Month: September 2005

John Conyers has written a letter to the Salem Radio Network demanding Bill Bennett’s radio program be suspended.

It’s not bad enough that Bill Bennett has the gall to lecture America about our moral values while he gets drunk and gambles away his family’s money… but he goes on the air and equates the crime rate on a one-to-one basis with the population of African-Americans. Everyone who has the time should join Conyers in asking Salem to suspend Bennett. Hell, demand that they shit-can him.

The Democratic party sunk to a new low today. Democratic Leadership was non existent. Harry “Charlie Brown” Reid once again let the GOP set him up to fall on his ass… taking the party and Democratic base with him.

There is a Crisis of Democratic Leadership a vacuum as big as the breaches in the NOLA levies. In this time of crises the only “strategery” Ried could come up with was that the Democratic senators played “Trading Places” with their votes so that no one could be “typecasted”.

The blame for today’s Roberts debacle which will be with us for at least the next 20 to 30 years lies squarely on the shoulders of Harry Reid  (I don’t give a “Cheney” how he voted personally). Harry Reid it to blame for not demanding that the minimum qualification of documentation to be forth coming before a vote took place. This was an abandonment of post… and a greivous injustice to  not only the Democratic base but to all Americans as well.

Hilliary should not escape blame for she wants so desperately to LEAD THE DEMOCRATS TO VICTORY yet she failed miserable to even persuade 22 of her colleagues to do the right thing. Hilliary showed absolutely NO LEADERSHIP and if this is the preview of what she has in store for the party then it is highly dissappointing.

The only “strategery” Those people in Washington DC with a (D) behind their names did was put all of their votes in a box and randomly pick… so that some “libruls” voted like a conservatives and some conservatives looked librul for one day in their miserable lives… ie Bayh.

Recently a friend revealed a conversation he had several years ago with Scott Falwell who is currently in prison. Falwell is being used as a witness by the prosecution (Patrick Fitzgerald) to present evidence against his former boss, George Ryan; George Ryan is a former governor of Illinois. None other than Patrick Fitzgerald has handled the indictment and now trial of George Ryan.

Scott Falwell was head of the gigantic MPEA Metropolitan Pier and Expostion Authority. He was head of McCormick Place where conventions are held and Navy Pier a multi- purpose tourist, concert and convention facility. He was described as a favorite of George Ryan.
Long before he went to prison, and while he was under investigation by Patrick Fitzgerald, my friend, said Scott Falwell told him that George Ryan had been warned by Karl Rove not to pursue clemency for death row convicts in Illinois. This occurred at a meeting, I am not sure, perhaps of governors in Washington. Later, after Ryan declared a moratorium on the death sentence, a representative from Karl Rove’s office appeared in Illinois, arriving quite unexpectedly and asked to see the Governor. Ryan was told by this representative that his moratorium for death row prisoners would not go unpunished. He said George Bush was very unhappy. George Bush presided over 152 executions in Texas as governor and is famous for his mocking of Karla Faye Tuckers pleas to be granted clemency.

Ryan was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his decision to commute the sentences of 167 death row inmates and his placing a moratorium in 2000 on the death penalty. He did this he said, given the evidence that DNA testing had shown many on death row to be innocent. There is no political gain for a Republican governor to do this. It seems he did this based on conscience.

 Now whether the indictment of Ryan is part of the punishment or coincidence I don’t know. But apparently, according to my friend, Scott Falwell thinks it is. And according to this friend Scott Falwell has said the indictment of Ryan and all the underlings that preceeded him is the direct result of Ryans’s actions on the moratorium.

The charges against Ryan could be leveled against almost any politician. They are racketeering, mail fraud, perjury, and income tax evasion. This means he received gifts, lied and did not report the gifts on his income tax. It’s not as impressive as it sounds. But that’s another matter.

George Ryan has been indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald and is currently in court. Patrick Fitzgerald has been heralded as the savior of those who want Bush administration officials indicted in the Valerie Plame Scandal.

These same people who would like to see Bush officialdom indicted point to Patrick Fitzgerald as a non-partisan attorney general, a “bulldog” acting in the interests of the law. He is in fact a Republican who was appointed by James Comey who worked for John Ashcroft at the time of his selection to investigate the Plame affair. Ken Mehlman has said that he has the highest regard and faith in Patrick Fitzgerald’s ability to come to a just conclusion to the Plame investigation.

I have never believed that attorney generals act in the interests of the law but rather for political reasons. Whenever a politician is indicted it is always a political act without regard to guilt or innocence. This is true for Tom Delay, it was true for Richard Nixon and it was true for the Whitwater investigation of Bill Clinton.

James Comey who now works for Lockheed Martin appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to be the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame affair. James Comey is described as being best friends with Patrick Fitzgerald.

Phillip Perry  is a lawyer whose former firm Latham and Watkins represents Lockheed Martin. He has just been selected (as of April) to be the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security.  Lockheed Martin has won billions in contracts with Homeland Security. His wife is Elizabeth Cheney who is the Vice President’s daughter. Perry has also represented a private prison firm and American Hospital Corporation. Elizabeth Perry (Cheney’s daughter) is the second-ranking U.S. diplomat for the Middle East and the State Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary of state.

Lynne Cheney had served on the board of Lockheed Martin for 7 years (1994-2001). Lynne Cheney is of course the wife of the Vice President.

I cannot imagine that after Comey’s having appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Plame affair, that Lockheed Martin could have hired James Comey, as it’s new general counsel unless this appointment of Patrick Fitzgerald was not seen as a “mistake” or error on the part of Comey. In other words, the Cheney connections to Lockheed Martin in the form of his wife and son in law are very great and very substantial. Comey was hired by Lockheed Martin just a few months ago. The Plame investigation is a couple of years old. If the investigation were going badly for the Bush Administration they would certainly know that. Cheney would know that. With Cheney’s influence at Lockheed Martin, one has to wonder why Comey would be hired if he had chosen a person in the form of Fitzgerald who was about to take down a part of the Administration.

I have always been skeptical of the administration investigating itself – and Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation into the Plame affair is just that. The Bush administration is investigating itself. The suggestion that Patrick Fitzgerald is non=partisan as seen by his indictment of George Ryan, a very liberal Republican who defied George Bush, has never held water.

Currently, Fitzgerald is going after Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s administration and will inevitably focus on the Mayor. A mayor who shares a lot of things with the President. Both having had father’s who preceeded them in their jobs. But Daley is a Democrat and no one can remember the last time Chicago had a Republican Mayor. Fitzgerald is attempting to destroy the corrupt democratic machine. But for what purpose?

I hope that Patrick Fitzgerald indicts someone of significance. But I am very skeptical.

It is time for the indictments, The grand jury term is ending in October. It is also possible that the investigation into the Plame affair has gotten out of the control of Patrick Fitzgerald. He cannot force the grand jury. If incontrovertible evidence was presented that could not have been foreseen by Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald can only influence, not control the grand juries decision to indict. At least that’s my understanding. Judith Miller’s incarceration is often pointed to as evidence that Fitzgerald is getting to the bottom of the matter. But I have always wondered if her being put in jail for contempt has more to do with protecting herself than her sources. But I cannot say that I understand why Fitzgerald would do this as she too has connections to Cheney. Perhaps it has to do with the fact she allegedly interfered in one of Fitzgerald’s  previous investigations while he was in New York.

Somehow, this just doesn’t all add up.

Before he was (s)elected to office the preznit had been quoted as saying that “I don’t think our troops ought to be used for what’s called nation-building. . . . “

Something that rings true amongst most Americans, right?

In his ascendency speach following his second installment to the throne, refered to by some Americans as the “Diebold Debachle” (which was preceded by the highly partisan “Scotus Appointment” era) the preznit, much to the worry of many alarmed Americans and even some in the media, made dozens of references to his one and only reason left to have blundered into Iraq that had not been completely debunked as a minor justification to replace the other debunked lies:

“America, in this young century, proclaims liberty throughout all the world, and to all the inhabitants thereof. Renewed in our strength – tested, but not weary – we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom.”

Are you weary yet?

Click on to get down and dirty with some ACTION!

The internet is littered with articles showing strong concern for the preznits huge change in policy towards supporting nation building. Alarm bells sounded off in every corner of America after that infamous speach.

The echoing ring of these bells has grown since then, and poll after poll has shown that it is a sure sign that America is in total disagreement with bush’s policies, and the direction of the country lately. Zogby’s impeachment question showed a serious faultering of any support for the bush regime’s mis-direction by a large portion of those polled.

Mr bush: “We are beyond weary!”

Today a poll on the direction of bush’s foreign policy of “Spreading Democracy” through the use of force has been shown to be against the wishes of an overwhelmingly large majority of Americans:

America Rejects Using Military Force to Promote Democracy; Rejects Democratization as Rationale for Iraq War
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 U.S. Newswire

A new poll finds a majority of Americans reject the idea of using military force to promote democracy. Only 35 percent favored using military force to overthrow dictators. Less than one in five favored the US threatening to use military force if countries do not institute democratic reforms.

The effort to promote democracy in
Iraq is generating little enthusiasm.
(emaphasis mine)

The bold part is clearly an understatement. Not only is bush polling badly across the board with all Americans, but even his support from conservative republicans is dismal, to say the least:

Seventy-four percent (including 60 percent of Republicans) said that the goal of overthrowing Iraq’s authoritarian government and establishing democracy was not a good enough reason to go to war. Seventy-two percent said that the experience has made them feel worse about the possibility of using military force to bring about democracy in the future. Sixty-four percent (65 percent of Republicans) are ready to accept an Iraqi constitution that does not fully meet democratic standards, and once the constitution is ratified 57 percent want to start withdrawing troops.

Given the large shift in Americans’ views, across the board, concerning every aspect of bush and republican policy I think it is imperative that we try and convince pollsters to return to the impeachment question soon.

Zogby had originally said that they would likely return to their impeachment question, but have since backed out of it listing many qualifications for them to follow through on this issue.

What exactly does all of that mean?

A whacky friend of mine (NeverSurrender) from the Aggressive Progressives Yahoo! group was in the mood for some free-thinking and on a lark called up Zogby’s to inquire “what would need to happen to get them to revisit the topic?”

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Being a business, it is hardly surprising that what she found out was that all it would take is CA$H!

Tell me something folks:

How much is getting to the truth worth to you?

Even if we don’t achieve the goal of Impeaching bush, the lingering question is a powerful political message in itself. It creates a picture of failure just by asking: “Should bush be impeached?”

Is it worth a few bucks? It is to me… Democracy is priceless to me. It is like trying to put a price on the Liberty Bell… You cannot put a real value on that symbol of America and her freedoms. But here, in this diary, you will have a good example of how we can get some Democracy into action, and promote an issue that most of us can agree on:

IMPEACHING BUSH!

That smart girl, NeverSurrender, has gone ahead and started in motion an appeal to raise enough money to pay for Zogby International to ask the very questions we all want and need anwered.

This idea is very much in the birthing process, and there is still much uncertainty on many of the finer points.

• What questions should we ask precisely?
• How many questions can we afford to ask?
• How often can we afford to repeat the polling of them?
• “Place your thoughts here?”

I am certain that many of you can figure out some other issues that can easily arise in any grassroots effort of this kind.

I invite you to bring it on in this diary.

Below is an excerpt the Email I recieved from NeverSurrender. All I ask is that you read it and consider this issue.

From: “NeverSurrender”

Subject: Zogby Poll on Impeaching George W. Bush – PLEASE READ!

Last week, John Zogby was interviewed and asked about doing a poll on impeaching bush.  He said he would not ask any questions on impeaching bush on his own initiative, that he would only do it if he is hired to do it. I called Zogby and he confirmed that he will do poll questions on Impeaching Bush and related matters if he is paid to do it.

I don’t see anybody else coming forward, so it looks like it’s up to us. If we don’t raise the impeachment question in a poll and introduce it to the public, nobody else is going to do it.  And we desperately need this kind of information out there, to get the impeachment movement rolling, to start the conversation, and to reach people who aren’t involved now, maybe out of intimidation and fear, and who need some support and encouragement to stand up and speak out. Once there is one poll and it is in the public domain, more polls and more discussion will follow.

DONATE TO THE IMPEACMENT POLL

I’ve opened a PayPal Business account under the name Zogby Impeachment Poll. There can be several people “on” a Business account with different levels of access which I why I chose this one,  so there will be checks and balances and no one will think anyone (me) is playing around with the funds. We also need a business account to accept credit cards and debit cards. (The Premier Account has the same fees, but only one person can have access.)

If the Pro-impeachment camp can’t raise the money for this, we’re not much of an anti-bush movement are we?   THIS would make a difference!

Surely we anti-bush activists can raise $5000 or even $10000.

There is no minimun donation amount, but I think most people would consider $5 affordable and reasonable.  If not, whatever you can afford is fine. Shoot, if we get 5000 people to donate $2 each, or 10,000 people to donate $1, we’re on our way. I already have 3 pledges of $100 and one for $50, so
we’ve got $350 in the kitty and are off to a good start. If for any reason this effort fails and this doesn’t work out, all the money donated will be returned, less the 2.9% +$0.30 cent fee that PayPal that takes for business and premier accounts.

Please join in and contribute whatever you can, no matter how little. Every dollar counts and every dollar will help.

DONATE TO THE IMPEACMENT POLL

If all else fails, the name of the account is Zogby Impeachment Poll and the email address is impeachbush@safe-mail.net. Either one, probably the email address should get you to the right place.

Here are the details of how it will work.

We could either have our own poll, if we had a lot of questions, or we could be included in what they call the “bi-monthly omnibus” with only one question or a few. We would be provided with the poll results and all the demographic breakdowns: age, religion, sex. red state/blue
state, etc.

The cost is $2000 for the first question, $1000 for every additional question. (There is a discrepancy on the cost of the first question, it may only be $1000.)

We also need to have people submit the questions they would like asked. You need to take some time with this and try to phrase the questions the way poll questions are worded, so there is no implications or slanting. I have a Zogby poll, provided by Luke/Lukery who started this whole issue going that I have uploaded to the files section of Aggressive Progressives so those members can check it out. I will send the poll to any owner who wants it for the file section of their group.

I’d also like to get a website up, one that looks decent, one page is all that is necessary. I’ll buy the domain name and pay for the hosting.

Is there anyone  out there who does web pages and would like to volunteer?  (Maybe I can do it myself, but I haven’t done a web page in 3 years, so I’m rusty and not up to the latest technology and I’d like it to look somewhat professional.)

I’d ideally like to raise at least $10,000 to ask an array of
questions, on impeaching bush and cheney, opening a new investigation on 911, the plame case, criminal charges for Katrina, etc.  

DONATE TO THE IMPEACMENT POLL

Raw Story
09/21/2005 @ 12:40 pm

Says he would consider poll if paid

“I might ask it again, but I won’t be pressured to ask it,” he said. “If somebody wants to hire us to ask it, I’d consider that.”

DONATE TO THE IMPEACMENT POLL

Aggressive Progressives

The Effective Alliance
Join Us & Take Back Your Country

Before you donate I suggest you verify some of the information, as I would suggest for any donation you consider making to any cause. But I can tell you that NeverSurrender has worked hard for a long time in the efforts to get bush out of office and also to, hopefully, get him impeached.

Below are links to some of the other results from the US newswire press release of the Poll that was released today.

And thanks for reading this!

The poll, a joint project of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the Program on International Policy Attitudes, was conducted by Knowledge Networks September 15-21 with a nationwide sample of 808 respondents (margin of error plus/minus 3.5-4 percent). A full report and questionnaire can be found at http://www.pipa.org and http://www.ccfr.org .

http://www.usnewswire.com/

“For Whom the Bells toll”
“It tolls for thee.”

Will you answer this call to action?

Note:
If you have any questions about the cause and/or the person that came up with it, or you are interested in getting involved? I am certain that I can get you in direct contact with NeverSurrender. I just haven’t asked for her permission yet.

this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters

cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.

3 images and poem below the fold

Martha Perez wipes away tears while holding a picture of her son Luis Alberto Figueroa, a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq, as thousands participate in an anti-war march in downtown Los Angeles September 24, 2005. Thousands of protesters flooded Los Angeles on Saturday to stage demonstrations against the U.S.-led war in Iraq and to demand that President George W. Bush bring troops home.
REUTERS/Phil McCarten

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, Monday, Sept. 26, 2005, pauses at the gate of the White House holding a photo of her son Casey who was killed in Iraq last year. She tried to see President Bush and was turned away . Sheehan along with other anti-war demonstrators protested outside the White House and were later arrested.
(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Maddison Campbell,19, wife of Sgt. Jeremy M. Campbell, of Middlebury, Pa., watches as members of the U.S. Army 3rd US Infantry (The Old Guard), carry the flagged draped casket during funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005. Campbell died on Sept. 11, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq, where an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during patrol operations.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

from The Lotos-Eaters
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

VI

Dear is the memory of our wedded lives,
And dear the last embraces of our wives
And their warm tears: but all hath suffer’d change:
For surely now our household hearths are cold,
Our sons inherit us: our looks are strange:
And we should come like ghosts to trouble joy.
Or else the island princes over-bold
Have eat our substance, and the minstrel sings
Before them of the ten years’ war in Troy,
And our great deeds, as half-forgotten things.
Is there confusion in the little isle?
Let what is broken so remain.
The Gods are hard to reconcile:
‘Tis hard to settle order once again.
There is confusion worse than death,
Trouble on trouble, pain on pain,
Long labour unto aged breath,
Sore task to hearts worn out by many wars
And eyes grown dim with gazing on the pilot-stars.

– – –
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
remember the fallen
support the fallen
support the troops
support the troops and the Iraqi people
read This is what John Kerry did today, the diary by lawnorder that prompted this series
read Riverbend’s Bagdhad Burning
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
read Today in Iraq
Leonard Clark’s blog has been taken down
witness every day

Katrina and Rita displaced, either permanently or temporarily, tens of thousands from their homes of record.  I’m curious — what’s their status in life as voters?

Really want to make a difference in the ’06 elections?  Sure, 2005’s an “off” year, but someone, or some agency, or some organization needs to capture these potential voters for ’06.  Why not grassroots Democratic organizers?  Goodness knows they’re being ignored, if not purposely disenfanchised, through scofflaw inaction.

Here’s what I mean. . .
Last week, according to a story found on the Project Vote web site, Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and John Lewis (D-GA), and 28 other members of Congress sent a letter calling on the Department of Justice and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to take immediate action to enforce Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

Now why should Congress have to remind the DOJ to enforce a law that’s been on the books for 10 years?  Because most states have failed to adequately implement Section 7’s agency-based voter registration requirements.

What’s the impact of these scofflaws’ inaction?

   * Since 1995, voter registration applications from public assistance agencies nationwide have declined by 59.6%, while applications from all other sources have increased by 22%.

    * 36 of 41 states reporting show a decline in registration applications from public assistance agencies since 1995.

    * Voter registration and turnout numbers among lower income Americans have remained stagnant from the 1996 to 2004 election cycles.

While approximately 85 percent of people in households with incomes of over $75,000 are registered to vote, that figure drops to 59 percent for those in the lowest income brackets. And “those in the lowest income brackets” are Hurricane Katrina’s and Rita’s major victims.

Further, Maude Hurd, ACORN President, said in response to these disturbing findings:

“We should strengthen our democracy by registering to vote the tens of millions of people who visit agencies each month. It’s time the Justice Department and states stopped ignoring low-income people and started doing their jobs.” ACORN members in several states are planning actions to pressure state officials to improve voter registration in local social services offices.

It seems to me that the Democratic Party would want these folks registered.  Of course, preferably as Democrats.  Why wait for the various states to act?

Shouldn’t Dem Party organizers go out and register them, since the states are doing their best to ignore them, or in the case of Louisiana and Mississippi, probably have other priorities that have pushed voter registration to the back burner?

Seems to me voter registration drives sited at or near the various state agencies that should be doing this job would be a good strategy.  And at “refugee” centers, and at faith-based shelters, and at the dozens of hotels and motels and floating cruise ships that are now semi-permanent housing units, and anywhere else the Gulf Cast hurricane-homeless are residing.  Every one of those places is fertile ground for finding future Democratic voters.

More than just Katrina survivors would show up to become first-time registrants.  Remember, millions are eligible and haven’t been reached.  Besides, I’d bet thousands more would like to change their affiliation after the way they’ve been treated by this Republican national government.

Where states have failed to do their jobs, let the Democratic Party step in and fulfill the promise of one person one vote.  It’s guaranteed to pay off!

Dear Batshit Loopy Leader of the Free World,

I want to apologize, sir.  I know you have come to rely on my advice.  And I feel like I haven’t been there for you lately.  Since you were taking a five week vacation in Crawford I figured I could get away for a while, too.  But since your administration, and the entire Republican Party of which you are the head, seem to be falling apart, I cut my vacation short, so that I might offer you a few items of constructive criticism.  Please consider the following:
First, sell the fucking ranch.  Everyone I know that could pass the SAT knows that Bush is to Ranching like Truthful Accounting is to Enron.  People pretty much understand that you are going there to do some yard work and knock back a few stiff ones.  It has been in the Enquirer for fucking God’s sake.  And ask Tom Cruise – once they are on to you, the secret is pretty much over.  Plus, with how badly you have fucked up the entire planet, people don’t really want to think about you on vacation, while they’re working their collective asses off trying to figure out a way to pay for that extra dollar-thirty a gallon gas is going to cost them.  Fuck it.  No more vacations.  And surely.  No more vacations on “the ranch.”  It is pretty simple really.  Sell the ranch = fewer people in a revolutionary state of mind.  I am pretty certain about this.

Second, never, ever, listen to Turdblossom again, when he tells you that it will be a good idea to fly over a disaster area of biblical proportions with a photographer anywhere on your goddamned plane.  If you haven’t figured it out for yourself yet, Rove’s political instincts have left him more quickly than HCA stock flying out of Frist’s portfolio before a bad quarterly report.  That picture of you, flying over New Orleans, while tens of thousands of Americans were trapped inside hell holes designated as government evacuation points – sleeping with dead people and feces – was the single image that many of us will carry to our graves, right above the caption of “Worst Fucking President in the history of the world.” I can’t lie to you here.  The damage that photo has done is irreversible.  Many, many Americans will hate and despise you until either you, or they, are buried.  But don’t make it any worse.  Things are going to get out of fucking hand if you make it any worse.  I am seriously afraid that your ineptitude may actually disintegrate the very institutions which have allowed us to peacefully transfer power democratically for the last two-hundred and some years here in the U.S.  So stay the fuck away from 1) disaster areas, 2) cameras, and 3) Rove.  Please.  I am begging you here.  To recap.  No more photos of you looking on helplessly as the nation collapses = some chance that we will not suffer some kind of popular fucking revolt ending with guillotines or some shit.

Third, please read Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, of the United States Constitution.  No.  I’m not kidding.  It is only about a hundred words long.  Just wait until Cheney, Rummy, and Rove are out planning to bomb Iran, and ask your secretary to bring you a copy.  You can even ask her to highlight the fucking appropriate passage.  Because you are the fucking President.  It is amazing.  But, it is very important that you read it.  I will even give you my analysis of this key section, to make it easy.  You are the Commander and Chief of the United States Armed Forces.  Nobody else.  It is you.  This is the “George Washington” clause of the great document that your administration is destroying.  This clause gives you, and you alone, the power to do something really fucking great.  You know your poll numbers and how fucked they are.  I can make them better.  I am sure of it.  Just repeat after me, “I order the complete and immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.”  Practice it.  Break it down into three word pieces and say it over and over.  But you need to act fast.  Because you are fucking murdering people.  Daily.  I know, you probably don’t even realize it.  You are simple.  I can understand that.  But real people are fucking dying daily, for no fucking reason.  They wrote you speeches.  And they told you there were good reasons.  But, everyone in the whole fucking world now knows that this was complete and utter bullshit.  So just learn to say it.  “I order – the complete – and immediate – withdrawal – of U.S. forces – from Iraq.”  They have to listen to you.  You are the Commander and Chief.  You don’t even have to give them a fucking reason.  But, if you need help, call me.  Okay.  I am there.  But they have to fucking listen.  I guarantee you a ten point bounce on day one after you announce this.  Just do it.  Because if you don’t, you are going to have to stay in the fucking White House all the time for the next three years.  I was on your lawn this weekend.  There were like a half-a-million people.  And they all hated you and Cheney.  They know.  Okay.  They know.  It is all a lie.  I walked by your house, and they were screaming at you to fucking leave.  And it is not going to get better okay.  There is no getting better from here.  Admit it.  Give the fucking order.  And some people will stop hating you.  We are a forgiving country, sir.  But don’t kill anyone else.  Please.  Be a human being.  You remember what it was like, to ponder going to a foreign land to die, right?  Right before you got into the Guard.  And fuck Cheney.  He’ll be okay.  He’s got a summer home that isn’t on the Gulf Coast, doesn’t he?  Okay.  Here is the shorthand.  Read Constitution + Feel Empowered = Stop Unjustifiable Death and Destruction by Uttering a Simple Sentence.  I’m not kidding here, sir.  I would back you on this, if you would grow the balls to do it.

Fourth.  This one is really simple.  Get a fucking doctor to adjust your meds.  You are totally fucked.  I have seen it before.  Lots of people on psychotropic meds get tics and shit.  But you, unlike a vast and growing number of people over whom you rule, have access to the best health care in the world.  When your secretary brings you the Constitution, just tell her to get the best doctor money can buy, and have him or her make a fucking house call.  You are looking horrible.  People are starting to talk.  It is kind of disconcerting with the whole “you having access to the Nuclear codes thing,” not to mention all the shit that Majestic 12 probably told you about the Alien Technology Project at Area 51.  You gotta get the meds straight.  Fewer Facial Tics = Less time I will spend in therapy imagining you are going to end the world, not because you are an asshole, but because your finger fucking twitched while you were playing with the red button.

Fifth, it is never really too early to start working on a resignation speech.  The silver lining here is that there have been so few of them, it is something, that if you start working now, you might be considered the best at.  The list of greatest resignation speeches would look like this.  1) George W. Bush.  2) Richard M. Nixon.  That’s something, huh?  Better than the consolation prizes they used to give away on the old Let’s Make A Deal Show.  Remember that show?  That was a hoot, huh?  Seriously though.  Things are just looking dire everywhere you fucking stare, aren’t they?  Delay indicted.  Frist under investigation.  Rove under investigation.  Libby under investigation.  Brownie resigned in disgrace.  Any sane fucking person you ever had in your government (Powell, O’Neill) gone.  Downing Street.  Katrina.  Iraq.  Abramoff.  (Did that guy really fucking have someone whacked?)  Fuck.  It kind of makes Monica look pretty laughable, huh?  And a Democratic Congress just about one year away.  Just work on the speech.  If you are humble when you make the address – you know, human.  Say something like, “I was just never up for the job, and I am really sorry.”  I think that alone would get you to number one on the list.  Plus – don’t give the double peace signs when you get on the chopper.  Unless of course, you actually issue the order to end the war.  Then maybe the peace signs would be okay.  Okay?  Hard Work on Resignation Speech = Pretty Good Chance You Can Top Nixon.

I gotta run.  I’d love to make myself available to you for actual consultations, but I don’t really want to hurt my public image.  I’ll write again as the inevitable day gets closer.  Hang in there.  And give the order.  It will help a little.

It’s probably good it’s full because if it were clean, he’d see his mug staring back up at him. But, here we go — a random menu of the peas, the blood-dripping meat, the mashed squash, and unjust desserts:

• “President Faces Supreme Dilemma” trumpets today’s Wall Street Journal (sub. only). “Bush’s Next Choice for High Court May Come Down to Which Side He Needs to Please Most,” says the subtitle. “We don’t want a stealth candidate,” announces the old John Birch bag, Phyllis “Shaft ‘Em” Schlafly.
  
  [Here’s a key “backgrounder” section, and a reminder that the WSJ reporter pages are pretty darn good.] Circumstances have changed significantly since Mr. Bush nominated Judge Roberts in July. Back then, the president’s energy bill was headed toward passage, the outlines of an Iraq constitution were emerging, and the deficit picture was brightening. Today, gas prices are at record highs, Iraq’s insurgency persists, and the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina is being criticized on Capitol Hill. While Democrats pounced on the government’s initial slow response, economic conservatives have balked at Mr. Bush’s decision to approve so much spending to rebuild the Gulf Coast.
  

  
  With the president eager to marshal support on Capitol Hill, much hinges on his decision. This nomination “not only affects the court, it affects the whole relationship with Congress” and possibly the course of other legislative priorities, says pollster Richard B. Wirthlin, a former Reagan political strategist. “There are other battles he’s got to keep an eye on.”

  
  Ah, the candidate from whom all blessings may or may not flow. (More on those possible choices below the fold.)
  

  
  

• And Nag has this “just in” bad news for Dubya: “Judge Releases Abu Ghraib Photos.” Will Bush and Rummie appeal, or find a new excuse to balk? They’ll have to!
  

• Then there’s big horsey white woman Karen Hughes gallivanting about the Middle East, providing what Sidney Blumenthal (via Pat Lang) says is “the exact proof for what Osama bin Laden has claimed about American motives.”
  “It is stunning … the extent [to which] Hughes is helping bin Laden,” Robert Pape [a University of Chicago political scientist who recently briefed the Pentagon and the National Counterterrorism Center] told me. “If you set out to help bin Laden,” he said, “you could not have done it better than Hughes.”

  
  

• And there’s the peculiar confluence of the National Enquirer story about Bush’s drinking and the rehiring of Michael “Brownie” Brown as a consultant, noted by both Atrios and Alternet’s PEEK.
  
  “according to sources within the Enquirer itself, the source for Bush’s drinking story is — an incredibly pissed-off, recently scapegoated head of a federal agency who thinks that BushCo. done him wrong.”

  
  

• Then there are other little morsels like “mafia-style contract killings now entering the mix” in the Jack Abramoff scandal that point to “a vast criminal enterprise involving every facet of the Bush Administration.”
  

• Taste the smorgasboard and don’t forget this is always a potluck! Bring your own favorites, and dish!

More from the WSJ on Bush’s Supreme choices:

For an all-out fight with Democrats, he could choose “Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones, who has publicly urged the Supreme Court to rethink its abortion-rights ruling; Tenth Circuit Judge Michael McConnell, who has called for a constitutional amendment overturning it, or Fifth Circuit Judge Priscilla Owen, who has a record of supporting restricted access to abortion …” or ” Fourth Circuit Judge Michael Luttig or Third Circuit Judge Samuel Alito. Both have written opinions upholding restrictions on abortion that came short of challenging the Supreme Court on Roe.”

Or he could “reprise the tone” of the Roberts hearings, and nominate “by nominating Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan, Ninth Circuit Judge Consuelo M. Callahan or Larry Thompson, the former deputy attorney general and now a corporate attorney. All have conservative credentials but no substantial record on abortion rights. … Mr. Bush also could prompt criticism from the left and right by nominating Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.”

Enter Susan Collins:

Meanwhile, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a party moderate, has urged Mr. Bush to name a Roberts-like candidate who will express respect for precedents such as Roe v. Wade.

“The president is going through a difficult time, and I’m confident he will get through it,” she says. “If he chooses a nominee who has the kind of credentials that John Roberts has, it would be very well received, and that’s been my advice to him through aides.” If the president goes the other way, “that would concern me,” she said.

The White House is paying attention to concerns of moderates such as Ms. Collins because it will need nearly all Republican senators on its side if Democrats resist the next nominee and wage a filibuster.

If that were to happen, the Senate likely would see a return of the spring standoff between the parties with Republicans threatening to exercise the “nuclear option”: rewriting Senate rules to prohibit filibusters of judicial candidates. A bipartisan deal among 14 senators including Ms. Collins brought the chamber back from that brink. But Mr. Bush knows that he risks returning the Senate to that point by nominating someone committed to overturning Roe v. Wade.

This is my favorite photo of my son.  He is about six months old in it.  My son was born with Freeman Sheldon Syndrome, a very rare gene mutation that really only one person in the world knows much about and of course being me I found him and went to talk with him about it.

My son had a gene mutate during conception that caused him to not code for small muscle groups at around 19 weeks after conception. He has Classic Freeman Sheldon Syndrome and there are two other subtypes that appear to have similar symptoms but that they now know are not the same.

All the children who have FSS look similar in the same way that people who have Downs look similar.  You will probably only see one person in your lifetime though with FSS so noticing that similarity in them all probably won’t happen for you.

It is a syndrome that has existed for as long as we have been keeping track of mankind.  It is no respecter of race or sex, and we are fairly certain that a totem in the Northeast United States is of a Native American woman who had it and she was known as the Wild Woman of the Woods and was a spiritual leader from what we can tell.

I love this photo because my son at this point was not able to move much for himself but he forgot to be bummed out about it all.  His noodle works just fine.  He was often frustrated about not being able to get where he wanted to go, and I was in constant demand to be his mobility because he would let me know when he wanted to go somewhere. At seven months he started calling me “Mo”.  It was as much as he could spit out and he had to find a way to get my direct attention and not be ignored or overlooked.
His mouth is very small because that is also missing muscles groups.  I still nursed him and he developed his large facial muscles much more quickly then, but he fatigued quickly also.  My first fight pertaining to Josh was in the hospital with a maternity nurse who got so pissed because I refused to bottle feed him and kept insisting that we work on nursing.  Very angry she was spitting and sputtering and said, “Can’t you see that his mouth is different?”  I told her that yes, I saw that his mouth was different but I didn’t see how that immediately disqualified him from nursing, and it didn’t.

Two months later when he was formally diagnosed the geneticist was hugely surprised that Josh nursed, but hey let’s not fix something that isn’t broken.  How in the world did these people think that the Wild Woman had made it though.  There weren’t feeding tubes back then for Crying Out Loud.  Later we would find out that most babies with FSS aspirate and get a lot of respiratory infections but Josh didn’t because aspirated breast milk does NOTHING!  Too many respiratory infections would have got him excluded from receiving the titanium rib also, and that has saved his life because his scoliosis was progressing so rapidly it was going to kill him.

His feet are very clubbed.  This photo was taken in between soft castings.  He was soft casted fresh every two weeks and babies are kind of like rubber bands, they can flex and bend all sorts of ways.  So his ortho surgeon would grab his little foot and straighten it out and cast it that way.  I took the casts off one day out of 14 and gave him a bath to get all the yucky skin off and then we would go back the day after for more casts.  His bones developed in the proper shapes that way.

His feet looked like little putters so my husband did hang onto his hands and use him to putt golf balls around the house.  You know guys, they have to make a joke out of everything.  At ten months his ortho surgeon performed his first foot surgery to bring his feet to the plantar position and he will need to have another one this coming summer.  We try to limit the surgeries because as he grows his feet attempt to club.  The fewer surgeries done while growing the better condition his feet will be in for that final surgery at around 15.  He walks on his tip toes right now though, he even runs on his damn tip toes.

He walked when he was two instead of one, and you would have thought that the family had won the lottery or something back then for about two months.  He had four years of speech therapy and has the vocabulary of around a seven year old now.  He is able to compensate for all of his sounds.

His hands when he was a baby had to be massaged open until his large muscle groups got strong enough to take over and keep his hands open.  He had three years of occupational therapy for that, and now video game controllers do more work that any O.T. could.  He has developed hand control and compensation at a scary level of accuracy.

It has been a long road with the Joshman.  When he was born I used to think to myself that I would be lucky to survive it all, but I did and now I even march in Washington against the biggest criminals I have ever had the displeasure to have running my nation.

I keep this photo on my refrigerator because I must remember to always forget to be bummed, even when things in the future look like they may be difficult.  So what!  So they will be difficult, not impossible……and we will always find time for sunshine and love on the way.  Let’s Roll!

AP is reporting that U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein today ruled that the Abu Ghraib photos be released.

Hallelujia!!!!
So this means that the judge thinks the Government’s argument that release of these photos will be too inflamatory is, well, bull. They will certainly be inflamatory politically.

Yay Judge Hellerstein.

I just hope they get the darn things released before Rummy’s boys can shoot back.

Update: Thanks to Susanhu for this additional information. The ACLU is positively exhuberant over this victory:

The Center for Constitutional Rights joined with the ACLU and others to bring the FOIA Litigation against the Department of Defense. Their website had this:

Emphasis mine.

Wow, this is even bigger than I thought. The CIA must admit that the torture memorandum exists? And produce it? This is truely a happy day.

ACLU Statement

Center for Constitutional Rights Statement