Blog: Undercover at the College Republicans National Convention

Hey, do you want to learn how to rig elections? Deceive senior citizens out of their money? Then check out this blog at CampusProgress.org.

Two bloggers went undercover and reported on what happened at this year's College Republicans National Convention. I can assure you it's an interesting read that may infuriate some of you.

Click here to read the blog entires I'm talking about

Article: The Smoking Bullet In The Smoking Gun

Holy shit! Check out this article on Democracy Now! regarding the little "no-fly zone" bombing run in September 2002...

The Smoking Bullet in the Smoking Gun
by JEREMY SCAHILL

It was a huge air assault: Approximately 100 US and British planes flew from Kuwait into Iraqi airspace. At least seven types of aircraft were part of this massive operation, including US F-15 Strike Eagles and Royal Air Force Tornado ground-attack planes. They dropped precision-guided munitions on Saddam Hussein's major western air-defense facility, clearing the path for Special Forces helicopters that lay in wait in Jordan. Earlier attacks had been carried out against Iraqi command and control centers, radar detection systems, Revolutionary Guard units, communication centers and mobile air-defense systems. The Pentagon's goal was clear: Destroy Iraq's ability to resist. This was war.

But there was a catch: The war hadn't started yet, at least not officially. This was September 2002--a month before Congress had voted to give President Bush the authority he used to invade Iraq, two months before the United Nations brought the matter to a vote and more than six months before "shock and awe" officially began.

At the time, the Bush Administration publicly played down the extent of the air strikes, claiming the United States was just defending the so-called no-fly zones. But new information that has come out in response to the Downing Street memo reveals that, by this time, the war was already a foregone conclusion and attacks were no less than the undeclared beginning of the invasion of Iraq.

The Sunday Times of London recently reported on new evidence showing that "The RAF and US aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on Iraq in 2002 in an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war." The paper cites newly released statistics from the British Defense Ministry showing that "the Allies dropped twice as many bombs on Iraq in the second half of 2002 as they did during the whole of 2001" and that "a full air offensive" was under way months before the invasion had officially begun.

Click here to read the entire article

Is History Repeating Itself?

With the recent events we've witnessed by this administration, the Supreme Court, the FCC, and other government agencies abusing their power against the people, I thought it would be nice to post the text of one of the most important documents in our country's history.

I'm doing this for two reasons. One, I still love this country but I think the second paragraph should be memorized by anyone who considers themself an American patriot.

Second, I want the wingnuts to see what's actually written on The Delcaration of Independence before they and their leaders use it, and similar documents, to wipe their ass every morning, as they have been doing for the past five years.

This also begs the question....is history repeating itself?

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. --And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

--John Hancock

New Hampshire:Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm

Blog: Rove Is Right, There Are Differences

Jesse Berney made a kick-ass post on the DNC:Kicking Ass blog yesterday detailing the different priorities of Democrats and Republicans. Click on the link below and check it out!

http://www.democrats.org/blog/comment/00012258.html

Funny Mainstream Media Video Capture

I like Christi Paul, but let's forget about the obvious for a moment. Not only is she very attractive, she's probably the only reporter on CNN Headline News who does her job well, with enthusiasm, and makes it interesting for viewers.

But I had no idea she wanted to draw attention like this...

Article: Former Asst. Sec. Of Treasury Under Reagan Doubts Official 9/11 Story

I love a good story, especially when it deals with NeoCon Cannibalism!

In this article from Prison Planet, Paul Craig Roberts, the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan, claims "Neo Con Agenda Is As 'Insane As Hitler And Nazi Party When They Invaded Russia In Dead Of Winter'."

Former Asst. Sec. Of Treasury Under Reagan Doubts Official 9/11 Story
Claims Neo Con Agenda Is As 'Insane As Hitler And Nazi Party When They Invaded Russia In Dead Of Winter'

Greg Szymanski June 24 2005

A former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan stepped back into the political spotlight this week, expressing doubt about the official 9/11 story and claiming "if they lied to us about Ruby Ridge, Waco and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, why should we believe them now."

Paul Craig Roberts, listed by Who’s Who in America as one of the 1,000 most influential political thinkers in the world, has evolved over the years into a major Bush basher as well as neo con critic. Roberts said he hasn’t changed his political ideology or jumped from the Republican-conservative ship but "just can’t respect a party leadership who doesn’t respect the truth."

He is another in the long list of "Republican faithful," including top-ranking government and military officials who have left or been pushed out Washington, since Bush’s neo con followers continue demonstrating a lack of desire and patience to compromise even with conservatives refusing "to toe the neo con line."

Click here to read the entire article

Whoring Myself Out

I didn't want to do it, but after looking at a few wingnut blogs I felt I had to do it...

I'm whoring myself out to you guys.

Funny part is that I don't feel any shame or guilt in doing so. If a wingnut with bad grammar, a computer, and an attitude can beg for donations, then why not me? In the words of the L'Oreal Paris Men's Expert marketing department, "Because I'm worth it, too!"

You are under no obligation to do so, but if you think I'm worthy you can click on the PayPal button on the bottom-left, just above the Blogger button and make a donation. Besides, your donation may go towards something meaningful...my internet access, my rent, or even my next Arrogant Bastard Ale run at Beverages & More!

After all, how do you think I make some of my commentaries interesting enough to make you smile or laugh?

Article: Final Draft?

This article by Matt Taibbi appears in the New York Press...


FINAL DRAFT?

High comedy on the army-recruitment front.

By Matt Taibbi

Remember that brilliant idea Nancy Reagan had for battling the nation's youth drug problem? Instead of treatment programs, a new wave of after-school funding, an increased education budget, or anything else substantive, Nancy's plan was three words whispered to reporters in the breaks between meetings with her tailors and her pedicurist.

Just Say No was the outstanding comic legacy of the Reagan presidency, one of the great out-of-touch policy ideas since Marie Antoinette. If you were old enough to go potty by yourself, you were old enough to laugh at Just Say No.

Twenty years and a few million teenage crack addicts later, that same crew that gave us Just Say No is watching the boomerang come back. Twenty years ago, the yacht-and-Lexus set went to its poor people and asked them nicely to stop taking those darned drugs. Faced with potentially calamitous army-recruitment shortages, it is now asking them nicely to get their balls blown off in Iraq. It's just as funny this time, only this time, the joke's on them.

The army-recruitment-shortage story is gaining more and more traction in the mainstream press, but still remains largely underground. As a media phenomenon it falls under the category of one of those things that everyone would like to ignore, but simply cannot—like AIDS or global warming. While the Jessica Simpsons, Michael Jacksons and Terri Schiavos of the world heroically maintain their tenuous grasp on the front pages, the inside sections are beginning to pile up with some troubling numbers.

Click here to read the entire article

Article: WTC Basement Blast on 9/11?

This article appears on The Artic Beacon...

WTC Basement Blast And Injured Burn Victim Blows 'Official 9/11 Story' Sky High; Eye Witness Testimony Is Conclusive That North Tower Collapsed From Controlled Demolition

WTC janitor pulls burn victim to safety after basement explosion rocks north tower seconds before jetliner hit top floors. Also, two other men trapped and drowning in a basement elevator shaft, were also pulled to safety from underground explosion.

June 24, 2005
By Greg Szymanski

What happened to William Rodriguez the morning of 9/11 is a miracle. What happened to his story after-the-fact is a tragedy.

But with miracles and tragedies comes truth. And truth is exactly what Rodriguez brings to the whole mystery surrounding 9/11.

Declared a hero for saving numerous lives at Ground Zero, he was the janitor on duty the morning of 9/11 who heard and felt explosions rock the basement sub-levels of the north tower just seconds before the jetliner struck the top floors.

He not only claims he felt explosions coming from below the first sub-level while working in the basement, he says the walls were cracking around him and he pulled a man to safety by the name of Felipe David, who was severely burned from the basement explosions.

All these events occurred only seconds before and during the jetliner strike above. And through it all, he now asks a simple question everybody should be asking? How could a jetliner hit 90 floors above and burn a man’s arms and face to a crisp in the basement below within seconds of impact?

Click here to read the entire article

Dick Cheney Health Problems?

Arianna Huffington made the following entry in The Huffington Post today...

Is Cheney Alright?
I just landed at Vail airport, right next to the Vice President’s Gulfstream jet (actually, there were two Vice Presidential planes, not one... how much of an entourage does one VP need?). He’s here to speak at the World Forum at Beaver Creek, sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, and held, of course, behind closed doors. The guy sent to pick me up by the Vail Valley Institute (where I’m speaking) told me that he had seen the VP’s motorcade speed towards the local hospital. Being an intrepid HuffPost reporter, I asked him to take me straight there. Upon our arrival, we encountered a high level of security -- and a lot of zipped lips: “We cannot tell you anything,” “No comment,” “That information is not available...” But one hospital staffer, obviously not schooled in the secretive ways of Cheney, let it slip: “He’s no longer here”. And since you cannot “no longer” be someplace you’ve never been, we can deduce -- though not confirm -- that Cheney did, in fact, pay a visit to the local hospital.

Click here to read the entire blog post

Call To Action: Join PFAW Immediate Response (MIR) Team

I just received this email from PFAW a few minutes ago. Please sign up for their MIR team today! With MIR, you can immdediately respond to issues affecting us in Congress. Remember, Judge William Rehnquist may step down next week, and if a conservative judge is selected...

Supreme Court Vacancy Expected Soon

Get ready with People For the American Way!

There is much at stake should Justice William Rehnquist or one of his colleagues on the Supreme Court step down at the end of the term next week.

As you know, many of the rights and liberties we hold dear have been upheld by close, sharply-split rulings. A new justice - whether a young ideologue in step with Rehnquist or someone even further to the right - could be key in tipping the Court towards total right-wing control in the future.

[Take a look at PFAW Foundation's Courting Disaster to get an idea of just how many of our rights and liberties are hanging by a thread in the Supreme Court.]

Right now, before any vacancy is announced, it is too soon to know the exact nature of the battle ahead - or if there will even be a battle. But we need to organize.

Many of you signed up to participate in our cell phone text-message initiative, or Mass Immediate Response (MIR), to be used when Bill Frist launched the "nuclear option." As you well know, the "option" was not launched and we didn't get a chance to utilize this exciting technology.

We want to use MIR throughout the upcoming Supreme Court battle. If the President chooses confrontation over consultation and consensus, there are going to be many opportunities that demand immediate calls to Senators, the media and other targets, based on your location. MIR will also allow us to slowly roll out calls to our targets, keeping a steady pressure over the course of a day or a week.

Click here to join this exciting campaign

Because we promised those who signed up that we would not use your numbers for any reason other than the "nuclear option," we need you to sign up again to take part in MIR for Supreme Court campaigns. Even if you didn't sign up for MIR in the "nuclear option" campaign, sign up now for the Court. Again, we will use your cell number only to send you alerts on the Supreme Court, and you can drop out at any time.

You should expect a confirmation alert over the phone within a few hours of signing up. Once you receive your message hit replay and text, "ok" and you're done. If you have any questions about the MIR system, please visit our MIR FAQ page on our website.

Once you have signed up, tell your friends, family and coworkers to do the same. How the battle over the Supreme Court turns out could determine what this nation is like for decades to come. (Not to mention, imagine how cool it would be to get a text message and have to say to your companions: "Excuse me, I must place an urgent call to my Senator.")

If you or your friends don't feel comfortable using text messaging or giving out your cell phone number, please recruit to our campaign as many activists as possible to receive old-fashioned email alerts. To do so, just send emails to your friends with your best pitch, directing them to this URL: http://pfaw.kintera.org/SC_Prep

Together, let's save the Court.

Thank you,
Ralph G. Neas

Links:

MIR Sign Up: pfaw.kintera.org/MobileResponse
MIR FAQ: www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=18754
Courting Disaster: www.CourtingDisaster.org
Sign up friends for email: pfaw.kintera.org/SC_Prep

Call To Action: Tell Dodd & Biden NO BOLTON DEALS!

I just got this email from Progressive Democrats of America. Please sign this letter to Senators Dodd and Biden!

No Bolton "Deals" - Act Now!

Tell Dodd and Biden "no deals" on Bolton!

Take no compromise! No on Bolton all the way!

Rumors are swirling among the activist groups fighting the Bolton nomination. The word is the White House is trying to get Democrats to accept some kind of 'compromise' that would ensure Bolton's nomination.

PDA believes that Senate Democrats should just say no, that Bolton is damaged goods, and since the White House won't even provide access to the NSA transcripts, the Syria memos, or the Freedman contract, then we must just say "no deal."

Fortunately, Biden said late yesterday that all deals were off; see this link:

http://www.metronews.ca/reuters_international.asp?id=80195

PDA thinks Biden should be bolstered in his "no deal" position, especially since he has been known to change his mind in the past and his leadership on this issue is crucial.

Tell Senator Biden and Dodd to take "no deal" on Bolton. Take Action NOW!

Article: Anatomy Of A Coverup

ultrablue91 on the Randi Rhodes Message Board found this article on ZNet. Sanjoy Mahajan's article reads more like a thesis paper, but it is very informative. Please take a few minutes to read this one!

Anatomy of a Coverup
by Sanjoy Mahajan
June 23, 2005

On May 1 the London _Sunday Times_ published leaked minutes -- the Downing Street Memo -- of a high-level British cabinet meeting held on 23 July 2002 that discussed contingencies, political and military, for invading Iraq.

In the Cabinet meeting, C [the head of MI6, Richard Dearlove] 'reported on his recent talks in Washington', where 'military action was now seen as inevitable' and 'the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.' In other words, the books were being cooked to give Bush his war.

The planners assumed 'that the UK would take part in any military action.' So they had to consider the illegality of the war. Unfortunately, 'the Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action.' The Attorney-General dismissed the three possible excuses: 'self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation'. Self-defense couldn't work partly because, the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said: 'the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.' How could the government overcome the illegality? The memo, and the _Sunday Times_, quotes this puzzle-solving contribution from Jack Straw:

We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.

Click here to read the entire ZNet article!

Article: The Real News In The Downing Street Memos

Hey everyone,

Done on the Randi Rhodes Message Board found this gem of an article.

Take a look at what the Los Angeles Times printed today? This is an editorial from Michael Smith. Yes, THAT Michael Smith who writes for the Sunday Times of London! Check this out...

The Real News in the Downing Street Memos

By Michael Smith
Michael Smith writes on defense issues for the Sunday Times of London.

It is now nine months since I obtained the first of the "Downing Street memos," thrust into my hand by someone who asked me to meet him in a quiet watering hole in London for what I imagined would just be a friendly drink.At the time, I was defense correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, and a staunch supporter of the decision to oust Saddam Hussein. The source was a friend. He'd given me a few stories before but nothing nearly as interesting as this.

The six leaked documents I took away with me that night were to change completely my opinion of the decision to go to war and the honesty of Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush.

They focused on the period leading up to the Crawford, Texas, summit between Blair and Bush in early April 2002, and were most striking for the way in which British officials warned the prime minister, with remarkable prescience, what a mess post-war Iraq would become. Even by the cynical standards of realpolitik, the decision to overrule this expert advice seemed to be criminal.

www.latimes.com

Friday's DSM Media Targets

Here's the media targets for today...

TARGETS FOR FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2005

1. Detroit News
Contact EITHER
Don Nauss, Deputy Managing Editor for News
email: dnauss@detnews.com

OR Alison Bethel, Washington Bureau Chief
email: abethel@detnews.com
phone 202-662-7370
fax: 202-662-7385

2. San Antonio Express News
Contact EITHER
Asst. Managing Editor for News Robert Kaiser
email: rkaiser@express-news.net
phone: 210- 250-3114

OR Washington Bureau Chief Gary Martin
email: gmartin@express-news.net
phone: 202-943-9237
fax: 202-333-1184

3. Reno Gazette-Journal
Contact EITHER
Executive Editor Tonia Cunning
email: tcunning@rgj.com
phone: 775-788-6357

OR Washington Correspondent Doug Abrahms
email: dabrahms@gns.gannett.com
phone: 202-906-8124
fax: 202-906-8200

There have been no news stories in any of these papers, it seems. The only real sign of interest in any of the papers was a single, brief editorial in the Detroit News calling for a public investigation of the allegations. All three Washington Correspondents are likely to produce serious reports on DSM if they choose to cover it. Alison Bethel generally is willing to delve into real detail in her reports. Gary Martin is openly and frankly skeptical of the President’s credibility in general. Doug Abrahms is primarily interested in issues like energy policy; however he sometimes does politics as well and, having a good understanding of history, he’s likely to bring some necessary perspective to the entire range of issues.

Article: PBS Funding Restored

This wonderful article appears in today's edition of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Look at what you guys did with the petition drive? One million progressives signed, and PBS just got $100 million in funding restored.

Now all we need to do is get Kenneth Tomlinson fired...

PBS funding restored
$100 MILLION BUDGET CUT HAD BEEN PROPOSED BY HOUSE

By Andrew Taylor
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - Big Bird and National Public Radio won a reprieve yesterday as the House restored $100 million that had been proposed as a budget cut for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The 284-140 vote demonstrated the enduring political strength of public broadcasting, whose supporters rallied behind popular programs such as Sesame Street, Postcards From Buster and The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.

The Public Broadcasting Service undertook a high-profile campaign to rescind the proposed cut. Lawmakers were flooded with letters and phone calls.

The vote came as the House worked on a $142.5 billion spending bill for health, education and labor programs for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/nation/11972752.htm

Open Letter To Traitor Baiters

Today, I’d like to comment on Bill O’Reilly calling the staff at Air America Radio traitors deserving to be locked up by the FBI.

I’ve read a few comments on Internet message boards in the past couple of days calling people like myself traitors, so I’d like to respond to those allegations. I’m doing it the way I do it best…in an open letter to traitor baiters. It’s goes something like this…

Dear Obstinate Wingnut,

Yeah, you with the “personal experience” talking points that add up to zero. Get your sorry ass over here! Did I hear you correctly? You called me a traitor?

Sit down, son! If you’re going to call me out, then you better come at me with verifiable proof I should be worried about making an FBI watch list or else a fistful of truth is coming your way so hard, so deep and so fast you’ll be screaming “Oh God!” at a higher decibel level than Teri Weigel’s voice could ever dream of achieving.

Before I give you a bitch slapping that would make Jon Stewart envious, let’s get a few things straight. Because I believe in God, I have some human compassion for you guys on the other side of the political fence. Not much, but some. With that in mind, let me state my side of the story before you attempt to repudiate my talking points with your usual belligerent nonsense.

What makes someone like me a traitor in your eyes? Is it the fact that you don’t appreciate my writing style because I tell it like it is, and I don’t pull any punches? Is it that I’m more than willing to do a little research, dig up and then publicize the little-known issues and news stories that otherwise would damage your credibility if the mainstream media were doing its job and reporting them?

Or maybe, in the immortal words of Col. Nathan R. Jessep, you can’t handle the truth!

Bill O’Reilly can talk out of both sides of his mouth on The O’Reilly Factor about clowns at Air America Radio undermining the Iraq war and the war on terror, but he wouldn’t know a traitor if it crawled on top of his falafel thing and kicked him in the balls.

What kind of self-proclaimed, non-partisan talk show host is this guy anyway? Anyone who threatens a boycott of a country we’re not at war with, doctors quotes made by others, calls Nancy Pelosi a nut, and tells an attractive attorney that she is on his radio show because she is eye candy for him is not someone to be admired. I’ll refer to him as a sloppy, sexist wingnut propagandist and he can take his two Peabody awards and shove them up his ass.

Oh, I forgot something. Al Franken exposed his two Peabodys as a lie in his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.

I am not a traitor by any stretch of the imagination. A traitor willfully engages in behavior that endangers the safety of our citizens and troops, both at home and abroad, and commits actions that help a foreign government overthrow or make war against the United States.

Does that sound like me? Hell no. Chances are, I love my country more than a Great American like Sean Hannity does. Unlike most of you self-centered, narcissist people, I care about the welfare of my fellow man:

• I don’t approve of programs shifting the burden of tax breaks from the middle class and wealthy onto the backs of the poor, the elderly, and the disabled.
• I don’t believe you can be a good Christian if you are intolerant of others because their race, gender, sexual orientation, income level, or religious beliefs are not the same as yours.
• I don’t think war is the answer to solve all the problems in the world, especially when our own government fabricates the existence of those problems.
• I don’t support the troops by buying a magnetic ribbon at the convenience store. I donate to Operation Truth and create awareness of issues affecting soldiers, veterans, and their families.
• I get pissed off when I see First Amendment rights violated, endangered species threatened by our government’s policies, and the degradation of race relations in my home state.
• I don’t think we have any business telling a woman what she can or can’t do with her body, let alone deny her access to prescriptions for contraceptives.

Now that you know I’m not a threat to national security, why don’t we discuss a couple of individuals who should be brought up on treason charges, or at least be put on an FBI watch list?

Daryn Kagan’s OxyContin-addicted main squeeze should take the next flight to Cuba, be forced to squeeze his inflated ego inside one of those XXXXL Club Gitmo t-shirts, and witness with his own eyes whether or not soldiers are hazing the prisoners for shits and giggles at Guantanamo Bay.

Rush Limbaugh, that’s the way things ought to be, you big fat idiot!

The other traitor we need to take care of is that creepy looking Deadhead that occasionally appears on Hannity & Colmes. Ann Coulter should be whisked away to a foreign country in an unmarked Learjet for her blasphemous comments against Muslims and people of Arab descent, trivializing the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, claiming terrorists supported John Kerry in his presidential bid, stating Elizabeth Edwards warned of riots if Kerry wasn’t elected, and the list goes on and on and on…

Wherever we send Ann Coulter, I hope they serve her Lahn Bi’ajeen seven days a week and it tastes as bad as Duncan Hunter’s honey glazed chicken and vegetables.

Ann, stop your bitching because that’s what you get for talking about liberals with that mouth of yours!

Okay wingnuts, do you now understand what a treasonous act is now? I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson, and I invite you to visit the RobbDogg School of Hard Knocks anytime for extra credit. Don’t be a stranger!

Sincerely,
Robbie Michaels
Your Great Progressive American Patriot

RobbDogg's Wingnut Of The Week 6/24/05

Man, I thought this week was going to be a letdown. After the Downing Street Memo hearing last Thursday on Capitol Hill, wingnuts were pretty quiet on the news front. I though I'd have a problem finding someone suitable to win my weekly Wingnut Of The Week award.

Dick Cheney pressured Dick Durbin to take back his comments on our treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, but that wasn't good enough for me. When I give this award, it has to be for a unique act that is so shocking and scandalous that it provokes the worst inner feelings you can have for another human being.

Maybe James Sensenbrenner raised the bar too high?

You know how it goes. When times are tough, someone always steps up and seizes the moment. They carry the team on their broad shoulders as far as they can take them. That individual rises to the occasion and shows why they're a cut above the rest.

Wednesday, I thought that person was Bill O'Reilly, who on his radio show The Radio Factor wanted the FBI to arrest the "clowns" at Air America Radio for undermining the Iraqi war and the war on terror. Shocking, but considering the source it wasn't quite the jaw-dropping comment I was looking for.

But then Karl Rove stepped up yesterday and accused liberals of "wanting therapy and understanding" for the 9/11 hijackers. Shocking, yes. But not quite as profound on our civil liberties as the stunt the FCC pulled on radio free brattleboro two days ago.

Because of their abuse of the First Amendment in their two-year-old censorship battle with rfb, and what it could mean to other liberal media outlets in the future, I have to name the FCC this week's Wingnuts of the Week.

So here's to the FCC...losing their court case against radio free brattleboro!

Divide To Conquer

Leave it to the Master of Distraction to draw attention away from the Downing Street Memo story while it is picking up momentum in the mainstream media. Yesterday, Karl Rove made inflammatory and untrue comments about liberal strategy in handling the 9/11 attacks during a speech to the New York Conservative Party in Manhattan, just a few miles from where the World Trade Center once stood.

Rove stated, “Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.” Conservatives, he said, “saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.” He also added that groups linked to the Democratic Party made the mistake of calling for “moderation and constraint” after the terrorist attacks.

Scott McClellan, White House press secretary, came to Rove’s defense, saying the president’s chief political advisor was “simply pointing out the different philosophies and different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism.” McClellan also stated that President Bush would not ask for an apology from Rove for his comments.

Democrats in both the House and Senate called for Rove to either apologize or resign, and I totally support the Democrats in this issue. What Karl did was use the 9/11 terrorist attacks for his president’s political gain, as well as draw attention to himself in a desperate attempt to keep the media attention away from the Downing Street Memo.

Sorry, Karl. We are not falling for it this time. You should apologize or resign from your position before you bring more shame to this administration, if that were humanly possible.