look over there, nothing to see here.......

just one of the little manuevers going on while everyone's attention is being directed to a family experiencing one of the most painful times any of us will ever face. as tom delay claims terri as sent to him personally by god(even tho, as Randi Rhodes so beautifully pointed out, he never bothered to go meet her. nor did the jebster. even tho she was very close by) these people are sick!! meddling in people's personal private business so they can use this case to divert our attention from the ethically challenged bugman and their plan to stack the courts....
and this preemptive strike is one more abuse of power they feel entitled to....hmmm....now will the president be running this thru the congress. and if so will they tell the truth??? people of the world if you have oil under your soil, be afraid , be very afraid........

Published on Saturday, March 19, 2005 by the Los Angeles Times

Policy OKs First Strike to Protect USPentagon strategic plan codifies unilateral, preemptive attacks. The doctrine marks a shift from coalitions such as NATO, analysts say

by John Hendren

WASHINGTON - Two years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon has formally included in key strategic plans provisions for launching preemptive strikes against nations thought to pose a threat to the United States.
......."The president has the obligation to protect the country," said Douglas J. Feith, the Defense Department's undersecretary for policy. "And I don't think that there's anything in our Constitution that says that the president should not protect the country unless he gets some non-American's participation or approval of that.""Our strength as a nation-state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international [forums], judicial processes and terrorism," the document states.
......."Our strength as a nation-state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international [forums], judicial processes and terrorism," the document states.
The concern, Feith explained, was that some nations would try to criminalize American foreign policy by challenging it in international courts.

Riverbend remembers

as we mark the 2 year anniversary of our initiation of the criminal "shock and awe" by the bush crime family in our name, be sure to check out Riverbend's perspective(march 23 entry) we continue to live in comfort. the shopping and consuming goes on...water and electricity flows....cheap gas flows(even tho the gas guzzlers whine and complain that the price is going up).....the tax cuts for the rich go on....everywhere i go most people act like the world is still the same as it was before the whack job criminal neocons seized power(most people believe they were elected)......and i don't even know how it feels to be shock and awed but there is no peace here....

.....Remember when the fear was still fresh- and the terror was relatively new- and it was possible to be shocked and awed in Iraq? post on 3-23-05

stand up real democrats!!!!!!

watch this race in pennsylvania for senate in 2006.. this guy is running a grass root progressive honest campaign against the anti-choice rick santorum(slimeball incumbent) and anti-choice candidate the dems are running....they are testing the anti-choice balloon and it would sure be great to have a real democrat beat them both!!!!! yo, DLC, we the people are going to be heard...are you with us or are you with the cons?
http://chuck2006.com/

what do you get for being george's uncle bucky?

paid!!!!!

crony capitalism and war profiteering at it's best!!! couldn't have worked out better if they'd planned it.

March 2, 2005
It's a Family Affair
Uncle Bucky Makes a Killing
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR


...........Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, ESSI positioned itself to win a series of lucrative Pentagon contracts that would catapult the diminutive firm into the top ranks of defense contractors. Within a few short months, the company's shareholders were given the financial ride of their lives.
By the time of the Iraq war, ESSI was a brawny new player on the defense block. In the spring of 2003, ESSI acquired a military communications company called TAMSCO, whose prime activity was in developing military satellite terminals in the Gulf region and in US bases in Germany in anticipation of a US invasion of Iraq. After the ESSI buy-out, TAMSCO swiftly won contracts from both the Air Force and the Army for more than $90 million for the training of troops in the operation of the system and the installation of radar equipment in Kuwait.
...........As the flood of new contracts poured in, ESSI's stock soared. In January of 2005, it reached its all-time high of $60.39 per share. A few days before the stock hit this lofty peak, Uncle Bucky quietly exercised his option to sell 8,438 shares of ESSI stock. He walked away from that transaction with at least $450,000. The stock sale occurred a few days after ESSI announced that the Pentagon had awarded it $77 million in new contracts for the Iraq war and a few days before word leaked to the press that the company was under investigation for its handling of older Pentagon contracts. The timing of the trade was perfect.

What Bush is doing to us

The DNC website has information on what Bush's budget will do to each state. Washington state will suffer for being Blue. Some how we'll be getting less but owe more.

Homeland Security
>>The Bush 2006 budget cuts $420 million to state and local funding for homeland security, including a $21.2 million cut for Washington. These cuts will take police and firefighters off your streets.
>>The Bush budget cuts the COPS program, which has put 1,982 officers on Washington streets, by 96 percent.

Health Care
>>The Bush budget cuts $45 billion from Medicaid, enough to provide health care to 1.8 million children. Washington's share of these cuts is $748 million.
>>Bush's budget cuts the very same community and rural health care programs he touted during the campaign, even though more than 152,000 Washington residents have lost their health care coverage since Bush took office due to his failures.

Education
>>Bush underfunds his own No Child Left Behind Act by $13.1 billion in his budget. In Washington, that means a shortfall of $215.2 million, leaving behind 38,722 Washington children.
>>Bush promised to fund Pell Grants in his State of the Union address, but his budget is $6.6 billion short. That's $110 million less than what's needed in Washington, a real burden for the 81,450 students in Washington who receive the grants.

Other Priorities
>>The Bush budget would require many veterans to pay a new $250 annual "user fee" to use the Veterans Administration health care system, and would double the prescription drug co-payment for the 670,628 Washington veterans.
>>Bush cuts Washington clean water programs by $6.7 million.
>>Bush's 2006 budget also cuts the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program -- which helps low-income families afford heating fuel in the winter -- by $234.4 million, including $4.5 million cut for Washington residents.

And Bush's irresponsible budget is a record $427 billion in the red, increasing each Washington family's share of the federal debt by $36,587.

sound familiar?????

Afghans Accuse U.S. of Secret Spraying to Kill Poppies
By CARLOTTA GALL Published: February 27, 2005
ANAI, Afghanistan - Abdullah, a black-turbaned shepherd, said he was watching over his sheep one night in early February when he heard a plane pass low overhead three times. By morning his eyes were so swollen he could not open them and the sheep around him were dying in convulsions.
Although farmers had noticed a white powder on their crops, they cut grass and clover for their animals and picked spinach to eat anyway. Within hours the animals were severely ill, people here said, and the villagers complained of fevers, skin rashes and bloody diarrhea. The children were particularly affected. A week later, the crops - wheat, vegetables and poppies - were dying, and a dozen dead animals, including newborn lambs, lay tossed in a heap.

saving seeds illegal?????

as a gardener and seed saver this is especially disturbing....amazing how we are planning for the people we went to "liberate"

Saving seeds in Iraq: Pay Monsanto or starve
..........A new report by GRAIN (http://www.grain.org/) and Focus on the Global South has found that new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that prevents farmers from saving their seeds and effectively hands over the seed market to transnational corporations.This is a disastrous turn of events for Iraqi farmers, biodiversity and the country's food security. While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has been made near impossible by these new regulations.

New Iraq Law Outlaws Saving Seeds! Requires Licenses!by repost Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004 at 10:49 AM

wolfowitz-perle connection????

CIA Removes Papers from University’s “Scoop” Jackson

ArchivesGovernment officials have removed several documents from the archives of the late Sen. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson housed at the University of Washington’s Allen Library in Seattle.
The five-member document-security team, which included three CIA officials as well as staff from the Defense and Energy Departments, spent several days at the library in early February going through 1,200 boxes of material, the Everett Herald reported February 15.

Sirota is on the case....

The DLC had their chance....we the people have to have a shot at it. They need us more than we need them.

No Surprise From the DLC

.......Just when I thought the right-attacks-on-the-left within the Democratic Party were over, the Democratic Leadership Council is at it again, once again attacking Democrats. The DLC's latest daily installment of vitriol and backstabbing comes from Al From and Ed Kilgore, who are calling for a purge of the left in the party, while laying down cover for those who might bail out on the party's core principles.
......So before anyone gets too crazy or upset about the DLC's latest display of selling out - remember, that's their job. It's our job to expose them for what they really are, and fight for real progressive politics.