Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place! Democrats are getting a half a trillion dollar package ready. Iraq war funding would be voted on separately.
NY TIMES: Congressional leaders are assembling a $500 billion package to try to resolve an impasse by providing President Bush with unfettered money for the Iraq war in exchange for new spending on popular domestic programs.
...Under this deal, the president would be given $70 billion out of a still pending request of nearly $200 billion for the war. The compromise is also likely to include provisions that address the mortgage crisis, as well as agricultural drought relief and other disaster financing.
Fair tradeoff? Who the hell knows? I'm just sick and tired of the whole goddamned thing.
The Senate would then add up to $40 billion for Iraq combat operations, with the expectation the final war spending total would produce enough Republican support to offset defections by House Democrats.
After the measure returns to the House for a final vote, Democrats opposed to the war are likely to vote against it but may not be able to stop it. The decision to free some money for the war without a deadline or goal for withdrawal would represent a major concession by Democrats. They had earlier said they would not send Mr. Bush any more war money this year unless he accepted a change in Iraq policy.
What the hell is the New York Police Department thinking? As a crime prevention initiative, undercover cops are planting wallets, iPods, cell phones or purses in public areas. If you pick it up, you are immediately swarmed upon by police, frisked and your background is checked for prior arrests. So unless the police determine that you are making an effort to immediately return the item to a lost and found or to the person you think lost the item, you are guilty until proven innocent.
While riding in the New York subway, Carlos Alayo found a wallet sitting on an empty bench. In a hurry to get to a meeting, Alayo picked up the wallet and said he was going to check it for ID later. Before he knew it he was being frisked by police.
It turns out the wallet was planted by New York City police as part of "Operation Lucky Bag," a decoy operation involving planted wallets and undercover officers watching how bystanders react.
I have three questions: 1-How the fuck are you supposed to figure out who the item belongs to within a minute or so? 2 - What genius thought up of the "Lucky Bag" name? and 3 - Isn't this entrapment?
The police don't think so.
...the NYPD defends the practice. "Entrapment is forcing you to commit a crime, putting you in a position of giving you no choice. And here you have choices all along the way," said New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.
Not really, Brownie. The only choices you have are to pick it up or ignore it and walk away. You eliminate all other choices before they have a chance to be made. So in my estimation, the whole program is eroding what little community unity there is left in New York City and detering good samaritans from helping their fellow man for fear of it being a cheap sting operation.
This is completely different from the old stings where a "drunk" undercover cop would stagger around or pretend to be asleep on a bench with his wallet hanging out of his pocket, provoking unsuspecting would-be pickpockets to commit a crime.
Am I presumed a criminal for picking up a lost item?
Granted, there are people who will take the item and keep it. But from personal experience, I can't tell you how many times I've found wallets or cell phones and found their owner after a little investigative work and returned the lost item. Now I'll have to think twice before doing a good deed.
I also can't help but wonder if the police would have been so quick to frisk Mr. Ayalo had his name been John Smith.
Out of the kindness of li'l ol' Bushy's heart, he held a press conference today and gave out a number to call for help with mortgage relief from those predatory lenders called the "Hope Now Hotline". Those Republicans really know how to name things, don't they?
Anyone who dialed 1-800-995-HOPE did not reach the mortgage hotline but instead contacted the Freedom Christian Academy — a Texas-based group that provides Christian education home schooling material.
And all that time, presidential advisors were keeping their fingers crossed backstage praying he'd spell "HOPE" correctly.
The most traffic I've gotten on my blog was the post I wrote about Joe Allen and his disgraceful remarks about Local One members during the Broadway Stagehands strike. Some of the comments I received ranged from support of our union to upset Joe Allen employees ridiculing me for my stance.
Apparently, Joe Allen had written a letter of apology to Local One claiming he was taken out of context. I thought to myself, "How can some of those comments be taken out of context? They stand on their own without explanation."
Well I guess his letter didn't do much because this notice went out to all Local One members:
In the November 17, 2007 edition of the New York Times, Mr. Joe Allen is quoted as saying, “I saw them picketing the other day on 44th Street and thought to myself, 'That’s the hardest they’ve worked in years.'"
Mr. Joe Allen said that about YOU. The account Local One had for many years with Joe Allen was immediately terminated.
We are asking that all Local One members, their family members, friends and all other Union members BOYCOTT the Joe Allen Restaurant located at 326 West 46th Street.
His other restaurants include Orso, 322 West 46th Street and Bar Centrale, located above Orso. Also, Joe Allen Restaurants are located in Miami, London and Paris.
BOYCOTT ALL JOE ALLEN RESTAURANTS
His degrading and disrespectful remarks about YOU should not go without retribution. Please do not spend your hard earned money in any of his businesses.
After receiving the comments previously mentioned, I thought I might have overreacted. Now I know I was right. Why would Joe Allen apologize if he claims he was misquoted and taken out of context? Answer: Because he wasn't misquoted.
What is wrong with The View? Or I suppose I should ask, what is wrong with the women on The View? ... Wait, let me be even more specific: What the hell is wrong with the stupid women on The View and who the hell is interviewing them for these high paying co-host jobs? Surely, it can't be Barbara Walters, can it?
Discussing whether Christians were around during Epicurus' time (Epicurus lived from 341-270 B.C.), Sherri chimed in, "[The Greeks] had Christians 'cause they threw them to the lions."
When Whoopi tried to cautiously navigate her through the timeline of basic world events, saying, "I think this might predate that," Sherri responded, "I don't think anything predated Christians." Joy's attempt to explain the Greek-Roman-Christian chronology was futile, as Sherri insisted, "Jesus came first before them." Sherri's argument was all the more powerful due to her convincing "use your finger to write on the table" trick, but she can't fight the facts.
I suppose "B.C." only registers to Shepherd as a Hasselbeck nickname: "Bitch! Chill!"
Did Sherri never hear the term "Before Christ"? Even a religious wingnut knows Adam and Eve were before Christ. Could you imagine the short circuiting in her head if you show her comparisons between Christianity and the Pagan religions that pre-date it? Her teeny, little brain would probably fizzle and pop like a Christmas light.
How is it possible that EVERYONE, including us plebians and groundlings, knew what the latest National Intelligence Estimate... that thing we call the NIE (see how that works?; cute little acronyms for long ass phrases), said regarding Iran's nuclear capability - or lack of it - and a Republican presidential candidate didn't know about it?
Kuhn: I don’t know to what extent you have been briefed or been able to take a look at the NIE report that came out yesterday ...
Huckabee: I’m sorry?
Kuhn: The NIE report, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Have you been briefed or been able to take a look at it — Huckabee: No.
NY TIMES: President Bush said today that a new intelligence finding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003 had not altered his sense that Iran remained a danger.
...“I have said Iran is dangerous,” Bush said a day after the release of the National Intelligence Estimate, representing the consensus of all 16 American spy agencies, “and the N.I.E. doesn’t do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world — quite the contrary.”
So just disregard that 16 separate intelligence agencies report that Iran has not constituted nukes and had actually stopped its program in 2003. Asshole. Sometimes the Decider really makes me go nuke-u-lur!
Reporters pressed the president to explain why as recently as October, he was saying that a nuclear-armed Iran could pose a risk of a “World War III.” But Bush said he had learned of the new intelligence findings on Iran, which have been in the works for months, only last week. When a reporter asked whether anyone in the intelligence community had urged him to step back from his tough warnings about Iran, he said, “No.”
Knowledge has been the president's enemy ever since his skull failed to completely fuse, leaving him with a spongy head and a brain that's susceptible to bruising. His other lifelong enemy, by the way, is a fork without a protective wine cork pressed onto its dangerous, eye-poking tines. I'm joking about the skull thing.
...Why else would President Bush cite knowledge as the qualifier? Knowledge is also the simplest justification to lie about due to the fact that it's so insanely difficult disprove. Oh, and it's a perfect fit for rallying the president's dingus base --they hate anything that has to do with knownin' shit.
Just a little over six weeks ago, our illustrious President Bush stated that he "told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
Now comes word from US Intelligence Agencies that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen. Yet Bush and his gang of warmongers were pushing for pre-emptively striking at Iran even though the intelligence clearly showed no nuclear threat.
...the new estimate declares with “high confidence” that a military-run Iranian program intended to transform that raw material into a nuclear weapon has been shut down since 2003, and also says with high confidence that the halt “was directed primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure.”
...Yet at the same time [US] officials were airing these dire warnings about the Iranian threat, analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency were secretly concluding that Iran’s nuclear weapons work halted years ago and that international pressure on the Islamic regime in Tehran was working.
How soon will Karl Rove spin this one and blame Democrats for pushing to strike Iran? What does Holy Joe Lieberman have to say about the report? What about William "The Bloody" Kristol? Watch for the weasel words from these morons any time now.
UPDATE: Does Stephen Hadley actually expect anyone to believe that since the official report of Iran's frozen nuclear capabilities was completed last Tuesday, that Bush didn't know about it til Wednesday?! It was halted in 2003 - four FUCKING years ago!
By now we've all heard Turdblossom's spin in trying to blame not just Congress in pushing Bush into war with Iraq prematurely, but having the gall to say it was the Democrats in a Republican controlled Congress that were hankerin' for a fight.
Well, I hope Rove understands that he is no longer under the White House's umbrella of protection and will be taken to task when bullshit spews from his mouth. He can no longer hide under the Oval Office desk and... do whatever it is he does under there, without fear of repercussion hitting him in the face.
This morning on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen called out Karl Rove for his false claim that Congress, not President Bush, had pushed for a speedy vote on the 2002 Iraq war resolution. "Clearly things have not gone right in Iraq and you've tried to revise history," Van Hollen told Rove, demanding he "retract the outrageous statements you made."
If you have a Newsweek subscription, I suggest you cancel it immediately and let them know why. It's bad enough the mainstream media carries water for these criminals, but do we really need the privilege of paying for it as well? I don't think so, Newsweek.
It's bad enough Craig reneged on his resignation, but to make matters worse for poor ol' "Wide Stance"...
Four gay men, willing to put their names in print and whose allegations can't be disproved, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's guilty plea. They say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual advance or that he paid them unusual attention.
They are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig's denials, including his famous statement, "I am not gay, I never have been gay." Those words, spoken on live national TV on Aug. 28, are now memorialized on a just-released-for-Christmas Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure.
"To say, no port security, no transit security, when we know that our ports and transit lines are targets for terrorists makes no sense if you want to protect America," said Schumer, D-N.Y.
Another bang up job by our tough on terror, "wanted dead or alive" Republicans in the White House. How could I be so blind as to think that we're worse off than we were six years ago?
In the fall of 2001, city cops chauffeured Rudy Giuliani's then-mistress, Judith Nathan, to her parents' Pennsylvania home 130 miles away on the taxpayers' dime. Records show that city cops refueled at an ExxonMobil station down the road from Nathan's childhood home in Hazleton on Oct. 20, 2001, while Giuliani stayed behind in New York attending 9/11 funerals. ...
...records show that - in addition to using City Hall funds to take Giuliani and Nathan to 11 secret trysts in the Hamptons, as has been previously reported - taxpayers were paying to ferry Nathan on long-distance trips without Giuliani, now a Republican contender for President. ..."At what point do we acknowledge that this was just a cheap political hit and that the premise of the original story has been proven false?" said Giuliani adviser Anthony Carbonetti.
Uh, I don't know, Tony, maybe when you CAN actually prove that there was no intent to cover it up?
Besides the fact that if this were a Democratic presidential candidate, he or she would've been ousted from the race months ago (if they ever had a chance to run in the first place), bidding farewell in a teary-eyed press conference surrounded by family and a forgiving spouse. Do you doubt it? Think about Gary Hart and Monkey Business... hell, Clinton was impeached for lying about an affair. Who wouldn't under those circumstances?
But once again, this is just another example of the pseudo-ethical "do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do" Republicans and the hypocrisy that has penetrated the GOP to their very bowels (pun intended).
Giuliani refused to take questions here today about allegations that travel expenses were picked up by obscure city offices when he was mayor of New York City. “We’ve already explained it,” he said, walking past reporters after a town hall meeting.
Giuliani, who is normally friendly to reporters, bristled past them, and campaign staffers were unusually physical in keeping the press away.
Here comes the Gestapo! It's only a matter of time before the horns break through on Giuliani's forehead.
Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.
I had one of these when I was a kid! If you didn't have one, you weren't cool.
If it weren't for Dubya the vetoing embryonic stem cell bill and defunding research, scientists would have never been able to reprogram ordinary skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells. Confusing, isn't it?
Two groups of scientists in Wisconsin and Japan have found a way to reprogram ordinary skin cells so they behave like embryonic stem cells. So it may become unnecessary to use embryos in this cutting-edge research.
When the good news was announced, the White House had the gall... to claim the victory as its own. “This is very much in accord with the president’s vision from the get-go,” said policy adviser Karl Zinsmeister. Without the slightest hint of irony, he suggested that their stalwart opposition actually fueled the scientists’ success. Next thing you know the president will nominate himself for the Nobel Prize in medicine.
Is that what he was doing when he surrounded himself with all those snowflake babies?
This breakthrough was not the president’s “vision from the get-go” or any other go. First of all, the Bush administration bet on the wrong horse—adult stem cells. Second, the researchers couldn’t have gotten to step two without step one. They needed human embryos to learn how to do this without human embryos. They’ll still need embryos for some time, as both a benchmark and a way to judge whether stem cells from skin are effective and safe.
So let's all thank Dr. Bush, the 21st Century Einstein, as he has delayed stem cell research by at least five years.
ABC News:Well before it was publicly known he was seeing her, then-married New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani provided a police driver and city car for his mistress Judith Nathan, former senior city officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
"She used the PD as her personal taxi service," said one former city official who worked for Giuliani.
Tick, tock, tick, tock...
...former city officials said Giuliani expanded the budget for his security detail at the time... many of the security expenses were initially billed to obscure city agencies, effectively hiding them from oversight.
Tick, tock, tick, tock...
New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson: "That's not the way that we operate these days, and it would not be the preferred way of doing business. In the end, it's a very convoluted way of getting things done." "If anyone hoped that no one would notice, they were being foolish," Thompson told ABC News.
Does the enjoyment I'm currently feeling make me a bad person?
Here's the Washington Post front page "news" story of the "assumption" of a conservative Republican that Barack Obama is Muslim. As the Daily Kos reports, "Actually, calling them rumors gives them too much credence. It would be more accurate to call them blatant lies, yet the Washington Post has decided to give them a national platform. The only thing missing from this story is the siren at the top of the page."
The Post article even goes so far as to use the Snopes.com mythbusting website to continue the attack, only to leave out that Snopes reports the rumor is false.
Kos:
Another e-mail, on a site called Snopes.com that tracks Internet rumors, starts, "Be careful, be very careful." It notes that "Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim," and that "since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when you are seeking political office in the United States, Obama joined the United Church of Christ to help purge any notion that he is still a Muslim."
This is immediately followed with a line about a CBS poll that showed, "a huge number of voters said they did not know Obama's faith." What the Washington Post didn't bother to address? What Snopes.com had to say about the story:
Claim: Illinois senator Barack Obama is a, "radical, ideological Muslim." Status: False.
Although a member of the emir's own royal family had harbored the man who would later be identified as the mastermind of the attack—a man named Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, often referred to in intelligence circles by his initials, KSM—al-Thani rushed to New York in its aftermath, offering to make a $3 million donation, principally to the families of its victims. Rudy Giuliani, apparently unaware of what the FBI and CIA had long known about Qatari links to Al Qaeda, appeared on CNN with al-Thani that night and vouched for the emir...
...The contradictory and stunning reality is that Giuliani Partners, the consulting company that has made Giuliani rich, feasts at the Qatar trough, doing business with the ministry run by the very member of the royal family identified in news and government reports as having concealed KSM —the terrorist mastermind who wired funds from Qatar to his nephew Ramzi Yousef prior to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and who also sold the idea of a plane attack on the towers to Osama bin Laden—on his Qatar farm in the mid-1990s.
The hero of 9/11... what else do we need to find out about Rudy before his presidential campaign crumbles? It's a sure bet that if the shoe were on the other foot and a Democrat was found to have business ties to terrorists, he would be skewered by the Right-Wing Spin Machine.
NEW YORK TIMES:The league representing Broadway’s theater owners and producers and the union representing its stagehands announced a settlement last night, bringing to an end a strike that had shuttered most of Broadway for 19 days, disrupted the plans of thousands of theatergoers and cost the city tens of millions of dollars in lost revenues.
The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC or WHINSEC), formerly the School of the Americas is a United States Department of Defense facility at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. The SOA has been criticized for the participation in human rights violations of some of its graduates. Critics argue that the education encouraged such practices and that this continues in the WHINSEC.
Each year since 1990, the independent organization School of the Americas Watch, stages a protest at the school. This year U.S. presidential candidates Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney, Sister Mary Waskowiak; President of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and Rabbi Michael Lerner addressed the crowd...
Watch Kucinich's speech here:
Fourteen protesters were arrested. In an incident that illustrates the increased harrassment by the Columbus police, three more SOA Watch activists were arrested and face charges for refusing to relinquish crosses at the vigil site whose size exceeded Columbus police regulations.
The so-called White Cross Three include Matthew Boynton, 20, a sophomore in International Affairs; Ashley DeBelardino, 18, a freshman; and Eric Pierce, 26, a junior in History Education. Each are members of the KSU Green Party Chapter and are also affiliated with the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition.
The arresting officer attempted to stop them from bringing in the crosses and said that SOAW had agreed to the size guidelines. "All you’re doing is disrupting the SOA people because they agreed to those guidelines."
However, Boynton said SOAW told him that they had not agreed to the guidelines.
"I have had it clarified from several people from SOA Watch, and no, they never agreed to those stipulations. The stick law is a City ordinance, but SOA Watch had no role in the restrictions. They had not agreed to those things. And I guess in previous years, the City had the protesters walk through metal detectors and that was challenged," Boynton said.
"The SOA people didn’t feel that way at all. We had dinner with most of the SOA organizers later on. They were very pleased we can take that stick law to court," Boynton said. ..."It’s a restriction on free speech. It’s obvious that protesters bringing in signs too thick or too long or bringing in small flag poles, that’s not dangerous. Those are not being used as weapons, only to convey speech. When the City says this, what they’re really saying is you can only convey your freedom of speech how far we want it," Boynton said.
"I think it’s just a tool police forces use to harass protesters. Anytime a police can step into your business and take away your sign and tell you you can’t use whatever you want to your protest is giving the cop power over you, and I consider that harassment. And it also gives them grounds to do other things to you," Boynton said.
Boynton also disagrees with the notion that the white crosses could be used as weapons."I think it’s ludicrous. I don’t think they could be used as weapons. And even if there was the possibility to use them as weapons, it’s a peaceful area, these are protesters who are nonviolent and there’s no threat of using them as a weapon if they could be used as such," Boynton said.
"Essentially anything could be used as a weapon. You can strangle someone with a flag, but a flag is not a weapon."
JACKSON, Miss. — Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, plans to resign his seat before the end of the year, congressional and Bush administration officials said Monday.
Lott, 66, scheduled two news conferences in Pascagoula and Jackson later in the day to reveal his plans. According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement, Lott intends to resign effective at the end of the year.
...Lott's colleagues elected him as the Senate's Republican whip last year, a redemption for the Mississippian after his ouster five years ago as the party's Senate leader over remarks he made at retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party in 2002. Lott had saluted the South Carolina senator with comments later interpreted as support for southern segregationist policies.
Well, birds of a feather...
But seriously, something major is happening here. The amount of resignations over the last few months is not something I remember as a normal thing towards the end of an administration. Are the rats truly deserting the sinking ship?
What do they know that we don't, that is causing an exodus from Washington? Something of epic proportions is going to break soon. One would have thought it was the McClellan book quote story - or non-story as the "liberal" media would have you believe. A cackling laugh or a $400 haircut is major news, but the possibility that the highest officials in our government committed treason is something to be buried in the back pages.
Speculation is that Lott is trying to beat the new rule for former Senators joining lobbying groups.By resigning before the end of the year, Mr. Lott would beat the effective date for new ethics rules that double to two years the amount of time former Senators must wait before they can join a firm to lobby former colleagues. The new rule applies to those who leave office “on or after” Dec. 31.
First Rudy's BFF Bernard Kerik, the man Rudy recommended for Homeland Security Director, is indicted for fraud and now comes this tidbit of information:
Who is Paul Singer? He and Rudy Giuliani would prefer you not think too much about it.
Singer, who founded the multibillion dollar hedge fund Elliott Associates, has raised $200,000 for Giuliani. He flies Giuliani around in his jet.
And as of September, his $175,000 contribution was the sole backing for the Republican scheme to split up California's electoral votes. Instead of all the electoral votes in the country's most populous state going to the state's winner (almost surely the Democrat), the ballot initiative would throw the loser (the Republican) his percentage, potentially swinging the election.
...what has attracted notice recently is Mr. Singer’s September donation of $175,000 to a group called Take Initiative America — California, a corporation that had been set up in Missouri the day before, and which then donated the money to a group called Californians for Equal Representation. The California group wanted to change the way the state’s 55 electoral votes are apportioned, from winner-take-all, to one apportioning the votes according to Congressional district. Such a change could give Republicans as many as 20 more electoral votes, making it much easier for the party to win the White House.
Guardian UK - More than 40% of the foreign fighters who entered Iraq to join the insurgency in the past year were citizens of Saudi Arabia, America's key partner in the Middle East, according to detailed information seized from a camp used by them. Documents and computers found by the US army at Sinjar, on the Iraqi-Syrian border, revealed that the other single largest group came from Libya, which is now being rehabilitated as a reliable western ally.
The captured data has been described as an intelligence treasure trove that included biographical details and the hometowns of the more than 700 fighters who entered Iraq since August 2006. Of those 307, or 41%, were Saudis and 137, or 18%, Libyans, senior US military sources told the New York Times.
Did anyone see this reported on Fox News? Me neither.
So Bush is sabre rattling at Iran, he includes Syria as an "axis of evil" in the now infamous 2002 State of the Union address, but his business partners in Saudi Arabia are suicide bombing the shit out of us. I wonder if our "ally's" borders are as carefully watched as Iran's or Syria's... Heckuva job, Georgie.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24— With American military successes outpacing political gains in Iraq, the Bush administration has lowered its expectation of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country, including passage of a long-stymied plan to share oil revenues and holding regional elections.
Instead, administration officials say they are focusing their immediate efforts on several more limited but achievable goals in the hope of convincing Iraqis, foreign governments and Americans that progress is being made toward the political breakthroughs that the military campaign of the past 10 months was supposed to promote.
Great. Mission accomplished. Now, let's get the hell out of there.
SYDNEY, Australia - Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq.
Labor Party head Kevin Rudd's pledges on global warming and Iraq move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of President Bush's staunchest allies.
Rudd has named global warming as his top priority, and his signing of the Kyoto Protocol will leave the U.S. as the only industrialized country not to have joined it.
Bush loses another suck up. I still feel my spidey senses tingling for November, if and when Bush tries to pull a Musharraf in the guise of national security.
Jordan Fox received a $10,000 signing bonus when he joined the Army. The Mt. Lebanon man served his country in Iraq, where as a sniper he survived machine gun battles and a roadside bomb that knocked him unconscious and blinded him in his right eye.
The injury forced the military to send him home. A few weeks later, Fox received a bill from the Department of Defense, saying he owes the military nearly $3,000 from his original enlistment bonus because he couldn't fulfill three months of his commitment.
"I tried to do my best and serve my country and unfortunately I was hurt in the process and now they're telling me that they want their money back," Fox told CBS station KDKA-TV.
This is apparently not an isolated bureaucratic foul-up. The military is allegedly demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.
To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses - up to $30,000 in some cases. Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.
Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it?
The real kicker is that Fox helps with a charity founded by his mother, Operation Pittsburgh Pride, sending care packages to troops in Iraq... and was personally thanked by President Bush.
And now they're thanking him by sending him a bill.
...is the the title of Scott McClellan's new book(punctuation mine). The former White House Press Secretary reveals in a stunning tell-all that he (gasp!) knew he was lying when covering for the Bush Crime Syndicate.
The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.
There was one problem. It was not true.
I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself.
The book is scheduled for release in April of 2008, with plenty of time to hand out presidential pardons before then. Great going, Scotty, you li'lol' patriot, you.
UPDATE: November 21, 2007, 9:30pm EST
McClellan does not believe President Bush lied to him about the role of White House aides I. Lewis Scooter Libby or Karl Rove in the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, according to McClellan's publisher.
...the president told McClellan what "he thought to be the case." But... McClellan believes, "the president didn't know it was not true."
So that makes Bush incompetent instead of a liar. Either way, it's a sorry state of affairs for the Oval Office.
I just want a member of the press corps to ask one, simple question: Dana, now that this story has come out, how can we ever trust what anyone in this administration says from that podium ever again?
As you know, it is with a profound sense of gratitude but a heavy heart that I have decided to take a respite from public service.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve at the White House. My time here and every day of my nearly 23 years of of public service have ben both a blessing and a privilege.
In 1937, the playwright Maxwell Anderson wrote of President George Washington: There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on higher ground in their lifetime.
Mr. President, you are such a man. And so, it has been an honor to serve by your side in this extraordinary moment in our Nation's history.
May God bless you and all those who serve and may He continue to bless out great Nation.
Regards, Fran Townsend
You may now heave. Did she just compare Bush to George Washington? What the fuck?! The only people walking on higher ground during Bush's administration are the flood victims of Hurricane Katrina.
I haven't heard word one on Thompson since he officially announced his candidacy. And apparently, neither has his supporters. Maybe he's in his bomb shelter awaitin' fer them Pinko Commies.
I think he’s kind of done a belly flop,” said an estranged Thompson backer who indicated he will not pull his public support before the “Super Tuesday” primaries. “We’ll just wait till after Feb. 5 because I think he’s going to get beat.” Another GOP lawmaker said, “I’ve kind of pulled back. I’m not not supporting him, but I’m not doing anything.” With six weeks to go before the first contest, that’s not quite the enthusiasm a presidential hopeful wants to hear.
Uh... isn't "not doing anything" equivalent to not not NOT supporting him?
NY TIMES: Shortly after the talks with the stagehands’ union broke off on Sunday, the League of American Theaters and Producers announced that performances of the 27 shows affected by the strike would be canceled through next Sunday. The league said the performances were canceled so that tourists could make other plans. It was a surprising move, given that producers had seemed so eager to reach an early agreement when negotiations began months ago, to avoid the risk of a work stoppage during the lucrative holiday season.
I completely missed this John Bolton interview on The Daily Show back in March, 2007. Since the writer's strike, reruns allowed me to catch it.
Bolton and Stewart trade verbal jabs and run in circles regarding what goes on behind closed doors in the White House, until Stewart smacks him down with this one:
BOLTON: "I think you should be held accountable for your performance... (LAUGHTER FROM STEWART AND THE AUDIENCE)... let me just finish. You should be held accountable for your actions, but the ability to have candid exchanges of views in private is very important."
STEWART: "I'll tell you what: If you give us the first part of that, I'll give you the latter, because we haven't had that for a long time."
Greg Mitchell at Editor & Publisher continues the updates of the editorial sparring match between David Brooks, Paul Krugman & Bob Herbert. Lou Cannon now enters the steel cage.
Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio detailed their positions on global warming, energy conservation and other environmental issues -- and occasionally talked about other issues, including the war in Iraq -- before an invitation only audience at the Wadsworth Theater in Westwood.
Candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties were invited, but only Kucinich, Edwards and Clinton accepted.
During the conference, a Code Pink protester rose and yelled at Clinton because of her pro war Iraq vote. Clinton took it in stride and continued with her talk after asking, "Were you invited to speak here this afternoon?"
NY TIMES:The latest round of talks between the producers’ league and the stagehands’ union broke down last night, leaving no end in sight for the strike that has darkened most of Broadway for nine days.
...The negotiations — which lasted for more than 13 hours Saturday and for 11 hours yesterday — came to a halt a little after 9 p.m.
Bruce Cohen, a spokesman for the stagehands’ union, Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, said in a statement that “producers informed Local 1 that what Local 1 offered was not good enough, and they left.”
This is a big disappointment. I thought that surely a deal would be worked out to salvage the Thanksgiving week, financially the largest week of the year for Broadway. As the day wore on, several colleagues figured that since the League has a $20 million cushion, then why shouldn't they use it? When thought of in those terms, it's not a financial loss at all. They've paid for this week slowly over the last three years.
No one, not the union nor the producers, is talking on the record about what might be the next step in Local 1's battle with the League of American Theatres and Producers. Such a move would need the endorsement of the local's parent union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
It would seriously undermine producers since such megahits as "Wicked" and "Jersey Boys" on the road regularly pull down weekly grosses of $1 million or more.
When walking west on 46th Street in Manhattan (Restaurant Row), one of the first stops you hit is "Joe Allen". This is one of four Joe Allens owned by the restauratuer of the same name. The other three are in Miami Beach, London and Paris. These are just four of the dozen or so restaurants (including Orso) that Mr. Allen owns. Joe Allen also had the good fortune of Rosie O'Donnell's free advertising when she'd mention her latest adventure while dining there, back in the day when Rosie had a talk show and middle America loved her... you know, before the midwest housewives found out she was a lesbian.
I've often walked by and thought I might try the food, although the prospect of paying $13.50 for a cheeseburger seems a bit over the top. Well those thoughts are no longer a problem.
On Thursday night, the bars were surprisingly lively, especially the hush-hush upstairs joint on 46th Street owned and managed by Joe Allen, the restaurateur. Sinatra played, the low lights flattered older women, the veal was said to be delicious. Mr. Allen, fastidious in velvet, sat at a table passing on a story he had heard about the chief carpenter at the Belasco — or maybe it was the Minskoff — who was losing $8,000 a week because of the strike.
“Think about that for a moment,” Mr. Allen said. “Eight thousand a week. Times 52 weeks — or let’s just say he only works 30. That’s a lot of money in the bank.”
Sitting at the bar, an elegant bald man, who had ordered the veal, raised his fork and agreed.
Mr. Allen’s understanding of the situation is that years ago, when Broadway was “smoking,” the producers cut a deal with the stagehands’ union to pad the payroll and thus avoid a strike. Then, in recent years, a younger generation of producer came along, one who no longer wished to tolerate the union man who will sometimes sit, as it is said, on a beach chair in the back of a truck.
“I saw them picketing the other day on 44th Street and thought to myself, ‘That’s the hardest they’ve worked in years,’” Mr. Allen said.
Mr. Allen's "understanding of the situation" is completely false. My understanding of Mr. Allen is that he an elite snob. To think that his man, who probably never worked hard a day in his life, can sit there and exhort the situation of the union laborer while dressed in velvet, sitting in a restaurant that he owns while most likely hiring illegal immigrants at slave wages to work in his kitchen, makes my blood boil.
One can picture the velvet clad highbrow, with a cigar in one hand and a jewel-encrusted goblet in the other, trying to impress those who enter his establishment with his wisdom of how life works.
The unforunate part is that people will read this piece of shit and take it as fact. It's bad enough that the League of American Theaters and Producers are misquoting salaries and contract rules, but now this asshole is actually exaggerating the exaggerated!
Well, fuck you, Mr. Allen. I am making it my mission to see to it that every working man knows how you feel and they'll thank you by never stepping foot in your establishments. I know of at least 3000 union members that would have an opinion of how you perceive them.
Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a $50 billion bill by Democrats that would have paid for several months of combat but also would have ordered troop withdrawals from Iraq to begin within 30 days. The measure, narrowly passed this week by the House, also would have set a goal of ending combat in December 2008.
Now, Democratic leaders say they won't send President Bush a war spending bill this year. They calculate the military has enough money to run through mid-February.
...Sen. Christopher Dodd was the lone Democrat opposing [the bill] because he said it did not go far enough to end the war. Other Democrats, including Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, said they too opposed the bill as too soft but that they supported advancing debate.
Now let's see if Reid and Pelosi will have the Democratic balls to stick to their plan of not bringing up any legislation to fund the occupation before the new year. I seriously hope they realize that they should finally side with the 76% of the population that rejects President Bush, his folly and the Republican agenda.
NY Times: Barry Bonds, baseball’s career home run leader, was indicted yesterday on five felony charges — four for perjury and one for obstruction of justice — for testifying before a federal grand jury in 2003 that he never used anabolic steroids or human growth hormone.
I'm a big baseball fan. I'm upset. I'm pissed off. But the reason I'm angry is because the Federal government spent four years and millions and millions of dollars on a case against a baseball player. A FUCKING BASEBALL PLAYER!
Well maybe Bush can commute Bond's sentence if he is convicted. After all, it's only a perjury charge against the federal grand jury for lying about steroid use. It's not nearly as important as lying about revealing the name of a CIA operative, which used to be considered treasonous, but not in this day and age.
When Michael Mukasey is confirmed as the new Attorney General after refusing to give a straight answer on waterboarding, when the former AG, Alberto "Torquemada" Gonzales is starting a defense fund even though he's an honorable man according to his former boss, when our troops are still in harm's way in Iraq with no end in sight, when hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead because of our illegal occupation, when military contractors have no accountability for their actions, when companies like Halliburton are using the occupation to loot the US Treasury coffers and then move their offices to Dubai to avoid paying taxes, I'm sooo glad they took the time and money to investigate and indict a man in a non-essential job to make an example of.
All these things taken into account, I can now sleep better knowing that Barry Bonds, if convicted, will get a pardon from President Bush. Won't he? I mean, if Scooter Libby received a pardon for lying to a grand jury, surely Barry Bonds will also.
...The Democratic bill, approved 227-189, was a rebuke to President Bush, who has promised to veto any legislation that does not shield telecom companies from civil lawsuits. About 40 civil suits have been filed alleging the companies broke wiretapping and privacy lawsuits for monitoring phone calls and e-mails without permission of a secret court created 30 years ago for that purpose.
....Bush argues that such lawsuits could bankrupt the telecoms, reveal classified information and discourage cooperation with legal surveillance requests.
..The House bill would allow unfettered telephone and e-mail surveillance of foreign intelligence targets but would require special authorization if the foreign targets are likely to be in contact with people inside the United States, a provision designed to safeguard Americans' privacy.
Bob Cesca's blog, which is a must read gave us this gem. Never seen it before, but it's supposed to be a classic.
My favorite lines? The first and the last: "Behold, the atheist's nightmare!" and "The whole of creation testifies to the genius of God's creative hand."
And this we know because of the banana. God exists because of the design of a banana... wow! I'm convinced. Is that Kirk Cameron?!
I can't believe it's been a year since I started this blog. I thought I'd give it a little update, sort of like returning a leased car for a newer model. Let me know what you think.
Also "Broadway Carl's Blog-O-Mania" was always intended as a temporary name when I initially set up the page because I couldn't think of anything at the time. Now that I see I'm actually sticking to this blogging, or as I like to call it, "affordable therapy", I'm looking for a new name, perhaps even a logo! And I still can't think of anything... something that might get a stray hit or two from surfers would be nice.
If you're new to this site, take a look around to get a feel for what I obsess on. Maybe you can help me think of a name. If you frequent this page, chances are you probably know me personally, so that can help you in the decision.
I'd offer a prize for the best new name, but I don't make promises I can't keep. And I don't have anything to give but my unending gratitude.
This week Hillary Clinton was skewered for having a question planted in Grinell, Iowa. Rotten. Not necessary. Not cool. Then came the CNN interview of the 19-year old college student that states that she wasn't the only planted question... ouch. Bad.
Jeff Gannon Guckert: "...for nearly two years the White House press office had credentialed Mr. Guckert, even though, as Dana Milbank of The Washington Post explained on Mr. Olbermann's show, he "was representing a phony media company that doesn't really have any such thing as circulation or readership." How this happened is a mystery that has yet to be solved. "Jeff" has now quit Talon News not because he and it have been exposed as fakes but because of other embarrassing blogosphere revelations linking him to sites like hotmilitarystud.com and to an apparently promising career as an X-rated $200-per-hour "escort."
Bushies screen audience and have manuals on techniques to be used: "Those entering must be screened in case they are hiding secret signs. Any anti-Bush demonstrators who manage to get in anyway should be shouted down by 'rally squads' stationed in strategic locations. And if that does not work, they should be thrown out." ...Those invited into a VIP section on or near the stage, for instance, must be 'extremely supportive of the Administration.'"...
And my personal favorite,Bush stages "spontaneous" video conference with troops in Iraq:In the words of Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, the feed "showed a full-blown rehearsal of the president's questions, in advance, along with the soldiers' answers and coaching from the administration," although the live video event was billed as a spontaneous exchange between the president and the troops.
The WHOLE, FUCKING conference.
So what did Malkin have to say about that? MALKIN:"NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell was breathless last night over her military-bashing “scoop” about the “staging” of a Q&A between President Bush and the troops."
That's right Michelle, when caught with your pants down, just use the old tried-and-true "they hate the troops" crap and then deny, deny, deny. Chapter 4, Section 3b on how to deflect questions regarding the indefensible.
Another example in the ever growing list of right wing hypocrisy. Isn't everyone just getting a little tired of the defenders of the Destroyer of the Constitution with a 24% approval rating? I know I am. Cut your losses, admit that he's awful and try better next time. But who am I kidding?
While I'm at it, why is this funny?
Senator Clinton, ending a press conference, turns to walk away. Behind her are your normal school classroom flagpoles. Someone opens the curtains behind the flags, inadvertantly tipping one over and causing a domino effect. The flags fall... and it's Hillary's fault. Watch the video:
HA!HA!HA! Hysterical, isn't it?... Yeah, I didn't think so either. But let's do a quick Google search on "Hillary Clinton Flags Fall" and see what we get. (Emphasis mine to show the spin.)
ABCNews Blogs: " There were no planted questions to worry about, but on this Veterans Day the flags dropping all around the Senator created quite a stir among the press before Clinton fled the scene."
NowPublic.com: "At a news conference yesterday, four big American flags fell down ONpresidential hopeful Hillary Clinton; right now she's hoping that that's not symbolic or anything."
The Hillary Project: "You have to wonder if this really is a sign from above of things to come if Hillary should win the Presidency."
Yes, I'm sure that's what it is. The God of the Republicans (...Ronald Reagan?) tried to smite Hillary down as she left the conference. His aim, being what it was, missed by a few feet and knock down a few flagpoles. (Perhaps they should have sent Cheney with a shotgun.) Ominous? Who can tell? Apparently, the right-wing political hacks can.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big Hillary fan, but this is beyond ridiculous.
Rachel Maddow's show started off with a good topic today.
The subject: Paul Krugman's new book, "Conscience of a Liberal" and how it has started a string of right wing attacks on Krugman, especially from David Brooks, for daring to criticize Ronald Reagan. Yes, that right wing diety, Ronald Reagan.
Brooks:Today, I’m going to write about a slur. It’s a distortion that’s been around for a while, but has spread like a weed over the past few months...
The distortion concerns a speech Ronald Reagan gave during the 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., which is where three civil rights workers had been murdered 16 years earlier. An increasing number of left-wing commentators assert that Reagan kicked off his 1980 presidential campaign with a states’ rights speech in Philadelphia to send a signal to white racists that he was on their side. The speech is taken as proof that the Republican majority was built on racism.
The truth is more complicated.
Paul Krugman then fires back. Now remember that these men work for the same newspaper, so it's pretty rare that op-eds in the same paper take swipes at each other.
Krugman:So there's a campaign on to exonerate Ronald Reagan from the charge that he deliberately made use of Nixon's Southern strategy. When he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980, the town where the civil rights workers had been murdered, and declared that 'I believe in states' rights,' he didn't mean to signal support for white racists. It was all just an innocent mistake.
Indeed, you do really have to feel sorry for Reagan. He just kept making those innocent mistakes.
But was Reagan a racist or does Brooks have it right in saying it is blown out of proportion? Here's Bob Herbert, another op-ed columnist from the same paper!
Herbert:Everybody watching the 1980 campaign knew what Reagan was signaling at the fair. Whites and blacks, Democrats and Republicans — they all knew. The news media knew. The race haters and the people appalled by racial hatred knew. And Reagan knew. ...
...And Reagan meant it. He was opposed to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was the same year that Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney were slaughtered. As president, he actually tried to weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He opposed a national holiday for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He tried to get rid of the federal ban on tax exemptions for private schools that practiced racial discrimination. And in 1988, he vetoed a bill to expand the reach of federal civil rights legislation.
Congress overrode the veto.
Reagan also vetoed the imposition of sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa. Congress overrode that veto, too.
So was Reagan a racist? In the meantime, what are all those GOP primary candidates going to do? Keep echoing Reagan's name at every debate as the great leader they think he was or shy away from St. Ronald of the Right Wing?
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case.
...The case could be one of the first thorny issues to be decided by Michael B. Mukasey, who was sworn in as attorney general last week. He may be faced with a decision to turn down a prosecution on legal grounds at a time when a furor has erupted in Congress about the administration’s failure to hold security contractors accountable for their misdeeds.
Hmmm... I wonder how his first case is going to pan out...
...a coalition of progressive Democrats upset with Feinstein's controversial votes will ask the California Democratic Party to censure her at its executive board meeting this weekend, the Huffington Post has learned.
The move comes as Feinstein again finds herself under fire for saying Thursday that she now supports granting legal immunity to telecom companies that shared customer email and phone messages with the federal government as part of the warrantless surveillance program.
"Dianne Feinstein does not listen to the people of California," said Rick Jacobs, president of the Courage Campaign, a progressive organization in California. "She supports George Bush's agenda time after time."
The resolution states:
Whereas Senator Dianne Feinstein voted to support the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey as United States Attorney General, thereby elevating to the highest position in law enforcement a man who refused to renounce the right of the President to resort to torture and who refused to recognize waterboarding as a form of torture, and by this action Senator Feinstein failed to oppose President Bush and failed to stand for the ideals of the Democratic Party, which abhors torture and stands firmly against its use by the United States at all times and places; and Whereas Senator Feinstein voted to confirm Judge Leslie Southwick for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit despite his clear record of racism and gender discrimination, thus failing to stand firmly with the Democratic Party, which supports gender equality and opposes racism in any of its manifestations; and Whereas these examples are far from the only instances where Senator Feinstein, after seeking and securing the support and endorsement of the California Democratic Party, has failed to support the policies and principles of our party Therefore be it resolved that the California Democratic Party expresses its disappointment at, and censure of, Senator Feinstein for ignoring Democratic principles and falling so far below the standard of what we expect of our elected officials.
Not that it matters much, but here's a good story.
WASHINGTON - A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.
U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.
...The court order issued by Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, is directed at maintaining backup tapes which contain copies of White House e-mails.
The Federal Records Act details strict standards prohibiting the destruction of government documents including electronic messages, unless first approved by the archivist of the United States.
...The judge’s order “should stop any future destruction of e-mails, but the White House stopped archiving its e-mail in 2003 and we don’t know if some backup tapes for those e-mails were already taped over before we went to court. It’s a mystery,” said Meredith Fuchs, a lawyer for the National Security Archive.
CREW and the National Security Archive are seeking to force the White House to immediately explain in court what happened to its e-mail, an issue that first surfaced nearly two years ago in the leak probe of administration officials who disclosed Valerie Plame’s CIA identity to reporters.
What will happen to those responsible in the Bush administration once it is revealed that they violated the Federal Records Act since 2003, by destroying those e-mails? Probably nothing.
Turkish helicopter gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said, the first such airstrike since border tensions have escalated in recent months.
It also was the first major Turkish action against Kurdish rebels since Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met President Bush in Washington earlier this month. The United States and Iraq have pressured Turkey to avoid a large-scale attack on rebel bases in northern Iraq, fearing such an operation would destabilize what has been the calmest region in the country.
Don't know if it's news to you or not, my loyal reader, but we are in the midst of a strike. Local One held a press conference held on Sunday, November 11th, one day after the Broadway stagehands union struck. Negotiations broke down three weeks prior. The stagehands have been working without a contract since July 31st, and after the breakdown in talks, the League of American Theatres and Producers imposed work rules on the union.
"Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton says she wants to take a close look at foreign trade deals. She says she'll call a 'time out' on trade agreement if she wins the White House.'" - Associated Press, 11/12/07
FOUR DAYS AGO:
"Clinton Says Yes to Peru Deal...Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, after prodding from a rival campaign, has issued positions on several trade deals currently before Congress, including her support for an agreement with Peru that is dividing her party." - New York Times, 11/8/07
ShareThis