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Republicans Would Kill Americans for Profit
As astonishing as it sounds, if you follow the GOP "logic" on the Protect America Act expiration, this is the only truly logical conclusion. Do these guys actually listen to themselves?
It's an extraordinary headline, but what other conclusion can be drawn considering the GOP's current FISA talking points?Let me explain...
Republicans say that if the massive data mining operatio- ahem, I mean Protect America Act expires, then Americans could be killed. The President himself started the ball rolling during his recent hissy fits over the expiration of the Protect America Act;
The House's failure to pass the bipartisan Senate bill would jeopardize the security of our citizens. As Director McConnell has told me, without this law, our ability to prevent new attacks will be weakened. And it will become harder for us to uncover terrorist plots. We must not allow this to happen. It is time for Congress to ensure the flow of vital intelligence is not disrupted. It is time for Congress to pass a law that provides a long-term foundation to protect our country. And they must do so immediately.Indeed, Glenn Beck said it plainly on his show a couple of nights ago, as Think Progress recently noted. It was actually that piece that prompted this line of thought, to give credit where it is clearly due.
The House declined to take up a bill that would continue the program, while giving telecommunication companies extra-legal protections for their clearly illegal acts (courtesy the President and his finger-puppets in the Senate.) According to the GOP this endangers Americans. Yet when offered an extension sans immunity Bush turned up his nose. The House Minority Leader offers up the reasoning;
So let me get this straight- not passing the bill will kill Americans, yet the President was happy to forgo an extension to ensure big American corporations wouldn't be liable for damages due to warrantless searches.After Friday's meeting, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, defended Republicans' desire to give the telecommunication companies immunity.
"This issue of the carriers that work with our government are increasingly concerned about their liability and increasingly concerned about whether they are going to continue to work with our intelligence officials," Boehner said.
Thus, as stated in the spectacular headline above, Republicans will allow American deaths to save big conglomerates some legal bills.
Regardless your political persuasion, the argument is flawed. Kevin Drum put it perfectly;
Look, if it's that important, there's a simple answer: pass the bill without telecom immunity. Then come back and introduce immunity in a separate bill. If you've got the votes for it, fine. If not, too bad.'Nuff said.
So to those out scaring the bejesus out of folks with the ridiculous "American deaths" pitch, please shut up. Not only will the expiration of this bill start to heal the wounds to our civil liberties suffered under the Bush administration, it won't really even affect ongoing investigations. Just to belabor the point, here's the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, defiantly and meticulously laying out the point in a letter to the President;
Because I care so deeply about protecting our country, I take strong offense to your suggestion in recent days that the country will be vulnerable to terrorist attack unless Congress immediately enacts legislation giving you broader powers to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans' communications and provides legal immunity for telecommunications companies that participated in the Administration's warrantless surveillance program.Can we all get past the fear-driven politics and try to use a little reason in our national discourse? Please?
Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) has authority to conduct surveillance in at least three different ways, all of which provide strong capability to monitor the communications of possible terrorists.
First, NSA can use its authority under Executive Order 12333 to conduct surveillance abroad of any known or suspected terrorist. There is no requirement for a warrant. There is no requirement for probable cause. Most of NSA's collection occurs under this authority.
Second, NSA can use its authority under the Protect America Act, enacted last August, to conduct surveillance here in the U.S of any foreign target. This authority does not "expire" on Saturday, as you have stated. Under the PAA, orders authorizing surveillance may last for one year – until at least August 2008. These orders may cover every terrorist group without limitation. If a new member of the group is identified, or if a new phone number or email address is identified, the NSA may add it to the existing orders, and surveillance can begin immediately. We will not "go dark."
Third, in the remote possibility that a new terrorist organization emerges that we have never previously identified, the NSA could use existing authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor those communications. Since its establishment nearly 30 years ago, the FISA Court has approved nearly every application for a warrant from the Department of Justice. In an emergency, NSA or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) may begin surveillance immediately, and a FISA Court order does not have to be obtained for three days. The former head of FISA operations for the Department of Justice has testified publicly that emergency authorization may be granted in a matter of minutes.
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GLEN FORD
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_glen_for_080220_the_great_global_pow.htm
The American disinformation regime - a hermetically sealed "bubble" - convinces its citizens that the U.S. is and forever will be supreme on the planet. Ignorance may be bliss, but cannot alter the facts of rapid U.S. decline, a spiral that is the inevitable "blowback" of 60 years of undeserved, coerced, and artificially constructed dominance. The tools and traps that were designed to ensnare the planet in the U.S. corporate/military web, have instead led to American shrinkage in all things except military might. But weapons of war cannot replace a bulldozed manufacturing base, or reinvigorate a service sector whose services are increasingly unwanted, or repair a U.S.-led financial system that is terminally choked with worthless paper "instruments." The West-East, North-South shift is well underway - whether Americans know it or not.
Americans of all races behave as if the United States is the center of the world. This is quite dangerous, not just to the 95 percent of the world's people who do not live in the United States, but to the U.S. population, as well. The planetary financial pyramid atop which the U.S. has perched its over-fat and undeserving butt for over 60 years, is in a state of transformation. The countries that actually produce things - oil, gas, manufactured goods, minerals, and most of the planet's agricultural commodities - can no longer support the dead weight of artificial and pretentious U.S. claims to supremacy.
Most of us are somewhat familiar with the dollar's problems, its ever-falling value. But the global system, itself, is hopelessly out of balance, and has outlived its usefulness. The grand schemes and dreams of corporate globalism, centered in the U.S., haven't worked out as the American ruling elite expected.
9:10 am
9:15 AM EST
old men with old ideas --
IMO:
Hmhhh ? It seems a certain Hillary used similar verbiage and it flew over like a lead balloon.
But go ahead John and use the worn-out line.
BTW, it's about the voters and not about you John.
http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7897721
McCain takes aim at Obama experienceAssociated Press - February 20, 2008 8:43 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain is stepping up his criticism of Barack Obama the morning after each man won a pair of presidential nominating contests.
In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," McCain suggested Obama lacks the experience
...
I've read the oft-repeated criticism of Obama as a candidate who doesn't have the requisite experience to be president, and whose candidacy exalts style over substance. These are persistent charges, despite the fact that his detailed platform proposals are widely available, that he has worked primarily in the public sector and academia for 25 years, and has been a legislator since 1996.
The truth is, I'm voting for Obama in spite of that. I'm voting for him because he is a gifted and inspirational speaker, because he graduated from Harvad Law magan cum laude, and because he can articulate a vision for America's future that doesn't consist wholly of of wonky policy statements.
The outgoing president is a Harvard business school graduate who can't string two sentences together and has the most blunted sensibilities of any president in modern memory. As a figurehead leader who does the bidding of "the haves and have mores," his shortcomings are glaring and have devastated the county. If he were only just a bad as Reagan, we'd be better off but, as a representative of our nation abroad, he is a horrible embarrassment. We haven't had all distinguished presidents, but we've had so many who were so much better, it isn't even funny. I think the contrast with Obama is dramatic and stark.
If, like me, you grew up during the Kennedy administration, you may understand that I am voting for Obama precisely because he is a thinker and an orator. Especially at this bleak juncture in our history, I think the need for Obama's talents is immense. I'm extremely excited by the prospect of his nomination.
ANOTHER BIG STORY BEING IGNORED BY THE CORPORATE MEDIA
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JB20Dj03.html
The economy is now faltering badly and there is every reason to expect the downturn to gather pace - negative real interest rates compliments of the Fed and stimulus package compliments of the federal government notwithstanding. While fourth quarter data is not yet available, one can look to the first nine months of 2007 to gain important perspective. Despite the dislocation in the subprime mortgage market, non-financial debt growth accelerated from Q2's 7.2% to Q3's 8.9% (from the Fed's Z.1 report). And while household debt growth had slowed to a 6.9% pace, business borrowings accelerated to a blistering 11.9% annualized rate in the third quarter. This was the strongest corporate debt growth since the tech/telecom boom in the late nineties. Importantly, total (financial and non-financial) corporate debt expanded at an 11.1% rate during the first three quarters of 2007, followed by 9.3% growth in State & Local government borrowings. And while residential mortgage debt was slowing meaningfully, commercial mortgage debt was expanding at an almost 13% rate.
Total (financial and non-financial) credit expanded a seasonally-adjusted and annualized record $5.0 trillion during the third quarter - as nominal GDP expanded at a 6% pace. While many trumpeted the "resiliency" of the US economy in the face of mortgage and housing woes - more adept analysis would have focused on the massive credit creation that had come to be required to sustain the bubble economy.
Today, with bursting bubbles in corporate and municipal finance joining the mortgage bust, the US bubble economy has quickly fallen desperately short of sufficient credit and liquidity. And the greater the credit market dislocation and broad-based tightness of credit, the bleaker become economic prospects and the more intense the revulsion to Wall Street's credit instruments. The days of free-flowing cheap finance for home buyers, state and local governments, leveraged buy-out firms, commercial real estate speculators, college students, risky auto buyers, and high-risk credit card holders are over - and they will not be returning for some time to come.
9:21 am
I'm coming around to your way of thinking Tom. I still have reservations about the man's substance, but if he picks the right people, things could work out well.
9:24am
9;28 AM EST
Normally, I don't think much about class because I prefer the myth that the U.S. is a classless society. And, in a way it is. People aren't born into a class where they have to stay. Rather, their behavior relegates them to one class or another. And, then, of course, there's the fact that the people who work with their hands (or machines/computers) and make things are in a different class from people who just give orders, snap their fingers, and expect it to be done.
In all of these groups there are some low class people and some snobs. Hillary Clinton, I've decided is one of the latter. Whether she was a snob before she met Bill Clinton, I don't know. Perhaps she was even slumming way back then. Bill Clinton is definitely low class, even if it only shows up in his apparent need to denigrate women. Well, actually, it also shows up in his apparently intentional tardiness. He keeps people waiting on purpose to show them how important he is.
Some people have written that Bill Clinton has no self-control. (Which, of course, does not preclude an interest in controlling other people). If that's true, then that would have qualified him as an ideal Republican president and it raises the question by whom he was controlled. McLarty was his chief of staff. McLarty was a Rockefeller man. NAFTA was a Rockefeller plan. The only thing which differentiated Bill Clinton from a Republican was the effort to match income with outflow--balance the budget by increasing tax rates on people whom he, being a Democrat, didn't need to bribe.
Was Bill Clinton the prelude to Bush Two, or merely an interlude?
John wrote "I still have reservations about the man's substance, but if [Obama] picks the right people, things could work out well."
To me, it's the promise he represents. Cynical people enjoy discounting the value of hope, but compared to the past 8 hideous years of abject hopelessness, I find it to be a bracing alternative.
No Democratic president has been, or ever will be perfect, but I like to think just how much potential for things to improve in this country there could be with an Obama administration.
But I still respect Glen Ford"s perspective
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=537&Itemid=1
Tuesday's Democratic primaries saw Barack Obama racking up over 60 percent of the white male vote in Wisconsin, riding an unprecedented historical demographic anomaly that will likely send him to the White House - barring a third consecutive general election theft by the Republicans. It appears Hillary Clinton's goose is cooked.
Obama is a world-class wooer. His white male wooing is made much easier by the fact that those who consider themselves his "sisters" and "brothers" demand nothing whatsoever from him. Just come home when you get ready, brother. Obama is free to concentrate his attentions on the hard-to-get demographics, especially white men with their peculiar notions of "change." No need for Obama to promise the hood a damn thing, except that he'll cut a dashing figure in the Oval Office and make the homefolks proud that he's there, symbolically representing them.
Republicans and GOP-leaning "independents" (meaning, deep-dyed whites) are crossing over in herds to vote for Obama. They've gotten the message: happy days are here again, when the darkies smiled and were careful not to hurt our feelings by telling the truth. That's the kind of "change" we've always "hoped" for, by golly!
The white liberal/left, ineffectual and geographically scattered, are drawn irresistibly to the Black man who regales them with sweet nothings - literally, nothing in the way of the concrete policies for peace and social justice they claim to champion. His presence in their midst is enough. Besides, Obama is someone who is "capable of forging a progressive majority," they say.
That's a strange concept, since Obama doesn't act like a progressive, or claim to be one. But he has no problem with folks gathering around him. He's a real party guy.
9:33am
9:32 AM EST
this would be a good campaign tune for John McCain's Experienced candidacy (with it's clock ticking backwards in time, 9:32, 9:31, 9:30, 9:29 AM EST...):
OK, feeling snarky, let me just observe that John McCain is a perfect example of the proposition that experience is meaningless. After all, John McCain has experienced torture in his own person and yet he's been willing to stand by while American personnel torture captives who've done nothing wrong.
Clearly, experience is worthless.
Either that, or we have to conclude that being abused turns people into abusers and we definitely don't need another abusive male in the White House.
Monica wrote "Clearly, experience is worthless."
I feel you're right in large part. For all her experience, what are the major accomplishments, legislative or otherwise, in Sen. Clinton's career?
volney thanks so much for your rebuttal to Rooney's diatribes against "illegals".
Human beings are not illegal. Your post on the last thread was wonderful.
start the healing the fight is over
John quoted Glen Ford, who wrote "Obama is free to concentrate his attentions on the hard-to-get demographics, especially white men with their peculiar notions of 'change.' No need for Obama to promise the hood a damn thing, except that he'll cut a dashing figure in the Oval Office and make the homefolks proud that he's there, symbolically representing them."
I laughed reading this, since it's pretty obvious by now that black people will gravitate to Obama's campaign, but he has his work cut out trying to attract, for example, you to it. I believe you could characterize that as devoting his energies where they will ultimately do the most good for his campaign.
One other thought - living where I do I am surrounded by many immigrants. Not once do I ever hear them badmouth America. They love it here, work hard, play hard, and are gracious and grateful. They bring a refreshing point of view and honor the hard work of our forefathers to win our independence. A conversation with one can really change ones attitude about how lucky we really are to live in this country.
We are lucky McCain is the nominee because the debate over "illegals" would have gotten real ugly with Romney and with McCain it has receeded into a minor partisan divide for the fall. one of those issues that drives those voters susceptible to having their chains yanked and getting off their bar stools to the polls
A conversation with one can really change ones attitude about how lucky we really are to live in this country.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
our current policy is nuts, but changing it won't be easy
Yes, I always appreciate Glen Ford's perspective. What he may be missing, as a black man, is that the exclusion of blacks from the mainstream wasn't about them. It's been my theory, and I've had no reason to change it, that the exclusion of blacks mostly served a cohesive function for whites, a special preference which those coming up were supposed to appreciate and make obeisance for to their elders.
Anyone who's ever been a teacher's pet knows how "satisfying" that is in the long run. While the rest of the class feels resentful of the pet's special status, the pet gets to do a lot of scut work.
I agree with Tom about Obama.
I was initially hoping Al Gore would run, and then, when he didn't, I remember saying that if I have to choose between two lightweights (Edwards and Obama), I'd choose the black one because it would be good for race relations in this country.
I grew up in an interracial neighborhood in the 50s, hard to find. I live in an interracial neighborhood today. And many of my jobs, including my current one, have an interracial customer base.
I've noticed over the years that many black people are genuinely surprised when a white person acts... normal. There's a lot of destructive legend and myth out there on both sides. It will be good for everyone to see an instance where people of all colors support a candidate of ... well, all colors, kind of.
But then I noticed something else about Barack Obama and it was precisely the quality Tom points out, and Caroline Kennedy too. Barack Obama has that presidential quality that Dems haven't seen since JFK and GOPs only got a shadow of in Reagan.
This is not a guy you want to have a beer with. This is a guy who leaves you awstruck and proud, the way JFK and FDR did. I remember coming home from school and being glued to JFK's afternoon press conferences, along with my mother, who didn't even support him.
So I revise what I said about Obama being a lightweight, and am happy to support him for many reasons.
-- volney
Excellent post Tom!
Denise, thanks for your kind words on my post about migrants.
In my metro area we host thousands of them each fall and a few hundred are here year around (mostly on dairy farms, Phil).
I think we are lucky to be in a situation where undocumented workers aren't an abstraction or a stereotype along the lines of the rich person's servants where the rich person could pay for help legally but just doesn't want to fork over the coin. That sort of thing ought to be stopped cold.
Farm work, OTOH, is a really complex issue that no one seems to have had success addressing. I thought our Governor, having been one of the toughest AGs of all time, would be able to tackle this head on, but the minute he tried, most of the voters in the state (including Dems) wanted to impeach him.
I was discouraged when even local candidates I supported refused to stand up on this one and defend the special drivers' licenses.
-- volney
Morning Phil,
Did I miss something about Florida and MIchigan delegates? On the last thread you posted that they will be seated. Can you explain, please? Or maybe I'm just not awake yet :)
Looks like Florida and Michigan will be seated like nothing happened.
Now that's a big and interesting piece of news.
But Phil's the only source reporting it.
the debate over "illegals" would have gotten real ugly with Romney
Obama could have just remided people that Romney hired them to work on the MA governors' mansion.
I still have reservations about the man's substance.
There are some possibly valid criticisms of Obama's past, positions, proposals, and pronouncements. But lack of substance is a canard.
10:17 AM EST
http://www.silive.com/columnists/lacy/index.ssf?/base/opinion/120351150638080.xml&coll=1
Bill and Hill...
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 STEVIE LACY-PENDLETON...STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Ironing boards began snapping open last night. Suits were taken from closets to be pressed, along with dress shirts, and shoe polish rags. Hats will come next.
The gray beards are getting ready to pay a formal visit to Hillary and Bill Clinton. It won't be a pretty meeting, such events never are. They are unusually solemn affairs, after all, delivering bad news not only calls for the right attire, but the right words spoken in soft tones but forcefully, so there will be not even a hair-thin length of doubt of their depth nor breadth.
What the gray beards have to say comes down to three words: It is over.
Hillary nor Bill are going to take kindly.
Last night, Barack Obama did what was thought to be the impossible: He has now 10 straight victories. But more important, he has done so by not only building a base of new -- and long-neglected -- voters, i.e. young people, middle-agers, liberals and now-former Reagan Democrats, blue-collars and white shirts, Catholics and Baptists, Protestants and Jews, and those who believe in only themselves, rich and poor, black and white, the hopeless and the hopeful.
He also has encroached and won over the core of her base: White older women.
The gray beards of the Democratic party will tell Hill and Bill all of this, but much more to boot. They will thank the Clintons for their long-service and their past victories, and reassure them that their counsel will be sought and respected, and that their names will be mentioned at the gathering out west when the faithful legions fill the convention hall to officially announce the nomination of Mr. Barack. But, they will also stress that it is indeed over.
What they won't say, and probably no one could, is that Hillary Clinton will have to begin dealing with a simple fact: It was not her time, that history's parade has marched by her on its way to a new kind of politics.
...
Off to work in the rain.
Later all :)
ONCE AGAIN, "THE ECONOMIST" GOES WHERE US MEDIA WON'T
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4d19518c-df0d-11dc-91d4-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
I would tell audiences that we were facing not a bubble but a froth – lots of small, local bubbles that never grew to a scale that could threaten the health of the overall economy.” Alan Greenspan, The Age of Turbulence
That used to be Mr Greenspan’s view of the US housing bubble. He was wrong, alas. So how bad might this downturn get? To answer this question we should ask a true bear. My favourite one is Nouriel Roubini of New York University’s Stern School of Business, founder of RGE monitor.
Recently, Professor Roubini’s scenarios have been dire enough to make the flesh creep. But his thinking deserves to be taken seriously. He first predicted a US recession in July 2006*. At that time, his view was extremely controversial. It is so no longer. Now he states that there is “a rising probability of a ‘catastrophic’ financial and economic outcome”**. The characteristics of this scenario are, he argues: “A vicious circle where a deep recession makes the financial losses more severe and where, in turn, large and growing financial losses and a financial meltdown make the recession even more severe.”
Prof Roubini is even fonder of lists than I am. Here are his 12 – yes, 12 – steps to financial disaster.
Go to link for "12 steps"
10:21 am
Please Join! "The blog for America's Repair Fund" by Susan Rowe Add to favorites View on DFA-Link
Promoted Thursday, 12/13/07 @ 8:53 am. Published Wednesday, 12/12/07 @ 11:47 pm. Linked to DFA Blog Network.Add to favorites View on DFA-Link
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Please help us repair the blog for America. Will you please make a contribution of $10.00, $15.00 or $25.00 TODAY!
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OMG - this is how Clinton was introduced at a rally in Ohio by a Labor Union supporter. Wow, is all I can manage. It reminds me of the Club for Growth attack ads about Dean's supporters. I especially love the Prius-driving, trust fund Birkenstock wearing...
-----
Taking off the gloves, he said, “Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali. He took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois State Senate. He took a walk more than a 130 times. That's what a shadow boxer does. All the right moves. All the right combinations. All the right footwork. But he never steps into the ring.â€
But it was Obama supporters for whom Buffenbarger saved his most vitriolic contempt, and he proved that the Democratic Party’s coalition is nothing if not fragile. Channeling Howard Beale from the movie "Network," he yelled into the microphone, “Give me a break! I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius- driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won't last a round against the Republican attack machine. He's a poet, not a fighter.â€
-------
Um, just wanted to mention how the hell is Hillary going to last a round with Republicans when she can't even get in the ring with a fellow Democrat? LOL
Look, if you listen to Justice Kennedy on the basis for the agents of government issuing a permit or license to a person (the term used in the Constitution), then you realize that it's not an optional procedure. If the conditions (presumably imposed for health, welfare and safety reasons) for a permit have been met, it has to be issued. Since there's no relationship between nationality and the ability to drive a vehicle safely, there's no constitutional justification for refusing to issue a permit to a foreign national (never mind that foreigners can drive here on foreign permits).
That some states have tried to tie residency or taxation together with vehicle registration and driver's licensing doesn't make it constitutional. Florida went so far as to tie the payment of a special tax on cars registered in Florida that had been bought somewhere else. That was finally thrown out and the money people paid in had to be returned to them.
There's a lot of resistance to the principle of equality. Period. But, if we're going to have a nationally funded health care system, it's going to have to be addressed. If sick Americans get medical care in France the same as a Frenchman, why shouldn't a Frenchman get medical care in the U.S? Keeping people whole and healthy is either a social good, or it isn't. Neither gravity nor bacteria nor viruses differentiate according to a person's nationality or any other artificial distinction we dream up.
The Reeps are going full bore about Michelle Obama's "unpatriotic" comment (Pat Buchancan kept have to wipe his chin as he went on about it).
They seem to have forgotten what happened the last time they decided to make a candidate's wife the target of attack.....
Go for it, McCain! Please!
10:44 AM EST
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080217/480/640c578c14e044dea52ee8248b9ee5f5/
http://www.projo.com/news/content/campaign20_02-20-08_SE92TVR_v9.3725cd3.html?npc
Michelle Obama visits R.I. today
01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Michelle Obama ... will campaign for her husband in Rhode Island today with an appearance at the Community College of Rhode Island Knight Campus in Warwick.
Obama will join her brother, Brown University basketball coach Craig Robinson, at the CCRI event, which is free and open to the public and begins at 5:45 p.m.
The Rhode Island Obama campaign yesterday named several local women to be co-chairs of Rhode Island women for Obama. They include ... Stephanie Chafee, a nurse who is the wife of former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee; Margaret Curran, former U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, and state Sen. Maryellen Goodwin, D-Providence.
Blog Front is excellent.
However, the contradictions and conflicting statements in the Repubs talking points were pointed out by Keith Olbermann sometime during last week on Coundown. I see there is no credit given to him for doing that so I will do it here:))
On the main post, let me just observe that Bush Two are being hoist on their own petard. They're still not telling the truth. The long-term tapping of the global communications system is the partner of the long-term bases that have been set up in Iraq for the purpose of collecting, analysing and monitoring what the nations of the eastern hemisphere are up to. These activities are all predicated on the assumption that the nations of Asia have it in for the U.S. and are plotting to destroy us. Their agenda is just a continuation of what the Eurasian Soviets had in mind until Saint Reagan did them in. Their agenda is what justifies the perpetuation of our nuclear agenda and necessitates the maintenance of our military might. Otherwise, all of this military and electronic hardware is going to have to be declared superfluous and the masters of the universe are going to have to find some other interest.
The use of the phrase "long-term" is what gives it all away. Those who might have thought that military might would be sufficient to clear away any opposition to American commercial and industrial interests have discovered that global communications need to be monopolized, as well. And the Air Force has been assigned this mission, the domination of cyber space, probably because it's becoming rather obvious that "air power" is no longer as important as it used to be. Somehow, the peoples of the globe just aren't as impressed by stealth fighters and stealth bombers as it was thought that they would be. (The Air Force launches a sortie every minute in Iraq and still the insurgents keep resisting). The Air Force is flailing about for a new mission and "bomb, bomb Iran" McCain is supposed to be the new "star wars Reagan."
Bottled Water Latest Target Of Eco-Mentalists
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
The latest target of eco-mentalists and their control freak ideologue, Marxist Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, is bottled water, as a drive to shame consumers into drinking fluoridated tap water to limit their "carbon footprint" gets underway.
"London Mayor Ken Livingstone on Tuesday launched a blitz against bottled mineral water, urging restaurant customers in the British capital to ask for tap water to help the environment," reports the Associated Press.
Despite the fact that bottled water is responsible for just 0.03 percent of Britain’s total carbon emissions, the article quotes advocates of the campaign spouting their usual fearmongering fare in claiming that this new evil is "disastrous for the planet".
Of course later on down the line, when any pretense of common sense is jettisoned and a total ban on bottled water is pushed, a nice little bonus for our masters will be the fact that we will all forced to drink compulsorily fluoridated tap water, complete with its lovely side-effects of lowered IQ, thyroid disorders and cancer.
Perhaps we should also ban tea flown in from India, as well as coffee from Kenya - hell why not just ban every liquid in the name of reducing our carbon footprint. We can always drink our own urine, we do have a responsibility to recycle after all.
Recall that it was the same idiots who now frown on bottled water that fawned over the introduction of re-usable shopping bags, made by slaves and transported all the way from China in CO2 belching jet airliners.
At the same time that China, the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, currently experiences its coldest winter for 100 years, and Saudi Arabia reels under an unprecedented cold snap that has residents scared to venture outdoors, we are lectured about our lifestyles at a greater intensity than ever before in the name of preventing global warming.
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10:54
The Rhode Island Obama campaign yesterday named several local women to be co-chairs of Rhode Island women for Obama. They include ... Stephanie Chafee, a nurse who is the wife of former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee; Margaret Curran, former U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, and state Sen. Maryellen Goodwin, D-Providence.
(My bolds) We were just talking this morning about Lincoln Chafee who recently changed from Republican to independent. Sen. Whitehouse beat Chafee in 2006 for the senate seat. Chafee often voted with his conscience and not party line. I am convinced Chafee would have voted against the FISA bill, while Whitehouse (D) voted for it.
I was struck by the following passage from David Paul Kuhn's post-primary analysis in the Politico:
"Obama won every philosophical persuasion of Democrat. Those who identified as 'very liberal' to 'somewhat conservative' voted for the Illinois senator. Half the electorate were liberal and Obama won them by double digits. The largest share of voters, though, identified as moderates. And Obama won a clear majority of their support."
Obama was identified as the most liberal senator in 2007 by the National Journal, yet some liberals have theorized that he ran to the right of both Clinton and Edwards on some issues. What's clear is that the liberal brand has been so vilified by right wing extemists in the Republican Party for the past dozen years, people who self-describe themselves politically to opinion pollsters barely consent to be identified in the same sentence as the term that best characterizes their political beliefs. If only these "moderate" and "somewhat conservative" voters realized just how liberal their mainstream views really were, Republicans would not get the traction they do out of their calculating and manipulative fear tactics.
Events in Des Moines, Grinnell, Oskaloosa and PellaEd will be hosting a series of Town Hall Meetings about global climate change , Wed., Feb. 20th. To kick off the day's events, Ed will hold a town hall meeting/press conference on a public bus parked at the DART transit mall on Walnut, between Eighth and Ninth streets in Des Moines. Ed will travel to the event from his home either on his bicycle or on foot as a demonstration of his personal commitment to reducing his carbon footprint. Later, he will visit Grinnell College, William Penn College in Oskaloosa and Central College in Pella. Ed has a strong record on environmental issues. He served on the House Environmental Protection Committee all of his 14 years at the Statehouse and was appointed to the Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council by Governor Culver.
Ed says, "One reason I'm running is because my opponent, Leonard Boswell, has a voting record that fails to address the climate change crisis. He has a record of voting for continued reliance on fossil fuels, taxpayer subsidies for oil and gas companies and opposition to higher CAFE standards."
Ed believes we need immediate global, national, local and personal action on what may be the pivotal issue of our time. He says, "I'm ready to do what I can to see that environmental issues and climate change are taken seriously inside the beltway."
"I am very interested in hearing the public's thoughts on global climate change," says Fallon. "We need an open and straightforward dialogue about this and other critical issues facing America," he said.
If only these "moderate" and "somewhat conservative" voters realized just how liberal their mainstream views really were
Conversely, if only liberals realized how mainstream their views are.....
Clinton has every reason to stay in the race because she has plenty of delegates to win the nomination should Obama make a major stumble but it is clearly now his lo lose, she can't overtake him.
This is the stage of a campaign where people sense a winner and jump on the bandwagon, and it is coming at a pretty good time, with big states and lots of delegates his for the asking.
He does however have to ask, his supporters go all out, his donors keep his ads up, and campaign like every vote counts, because if not now they sure will in a few months.
I see no reason why all of that won't happen, why Wisconsin's lopsided victory didn't seal Clinton's fate. She is a good Senator and can go back to work in a few weeks, keep in the race just in case, and continue to serve America and the Democratic Party.
That's why I say a fight over Florida and Michigan will be avoided, because if the votes don't matter, they will be counted. (as I have been saying for weeks). We should just leave the rules alone, let the delegates assemble with their majority for Obama and let the convention vote on the Credentials Committee report.
Very nasty bloody attitude. This is the politics of the yesterday. It just doesn't work anymore. They're not going to create new jobs with this type of thinking. This kind of stuff turns off American families and young people. So sad.
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http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0...
Clinton backer: "Yes we can? Give me a break."
Machinists Union President Tom Buffenbarger, introducing Clinton, hit Obama in...colorful...terms, my colleague Ken Vogel reports.
"Yes we can? Give me a break," he said.
He also compared Obama with "Janus, the two-faced god" of Roman mythology. He called him "silver tongued" and a "thespian" and "the man in love with the microphone."
"He’s not just a trained thespian, he’s a terrific shadow boxer. You know the type. Outside the ring, he pretends he can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee," he said. "But Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali. He took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois state Senate. He took a walk more than 130 times. That’s what a shadow boxer does. All the right moves, all the right combinations, all the right footwork, but he never steps into the ring. He walks away from the fight.â€
He also drew a contrast between the “editor of the Harvard Law Review or a fighter for working families."
For all the hype before Clinton's speech, none of her attacks on Obama tonight were really new. But that sure is.
Ken reports that the union crowd noisily welcomed the attacks.
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By Huron John on Feb 20, 2008 9:04 AM ESTHoward and competent blog management are first