monday news bucket

Posted by dada | Jul 2, 2007 | 19 |

some things deserving of attention, but perhaps not worthy of a diary…a slow start for a short week.

what kind of liberal are you?

clik quote to take the test

h/t to nanette @ Latino Politico

About The Author

dada

19 Comments

dada on July 2, 2007 at 2:58 pm

h/t dood

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former vice presidential aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby cannot delay serving his 2 1/2-year prison sentence while he appeals his perjury conviction, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday.

[…]

A federal judge last month ruled Libby would have to report to prison in six to eight weeks. His lawyers appealed to a three-judge panel of the U.S. appeals court.

But the appeals court turned down Libby in a one-paragraph order, ruling he has not shown that his appeal “raises a substantial question.”

Conservatives have pressured President George W. Bush to pardon Libby before he serves any time in prison and Monday’s decision could increase that pressure.

via © Reuters 2007

looks like chimpy’s call….what’re the odds?

lTMF’sA
- AP on July 2, 2007 at 5:58 pm
  
  Bush Commutes Libby Prison Sentence
  
  By MATT APUZZO
  The Associated Press
  Monday, July 2, 2007; 5:55 PM
  
  WASHINGTON — President Bush commuted the sentence of former aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case.
  
  Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby, according to a senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.
  
  Bush’s move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case. That decision put the pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby’s allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
  
  Libby was convicted in March of lying to authorities and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative’s identity. He was the highest-ranking White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair.
  
  This is a breaking news update. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term on Monday, issuing an order that commutes his sentence.
  
  © 2007 The Associated Press
  - dada on July 2, 2007 at 6:08 pm
    
    lTMF’sA
    - AP on July 2, 2007 at 6:32 pm
      
      Damn, skippy. I’m sick of this criminal cabal.
dada on July 2, 2007 at 3:02 pm

american poet, sharon olds

has declined an invitation from BushCo™ enabler extaordinaire, laurabot 2000, to participate in the national book festival and any satellite functions in d.c. on 24 september…and has put in in writing, rather long but definitely worth the read:

Dear Mrs. Bush,

I am writing to let you know why I am not able to accept your kind invitation to give a presentation at the National Book Festival on September 24, or to attend your dinner at the Library of Congress or the breakfast at the White House.

In one way, it’s a very appealing invitation. The idea of speaking at a festival attended by 85,000 people is inspiring! The possibility of finding new readers is exciting for a poet in personal terms, and in terms of the desire that poetry serve its constituents — all of us who need the pleasure, and the inner and outer news, it delivers. And the concept of a community of readers and writers has long been dear to my heart.

As a professor of creative writing in the graduate school of a major university, I have had the chance to be a part of some magnificent outreach writing workshops in which our students have become teachers. Over the years, they have taught in a variety of settings: a women’s prison, several New York City public high schools, an oncology ward for children. Our initial program, at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely physically challenged, has been running now for twenty years, creating along the way lasting friendships between young MFA candidates and their students — long-term residents at the hospital who, in their humor, courage and wisdom, become our teachers.

When you have witnessed someone non-speaking and almost non-moving spell out, with a toe, on a big plastic alphabet chart, letter by letter, his new poem, you have experienced, close up, the passion and essentialness of writing.

When you have held up a small cardboard alphabet card for a writer who is completely non-speaking and non-moving (except for the eyes), and pointed first to the A, then the B, then C, then D, until you get to the first letter of the first word of the first line of the poem she has been composing in her head all week, and she lifts her eyes when that letter is touched to say yes, you feel with a fresh immediacy the human drive for creation, self-expression, accuracy, honesty and wit — and the importance of writing, which celebrates the value of each person’s unique story and song.

So the prospect of a festival of books seemed wonderful to me. I thought of the opportunity to talk about how to start up an outreach program. I thought of the chance to sell some books, sign some books and meet some of the citizens of Washington, DC. I thought that I could try to find a way, even as your guest, with respect, to speak about my deep feeling that we should not have invaded Iraq, and to declare my belief that the wish to invade another culture and another country — with the resultant loss of life and limb for our brave soldiers, and for the noncombatants in their home terrain — did not come out of our democracy but was instead a decision made “at the top” and forced on the people by distorted language, and by untruths. I hoped to express the fear that we have begun to live in the shadows of tyranny and religious chauvinism — the opposites of the liberty, tolerance and diversity our nation aspires to.

I tried to see my way clear to attend the festival in order to bear witness — as an American who loves her country and its principles and its writing — against this undeclared and devastating war.

But I could not face the idea of breaking bread with you. I knew that if I sat down to eat with you, it would feel to me as if I were condoning what I see to be the wild, highhanded actions of the Bush Administration.

What kept coming to the fore of my mind was that I would be taking food from the hand of the First Lady who represents the Administration that unleashed this war and that wills its continuation, even to the extent of permitting “extraordinary rendition”: flying people to other countries where they will be tortured for us.

So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought of the clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the flames of the candles, and I could not stomach it.

Sincerely,

SHARON OLDS

h/t arthur silber

why don’t more people do the same?

lTMF’sA
- keres on July 3, 2007 at 5:18 am
  
  July 3, 1997
  Jane Alexander
  The National Endowment for the Arts
  1100 Pennsylvania Avenue
  Washington, DC 20506
  
  Dear Jane Alexander,
  I just spoke with a young man from your office, who informed me that I had been chosen to be one of twelve recipients of the National Medal for the Arts at a ceremony at the White House in the fall. I told him at once that I could not accept such an award from President Clinton or this White House because the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration. I want to clarify to you what I meant by my refusal.
  Anyone familiar with my work from the early Sixties on knows that I believe in art’s social presence–as breaker of official silences, as voice for those whose voices are disregarded, and as a human birthright.
  
  In my lifetime I have seen the space for the arts opened by movements for social justice, the power of art to break despair. Over the past two decades I have witnessed the increasingly brutal impact of racial and economic injustice in our country.
  There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice. But I do know that art–in my own case the art of poetry–means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage. The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate. A President cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored.
  I know you have been engaged in a serious and disheartening struggle to save government funding for the arts, against those whose fear and suspicion of art is nakedly repressive. In the end, I don’t think we can separate art from overall human dignity and hope. My concern for my country is inextricable from my concerns as an artist. I could not participate in a ritual which would feel so hypocritical to me.
  Sincerely,
  Adrienne Rich
  cc: President Clinton
Oui on July 2, 2007 at 3:50 pm

.

U.S. supported Israel with timely military supply to bomb Lebanese civilian infrastructure and population in order to hand deadly blow to Hezbollah.

U.S.: Iran helped in deadly Iraq strike
Officials: Hezbollah agent played deaf before confessing

Blair helped Bush with false intelligence on WMD’s and Saddam Hussein to invade, bomb and murder countless Iraqi’s during the illegal war in support of Israel and the ‘security of the world’.

U.K. probe nets Iraqi, Jordanian doctors

True Al Qaeda in Yemen and Pakistan –

Bomb at ancient Yemeni temple kills 8
Pakistan: The Threat Within

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Man Eegee on July 2, 2007 at 3:56 pm

David Ritcheson committed suicide this past weekend, he was a victim of a hate crime in Texas last year and testified before the House Judiciary Committee in April to urge their renewal of hate crimes legislation.

A Spring teen who survived a brutal beating with a pipe last year apparently jumped to his death from a Cozumel-bound cruise ship on Sunday.

An 18-year-old was observed by “a bunch of people” jumping over the railing of the upper deck of Carnival Cruise Lines’ Ecstasy around 7:35 a.m. Sunday, said Coast Guard spokesman Adam Eggers. – linkage
- chocolate ink on July 2, 2007 at 4:54 pm
  
  Dammit, what is there to say to this except it’s just so dam sad.
Man Eegee on July 2, 2007 at 4:02 pm

Republican John McCain reorganized his campaign Monday, cutting staff in every department as he raised just $11.2 million in the last three months and reported an abysmal $2 million cash on hand for his presidential bid.

“We confronted reality and we dealt with it in the best way that we could so that we could move forward,” said Terry Nelson, McCain’s campaign manager. – linkage

Someone needs to film a commercial stat: With John McCain as President, the layoffs come fast and furious.
- dada on July 2, 2007 at 6:03 pm
  
  Someone needs to film a commercial…
  
  you’ll never get to see it if pander-bear and his pals get their way:
  
  McCain Panders To The Right Wing, Drops Calls For Media Diversity
  
  A recent report by the Center for American Progress and Free Press confirms that talk radio, one of the most widely used media formats in America, is dominated almost exclusively by conservatives. It also finds that ownership diversity is needed to ensure balance:
  
  Ownership diversity is perhaps the single most important variable contributing to the structural imbalance based on the data. … [S]tations controlled by group owners — those with stations in multiple markets or more than three stations in a single market — were statistically more likely to air conservative talk.
  
  A few days after the release of the report, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) introduced a bill in the House blocking the resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine. On Friday, McCain joined him, introducing the Broadcaster Freedom Act:
  
  With the great number of media sources available today, divergent viewpoints do not have to be offered on the same radio or television show, but can be found simply by channel surfing, reading a newspaper or browsing an Internet blog.
  
  link
  
  fairness doctrine….we don’t need no fairness doctrine…
  
  you can smell the desperation coming from the straight talk express
  
  john boy’s last stand….give it up mccain…it’s over.
  
  lTMF’sA
Man Eegee on July 2, 2007 at 4:04 pm

Southern Arizona’s astronomy program possibly the next casualty of border militarization.

Photographs of glaring new stadium lights along the border near Yuma, taken when President Bush visited in April, sent shudders through astronomers across southern Arizona.

The 57-foot-high, thousand-watt lights, installed to illuminate the border and help U.S. Border Patrol agents see illegal crossers at night, send unshielded glare into the night sky for miles, greatly reducing the visibility of planets, stars and other celestial bodies. Astronomers worry that more lights could diminish research at area observatories and harm one of Arizona’s major industries. – linkage
- chocolate ink on July 2, 2007 at 4:52 pm
  
  Good article Manny, thanks for the link.. and more of all the unintended consequences and damage this stupid freaking wall is causing. Absolutely no good will come of any wall, will not stop people from coming here and will only cause a ton more problems and solve nothing.
Oui on July 2, 2007 at 4:15 pm

.

Vanunu gets 6-month jail term for foreign contacts

TEL AVIV (AP) – “The order stemmed from the fact that the accused had hoarded in his memory classified information that has not been released, and the release of which could harm the security interests of Israel.”

After the verdict was announced, Vanunu said that his conviction proves that Israel is still ruled, in effect, by the British mandate, because the law under which he was convicted is from that era.

“Maybe I need to turn to the queen or to Tony Blair in order to grant me justice,” he said.

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
- dada on July 2, 2007 at 4:49 pm
  
  “The order stemmed from the fact that the accused had hoarded in his memory…”
  
  an absolutely stunning rationale….the thought police are here
  
  orwell’s laughing like a madman somewhere.
  
  lTMF’sA
Oui on July 2, 2007 at 4:35 pm

.

Israel court delays president’s plea

JERUSALEM (AP) – The court had previously demanded that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz make his explanations by Monday, after women’s groups and the Movement for Quality Government filed an appeal, outraged by what it called an “amoral” deal.

For 11 months, the father of five has been the focus of the worst scandal ever to befall an Israeli leader, as women made a string of accusations, including rape, that could have seen him jailed for 16 years if convicted.

On Saturday, around 20,000 Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv demanding that the plea bargain be overturned and lambasting Mazuz, who earlier this year said he intended to file a rape indictment against Katsav.

Mazuz said he dropped the rape charges because of a lack of “solid evidence” but has himself described the outgoing president as a “serial sex offender”.

Haaretz – The Katsav legacy

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Man Eegee on July 2, 2007 at 6:09 pm

Fed up with the lack of Congressional action, an army of rocks launched a covert attack on Bush over the weekend.

President Bush’s presidency is stuck in low gear. On Sunday, his fishing boat was stuck on stop.

Fellow Republicans may not be rushing to rescue his legislative agenda, but the Secret Service bailed Bush out of a jam when his boat anchor got wedged in rocks along the Atlantic Coast. – linkage

By the way, our tax money went towards the salary of Secret Service scubadivers who had to save Junior Caligula from the ambush.
- chocolate ink on July 2, 2007 at 6:45 pm
  
  This is really really stupid-duh what isn’t about this bozo. But WTF…they take a boat out to fish 100 fucking FEET off the shoreline and have to have a fishing guide along …then call in divers to untangle or release anchor..maybe they should have just cut the line..again this is just stupid beyond words..this is like watching evolution going backwards.
KNUCKLEHEAD on July 3, 2007 at 4:06 am

Hey dada,
Getting to the bucket O news a little late. I like the format btw.
A funny thing happened within earshot earlier.
I overheard a newscaster on a TV in another room describe how the cops blew up a package, forgotten somewhere. It was found to be bottles of cologne. Oh well!
The co-anchor says, “You can`t be too careful”.
haha
Let`s just blow up more crap, just to be safe, I guess.

monday news bucket

About The Author

dada

19 Comments

Recent Posts

Recent Comments