On to war… 26 April 2007
Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, Abortion Rights, AFRICOM, Beirut, Culture of Death, Democrats, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Iran, Iraq War, Israel/AIPAC, Sex / Reproductive Health, WAR!.trackback
It doesn’t matter the quote is from Obama, it’s all of them, the Top Three + Three Lesser Luminaries.
“Iran possessing nuclear weapons will be a major threat to us and to the region. … If we have nuclear proliferations around the world that is a profound threat to the security of the United States,” Obama said of the threat from Iran.”
“I’m not planning to nuke anybody right now,” he later joked when pressed whether he would take military action against Iran off the table.
Deep down they want a pair of Glocks and the ability to shoot off 170 rounds in 9 minutes.
Oh right: War waged by the Great Nation State, the Greatest on Earth, the Last Best Hope on Earth, is different. I did get that, they keep rubbing it in.
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moiv emailed this tonight, NY Daily News opinion piece from an abortion doc who practices in NY:
Questions about the decision flew around the room. Exactly which abortion methods were now illegal? When would the law go into effect? What did this mean for the patients we were scheduled to see next week?
Some were easy to answer. The law would go into effect in 25 days. Doctors would not be liable if we unintentionally violated the ban. There is no gestational age included in the legislation – meaning that abortions as early as 12 to 15 weeks will be affected. Most troubling of all, there is no exception for a woman whose health is threatened by her pregnancy.
Many of our questions had no answers – at least, not yet. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion makes it clear that the Supreme Court expects this law to be enforced, meaning that doctors like me face stiff penalties and even jail time if we violate the act. But who will enforce the law, and how? It’s bad enough that Congress can dictate how I practice medicine. Should I expect federal marshals to supervise me in the operating room?
But the wars go on.
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UPDATE, 10:35 pm
He may be a terrible man, but when he is right, he’s right:
[T]he more widely quoted is the “war is lost” remark of April 19, which, read in context, amounts to a charge of rankest cynicism against President Bush and his War Cabinet.
“I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense (understands) and — you have to make your own decision as to what the president knows — that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything.”
Reid is not just saying the war is lost, but implying that Condi Rice, Bob Gates and probably George Bush know it, and are denying us the truth and cynically letting our soldiers be killed at a rate of 100 a month in what they know is a lost war.
If Reid believes this, he has a moral duty to vote to terminate any further funds for this war. Even the great Robert E. Lee, whose 200th birthday we celebrate, surrendered to stop the killing when his army began to disintegrate after the fall of Richmond in 1865.
Why would Reid not demand his party deny funds for a lost war?
Hearken now to the April 12 quote of Harry Reid: “We’re going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war. Sen. Schumer has shown me numbers that are compelling and astounding.”
One imagines Reid and Schumer sniggering in the cloakroom over the list of Republicans they can bring down if Americans are still dying in Iraq when November 2008 rolls around. […]
There’s more:
Reid and the Democrats are risking having this can tied to the tail of their donkey. For though Americans want the war to end and the troops brought home, they do not want America to lose the war. And that may explain the duplicity of today’s debate.
Reid and four Democratic candidates for president — Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd — voted to give Bush a blank check for war. Now that the war is going badly, all five are calling for withdrawal. But neither they nor their party wants to be seen as responsible for the defeat that appears inevitable if we depart now.
Politically, cynical Harry and cynical Chuck are right.
If the war is still raging and Americans are dying at the same rate in November 2008, Republicans lose the White House and Congress. However, if U.S. forces have been defunded and withdrawn by Congress, and November 2008 rolls around with a strategic disaster and Cambodian-style bloodbath in Iraq, Reid’s party could be credibly charged with having cut and run, lost the war and caused the greatest debacle in American history. The stakes here are huge.
Democrats believe they have a winning hand on Iraq. Polls seem to confirm it. But the situation is not static. There are more cards to be dealt in this highest of high-stakes poker games. And what looks politically shrewd in April 2007 could look like suicidal folly in November 2008. [snip]
And really, Pat Buchanan, when all is said and done, is no worse than the war gamers, the 6 who stood on that South Carolina stage tonight.
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Marisacat 
the guard dogs of our morality are to be ever vigilant. an absurd law banning a nonexistent medical procedure? we must stand up and cheer! it’s like they plan on paying half of the citizens to spy on the other half. well, not on their tax plan. not unless they pay just enough for a 30 minute trip to Wal*Mart each week. T shirts, daisy dukes, and semi-organic produce for everyone!
when did my waking life become a nightmare?
Kevin
Well, Obama is now being financed by former Bush ‘pioneers’ – and he’s been bending over for Aipac where he first mentioned the terrible threat that Iran poses to us.
Abortion news from Mexico City:
Good thing it is free and done in hosptials. Pity you have to prove residency. It willt ake a while but they will expand it. I have read that in the schools ewhre they have sex ed it is absolutely forthright, science and reality based.
They will get there, as we regress.
MitM: How dare you compare Mcat to the worst Styx album ever made! What, now are we going to have to go back through the atrocious catalog & hum “Babe” from Cornerstone everytime we post here? Or join in communal choruses of ‘Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me’? [I have dibs on the falsetto harmony dammit… and I’m a double bass].
Cynical old men with no regard for life (unless it isn’t born yet). I remember Kos posted a similar sentiment several weeks ago on the FP of DK. He blissfully dismissed the possibility of the war ending until ‘we have a new Democratic President in 2008’. He was merely echoing the party policy, imo. He probably got the memo.
Kevin, #1, it is a nightmare – but maybe there’s hope in the fact that they maybe went too far. Tonight I talked to my sister who voted twice for Bush (I know, but we nearly came to blows the last time she did it). She is finally becoming overwhelmed with the sheer extent of the corruption and the death and destruction in Iraq. I refrained from saying ‘I told you so’ because she went on to say that the ‘only presidential candidate she can believe about anything, is Kucinich’.
Only the people can stop these criminals – but it would take throwing almost all of them out of office – and starting all over again. Don’t know what else can be done.
What is most intersting to me about Pat is that he was actively involved in the Seattle anti-globalization marches of 1999 – you know the ones that put ‘black clad anarchists’ on the front pages.
Pat is a bigot of the first order [and a first order denier of civil rights to women], and he opposes globalization because he is a bigot, and he opposed the Iraq war from the get go because he believes in American isolationism… but despite his insane take on the world, he does end up on the right side of a lot of issues.
It is a sad day when I have more in common with Pat Buchanan than the party that supposedly represents my issues.
I, however, still think Pat Buchanan is an asshole.
Hey Lucid, I like that song – 🙂
oh I agree PB is a nightmare. No question, at all.
But that turkey display on the stage in SC is a big big big problem.
And so are all of the billing and cooing threads around tonight.
It is a sad day when I have more in common with Pat Buchanan than the party that supposedly represents my issues.
I know what you mean Lucid. I find myself agreeing with him often lately. He comes to the right conclusions for the wrong reasons – it shows how bad things are that I would rather listen to him than Hillary when it comes to this war.
Hillary and W are BOTH arguments against patronage, nepotism and dynasty in a supposedly democratic country.
Just dig up George III and let’s go back. Save the bloodshed.
I don’t have the stamina to read the BBB reaction to the debate. I assumed they would be oohing and ahhing, that’s their job. Just as they were falling all over themselves yesterday about Obama’s and Hillary’s responses to Rudy yesterday. Both were terrible, weak and useless with no substance and a totally missed opportunity to educate the public about Rudolph Giuliani. But, the BBB crowd thought they great. Their standards are so low –
SB – I own every Styx album… Let’s just say say I have an ambivalent relationship with the band.
On another note, a film one of my best friends from high school co-directed that won an award at Sudance award is on HBO as we speak: TV Junkie.
I met both Rick & Tammy at the premier in NY.
It is a really fucked up movie – the best ‘reality’ movie I’ve ever seen [thanks to the editing of my good friend]. When it is on DVD I recommend it, if you have a strong stomach.
That’s 98 procedures a day, in a city of 9,000,000. Not too shabby for a start-up, but before long they’ll find that they have to do better. Because that’s a very good estimate of the numbers for Dallas, which has only a small fraction of Mexico City’s population.
Not to mention how the ranks will be swelled by a soon-to-be-thriving trade in false proof of residence documents.
runners on your mark. get set. reverse! (from rawstory)
“The political website of the New York Sun will report tomorrow that in a major reversal from an earlier position, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani now opposes civil unions between same sex partners.”
Maybe Rudy could just turn his suit inside out, to honor himself. And go back to his first wife.
You know, just for fun.
Well, now that he’s been pumped full of chemicals for his prostate cancer, maybe he’s gone back to the Queens of his youth – when Italian Catholics were Italian Catholics and faggots needed a proper beating.
Then again, I don’t think it took chemotherapy for the return of that violent streak, given the bodies of innocent African American men lining city hall during his tenure.
This entire run, both sides is a hideous joke.
Gareth Porter via Anti-war.com:
Not a shock. All Biden has done is facilitate the war, from 2002 on…
Pretty open beg to be VP as well, from that slobber in Hillary’s direction last night. Also fist to kiss her cheek when it was over.. then Edwards skipped over.
What schlumpfs.
We’re so fucked.
I tried to think of some Styx songs I remembered fondly, and I couldn’t. Now Kansas, on the other hand …
Sailing away off to work, have a fun day everybody.
Journey and Kansas both kick Styx’s ass
That Jodie Foster clip is hardcore, mmitmp
Zero turnout at the benefit yesterday. Think the promoter could have tried just a teensy bit harder. The event was set up at the “rainy day location” even though it wasn’t raining, and there was no sign outside the hall. Small wonder potential patrons were confused.
This is the other place I donated work to this month, for their dance party this weekend. Maybe that will go better.
sorry to hear ms_x!
oh yeah, the jodie foster thang.
If you pass over the BBBs re the debate, Kucinich and Gravel seem to have impressed people the most. I went to Gravel’s website to find out more about him. This demand to end torture should be front-page in every newspaper in the country. I have yet to hear one of the Dem front-runners, Hillary, Obama or Edwards even mention this vile policy which continues unabated. Why have they not made this a big issue in their campaigns?
GRAVEL CALLS FOR CONGRESS TO END TORTURE
He also has a real plan for Congress to end the war, not a useless, non-binding piece of garbage that even if Bush were to sign it, would change nothing and still continue to hand over billions of dollars to fund it.
I wonder how long he will be allowed to participate in the debates. I bet Rahm et al are furiously planning to end the primaries as fast as possible.
SB- I hated the Naderites in 2000 and 2004. Now I Absolutely understand what they tried to say.
But it’s hopeless.
Too bad for your sister, but she’s right, the Democrats aren’t much better.
Ms x, sorry to hear that – just checked your link, it is a worthy cause so maybe turn-out will be better for that – did the promoter advertise the event? People can’t show up if they don’t know about something.
I think I’m going to metro.co.uk for all my news now; especially for their allegorical story about the dem prez debate:
“Thousands of people have been ‘fleeced’ into buying neatly coiffured lambs they thought were poodles.
Entire flocks of lambs were shipped over from the UK and Australia to Japan by an internet company and marketed as the latest ‘must have’ accessory.
But the scam was only spotted after a leading Japanese actress said her ‘poodle’ didn’t bark and refused to eat dog food.
Like hundreds of Metro.co.uk readers, we also think this has a whiff of the ‘urban myth’ about it – but hey, it’s a good story. ”
and their other top stories:
* Jesus appears on Google maps
* Man cuts off penis in restaurant
* Drunk rides horse into bank
No jokes about leaving tips!
S.B., yeah, she did. Too little too late apparently. They’ll try again next month, though.
The ADVCL thing is through my buddy “radicalbean,” who works there and at a couple of other anti-DV places, too. She has a blog here.
Outofwater, I was so desperate to get rid of Bush in 2004 I used to beg Naderites (even though I did understand what they were saying) to please help to get rid of him. Now I have to agree, they were right. It’s no use putting a band-aid on the gaping wound that is the US today. Best to let it hurt so badly that the people themselves will finally realize it needs to be operated on.
I think this is Mitm’s view (reading his exchange with MB). Now I agree. We get the government we deserve and electing Hillary or any of the others won’t change much. So this time, I will not be on board to lift a finger to help them or online as I was last time, working to get a Dem elected, unless it’s Kucinich or Gravel. I have a feeling I’m not the only one to jump ship this time.
As for my sister, I think she represents the awakening of even the most Conservative voters (she IS very Conservative but does care about things like torture, which she blinded herself to the last time but simply can’t anymore). Dems could have attracted voters like her, but I know she will not vote for any of the top Dems. Unless they really do show they are against the war and all the other immoral and criminal policies of this administration. It’s the morality issues that are finally disturbing many Conservative voters and they are looking at Dems and not seeing much difference. I’ll have to send her Gravel’s website.
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Miss D, that’s a riot – I’m surprised some of those lambs weren’t on the Yrly Kos auction list. ‘no jokes about leaving tips’ – rotfl! Miss D you’re scaring the men here –
As always, the Puke Cannon isn’t too good on his history. There was no point for Lee to go on once Lincoln had been re-elected in November 1864. Lee stubbornly hung on for another six months, surrendering not because his army was disintegrating, but because his starving army, which was just about down to its last bullets, was finally surrounded by well-equipped forces probably at least 5 times the size of his own. BTW, I live in Virginia, right near where Lee’s family lived, and I was unaware this was the bi-centennial of his birth, so Puke Cannon doesn’t have much company in his celebrating. Nobody is paying attention to it, which is fine by me. Lee is very lucky he wasn’t executed for treason, a just and fitting sentence, IMHO.
Of course, if Reid did behave as PC insists, the latter would be on TV 5 seconds later to denounce him, and blubber and bluster the expected GOP talking points. But then if Reid possessed the political courage this country so desperately needs, he’d do it anyway, and condemn PC as the despicable blowhard that he is.
April 26, 1937 — a day that lives in infamy
Don’t know if its been noted here but yesterday was the seventieth anniversary of the destruction of Guernica, Spain, noted here by Londonbear at eurotrib.com. According to the piece the Nazis bombed the fuck out of the city from 4.30pm to 7.45pm. Times journalist George Steer was there a few hours later:
Just got Homage to Catalonia by Orwell the only one of his I haven’t read yet, I thimk.
tips and snips:
what did Jeffrey Dalmer say to Lorena Bobbit?
“Are you gonna eat that?”
Sorrry if that was too rude.
PK’s dad is visiting and helping me remodel the ex-strip club she’s turning into a new restaurant. 12 hour days and no energy for blogging, but I’ll be around and start posting more regularly in a couple of weeks.
Until then my brief and tangential perusals of the cyber waves demonstrate the eternal validity of the old maxim, ” the more things change, the more they stay the same”
But I’d say the good news from Mexico is new and different and hopeful…
al rato vatos
Oh yeah. My ex-girlfriend/friend was a writer/editor for a nationally distributed magazine of note for a stretch, she got to interview various luminaries in arts and politics. I can’t remember the source and probably would not and should not reveal it even if I could; but this person of or with ties to the ruling elite informed her that Hillary Clinton has been ordained to “win” the upcoming election because “they want a Democrat to bomb Iran.” Paraphrasing of course.
this post is for entertainment purposes only
Lee is very lucky he wasn’t executed for treason JJB
I have a feeling, after reading this devastating attack on US Generals by an active-duty Iraq War Veteran that many in the military may feel the same way about Bush’s Generals.
I was surprised to see this in the WAPO especially after Gen. Petraeas’ testimony yesterday. All I got from his testimony was that despite the rise in Iraq’s death-toll, the rise in troop deaths, the fleeing of millions of Iraqis from their country – things really, really are improving but we’ll need to be there for YEARS to keep Al Queda, who were not in Iraq until Bush invited them in, from taking over the country. Sounded like a pack of lies to me.
Army Officer Accuses Generals of ‘Intellectual and Moral Failures’
Maybe the military will revolt – we can dream.
jam.fuse,
That scenario is all too believable.
Think I lost a post to spam but probably just as well as I think I messed it up. MC, if I did, no need to release it – need more coffee before posting.
JJB said that Gen. Lee was lucky he wasn’t executed for treason. This WAPO article makes me wonder if many in the military today feel the same way about Petraeas and the rest of Bush’s Generals:
Army Officer Accuses Generals of ‘Intellectual and Moral Failures’
They took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, not some law-breaking Unitary Executive. Miller (treat the Iraqis like dogs), Sanchez, Petraeas all of them are a disgrace, imo. This guy deserves credit for speaking out about it. I hope more follow his example.
Lol, Tuston!
Good luck with the restaurant. Maybe when it’s finished we could consider holding our Yrly Vag convention there! As a tribute to its previous incarnation we could invite a pole dancer from dk, you know, just as an example of the goals women of different intellectual ability aspire to! Lol!
‘mornin’ vags and vipers — so I’m sitting here wondering to myself: Gravel. Do I go there? I stood up and cheered at my TV last night when I heard THIS, how the hell did they get here indeed?
But I am so sick and tired of this entire fucking system, I know its broken, I know we’re fucked, and yet….and yet, this man actually stirred something in me, even if just for a moment.
What are ya’ll’s thoughts?
good hearing on wage discrimination on CSPAN now.
the question was asked of the assembled–how many women have had the experience of training someone to be thier boss?
their
Got tears in my eyes listening to Gravel — never heard of him ’til this morning, thanks to you all — s’why I surf, not having watched teevee at home since nine eleven. He’s got a great name, but too bad he’s not a bit more young and virile looking, really hate to say it. DId you see the wolf-grins of the other candidates while he was speaking? Creepy as hell.
I hate this woman who is pooh-poohing lower pay for women. Essentially saying that if you raise women’s pay, then no one will want to hire them.
Brinn, cruising around the blogosphere, Gravel seems to be generating a lot of interest since last night. I fully expect him to be declared a ‘radical leftie lunatic’ by the BBB, if he hasn’t already (haven’t checked them yet).
But that doesn’t coincide with the facts – also, he’s got experience with criminal administrations and their illegal wars:
According to his website, he’s for single payer healthcare, making education a priority and fully funding the SS trust fund. He’s also for a flat tax, which I know nothing about so I’ll leave that to the economists. I can barely balance my checkbook, I’m ashamed to say.
But most importantly (at least in these times) he’s for ending this war and has a plan to do it, and for immediately ending the practice of torture which he rightly calls ‘immoral’ and ‘illegal’. What is there not to like about him compared to the other choices?
I think I’ll donate to him – he needs to stay in the debates. Check out his website for more info. I linked to it above.
I hate this woman who is pooh-poohing lower pay for women. Essentially saying that if you raise women’s pay, then no one will want to hire them
Americans are so complacent. They get what they deserve imo. Defeatist is the best word to describe them. That is the same defeatist philosophy promoted by the Dem Party and their sychophants on the so-called Liberal Blogs.
Re ending the war:
‘we don’t have the votes to over-ride a veto’ and on impeachment:
‘we don’t have the votes to convict in the Senate’
So let’s just maintain the status quo, let’s not rock the boat! I hate it. They have zero fighting spirit and that’s why we are where we are. They cannot imagine challenging anything unless they KNOW beforehand that they will win. Imagine if throughout history, people had thought that way? How much would never have been accomplished?
Cowards without vision do not make good leaders. They just make excuses.
SB — yeah, I read through his website, and a few other background pieces on him. I gotta say, a man who can sustain a fillibuster all by his ownself and actually affect change impresses the shit out of me atm. I have to wonder why he isn’t running independent — though I can probably guess: an opportunity to be in the debates, and a stubborn refusal to let the party he once admired to be abandoned. I hope he stays in the debates for the next year and then switches to indy…hey, if’s good enough for Joe Lieberaman…
Madman, what’s your take? [no rush, just wonderin’!]
jam.fuse — yeah, creepy as hell is right. The automaton candidates. Obama and Hillary were just flat out nauseating “quick reprisals are necessary” (HRC), “I don’t plan on nuking anyone today” (BO) — jesus p. christ on toast!
Hey jam.fuse — if you haven’t seen this one, it ain’t a tear jerker, but its damn good too!
So, erm, I may be an idjit here, but when did those little “edit” links next to everyone’s comments start showing up? and what does that mean?!
🙂
“I don’t plan on nuking anyone today”
Wonder if H-bomb-a just noooked his own campaign with that idiotic remark?
MLK, Malcolm, doing backflips in their burial vaults
Lol, Brinn, I was afraid to say anything about the little ‘edit’ thingies’ in case they were there all along and I just hadn’t noticed them. Didn’t want confirmation of the current state of my mind! But, since you brought it up, does it mean we can now edit a post? I clicked on it and all I got was a way to sign up for an account.
Jam-fuse Got tears in my eyes listening to Gravel
You’re not the only one it seems – just checked DU to see what they were saying about the debate. Check out this thread, they’re pretty excited about Gravel also and unlike DK they will not be troll-rated for daring to say so:
democraticunderground thread on Gravel
Just lost another post to spam but it was a link to a thread on DU about Gravel which I found when looking for reaction to the debate. If this gets through, you can read their reaction here. They too are pretty impressed for the most part:
Democraticunderground thread on reaction to Gravel
Sabrina
I got a couple of your s out of moderation, but not sure what they said… still need to read the thread…
There was 150 in spam but I read them… will check again..
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JJB
Oh Pat will never be anything but what he is. He’s not going to let go of the embrace of Lee at this point. I remmeber old engravings and modern post cards in the South in the 50s of Grant surrendering to Lee. That is not going to end for Pat’s strata.
Reid is a horror. And his classic place of sell out is out of the camera’s eye and then to display what is no more than and old man’s fractiousness in public.
PERFECT leader for the Demorats.
… the damned Generals. Pity they cannot be tried for treason. But “following orders” is the order of the day. Then “support the troops”.
Suicide by president.
Sabrina
Just got two of yours out of spam. Still going thru it..
I don’t know about “edit”… I see them all the time, but not sure they should be visible for commenters.
If someone clicks on it and it leads to the “backstage” let me know….
LOL.
I use “edit” to blockquote for someone or fix a link.
Thaniks, Marisa – the one on the Generals was messed up anyway so I posted another one. Yes, they should be tried for treason imo. Especially Miller and Sanchez but instead they received ‘Medals of Freedom’ airc.
There is so much news re the US Attorneys and Waxman is busy, busy with just about everything. I was going to post some really disturbing revelations about two women US Attorneys who ended up dead within weeks of each other in 2004. They were looking into corruption in the Medical Supply industry and at least one of them had issued subpoenas. Then, one is found dead in her pool, the other in her home. Both deaths were said to be ‘accidental’ I think.
Even more disturbing regarding that case, the other three US Attorneys who were working with those women on corruption in the Medical Hospital Supply business, were on the list of fired, dismissed or forced to resign US Attorneys. So all five of the Corruption Unit was eradicated and the cases no longer pursued.
Interesting that such distinguished women US Attorneys, working on corruption cases, should end up dead while their male colleagues were forced out of office. And it’s hard to find much if any information on their deaths through google. The press doesn’t seem to have said much about it at the time.
I lost all the info on this latest case, but will try to find it again. It seems many of them had good reason to be afraid and to remain silent about what was happening in the DOJ.
Carol Lam should consider herself lucky that she was merely dismissed. I suppose a pile-up of the bodies of dead US Attorneys might have gotten the attention of even our clueless press after a while. So threatening their careers became the weapon of choice.
Btw, Carol Lam has been honored by the Bar Association –
How much more do we need to know before the country rises up and demands the impeachment of these criminals? And imagine what we don’t know yet!
Oh Sabrina
that is so interesting about the dead women states attys.. If you assemble it again, please post the info.
Ugh I know aobut losing info… When Roberts was being confirmed I had about 8 or 10 links on their personal confessor Msg Vaghi, friends iwth McCloskey of the Opus Dei DC Catholic Center the one who officiates at the highlevel Catholic conversion baptisms… lots of links on their conservative Catholic alliances, The Carroll Group and others. And he most certainly WAS a member of the Federalist Society… the Democrats were fools to let it spin in “is he or is he not”. He was. is.
Lost it in a computer blip. It had taken just too much time to collect it all. Could not manage to reconstruct it.
Unfortunately, a very bad idea. The less you make the greater your effective tax burden. Let’s say the flat tax is 10% to make it easy. If you make $20,000 a year, you pay $2,000 flat – no deductions. If you make $200,000/year you pay $20,000 flat – no deductions.that leaves person A with $18,000 and person B with $180,000. That $2,000 hurts person A a hell of a lot more than the $20,000 hurts person B [not to mention in our current tax system – which isn’t even progressive enough, person A would likely pay nothing in income tax and person B – with all current deductions & good tax planning would only pay slightly more than they would pay in the example above].
It shifts the burden of taxation to the poor and middle class, away from the rich.
Yesss!! James Comey has been called back to testify in the DOJ scandal. He is the Acting AG who appointed Fitzgerald and who refused to go along with Bush’s illegal spy program. After his refusal, Andrew Card and Abu Gonzales went to see Ashcroft in the hospital to try to get his cooperation, but even he refused.
The last time Comey was to testify before Congress, the Republicans stopped the testimony. This time, that won’t happen, it seems.
If you never read this article in Newsweek which was published in 2005, it’s worth reading. I remember reading it at that time and never really forgot it because James Comey was sending out huge signals that something was very wrong at the DOJ when he gave his resignation speech. I think what we heard so far is only the tip of a very ugly iceberg:
Palace Revolt
there is a freedom is not running to win, that opens the door for telling the truth. i hope gravel hangs in there long enough to make the rest of them twitch for the entire race. to my ears, he’s a far, far better speaker than kucinich.
his national sales tax is pretty regressive, and i’m not all that excited about the national initiative idea he’ talking about, but having him in there just to say stuff like last night is critical. it needs to be said.
i suspect they’ll try to force him off stage, from now on.
got lucid out of moderation and Sabrina out of spam…
I was surprised they let Gravel on last night. He originally came down from Alaska a few months ago, Granny D sponsored him (fi you can believe this Granny D used to post diaries at Dkos, years ago) and she sponsored him to some Dem clubs and meetings around NH… then he began to break out a bit.
I think they let him on to use as a counter point. If they let him on again, they will openly laugh at him, I would guess.
To be frank I see little difference between Pat Buchanan and Hillary. And to me, OBama and Edwards are faking it, badly. A congealing fuckball. What else is new…
Power hungry mongrels, all of them.
I know, I hate when that happens, Marisacat. I had gathered a few links from different blogs last night. It is an explosive story, because it involves the Medical Care system, and the huge costs which this case reveals, which were never necessary but were all approved of by ‘law’ in order to provide billions in profit to cronies of this administration . And it was reported, the corruption investigation that is, in the NY, I think, but then just faded away after the resignations of the male USAs and the deaths of the two women. Until now.
With Gonzales weakened there seems to be an explosion of subpoenas going out in the US A cases, the Abramoff affairs and other stalled investigations. It’s hard to keep up.
I’m looking for the info and will post it before I leave for work.
Btw, just lost another post to spam Lol! It was about James Comey finally being called back to testify in the US A affair. Great news imo.
Oh, and Tenet is going to be on 60 minutes. He’s written a book and is apparently claiming he was used as a scapegoat. He can’t seem to make up his mind re his alleged ‘slam dunk’ remark. He originally denied it but now says it was ‘mis-interpreted. Sorry, but I remain furious with him and with Colin Powell. They should have quit, both were in the most critical positions to help stop this administration’s lies about Iraq. Both chose to go along.
I watched every hearing Tenet testified at and was always thoroughly confused and frustrated by his conflicting statements, one minute he gave you hope, the next he was supporting the administration. Too late for him to expcect understanding now. Too many people have died. He’s lucky he can live a comfortable life, unlike the victims of the lies he helped to disseminate. He, Hillary, Powell, all of them.
Ioz nails it [Edit]
cruise missle liberalism indeed [Edit]
i noted those edit hyperlinks too [Edit]
must be [Edit] recent, eh? prolly a stylesheet bug [Edit]
hope it doesn’t get worse. [Edit]
[Edit][Edit]
[Edit][Edit][Edit]
jam.fuse
at various places I have been reading eye witness memories of Guernica.. I think an effort has been made to collect the small number left who witnessed the day and the dying.
One ws a recollection of a young man who fled to a bomb shelter… crept out as the sounds of the bombing died away…expecting to find the town in rubble and of course found it in flames.
We seem to want to make hell on earth.
In the midst of all of that, I heard Petraeus on Charlie Rose last night.
The mediocre face of mass murder. Nothing else to call it.
They traded cheap shots for an hour.
Nir Rosen has a post up at Mother Jones, focus on contractors and mercs in Iraq:
What was it in Sartre’s No Exit – ‘Hell is… other people’.
Well we certainly seem to be hastening the second coming… ‘and what rough beast’ and so on an so on.
Like the baby Markos says, ‘I can’t stand people who envision peace’. Hey – maybe he is the antichrist.
And a piece in Asia Times on global arms dealing.
As arms dealers the world over stand up and CHEER!!
DynCorp also had the contract to train the police in Iraq and Afghanistan. Look how well that’s worked out. The war profiteers are having a grand ole time, as usual.
I linked to this Counterpunch piece about Gravel here last week.
He’s willing to go out on that limb while 99.9% of the rest of the Dems are too scared to even climb the tree.
Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi want none of that.
Gotta keep the mittel class coffee table clear for magazines. or something.
#67. And now Bushco is blasting Putin for backtracking on the conventional arms treaty while the US remains opposed to the Small Arms Treaty. Flipping hypocrites.
Yeah. Everyone but the US is expected to live up to treaty obligations.
Dahr Jamail in e Intifada:
eIntifada link
I just saw this in a FAIR email:
Okay, I found some information on the Medical Supply corruption investigation again and the two female US As who died shortly after it began.
Medicare Fraud and the USAt. Firings
It all started here:
So in 2002 Lipari applied for a loan:
From there, Libari discovered that the Bank had a relationship with a huge Medical Supply Co. called Novation & Neoforma, through a third party. He and his attorney decided that they were turned down unfairly, to protect the interests of the big Corp. and filed a lawsuit in Oct. 2002.
I’m skipping over details and moving on to 2004 when the Justice Dept. in Dallas began an investigation into the medical supply industry with Novation at the center of the investigation. But the investigation was interrupted:
I’ll continue in the next post in case there is too much html.
Okay, just lost a post on the Medical Supply corruption investigation and the two women US As who died – maybe it had too much html?
Don’t miss Ezra, full member of Treats and Sweets in TAPPED:
LINK, in case you want to read the comments.
What makes the Kos and Kos Clones think they are at all progressive, liberal, left – much less small “d” democratic.
Because they are not.
So Ezra, Paris next year courtesy of BlogAids, Kos Bowers Armstrong DavidNYC et al???
What else can they do for you? Blogger spot iwth some candidate/advertiser/SnotRoots “candidate’ who lays cash on Armstrong?
Good lord. Shysters, all.
Sabrina
it was in Spam, got it out.
Rotfl, Marisacat – they are so, so predictable! I have not even bothered with them today, mainly because, why bother when I knew they would target someone who is telling the truth about this war.
Who are these people? How dare HE or any of them attempt to keep any candidate out of the race. What an arrogant little shit, in fact all of them.
Now, I really am motivated to keep Gravel in the race. That they are so scared of hearing the facts about this war, that they care more about their goddamn party than about the lives of the troops, the Iraqis and their country totally condemns them.
But his focus on Gravel is proof that Gravel threatens the lies we are being told by the rest of the ‘leadership’ and that people really are responding to anyone who dares to tell the truth!
Memo to Ezra and the rest of the apologist wannabes. They do NOT speak for the American people. Gravel, on this issue, does!
Next will be the smears – just like the right, there really is no difference. Has Ezra argued against the points Gravel made, or just decided that neither we the people or Gravel himself have a right to choose our own candidates?
How fucking dare they attempt to speak for the rest of us. Their ‘influence’ extends to about, tops, 2000 ‘addicts’ and that’s it. Take a look at the polls morons, the people are with Gravel and Kucinich on this war, not your precious party leadership.
While I was there, I snicked this from Ezra:
OK… John Obama and Barack Edwards can run as a fusion candidate with Rudy as VP.
Otherwise why go soft on the “opposition” (hell, even Ezra got this one).
The Democrats are doing lousy on a good day, and utter shit on a bad day, on poverty, health care and war in Iraq.
Most days they do and say nothing. maybe we should elect a Blackberry.
Sabrina
Fortunately ALL SEVEN of the comments disagreed with him.
I was really glad to see that.
Thanks, Marisacat – sorry I’m just so fed up with these ingorant, moronic, arrogant, amateur wannabes. Who are they so beholden to that they don’t care about their country? I just wish they would stop calling themselves ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive’.
They remind me of Tenet and Powell, selling their souls for ‘access’. It is ‘influence’ we need, not access. Access is easy, but they are so easily wowed by a famous (or infamous in reality) name it makes them so easy to use.
Speaking of Tenet. He should have stayed in hiding, Waxman has called him before a Committee to discuss the Niger Uranium claim made by the Bush administration.
In his book, he claims that when he said ‘slam dunk’, he didn’t mean that the evidence of WMDs was a slam dunk, but that ‘selling the war to the people’ could be a slam dunk. Lol, and that’s supposed to be better? Also, according to the reviews, he still ‘likes Bush’ but blames Cheney, Feith et al for being used as a scapegoat. What a sell-out. He’s only angry because they dumped him.
SB – that looks like corporate foul play to me. I’m sure this type of shit happens far more often than we think.
I don’t know if any of you know the story of Mark Purdey, but he has proven that Mad Cow Disease [and other CJD type nervous disorders like Kuru] come from an excess of a certain type of industrialized manganese in the system along with a deficiency of copper. His results have been duplicated at respected labs in both Britain and the US. He started on his quest because he was an organic cattle farmer who refused the British government mandated 1987 warble fly treatment for his cattle – none of his cows got mad cow. His interest piqued because the treatment was malthion [that nasty precursor to nerve agents that they spray in this country for West Nile]. Malthion leaches copper out of the body. Alternatively the cattle feed of the time was extremely high in manganese content. He was able to synthesize in a Cambridge lab the exact prions found in mad cow by stressing cells with excess manganese and insufficient copper. When he came forward with his results, not only was he ejected from any proceedings on the British government scientific committee to investigate mad cow, but there were several attempts made on his life. He believes there is a collusion between the British government and the manufacturer of malthion [a shady outfit who’s address is a PO box in Texas] & that it was the company who made the attempts on his life.
His research would open up the chemical industry to all sorts of suits because similar chemicals are all over the place & are likely linked to any number of chronic and fatal nervous type diseases. Mark is a hero & someday the truth will come out.
Predictable:
Then they move on to talking about how “hot” Kucinich’s wife is – in the same diary where LV asks if dkos has “grown up”.
Riiiight….
Glad to hear that, MC, will take a look –
What a weak statement from Edwards, worse, to suggest that Rudy, the failed Mayor of NYC, who presided over the worst terrorist attack in its history, can focus on solving ANYTHING is ludicrous. He needs to be called back before a Congressional Committee (as the 9/11 families have demanded) and forced to answer for his dereliction of duty to the people of NYC on and leading up to 9/11.
They are treating this thug with kid gloves. I just don’t get it. This is an excellent opportunity to expose him to the country for what he is. As happened with his best partner in crime, formerly known as ‘America’s Top Cop’, Bernie Kerik. It’s not hard to do, there is so much evidence. And it’s long past time to explode the myth of ‘America’s Mayor’.
Might as well laugh:
Ranger Ranger, who’s got a Bush Ranger… David Sirota sounding more like his old self.
Plus Brancaccio on NOW did a piece on Mack (Ranger at issue, LOL and the CEO of Morgan Stanley) and some dastardly doings … SEC first investigated then waved off the very interesting investigator atty on the case. he was fired.
And NOW made clear, Dems will NOT be going near Wall St esp hedge fund corruption, at all.
WIll hunt up the NOW link.
Might as well laugh.
Sabrina
thanks for going back and finding all of that again..
Libcatnip … thanks for all the links and snips
Omg, that is funny, Catnip! Luscious Vagina calling someone else ‘batshit crazy’! Rotfl!
As I said, they are as predictable as the radical rightwing – the same talking points, the same smear tactics when someone threatens their ‘truths’.
Gravel got under their thin skins! I love it. He really did make an impression on the people who matter, the voters. He exposed the hypocrisy. Faxed talking points and memos must be flying around the ‘left blogosphere’ today from Rahm and Chuck.
Btw, I have linked to this before, but it is a [unblocked] 2004 article in Harper’s on how, for the purposes of the pro life crowd, intact d&e rose to their consciousness.
What a pity.
I was reminded of it as the same author, Cynthia Gorney, has an updated piece in Am Prospect, Law and Revulsion:
Thanks for rescuing that post, MC.
This really is a big story and it was covered in the media, although stretched out over so much time, it would have been hard to make the connections.
It is infuriating that this particular investigation was interrupted. This man, Samuel Lipuri, never gave up. He’s still writing letters to Congress. He should have been a hero, ready to save billions of dollars in healthcare costs, but greed and corruption got in the way. There are good people, like those two women US Attorneys and their three male colleagues.
All five of them were gone, two dead, three dismissed or resigned, within three months and the investigation stopped. Novation has GE connections also. They are vultures and I hope they are put out of business which probably would have happened had the investigation been allowed to continue.
Btw, Carol Lam was also investigating Medicare Fraud. We’ve been living in a lawless country for the past several years and I wonder how many people ‘paid the price’ as James Comey said with tears in his eyes, while trying to live up to their own principles. I try not to hate anyone, but it’s getting harder and harder not to.
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This link to Samuel Lipori’s site has a number of media articles if you scroll down to the bottom, covering the case and the deaths of the two women.
Medical Supply Chain
I hope this is one case that Congress goes after in the US Attorney scandals.
I don’t know if those two women’s deaths were an incredible coincidence, certainly lucky for Bush and his cronies, or if there was foul play, but nothing would surprise me. Either way, I bet they scared other US Attorneys who couldn’t be sure and who were probably aware of how ruthless this administration is.
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Here is a tribute to Thelma Quince Colbert. So sad, no matter what caused her death:
Click to access enewslayout65.pdf
I guess it is all going to come down to who is in the room, right? The hospital where I gave birth would not permit video cameras in the room because of “liability issues” (yeah, made me feel real confident!!), I cannot imagine that doctors performing abortions would be required to allow any kind of video — what is there in this law that provides for enforcement? Will women and doctors now have to have government minders in the operating room?
I am so disgusted with this country — what a huge pile of steaming shit it is.
Sorry, the above (389) was in response to Mcat’s #87….
Lucid #81 – that case sounds similar to the one I just wrote about. Corporate interests trumping human life and safety. Something has to be done about it.
Just like Samuel Lipori – in a different sense, but the same thing. Protecting corporate profits instead of people.
Oh, and btw, thanks for the info on the flat tax. I see what you mean. But on the war, torture, healtcare and other issues, Gravel is streets ahead of the front runners. Maybe he could be persuaded to rethink his tax proposals!
SB, re: #29
This Naderite voted for Kerry in ’04, though I hated him, for the very same reason you did. Bush scares the shit out of me, and I talked myself into it. The way Kerry handled the loss ensured that I will NEVER do that again, no matter how scary the Republican is. That bunch of hacks on the stage yesterday showed me that they haven’t learned. A lineup of Kerry 2.0s, except for Gravel & Kucinich. K is just horrible on the stump, and pretty damned ineffective, and the media is going to make Gravel the cloned child of Nader and Adm. Stockton. No one is going to get a chance to hear him who isn’t willing to go looking themselves, and Americans are so lost to “winning CONTESTS” that they’ll rally around Kerry 2.0, whichever meatsuit he/she is wearing.
I’d rather the Republicans just win not just b/c I think people will only learn if they feel pain. They’re ALREADY feeling pain. People know things are broken, but the fake choice of a “left” Donk makes them question what they feel and deep-down KNOW is true. I used to help pick the music that a store I worked in put in some of the listening posts. I can’t tell you how many times I watched someone listen to something, watched them smile and start to move to it, only to watch as their friends wrinkled their noses or poked fun, leaving the cd abandoned on the rack and the joy and connection that customer had felt ignored to feel part of his/her herd. Always depressed me.
People think that there is a “debate” when all there really is is a Republican “pump” sucking away wealth, opportunity, civil liberties, human rights and basic decency, with a Donk “check valve” in the line to make sure none of that stuff is allowed to flow back. They serve to lock in what the right has been taking away for decades now. The small windows of time when the Dems helped expand the franchise of Democracy came in two brief spasms … most of the time they’ve either been the cause or the enabler of our problems.
Fuck them, I’m done.
I have read several articles on the Moyers program the other night on PBS. And none that I saw commented on the quote frm the old time intel reporter at Wapo (forget his name, they hid a smart piece of his in the run up to war on p. 19, LOL) who said the media stopped (to the extent it had ever really existed) open dispute with the party in power under Reagan. They left it to the Dems, if they said nothing, it flew. And media just took dictation.
My understanding is the phrase for that is “certified” … if the Dems don’t actively push, endorse, talk up, ie, certify a line of argument or opposition to the R, then the media just does not bother.
The Dems hardly opposed the war. Which we can all remember. Some tried on the Hill but got no traction with OTHER DEMOCRATS.
Its a collusion. Walter Karp an independent political writer who I read for years in Harper’s maintained it goes a long ways back. To the 1898 war, Manila Harbor and so on. Little desire in the nation for that war, but the Dems colluded iwth the R in power.
And from whatever pressure in the nation, confluence of events, etc., the ONLY time the poor, the marginal middle class, the struggle to lift people from poverty got traction was Roosevelt or LBJ.
It’s not on the agenda.
Brinn … I’d love to see him run a protest campaign after the Dems browbeat debate sponsorers into excluding him.
LV is a moron, Klein is a moron, and they once again demonstrate how much they’re part of the problem.
Waxman is a one-man opposition party. He’s about it for the Donks.
The story about the two woman US A’s is scary/interesting. A LOT of money in that business, and maybe enough to kill for.
Truthout posts the Army Officer’s piece today with the WaPo piece that was linked above:
This fits with the complete incompetence and corruption of most of our public institutions. We are the Romans, lost and corrupt while bragging of our importance. We’ll keep doing it, right through the fall.
Oh NO, not a PENIS … blood is fine, but a COCK?!?!
The Courant is convinced that it’s actually a tourniquet.
Mitm, can’t disagree with anything you said. Gravel will be smeared, mocked etc. but I don’t know if it will work this time. The country is in a different mood now. A lot has happened and there’s a lot of anger at the realization of how many lies were told to get us into a war we cannot get out of. If Dems think they can wait until after the 2008 election to get serious about ending this war, as the body count rises each day, I wouldn’t count on that.
Gravel is a straight shooter and at this point, that is a refreshing change from the carefully scripted responses of the front runners. Plus, we’re all wiser now. Looking back, although I was never fooled by the Bush administration, I was very naive about everything else.
Marisacat, was it Walter Pincus? Not sure, but I do remember one Wapo reporter who did report on real news but you had to search for him. The lies were always front-paged.
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Another trial has begun in Florida. There is no end to the corruption of this administration. This is the trial of the three mafia hitmen who are accused of killing Gus Boulis, the original owner of Suncruz, the gambling casinos bought by Abramoff and his partner Kidan. The three accused mafia guys were closely connected to Kidan. He claims they were paid by him to do some catering.
I rejected offer to murder Gus Boulis, witness claims
The media never covered this horrifying crime and the connection to Abramoff, the gambling casinos, Bob Ney and Tom Delay. And airc, the FBI is still investigating reports from eye-witnesses that Mohamad Atta was seen aboard one of these boats before 9/11. So far, no news on that investigation.
We still don’t know why Abramoff and Kidan had such an interest in buying Suncruz – but they, Ralph Reed and a lot of other Republicans were very, very interested in the gambling business. Abramoff is supposedly ‘singing like a bird’ from his prison cell.
speaking of medical fraud–I just finished a very new book called “Coronary”- which traced the rise and fall of a very successful cardiac center in Redding, CA–owned by Tenet Healthcare. Ultimately, about 800 people had unnecessary procedures performed–mostly bypass surgery, many who expereinced horrid complications afterward-and the surgeon and cardiologist becoming enormously wealthy–but the town was quite proud of its premiere cardiac center and it took awhile–and some driven patients, their families and even a few in the govt. & FBI to put the doctors out of business, and Tenet out of ownership. Unfortunately, it was settled–lotsa money, but without criminal prosecution of the doctors or Tenet.
CABG [pronounced “cabbage”] “coronary artery bypass graft” surgury is still THE major money-maker procedures at most cardiac centers and hospitals in the US.
It is the cardiac surgeons’ bread and butter.
Madman
I saw those pictures.. both versions, first plain later with a smudge/blur over his nether nexus LOL or whatever it was….
I never saw anything and frankly was too consumed with the real stuff happening to even figure out it might be his genitals.
“wake me up after labor day?” (from rawstory):
“”The White House will not attempt to assess until September whether any of the major objectives of the troop increase in Iraq are being achieved, and now accepts that it will take far longer to achieve the results than President Bush envisioned when he announced the strategy in September,” an article in Saturday’s New York Times will report.”
My latest, a rant on Tenet’s and Durbin’s crocodile tears.
dragging it out. Both political parties. they know EXACTLY what they are doing.
Mass murder.
Feingold on CNN this morning, sets John Roberts straight on his misrepresentation of the Iraq funding bill.
Arthur Silber. It’s too good and builds its point slowly … too good in whole to exerpt a small part. He sums up our current state of peril very well.
thanks for the Silber… I’m glad to know he is back.. 😉
here is one pertinent part to extract… and vry true:
I would have to disagree with you there MitM. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but in the runnup to the Iowa caucuses in 2004 he really inspired me. When he keeps to just speaking he’s really good, it when he starts singing the national anthem that I gag…
Speaking as another Naderite who voted for Kerry in 2004 – it was part browbeating on Dkos, but despite that I probably wouldn’t have voted for him if he hadn’t been anti-death penalty and & hadn’t had the record on BCCI & Latin American during his early days in the Senate. Remember he did take the Reagan administration head on on the Nicaragua issue. Once a good man, now the shell of one.
The BCCI stuff is how I talked myself into it. Some stupid hope that that guy was still in there somewhere.
Stupid of me.
Everytime I hear or see Kucinich speak on the tube, or on NPR, I’m torn between nodding off or screaming GET TO THE POINT. I saw him once, on CSPAN talking about universal health care, when he impressed me.
DC madame bags a scalp:
From The Blotter:
LOL Don’t miss this tid bit.. alll the waay at the bottom:
Sounds like ol’ Randall is into something freaky…
not a bad looking dude though
typical
I have to say, Kucinich is doing pretty good on Maher.
New Thread Just a thread
Oh, that is a riot. They are falling like flies. A top DOJ official quit today also. He said it was voluntary and for ‘personal reasons’. I wonder is his name on the list also? No wonder the WH put out that fake ‘Al Queda Leader Captured’ story today, despite the fact that he was captured a year ago! Lol!
‘Faithfulness and abstinence’! Rotfl!
So she found a way to name her ‘clients’ after all. Very clever, they are ALL witnesses, all 10,000 of them!
Ed Rollins said that Hookergate was the most serious scandal of all and would bring down dozens of top Govt. officials! Looks like it will be a fun summer. It was supposed to happen last summer, but Gonzales and his band of criminals were preventing all these investigations from going forward.
Otoh, despite how much fun this is, prostitution should be legal, imo. Thanks to hypocrites like this guy, it isn’t. But since it is not, why protect the ‘johns’ as they were trying to do?
I will have to see 20/20 next week. She is claiming she ran a ‘sexual fantasy’ business and that there was not supposed to be any sex involved. If the ‘girls’ engaged in sex, it’s not her fault, she told 20/20.. I’ll have to check the Smoking Gun again to see if that’s what the evidence was. Seems to me there was sex involved airc.