“Yellow Cake” is a short animated film by the award-winning Canadian animator Nick Cross. Cross explains that he got the idea for the film in 2003, in light of speculation during the Bush administration that Iraq was buying uranium powder called “Yellow Cake.” Yellow Cake Uranium was one of the Weapons of Mass Destruction that Iraq allegedly possessed. Cross’s fantastic animated epic becomes a modern parable of terrorism and catastrophic war, a lamentable tragedy featuring geopolitical bullying, social unrest and worker revolt. In the end, as with most revolutions, the revolt is both crushed by foreign intervention and corrupted from the inside until it becomes as evil as the regime the workers had originally fought.
“Yellow Cake” initially lures the viewer into a tale of pleasant mirth, filled with adorable blue creatures who spend all day baking and then eating their own exquisitely delicious yellow cakes. But soon the tide turns, and the small town of happy little bakers is driven to terrorism by the greed of their leader and cake-hungry fat cats, resulting in the town’s ultimate catastrophic destruction. It seems that no matter what they do, the oppressed have no hope left.
This piece presents a number of colorful illustrations from the film, as well as the remarkable animated short, “Yellow Cake.”
Please visit my website and view the colorful illustrations and this fantastic short animated film:
By Rebecca Abrahams on 11/9/2009 11:08AM
Exclusive: Mike Connell's Family Copes With His Mysterious Death, Tipsters, Legal Options
Guest Blogged by Rebecca M. Abrahams
On December 18, 2008, Bush IT expert Mike Connell, a highly skilled pilot, was killed in a sudden crash while flying his small aircraft from Washington DC to his Akron/Canton home airport. The cause of the crash is still unknown and under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
For more than ten months, Connell's family has been coping with feelings of disbelief, anger and confusion and has many unanswered questions about the man they knew and loved.
For Connell's widow Heather, holding her husband's New Media consulting firm together is a daily struggle.
"The more I learn about the crash the more sick it makes me - the destruction of the plane. I found a pack of the I-pod ear buds in a tree. I'm obsessed with the Blackberry. I don't have the Blackberry. I have his backpack. I have his paperwork, his schedule. None of his paperwork is burned up. One of his prayer books burned on the outside. I think there was a lot thrown from the plane."
Although mainly un-reported, there's a great deal of controversy surrounding Connell's death - largely in part because he was the architect of many Republican websites including GeorgeWBush.com and GWB43.com, the site Karl Rove used for 95% of his email correspondence. Connell was also considered a key witness in the election fraud lawsuit King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell. The suit implicates Former Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth J. Blackwell, Karl Rove and others of 2004 election night vote rigging.
Attorneys in the case believe that Connell, who had not been accused of any wrongdoing, had firsthand knowledge about the missing White House emails and Rove's alleged wrongdoing with respect to the 2004 Presidential election.
His wife, and those attorneys, are not the only ones still focused on questions about what actually happened to Mike Connell nearly one year ago, and in the years prior...
'Way too convenient'
Connell, 45, was the oldest of six children. His sister Shannon Connell describes her family as very close, despite differing political opinions.
"Even though we had different political beliefs, there's always been a close tie among siblings. In fact, my parents were Kennedy Democrats. But then after Kennedy, they started voting more for Republicans and I would say that in our family we range from progressive to conservative and Mike and one of my other siblings are staunch Republicans."
Although her brother never spoke of his work, Shannon believes that Mike's ties to the Bush Administration and the GOP are somehow related to his death.
"It just seems way too convenient, the timing since he had been deposed. He didn't get to testify. But I don't think he would've perjured himself. When it comes down to it, he was basically an honest person. If push came to shove and he was under oath testifying, I believe that he would've told the truth. I think that there were other people who believed that as well."
Connell's wife Heather acknowledges he received threats in the months leading up to his death. But says she was unaware Connell was told not to fly.
"I have spent days and days and days trying to figure it all out. I don't think he would lie to me. Number one, I don't think he took the threats seriously. I never heard 'Don't fly.' I never knew my husband as Bush's IT guru. He built lots of Republican websites… He built Jeb's site, George's site, George's 2nd site --- his campaign sites. I don't know what involvement he had with SmartTech. That I don't know. I just knew what sites he built. SmartTech was the big hosting center. Everything was hosted at SmartTech. That's where the access would be --- not at New Media. I was signing lots of checks for hosting fees, huge payments to SmartTech forBy Rebecca Abrahams on 11/9/2009 11:08AM
Exclusive: Mike Connell's Family Copes... more
Former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush unites industry at the NG O&G Summit
New Orleans is preparing to welcome the biggest names in Oil when the illustrious Next Generation Oil and Gas Summit comes into town. Key personnel including Commissioner Elizabeth A. Jones and Brian Rovelli - President of Total E&P have confirmed attendance to discuss the US reliance of foreign energy markets, technology investments to improve efficiency, building jobs for the American people, and increasing government interventions on the Energy market.
The U.S. seems to be at the brink of losing manufacturing jobs to India and China and implementation of a near-term energy strategy would send a strong message out. Karl Rove is set to lead the discussion and drive home the need of the American people.
“Americans instinctively understand what too many policymakers ignore. We need affordable and reliable energy to power our economy and provide jobs. Relying more on domestic energy sources and less on those of the Persian Gulf makes us more secure. And while conservation and alternatives are good, America will be better off if markets set energy prices, not government bureaucrats. The challenge is getting lawmakers to embrace what the American people already have.” – Karl Rove (Former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush).
The summit (now in its third year) has over fifty leaders in attendance and has got the industry waiting with bated breath on the outcomes.
"Karl is pulling the industry together, working to secure domestic growth, We do not want to see legislation transformed into a mechanism for transferring jobs overseas," Will Doll – Director NG O&G.Former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush unites... more
Now this just simply could not be made up in that Frankenstein laboratory where the cuckoos on the right wing cook up their witches brew of batshit crazy allegations to levy against Barack Obama. There are scores upon scores of issues where Obama should be rightly taken to task for continuing Bush-era “war on terror” policies, preemptively immunizing torturers, refusing to fight for Single Payer health care, hiring a team of hawks and neoliberal crooks to manage foreign policy and the economy, among many many others. At the same time, there are racist astroturf loons that appear to have recently landed on earth from planet Fiction and are navigating their way through the country, speaking in tongues, led by snakeoil salesmen like Glenn Beck.
But the headline in today’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed by former senior White House advisor Karl Rove is in a category all its own: “Obama Can’t Outsource Afghanistan.” The article is ostensibly about how Obama is delegating decision making on everything from Afghanistan to the CIA/torture investigation to others:
Mr. Obama’s hands-off approach to the war seems to fit his governing style. Over the past year, he outsourced writing the stimulus package to House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, washed his hands of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to reinvestigate CIA interrogators, and hasn’t offered a detailed health-care plan.
Um, excuse me Karl, how about outsourcing an entire war to politically connected war companies? Remember those eight years? While Rove may be using the term “outsource” in a general way, let’s remember this fact: never, ever in US history have more government and military activities been outsourced to private corporations than they were the day Bush and Rove left 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Obama moved in. For Rove—or any Bush-era official—to have the audacity to blast anyone for outsourcing anything is like a bigger-scale version of Republican Senator David Vitter lecturing the losers exiting Scores “gentlemen’s club” about the moral evils of prostitution.
The real article that should come below a headline “Obama Can’t Outsource Afghanistan” would never be written by Rove. Such an article would denounce the actual scandal of Obama’s continuation of the Bush-Cheney-Rove policy of radically outsourcing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to corporate criminals like Armor Group, DynCorp, Blackwater, KBR, Triple Canopy, Lockheed Martin and many, many others.
By Jeremy ScahillNow this just simply could not be made up in that Frankenstein laboratory where the... more
In his WSJ op-ed today, which the paper headlined “The President Risks Getting Stale: Continuous TV appearances can’t rescue a bad argument,” former Bush adviser Karl Rove criticized President Obama’s interviews on five Sunday morning talk shows this past weekend. “Mr. Obama doesn’t need more TV time,” wrote Rove. “More talk doesn’t automatically lead to greater public support, but it can erode public confidence in your leadership.”
While the impact of Obama’s “full Ginsburg” is open for debate, it’s surprising to hear Rove criticize the White House for having Obama make so many public appearances. In his new memoir, former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer writes that “Rove was of the belief that the president needed to be out speaking every day no matter what the subject”:
Other speeches were scheduled for no apparent reason at all. Karl Rove was of the belief that the president needed to be out speaking every day no matter what the subject. Sometimes Bush would be at the podium four separate times in twenty-four hours, talking about the war in Iraq, the Olympics, the economy, or the birth of Thomas Jefferson. And the next day there might be another speech on Iraq, one more on the economy and maybe a salute to Irish Americans. This obviously made it hard to broadcast a coherent message. [Latimer, pp. 181-182]
There has been concern among some that Obama’s media campaign to push health care reform could leave him overexposed. But the recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll says that’s not the case. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they see “the right amount” of the president.
Additionally, Rove asserts that “Americans have taken the measure of Mr. Obama’s health-care plan and, as his falling poll numbers attest, increasingly don’t like it.” But in reality, Pollster’s aggregation of public opinion surveys shows that support for both Obama’s health care plan and his handling of the issue has been increasing as of late.In his WSJ op-ed today, which the paper headlined “The President Risks Getting... more
American right-wing talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and former president George Bush's strategist Karl Rove are to play themselves in a forthcoming episode of Fox's animation Family Guy.
In the episode being produced for next season, Brian, the liberal dog of the cartoon's central family, the Griffins, gets bored and frustrated because he feels he no longer has anything to complain about with Barack Obama in the White House, so he becomes a Republican and starts listening to Limbaugh.
"Family Guy tends to be very liberal because it's written by liberals," creator Seth MacFarlane told US trade magazine the Hollywood Reporter.
"So we thought let's give the other side some face time. So we put it out there to a lot of Republicans - 'we're doing this show, who wants in?' - and we got some bites. I'm sure the reaction from some will be, 'you monsters, how could you have Karl Rove on your show?'"
MacFarlane was appearing at an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences event, where the cast of the animation performed a live read-through of its controversial episode about abortion, which Fox has refused to air.
I'm not really a fan of Family Guy, but I really want to see that episode.
Has Rush Limbaugh seen the Family Guy episode where they make fun of him.American right-wing talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and former president George Bush's... more
Karl Rove and other top officials in the George W. Bush White House were deeply involved in pushing for the ouster of several U.S. attorneys, notably including one in New Mexico, according to testimony and e-mails that the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee released Tuesday.
Sworn testimony from former White House Counsel Harriet Miers revealed that Rove considered former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico a "serious problem" and "wanted something done about it" because of complaints about politically sensitive investigations that Iglesias had mounted. Miers said that she couldn't recall whether Rove specifically demanded Iglesias' firing during a 2006 conversation, but Iglesias was fired later that year.
Miers' testimony and e-mails between White House officials contradict Rove's assertion that he was merely a passive "conduit" to the Justice Department for complaints from Republican operatives and wasn't himself an advocate for the administration's eventual ouster of nine U.S. attorneys.
In sworn closed-door testimony to the House Judiciary Committee in July, Rove continued to distance himself from the decision to push out certain prosecutors. He recalled a proposal to fire some or all of them in late 2004, but denied that he'd come up with a plan to have it done and rejected the suggestion that he had a direct role.
"My view was this is a decision that had to be made at the Justice Department," Rove said, according to a transcript of his sworn testimony.
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., issued a statement that said: "After all the delay and despite all the obfuscation, lies and spin, this basic truth can no longer be denied: Karl Rove and his cohorts at the Bush White House were the driving force behind several of these firings, which were done for improper reasons."Karl Rove and other top officials in the George W. Bush White House were deeply... more
Former Bush White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was deposed by lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said in an interview Tuesday.
Rove’s deposition took place over a period of some eight and a half hours, beginning at 10 a.m. and ending around 6:30 p.m, ET — and the lawyers took several breaks, Conyers said.
Conyers wouldn’t say what Rove told investigators or whether Rove would appear before his committee again.
“He was deposed today,” Conyers said in an interview with Politico. “That’s all I can tell you.”Former Bush White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was deposed by lawyers for the... more
Former Bush White House official Karl Rove was questioned by House Judiciary Committee lawyers Tuesday on any role he may have played in politically motivated firings of U.S. attorneys.
Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., confirmed Rove's closed-door appearance through a committee spokesman who was not authorized to be quoted by name.
The committee has been seeking answers on who created the list of federal prosecutors who would lose their jobs. Conyers has suspected the trail led to the White House but couldn't prove it. Former President George W. Bush asserted executive privilege for Rove and former White House lawyer Harriet Miers and refused to let them testify.
An agreement was struck in March between Rove's lawyer and the committee for Rove, who was Bush's top political adviser, to testify on the prosecutors' firings, as well as the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama. Siegelman, a Democrat, has alleged that his prosecution was pushed by Republicans, including Rove.
The agreement called for Rove to testify "under the penalty for perjury," Conyers has said. The committee could release the transcripts afterward, but the agreement also allowed for public testimony.
Nine U.S. attorneys were fired. An internal Bush Justice Department investigation concluded that political considerations played a part in at least four of the dismissals.Former Bush White House official Karl Rove was questioned by House Judiciary Committee... more
Remember… Capitalism is the exploitation of men by men.
Socialism is the opposite!
AL-LE-GO-RY (nothing to do with All Gore btw ;)
noun, plural -ries.
1.a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.
Greek philosopher Plato in his work “The Republic” uses the ‘Allegory of the Cave’ to illustrate how humans can be imprisoned by what they perceive and how shadows on the wall’s cave replaces reality. Imagine coming out to the light and seeing reality. In other words, embraced education & philosophy and become enlightened by it!
Hence this little comedy ditty, designed to illustrate our shortcomings when, as ghoulish & former FBI emperor J. Edgar Hoover said… "The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists." Edgar should know for he was one sick sad fuck himself with more murderous, racist & mob skeletons in his closet than anyone in America’s history. Strangely enough he is still considered a hero by the institutions and most people.
Why would one prohibit black slaves to learn how to read?
Is the dumbing down of America irreversible?
Why did arm dealers & war profiteering corporations bought up so many media
outlets?
Why is thinly veiled pro-war propaganda spewed upon us 24-7 by the mighty Wurlitzer ? http://current.com/items/89801957_halliburton-kbr-stealing-us-blind.htm
Karl Rove slammed Maureen Dowd for trashing former President Bush in her latest column on President Obama's leisure time.
"I think Maureen Dowd is a bitter, twisted, deranged columnist for the New York Times who misses no opportunity to show her disdain for anybody on the conservative side of the aisle," the Bush adviser and Fox News contributor said in an interview with Fox News' Martha MacCallum. "I actually went to an editorial board meeting at the New York Times and wasted a couple bucks on some flowers to give Maureen Dowd at the meeting so that it would give her a smile on her face. And that didn't even work. This is a dour, downbeat liberal."
Follow link for the rest of the story by Danny Sea at The Huffington Post.Karl Rove slammed Maureen Dowd for trashing former President Bush in her latest column... more
In the ongoing war of words between Rush Limbaugh and Colin Powell, top Bush strategist Karl Rove is siding with the popular talk radio host.
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Rove said Limbaugh would edge out the former secretary of state if he "had to pick between the two."
Rove's comments come after a back-and-forth between Limbaugh and Powell, during which both have charged the other is hurting the GOP's chances of success in the future.
Discussing divisions over the direction of the party in the wake of its losses in the 2006 midterm elections and 2008 presidential election, Powell said the party should expand its base.
"I have always felt that the Republican Party should be more inclusive than it generally has been over the years and I believe that we need a strong Republican Party that is not just anchored in the base but has built on the base to include more individuals," he told "Face the Nation."
Ultimately, Rove said, the debate between Limbaugh and Powell is a "false" one because neither is a candidate for public office.
"The real debate takes place out there in the real world by people getting out there and encouraging the kind of candidates who represent their vision for the party," Rove said.In the ongoing war of words between Rush Limbaugh and Colin Powell, top Bush... more
SUMMARY: In his Wall Street Journal column, Karl Rove claimed that because Nancy Pelosi was allegedly "informed" of the Bush administration's use of enhanced interrogation techniques, her non-action made her "an accomplice to 'torture.' " The claim is inconsistent with the definition of "accomplice," as well as with the reality of Pelosi's ability to affect the Bush administration's actions in any way.
Follow link for the full story at Media Matters for America.SUMMARY: In his Wall Street Journal column, Karl Rove claimed that because Nancy... more
This is a review of Medavoy's book "American Idol After Iraq" with little nuggets such as:
"Shortly after 9/11, Karl Rove presided over a gathering of studio chiefs and major directors and writers to promote the idea of a role for Hollywood in the war in terror. Despite Rove's assurances, some viewed it with suspicion as an effort to harness the power of the industry in the same way that Hollywood engaged in a full-throttle propaganda during World War II. But nothing much came of it, as the march to war in Iraq created deep divisions between the White House and much of the industry's creative community. "This is a review of Medavoy's book "American Idol After Iraq" with little nuggets such... more
Karl Rove is giving Meghan McCain the creeps. Ewww.
The daughter of 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain fingered Rove, former President George Bush's political guru, as an Internet skeezoid in her latest blog posting Monday.
"Karl Rove follows me on Twitter. That's creepy," wrote McCain, 24, on the DailyBeast website.
McCain wrote she joined Twitter a few months ago because it allowed her to share the "less serious" and "humorously uncensored moments" of her life. Twitter, the wildly popular microblogging platform, constrains messaging to 140 characters or less.
"But there's also been a downside: I am now being followed by Karl Rove, and my local sheriff, and God
knows how many other political pundits," McCain wrote. "We need to take Twitter back from the creepy people."Karl Rove is giving Meghan McCain the creeps. Ewww.
The daughter of 2008 GOP... more
Karl Rove, top aide to former President Bush, called Vice President Biden a "liar" and a "blowhard" on Thursday -- the sharpest words in an ongoing feud between Biden and Bush staffers. Rove was responding to Biden's claim that he had rebuked the president in an Oval Office exchange.
"I hate to say this, but he's a serial exaggerator," Rove told Fox News. "If I was being unkind I would say liar. But it is a habit he ought to drop."
Rove added: "You should not exaggerate and lie like this when you are the Vice President of the United States."
"There were few presidents who spend hours with somebody in the Oval Office, particularly with a blowhard like Joe Biden was," Rove continued.
On CNN earlier this week, Biden said President Bush once told him in the Oval Office, "'Well, Joe, I'm a leader," and Biden responded: "Mr. President, turn around and look behind you. No one is following."
Biden spokesman Jay Carney told Fox on Wednesday: "The vice president stands by his remarksKarl Rove, top aide to former President Bush, called Vice President Biden a "liar" and... more
Former Bush adviser Karl Rove was verbally accosted Thursday evening by an ex-chief of staff to former Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.).
Rove was quietly having dinner at the tony restaurant Charlie Palmer Steak on Capitol Hill when he was aggressively approached by Jason Roe, the former Feeney staffer. Roe, now of Federal Strategy Group, was "loud and boisterous" toward Rove. He was apparently (still) upset over the following comments Rove made on Fox News, the day after the election, in which Feeney — along with many other Republicans — went down in flames.Former Bush adviser Karl Rove was verbally accosted Thursday evening by an ex-chief of... more
Although he says it could turn into a "show trial," Karl Rove tells FOX News he is looking forward to telling the House Judiciary Committee about his alleged role in the firing of federal prosecutors and the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.
Until now, Rove had been shielded from testifying by his former boss, President George W. Bush, who had asserted executive privilege on Rove's behalf. But on Monday, lawyers for Bush and President Obama reached a deal that will allow Rove to be deposed by the Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Rep. John Conyers, Michigan Democrat
"We're closing in on Rove," Conyers was overheard saying by two people just off the House floor last year. "Someone's got to kick his ass."Although he says it could turn into a "show trial," Karl Rove tells FOX News he is... more
WASHINGTON (AP) - Former top Bush aides Karl Rove and Harriet Miers agreed Wednesday to testify before Congress under oath about the firings of U.S. attorneys, a controversy involving allegations of political interference that grew into a constitutional standoff between two branches of government.
The Bush White House had fought attempts to force Rove and Miers to testify, and the agreement - steered by aides to President Barack Obama - ended that dispute. Both the White House and lawmakers, especially now that Democrat Obama has replaced Republican George W. Bush - were leery of having a judge settle the question about the limits of executive privilege, for fear of losing.
The agreement calls for Rove and Miers, Bush's top political adviser and White House counsel, to be interviewed by the House Judiciary Committee in closed depositions "under the penalty for perjury," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich. The committee says it also might call the two for public testimony.WASHINGTON (AP) - Former top Bush aides Karl Rove and Harriet Miers agreed Wednesday... more
Karl Rove finally agreed to testify before the House Judiciary committee.
It's about damn time!
Here is the press release:
n an agreement reached today between the former Bush Administration and Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in transcribed depositions under penalty of perjury. The Committee has also reserved the right to have public testimony from Rove and Miers. It was agreed that invocations of official privileges would be significantly limited.
In addition, if the Committee uncovers information necessitating his testimony, the Committee will also have the right to depose William Kelley, a former White House lawyer who played a role in the U.S. Attorney firings.
The Committee will also receive Bush White House documents relevant to this inquiry. Under the agreement, the landmark ruling by Judge John Bates rejecting key Bush White House claims of executive immunity and privilege will be preserved. If the agreement is breached, the Committee can resume the litigation.
Chairman Conyers issued the following statement:
"I have long said that I would see this matter through to the end and am encouraged that we have finally broken through the Bush Administration's claims of absolute immunity. This is a victory for the separation of powers and congressional oversight. It is also a vindication of the search for truth. I am determined to have it known whether U.S. Attorneys in the Department of Justice were fired for political reasons, and if so, by whom."Karl Rove finally agreed to testify before the House Judiciary committee.
It's... more
