-
-
Group seeks Bush sewage 'tribute'
A citizens group in San Francisco wants to pay an ironic tribute to President George W Bush when he leaves office - by naming a sewage plant after him.
The group, calling itself the Presidential Memorial Committee of San Francisco, wants the issue voted on at this November's election.
"It's important to remember our leaders in the right historical context," said petition organiser Brian McConnell.
The Republican Party thinks the plan stinks, and it will fight the measure.
Mr McConnell's group has submitted more than 12,000 signatures on a petition to the San Francisco Department of Elections.
If at least 7,168 of those signatures are found to be valid, the question of whether to rename Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant after the outgoing president will be added to the ballot papers in November.
"In President Bush's case, we think that we will be cleaning up a substantial mess for the next 10 or 20 years," said Mr McConnell.
"The sewage treatment facility's job is to clean up a mess, so we think it's a fitting tribute." A citizens group in San Francisco wants to pay an ironic tribute to President George W Bush when he leaves office - by naming a sewage... more -
$200 a barrel oil could happen this year
Oil's historic ascent from $100 to nearly $150 a barrel in just six months is lending weight to a far grimmer prediction: Crude could reach $200 a barrel by the end of the year.
Oil at that price would wreak deeper havoc on the world's airlines and automobile industries.
In the U.S., $200 crude would push the price of gasoline to well over $6 a gallon, causing commuters to alter their driving habits more sharply than they have already, while putting extreme strains on large sectors of the U.S. economy. In Europe, it would stir more political unrest and increase the clamor to cut the continent's stiff petrol taxes. In Asia, governments would be under pressure to cut fuel subsidies and risk a popular backlash.
U.S. benchmark crude prices leapt 3.6% last week, closing before the Independence Day holiday at a record $145.29 a barrel. Roughly halfway through the year, oil prices have soared 50% since Jan. 1 and have doubled since the same time last year. (Please see related article on page C8.)
Few oil watchers are now ready to bet that oil will hit $200 a barrel by New Year's Eve. But nearly all are wary of predicting how and when oil's upward stampede will be reversed.
What makes the market so unpredictable, analysts say, is that prices are being pushed by such a wide array of factors, while no single force has emerged with the power to throw them in reverse.
"Crude is going up," said Dave Pursell, an oil analyst at Tudor Pickering in Houston, "because there is nothing strong enough yet to push it down."
In Washington, deepening fears that oil prices will shoot still higher have stoked talk in Congress and within the Bush administration of using one of the last remaining cudgels to try to reverse the price rise: a sharp and sustained release of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Those discussions remain preliminary, though, while most senior administration officials remain opposed to such a move, because the oil stored in salt mines is meant for release in genuine supply emergencies.
The list of forces shoving prices upward is long: a weak dollar driving hot money into commodities; jitters over a possible military conflict with Iran; soaring costs and chronic project delays in the world's oil patch; concerns over scarce supplies and long-term production declines; and continued robust demand growth in much of the developing world.
For the rest of the story click link at top
Oil's historic ascent from $100 to nearly $150 a barrel in just six months is lending weight to a far grimmer prediction: Crude could ... more -
White men can vote. And there are a lot of them, even if they can’t dance
According to the polls, Mr Obama beats Mr McCain in nearly every group except white men. Unfortunately for Mr Obama, there are a lot of white men. In 2004 they were roughly 36% of the electorate, and they preferred George Bush to John Kerry by about 25 points. This year, Mr McCain leads Mr Obama by about 20 points among them.
Democrats have various theories about why white men do not like them. One is that the problem is only with southerners, who abandoned the Democrats in the 1960s because President Lyndon Johnson signed laws demanding equal rights for blacks. Clearly, there is some truth to this. But it is not the whole story. For one thing, the Democrats lost many non-southern white men, too. Between the presidential elections of 1960 and 2004, their share of the southern white male vote shrank by 17 points, but among non-southern whites it still shrank by 12 points. And racial attitudes have changed dramatically since the 1960s, especially among the young. There must be something besides bigotry making white men spurn the Democrats.
Thomas Frank, the author of “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”, thinks the white working class has been hoodwinked. It is in their economic interest to vote Democratic, but they don’t because those crafty Republicans have got them all worked up about silly moral and cultural issues such as abortion, guns and gay marriage.
Both theories are popular among Democrats, not least because they imply that Democrats have done nothing wrong; it is just that poor white trash are too bigoted or stupid to support them. But Democrats will not get very far by blaming the voter. David Paul Kuhn, author of “The Neglected Voter: White Men and the Democratic Dilemma” points out that moral issues cannot easily be separated from economic ones. Poor people fret more about family breakdown because they see more of it than rich people do and its consequences, for them, are worse.
In a time of economic insecurity, it is rational for people to turn to things they can rely on, such as faith and patriotism, and unwise for Democrats to scorn them for it. That is why Mr Obama’s comment that people in small towns “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” because they are “bitter” will be the keystone of Republican attacks, predicts Mr Kuhn.
According to the polls, Mr Obama beats Mr McCain in nearly every group except white men. Unfortunately for Mr Obama, there are a lot o... more -
McCain, Obama condoms
A Manhattan entrepreneur has found his own way to "have fun" and to profit from the U.S. presidential race -- putting the candidates' faces on condom packages.
Benjamin Sherman, who created the company Practice Safe Policy, has been selling condoms named after Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain around the world for several weeks.
Sherman said the Obama condom carries the slogan "Use With Good Judgment." The McCain version says "Old but not expired." McCain is 71.
According to the website, McCain condoms "are battle tested, strong and durable, for those occasions when you just need to switch your position!" McCain served in the military in Vietnam and was held as a prisoner of war there.
While the company can't guarantee the condoms are 100% effective, it says it's certain "that without wearing one, there's likely to be an Obama-Mama in your future."
"We've done it in fun. People are not actually going to use these condoms," said Sherman, 26.
The 9.95-dollar-per-pair "keepsakes" are so popular that Sherman said he had nearly sold out and expected to order a second shipment this week. He declined to say how many condoms were in each order.
The condoms are generic and the candidates are featured only on the packaging.
A Manhattan entrepreneur has found his own way to "have fun" and to profit from the U.S. presidential race -- putting the candidates' ... more -
McCain: "I hate the bloggers" (video)
JOHN MCCAIN: “Now we’ve got the cables. We’ve got talk radio. We’ve got the bloggers. I hate the bloggers. We’ve got all kinds of sources of information.” JOHN MCCAIN: “Now we’ve got the cables. We’ve got talk radio. We’ve got the bloggers. I hate the bloggers. We’ve got all kinds of sour... more
-
CA Republican's Don't Like The Idea Of 17-Year-Old Voters
A pair of Assembly bills designed to bring more young people into the voting booths are being fought by Republicans who worry that too many of those new voters will be liberal Democrats.
One of the measures would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to "preregister" to vote, while the other would allow 17-year-olds to vote in a primary election if they will be 18 by the date of the next general election. Both bills have prompted straight party-line votes, with no hint of GOP support.
While Democrats sponsoring the bills say they are merely good-government measures, studies show that their party would get a major election-day boost if more young voters cast ballots. A pair of Assembly bills designed to bring more young people into the voting booths are being fought by Republicans who worry that too... more -
A national speed limit of 55 MPH?
An influential Republican senator suggested Thursday that Congress might want to consider reimposing a national speed limit to save gasoline and possibly ease fuel prices.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technology. He said he wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit.
Congress in 1974 set a national 55 mph speed limit because of energy shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo. The speed limit was repealed in 1995 when crude oil dipped to $17 a barrel and gasoline cost $1.10 a gallon.
As motorists headed on trips for this Fourth of July weekend, gasoline averaged $4.10 a gallon nationwide with oil hovering around $145 a barrel.
Warner cited studies that showed the 55 mph speed limit saved 167,000 barrels of oil a day, or 2 percent of the country's highway fuel consumption, while avoiding up to 4,000 traffic deaths a year. An influential Republican senator suggested Thursday that Congress might want to consider reimposing a national speed limit to save ga... more -
Fox News = Tabloid Journalism
Fox news blatantly photoshops pictures of New York Times TV reporter Jacques Steinberg and TV editor Steve Reddicliffe.. This came after last weekends story about Fox News' ratings. "Fox News Finds Its Rivals Closing In." Fox news blatantly photoshops pictures of New York Times TV reporter Jacques Steinberg and TV editor Steve Reddicliffe.. This came aft... more
-
Karl Rove must testify or risk contempt
Former White House political guru Karl Rove has no problem spouting off his opinions to Fox News or the Wall Street Journal, but he's being quite cagey in his attempt to avoid sworn testimony on his role in the US Attorney firing scandal.
Two prominent House Democrats wrote to Rove's lawyer Thursday warning that the man who was known as "Bush's Brain" must comply with a subpoena demanding his testimony or he risks criminal contempt of Congress charges. Rove has been subpoenaed to appear at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing next week; attorney Robert Luskin has been trying to free him from that obligation, instead offering that Rove would speak to committee members behind closed doors, off the record and not under oath.
"We want to make clear that the Subcommittee will convene as scheduled and expects Mr. Rove to appear, and that a refusal to appear in violation of the subpoena could subject Mr. Rove to contempt proceedings, including statutory contempt under federal law and proceedings under the inherent contempt authority of the House of Representatives," wrote Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-CA) and Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-CA), chair of an administrative law subcommittee.
The lawmakers have been investigating the dismissal of at least nine federal prosecutors in what they say was a politically motivated purge likely orchestrated by Rove. Also of interest to the committee, is the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegleman, a Democrat, on what observers say were trumped up charges; Rove's fingerprints also are on that case.
In an earlier letter, Luskin claimed Rove would be unable to testify because of executive privilege being invoked by President Bush.
Conyers and Sanchez remind Luskin that the prominent DC attorney had said publicly that Rove would respond to a subpoena, and they note that several other Bush administration officials have testified to Congress, such as onetime press secretary Scott McClellan, who responded to an invitation, and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, who reluctantly appeared in response to a subpoena. Former White House political guru Karl Rove has no problem spouting off his opinions to Fox News or the Wall Street Journal, but he's ... more -
Democracy is a choice of Ice Cream Flavors
Well you might never know who’s running for President if you checked all the major news outlets. It seems that MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, The New York TImes and The LA Times, with all of their Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, technology and resources that these major news organizations have at their disposal, are failing to list all the candidates on the pages of their election coverage. Well you might never know who’s running for President if you checked all the major news outlets. It seems that MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, T... more
-
Obama: After 9/11, 'we were asked to go shopping'
In a bastion of the religious right, Barack Obama is talking up the importance of volunteerism, part of a flag-draped week focused on God, country, service, veterans and freedom - and on cribbing themes from the successful campaigns of President Bush.
Wednesday's main message was the need to boost service by all Americans in all spheres - the military, overseas and in neighborhoods.
In the prepared text of Obama's speech, he said the quiet following Friday's Fourth of July celebrations would be a good time to look beyond the "bustle and busyness" of everyday obligations to find a way to contribute.
"I hope you take that moment to think about what you can do to shape the future of this country we love," the Democratic presidential hopeful was to say in a University of Colorado gym. "Loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July."
Obama talked in almost achingly personal terms about the impact service had on him, as a boy who "spent much of my childhood adrift" and often had little idea "who I was or where I was going." But early in college, he said, values like hard work and empathy resurfaced "after a long hibernation." He eventually found himself working as a community organizer in a devastated South Side Chicago neighborhood, and said he was transformed.
His call is a clear echo of Bush's "love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself" refrain, an enduring and prominent staple of Bush's own runs for the White House as well as his campaigning for others in midterm election years.
But to Obama, the problem is not that Americans are not willing. It's that they have neither been asked nor given enough opportunities. In a clear slap to Bush, he decried that Americans "were asked to go shopping," instead of something larger, in the wake of the 2001 attacks.
"We have lost precious time," he said.
His solution is a major proposed expansion of government national service programs, first unveiled in Iowa in December, that would cost $3.5 billion a year. His campaign said he would fund the spending with some of the savings from ending the war in Iraq and by canceling a new tax break for multinational corporations.
One new piece announced Wednesday would create a new "Green Vet Initiative" offering counseling, job placement and mediation with industry for veterans wanting to enter the rapidly expanding renewable energy field.
Other highlights of the plan include: increasing the all-volunteer military, expanding AmeriCorps, doubling the size of the Peace Corps, expanding YouthBuild, in which low-income young people build affordable housing; expanding service programs involving retired people and anyone over 55, and creating a tax credit making the first $4,000 of college tuition free for students who conduct 100 hours of public service a year.
On a day the Democratic presidential candidate's Republican opponent, John McCain, was in Colombia touting the benefits of free trade deals, Obama also was addressing the United Steel Workers union's annual conference in Las Vegas via satellite and burnishing his military credentials with a planned visit to the U.S. Air Force Academy and Peterson Air Force Base, both based here.
Obama's time here brought him onto the home turf of James Dobson, the popular and influential evangelical leader who founded Focus on the Family and with whom the Democratic candidate has sparred.
Dobson recently said that Obama, in a 2006 speech, was "deliberately distorting" descriptions of Bible passages to suit his policies. Obama shot back that Dobson was "just making stuff up."
As an unexpected entry in the battleground column for this November's election, Colorado is one of the chief places where Democrats see a chance to turn a reliably red state into a blue one. Its biggest city, Denver, was chosen to host the Democratic convention in August where Obama will officially take the nominee crown.
In a bastion of the religious right, Barack Obama is talking up the importance of volunteerism, part of a flag-draped week focused on ... more -
McCain evokes war on drugs
US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain waded into drug policy Wednesday, on the second day of a Latin America tour meant to burnish his foreign policy and national security credentials.
McCain wrapped up an overnight stay in Colombia, the world's top producer of cocaine, and was to travel to Mexico, the main route for illegal drugs flowing into the voracious US market, later in the day.
"Drug cartels have basically taken control of some towns on the Mexican border," McCain told ABC News Wednesday, speaking from Colombian seaside resort of Cartagena.
"There is clearly a continued threat of drugs pouring into the United States of America, which can harm us and our young people very badly."
The Arizona senator praised progress Colombia has made against drugs and the leftist insurgent FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, after a lengthy meeting late Tuesday with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
"Certainly it's my view that significant progress has been made against the FARC in the presidency of President Uribe," McCain said of the rebel group, whose hostages include three US nationals seized in 2003 during anti-drug operations in the region.
McCain, in a tough battle against Democrat Barack Obama to win the White House in the November 4 election, is hoping to use the Latin America trip to score points over Obama in the arenas of trade and foreign policy.
He was accompanied by his wife Cindy McCain, independent Senator Joseph Lieberman and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
McCain also gave his backing to the US-Colombia free trade pact agreed by Uribe and US President George W. Bush but now stalled in the US Congress, where opponents cite Colombian government violence against trade unions.
On Monday, McCain savaged Obama over his opposition to the pact and accused him of being unwilling to recognize the magnitude of the Uribe government's duel with FARC, the long-running leftist rebel movement.
"He doesn't support the Colombian free trade agreement. I think it would have very serious consequences if we rebuked our closest ally," McCain said.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) meanwhile launched a new attack against McCain, accusing him of appeasing big business at the expense of US workers.
"We are seeing nothing but a continuation of the economic policies that have failed working people, not just the working people in Colombia but working people in this country," said DNC vice-chair Linda Chavez-Thompson.
"Senator McCain is going to follow George Bush's failed economic policies, we can't afford that," she said on a conference call with reporters.
Mark Levinson, chief economist of the Unite Here trade union, said McCain should worry more about the plight of US workers than new trade pacts.
"It is clear that whatever he is doing, it is not in the interests of US workers," he said.
"The situation with the Colombia trade agreement is a particular outrage.
"There are more trade unionists killed in Colombia than the rest of the world combined.
"While John McCain is in Colombia, Senator Obama is in Ohio, ground zero of the affect of these bad trade deals in the US economy.
"We think this just highlights the stark difference between these two candidates."
McCain was to leave for Mexico City later Wednesday for talks on Thursday with President Felipe Calderon, the recipient of fresh US aid for its fight against drugs.
The US Senate last week approved a 1.6-billion-dollar, three-year package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean known as the "Merida Initiative."
An underworld war between rival drug gangs and police has escalated into open bloody conflict in Mexico in recent weeks, with more than 1,500 people killed this year, some 500 of them in the northern border city of
US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain waded into drug policy Wednesday, on the second day of a Latin America tour meant to bu... more -
Bush may send more troops to Afghanistan
President Bush said Wednesday he is weighing whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. Bush said it has been a "tough month" in Afghanistan, where more U.S. and NATO troops died during the past two months than in Iraq.
The president told a Rose Garden news conference that one reason for the rising deaths "is that our troops are taking the fight to a tough enemy ... of course there is going to be resistance." It has also been a "tough month for the Taliban," he said.
Bush also urged Americans to pressure Congress to allow more oil exploration in the United States.
"We can help alleviate shortages by drilling for oil and gas in our own country, something I've been advocating ever since I've been the president. I've been reminding our people that we can do so in environmentally friendly ways," he said. "And yet the Congress, the Democratically controlled Congress now has refused to budge. It makes no sense."
Bush spoke ahead of a trip to Japan this weekend to participate in the annual Group of Eight economic summit.
The president sought to tamp down speculation that Israel will launch a military strike against Iran before he leaves office. He said all options are on the table but said military action would not be his first choice.
"I have made it very clear to all parties that the first option ought to be solve this problem diplomatically," Bush said. "And the best way to solve it diplomatically is for the United States to work with other nations to send a focused message — and that is, you will be isolated, and you will have economic hardship, if you continue to enrich."
Iran says its nuclear program is aimed only at generating electricity and cites its right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to pursue uranium enrichment, a process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.
The United Nations has demanded that Iran suspend enrichment and has imposed three rounds of similar financial sanctions on Iranian companies and individuals. The United States and European allies have been pushing Tehran to halt enrichment and offering incentives, to no avail.
In June, militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq for the second straight month. It was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war began.
Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this year told NATO allies that they would increase troop levels in Afghanistan in 2009 in response to the growing violence. The United States now has about 31,000 troops there — the most since the war began in October 2001 — and has been pressing allies to contribute more.
As the holiday weekend began, Bush said Congress was in part to blame for rising gas prices that have stung American consumers.
He said lawmakers continue to block his proposals, including lifting prohibitions on offshore oil drilling. The president has also called for allowing oil drilling in a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling, easing the regulatory process to expand oil refining capacity, and lifting restrictions on oil shale leasing in the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
Bush even appealed to Americans to lobby their congressional representatives on the matter.
"We have got the opportunity to find more crude oil here at home in environmentally friendly ways and they ought to be writing their Congress people about it," Bush said.
Bush outlined his goals for his last G-8 summit of nations, which are the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.
The debate about what to do about global warming will be front and center in Hokkaido too, although the discussion will be on the sidelines of the actual summit. Bush is hosting a meeting of major economies to urge nations to embrace long-term commitments to reduce green house gas emissions, but he appeared to be lowering expectations.
President Bush said Wednesday he is weighing whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. Bush said it has been a "tough month" in Afgh... more -
Who would you want at your cookout: Obama or McCain?
WASHINGTON (AP) — People would rather barbecue burgers with Barack than munch meats with McCain.
While many are still deciding which should be president, by 52 percent to 45 percent they would prefer having Barack Obama than John McCain to their summer cookout, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll released Wednesday.
Men are about evenly divided between the two while women prefer Obama by 11 percentage points. Whites prefer McCain, minorities Obama. And Obama is a more popular guest with younger voters while McCain does best with the oldest.
Having Obama to a barbecue would be like a relaxed family gathering, while inviting McCain "would be more like a retirement party than something fun," said Wesley Welbourne, 38, a systems engineer from Washington, D.C.
Party label means a lot, with three-quarters of Democrats picking the Democrat Obama and the same number of Republicans picking McCain, a Republican. Independents are about evenly split.
"John and I would probably have a lot to talk about," said Republican Michael Mullen, 53, of Merrimac, Mass., like McCain a Navy veteran.
One in six people saying they'd vote for McCain prefer Obama as their barbecue guest; just one in 20 Obama backers would invite McCain.
The AP-Yahoo! News survey of 1,759 adults was conducted online by Knowledge Networks from June 13-23 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for subgroups was larger. WASHINGTON (AP) — People would rather barbecue burgers with Barack than munch meats with McCain. ... more -
Afghanistan troop deaths outnumber those in Iraq
Militants in Afghanistan killed more US and Nato troops than those in Iraq in June after a fresh spate of rebel attacks that highlighted the growing strength of the Taliban.
A count by Associated Press (AP) found that at least 45 international troops, including 27 from the US and 13 British, died in Afghanistan last month, compared with 31 international soldiers killed in Iraq, of whom 29 were from the US.
It was the second consecutive month that more troops were killed in Afghanistan, where international forces suffered their deadliest month since the 2001 US-led invasion.
The figures follow a report by the Pentagon last week that forecast the Taliban would maintain or increase the rate of attacks along the Pakistan border where US troops operate. Attacks are already up by 40% this year from 2007.
Fighting between militants and international troops is intensifying in the southern half of Afghanistan. AP's tally places the total death toll at 2,100 in the past six months.
While most of those killed have been militants, foreign troop deaths are also rising, as insurgents get more effective at ambushes and roadside bombings.
The US-led coalition said today that helicopters and a bomber carried out an attack on militants massing in the Khost province, in the eastern region of the war-torn country, armed with heavy machine guns and grenades.
"After positively identifying the militants, coalition forces engaged them with attack helicopters and a close air support bomber, killing approximately 33 militants," spokesman First Lieutenant Nathan Perry said.
An Afghan army officer said the clash began when Taliban militants attacked coalition and Afghan forces patrolling in Tani, a district on the border with Pakistan.
Colonel Mohammed Israr, a battalion commander in Khost, said the group of about 50 militants had crossed from Pakistan - where some Taliban and al-Qaida militants seek refuge - and retreated in that direction under heavy coalition fire.
However, Perry said the clash took place about five miles from the frontier and "did not involve Pakistan".
Last month, the international community pledged $21bn (£10.5bn) in aid to Afghanistan but critics have attacked a perceived lack of strategy to turn that commitment into success.
Militants in Afghanistan killed more US and Nato troops than those in Iraq in June after a fresh spate of rebel attacks that highlight... more -
Should McCain Fire His Top Campaign Advisor, Blackwater Chief Counsel, Charlie Bl...
Blackwater lead counsel and John McCain chief campaign advisor, Charlie Black is being accused of using the threat of a terroist attack in this country, as a tool for provoking fear into voters for political gain this next election. Washington insiders, including former National Security Counterterrorism Chief, Richard Clark, feel that he should be fired by John McCain. Blackwater lead counsel and John McCain chief campaign advisor, Charlie Black is being accused of using the threat of a terroist atta... more
-
what will the extreme right do to checkmate the left
cause we must accept that the right's brain storming sessions are quite huge, and they only choose and have chosen what benefits them the most, period. so when they are "virtually" chilling, compared to other averages of right wing activity, one can only out think them by..... well, by doing the same thing, but having the advantage of knowing what their flawed issues are (aka inequality)
so, that article talks about that "virtual pause", and this one
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/opinion/29rich.html?_...
talks about how a new terrorist attack may or may not "help"
i do not know what their next move will be to checkmate the left, but i do know that their only chance in this highly rational and enlightening technological era we are lucky to live in, would be to rule by force or be ruled by reason; and common sense, logical reasoning and equality have never been part of their agenda.
the rule of law helped the spreading of abusive powers that used to be monopolized in the king, queen or any other ruler of the land. law put people against one another, layers of employees who are not responsible for what their employers do are the ones answering questions when shit hits the fan. the culture of eliminate or be eliminated cannot continue.
maybe the system we created checkmated itself? im not sure, but both sides have to make up their minds. cause we must accept that the right's brain storming sessions are quite huge, and they only choose and have chosen what benefits them ... more -
Extra-marital affair-prone Republican Senators team up for Marriage Protection Ame...
This can't be true. Only in America.
Larry Craig and David Vitter — “two United States Senators implicated in extramarital sexual activity” — have named themselves as co-sponsors of S.J. Res. 43, the Marriage Protection Amendment. If passed, the bill would amend the Constitution to declare that marriage “shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.”
This can't be true. Only in America. ... more -
The Legal Framework for the Prosecution fo GWB
Palpable Anger
By Vincent Bugliosi
My anger over the war in Iraq, some will say, is palpable in the pages of this book. If I sound too angry for some, what should I be greatly angry about — that a referee gave what I thought was a bad call to my hometown football, basketball, or baseball team, and it may have cost them the game? I don't think so.
Virtually all of us cling desperately to life, either because of our love of life and/ or our fear of death. I'm told there is a passage in a novel by Dostoyevsky in which a character in the story exclaims, "If I were condemned to live on a rock, chained to a rock in the lashing sea, and all around me were ice and gales and storm, I would still want to live. Oh God, just to live, live, live!"
So nothing is as important in life as life and death. We fear and loathe the thought of our own death, even if it's a peaceful one after we've outlived the normal longevity. We fear not only the loss of our own lives, but the lives of our parents and sisters and brothers, as well as our relatives and close friends. We don't think of our children too much in this regard because our children, in the normal scheme of things, are supposed to outlive us. When they die before us, the already hideous nature of death becomes unbearable. And that's when they die a normal and peaceful death from illness. If the death is from an accident, like a car collision, the death of the child, if possible, is even more unbearable.
So one can hardly imagine the gut-tearing pain and horror when the only child of a couple, a nineteen-year-old son, call him Tim, the center of his parents' lives, whom they showered with their love and lived through vicariously in his triumphs on the athletic field and in the classroom, and who was excited as he looked forward to life, planning to wed his high school sweetheart and go on to become a police officer (or lawyer, doctor, engineer, etc.) dies the most horrible of deaths from a roadside bomb in a far-off country, and comes home in a metal box, * his body so shattered that his parents are cautioned by the military not to open it because what is inside ("our Timmy") is "unviewable." (To make the point hit home more with you, can you imagine if it was your son who was killed in Iraq and came home "unviewable" in a box? Yes, your son Scott, or Paul, or Michael, or Ronnie, Todd, Peter, Marty, Sean, or Bobby.)
No words can capture the feelings, the enormous suffering, of Tim's parents. But I think we can say that among a host of other deep agonies, they will have nightmares for the rest of their lives over the horrifying image of their boy the moment he lost his life on a desolate road in Iraq. As a mother of a soldier who died in Iraq wrote in a May 17, 2004, letter to the New York Times: "The explosion that killed my son in Baghdad will go on in our lives forever." She went on to say that "seared on" her soul are the "screams and despair" of her family over the loss of her son and the "sound of taps above the weeping crowd at the grave site of my son. Palpable Anger By Vincent Bugliosi ... more -
Despite Media Blackout, Bugliosi's Book On Trying Bush For Murder Is Bestseller
I went to see Vincent Bugliosi speak before a crowd stuffed to the sweltering brim of a church fellowship hall in Venice, California, last night. I couldn't help but cry with communal relief, standing at the back of the hall amid the bicyclists and babies. Coming home, I slept better than I have in years. The reason: hope. Not the kind of quasi-soundbite hope of Obama "I'll cave on FISA, I'll cave on Iran" speak, but the real and actual action-based hope that we will be able to yank our country out of the hands of criminals.
Bugliosi's book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, is more important than all of Obama's speeches put together. But we haven't heard Bugliosi interviewed on any mainstream media. Why?
Fear.
Bugliosi explained last night the difficulty in getting a publisher for this book. Normally, publishers open their arms to the famed inimitable prosecutor. This time, he had to fly to New York for one-on-one meetings. Despite the fact that this book would sell, publishers were afraid -- of what? of whom? Bugliosi had to get the BBC to record the audio book -- no company in the U.S. would agree to do it.
Intimidation of free speech comes in many forms, not only in censorship, not only via a Salman Rushdie-esque fatwa.
What is "too-hot" is the truth, the plain truth we must face, absorb and stomach without convulsing. Once faced, the truth leads to its own required action, and its own consequence.
Bugliosi's book lays out the case and establishes jurisdiction for prosecuting George W. Bush not simply for fraud and conspiracy, but in a criminal court for murder. The evidentiary investigation can begin today. The trial can begin the day Bush leaves office.
Bush's bringing the country to war on fraud, on false pretenses is provable. Bush knew that the evidence he presented to the people and to Congress was a lie. He knew that taking the country to war would result in casualties -- at bare minimum more than 100,000 people have died a horrible violent death. Our dead soldiers, most killed by roadside bombs, come back in caskets in pieces. The families are warned not to open the caskets as the contents are "unviewable." By some counts, more than a million people have been killed.
George W. Bush is clearly, undeniably responsible for these deaths -- by the same joint-responsibility rule of conspiracy that convicted Charles Manson. To me, Bush exudes numbing cold-bloodedness every time he opens his mouth. War is not a game. As Bugliosi piercingly requires us to answer, "Are there no consequences for committing a crime of colossal proportions?" by: Suzanne O'Keeffe
... more
-
related topics
Republican
Contributors (728)
Republican
