerk/Manager (the bulk of my "career"), Market Research, Fine Furniture Touch-Up Artist, Waitress (my shortest job)

Four movies you could watch over and over: Shawshank Redemption (mentioned earlier in this blog), Twister (Helen Hunt at her peak in a white tank top!), Star Wars (the original- all time record for most views), Alien/Aliens (either one)

Four places you've lived: Grand Rapids, Ada, Walker, and, uh....Grand Rapids. (and, except for one brief stint on the NE side, it's always been the SE side of Grand Rapids!)

Four TV shows you love to watch: The Daily Show, Buffy (not on much anymore), Arrested Development, Sex & the City.

Four places you've been on vacation: Jamaica, Virgin Islands, Florida (numerous), Washington D.C.

Four websites you visit daily: Daily Kos (a must), Americablog (I go way back with Aravosis), Michigan Liberal, Ogie and Dad's (ok, that's two, but who counts!)

Four of your favorite foods: Prime Rib, Cheeseburgers (I've been craving a Fab so bad), Crab Legs, anything Breakfast

Four places you'd rather be: Anna Maria Island (I should be strolling the beach right now, man. Tradition interrupted.), the Bucs game yesterday (damn you Bryan!), taking pictures in New Zealand... but, today I am glad to be at home, with my parents coming over for dinner. Merry Christmas to me!

Family of purse-snatch victim sues Meijer
Remember when they first starting putting security cameras up everywhere? "Big Brother" we mumbled, joking, but with a slight sense of unease about their sudden prevalence, about the fact that there might be someone watching you at any given minute.

Now, we depend on them. We might even sue if you don't watch us.

WYOMING -- The husband of a woman who died of injuries she suffered in a purse-snatching said Meijer Inc. should have provided better security in the parking lot outside its Clyde Park Avenue SW store, where she was robbed.

James "Harv" Herrema filed a wrongful-death suit against Meijer in the April death of his 81-year-old wife, Margaret.

"(Meijer) knew, or should have known, that criminal activity in its Clyde Park Meijer store and surrounding parking lot was a frequent occurrence," attorney William Mills wrote in a lawsuit filed recently in Kent County Circuit Court.

The attorney for the victim's husband said he filed suit only after he obtained police reports regarding the Meijer store on Clyde Park, as well as others in Kent and Ottawa counties, which detailed criminal activity in the retailer's parking lots.

Mills said surveillance cameras aimed at the parking lot, with monitors inside in visible locations, were "largely ineffective."

The cameras left gaps in coverage and did not span the entire parking lot, he said. The lack of surveillance allowed the defendants to loiter in the lot "for a considerable length of time in search of a victim," the suit said.

Can store owners be held accountable for not "keeping us safe" on their property? When we traded our shopping anonymity for the promise of protection under surveillance, was there an unspoken expectation of complete security for doing so?

In light of the national news about spying on Americans and the constant, growing monitoring and tracking of our lives in general, this story brought to mind a passage in Shawshank Redemption- and I'm paraphrasing-

"These walls are funny. At first you hate 'em. Then you get used to them. Then you grow to depend on them."

Will we get to a point where we insist that the government watch us?

Saturday, December 24, 2005

From Me to You:

It's All About Football:

Tough choices this week.

Atlanta at Tampa Bay
Buffalo at Cincinnati
Dallas at Carolina
Detroit at New Orleans (whaddaya say, Joey?)
Jacksonville at Houston
N.Y. Giants at Washington
Pittsburgh at Cleveland
San Diego at Kansas City
San Francisco at St. Louis
Tennessee at Miami
Philadelphia at Arizona
Indianapolis at Seattle (my heart goes out to the Dungy family. go Colts. win 'em all.)
Oakland at Denver
Chicago at Green Bay
Minnesota at Baltimore
New England at N.Y. Jets

NYT: NSA eavesdropping wider than W.House admitted - Yahoo! News
Shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The volume of information gathered from telephone and Internet communications by the National Security Agency without court-approved warrants was much larger than the White House has acknowledged, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Citing current and former government officials, the Times said the information was collected by tapping directly into some of the U.S. telecommunication system's main arteries. The officials said the NSA won the cooperation of telecommunications companies to obtain access to both domestic and international communications without first gaining warrants.

What do you mean, "won"? Were they paid? Was it up for bid?

A former telecommunications technology manager told the Times that industry leaders have been storing information on calling patterns and giving it to the federal government to aid in tracking possible terrorists since the September 11 attacks.

Government and industry officials with knowledge of the program told the newspaper the NSA sought to analyze communications patterns to gather clues from details like who is calling whom, how long a phone call lasts and what time of day it is made, as well as the origins and destinations of phone calls and e-mail messages.

Calls to and from Afghanistan were of particular interest to the NSA, the Times said. This so-called "pattern analysis" on calls within the United States would often otherwise require a warrant if the government wanted to trace who calls whom.

U.S.President George W. Bush and his aides have said his executive order allowing eavesdropping without warrants was limited to monitoring international phone and e-mail communications linked to people with connections to al-Qaeda. What has not been acknowledged, according to the Times, is that NSA technicians combed large amounts of phone and Internet traffic seeking patterns pointing to terrorism suspects.

Still not convinced? Try this one- Nuclear Monitoring of Muslims Done Without Search Warrants.

In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities, U.S. News has learned. In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained, according to those with knowledge of the program. Some participants were threatened with loss of their jobs when they questioned the legality of the operation, according to these accounts.

The nuclear surveillance program began in early 2002 and has been run by the FBI and the Department of Energy's Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST). Two individuals, who declined to be named because the program is highly classified, spoke to U.S. News because of their concerns about the legality of the program. At its peak, they say, the effort involved three vehicles in Washington, D.C., monitoring 120 sites per day, nearly all of them Muslim targets drawn up by the FBI. For some ten months, officials conducted daily monitoring, and they have resumed daily checks during periods of high threat. The program has also operated in at least five other cities when threat levels there have risen: Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York, and Seattle.

In Washington, the sites monitored have included prominent mosques and office buildings in suburban Maryland and Virginia. One source close to the program said that participants "were tasked on a daily and nightly basis," and that FBI and Energy Department officials held regular meetings to update the monitoring list. "The targets were almost all U.S. citizens," says the source. "A lot of us thought it was questionable, but people who complained nearly lost their jobs. We were told it was perfectly legal."

The question of search warrants is controversial, however. To ensure accurate readings, in up to 15 percent of the cases the monitoring needed to take place on private property, sources say, such as on mosque parking lots and private driveways. Government officials familiar with the program insist it is legal; warrants are unneeded for monitoring from public property, they say, as well as from publicly accessible driveways and parking lots. "If a delivery man can access it, so can we," says one.

Georgetown University Professor David Cole, a constitutional law expert, disagrees. Surveillance of public spaces such as mosques or public businesses might well be allowable without a court order, he argues, but not private offices or homes: "They don't need a warrant to drive onto the property -- the issue isn't where they are, but whether they're using a tactic to intrude on privacy. It seems to me that they are, and that they would need a warrant or probable cause."

Cole points to a 2001 Supreme Court decision, U.S. vs. Kyllo, which looked at police use -- without a search warrant -- of thermal imaging technology to search for marijuana-growing lamps in a home. The court, in a ruling written by Justice Antonin Scalia, ruled that authorities did in fact need a warrant -- that the heat sensors violated the Fourth Amendment's clause against unreasonable search and seizure. But officials familiar with the FBI/NEST program say the radiation sensors are different and are only sampling the surrounding air. "This kind of program only detects particles in the air, it's non directional," says one knowledgeable official. "It's not a whole lot different from smelling marijuana."

Well, America? Can we impeach him now?

Couple questions: Let's say they found something in either case. Wouldn't those results be thrown out of court due to lack of warrant? And, are they violating any state laws, or does the Fed always supercede the states? Even when it's warrantless? Someone needs to check the books.

Friday, December 23, 2005

WOODTV.com & WOOD TV8 - Grand Rapids news and weather - Poll: Currently more Michigan voters prefer Granholm to DeVos
I would hazard a guess that Rick Albin wrote the copy for this. It reads like he talks, putting in a disclaimer ("this far away" "can not be used") for the results.

Nothing like discrediting your story before you even tell it.

Governor Jennifer Granholm and businessman Dick DeVos seem poised for a major showdown next year in the race for the states top elected position.

A poll this far away from the election certainly can not be used as a predictor of the outcome of next year's marquee race, but it does give us an idea of what likely voters are thinking right now.

A Georgia survey company called Strategic Vision asked 1,200 likely voters who they prefer when it comes to governor. Forty-six percent say they would choose Jennifer Granholm. Thirty-five percent prefer Dick DeVos.

When asked if the state was on the right track or wrong track, only 29 percent think the state was headed in the right direction. Sixty-one percent say the state is going the wrong way.

In the past, polls have indicated that more people in Michigan blame President Bush than Governor Granholm for the state's problems, and, while the question wasn't asked directly in this poll, these numbers may partially support that same feeling.

When asked about overall job performance, 46 percent of those surveyed approved of Governor Granholm's work. Forty-seven percent disapproved.

When the same question is asked about President Bush, 36 percent approve, and 54 percent disapprove. Once again showing Michigan voters are less satisfied with Bush than Granholm.

Between Rick and the GR Press, I'm sure election year 2006 will be an adventure for my blood pressure.

Daschle: Congress Denied Bush War Powers in U.S.
And off we go into the convoluted battle of language- but Tom makes it pretty clear that Congress did not authorize the words "in the United States".

The Bush administration requested, and Congress rejected, war-making authority "in the United States" in negotiations over the joint resolution passed days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to an opinion article by former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) in today's Washington Post.

Daschle's disclosure challenges a central legal argument offered by the White House in defense of the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. It suggests that Congress refused explicitly to grant authority that the Bush administration now asserts is implicit in the resolution.

The Justice Department acknowledged yesterday, in a letter to Congress, that the president's October 2001 eavesdropping order did not comply with "the 'procedures' of" the law that has regulated domestic espionage since 1978. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, established a secret intelligence court and made it a criminal offense to conduct electronic surveillance without a warrant from that court, "except as authorized by statute."

As drafted, and as finally passed, the resolution authorized the president "to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons" who "planned, authorized, committed or aided" the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote, the administration sought to add the words 'in the United States and' after 'appropriate force' in the agreed-upon text," Daschle wrote. "This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas -- where we all understood he wanted authority to act -- but right here in the United States, potentially against American citizens. I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority. I refused."

Daschle wrote that Congress also rejected draft language from the White House that would have authorized the use of force to "deter and pre-empt any future acts of terrorism or aggression against the United States," not only against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Sounds to me like Congress said "no" and King George went ahead anyway, and we are left to define the words "necessary and appropriate force". Maybe we pin it down in the impeachment hearings. :-)

Patriot Act Extension Is Reduced To a Month
Apparently this was done because Sensenbrenner has some really hot and happening July 4th vacation plans. I can see no other reason besides that, unless you count the fact that he is a cantankerous old windbag who likes pulling people's chains to assert his authority.

The House balked yesterday at a Senate plan to extend the USA Patriot Act by six months to give Congress and President Bush more time to work out their differences, instead forcing the Senate and the administration to accept a one-month extension.

At the same time, the House approved a $460 billion defense bill that was shorn of a provision promoted by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) that would have opened Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. But it put off until next year final agreement on a major budget measure that would trim federal spending by nearly $40 billion over five years.

That was interesting. No one is talking about that this morning.

One of the most contentious disputes was over whether to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, and it appeared as if the Senate had finessed an impasse with the White House by agreeing Wednesday night to extend the existing domestic surveillance law -- set to expire on Dec. 31 -- by six months. But House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) refused to go along with the agreement yesterday. He demanded that the House pass an extension only through Feb. 3, forcing a few senators to return to the Capitol last night to give the Senate's consent.

"The fact is that a six-month extension, in my opinion, would have simply allowed the Senate to duck the issue until the last week in June," said Sensenbrenner, who had largely prevailed in negotiations with the Senate on a new version of the anti-terrorism law, only to see the compromise blocked by a Senate filibuster. "Now they came pretty close to wrecking everybody's Christmas. I didn't want to put the entire Congress in the position of them wrecking everybody's Independence Day."

Priorities, people. Congressional vacations are much more important than national security. Let's not forget that.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

House OKs One-Month Patriot Act Extension - Yahoo! News
What the f.....? Senate Republicans fought to get it six months and Sensenbrenner knocks it down to a month?

WASHINGTON - The House passed a one-month extension of the Patriot Act on Thursday and sent it to the Senate for final action as Congress scrambled to prevent expiration of anti-terror law enforcement provisions on Dec. 31.

Approval came on a voice vote in a nearly empty chamber, after Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, refused to agree to a six-month extension the Senate cleared several hours earlier.

House passage marked the latest step in a stalemate that first pitted Republicans against Democrats in the Senate, then turned into an intramural GOP dispute.

It was not clear when the Senate would act on the one-month bill, but approval was possible by evening.

Either there is something going on with the Repubs that I'm not seeing, or someone is going to get taken to the woodshed for a little ass-whuppin' later...

That's the News...

This can't be good. Officials are investigating the theft of 400 pounds of high-powered plastic explosives in New Mexico. "The missing 400 pounds of explosives includes 150 pounds of what is known as C-4 plastic, or 'sheet explosive,' which can be shaped and molded and is often used by terrorists and military operatives." Instead of listening in on phone conversations, perhaps we should watch the stuff that actually goes "boom" a little better, eh boys?

Check your Christmas candy. It might be a little...uh...heavy, especially if it came from Mexico. The FDA announced they were lowering the amount of lead allowable in certain types of children's candy. Probably a good idea.

Donald "Cut and Run" Rumsfeld announced that we would soon be lowering troop levels in Iraq. I expect to hear the condemnation from the right any second now...any second now... any...hey, where did everybody go?

Yet another reason to move to Canada- group sex is now legal. "Group sex among consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Wednesday as it lifted a ban on so-called 'swingers' clubs." Man, they are so cool up there.

Santa has been given clearance to fly into US airspace, but there is no guarantee that we won't listen in on his cell phone conversations. You've been warned, fat guy.

Quote of the Day:

From someone at Kos:

"And, for those who don't know, this nutcase is right behind Hastert, and Cheney in the line of succession. Dream those impeachment dreams, but a perfect storm of Cheney indictment, Bush impeachment and Hastert sold up the river by an Abramoff plea - we could have President Stevens."

There's a nightmare I don't need.

Appeals Court Refuses to Transfer Padilla - Yahoo! News
Well. I guess Luttig wasn't such a lapdog after all.

WASHINGTON - A government request to transfer terrorism suspect Jose Padilla from military to civilian custody was rejected by an appeals court that said the administration's shifting tactics in the case threatens its credibility with the courts.

The three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also refused on Wednesday the administration's request to vacate a September ruling that gave President Bush wide authority to detain "enemy combatants" indefinitely without charges on U.S. soil.

The decision, written by Judge J. Michael Luttig, questioned why the administration used one set of facts before the court for 3 1/2 years to justify holding Padilla without charges but used another set to convince a grand jury in Florida to indict him last month.

Luttig said the administration has risked its "credibility before the courts" by appearing to try to keep the Supreme Court from reviewing the extent of the president's power to hold enemy combatants without charges.

Those "activist" judges are getting a little uppity lately. Good for them.

Democrats post wins as Congress nears close - Yahoo! News
I like to think of it as "America posts wins as Congress nears close".

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. Congress was close to wrapping up its work for the year on Thursday in the wake of an unexpected string of Democratic successes on matters from energy to spending to security.

Senate Democrats thwarted a permanent renewal of the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act, setting up instead a temporary six-month extension of expiring provisions so changes can be considered to better safeguard civil liberties. It was a defeat for President George W. Bush, who had argued the law was mandatory for safeguarding U.S. citizens.

Well, according to the Bushies, we are going to be < cue scary music > less safe now. *quakes with fear*.

Or not.

Go ahead and veto the extension, George. I dare ya.

Senators also stripped from a $453 billion defense spending bill a provision that would have opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, another issue the administration had championed as necessary to ease U.S. dependency on foreign oil.

Eat that, Stevens. I caught a little bit of him last night, ranting and raving about all those poor people who would be hurt...and this was after Ted voted to cut domestic programs that will hurt the poor, the sick, the elderly and the kids, so I'm not sure what the hell he was talking about. It was after ANWR was stripped and the defense bill was passed. (Edit: after reading some live bloggings of the session, I guess this came as they were voting to strip ANWR from the bill. Ted threatened to resign. Ted threatened to expose everyone else's pork. Ted threatened to "visit" every district and tell the people what their representatives did. If I find a transcript, I will pick out the juicy points and post them. I guess it was the rant to end all rants. I don't know, I didn't watch the whole thing. A rerun of "Everybody Loves Raymond" was infinitely more appealing.) Anyway, his Incredible Hulk tie was bouncing up and down as he yelled...literally yelled...on the Senate floor. I thought he would pop an aneurysm.

With Senate approval, the House of Representatives was expected to give final congressional approval on Thursday to both the Patriot Act extension and the defense spending bill.

Despite the last-minute Democratic gains, Republicans still touted what they called a highly successful year. They said it included upgrading roads and mass transit, expanding trade, revamping bankruptcy laws, enacting a comprehensive energy policy and confirming John Roberts to head the U.S. Supreme Court as the 17th chief justice.

However, a nearly yearlong battle to cut spending was further delayed when Democrats forced another vote in the House on a nearly $40 billion reduction package Republicans had hoped would show they were cutting costs at a time of higher budget deficits and proposed tax cuts.

Both the House and Senate had narrowly approved the spending cut measure but Senate Democrats forced small changes that meant the House had to take it up again.

The "spending cuts" only passed by two votes, so Pelosi is making them come back today. Heh heh. It would be funny if the thing failed.

I hope this gives the Democrats a clue that they can stop all this nasty legislation if they just stand up and stick together...and I hope they use this new found spine to stand up and stop Alito. Keep your fingers crossed.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

That's the News...

U.S. District Judge John Jones smacked down the wingnuts and their attempts to push religion, under the cloak of "intelligent design", in the public schools. "Any asserted secular purposes by the board are a sham and are merely secondary to a religious objective," he said. Hope this dude has some bodyguards.

Tommy "Bugman" DeLay officially filed for re-election even though he is facing criminal charges for money laundering. Life is good when you are a member of the Culture of Corruption. A report on Tommy's lavish lifestyle shows that the Bugman enjoyed "cliff-top Caribbean resorts, golf courses designed by PGA champions and four-star restaurants — all courtesy of donors who bankrolled his political money empire." Go read the story for a complete description on Tommy's fun.

Drunken Santas run amok in New Zealand. "The rampage, dubbed Santarchy by local newspapers, began Saturday when the men, wearing ill-fitting Santa costumes, threw beer bottles and urinated on cars from an Auckland overpass, said Auckland Central Police Department spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty." There's a country with the Xmas spirit!

Happy Winter Solstice Day! Starting tomorrow, the Sun starts coming back to us. Baseball will be here before you know it.

That's all for today...I'm taking a little road trip with my Mom to get away from watching the Senate. Stick to your guns, Harry. I would love to read of a Ted Stevens complete and total melt-down when I come home.

Michigan Democratic Party- Brewer Gives DeVoses China Presents
As they say on "That 70's Show"- Burn!

LANSING - Today Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer sent gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos and his wife Betsy a letter along with appropriate Christmas gifts, a tie and a door hanging made in China. Brewer's letter is below:

Dear Dick and Betsy,

With Christmas approaching, I wanted to give you this festive tie and door hanging. I thought they would be appropriate gifts for both of you because both were made in China.

The people of Michigan know that China is a place very near and dear to your heart. As head of Amway, Dick invested hundreds of millions of dollars in China and created tens of thousands of job there. You both sought and got favorable China trade legislation, legislation which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of benefits for Amway. In 1997, you received a $300 million tax break on your China investments after your family had given millions of dollars in soft money to various Republican groups in the 1990's.

So this holiday season, I hope these gifts remind you of the investments and job creation you've given to China.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mark Brewer,
Chair, Michigan Democratic Party

Wow. This guy is good.

Spying Program Snared U.S. Calls - New York Times
Ooops!

"I can assure you, by the physics of the intercept, by how we actually conduct our activities, that one end of these communications are always outside the United States."- General Michael Hayden.

Except when they are not.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - A surveillance program approved by President Bush to conduct eavesdropping without warrants has captured what are purely domestic communications in some cases, despite a requirement by the White House that one end of the intercepted conversations take place on foreign soil, officials say.

The officials say the National Security Agency's interception of a small number of communications between people within the United States was apparently accidental, and was caused by technical glitches at the National Security Agency in determining whether a communication was in fact "international."

Telecommunications experts say the issue points up troubling logistical questions about the program. At a time when communications networks are increasingly globalized, it is sometimes difficult even for the N.S.A. to determine whether someone is inside or outside the United States when making a cellphone call or sending an e-mail message. As a result, people that the security agency may think are outside the United States are actually on American soil.

Eavesdropping on communications between two people who are both inside the United States is prohibited under Mr. Bush's order allowing some domestic surveillance.

But in at least one instance, someone using an international cellphone was thought to be outside the United States when in fact both people in the conversation were in the country. Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the program remains classified, would not discuss the number of accidental intercepts, but the total is thought to represent a very small fraction of the total number of wiretaps that Mr. Bush has authorized without getting warrants. In all, officials say the program has been used to eavesdrop on as many as 500 people at any one time, with the total number of people reaching perhaps into the thousands in the last three years.

Yup, just a little accident. Nothing to see here....move along....

In other spy news, a federal FISA judge has quit in protest of the program. Wonder why it took him so long.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of U.S. President George W. Bush's authorization of a domestic spying program, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Citing two sources, the newspaper reported U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as FISA, sent his resignation to Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday.

The Post said the resignation letter gave no explanation for Robertson stepping down. Robertson declined comment when reached on Tuesday, the newspaper said.

Robertson is considered a liberal judge who has often ruled against the Bush administration's assertions of broad powers in the terrorism fight, the Post said.

Revelation that authorized domestic spying on Americans suspected of terrorists links without court approval spurred considerable debate among federal judges, including some on the FISA Court, The Washington Post said.

The Post said Robertson indicated privately to colleagues in recent conversations that he was concerned that information gained from warrantless National Security Agency surveillance could have then been used to obtain FISA warrants.

And the quote of the day goes to Senator John "Box Turtle" Cornyn, who absolutely blew my mind when he said-

"None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead".

Please check your civil liberties at the door, America. Welcome to the Police State.

I am so incredibly creeped out by these people who would forfeit their freedom to Big Brother it's not even funny.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

From the E-Mail Bag:

Howard from Vermont writes:

By now you have probably heard the news that George Bush is using the National Security Agency to conduct surveillance on American citizens without the consent of any court. After initially refusing to confirm the story, the President has admitted to personally overseeing this domestic spying program for years and he says he intends to continue the program.

These actions explicitly violate a law designed to protect US citizens. But the administration says that other laws somehow allow for this unprecedented use of a foreign intelligence agency to spy on Americans right here in the United States. According to reports, political appointees in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel wrote still-classified legal opinions laying out the supposed justification for this program.

I have asked our General Counsel to draft a Freedom of Information Act request for the relevant legal opinions and memos written by that office. Since the program's existence is no longer a secret, these memos should be released -- Americans deserve to know exactly what authority this administration believes it has.

You can help pressure the administration to release these documents by signing on to our Freedom of Information Act request in the next 48 hours:

www.democrats.org/foia

This extra-legal activity is even more disturbing because it is unnecessary -- the administration already has access to a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That court was created precisely to provide speedy, secure judicial review to the actions of our intelligence agencies.

To allow authorities act as quickly as possible, officials can even apply for a retroactive warrant days after the surveillance has already begun. Secret warrants have been approved over 19,000 times -- only five applications were rejected in nearly thirty years. The court, which regularly acts within hours, is hardly a roadblock, but it prevents abuse by providing the oversight required by our system of checks and balances.

This administration must demonstrate clearly what legal authority allows it to disregard criminal prohibitions on unilateral domestic spying. Sign on to the request now -- it will be delivered on Thursday:

www.democrats.org/foia

We have seen this kind of arrogance of power before.

Richard Nixon once said in an interview that, "if the president does it, it can't be illegal."

He found out that wasn't true. This administration may need a reminder.

Thank you.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D

Go help Howard out. You'll be glad you did.

P.S. You're not seeing things- I changed the link/visited link colors.

Ehlers, Hoekstra critical of defense budget
My man Vern strikes again.

U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra said he was sending a message when he broke Republican ranks and voted against a record $453 billion defense bill early Monday.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee should know how much is spent on gathering intelligence -- especially post 9/11, he said.

"There's more than just a little frustration," he said.

Hoekstra, of Holland, and U.S. Rep. Vernon Ehlers, of Grand Rapids, were among 16 Republicans who voted against the defense bill, which passed 308-106. For Ehlers, it was mostly a matter of energy policy. A provision to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which he opposes, was tied to the bill.

Hoekstra and Ehlers said they were not voting against the troops in Iraq.

Hoekstra said he was unable to learn, until after the vote, where the money was going for intelligence.

"I believe on a point of principle that the authorizing committees ought to have full exposure and access to how the appropriators spend money," Hoekstra said.

Pete votes against the defense bill because he doesn't have full access to where the money is going. But, Pete supports the President on the wire-tap issue. Does that mean Pete has full access to who is being tapped and for what purposes? Or does that mean Pete is more concerned about money than civil liberties? You decide.

U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra rejected claims White House-approved eavesdropping violates privacy rights, and he confirmed Monday that he was briefed "at least three times" about the secret program.

Hoekstra defended the eavesdropping as a legitimate tool in the war against terrorists.

The Holland Republican was briefed as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee at the White House by officials he described as the "upper levels" of the administration.

Anyway, back to Vern. I'm proud of him for taking a stand on ANWR. Way to go, Mr. Ehlers.

He couldn't let $5 million in local projects sway his vote on more than $400 billion in defense spending, Ehlers said, explaining the Arctic drilling provision was "something we should have voted on separately. I thought that was dirty pool."

The drilling poses an environmental threat and keeps the United States in the wrong direction on energy, he said. The nation, he said, should spend more on alternative sources.

"We're going to develop bigger appetites for oil. Ten years from now, when ANWR's gone, we're going to be in even worse shape than we're in now."

He also said he didn't have time enough to study the defense bill.

"I thought this was extreme -- a huge bill with that many expenditures," he said. He feared he would "read in the paper" about some "silly little things" -- pork barrel projects -- that were included.

Yea for Vern. I wish more Congresscritters felt that way.

FBI watched political, social groups, agency records show - baltimoresun.com
Perhaps some answers to the "who" is being watched can be found here. (registration required)

WASHINGTON // Counterterrorism agents at the FBI have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show.

FBI officials said yesterday that their investigators had no interest in monitoring political or social activities and that any investigations that touched on advocacy groups were driven by evidence of criminal or violent activity at public protests and in other settings.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, John Ashcroft, who was then attorney general, loosened restrictions on the FBI's investigative powers, giving the bureau greater ability to visit and monitor Web sites, mosques and other public entities in developing terrorism leads. The bureau has used that authority to investigate not only groups with suspected ties to foreign terrorists, but also protest groups suspected of having links to violent or disruptive activities.

But the documents, coming after the Bush administration's confirmation that President Bush had authorized domestic anti-terrorism spying without warrants, prompted charges from civil rights advocates that the government had improperly blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest.

Define "disruptive".

The documents, provided to The New York Times over the past week, came as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. For more than a year, the ACLU has sought access to information in FBI files on about 150 protest and social groups that it says may have been improperly monitored.

The FBI had previously turned over a small number of documents on anti-war groups, showing the agency's interest in investigating possible anarchist or violent links in connection with anti-war protests and demonstrations in advance of the 2004 political conventions. And earlier this month, the ACLU's Colorado chapter released similar documents involving, among other things, people protesting logging practices at a lumber industry gathering in 2002.

The latest batch of documents, parts of which the ACLU planned to release publicly today, totals more than 2,300 pages and centers on references in internal files to a handful of groups, including PETA, the environmental group Greenpeace and the Catholic Workers group, which promotes anti-poverty efforts and social causes.

Many of the investigative documents turned over by the bureau are heavily redacted, making it difficult or impossible to determine the full context of the references and why the FBI may have been discussing events like a PETA protest. FBI officials say many of the references may be more benign than they seem to civil rights advocates, adding that the documents offer an incomplete and sometimes misleading snapshot of the bureau's activities.

ACLU officials said the latest documents released by the FBI indicated the agency's interest in a broader array of activist and protest groups than they had previously thought. In light of other recent disclosures about domestic surveillance activities by the National Security Agency and military intelligence units, the ACLU charged that the documents reflected a pattern of overreaching by the Bush administration.

"It's clear that this administration has engaged every possible agency, from the Pentagon to NSA to the FBI, to engage in spying on Americans," said Ann Beeson, associate legal director for the ACLU.

"You look at these documents," Beeson said, "and you think, wow, we have really returned to the days of J. Edgar Hoover."

Big Brother is already here.

Democrats Say They Never OK'd Wiretapping - Yahoo! News
Need answers to who, when, and what. Who knew. When were they told. How much did they know, and were they lied to about the scope of the program. And the big who- exactly who were they spying on? And why did it need such secrecy?

Let the rumblings of impeachment begin.

WASHINGTON - Some Democrats say they never approved a domestic wiretapping program, undermining suggestions by President Bush and his senior advisers that the plan was fully vetted in a series of congressional briefings.

"I feel unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse, these activities," West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Senate Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, said in a handwritten letter (pdf) to Vice President Dick Cheney in July 2003. "As you know, I am neither a technician nor an attorney."

What's interesting about this handwritten letter is that Jay felt it necessary to include this at the end.

"I am retaining a copy of this letter in a sealed envelope in the secure spaces of the Senate Intelligence Committee to ensure that I have a record of this communication."

Was this a CYA (cover your ass) moment, or was he that afraid of what was going on that he felt the need to remind Cheney that there would be a record of this? (I'm leaning toward CYA).

On to the others- starting with Bob Graham.

Former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., who was part of the Intelligence Committee's leadership after the 9/11 attacks, recalled a briefing about changes in international electronic surveillance, but does not remember being told of a program snooping on individuals in the United States.

"It seemed fairly mechanical," Graham said. "It was not a major shift in policy."

So Bob didn't know the scope or the details. Next, our girl Nancy.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., received several briefings and raised concerns, including in a classified letter, her spokeswoman Jennifer Crider said.

Nancy has been the most cagey in her statements, and she seems to be the only one who has known since the beginning. I'm getting the impression she knew everything. Tom?

Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said he, too, was briefed by the White House between 2002 and 2004 but was not told key details about the scope of the program.

Put another down for "not told the scope" of the program. Harry?

Daschle's successor, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he received a single briefing earlier this year and that important details were withheld. "We need to investigate this program and the president's legal authority to carry it out," Reid said.

Another story has Harry finding out only a couple of months ago, and he wasn't told the details.

Which Republicans knew? And how much did they know? Congressional oversight seems to be an important part of the President's defense on this- let's get the facts out.

Already Bush is implying that investigations would somehow help the enemy. This is the scariest thing of all to me.

Bush said the electronic eavesdropping program lets the government move faster than the standard practice of seeking a court-authorized warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. "We've got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent," the president said.

And he was cool toward investigations. "An open debate would say to the enemy, `Here is what we're going to do.' And this is an enemy which adjusts," he said.

Which tells me he is going to use the "War on Terra" as an excuse to thwart investigations into his own criminal acts. Let's hope that bullshit won't fly anymore.

Monday, December 19, 2005

It's All About Me:

New England 28, Tampa Bay 0 (ouch)
N.Y. Giants 27, Kansas City 17
Denver 28, Buffalo 17
Houston 30, Arizona 19
Carolina 27, New Orleans 10
Miami 24, N.Y. Jets 20
Philadelphia 17, St. Louis 16
Pittsburgh 18, Minnesota 3
San Diego 26, Indianapolis 17 (awwwww)
Seattle 28, Tennessee 24
Jacksonville 10, San Francisco 9
Cincinnati 41, Detroit 17
Cleveland 9, Oakland 7
Washington 35, Dallas 7
Chicago 16, Atlanta 3
Baltimore 48 Green Bay 3

13-3.

Washington, D.C.– U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today asked four presidential scholars for their opinion on former White House Counsel John Dean’s statement that President Bush admitted to an “impeachable offense” when he said he authorized the National Security Agency to spy on Americans without getting a warrant from a judge.

Boxer said, “I take very seriously Mr. Dean’s comments, as I view him to be an expert on Presidential abuse of power. I am expecting a full airing of this matter by the Senate in the very near future.”

Boxer’s letter is as follows:

On December 16, along with the rest of America, I learned that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to spy on Americans without getting a warrant from a judge. President Bush underscored his support for this action in his press conference today.

On Sunday, December 18, former White House Counsel John Dean and I participated in a public discussion that covered many issues, including this surveillance. Mr. Dean, who was President Nixon’s counsel at the time of Watergate, said that President Bush is “the first President to admit to an impeachable offense.” Today, Mr. Dean confirmed his statement.

This startling assertion by Mr. Dean is especially poignant because he experienced first hand the executive abuse of power and a presidential scandal arising from the surveillance of American citizens.

Given your constitutional expertise, particularly in the area of presidential impeachment, I am writing to ask for your comments and thoughts on Mr. Dean’s statement.

Unchecked surveillance of American citizens is troubling to both me and many of my constituents. I would appreciate your thoughts on this matter as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer

United States Senator

Be sure and let us know what they say, ok? OK!

That's the News....

George "Dictator" Bush vows to continue to spy on Americans, and if you don't like it, tough shit. You must be a terrorist. Coming next, little TV cameras in every home just so, you know, we can watch what you are doing. Maybe a little recorder in your car to see where you are driving. Don't worry, it's to "protect your freedom". And if you don't like it, why, you must be a terrorist. Who can argue with that?

Bush pulled a Rovian slip-of-the-tongue in his press conference Monday, substituting "Saddam" when he meant to say "Osama". Aides were quite impressed that it took him this long to verbally screw this up after four years of implying the two were connected.

Dick "Dick" Cheney finally made it to a combat zone after forty years of successful dodging. First thing his Iraqi hosts said was, "Leave. Get your troops and leave." Dick replied that was not an option. "Guess what! We are never leaving. How are the pipelines coming along?"

Harry Reid calls this Congress "the most corrupt in history". I really can't add to that.

NSA has a page on their website just for kids! Yes, kids, you too can spy on your neighbors, just like the President! Any resemblance to the "Youth League" and the "Spies" in the book "1984" are purely coincidental, but we are getting closer and closer everyday.

The fact that Bill "Transmission Through Tears" Frist has an AIDS charity is hard to believe. The fact that he is probably funneling big money donations from major corporations through it is not.

House Opens Way for Oil Drilling in Artic - Yahoo! News
Like the thieves that they are, in the dead of night they stole from the environment and stole from the people. There is a reason why Congress has a lower approval rating than the worst President this country has ever seen. These bastards ought to be ashamed of themselves.

WASHINGTON - House lawmakers opened the way for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as one of their last acts of an all-night session Monday bringing their legislative year to a close.

The House also narrowly passed a plan to cut deficits by almost $40 billion over five years in legislation hailed by GOP conservatives as a sign their party was returning to fiscal discipline and assailed by Democrats as victimizing medical and education programs that help the poor.

The ANWR provision was attached to a major defense bill, forcing many opponents of oil and gas exploration in the barren northern Alaska range to vote for it. The bill, passed 308-106, also included money for hurricane relief and bird flu preventive measures.

The deficit measure, passed 212-206, carried an extension of expiring welfare laws and repealed a program that compensates companies hurt by trading partners who "dump" their exports in this country.

A $453 billion defense spending bill became the flypaper for issues that have eluded congressional compromise. Those included, along with the ANWR provision, $29 billion in federal aid for victims of Katrina and other storms; an additional $2 billion to help low-income families with home heating costs; and $3.8 billion to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic. Of the defense money, $50 billion is for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also in the bill is the compromise language worked out between Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and the White House banning the cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody.

Democrats and moderate Republicans have for years blocked drilling in ANWR, and its inclusion in the defense bill exposed that bill to a possible filibuster in the Senate that can only be broken with a 60-vote majority.

Democrats complained that they were being forced to accept ANWR drilling with their vote on military spending and hurricane relief.

Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, denounced the ANWR provision and another last-minute addition sought by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.: liability protection for vaccine makers in most circumstances, coupled with a compensation fund to individuals harmed by the shots they receive.

"There is something especially outrageous about the willingness of the majority party leadership to allow the Defense Department bill, in a time of war, to be held hostage to totally unrelated special interest items," Obey said.

GOP conservatives, disturbed that their party has overseen a surge in government spending and massive federal deficits, applauded a provision in the defense bill that would cut all discretionary federal programs, except those affecting veterans, by 1 percent in fiscal 2006, producing savings of $8.5 billion.

"Tonight the Congress will renew our commitment to the principles of fiscal discipline and limited government that minted this majority," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., who leads a group of House conservatives.

Ha ha ha! How these assholes can say that with a straight face is beyond me.

Here's how they did it- by stealing from the old, the sick, and the kids.

Republicans originally put the savings at $41.6 billion, but that figure was later reduced to $39.7 billion with restoration of Medicare payments for oxygen patients, a late concession to lawmakers with interests in the durable medical equipment industry.

Planned spending on Medicare was estimated to fall by $6.4 billion and Medicaid by $4.8 billion. Another $13 billion would be saved from student loan programs, in part by establishing a fixed 6.8 percent interest rate instead of maintaining lower variable rates.

The largest single savings in Medicare would reduce anticipated federal funding for the private HMOs established under 2003 Medicare legislation.

Officials said the changes to Medicaid include an attempt to make it harder for the elderly to transfer their assets to children or others in order to qualify for federal nursing home benefits.

Did you hear that, Mr and Mrs. Middle Class? They are going to bleed your parents dry before they can get into the nursing home. Hope you weren't planning on any kind of inheritance!

And the only reason they are going to give AIR to OXYGEN patients is to help their buddies in the equipment industry. Think about that.

They were going to cut the AIR off from sick people so the rich can enjoy their tax cuts.

Absolutely disgusting.

The Senate should be a knock-down, drag-out fight on this today. Go get 'em Harry.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Garciaparra Agrees to Terms With Dodgers - Yahoo! News
Best of luck to you Nomar. Wish things could have been different...

LOS ANGELES - Five-time All-Star Nomar Garciaparra agreed to a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Team spokesman Josh Rawitch said Sunday that Garciaparra passed a physical and will be introduced Monday at a Dodger Stadium news conference.

Garciaparra also considered the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros. He spent several hours with Dodgers executives Thursday and Friday — the first day with agent Arn Tellem, the second with his wife, former soccer star Mia Hamm. Garciaparra and Hamm live in suburban Manhattan Beach.

Don't look now, but the Dodgers are putting together a nice little team...

Bush's Fumbles Spur New Talk of Oversight on Hill
I'll believe it when I see it. The Republican majority will never allow it. While I'm hearing rumblings from a few Republicans, the healthy cynic in me says they are only doing it to save their own skin come election time. (The cynic in me also says, "what elections? that would only embolden the terrorists", but that's another post)

After a series of embarrassing disclosures, Congress is reconsidering its relatively lenient oversight of the Bush administration.

Lawmakers have been caught by surprise by several recent reports, including the existence of secret U.S. prisons abroad, the CIA's detention overseas of innocent foreign nationals, and, last week, the discovery that the military has been engaged in domestic spying. After five years in which the GOP-controlled House and Senate undertook few investigations into the administration's activities, the legislative branch has begun to complain about being in the dark.

On Friday, after learning that the National Security Agency was eavesdropping on conversations in the United States, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said that the activity was "wrong and it can't be condoned at all," and that his committee "can undertake oversight on it."

That same day, the House approved a resolution that would direct the administration to provide House and Senate intelligence committees with classified reports on the secret U.S. prisons overseas.

And you honestly think that this adminstration is going to comply with that? Riiiiight. They'll get back to you soon. Promise.

Democrats have long complained about a dearth of congressional investigations into Bush administration activities, but their criticism has been gaining validation from others after the botched response to Hurricane Katrina, problems in Iraq and ethical lapses.

In an interview last week, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said "it's a fair comment" that the GOP-controlled Congress has done insufficient oversight and "ought to be" doing more.

"Republican Congresses tend to overinvestigate Democratic administrations and underinvestigate their own," said Davis, who added that he has tried to pick up some of the slack with his committee. "I get concerned we lose our separation of powers when one party controls both branches."

Democrats on the committee said the panel issued 1,052 subpoenas to probe alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party between 1997 and 2002, at a cost of more than $35 million. By contrast, the committee under Davis has issued three subpoenas to the Bush administration, two to the Energy Department over nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, and one last week to the Defense Department over Katrina documents.

1,052 to 3. Just wanted to make sure everyone caught that number.

Last month, House Democrats tried to pass a measure criticizing the GOP for a "refusal to conduct oversight" of the Iraq war. In the Senate, Democrats forced the chamber into a closed session to embarrass Republicans for foot-dragging on an inquiry into the alleged manipulation of Iraq intelligence.

"The House has absolutely zero oversight. They just don't engage in that," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in an interview last week.

Specifically, Democrats list 14 areas where the GOP majority has "failed to investigate" the administration, including the role of senior officials in the abuse of detainees; leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame; the role of Vice President Cheney's office in awarding contracts to Cheney's former employer, Halliburton; the White House's withholding from Congress the cost of a Medicare prescription drug plan; the administration's relationship with Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi; and the influence of corporate interests on energy policy, environmental regulation and tobacco policy.

Meanwhile, the House ethics committee has not opened a new case or launched an investigation in the past 12 months, despite outside investigations involving, among others, Cunningham and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Culture of Corruption must be stopped. We must take back the House in 2006.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Bloomberg.com: Bush Defends U.S. Wiretaps, Urges Patriot Act Renewal
Just had to blog this for this one quote- it's a doozy.

Russ Feingold on CNN today-

"We have a president, not a king, and that's the way he's talking,'' Feingold said in an interview with CNN. "What he's doing, I believe, is illegal. And it's really quite a shocking moment in the history of our country.''

Wonder what the founding fathers would have thought of all this. James Madison, to the courtesy phone, please.

That's the News...

George "Liar" Bush says that he never made the connection between Saddam and 9/11. Nope, wasn't him. Nuh-uh. Oh no he didn't! "There was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the attack of 9/11," Bush said. "I've never said that and never made that case prior to going into Iraq." So, all you Americans that thought that there was a connection between the two must have been under a mass delusion. Where would you get that idea?

Georgie is also a little bummed that the Senate blocked the extension of the Patriot Act. One has to wonder why when he just ignores the laws anyway. Seriously, why do we need the Patriot Act? Or the Constitution, for that matter? There are reasons why Bush ranks as the "least popular and most bellicose" President out of the last ten, and I think he is trying to display them all this week.

Tests show the Diebold voting machines can easily be hacked without a trace being left behind. I guess we don't need to bother having elections, either.

In happier news, $3 billion will be going to rebuild the levees in New Orleans.

More creepy ~~Christmas~~ Holiday news- a homeowner in Florida has a display of a gutted Rudolph, complete with red lights representing blood draining from the body, in his front yard. "I don't think it's very nice at all. It's Rudolph and I think that's really nasty," said neighbor Bree McMahon. Um, yeah. I guess so. There are some folks I don't mind the NSA spying on.

West Wing actor John Spencer passed away at the age of 58 from a heart attack. While I only caught West Wing on and off throughout the years, I do remember John from LA Law- at the time I was busy drooling over Amanda Donohoe. (hey, I was young) Another piece of my past drifts away. Thanks for the memories, John.

It's All About Me:

Tampa Bay at New England (leap of faith. go Bucs!)
Kansas City at N.Y. Giants
Denver at Buffalo
Arizona at Houston
Carolina at New Orleans
N.Y. Jets at Miami
Philadelphia at St. Louis
Pittsburgh at Minnesota
San Diego at Indianapolis
Seattle at Tennessee
San Francisco at Jacksonville
Cincinnati at Detroit
Cleveland at Oakland
Dallas at Washington
Atlanta at Chicago
Green Bay at Baltimore (how did this dog get on Monday night?)

Bush Approved Eavesdropping, Official Says - Yahoo! News
After everything this administration has done- from a war based on lies to the culture of corruption that has flourished under their leadership- I took this story as par for the course. It didn't surprise me in the least that he would break the law.

I guess it surprised everyone else. (except the New York Times, which held this story for over a year) This story is blowing up in a big way.

What surprises me is that in a CNN quick poll, 30% of respondents think that this is OK. It's an unscientific poll, I know, but still. There is a certain base of Americans that think throwing out the Constitution is fine, and that anything this guy does is acceptable. THAT'S freaky.

WASHINGTON - President Bush has personally authorized a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States more than three dozen times since October 2001, a senior intelligence official said Friday night.

The disclosure follows angry demands by lawmakers earlier in the day for congressional inquiries into whether the monitoring by the highly secretive National Security Agency violated civil liberties.

"There is no doubt that this is inappropriate," declared Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He promised hearings early next year.

Bush on Friday refused to discuss whether he had authorized such domestic spying without obtaining warrants from a court, saying that to comment would tie his hands in fighting terrorists.

In a broad defense of the program put forward hours later, however, a senior intelligence official told The Associated Press that the eavesdropping was narrowly designed to go after possible terrorist threats in the United States.

The official said that, since October 2001, the program has been renewed more than three dozen times. Each time, the White House counsel and the attorney general certified the lawfulness of the program, the official said. Bush then signed the authorizations.

During the reviews, government officials have also provided a fresh assessment of the terrorist threat, showing that there is a catastrophic risk to the country or government, the official said.

"Only if those conditions apply do we even begin to think about this," he said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the intelligence operation.

"The president has authorized NSA to fully use its resources — let me underscore this now — consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution to defend the United States and its citizens," the official said, adding that congressional leaders have also been briefed more than a dozen times.

Which "congressional leaders" were briefed and thought this to be OK? I have a few wild guesses. Let's hear some names. Perhaps they need to lose their jobs come election time.

Can we impeach this son-of-a-bitch now? What more does he have to do?

UPDATE: This morning Bush himself admitted giving authorizarion to this in the name of "fighting the terrorists". So, there you have it. George is above the law. Just so you all know.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Senate Blocks Extension of Patriot Act - Yahoo! News
SMACKDOWN! In your eye, Georgie. Heh heh.

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Friday rejected attempts to reauthorize several provisions of the USA Patriot Act as infringing too much on Americans' privacy, dealing a major defeat to President Bush and Republican leaders.

In a crucial vote Friday morning as Congress raced toward adjournment, the bill's Senate supporters were not able to garner the 60 votes necessary to overcome a threatened filibuster by Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and their allies. The final vote was 52-47

Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and GOP congressional leaders had lobbied fiercely to make most of the expiring Patriot Act provisions permanent, and add new safeguards and expiration dates to the two most controversial parts: roving wiretaps and secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries.

Making most of the act's provisions permanent was a priority for both the Bush administration and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill before Congress adjourns for the year.

The House on Wednesday passed a House-Senate compromise bill to renew the Act that supporters say added significant safeguards to the law.

The failure to renew the provisions would be "interpreted by our enemies as somehow inviting or even enabling further terrorist attacks on U.S. soil," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said.

But the law's critics, such as Sens. Feingold and Craig, say they don't want the Patriot Act to expire — they just want enough time to improve the bill to the point where it doesn't infringe on American liberties. That idea was rejected by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R.-Tenn., and by the White House.

"In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without these vital tools for a single moment," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said earlier today before the Senate vote.

Right, Orrin. Like they give a fuck what our laws can and cannot do. And yes Scottie, I expect the whole country to blow up any second now because you thugs can't infringe on people's privacy right this very moment.

Woo -hoo! 'Bout time these fools stood up to this.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval represents a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches.

"This is really a sea change," said a former senior official who specializes in national security law. "It's almost a mainstay of this country that the N.S.A. only does foreign searches."

Nearly a dozen current and former officials, who were granted anonymity because of the classified nature of the program, discussed it with reporters for The New York Times because of their concerns about the operation's legality and oversight.

According to those officials and others, reservations about aspects of the program have also been expressed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a judge presiding over a secret court that oversees intelligence matters. Some of the questions about the agency's new powers led the administration to temporarily suspend the operation last year and impose more restrictions, the officials said.

Some officials familiar with it say they consider warrantless eavesdropping inside the United States to be unlawful and possibly unconstitutional, amounting to an improper search. One government official involved in the operation said he privately complained to a Congressional official about his doubts about the legality of the program. But nothing came of his inquiry. "People just looked the other way because they didn't want to know what was going on," he said.

A senior government official recalled that he was taken aback when he first learned of the operation. "My first reaction was, ‘We're doing what?' " he said. While he said he eventually felt that adequate safeguards were put in place, he added that questions about the program's legitimacy were understandable.

We are probably only scratching the surface here. In the years to come I'm sure there will be all kinds of revelations of the laws that this adminstration bent, broke, changed or downright ignored under the guise of "national security".

Bush Accepts McCain's Ban on Torture - Yahoo! News
Once again, the media doesn't read the fine print. There is a reason why Bush caved on this deal-

WASHINGTON - President Bush reversed course on Thursday and accepted Sen. John McCain's call for a law banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror.

Bush said the agreement will "make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad."

Under the deal, CIA interrogators would be given the same legal rights as currently guaranteed members of the military who are accused of breaking interrogation guidelines. Those rules say the accused can defend themselves by arguing it was reasonable for them to believe they were obeying a legal order. The government also would provide counsel for accused interrogators.

Well, if we don't torture, why would the CIA need legal protection? Why would any member of the military need legal protection? Why would anyone give an order to torture, knowing that it's now supposedly against the law?

Doesn't really matter, because an amendement attached to the bill prohibits detainees from going to federal court to complain about it.

Congress will soon consider two amendments that threaten a descent into hypocrisy. Both have been tacked onto the defense authorization bill. A provision by Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) is an unconditional bar on torture - a prospect President Bush finds so damaging he is threatening to veto the entire bill.

But he won't have to, thanks to a recent amendment by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R., S.C.). This one bars Guantánamo detainees from going to federal court to enforce the rights that McCain would declare sacrosanct.

A shabby compromise is in the making. Bush removes his veto threat - as long as Graham's amendment remains in the bill - to transform McCain's principles into a hypocritical gesture: Listen up, world, we are against torture at Guantánamo - as long as nobody can complain about it.

To deflect critics, Graham has created an exception to allow Guantánamo inmates their day in court once they are finally convicted of a crime by a military tribunal. But this exception creates more perverse incentives. If a detainee has been victimized, the best way to cover it up is to hold him indefinitely as an "enemy combatant" and never send him before a military tribunal. That way, he will never get access to a federal court.

At present, only nine of the 500 Guantánamo detainees have been charged with crimes, and none have yet been convicted. How long will it take for Americans to learn what is really going on inside?

Graham's amendment poses even greater damage. The Supreme Court has recently decided to hear a case from a Guantánamo inmate who insists that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires a judicial hearing immediately. Graham's rider may require the court to drop this case in midstream.

Not only that, the Army is going to change it's definition of "torture". And it's going to keep it a secret.

It's reported that the Army is forwarding a classified addendum to the new Army Field Manual on interrogation operations. According to these reports, the 10-page addendum provides dozens of examples of what procedures may and may not be used by interrogators, and it informs commanders on the circumstances for their employment.

This move amounts to an attempt by the Army to use the back door to establish secret interrogation techniques at the same time the new Field Manual on interrogation operations is coming out (later this month). It sends exactly the wrong message to the world and, more important, fosters the same kind of confusion and contradictory policies that have contributed to the abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

The Army's move to draft a more specific Field Manual is an attempt to rectify these problems and provide clear guidance that commanders and soldiers at all levels can understand and readily implement. It has the added benefit of sending a message to our allies and enemies that in an open society, we value the rule of law and will not train soldiers to violate human rights. An unequivocal message is essential to begin to repair the enormous damage caused by the incidents of detainee abuse broadcast throughout the world.

An addendum to the Field Manual that details secret techniques and sets out secret rules for their employment undermines this entire effort. A secret list such as this contradicts our efforts to demonstrate that we are an open society governed by the rule of law and that the U.S. military respects human rights.

This secret document also creates the very confusion that commanders and soldiers faced at Abu Ghraib. The message to soldiers and commanders will be that there is one set of rules on interrogation techniques for public consumption and then there are the "real rules." This secret set of rules puts added pressure on commanders at all levels to use the most aggressive interrogation techniques possible.

So on the surface, we look so good, don't we Mr. McCain? But underneath, we've jacked around the rules once again so the Bush cabal can continue on with business as usual. We will torture people.

I have reasons why I don't trust John McCain, and this is a fine example. He's taking all the glory and credit here, when in actuality nothing will change. Sometimes I think he is just George Bush with a brain. And that's a scary, scary thing.

Thanks go this Kossack for pointing all of this out.

Democrats to fight ANWR drilling in defense bill - Yahoo! News
It seems some Republicans won't rest until every last piece of pristine wilderness left in this country is open for exploitation and destruction.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats said on Thursday said they will fight an effort by Republicans to use a must-pass Defense Department budget bill to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Drilling supporters see attaching the ANWR provision to the defense spending measure as their last-ditch effort to finally give oil companies access to the refuge after a group of House of Representative Republicans threatened to kill a separate budget deficit reduction bill if that legislation contained the drilling language.

Most Democrats are against drilling in the refuge and argue the Defense Department budget bill should not be used to settle the issue.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said if the ANWR drilling language is in the defense spending legislation Democrats would argue it violates Senate rules because the provision is not related to defense issues. "The (Senate) parliamentarian will rule in our favor," Reid told reporters.

"It's appalling that the United States Senate is willing to hold our troops and hurricane victims hostage to their desperate attempts to satisfy big oil and drill in the Arctic Refuge," said Democrat John Kerry.

"Debate about the future of the Arctic Refuge is a debate about our failed energy policy and our environmental legacy, not about the funding of our men and women and uniform, and it would be grossly irresponsible to include the drilling provision in the final Defense Appropriations bill," said Democrat Russ Feingold.

Republican Alaskan Sen. Ted Stevens is pushing hardest to get ANWR drilling into the defense budget bill.

His state would get half the estimated $10 billion in bonus bids that energy companies might pay for the right to drill in ANWR if oil prices were around $50 a barrel. The federal government would get the other half.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said it would be "an insult" if Republican leaders allowed ANWR drilling to be put in the defense budget bill.

"Going right up to Christmas, to the last day, giveaways to their oil and gas friends, drilling in the ANWR, and they will taint the Department of Defense appropriations bill to do so," she said.

It wouldn't be a normal day on the Hill without the words "appalling", "irresponsible" and "insult" being thrown around. Let's hope Harry is right and this is stricken, but knowing that wacko Stevens I'm sure he will find another way to get this in next year.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

That's the News...

President Bush tainted the jury pools everywhere when he proclaimed that he knows the Tom DeLay is innocent of charges of money laundering. Gee, Mr. President, if you are so sure, perhaps you should subpoenaed to testify as to what you do know?

"Bob Novack? Never heard of him.", was Scottie McClellan's answer to charges from Novack that President Bush knows who leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press. Oooo, so cold on the outside, isn't it Bob? Career...over.

The U.S. government once again shows why we are so popular around the world, this time denying Cuba entry into the inaugural World Baseball Classic series that will run from March 3-20. The US Treasury Department cited our long standing and pointless embargo as reason for the decision. Face it, folks, Castro ain't going nowhere. Sometimes I think the guy will live forever just to piss off the USA.

North of the border, Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin told the US to "stuff it" (my favorite expression lately) when it comes to what he can and cannot say about the US during the run-up to Canada's Jan 23rd election. Good on you, Paul.

The Freeway Blogger has a blog now. Check it out.

The drumbeat for Lions Team President and CEO Matt Millen's head keeps getting louder. Fans as far away as Seattle are holding up "Fire Millen" signs at Seahawk games. There is a firemillen.com and firemillen.net and firemattmillen.net. Lions fans plan a protest march around Ford Field this coming Sunday, and fans inside the stadium are encouraged to dress in orange. Sounds like the seating area will be more entertaining than the game. You just know that fans will also sneak signs in there, and Fox (or CBS) will eat it up. Give it up, Matt! We have you surrounded!

Speaking of fun with the Fords, the Ford Motor Corporation announced that they will advertise in gay magazines no matter what the AFA says. So there. They will also continue to sponsor gay events and plan to auction off a "lap dance from Matt Millen" at the next HRC fundraiser in Detroit. Donald Wildmon was not available for comment. (and that's true)

Yes, George Michael Bluth, there may indeed be a Santa Claus after all. Rumors and whispers abound that either Showtime or ABC might pick up the Fox series "Arrested Development". Please, please, please...let this be true, although if it's on Showtime I'll have to wait for the DVD. Santa's not bringing me pay TV for Xmas.

Earlier today the US House of Representatives voted on HR 3199, the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthoriztion Act.
Here's how the Michigan delegation voted:

Stupak (D-1) No
Hoekstra (R-2) Yes
Ehlers (R-3) No
Camp (R-4) Yes
Kildee (D-5) No
Upton (R-6) Yes
Schwarz (R-7) Yes
Rogers (R-8) Yes
Knollenberg (R-9) Yes
Miller (R-10) Yes
McCotter (R-11) Yes
Levin (D-12) No
Kilpatrick (D-13) No
Conyers (D-14) No
Dingell (D-15) No

Congratulations and thank you to Mr. Ehlers for doing the right thing and breaking ranks with the majority. And of course thank you to our Democratic members for representing us.

But he still voted for the tax cuts, so he's not completely off the hook.

Bush takes blame for Iraq war on bad intelligence - Yahoo! News
Nothing like a little false humility to woo the sheep back to the fold, eh Georgie? Guess what folks- he's LYING. He was LYING then, he's LYING now. He's a LIAR. Why do you continue to believe a LIAR?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush took the blame on Wednesday for going to war in Iraq over faulty intelligence but said he was right to topple Saddam Hussein and urged Americans to be patient as Iraqis vote.

"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq, and I am also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities and we're doing just that," he said.

But he said, "My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision" because he was deemed a threat and that regardless, "We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of a brutal dictator."

So, he supposedly takes the blame, but immediately justifies his actions. "Yes, your Honor, I murdered my ex-wife, but she really deserved it 'cause she was such a bitch". Uh-huh. Try that excuse at the trial, George.

I still hold that he is LYING. He doesn't really take any "blame" at all. He was going to do this come hell or high water. This is just a shuck and jive to try to soothe his supporters wounded egos and continue on with his bullshit. There are no consequences for his actions. (yet- I believe in karma to some extent)

He's also covering for his co-horts in crime.

In an interview with Fox News to be aired on Wednesday night, Bush gave strong endorsements to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, both frequently accused by critics of pushing the war on false pretenses.

"He's done a heck of a job," Bush said of Rumsfeld, "and I have no intention of changing him." As for Cheney, "my respect for him has grown immensely," Bush said.

Yes, Rummy, you're doing a "heck of a job". Hmmmm. Seems I've heard that before. Better pack up, Donald.

They also need more MONEY, and I haven't heard any talk of accountability for the money already spent.

Gotta soften up the sheep before the slaughter.

Top members of the House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees the defense budget said they heard the Pentagon would seek another $80 billion to $100 billion for the Iraq war next year, although they said the figure could change.

That would come on top of the $50 billion for the war Congress was expected to approve in the next few days.

More bucks for the buddies. You betcha. That is what this is all about.

Shout it from the rooftops: LIAR!

House passes health, education spending cuts - Yahoo! News
Someone has to pay for the new yachts.

I'm heartened by the closeness of the vote, and by what happened outside the Capitol. Maybe there is hope for us yet.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly passed a $602 billion bill to cut funds for health, education and labor programs nearly one month after a slightly different version of the measure was unexpectedly rejected.

By a vote of 215-213, the House approved the legislation, which trims $1.4 billion from last year's spending for these social programs. The measure passed after House and Senate negotiators agreed to add back slightly more money sought by Republicans for rural health programs.

Democrats opposed the health-care and education spending bill, noting it would cut $249 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $780 million from President George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education program and would add no money to help low-income people pay winter heating bills despite skyrocketing fuel costs.

As a result, Senate Democrats, led by senators Tom Harkin of Iowa and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, said they would try to defeat this fiscal 2006 spending bill when it arrives on the Senate floor later this week.

"What's happening in Congress today is bizarre," Harkin told reporters, saying a "mean-spiritedness" had overtaken the legislature.

Republicans argue that the spending reductions will help offset the more than $60 billion in Hurricane Katrina aid approved by Congress that otherwise would add to huge U.S. budget deficits. The cuts also are intended to be a first crack at controlling growing "mandatory" programs that take up a huge portion of the U.S. budget.

Democrats counter that the spending cuts would hurt the poor and are simply a way to pay for continuing tax cuts aimed in part at helping the wealthiest Americans.

Well, kids, they would have had to cut $95 billion to pay for those tax cuts, so they have a bit more to go. Anyway, Senate Democrats- put your money where your mouth is now. I would love to see this shot down.

What was great about yesterday was religious protestors getting arrested trying to help the poor. I had really given up on anything "religion" or "religious"- the Rabid Right have so hijacked Christianity that I have venomous, knee-jerk reactions to anything connected with it. "Religion" has become synonymous with "Republican" in my book. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I read this-

The House vote came amid partisan fighting over national spending priorities and after religious activists staged a Capitol Hill protest against spending cuts, which resulted in mass arrests.

Religious groups on Wednesday targeted another Republican-backed money bill for defeat. U.S. Capitol Police arrested 115 religious activists after they staged a peaceful sit-in at a government building near the U.S. Capitol.

The protesters' target was a controversial Republican budget bill being negotiated that would achieve around $42 billion in net savings over five years from a range of federal programs, including health care for the poor and elderly and possibly child care, student loans and food stamps.

"Someone's praying Lord, stop the cuts," chanted the protesters before U.S. Capitol Police officers moved in to arrest them. They were camped out at the Cannon building that houses the offices of some lawmakers.

Call to Renewal, a network of churches and other religious organizations, was planning "local prayer vigils" in 32 states on Wednesday to protest the budget cuts.

We even had a group show up in my little town. Their numbers were small, but they got some coverage.

Religious and political activists gathered Wednesday at the Federal Building in Grand Rapids to protest recent budget decisions made by Congress.

The activists, who say the cuts hurt the poor and benefit the wealthy, are protesting two actions by the U.S. House of Representatives. The first is the November 18 decision to cut $50 billion from programs directed to the poor and families. The second is the December 8 vote to extend capital gains and dividend tax cuts.

The activists are part of the 217 Coalition, an informal network of people who believe that faith and politics are linked.

It will take me a long, long time to forgive the "Christians" in this country for supporting these lying, war-mongering, greedy assholes that now run our government. But signs such as this give me hope. I still don't like the idea of "faith and politics" being linked in any way, shape, or form. You wanna vote your religion, good for you. But keep it out of my life. Stop using your vengeful God as your excuse to hurt other people.

Like I said- a long, long time. I doubt that I will ever trust the word "Christian", ever. But I'm willing to suspend disbelief if this should continue.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

BREAKING NEWS: Governor to veto tighter restrictions on welfare
Love it, love it, love it. Because those dickheads didn't write a provision to protect the folks (and their children) who might need more help than four years and out, she's gonna tell them to stuff it. WTG, Jennifer.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm will veto new welfare rules passed by the Legislature late Tuesday that would place a strict, lifetime four-year limit for families to receive welfare, her spokesperson, Liz Boyd, said today.

Boyd said the lifetime limit on welfare does not allow exceptions for people who are simply unemployable, or those who are working and going to school but don’t earn enough to be self-sufficient.

Boyd said a strict cutoff would jeopardize an estimated 36,000 children who are eligible for welfare but might lose it because their parents don’t comply with the new rules. Public assistance is generally available to families with children, and not for single, able-bodied adults.

“It’s headed for a veto,” Boyd said of the welfare legislation. “The governor has concern over the vulnerable who have played by the rules and do not have the skills to pull themselves out of dire poverty.

To jeopardize assistance to children is irresponsible, it amounts to playing a game of chicken with people’s lives.”

The new rules would require those already on welfare for three years to find work or job training that would make them self-sufficient, or risk losing benefits after a year.

The changes also would suspend welfare benefits for recipients who violate rules that they work or go to school. Also, federal Social Security benefits for the disabled would be deducted from state welfare checks.

A problem the administration faces with a veto is that current work rules for welfare recipients are to expire Dec. 31. That would leave many recipients who are not exempt from welfare work rules scrambling to find jobs in a state economy that is hurting.

Boyd said Granholm will urge the Legislature to extend the current rules when they return Dec. 28 to formally close out the year of work.

Hardball, baby. Don't mess with my Governor.

That's the News...

The Patriot Act renewal has flown through the House, but has hit a snag in the Senate. Russ Feingold (D-Freedom), has threatened to filibuster due to the fact that this is America and we are supposedly a free country with an expectation of privacy from the government. James Sensenbrenner (R- Nazi Pig), immediately threw a hissy fit, proclaiming that "ohmyGodweneedthisrightnowortheterroristswinandwewillalldie" before he collapsed on the floor kicking his legs and holding his breath. Mr Sensenbrenner was then sent to his office for a much needed "time-out".

The Pentagon has you in it's sights if you are suspicious domestic group known to be a "threat", such as these radical Quakers in Florida. According to Lisa Myers at NBC, the Defense Department has a secret database of information on American citizens who are protesting the war. Somewhere Richard Nixon is smiling.

Singing "go on...take the money and run...woo hoo hoo", President Marsha Evans has resigned from the Red Cross mere hours before allegations of general mass confusion in the wake of Hurricane Katrina were reported to a Congressional hearing. Citing FEMA as their role model, the Red Cross has taken in billions in relief funds and still hasn't distributed to those in need. Can I have my $20 back?

And speaking of those in need, it turns out that there is not one county in America where you can rent a one bedroom apartment at minimum wage. Jerry Kooiman was not available for comment.

Today's dispatch from the front lines in the War on Christmas^TM: A NYC family took things a little too far when they "decked the front of their Manhattan mansion this year with a scene that includes a knife-wielding 5-foot-tall St. Nick and a tree full of decapitated Barbie dolls. Hidden partly behind a tree, the merry old elf grasps a disembodied doll's head with fake blood streaming from its eye sockets." Yeesh. Top that, Mr. O'Reilly.

LANSING-- Lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm struck a deal on a $600 million tax relief package for Michigan's battered manufacturers Tuesday, paving the way for speedy final approval of a long-delayed economic revival measure.

The bills give smokestack industries a 15 percent break on taxes on factory equipment and machinery. They also grant a two-year exemption on that levy for out-of-state companies that move plants into the state, and continue a tax abatement for four years for auto suppliers Visteon and Delphi.

The two chambers passed similar packages last week and swapped bills Tuesday to speed final approval of the package this week before adjourning until January. Earlier, Granholm had threatened to veto the measures if Congress followed through on a proposed $1 billion reduction in Medicaid spending to the state. Congress hasn't acted on the proposed cuts.

"The governor's not going to veto legislation based on a what-if," said Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd. "Her reason for raising that issue was to get Republican leadership in Lansing to communicate with Republican leadership in Washington. We hope we've driven the point home. If the House passes this legislation per the agreement, the governor will sign this package, no question."

The newly passed plan revises the single business tax over a three-year period so that it's less of a penalty on a company's payroll because the tax levy would be almost completely based on its sales.The Visteon-Delphi tax break will be reworked to give the companies more incentive to keep plants in Michigan.

Republican legislators and the governor have been struggling for nearly 10 months to reach agreement on a business tax relief package. Action had been stalled because of disagreements over how to replace the state's Single Business Tax, but reform of that measure, the state's main corporate levy, has been put off until next year.

Legislative leaders said the $600 million in tax reduction requires no new state budget cuts or offsetting tax hikes. They plan to pay for the cuts out of state revenue growth, starting with a projected $170 million surplus in this year's budget to cover the first year.

Once again they put off the SBT, so I'm sure the cry of "more tax cuts!" will continue next year. If the Feds cut us down (which it looks like they will) we are not going to be able to afford it. Period.

From the E-Mail Bag:

Jennifer from Lansing writes:

LANSING – Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today asked the Legislature to support a series of reform measures that will strengthen ethics laws, increase financial disclosure requirements, and reform campaign finance laws.

“Accountability and openness are at the heart of any democracy,” said Granholm. “This legislation will ensure that elected officials are truly serving the people of Michigan, not themselves or special interests.”

The Center for Public Integrity has consistently ranked Michigan among the worst in the nation for its public financial disclosure laws. The need for increased disclosure, higher standards of ethics, and campaign finance reform has been cited by the Michigan Law Revision Commission. In addition, many laws in Michigan don’t apply to all elected officials in the same way or have not been revised as campaign technology and techniques have evolved.

The Granholm package:

• requires annual disclosure of financial interests by elected officials and candidates to protect against conflicts of interest. The disclosure requirements would be the same as those already required for federal officials.

• creates a new Ethics Act for Executive Branch Officials and Employees to extend ethics standards and conflict of interest regulations, including contracting and gift restrictions, to all elected and appointed officials and employees in the executive branch.

• creates a new Legislative Ethics Act to extend the same ethics standards and conflict of interest requirements to members of the Legislature and establish a bipartisan legislative ethics committee to enforce the new law.

• enhances the powers for the State Board of Ethics to ensure compliance with ethics laws, requiring referral of alleged illegal activities to appropriate law enforcement authorities;

• prohibits state contract managers from acting on any contract matter when the manager has a conflict of interest, and prohibits contract managers from soliciting or accepting campaign contributions in order to ensure integrity in sate contracting process.

• closes the lobbying revolving door by establishing a one-year ban on lobbying for elected state officials and non-elected heads of principal government departments;

• extends the current ban on honorariums for legislators to all elected state officials and other officials in the executive and legislative branch of state government who are subject to state’s lobbying law;

• bans soliciting, delivering, or accepting political contributions when in a government building housing offices where government business is conducted;

• requires full disclosure of recorded telephone communications in elections, including who paid for and authorized the calls.

“It is critical that public officials disclose their personal information so taxpayers know they are working for them,” said Granholm. “This comprehensive package will help ensure that Michigan voters have accurate, honest information on which to judge candidates and elected officials, and that elected officials can be held accountable when they fail to uphold the public’s trust. As state government works to diversify Michigan’s economy and create good new jobs, Michigan citizens need assurance that state government is working for their best interests, not the special interests,” Granholm added.

Granholm said she expects implementation bills will be introduced when the Legislature returns in January.

Sure, these bills will be introduced, but whaddayawanna bet they get shelved with no action taken? Let's keep our eye on this one.

WOODTV.com & WOOD TV8 - Grand Rapids news and weather - Nude dancing ban proposed in Grand Rapids
Have you had enough of the "values" crowd yet? I have.

The city of Grand Rapids wants to ban nude dancing.

While the city's current zoning code regulates where adult-oriented businesses are located, it does not regulate nude entertainment.

A proposal being considered by the city commission would ban nude dancing and would regulate clothing worn by semi-nude dancers.

City officials say they expect legal challenges over the proposed ordinance.

Judy Rose says she's up for the fight.

"I happen to be a born-again Christian who wants my city to be clean and safe and pure."

Rose and other members of the Black Hills Neighborhood Association, along with city officials, outlined their plan of attack against an adult oriented entertainment complex set to open next spring about a mile from their neighborhood.

"I don't want these kinds of establishments to be able to run willy-nilly and do anything they want to do. I want some regulations," said Rose.

I swear, these people won't be happy until every little bit of our lives is controlled by what they want, what they judge to be "good" and "pure" and "wholesome". And you know what? It will never be enough. There will always be something that offends them.

But the owner of two businesses targeted by the ordinance, Sensations Night Club and the proposed Showgirl's Gallaria, says if the city adopts this law, get ready for a fight; a long and expensive one.

"I had hoped the city fathers would have been strong enough to have protected my constitutional rights from this kind of attack, instead of joining it," says Mark London.

No one at city hall is against the ordinance, and the city attorney says it will stand up to a court fight.

The question becomes, at what cost?

Remember, the city is in the midst of a fiscal crisis.

City officials estimate the cost of such a fight could be upwards of $125,000.

London, the business owner, says that figure is probably low.

At least one commissioner says the cost of defending the ordinance could be a deal-breaker.

And this group of folks wants us to blow the budget on something they find offensive. To hell with the parks and the sidewalks and the cops and all that. How incredibly selfish. How incredibly sad. Don't like the titty bars? Don't go to them. How simple. Stay the hell out of other people's business.

I pay taxes to this city. I don't want my tax dollars wasted to fight for laws that will be deemed unconstitutional.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

That's the News...

Researchers have injected human brain cells into mice embryos with the hopes of making them more "human" to test various neurological drugs. If efforts are successful, plans will be drawn up to inject Republicans with human brain cells to make them more...well...human.

Bobby Byrd called out Bill Frist on the Senate floor Monday, saying, "You want a piece of me? Bring it, sucka, I take you out", in answer to Frist's repeated threats to change Senate rules. "If the senator wants a fight, let him try. I'm 88 years old but I can still fight and fight I will for freedom of speech," Byrd said. Frist was found later hiding in Rick Santorum's office closet and had no comment. Look for a HBO pay-per-view special if the fight does indeed go down.

Time to fill up the car. With the bulk of the Xmas buying rush just about over, gas prices are inching their way back upward. Prediction: it goes up dramatically in January. Just about the time when the new credit card rates to kick in. Maybe you will get lucky and get cross-country skis for Xmas. OPEC hinted at cutting oil production next year, and energy forecasters are predicting a rise in oil prices until at least 2014, which will be a heck of a long time to nurse that tank of gas.

It's All About Me:

Pittsburgh 21, Chicago 9 (bah)
Cincinnati 23, Cleveland 20
Tennessee 13, Houston 10
Indianapolis 26, Jacksonville 18
New England 35, Buffalo 7
N.Y. Jets 26, Oakland 10
Minnesota 27, St. Louis 13
Tampa Bay 20, Carolina 10 (woooo Bucs!)
N.Y. Giants 26, Philadelphia 23 (OT)
Seattle 41, San Francisco 3
Washington 17, Arizona 13
Denver 12, Baltimore 10
Dallas 31, Kansas City 28 (ha. take that KC.)
Miami 23, San Diego 21
Green Bay 16, Detroit 13 (OT)
New Orleans 17 Atlanta 36

12-4. Next week, Saturday football!

Iraq troop pull-out could begin in 2006: report - Yahoo! News
Cut and run! Funny, this sounds just like what Murtha said...how come the chickenhawks aren't up and screming about these reports?

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States and Britain could start withdrawing troops from Iraq as early as March 2006, a British newspaper reported on Tuesday.

British and American officials regard this week's election for Iraq's first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein's fall as the green light to begin a pull-out, the Times said.

"It will happen progressively over the next year," the newspaper quoted an unnamed senior Western diplomat as saying. "One of the first things we will talk about (with the new Iraqi government) is the phased transfer of security."

A spokesman for Britain's defense ministry said the report was in line with previous government statements, but he would not confirm the March 2006 date for the start of a withdrawal.

"Our plan for the gradual withdrawal of troops from Iraq is based on conditions rather than specific dates," he said.

The Pentagon said on Monday that Army Gen. George Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq, will assess the situation quickly after the vote and could make a recommendation as early as this month on whether and when to cut the 155,000-strong American force.

Time to claim victory! See, if we started puling out now, that would be "cut and run"! But three months from now everything will be all fixed. Watch and see.

Monday, December 12, 2005

mlive.com: NewsFlash - Sampling of Michigan's potential 2006 ballot issues
I'm starting to think that it's to easy to amend our state's constitution. While I want some way for the people to address issues that the legislature ignores, it lets everyone with a big ax to grind write provisions that may be used to deny others basic rights. Prop. 2 from 2004 is a good example of this- while it is being challenged in court, people have lost health benefits in the interim. What happens if they manage to ban abortion?

Here's what's up for '06. Women to minorities to poor people to doves. Fun, fun, fun.

AP) Ã‚— Voters could get a chance to vote on several ballot initiatives in the November 2006 general election. Among them:

_A proposal that would prohibit the use of race and gender preferences in university admissions and government hiring. Supporters have gathered enough signatures to get on the ballot, but the measure has been challenged in court.

_A proposal to restore a ban on hunting mourning doves in Michigan. Supporters have gathered enough signatures and the issue is expected to be on the ballot.

_A proposal to give K-12 schools, community colleges and universities annual state funding increases equal to at least the inflation rate. Supporters are gathering signatures.

_A proposal to define a person as existing from the moment of conception in the state constitution. The campaign that could potentially spark a legal challenge to abortion rights in Roe v. Wade is in its early stages. Organizers are not sure if they'll be able to collect enough signatures by the deadline to get on the 2006 ballot.

_Among the other potential ballot issues are changes to term limits for some state offices, a proposal to increase the state's minimum wage and an expansion of the state's bottle deposit law.

Plenty of things to get the fundies to the polls. Scary stuff.

CNN.com - Anti-creationism professor: Resignation was forced - Dec 11, 2005
First they beat him up, and then they take his job. What's the matter with Kansas, indeed.

LAWRENCE, Kansas (AP) -- A college professor who drew sharp criticism for comments deriding Christian fundamentalists over "intelligent design" said he was forced out as chairman of the university's religious studies department.

Paul Mirecki, who remains a professor at the University of Kansas, said he had no choice when he signed the resignation letter, typed on stationary from the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

"The University penalized me and denied me my Constitutionally protected right to speak and express my mind," he said in a written statement Friday for the Lawrence Journal-World. He said his career had been ruined and his speaking engagements canceled.

Mirecki also said he had retained an attorney.

The controversy began with a course Mirecki planned to teach called "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies." The class was proposed after the Kansas Board of Education decided to include more criticism of evolution in its school science standards.

The class was canceled last week after e-mails surfaced in which Mirecki mocked religious conservatives as "fundies" and said a course describing intelligent design as mythology would be a "nice slap in their big fat face." He has apologized for those comments.

On Monday, Mirecki was treated at a Lawrence hospital for head injuries after he said he was beaten by two men on a country road. He said the men referred to the creationism course. Law enforcement officials were investigating.

Yeah, I'll bet they are "investigating". I'd also bet that no arrests will be made in the case.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

That's the News...

Barak Obama tells it like it is in Florida. I wish that more Democrats would pick up on this theme and run with it.

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Republicans controlling the federal government practice Social Darwinism, a discredited philosophy that in economics and politics calls for survival of the fittest, according to a Democratic U.S. senator.

Sen. Barak Obama of Illinois, a fast-rising Democratic star, told Florida party members that only a philosophy among Republicans of sink or swim explains why some Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans still live in cars while Republicans in Washington prepare next week to enact $70 billion in tax breaks.

"It's called the 'Ownership society' in Washington. This isn't the first time this philosophy has appeared. It used to be called Social Darwinism," Obama said late Saturday at the Democrats meeting at Walt Disney World.

"They have a philosophy they have implemented and that is doing exactly what it was designed to do. They basically don't believe in government. They have a different philosophy that says, 'We're going to dismantle government'," Obama said.

Republicans running the federal government believe, "You are on your own to buy your own health care, to buy your own retirement security ... to buy your own roads and levees," Obama said, referring to flood barriers that gave way in New Orleans during Katrina last August.

But Mr. Obama, you are missing one very distinct difference- today's Republicans believe in government when it can benefit them, and only them. As long as they are free to give healthy contracts to their buddies and big tax benefits to themselves, they are all for big government. Don't forget that. When the money is flowing, they love the governmnet.

Bill "Cat Killer" Frist decided it was safe to visit the Sunday talk show-o-rama, blathering on once again that, if the Republicans can't win, they will just change the rules.

"The answer is yes," Frist said when asked if he would act to change Senate procedures to restrict a Democratic filibuster. "Supreme Court justice nominees deserve an up-or-down vote, and it would be absolutely wrong to deny him that."

Unless you're Harriet Miers. Then it doesn't count.

I Just Gotta Say:

YEA BUCCANEERS!

It's All About Me:

Chicago at Pittsburgh (tough one)
Cleveland at Cincinnati
Houston at Tennessee
Indianapolis at Jacksonville
New England at Buffalo
Oakland at N.Y. Jets
St. Louis at Minnesota
Tampa Bay at Carolina (sorry Bucs, hope I'm wrong)
N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia
San Francisco at Seattle
Washington at Arizona
Baltimore at Denver
Kansas City at Dallas
Miami at San Diego
Detroit at Green Bay
New Orleans at Atlanta

Psychiatry Ponders Whether Extreme Bias Can Be an Illness
Yes. I knew it all along. These people who have made it their life's mission to "get the gays", or any other group of minorities, are seriously f'ed in the head.

The 48-year-old man turned down a job because he feared that a co-worker would be gay. He was upset that gay culture was becoming mainstream and blamed most of his personal, professional and emotional problems on the gay and lesbian movement.

These fixations preoccupied him every day. Articles in magazines about gays made him agitated. He confessed that his fears had left him socially isolated and unemployed for years: A recovering alcoholic, the man even avoided 12-step meetings out of fear he might encounter a gay person.

"He had a fixed delusion about the world," said Sondra E. Solomon, a psychologist at the University of Vermont who treated the man for two years. "He felt under attack, he felt threatened."

Mental health practitioners say they regularly confront extreme forms of racism, homophobia and other prejudice in the course of therapy, and that some patients are disabled by these beliefs. As doctors increasingly weigh the effects of race and culture on mental illness, some are asking whether pathological bias ought to be an official psychiatric diagnosis.

Advocates have circulated draft guidelines and have begun to conduct systematic studies. While the proposal is gaining traction, it is still in the early stages of being considered by the professionals who decide on new diagnoses.

If it succeeds, it could have huge ramifications on clinical practice, employment disputes and the criminal justice system. Perpetrators of hate crimes could become candidates for treatment, and physicians would become arbiters of how to distinguish "ordinary prejudice" from pathological bias.

How about if you form huge organizations for the sole purpose of denying legal rights to a group of people? Is that pathological? My guess is yes.

Mr. Perkins, the doctor will see you now. Sit down Mr. Wildmon, it's not your turn yet.

The proposed guidelines that California psychologist Edward Dunbar created describe people whose daily functioning is paralyzed by persistent fears and worries about other groups. The guidelines have not been endorsed by the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM); advocates are mostly seeking support for systematic study.

Darrel A. Regier, director of research at the psychiatric association, said he supports research into whether pathological bias is a disorder. But he said the jury is out on whether a diagnostic classification would add anything useful, given that clinicians already know about disorders in which people rigidly hold onto false beliefs.

I think it goes beyond paralysis. There are definitly people who act on these impulses.

Opponents say making pathological bias a diagnosis raises the specter of social engineering -- brainwashing individuals who do not fit society's norms. But Dunbar and others say patients with disabling levels of prejudice should be treated for the same reason as are patients with any other disorder: They would feel, live and function better.

"They are delusional," said Alvin F. Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, who has long advocated such a diagnosis. "They imagine people are going to do all kinds of bad things and hurt them, and feel they have to do something to protect themselves.

Doctors who treat inmates at the California State Prison outside Sacramento concur: They have diagnosed some forms of racist hatred among inmates and administered antipsychotic drugs.

"We treat racism and homophobia as delusional disorders," said Shama Chaiken, who later became a divisional chief psychologist for the California Department of Corrections, at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. "Treatment with antipsychotics does work to reduce these prejudices."

"C'mon, Mr. Bauer, take your pill. You'll feel so much better."

Reuters AlertNet - Top Bush aides test bird flu preparedness
And what they found was they intend on passing the buck. Call it the "Blanco Plan".

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Warning an outbreak may be inevitable, the White House on Saturday conducted a test of its readiness for a feared bird flu pandemic and said federal agencies fared "quite well" without offering any details.

Cabinet secretaries, military leaders and other top officials took part in the four-hour tabletop drill, which officials said was designed to assess the level of federal preparedness for a possible outbreak of bird flu or another deadly virus.

"This is about being ready for what inevitably will come," Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said.

But the White House refused to divulge details about the exercise and the test results, and officials said afterward that it was clear that state and local governments would have to assume a leading role.

When those states can't afford to assume that role, they will be blamed, just as Blanco was.

Doesn't matter. If this thing hits, we are screwed. Nothing short of martial law will stop it, and I have a real hard time believeing that you could impose martial law in this country. We are too big, too mobile. You can't police every single road. And with a huge percentage of the National Guard and the Army itself in Iraq, there will be no one to do it anyway.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

ABC News: Pathbreaking Comedian Richard Pryor Dies
Thank you for the laughs, Mr. Pryor.

LOS ANGELES Dec 10, 2005 — Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, has died. He was 65.

He died sometime late Friday or early Saturday of a heart attack at his home in the San Fernando Valley, according to his ex-wife Flyn Pryor.

Pryor, whose audacious style influenced an array of stand-up artists, had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

Regarded early in his career as one of the most foul-mouthed comics in the business, Pryor gained a wide following for his expletive-filled but universal and frequently personal insights into modern life and race relations.

Among those most influenced by his comedy were fellow black artists such as Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and Damoy Wayans, as well as Robin Williams, David Letterman and others. Pryor's pioneering success made their roads to stardom all the smoother.

A series of hit comedies in the '70s and '80s, as well as filmed versions of his concert performances, helped make him one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. He was one of the first black performers to have enough leverage to cut his own Hollywood deals. In 1983, he signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia Pictures.

Among his films: "Stir Crazy," "Silver Streak," "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings," "Which Way Is Up?" and "Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip."

That's the News...

Bill Clinton once again showed why he is da bomb when it comes to international diplomacy. At the UN Climate Change Conference in Montreal, the Bush delegation got up, walked out, thumbed it's nose, turned it's back, stuck out it's tongue and basically were the complete and total assholes that America has come to be on the world stage, while Bill left 'em cheering in the aisles. Real leadership. Boy, do I miss that.

If the economy is so great, why the huge drop in the stock market in the past two weeks that wiped out the gains of the entire year? Do investors know something that we (and when I say we, I mean the Bush administration and the media) don't?

Speaking of the stock holders and all those other rich folk, they should be jumping for joy and pouring money into investments after the House cut taxes to the tune of $95 billion dollars. So, cough it up folks! We had to mug little old ladies and kids and sick people just so you could invest more money! Better jump to it! Actually, this isn't a done deal quite yet, the Senate only wants to cut $60 billion. The pillaging will resume after the holiday break.

Televangelists are a little bit nervous about the ala carte cable TV proposals being pushed by their own band of followers. You see, when it comes to supposedly "fighting indecency" or making money hand over fist, they will choose the money every time. Such a quandary. Guess the smut stays. Perhaps they should form church groups that teach people how to use the remote.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Miss Beazley Bush: Educating Miss Beazley: First Lady Laura Bush's Scottish Terrier - White House For Kids! - WHITEHOUSE.ORG

Fun for the whole family! Hillary killed me twice before I got the hang of it.

Qaeda-Iraq Link U.S. Cited Is Tied to Coercion Claim - New York Times
Here is why torture is so important to the Bush administration. It gives them cover to do anything they damn well please.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 - The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government officials.

The officials said the captive, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, provided his most specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January 2002, in a process known as rendition.

The new disclosure provides the first public evidence that bad intelligence on Iraq may have resulted partly from the administration's heavy reliance on third countries to carry out interrogations of Qaeda members and others detained as part of American counterterrorism efforts. The Bush administration used Mr. Libi's accounts as the basis for its prewar claims, now discredited, that ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda included training in explosives and chemical weapons.

The fact that Mr. Libi recanted after the American invasion of Iraq and that intelligence based on his remarks was withdrawn by the C.I.A. in March 2004 has been public for more than a year. But American officials had not previously acknowledged either that Mr. Libi made the false statements in foreign custody or that Mr. Libi contended that his statements had been coerced.

That's the News...

Rumors are swirling that Secretary of Defense Donald "Crazy" Rumsfeld may ~~be forced to~~ retire next year. While Rummy vehemently denies this, one has to wonder where they are coming from if it isn't true. Joe-Zell "Big Kiss" Lieberman could be offered the job. Everybody go check your calendar and make sure it's not April 1st.

Turns out Bill "Cat Killer" Frist may have played favorites when it came to legislation on his supposed blind trust investments. No surprises there. Wipe that look of shock off your face.

Wal-Mart loves the gays, and, apparently, all kinds of sex related sales, as long as they are outside the US. Asda, Britain's arm of the retail giant, is offering same sex marriage products to those lucky British who now will enjoy equal marriage rights as of Dec. 21st. Last year, Asda announced it was "rolling back" the price of condoms in time for the Christmas party season, and stores were open late in case customers "unexpectedly get lucky." Wal-Mart in Canada already sells a line of sex toys. Ahhh, life in the civilized world.

In other "too bad America sucks for people in the closet" gay related news, Spokane's mayor Jim West was recalled in a special election after it was revealed he was trolling the Internet looking for young hot employees he could bestow his...uh..."favors" on. In the past Mr. West had repeatedly denounced attempts at legislation for equal rights for gays, making him eligible for the "Hypocrite of the Year" award. Competition is said to be fierce this year.

Donors to GOP get the breaks
"Cause I got friends...in low places..."

Attorney General Mike Cox and Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land were quick to pursue a criminal investigation this year when they suspected a group -- later linked to Geoffrey Fieger -- illegally orchestrated attack ads against a conservative Supreme Court justice.

But when Cox and Land discovered their own supporters may have violated campaign laws last year, they treated it as a mere mistake.

In each instance, the question came down to whether corporate money was used to improperly influence the political process -- a felony.

But the corporate contributions Cox and Land brushed aside as an error involved members of their party, the GOP. The current criminal probe focuses on attorney Fieger, an outspoken Democrat who spent $457,000 trying to defeat conservative Justice Stephen Markman.

"It seems pretty obvious they're going easy on friends and going hardball on enemies," said Brett McRae, who writes a nonpartisan campaign finance newsletter called Warchest. McRae also is an ex-Democratic legislative staffer.

Aides to Cox and Land deny partisan politics affected their decisions.

But the handling of the donations raises questions about why Cox and Land -- whose offices are responsible for enforcing state campaign laws -- pursued a criminal probe in one instance and not the other.

Got our own little culture of corruption right here in Michigan. Isn't that cute. Almost ready for the big-time.

On a related note- Geoffie's mouth has got the Feds runnin' scared and claiming they need secrecy in their investigation cause he's just so gosh darn mean.

DETROIT -- Attorney Geoffrey Fieger would publicly smear and intimidate anyone tied to a campaign finance investigation of him, making it necessary to keep their names secret for now, federal prosecutors claim in court papers.

The government made the latest Fieger probe known when agents raided his Southfield offices on Nov. 30 seeking information about contributions made to Democrat John Edwards' presidential campaign. Authorities suspect Fieger may have broken campaign contribution laws by reimbursing employees who made donations to Edwards.

Fieger has denied any wrongdoing and sought to see the sealed document supporting the need for the raid.

One of Fieger's attorneys, Christopher Andreoff, declined to comment about allegations that Fieger would malign anyone. Instead, his main interest is gaining the return of records seized in the raid.

U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen will consider the government's request to keep the file sealed.

I don't know the laws pertaining to federal investigations, but it seems that "he's a big meanie" isn't cause to deny lawyers access to information.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

That's the News....

Are your papers in order? Thanks to an extension of the Patriot Act, you'd better make sure. According to this report, "most of the Patriot Act would become permanent under this reauthorization". That is, until we throw these bastards out and undue the damage done, if it's not too late.

On top of the Patriot Act, looks like we get to keep the tax cuts for the rich, also. "The poor suffer. The rich benefit. The middle class is paying the bill," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Which is exactly the way the Republicans want it. Isn't it time for the Congress "holiday" break, yet?

And speaking of the holidays, it seems George and Laura Bush are the latest casualties in the War on Christmas^TM. To the dismay of the Rabid Right, the White House greetings card uses the word "Holiday" instead of "Christmas". Yea! We win! Christmas is ruined for everybody! Or not. Bill O'Reilly was not available for comment.

Some of us are dreaming of a white "Fitzmas". Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald enlisted a whole new jury of elves to work on our next present. Is it big and round and wears glasses? Does it start with a K? Ooooo, I can't wait!

ABC News: Air Marshal Kills Passenger, Citing Threat
This story tugged at my bleeding liberal heart. The dude was sick, man. And ABC chose to approach the story last night with applause and pats on the back and, of course, tied it with 9-11 and terrorism.

MIAMI Dec 7, 2005 — An agitated passenger who claimed to have a bomb in his backpack was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday after he bolted frantically from a jetliner that was about to take off, officials said. No bomb was found.

The man, identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, was gunned down on a jetway just before the American Airlines plane was about to leave for Orlando, near his home in Maitland.

It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that an air marshal had shot at anyone, Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said.

According to a witness, the man frantically ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757, flailing his arms, while his wife tried to explain that he was mentally ill and had not taken his medication.

The passenger indicated there was a bomb in his bag and was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Doyle said. The marshals went after him and ordered him to get down on the ground, but he did not comply and was shot when he apparently reached into the bag, Doyle said.

After the shooting, investigators spread passengers' bags on the tarmac and let dogs sniff them for explosives, and bomb squad members blew up at least two bags.

No bomb was found, said James E. Bauer, agent in charge of the Federal Air Marshals field office in Miami. He said there was no reason to believe there was any connection to terrorists.

People, not everything that has to do with a plane is "terrorism". We are jumping at our own shadows. While I understand why the air marshalls had to act in the way that they did, and I don't fault them a bit, to run around proclaiming, "see, we can stop the terrorists!" is a load of crap. A real terrorist wouldn't run away. They would just blow up the fucking plane.

These guys shot and killed a mentally ill man. This should be approached with sadness and somber respect, not jublilation.

Judge Blocks Drilling Plan in Mich. Forest - Yahoo! News
Thank God for the activist judges.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked an energy company from clearing land in preparation for oil and natural gas drilling near a forest and a river.

Judge David M. Lawson issued a preliminary order halting Savoy Energy from cutting timber, building a road and taking other steps to get the project under way in northern Michigan.

Lawson said the order was necessary "to prevent irreparable harm" and give the court time to review decisions by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to permit the exploratory drilling.

The Sierra Club and Anglers of the Au Sable, a fishing group, filed suit last June to stop the project.

The Forest Service permit would let Savoy install a well about three-tenths of a mile from the Mason Tract, a 5,300-acre section of undeveloped woodland. The south branch of the Au Sable River is less than a mile from the proposed drilling site.

Although the tract is state property, the federal government owns rights to minerals beneath it and has leased production rights to Savoy. The company plans to locate its wellhead on adjacent federal land and drill underneath the tract at an angle.

If the well is productive, the company plans to install a pipeline and production facility.

Leanne Marten, supervisor of the Huron-Manistee National Forests, approved the permit application last February, saying the project wouldn't significantly harm the environment and the company would have to keep noise to a minimum.

This is a problem that keeps flying under the radar. The Feds are selling out the land everywhere in this country, turning it over to private developers for profit and destroying the environment. And they are about to do it on a grand scale. While we were wringing our hands over ANWR, this nefarious provision in the budget bill flew by unnoticed.

A budget bill that the House of Representatives is expected to vote on this week would force the federal government to put "For Sale" signs on public recreation lands in California and the West, including national forest holdings throughout the Sierra Nevada and remote parts of the Mojave Desert.

Backers of the bill insist that the amount of land affected would be small, but former Interior Department officials and some experts on natural resource law say the legislation could result in the sale of millions of acres.

Slipped into a massive budget-cutting bill late last month by the House Resources Committee, headed by Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), the provision has been eclipsed by higher-profile battles over two other controversial plans that would expand oil drilling offshore and allow it in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Those proposals have been dropped for now, but the land-sale provision remains.

The bill would lift an 11-year-old moratorium on the patenting — or sale — of federal lands to mining companies for a fraction of their mineral worth. While the patent fees would rise from $2.50 or $5 an acre to $1,000, the price would continue to exclude the mineral worth, which can amount to billions of dollars.

In a rewrite of an 1872 mining law that reverses long-standing federal policy that the government keep public lands, the proposal also orders the Interior Department to sell land adjacent to mining claims for "economic development."

The question is: Will there be anything left of this country when the Republicans are done robbing and pillaging?

Michigan Democratic Party- DeVos Basks in Culture of Corruption at Republican Governors Association
You think I'm bad? I've got nothing on Mark Brewer.

CARLSBAD, CA- This weekend, the Republican Governors Association (RGA) held its annual meeting at a golf resort in the congressional district of former GOP Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Cunningham resigned last week after pleading guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes. He joins indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, indicted Cheney Chief of Staff Scooter Libby and indicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff as the latest example of the GOP culture of corruption.

Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, one of the nation's largest Republican donors and former president of Amway, attended the meeting.

Unlike Governor Schwarzenegger, who has distanced himself from the Bush Administration by refusing to appear in public with fellow Republican Governors at the meeting, DeVos joined with other members of the RGA in listening to Republican National Committee Chair and former Bush Policy Director Ken Mehlman and other Bush strategists in their preparation for the 2006 elections.

This is something I'll never understand. These guys are so incompetent, how is it that they can run elections? The words "Bush" and "strategist" together are an oxymoron. But, I digress. Here comes the meat-

"Dick DeVos took time away from his busy schedule of destroying a bipartisan agreement on a jobs package and promoting a tax cut for businesses that causes harmful cuts to health care and education and shifts the tax burden to the people of Michigan just to meet with the scandal-plagued Republican leadership. Based on his own abuse of soft money, I am sure DeVos felt right at home with the GOP culture of corruption," said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. "Instead of criticizing President Bush for his failed economic and trade policies that have devastated Michigan's manufacturing jobs, Dick DeVos is applauding him. It remains to be seen how far DeVos' support for the President and his policies will go. Will DeVos stand side by side with Bush in Michigan in 2006?"

Let's hope he does, Mark. I want these two tied together like Siamese twins. They were made from the same mold: boys of privilege who will only help other boys of privilege and abuse their power every step of the way- to hell with the general welfare of the citizens. Dick DeVos would be a disaster for Michigan in ways that John Engler only dreamed about.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Chicago Cubs: News: Cubs fill big hole with speedy Pierre
Nice snag, Jim. Bye bye, Corey.

DALLAS -- Bob Dernier, Jerome Walton, Brian McRae, Ivan DeJesus and even Ryne Sandberg are some of the past Chicago Cubs' leadoff men, but none of them had the impact that Juan Pierre could bring.

The Cubs announced that they have acquired Pierre from the Florida Marlins for three pitchers, including Sergio Mitre. Cubs general manager Jim Hendry lost in the bidding for free agent Rafael Furcal, a potential leadoff man, and shifted his attention to Pierre at the Winter Meetings.

Pierre batted .276 in 162 games with the Marlins in 2005. He has averaged nearly 97 runs and 52 stolen bases over the last five years, scoring 100 runs in 2003 and '04. The last time a Cubs leadoff man scored 100 runs was McRae in 1996.

The three Cubs dealt to the Marlins include Mitre, who has pitched in 36 Major League games over three seasons, and Double-A starters Ricky Nolasco and Renyel Pinto.

ABC News: Photographer: Topless Aniston 'Exposed Herself'
This guy needs a job in the Bush administration. Check out the Rumsfeldian defense.

Dec. 6, 2005 — The photographer who snapped topless photos of actress Jennifer Aniston says he never intended to sell them, but he admits exclusively to ABC News that sending them to publications along with other pictures was "maybe my mistake."

Even so, Peter Brandt says that the former "Friends" star should take some responsibility. "She's the one who went out there topless," he said in an interview with ABC News Radio's David Blaustein. "I didn't go looking for it."

"I haven't sold those pictures anywhere," Brandt said. "You know, they're suing me and all the publications who are publishing them, and I haven't sold them anywhere."

"What I was trying to sell was the pictures of [actor] Vince [Vaughn] and her . . . Sending the topless pictures along with [the other photos] was maybe my mistake," he said. "But I wasn't intending to sell those."

The lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges that Brandt invaded Aniston's privacy by using a telephoto lens to photograph the 36-year-old star "from a great distance through invasive, intrusive and unlawful measures."

Brandt denies he broke the law, and claims that the incident took place at Aniston's Hollywood Hills home three weeks ago, and not at her more secluded residence in Malibu, as some accounts have suggested. He claims he was standing on a public street, about 300 yards from her house, hoping to get shots of Aniston with Vaughn, who is reported to be dating the actress.

"She has no fences around her backyard," he said. "I did not trespass."

"When I saw her come out topless, I go, 'Oh, God, this is not what I want, this is not what people want to buy anyway,'" he said.

Brandt says he sent out all the pictures he took to a handful of publications, never intending to sell the ones that have caused the scandal.

"I didn't figure anyone was going to buy topless pictures because that's tough to sell," he said.

Um, on what planet would topless pictures of Jennifer Aniston be "tough to sell"?

Amazing.

That's The News...

Rumor has it that Osama bin Laden is still alive. While there have been no videos of him for over a year, Ayman al-Zawahari points to the upcoming special on Fox, "It's An Osama Christmas", and continuing negotiations with network executives about a weekly series to debut next Fall. Disputes over syndication royalties appear to be the hold up.

Declaring "the heathens have won", many Megachurches decide to close their doors on Christmas Day. "The liberals have declared war on Christmas, so we decided to surrender, because you know how powerful those liberals are. Besides, there is NFL football on this year.", said one disappointed church attendee. Bill O'Reilly was not avalible for comment.

In keeping with the spirit of Christmas, elementary school students in Oklahoma City designed a tree with ornaments made from old lottery tickets garnered from convenience stores. After the tree was removed due to protests from a state law maker, the children immediately went to work on a tree furbished with cigarette butts, 40 oz. beer bottles, and wrappers from Slim Jims. "It's all they could give us", according to one young artist.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The state Senate voted 37-0 Tuesday to approve legislation that would ban torture in Michigan.

A torture conviction could mean a lifetime prison sentence under the legislation, which heads back to the House because the Senate made changes to the bills.

Rep. Tom Meyer, R-Bad Axe, introduced the legislation after Huron County Prosecutor Mark J. Gaertner said he had to charge Stephen H. Cline with kidnapping and abuse although he was accused of torturing his wife. Michigan currently does not have a law banning torture.

Cline, of Pigeon, is accused of altering his diabetic wife's diet and withholding her medication and insulin to drop her blood sugar levels so low she would lose consciousness. He then would dress her in provocative clothing, tie her hands and asphyxiate her by placing a plastic bag over her head until she neared death and then revive her, Gaertner said.

"The shocking incident in Huron County has exposed an equally shocking loophole in Michigan law," Meyer said in a statement Tuesday. "It is unfathomable that there is no law prohibiting human torture in Michigan, especially when we have laws that ban the torture of animals."

I think this means that Sikkema has to immediately resign. After all, he's been torturing Granholm for years.

KIEV (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it had changed its policy on interrogations of detainees, putting a worldwide ban on U.S. personnel subjecting prisoners to cruelty, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

"As a matter of U.S. policy, the United States' obligations under the CAT (Convention against Torture), which prohibits cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment -- those obligations extend to U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside of the United States," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

U.S. officials said her comments, made during a trip to Ukraine, marked a policy shift toward the international convention on torture. It follows strong pressure from Europe and the U.S. Congress.

Previously, the Bush administration had interpreted the convention as only applying to U.S. territory.

We've also got this fabulous bridge in New York we'd like to show you...

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

It's All About Me:

I just launched "Have A Pleasant Tomorrow" on a new blogspot address- it will be a repeat of the briefs you see here, but with ADVERTISING! (For whatever reason I don't want to sully this one with advertising. Such a snob.)

I don't know if I have the energy to keep up with two blogs; it's hard enough to come up with material for one sometimes. But for those of you who want short snark news, there you go, bookmark away. I will do my best to keep up.

mlive.com: NewsFlash - State revenue picture grows rosier, but uncertainties lie ahead
Sometimes I wonder about all the doom-and-gloom economic reports coming from the media in Michigan. Granted, we have tough times here, that much is obvious. But do we amplify the auto-makers woes and ignore other news that might paint a more balanced picture?

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — State tax collections have been stronger than year-ago levels for five of the past six months, a bright spot after four years of mostly bad news.

But with General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Delphi Corp. facing tough times and talking layoffs, the state probably won't see job growth and strong increases in revenues for at least another year, economists say.

"Everyone just keeps hoping we're going to turn the corner here, and we will eventually," says Robert Kleine, an economist from East Lansing who used to direct the state Office of Revenue and Tax Analysis.

The National Association of State Budget Officers and National Governors Association reported this summer that soaring income, sales and corporate tax receipts beat expectations in 42 states whose budget year ended in June. It looks like Michigan, whose budget year ended in September, may join that group — but barely.

Jay Wortley, senior economist with the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency, says the state will finish the past fiscal year with about $220 million to $230 million more than state officials estimated in August.

He isn't sure why revenues have increased in recent months, but says the rise has occurred mostly across the board.

According to the SFA, net income tax revenue for the 2004-05 fiscal year was up 2.9 percent over the same period a year ago, while sales tax revenue was up 3.4 percent. Single business tax revenue was up by 10.9 percent, while collections for the state education property tax were up 17.8 percent.

So we have a rise across the board in revenues. That tells me someone is doing something right out there.

And not all manufacturers are up and leaving. There are stories of companies expanding here in Michigan, but they don't seem to get much attention. Car parts supplier Bosch recently broke ground on a new facility in Plymouth Township.

Robert Bosch Corp. broke ground on a $37.5-million technical center on 76 acres on Haggerty Road in Plymouth Township. By April 2007, the auto-parts supplier expects to move 475 employees into the 225,000-square-foot research-and-development facility.

Bosch's commitment is the latest in a growing cadre of automotive-related technology companies that are locating to or expanding in Michigan. They come here to be close to the state's auto manufacturers and to tap into an abundance of skilled professionals produced by the state's engineering schools and employed at automakers and suppliers.

And Hyundai/Kia also put up a R & D center in Superior Township.

The walls of the new Hyundai/Kia America Technical Center Inc. (HATCI) in Superior Township can be removed easily to allow for rapid expansion of the 200,000-square-foot facility.

They serve as a metaphor for Hyundai's designs on the North American market.

It is not coincidence that a South Korean transplant chose the cradle of American automotive manufacturing as home for its new research-and-development operations.

Investments like those by Hyundai and Bosch reaffirm Michigan as the epicenter of automotive research and development and defy the notion that Michigan is losing its luster as the automotive capital. The state might be decelerating as a manufacturing center, but it is conventional wisdom that, if you want to design and build cars in the United States, you have to be in Michigan.

Hyundai chose Michigan despite some lucrative opportunities in other states, including Alabama, where its lone U.S. manufacturing operation is.
MEDC CEO James Epolito says the hope is that, where the brain goes the rest will follow.

"It's really important that these companies plant here, partly for the high-paying jobs they employ," Epolito said. "When you establish an R&D presence here, hopefully you have a plant that follows. And they, in turn, spin off tier one and tier two suppliers."

Epolito sees the growth of auto technology in Michigan as the flip side of the declining manufacturing segment of the industry.

"We have this tale of woe about the manufacturing jobs we are losing, and, if that's the metric you're using to measure Michigan, then it's not too positive," Epolito said. "But, if you look at what you are going to transform into, that's the seed we're planting."

It's not all bad news coming out of Michigan, but you would never know that if you only see the headlines on the "big three". I have a feeling that it will only continue when it's announced they will receive a government bailout. Stay tuned.

It's All About Football:

Carolina 24, Atlanta 6
Miami 24, Buffalo 23
Cincinnati 38, Pittsburgh 31 (how the mighty do fall)
N.Y. Giants 17, Dallas 10
Chicago 19, Green Bay 7
Baltimore 16, Houston 15
Jacksonville 20, Cleveland 14
Minnesota 21, Detroit 16
Tampa Bay 10, New Orleans 3
Indianapolis 35, Tennessee 3
Arizona 17, San Francisco 10
Washington 24, St. Louis 9
Kansas City 31, Denver 27 (wanna make some money? pick the opposite of my KC pick every week)
New England 16, N.Y. Jets 3
San Diego 34, Oakland 10
Seattle 42 Philadelphia 0

13-3.

Under Pressure, Ford Will Cut Its Ads in Gay Publications - New York Times
Because the AFA boycott of Disney was soooo successful, right? Bad move Ford. Get ready for a new list of demands. I'm sure there are other things that you are doing that they would find unacceptable.

DETROIT, Dec. 5 - After a threatened boycott from a conservative religious organization, the Ford Motor Company has said it will cut back on advertising in gay-oriented publications.

The group, the American Family Association, called for the boycott in May because of what it said was the company's "track record for supporting the homosexual agenda."

After a meeting last week between Ford executives and members of the group, the company said that its Jaguar and Land Rover brands would no longer be advertised in gay publications. It said it had no plans to change the advertising strategy for Volvo, another Ford unit.

A spokesman played down the role the boycott had in the company's decision, saying that the ads were eliminated as a cost-cutting measure. "As they begin planning their marketing for next year," the spokesman, Mike Moran, said Monday, "they've streamlined their budgets."

Mr. Moran said he could not provide specifics on Ford's past advertising in gay-oriented publications.

The American Family Association's chairman, Donald E. Wildmon, in a statement, expressed satisfaction. "They've heard our concerns," he said. "They are acting on our concerns."

Ford's decision to cut back the ads has troubled gay rights activists, who pointed out that among the company's personnel practices, it provides the same benefits for homosexual couples as it does for heterosexuals.

Rampant stupidity abounds at Ford nowadays. You would think with looming lay-offs and plant closures that they wouldn't want to make waves with a high-income group of buyers. Perhaps the AFA can bail them out when they go belly-up.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Have a Pleasant Tomorrow: News Briefs

So, where did all the money go? Not towards defense of this country from those ever-threatening terrorists, according to the Sept. 11 Commission. Seems that pork is more important than making sure that "America is safer". (remember that one?) According to Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, most Democratic proposals for upgrading security were not allowed to make it to the floor of the House. Remember this day the next time something goes "boom".

Culture of Corruption update: Tommy "The Bugman" DeLay will face charges of money laundering in a Texas court sometime next year. Tommy's lawyer claimed victory when the conspiracy charges were dismissed after it was discovered that, when Tommy committed that particular crime, it wasn't against the law in Texas. It is now. But in Tommy's world, that makes him the good guy.

The biggest cheers in the Lions dismal 21-16 loss to the Vikings came when various fans held up signs that said "Fire Millen". Up until then it was so quiet you could hear a ball drop, as it often did when Garcia either fired over receivers heads or at their feet. When I switched over to the Colts game I had to turn the TV DOWN it was so loud.

I would love to see a one game boycott by Lions fans- how would it look on national television if NO ONE showed up for a game?

Michigan subscribers are being spared the latest round of rate increases by cable giant Comcast Corp.

Comcast is raising the price of its most popular cable package by an average of 6 percent in most markets in January, but spokesman Jerome Espy said no increase is planned for the company's 1.4 million customers in Michigan.

Nationally, the cost of Philadelphia-based Comcast's preferred basic package will rise to an average of $47.70 a month. In Metro Detroit, where rates were last raised a year ago, the package costs between $40 and $47; prices vary by city.

Espy did not say why rates were not increasing in Michigan, but competition is likely a factor. Metro Detroit is one of the most competitive cable TV markets in the country.

This article only talks about Detroit- let's hope it applies over here, too.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Many Iraqi voters want Americans to go home - Yahoo! News
As Stephen Colbert said, "It's the only thing they agree on."

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Anti-Western feeling is running high ahead of Iraq's election this month and many voters think sending U.S. troops home should be the priority of the next government, an informal survey by Reuters indicated.

Campaigning for the December 15 parliamentary election has not focused much on the U.S.-led occupation, but one finding of a survey of dozens of voters by Reuters was the desire for foreign troops to leave the country.

In the campaign, it has been some Sunni Arab minority parties who, in common with rebel groups from the once-dominant Sunni community, have made foreign troop withdrawal a prime demand.

Other politicians, however, know they need U.S. soldiers to stop the Sunni-led insurgency tipping Iraq into civil war, but many of their constituents think the troops make matters worse.

That view was reflected in the survey of voters in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Basra, Hilla and Najaf in which more people chose the withdrawal of foreign troops as the priority for next year than chose a more general wish for security.

Animosity toward U.S., British and other Coalition soldiers, whom many Iraqis have come to see as contributing to rather than halting violence, underscores Washington's failure to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis 30 months after invading.

It also chimes with growing unpopularity over the war back in the United States.

"When Iraq was occupied by U.S forces, they promised to spread democracy. But what had happened is the opposite; democracy produced slaughter, killing and kidnapping," said Mohammed Sulabi, who was also interviewed in Baghdad.

Must be the propaganda isn't working. Don't they know George has a "Plan for Victory"?

Have A Pleasant Tomorrow: News Briefs

Looks like the Cubs lost out on the bidding for Rafael Furcal. Hey Nomar! Don't pack your bags just yet.

Putin gains further control in Russia after the opposition party is found to be swiftboating immigrants and is banned from the race. Interesting. Does this mean they expect truth in their political advertising? Republicans here will have no such problems, vowing to "do to the immigrants in 2006 what we did to the gays in 2004", according to Howard Dean.

The traditional Xmas burning of the 43 ft. high straw goat has taken place in Stockholm. Bill O'Reilly sites this as further proof of the liberal War on Christmas; we all know the baby Jesus loved the big straw goats next to his manger.

The Iranians don't want to talk to us. Nothing new there.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Are You Ready For Some Football?:

Atlanta at Carolina
Buffalo at Miami
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh
Dallas at N.Y. Giants
Green Bay at Chicago
Houston at Baltimore
Jacksonville at Cleveland
Minnesota at Detroit
Tampa Bay at New Orleans
Tennessee at Indianapolis
Arizona at San Francisco
Washington at St. Louis
Denver at Kansas City
N.Y. Jets at New England
Oakland at San Diego
Seattle at Philadelphia

It's All About Me: News That Caught My Eye

Al Sharpton wants his own comedy series. I thought Al Sharpton WAS his own comedy series.

Both Belgium and South Africa are making huge strides towards gay equality. Gives me hope that someday the US will be a civilized country, too. Here's a good story on what a mess the legal situation is for gay couples in the "land of the free".

Former Cub Kyle Farnsworth is now the Yankees problem. They got him to replace former Cub Tom Gordon. You would think that they might learn a lesson? Prediction: He melts under the pressure. Prove me wrong, Farnsie.

Another reason to outlaw winter- you can't walk out onto the piers at Lake Michigan. This story struck me because I could see myself doing something like that "trying to get that perfect shot". Back in my drinking days I DID walk out there in the middle of winter. Stupid and very dangerous. Obviously. Sorry, dude. My best wishes to his family.

Rice to warn Europe to back off over detainees - Yahoo! News
Winning hearts and minds wherever we go...through the use of vague threats of...what? Exposing the truth? Do these people honestly think that we would tell the truth about what we are doing? C'mon Europe. It's a bluff. Call it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to give allies in Europe a response next week to their pressure over Washington's treatment of terrorism suspects: back off.

For almost a month, the United States has been on the defensive, refusing to deny or confirm media reports the United States has held prisoners in secret in Eastern Europe and transported detainees incommunicado across the continent.

The European Union has demanded that Washington address the allegations to allay fears of illegal U.S. practices. The concerns are rampant in among the European public and parliaments, already critical of U.S. prisoner-abuse scandals in Iraq and Guantanamo, Cuba.

But Rice will shift to offense when she visits Europe next week, in a strategy that has emerged in recent days and been tested by her spokesman in public and in her private meetings with European visitors.

She will remind allies they themselves have been cooperating in U.S. operations and tell them to do more to win over their publics as a way to deflect criticism directed at the United States, diplomats and U.S. officials said.

Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said Rice told him in Washington she expected allies to trust that America does not allow rights abuses -- a sign she will avoid giving Europe a detailed response on U.S. intelligence work.

And she refused to give Ahern a personal assurance Ireland has not been used for secret prisoner transfers, saying he had already heard that denial from the U.S. ambassador, a senior State Department official said.

"Just trust us...we don't do this sort of thing...never mind all the pictures and stories...but you better start lying to your public and put a happy face on the US reputation or we will tell on you for helping us."

Bullshit. That would entail us coming clean, and that's not going to happen.

Rice will stress in public that Washington does not violate allies' sovereignty or break international law, and she will remind publics their governments are cooperating in a fight against militants who have bombed commuters in Madrid and London, senior U.S. officials said.

"It is the responsibility, also, of governments to explain as clearly as possible to their publics and publics around the world what it is that they are doing in fighting the war on terrorism," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Spreading lies and doublespeak around the world. We are not doing these dreadful things, but on the other hand we justify our actions because we are "fighting terrorism", which tells me we are doing these dreadful things, or why give the justification?

I'm sorry the rest of the world tolerates this crap. Time for them to stand up, or Bush will bring them down with him when he goes.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Kurdish Oil Deal Shocks Iraq's Political Leaders - Los Angeles Times
Hat tip to AMERICAblog for this "potentially enormous implications" tidbit.

BAGHDAD — A controversial oil exploration deal between Iraq's autonomy-minded Kurds and a Norwegian company got underway this week without the approval of the central government here, raising a potentially explosive issue at a time of heightened ethnic and sectarian tensions.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party, which controls a portion of the semiautonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, last year quietly signed a deal with Norway's DNO to drill for oil near the border city of Zakho. Iraqi and company officials describe the agreement as the first involving new exploration in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Drilling began after a ceremony Tuesday, during which Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish northern region, vowed "there is no way Kurdistan would accept that the central government will control our resources," according to news agency reports.

In Baghdad, political leaders on Wednesday reacted to the deal with astonishment.

"We need to figure out if this is allowed in the constitution," said Adnan Ali Kadhimi, an advisor to Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari. "Nobody has mentioned it. It has not come up among the government ministers' council. It has not been on their agenda."

The start of drilling, called "spudding" in the oil business, is sure to be worrisome to Iraq's Sunni Arab minority. They fear a disintegration of Iraq into separate ethnic and religious cantons if regions begin to cut energy deals with foreign companies and governments. Sunnis are concentrated in Iraq's most oil-poor region.

Iraq's neighbors also fear the possibility of Iraqi Kurds using revenue generated by oil wells to fund an independent state that might lead the roughly 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, Iran and Syria to revolt.

So, we gonna fight to keep the Kurds from going independent? Is there any doubt that Iraq is careening towards a civil war on many different fronts?

Lawmakers Examine a la Carte Cable Options - Yahoo! News
While this sounds like a great idea, why do I have a sneaking suspicion that it will end up costing me more in the long run?

WASHINGTON - Conservative groups love the idea of letting TV viewers pay for only the channels they want on cable and are happy it's back on the table in Washington, where lawmakers and regulators are fed up with raunchy television.

Oh good grief. Won't they be surprised when the raunchy channels are the most popular.

While the cable industry generally loathes the notion of an "a la carte" pricing system, at least one cable company and a potentially big cable competitor have embraced it.

A la carte would allow cable subscribers to pick and pay for individual channels rather than being forced to buy packages. A parent, for example, could pick Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network — and not have to take MTV or other channels they may find objectionable as part of a bundled package.

Don't worry folks, your kids are too busy playing "Grand Theft Auto" to be bothered with the schlock that's on MTV.

The idea attracted attention this week on Capitol Hill when Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told industry leaders they need to give parents more tools to help navigate the hundreds of channels on cable and satellite TV.

"Something needs to be done," Martin said at an all-day forum on broadcast indecency.

One option he suggested would be an a la carte choice system — something the cable industry, for the most part, has staunchly opposed. But Martin found support for the idea from Cablevision Systems Corp., which operates in the New York City area and has supported a la carte choice before.

"We do not believe in the long term that selling programming a la carte will be detrimental to either programmers or cable operators," Cablevision Chairman Charles Dolan said Thursday.

Other providers say selling channels individually would force some channels out of business if they can't attract enough advertising.

I could get behind this if it would lower my cable bill. (fat chance) As long as the networks and the government/public channels (you could even ditch the public, but I want CSPAN) are still part of the "basic", I could see only buying WGN, TBS, the Comedy Channel, FX, Headline News and maybe ESPN. The rest I could probably live without.

GOP Wants to Create Secretive Gov't Agency - Yahoo! News
Shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

WASHINGTON - By creating a federal agency shielded from public scrutiny, some lawmakers think they can speed the development and testing of new drugs and vaccines needed to respond to a bioterrorist attack or super-flu pandemic.

The proposed Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency, or BARDA, would be exempt from long-standing open records and meetings laws that apply to most government departments, according to legislation approved Oct. 18 by the Senate health committee.

Those exemptions would streamline the development process, safeguard national security and protect the proprietary interests of drug companies, say Republican backers of the bill. The legislation also proposes giving manufacturers immunity from liability in exchange for their participation in the public-private effort.

"We must ensure the federal government acts as a partner with the private sector, providing the incentives and protections necessary to bring more and better drugs and vaccines to market faster," Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said when the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved the bill.

The agency would provide the funding for development of treatments and vaccines to protect the United States from natural pandemics as well as chemical, biological and radiological agents.

But it is the secrecy and immunity provisions of the legislation that have alarmed patient rights and open government advocates. The agency would be exempt from the Freedom of Information and Federal Advisory Committee acts, both considered crucial for monitoring government accountability.

"There is no other agency that I am aware of where the agency is totally exempt either from FOIA or FACA," said Pete Weitzel, coordinator of the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government. The coalition is an alliance of journalism groups, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors and Associated Press Managing Editors, that wrote to lawmakers seeking amendments to the bill. "That is a cause for major concern and should raise major policy concerns," Weitzel said.

Sounds like another cash cow for the drug industry to me. And giving them immunity is total bullshit- if they want the fat government contracts, they can step up to the plate and make sure their products are safe for civilian consumption. It seems we might be giving them carte-blanche to kill a few folks in their rush to cash in.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

mlive.com: NewsFlash - Senate approves limiting welfare; House also to vote
Let's keep in mind that when they say "able-bodied adult" they are, for the most part, talking about women with children.

LANSING, Mich. (AP)The state Senate voted Thursday to limit cash assistance for able-bodied welfare recipients to four years and implement a two-year ban on aid for those who do not comply with work or training requirements three times.

The House was scheduled Thursday to vote on similar legislation, which would be the first significant change to the state's welfare program since former Gov. John Engler overhauled it in the 1990s.

The House and Senate were considering slightly different reforms, but both want to provide more education and job skills to help recipients permanently move off welfare. They also want to limit benefits and set tougher penalties for failing to comply with requirements.

OK, that's very cool. I can get behind that. How do we pay for it?

Well? < crickets chirping >

Legislation that was to be considered by the House only would allow welfare recipients to continue receiving cash assistance after four years if they are disabled or they are taking care of a disabled relative. Able-bodied adults on the welfare rolls for more than four years would get a one-year grace period before possibly losing their aid.

The Senate voted 24-11 to approve a four-year limit with slightly more flexibility. It would allow welfare recipients who have been in compliance with work and training requirements for four years to apply for a one-year extension.

A four-year limit would affect about 8,100 cases, or about 20,000 individuals, including many children, according to a nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency analysis.

About 212,000 people currently receive cash assistance, the House Fiscal Agency said. The average monthly payment per household is $415, or about $5,000 a year, the agency said.

Again, we are talking children. We are talking about taking away money, a whole whopping $400 a month, from children. Children who will end up hungry. Children who will end up homeless.

At the same time all of this is going on, the whackjobs in the Michigan Senate have this little gem in mind-

From Planned Parenthood comes this action alert.

Bill Interfering with Doctor-Patient Relationship Out of Senate Committee

Yesterday afternoon, the Senate Health Policy Committee held a hearing on House Bill 4446, the bill to mandate ultrasounds before an abortion and require that a woman be given a physical picture of the ultrasound image and the opportunity to view the live ultrasound. This bill passed the Michigan House of Representatives in the spring with an amendment to remove the requirement that the ultrasound be performed 24 hours before an abortion.

Please take action to oppose this mean-spirited and unnecessary legislation. Once again, instead of working to prevent unintended pregnancies, Michigan's legislature is chipping away at a woman's right to determine whether and when to have a child.

Yes, the Michigan House and Senate want to pass a bill that requires unnecessary medical procedures be done to a citizen of the state seeking health care. Without even getting into the abortion debate, I want you to stop and think about that little idea. The state requiring you to have an unnecessary procedure. Probably want you to pay for it, too.

So, back to the welfare story. Here's an interesting scenario.

A woman has unprotected sex. Oops. It happens. Sometimes it happens because of carelessness. Sometimes it happens because of coercion and force. Sometimes it's not even "unprotected", birth control can fail.

She tried to get Plan B, but because the state legislature has banned the over the counter sale of the drug and she doesn't have a doctor, she can't get a prescription in time for it to be effective. Or perhaps she does get the prescription, but finds that the state legislature has written laws that say the pharmacists in her area don't have to dispense it if they don't want to. (see same story) She finds herself pregnant.

She doesn't want to have another kid. After all she can't afford to feed the ones she has because the state has cut her off, so she goes to seek an abortion only to be told that she has to have an ultrasound and be forced to look at the pictures. She can't afford an ultrasound and there are none available to low income women in her area. Oh well, too bad.

She goes through with the pregnancy. If she's unemployed, chances are no one will hire her if she has to take extended time off in the near future. If she is employed, especially at a small business not covered by the Family Leave Act (which they are also trying to do away with) she might lose her job because she will have to take time off to have the baby.

Now we have another hungry mouth to feed in the world. And a mother who might end up jobless and homeless thanks to some guys in suits who felt the need to kowtow to the religious extremists who would force their version of "morality" on women and to the greedy Republicans who would rather give tax breaks to millionaires than feed hungry children.

This the kind of state we want to live in? If we let the radical Republicans keep it up, we will be the "Mississippi of the North."

These assholes have got to go.