Free Burma!

Free Burma.Org

MoveOn.Org

I am a patriot.
I am an American.
I vote.
I pay taxes.

I belong to MoveOn.Org.
I support MoveOn.Org
MoveOn.Org speaks for me!

I respect our military.
I do not have to respect Gen. Petraeus.
PERIOD.
Since he has chosen to be the POLITICAL
sock puppet for the cheneyBu$hco regime,
he has earned being rebuked for conspiring with
the scoundrels who have deceived us into
the cheneyBu$hco war against the Iraqis.

nice uniform.
nice medals.
nice stars on the shoulders.
You, Gen. Petraeus bring shame and dishonor to
your uniform,
your rank,
your service.

your surge FAILED.
but this you did not admit.
you admitted that you are not making our country safer.

Surrender would be more honorable than to have these villains lead us.

Iraq

Not one more minute.
Not another nickel.
NOT One More Drop of BLOOD!

Out of Iraq NOW!

if they represent me,
that is what my congressfolk will DEMAND.

whenever i ...

... ... fall at your feet

crowded house

I'm really close tonight.
I feel like I'm moving inside her.
Lying in the dark,
I think that I'm beginning to know her.
Let it go.
I'll be there when you call.

Whenever I fall at your feet,
You let your tears rain down on me,
Whenever I touch your slow turning pain.

You're hiding from me now.
There's something in the way that you're talking.
The words don't sound right,
But I hear them all moving inside you,
go.
I'll be waiting when you call.

Whenever I fall at your feet,
You let your tears rain down on me,
Whenever I touch your slow turning pain.

The finger of blame has turned upon itself
And I'm more than willing to offer myself.
Do you want my presence or need my help?
Who knows where that might lead?
I fall ...

Whenever I fall at your feet,
You let your tears
Let them rain
Let them rain
down on me.
Whenever I fall,
Whenever I fall

cheneyBu$hCo

the cheneybu$hco regimen never had any legitimacy.

they stole the 2000 election in florida.

they exercised a judicial coup d' etat,

with their accomplices, the supreme court felonious five.

they stole the 2004 election in ohio.

they were never duly elected.

they defrauded the american people and stole our democracy.

they have had no honest claim to the presidency.

they are illegitimate.

they are invalid.

all of cheneybu$hco acts are null and void.

they continue to be the thieves they have always been.

they remain a usurper junta of tinhorn plutocrats and kleptocrats.

since they stole power and have occupied the White House (our House!),

they have proved beyond any reasoned doubt,

that they,

every complicit member of the cheneybu$hco regime and every supporter and enabler,

are the biggest threat to the Constitution of the United States.

every member of our armed forces and every government official

swears an oath to defend our Constitution against all enemies,

foreign or domestic.

or domestic.

the cheneybu$hco regime is the gravest danger of our Constitution;

they are enemies to the Constitution domestic.

all of our military and every elected member of our government

has sworn to protect the Constitution and should, no, must

defend it against the cheneybu$hco regime’s attacks.

habeas corpus.

innocence until proven guilty

the fourth amendment

et cetera

and the cetera here is the whole list.

it is a long list.

it’s a litany.

(see link to litany)

for all these reasons it is imperative that cheneybu$hco not be validated, as if they have any legitimacy.

compromise with them not possible.

there exists an inherent wrongness in every action they take and they must be opposed if for that reason alone.

collaboration is wrong;

bipartisanship is wrong;

coordination is wrong.

unless cheneyBu$hco do exactly what we want,

they must be opposed, resisted, denied, repudiated, marginalized, trivialized, defied and defeated.

cheneyBu$hco simply must not be accepted.

on anything.

period.

they are the threat to our country.

they are the enemy.

they must be exposed to one and all as the traitors

that they are: traitors against the Constitution;

traitors against our nation;

the treachery listed in the Litany

Bi-Partisanship is collaboration with the enemy.

the only permissible negotiations are negotiations of their capitulation.

my case in point:

this regime i always call cheneybu$hco has asserted an executive privilege to shield their advisers to their putative "president", their pretender to the Oval Office from disclosing their advice to the executive.

these suckers may as well be vampires for all their aversion to the light of day.

John Dean at http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20020201.html

"Cheney says he is refusing to provide information to the Congress as a matter of principle. He told the Today Show that he wants to "protect the ability of the president and the vice president to get unvarnished advice from any source we want.""

public servants working on the tax-payer funded payroll are so worried about the Oval Office occupier(s) being able to get the "unvarnished" advice and to protect their access to this resource that they can't let Anyone know what that advice is/was and who would have given any of it.

what an excellent canard for criminals to use to stonewall and avoid bringing evidence of their crimes forth.

after all, what advice could there be that the adviser and the advice must be kept secret?

under which circumstances should such secrets be kept?

at what cost to our free and open form of government?

well, wouldn't that be when we would want to protect the secret identity of one of our valued secret agents?

oh, apparently, Not so much? See: Mrs Valerie Wilson.

well, what if the advice itself is lies and the advisor is advising that the laws be violated and crimes be committed?

oh, apparently, yes. even if the advice comes from enemy agents to serve the interests of our enemies?

See: Irving L. Libby, et al.

we would never know, if we allow the cheney canard.

if all of these folks are upholding their sworn Oaths to defend the Constitution, what could they possibly need to hide?

answer: Nothing.

what we have been taught by cheneybu$hco over and over again is that we can never trust them and we can not believe them.

Impeach them;

Remove them;

Indict them;

Convict them:

sentence them to be banned from further government service;

no presidential library;

no possibility of pardon, parole or commutation;

mandatory prison.

they are traitors.

It is our duty as patriots, as defenders of the Constitution to make them eat shit.

Keep Hope Alive.

Refuge of Tolerance

from The Austin-American Statesman, February 25, 2007

In 1984, I moved to Austin from a socially oppressive land, a desolate place, void of any freedom to question authority and inhabited by dogmatic conformists. This place is known as the Texas Panhandle.

My move was really more akin to a ''pressured relocation.'' My suspicious neighbors in Amarillo had become more brazen. The glares and whispers I had become accustomed to had turned to name-calling and veiled threats. I wasn't flamboyantly open about my sexual orientation, but my reluctance to fully embrace Reaganomics, the Dallas Cowboys and, well, women, made me highly conspicuous.

In the 1980s, the Austin City Council passed an ordinance providing health benefits to domestic partners of city employees, including those in same-sex relationships. I remember a grim-faced TV anchorman in Amarillo announcing the item on the 6 o'clock news. I half-expected to hear, ''Coming up next, a perspective from Anita Bryant regarding a city here in Texas that has chosen to defy God and create a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.''

That was when I seriously started to consider making Austin my new home. I had thought about moving to Dallas or Houston, both of which have large, visible gay communities. However, Houston's Montrose and Dallas' Oak Lawn areas are confined to only one section of the city. I didn't want to move to a gay ghetto, where acceptance was guaranteed only within certain street boundaries.

After all, choosing a new city was more than a matter of just counting the number of gay bars - it was a safety and security issue. I wanted to live in a place in Texas that would be tolerant to folks of my persuasion, a place where I wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night greeted by narrow-minded villagers wielding pitchforks and carrying torches. Or so it seemed to me at the time.

Upon moving to Austin, I discovered that it is not the queer community that draws gays to Austin, but instead the larger, accepting heterosexual community. The lack of an identifiable gay ghetto in Austin means that we can roam almost anywhere and don't have to confine ourselves to certain neighborhoods.

However, I had to make some serious adjustments to my ''gaydar'' in order to detect other gay men in Austin. It seemed that very handsome, well-dressed, slightly effeminate, cosmetic-wearing men (what we now call metrosexuals) were more likely to be heterosexual. And the T-shirt, Levis- and boots-wearing men were more often homosexual.

It was a ratio almost inverse to what I was accustomed to in the Panhandle. So when I met a guy, I had a hard time deciding: Is he really gay or did he just get here from Lubbock?

In Amarillo, I had tried to keep my homosexuality a well-guarded secret, to be shared only with family and close friends. Once I moved to Austin, I felt comfortable enough to begin sharing my sexual orientation with my new fellow citizens. Maybe too comfortable.

At first, I found myself coming out to just about everyone I met: the postman, bank tellers, employees at drive-up windows of fast-food restaurants, H-E-B grocery sackers. There were a few surprised or bewildered looks, but most responded by saying, in effect, ''OK we get it, you're gay.We don't care.''

Austinites, I learned, are a jaded breed. It takes someone really bizarre or scandalous to get their attention, like a panhandling, bikini-clad cross-dresser or a state senator soliciting sex on Congress Avenue.

I, however, am just a run-of-the-mill, garden-variety gay man, homosexualus familiaris. homosexualus familiaris. To be viewed as unremarkable, really. Which is exactly what I was seeking, to be treated by my fellow neighbors as normal and ordinary.

Once I settled in, I reported my findings to friends in the Panhandle, and soon my Austin apartment had become a terminus on a gay underground railroad for queers who wanted to relocate here. Feeling safer in this environment, most decided to ''come out'' to their friends and family back home. Once, a straight friend of mine still living in Amarillo asked, ''Just what is it about that city? It seems like everyone who moves to Austin turns gay.''

I wanted to tell him that the his former Amarilloans were already gay and that they only felt comfortable enough in our city to express who they really are. I wanted to tell him that with given the opportunity to live in a place that tries not to judge you, you have permission to become whoever you want. But the cultural divide between us was too vast; I didn't think he would grasp what I was saying.

So instead I made a joke: ''It's the cedar pollen, the cedar pollen is what turns you gay.''

I had planned to move to Austin with my best friend from high school. For years, we had dreamed about living in a different place and wondered what it would be like to wake up in the morning and not smell cattle feedlots or the oil refinery. But when the time finally came for us to move, she abruptly did an about-face and decided to stay in Amarillo.

I wasn't really surprised, having sensed her apprehension days before. ''Not now, someday I'll move,'' she said.

It's been almost 25 years, and she still lives in the Panhandle. She visits me at least once a year, and every time she comes, she marvels at what a wonderful place Austin is and swears she's going to move here.

I like her annual visits - they serve as affirmations of my decision to relocate. Because despite the long lines of traffic, the increasingly high cost of living and the messy, loud scavenging invaders (the grackles, not Californians), this is still the best place in Texas to live.

Take it from a former Panhandle boy, happily living his own unremarkable life.

Bret Gerbe FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Larry Cuellar, left, with partner Andy Davis, moved to Austin from Amarillo in the 1980s and found he was accepted here as a gay man, as were others who joined him from the Panhandle.

Austin became a refuge of tolerance

BYLINE: Larry Cuellar SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMA
DATE: February 25, 2007
PUBLICATION: Austin American-Statesman (TX)
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Insight
PAGE: G01

This is one of a series of personal essays grounded in Austin. Our aim: to give readers an intimate glimpse of life in our town. Do you have your own tale of the city to share? Submit your original essay of 1,000 words or less to tales@statesman.com for consideration by our editors.

(i paid my $5.95 to the American-Statesman folks for this article.)
(then i violated the HELL out of their copyright by posting it here.)
(i am not proud of that)
(but it needed to be liberated from their archives)
(which are in Naples, Florida)
(and brought back to Texas)
(to be FREE!)

... ... ...

NOT a quote from the REAGAN DIARIES

May 17, 1986:

'A moment I've been dreading. George brought his ne're-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work.'

Ol' Ronnie was a lot sharper then i thought.

... ... ...


or so i thought:
1) the Global Research link has changed to reflect that this was not accurate;
2) This Snopes link is persuasive.
3) The Museum of Hoaxes is quoted by Snopes.

Kinsley was writing satire and it is quoted as fact.

Only now do i realize that i have been hoaxed.

I apologize for perpetrating a fiction posed as fact.

i thank Suzanne at Firedog Lake for pointing this out to me.

... ... ...

Leukocyte Extravasation

The Inner Life of Cells

Specially created for Harvard biology students, this eight-minute computer-animated film reveals the beauty and hidden cycle of intricate organic mechanisms at work at the molecular level. The focus is on how white blood cells respond and react to external stimuli. Everything that you see in this clip, the unusual orchestra of Nuclei, proteins, and lipids, are actions that are taking place right now in your body, in every individual cell. This includes one of the most surprising sequences - the motor protein plodding along on two pod-like feet along a track, carrying behind it a sphere of lipids. As cartoonish as that sequence looks, biologists report it’s an accurate rendering. The film is the work of a group called XVIVO using NewTek LightWave 3D and Adobe After Effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB6G9GD2KFk

also see http://home.earthlink.net/~shalpine2/KubyHTML/Inflam.htm

and this is the music video version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H1S9d5h-Ps

shorter version: Inflammation happens; good guys are on the way.

FISA Fiasco Fallout

the congressional Democratic embarrassment:
Scarecrow at Firedog Lake:

A Nation Represented By Sheep

After telling Congress and the public that the reason they needed to revise FISA was to ensure they could spy on foreign-to-foreign communications that might be routed through US facilities (to close an alleged loophole created by a FISA court ruling that such surveillance required a warrant), the White House went for broke. The New York Times now reports that the Administration actually had very different reasons to make wholesale changes in FISA:

Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists. They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States.
. . .
“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington, who has studied the new legislation.

Under just some of the revisions, NSA can spy on any call you make to or receive from another country (or a place the AG reasonable believes is to/from another country), without a warrant, as long as Alberto Gonzales and the Director NSA claim they reasonably believe it involves “foreign intelligence.” There doesn’t have to be any connection with a foreign power with whom we are war or terrorist group. Just you and your foreign friends is enough. The FISA court may examine the overall process in some undefined, rubberstamp way, but it cannot consider the reasonableness of your individual case. Any pretense that the 4th Amendment applies is gone.

which of course makes it unconstitutional and therefore illegal.
not that the courts will offer any relief.
well, they tried.
and cheneyBu$hco was allowed to ram this through our Democratic congress.

i share the widespread pain of those bewildered by our party's treachery.

Glenn Greenwald from Unclaimed Territory:

Democrats' responsibility for Bush radicalism

It is staggering, and truly disgusting, that even in August, 2007 -- almost six years removed from the 9/11 attacks and with the Bush presidency cemented as one of the weakest and most despised in American history -- that George W. Bush can "demand" that the Congress jump and re-write legislation at his will, vesting in him still greater surveillance power, by warning them, based solely on his say-so, that if they fail to comply with his demands, the next Terrorist attack will be their fault. And they jump and scamper and comply (Meteor Blades has the list of the 16 Senate Democrats voting in favor; the House will soon follow).

Jack Balkin fron Balkinazation:
The Party of Fear, the Party Without A Spine, and the National Surveillance State

Behind the current events is a more troubling trend. As Sandy Levinson and I have written, we are in a gradual transition from a National Security State to a National Surveillance State. We pointed out that although the Republicans got first crack at constructing many features of this emerging state, it would be a bipartisan effort. The only issue will be what kind of national surveillance state we would have, and whether government would put in place the appropriate checks and balances to protect civil liberties, prevent the multiplication of secret laws and secret methods of enforcement, and restrain an increasingly ambitious executive.

So far the answers to this question have not been reassuring. Whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats, Congress seems willing to bestow more and more unaccountable power to the President of the United States. The Democratic Party, which has long prided itself on its support for civil liberties, seems altogether to have lost its soul, and the Republican Party, which long contained a strong element of libertarianism and respect for individual freedom-- particularly in economic matters-- has given up any claims to providing a counterweight to a deluded and incompetent President.

we need Democrats who believe in the democracy we believe in.
this country has devolved into a police state.
and they are listening to every key stroke we type.

"ANGER, he smiles, towering in shiny metallic purple armour
Queen Jealousy, envy waits behind him
Her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground

Blue are the life-giving waters taken for granted,
They quietly understand
Once happy turquoise armies lay opposite ready,
But wonder why the fight is on
But they're all bold as love, yeah,
they're all bold as love.
Yeah, they're all bold as love
Just ask the axis ... "
~ Jimi Hendrix

our privacy and habeas corpus are gone for now;
but the Fourth Amendment SHALL Rise AGAIN.

...

The 4th Amendment of The U.S. Constitution

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

that's what it says.

the original 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
never fit within the confines of the Fourth Amendment.
after J.Edgar Hoover, and Watergate;
after the Church Commission, and
Seymour Hersh's New York Times' articles such as
HUGE C.I.A. OPERATION REPORTED IN U. S. AGAINST ANTIWAR FORCES,
OTHER DISSIDENTS IN NIXON YEARS,
we noticed we'd had NO oversight of any of our intelligence surveillance activities nor any of our clandestine agencies.

FISA was going to make it all better.

How Star Chamber can you get:
a secret court for warrants from the feds?
this was one of the larger winks at the Constitution.
well, post-Nixon/pre-cheneyBu$hco, anyway.
FISA has always been Constitutional Fiction.
The PATRIOT Act made an already unacceptable state of affairs
much worse.

Then cheneyBu$hco got caught in violation of even the
constitutional laxity of own rewritten update to FISA.
(as amazing as that still seems to be)

What in the hell have they been up to that they failed to find enough fellow travelers to let them continue to get away with it?

we have seen that some Republicans still cling to the Rule of Law
and eschew violating the Constitution: Judge Reggie Walton; James Comey; Bruce Fein; Patrick Fitzgerald; even John Ashcroft, soort; among others untold.
And, at least one of the FISA court judges.

we may not unreasonably believe that what we call "data mining" is what the hell they have been up to.

ben franklin said "A republic, if you can keep it!"

Ahem,
what EmptyWheel said:

May 2006: Cheney Given DOJ Investigations Access

i try to keep up, But even i miss stuff at TNH sometimes
which i think is because there is so much stuff.
And this one seems like it could use some repetition and dissemination.

Cheney got what?
this is SO totally nuts!
Doctor Wheeler, if you please:

The point is this: the JPEN database disappeared just two days after Cunningham signed his plea agreement. Gonzales gave Cheney peeking rights into ongoing criminal investigations just as Goss and Foggo and MZM became targets. And all the earmarks that had supported the JPEN database dried up, just in time to close the program and hide the evidence of spying on Bush's enemies.

Think about it. This was a domestic spying program instituted under Rummy (and therefore Cheney) favorite Steven Cambone. If there are guardian angels for domestic spying programs in this administration, they are Cheney and Addington. And they got the ability to guard domestic spying a lot more closely just about the time it had to be dismantled for legal reasons.

and then Marcy magnificently completes this coup de grâce with the next line with guillotine snark:

And par for the course, Alberto Gonzales doesn't remember giving Cheney and Addington that power at all!

Thank you, emptywheel for shining the bright light of your chronology on the frigging fascist nightmare of subversion(s) of our Constitution's principles.

Dear Mr. President

Pink

If I had a Rocket Launcher

Bruce Cockburn 1984


so little has changed since then.

emptywheel: Dear Congress

Marcy Wheeler
at The Next Hurrah

John Bates has issued a ruling I've been anticipating--dismissing the Wilson lawsuit against Cheney, Rove, Libby, and Armitage. If I'm reading correctly, Bates ruled that he has no jurisdiction to rule in this matter.

This Court therefore lacks subject matter jurisdiction over plaintiffs' tort claim for public disclosure of private facts.

turn this up loud.
real loud.

Not Ready To Make Nice

Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
They say time heals everything,
But I'm still waiting

I'm through, with doubt,
There's nothing left for me to figure out,
I've paid a price, and i'll keep paying

I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

I know you said
Why can't you just get over it,
It turned my whole world around
and i kind of like it

I made by bed, and I sleep like a baby,
With no regrets and I don't mind saying,
It's a sad sad story
That a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
They say time heals everything,
But I'm still waiting

God(s)/Goddess(es) bless the Dixie Chicks.

chenyBu$hco's Commutation

I was impressed and gratified by Ted Sorenson's acceptance speech for the next nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States: An excellent speech hitting all the right high-minded liberal notes in stirring tones and rhythms.

Except when Sorenson writes:

" I do not favor further widening the nation’s wounds, now or next year, through continuous investigations, indictments, and impeachments. I am confident that history will hold these malefactors accountable for their deeds, and the country will move on”

This has been recognized by others as a problem.

Because it is wrong.

Now is not the time to be magnanimous

Those who do not seek redemption are irredeemable.

As has been since demonstrated by the commutation of Irving Libby's 30 month sentence for obstruction of justice and perjury.

cheneyBu$hco are recidivist traitors against our republic.

They have performed as enemies to the constitution, domestic.

They require historic condemnation and repudiation, which has begun.

And to which Keith Olbermann has contributed Bush, Cheney should resign.

Olbermann's epistle is a master stroke of focused, enraged denigration of the chronic cheneyBu$hco criminal hypocrisy.

He voices the excellent indignation of all of us who anguish from the indulgent self-serving, double-dealing fraud we suffer from the Libby supporters.

Except that resignation is not enough, not without a full investigation, a complete accounting of all the facts, a strict review of where those facts accord with and where they violate the law, appropriate charges brought, necessary indictments and public trials, even if the trials must be held in the U.S. Senate.

Not that we didn't expect some kind of pardon or pardon like move by cheneyBu$hco for irving libby.

The classic version was to be a full pardon as schrub slunk out of the White House.

Which may still happen.

But the commutation has raised that bar of hypocrisy a great deal.

Quid quo pro:
"If you don't tell on us, we will keep you out of prison."

It is a continuation of the cheneyBu$hco cover up of the regime's conspiracy to betray one of our clandestine services' agent's secret identity, in order to intimidate those who tried report the truth that cheneyBu$hco deliberately mislead our nation into a war of aggression against Iraq.

And to destroy the intelligence asset that Mrs Valerie Wilson was, because she was in charge of the section that was not reporting threats from Iraqi WMDs.

They are keeping their Scooter out of the hoosegow, so he would NOT have to think about his crimes and maybe feel like he should come clean. Why make him feel like he should testify about the criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice?

Funny thing how they didn't think Scooter should spend even One Day in jail.
How much to they trust this guy if they don't want him in stir for even a minute?
Must be a real stand up kind of guy.
Makes Paris Hilton look macho.
I don't think your "friends" exactly trust you, Irving Lewis Scooter Libby.

The commutation is cheneyBu$hco's continuing criminal cover up of their criminality.

Although, because they may not use commutation to further a criminal enterprise, the commutation is not valid.

Which may or not not come into play.

And it seems that chenyBu$hco might be trying to run out clock since they leave office in 18 or so months.

Sweat, Irving, sweat

Think about this "Scooter":

cheneyBu$hco won't always be around to cover your ass like you covered theirs.

Apparently, not every Republican judge thinks cheneyBu$hco should get away with obstruction of justice and allowing freedom from the accountability of our checks and balances.

There will come a day when none of your buddies are in any position(s) of power to help you.

Notice how they have been burning their bridges lately.

It's not like they are holding anything back to save your ass later on.

They're just keeping you quiet long enough for them to clear out of town.

And if every one of the bodies hasn't been dug up yet
and
you haven't been pardoned for each one,
then you will still be at risk when they are found.

You know, there are a lot of people are looking for more evidence on you and your friends.

Sooner of later, Scooter, sooner or later ... ... ...

It will all come out, if only in dribs and drabs, or maybe more forthrightly.

How long is the statute of limitations on the Intelligence Identities Protection Act anyway?

Or it could be sooner, but now some folks could be waiting for your friends to leave so y'all can't hide behind any more pardons.

Even now, it does seem you are liable under the IIPA.

What if they are just waiting you out?

Until there is no one around to appreciate a liar
who exposes the identity of our secret agents,
like our enemies try to do?

One would think that you'd best be getting while the getting's good.

just a thought.

Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow.

But someday.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/06/29/dreaming-of-this-nominee/

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0707.Sorensen

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/06/29/dreaming-of-this-nominee/#comment-788598

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/06/29/dreaming-of-this-nominee/#comment-788613

http://psychorabble.blogspot.com/2007/07/can-you-say-obstruction-of-justice-i.html

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/04/accountability-by-footnote/

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/07/evidence-that-l.html

http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2007/07/legal-complicat.html

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/laws/iipa.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quid_pro_quo

...

Can We Say "Obstruction of Justice?" We knew we could.

Christy Hardin Smith:

MSNBC: Bush Commutes Libby’s Sentence

The entire case — from betrayal of Valerie Plame Wilson by members of her own government to the inception of the investigation into that betrayal from a referral from the CIA…all the way through to the conviction of I. Lewis Libby of multiple felony counts by a federal jury and the stiff sentence for a convicted felon meted out by a conservative federal judge — all of it has served to highlight the lies on which the invasion of Iraq rested. And how far the members of the Bush Administration were willing to go to keep those lies buried and away from the public’s knowledge.

emptywheel:

George Bush Obstructs Justice

Well, George did it. Made sure that Scooter wouldn't flip rather than do jail time. He commuted Libby's sentence, guaranteeing not only that Libby wouldn't talk, but retaining Libby's right to invoke the Fifth. This amounts to nothing less than obstruction of justice.

Digby:

Enraged

So Bush did it. The bastard commuted little Scooter's sentence, leaving the conviction in place. I'm not a lawyer, but I have to assume that this means he can still appeal --- which means he can still take the fifth if the congress calls him to to testify. Very convenient.

Jane Hamsher:

Outrage

Demonstrating his complete contempt for trial by jury, rule of law and his own Department of Justice appointees, George Bush thumbed his nose once again at the very concept of democracy and the Beltway Brahmins are cheering. The dirty unwashed masses who populate our juries are fit to judge each other, but evidently not the ruling class.

Jeralyn Merrit:

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Bush

Finally, amidst all the protests and cheers that Scooter Libby dodged the warden with a get of out jail free card, will anyone remember, as Bob Dylan might say, that the Vice President of the United States didn't have to stand naked?

Jane Hamsher:

Americans: Scooter Should Do the Time

According to a new SurveyUSA poll, people actually do care about this case and don’t like what has happened — 60% think Libby should serve his sentence. Only 21% agree with the President’s decision.
Contrary to the GOP talking point that Bush is playing to his base, he’s not. It’s clearly not about poll numbers. Bush is covering his own tracks and obstructing justice.

so

Paris Hilton has already served a sentence
LONGER than Irving Libby will ever serve.


....

"Terrorists Attacks! Terrorists Attacks!!"

Explosives-Packed Car Defused in London

Britain's new home secretary, Jacqui Smith called an emergency meeting of top officials, calling the attempted attack "international terrorism."

"We are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism," she said afterward. "This reinforces the need for the public to remain vigilant to the threat we face at all times."

NYPD: Bombs meant to inflict 'mass casualties'

The New York Police Department Counterterrorism Bureau has prepared a threat analysis of the thwarted London car bombings, NBC News reported on Sunday. The white paper, obtained by NBC, was written for private-security officials in the U.S. It finds that "there is no evidence of high explosives" in the two Mercedes sedans, and that the London bombs were "designed to inflict mass casualties."

Britain Versus the Bomb Plotters

Once the doors were opened, the smoke cleared to reveal something much more sinister-a device fashioned from gasoline, gas canisters and nails that, according to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command, could have caused "significant injury or loss of life" had it detonated.

Nature of London and Glasgow Plot Links Probed

Both vehicles in the thwarted London attacks contained cylinders of propane gas, containers of gasoline, nails and in at least one case was rigged to sophisticated detonators. The Jeep that attempted to crash and turn into a fireball inside a Glasgow airport was said to contain both propane cylinders and gasoline. However it did not appear to have a remote detonator or any nails, police, officials and ABC sources said.

Five arrested in connection with airport attack, London car bombs

One of the men set himself on fire after he jumped from the burning vehicle. He remains in critical condition at the Royal Alexandra Hospital near Glasgow, a hospital representative said.

If this wasn't so hysterical it would be funny.

meanwhile:

Gas canister bomb 'an amateur job'

"If you are making a bomb and you are limited in the amount of explosives you can acquire you could easily get some gas cylinders of propane to add to them. They would give a more impressive fireball on TV," he said.

"They are probably keen amateurs who could not get their hands on the real thing and do not realise the limits of what they are doing."

The Metropolitan police's head of anti-terrorism, Peter Clarke, said there was also a "significant quantity" of petrol and nails in the car, as well as the gas. A witness reported nails were lying on the floor of the car, which Mr Alford said was another indication the bomb makers were inexperienced.

"Nails could be considered as an additional way of extending the potential damage and lethal range of the device but putting them on the floor is an incompetent way of building a bomb. They would go straight into the ground," he said.

Glasgow's Burning--Run For Your Lives

Larry Johnson says:
While I am not an explosives expert I am good friends with one of the world's foremost explosives experts. Propane tanks and petrol (gas for us Americans) can produce a dandy flame and a mighty boom but these are not the tools for making a car bomb long the lines of what we see detonating on a daily basis in Iraq.

Consider the level of coverage of these British guys for bombing their Mercedes, for comparison purposes.

also consider this from CBS News August 14, 2002 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect A Nobody?

In early June, Ashcroft announced from Moscow via satellite hookup that Padilla was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Ashcroft's deputies also convened a news conference in Washington.

"We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb," Ashcroft said, adding that the government's suspicions about Padilla's plans came from "multiple, independent, corroborating sources."

Now, two law enforcement officials close to the case say there is no evidence a plot was under way. However, one had been "thought out as a possibility," an official said.

Press conference from Russia?
this guy had nothing.

Now, for contrast, compare those levels of coverage
to the level of reportage of this domestic terrorist incident.

less than one year after Ashcroft presser about the Dirty Bomber:
no mention about Bill Krar.

As I commented at Firedoglake:

December 12, 2003, Noonday, Texas:

Found in Noonday were hundreds of bombs and machine guns, and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. The inventory list of what was found is extensive. But the most startling discovery was the combination of sodium cyanide, acid and gunpowder. Mixed together it becomes a lethal chemical bomb capable of killing everyone inside a 30,000 square foot building. Authorities believed Krar a threat to national security, suspecting him of being a part of a “criminal scheme” to violently attack the U.S. Government.

May 4, 2004 Noonday, Texas

From the Houston Chronicle:

East Texas man gets 11 years for cyanide cache

NOONDAY — A man who stockpiled an arsenal of illegal and chemical weapons at an East Texas storage facility was sentenced today to more than 11 years in federal prison while his common-law wife received nearly five years.

William Krar, 63, pleaded guilty in November to one count of possessing a dangerous chemical weapon and could have received life imprisonment. Judith Bruey, 55, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess illegal weapons. She faced up to five years.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/supremacists/supremacists126.html
Hoarder of Arms Gets 11 Years

Krar has declined to cooperate with investigators, and federal officials say they do not know why he was hoarding weapons. One FBI affidavit said authorities thought the weapons could have been intended for use in a "covert operation" that "could potentially include plans for future civil unrest and/or civil disorder against the United States government."

and i quote myself from february 17, 2006:

Ever heard of Tyler, Texas? Or Noonday? Noonday, Texas? The one in Smith county; Hundred some miles from Dallas. It's just outside of Tyler. Maybe 600 folks or so.

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1562621

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0911FD3E580C708DDDAB0994DB404482

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2004_3733385

http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=nd04reynolds

http://www.rickross.com/reference/supremacists/supremacists126.html

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2003-12-19/pols_naked6.html

http://www.alternet.org/rights/17514/

http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=1151_0_26_0_C32

http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/003410.html

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2004_05_02_dneiwert_archive.html#108372108971437668

and

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5350.htm

One Mr. William J. Krar had more Weapons of Mass Destruction than Saddam Hussein had.
Well, at a minimum, Krar had more chemical weapons than Saddam had in all of Iraq.
He had them less than three hundred miles from our house in Austin.
Austin, Texas? The only liberal enclave on the blood red state of Texas.
Where would a liberal hater like Krar want to use a sodium cyanide bomb?
Why would Mr. Krar seem a greater danger than Saddam Hussein or bin Laden?
Is it just me?

And when is this Krar guy getting out?
How many more Krars are out there?

Of course it was those PATRIOT act empowered super surveillance systems of the Homeland Security Department that saved the day and caught Mr. Krar, right? All that high-dollar, high-octane whiz-bang security safety stuff pays off! Way to g... ... ...

Wha? No big press conference announcement of the capture of these armed and dangerous terrorists (and their weapons) inside the United States?

What? ... ... It didn't happen that way? They didn't catch him?

Krar mailed incriminating stuff to the wrong address?

With a note inside? That said, "We would hate to have this fall into the wrong hands."

Hmmm ...

Krar gets out of prison when?

hmm ... he went in in 2004; he got 11 years; he gets out in 2015, at the latest.

Well, who's to say ol' Bill Krar was really such a bad guy anyway?
Paul Krugman?
Who does Krugman think he is anyway?
Well, someone who used to be "Calico Cat" begs to disagree and disparage these insinuations against Citizen Krar.

How many more Krar sympathizer Calico Cats are there out there?

Anthrax, anthrax ... someone was trying to poison prominent liberal icons with anthrax?

Whatever happened to them?

so anyway, i have more to say which i will update here later.
thank you for your support.
bong hits for jesus.

MEDIA LIARS!

Media Matters from Nov. 2, 2005

Did decisions by news organizations influence 2004 presidential election?

During his October 28 press conference following the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for perjury, obstruction of justice, and false statements, special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald noted that, had witnesses testified "when the subpoenas were issued in August 2004," indictments would have come "in October 2004 instead of October 2005."

The Boston Post Nov. 1, 2005

The coverup worked

I would add that the obstruction of justice alleged in this case kept us from knowing material things about our leaders at the moment we were deciding whether to keep them in office. In more common speech, obstruction of justice is a coverup, and the coverup worked -- just as the Watergate coverup in 1972 kept facts from the public that would have guaranteed Richard Nixon's defeat.

Transcript of Fitzgerald News Conference on October 28, 2005

FITZGERALD: I would have wished nothing better that, when the subpoenas were issued in August 2004, witnesses testified then, and we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005.

And John Kerry would be president now.

Libby is a scoundrel who deserves to be convicted for treason.

A pardon will only exacerbate the incendiary sense that the Republicans
stand for treachery and deceit.

....

Corruption without Limits

so, ewwww ...
another Boring LIST!
yuck!

But NO!
It's a Game!
Quick,
1) write down all the Bu$hite scandals you can think of.
2) compare your list to ours.
3) Note that it is near to impossible to keep track of the scandals.
4) go to Hugh's List for scoring.
5) devise a scoring scheme and tell me how to implement it, please.

Institutions corrupted by cheneyBu$hCo

Supreme Court .... .... .... .... .... Scalia 9/26/86
Supreme Court .... .... .... .... .... Thomas 10/18/91
House of Representatives .... Tom Delay/Jack Abramoff '90s - 1/4/06
Supreme Court .... .... .... .... .... Bush v. Gore 12/12/00

Smithsonian Institution Lawrence M. Small 2000-07
The Constitution signing statements 2001 onward
vice presidency .... .... .... .... .... Dick Cheney 2001
the atmosphere .... .... .... .... .... Kyoto Treaty 2001
Ofc of Faith-based Initiatives .... scamming the faithful for votes 1/29/2001
U.S. Navy .... Japanese students accidentally killed by USS Greeneville
on a joyride for Republican fundraisers (thanks Harold) 2/9/2001
U.S. Energy Policy .... .... .... .... Cheney's Energy Task Force 04/19/2001
EPA .... increased allowable levels of arsenic in drinking water 5/22/01
.... .... .... (thanks oceanbreeze)
NIH .... .... .... .... restriction on stem cell research (thanks rxbusa) 8/9/2001
Department of Defense .... .... .... Rumsfeld 2001 - 2006
national security let every Saudi leave the U.S. after "9/11" 09/19/2001
corporate governance .... .... .... .... .... Enron late 2001
Parks Service .... .... .... Mark Rey 12/17/2001
FBI .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... National Security Letters late2001 onward
State Department .... no-talk policy toward North Korea pre-2002onward
habeas corpus .... .... .... .... .... Guantanamo 2002
NSA .... .... .... .... .... .... domestic spying (thanks LJ/Aquaria) 2002
CDC censorship of scientific conference attendees (thanks rxbusa) 2002
ban on wars of aggression .... .... .... .... .... Downing Street Memos 7/23/02
EPA censorship of scientific publications (thanks rxbusa) 2002, et al
journalism .... .... Judy Miller at NYT 2002 - 2005
Dept. of Justice ...."Voter Fraud"/vote suppression /voter intimidation 02, 04, 06, 07
Presidential Records Act .... .... ... cheney abjures since 2003
State Department .... .... .... .... SOTU speech 16 words 1/29/03
Iraq .... .... .... .... Coalition Provisional Authority 2003-6/28/04
journalism .... .... .... .... Jeff Gannon (thanks LJ/Aquaria) 2003 - 05
Civil Rights Division .... .... .... .... .... Bradley Schlozman 2003 - 06
Dept of the Interior .... .... Scott Griles/Sue Ellen Wooldridge 2/2003

FDA …. .... .... delay of Plan B (thanks rxbusa) 06/2003
CIA .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Valerie Plame 7/14/2003
PBS .... .... .... .... .... Ken Tomlinson 9/2003 -10/2005
U.S. Army .... .... .... .... .... .... Pat Tillman R.I.P. 4/22/04
Geneva Conventions .... .... ...Abu Ghraib reports 4/04
CDC Even CDC Not Immune from Political Minders 04/2004
Dept of Education "Reading First" Program Margaret Spellings 1/20/2005
NASA .... .... .... Sean O'Keefe 2/18/2005
death .... .... .... .... .... .... Terri Shiavo R.I.P. 3/05
FEMA .... .... .... .... .... Hurricane Katrina 8/29/05
Supreme Court .... .... .... .... .... Roberts 9/29/05
Supreme Court .... .... .... .... .... Alito 01/31/06
quail hunting .... .... .... .... .... ... Dick Cheney 2/11/2006
Student Loan industry .... .... Matteo Fontana 9/2006
House of Representatives Pages .... .... .... Mark Foley 9/30/06
Dept. of Justice .... .... .... .... .... U.S. Attorneys' purge 12/7/2006
GSA .... .... .... .... gross Hatch Act violations/Lurita Doan 1/26/07
veterans .... .... .... .... Walter Reed 2/18/2007
Consumer Product Safety Commission .... Michael Baroody 3/07 - 5/07
World Bank .... .... .... .... .... ... Paul Wolfowitz 4/2007
FDA withheld food contamination info from public 4/23/07
CDC published lie that abortion causes breast cancer (thanks rxbusa) 4/23/07
US AID /Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief .... Randall L. Tobias 4/27/07

State Department .... no-talk policy toward Iran 1979 to 5/28/07

This continues.
And it continues to demonstrate that the scale and magnitude of
the cheneyBu$hCo corruption defies
mortals' abilities to retain,
in any detail,
let alone consider,
the treachery against our country
that these traitors have been perpetrating.

For instance, this is an incomplete listing
fumbled together by my inexpert
keyboarding.
That being the case, this measurement of this corruption is a measure
of the MINIMUM extent of the malignancy we face.
This may well be the tip of the iceberg.

Once the Justice Department had its pogrom against the insufficiently fascist,
in order to
assure the STEALING of the 2008 presidential election,
well, we knew they were capable of anything,
but this made the limitlessness of their avarice concrete.

psychoRabble's list continues to be a work in progress.
Your suggestions will be appreciated.

Please, tell everyone you know
and
start handing out
the pitchforks and firebrands.

thanks!
i need rest now.


(updated:
so its all the way up to june 24 and i have finally got this list in an order (chronological sorta) and with links for every institution, and half way to being presentable, if only with provisos:
this ain't even complete, authoritative, definitive or anything like that.'

1) this is accurate and
2) can present a level of chronology; a low level.
(some of that is because these events have various durations,
and some is because i do not have the best idea of how to affix the dates.)
3) it is a rough scale made with modest plumbing of the depths.
4) it is simplified enough to be accessible.
5) psychorabble in their wisdom Have Chosen to include significant
cheney-related events from before cheneyBu$hCo usurped the White House.

whereas, Hugh's List has established a thorough, deep and much more complete inventory of these cheneyBu$hCo crimes against our form of government.

i have come to feel more and more that "scandals"
is deeply inadequate for describing their treachery.

Our psychorabble list demonstrates how a modicum of diligence
can discover that we have a problem.
a big problem.
a really big problem.
a problem of historic proportions.)

...