Huffington Post bloggers index

great list!

Harry

watch Harry give em' hell

David Sirota on Harry's stand..........the timeline published in 2004 is meticulously sourced....beautiful!!!!!

...........The questions - still unanswered nearly 3 years after the war started - can be found in an article my former Center for American Progress colleague Christy Harvey and I wrote back in 2004 called "They Knew." It was an article that took forever to write because it meticulously and chronologically detailed how the Bush administration was selling the country a false bill of goods when it came to Iraq - and how they clearly KNEW they were selling America a false bill of goods. There's been many attempts to deflect attention from this core fact by conservatives - they want the public to believe that the Bush administration may have gotten the facts wrong about Iraq, but that the Bush administration didn't actually KNOW it was getting its facts wrong. But as the article shows, the cold, hard evidence shows that THEY KNEW.
full article

Declining support for Bush war

So much for the idea that the Military is more "Republican" than the rest of America.

Military shares public's declining support for Bush, war

10/28/2005

Associated Press

More than half the North Carolina military members surveyed in the latest Elon University poll don't like the way President Bush is handling his job and the war in Iraq.

The survey results were released today.

Of the 539 adults surveyed, nearly 53 percent of military members said they strongly disapproved or disapproved of Bush's handling of his job. And 56 percent of that same group said they strongly disapproved or disapproved of his handling of the Iraq war.

Overall, slightly more than 53 percent of those surveyed did not approve of Bush's job performance, while 57 percent didn't approve of his handling of the Iraq war.

The telephone poll was conducted between Monday and Thursday and has a margin of error for the entire sample of plus or minus four-point-three percentage points.

It's unforgivable that the Busheviks lied us into a war of aggression and it's even more unforgivable that their management of the war is totally incompetent.

200 words

published (bellingham herald)friday oct 28...the same day the "scooter"was indicted....

I hope Bush's declining approval ratings means that people are waking up. A recent USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll put it at 39%. "Freedom on the march" sounds hollow and the newly coined "seeds of freedom" continue to get a lot of people killed. There is plenty to be afraid of. It's just not what the administration is peddling. America's precious resources are being squandered. The middle class is in a race to the bottom. The new bankruptcy bill in effect makes it harder for average citizens to get bankruptcy relief if they suffer a catastrophic health problem. At the same time corporations enjoy plenty of loopholes. They move on with "golden parachutes" for CEO's and dump their pensions responsibilities. At a time when all people of the earth should be coming together to address global warming and the earths resources, we have "kiss up, kick down" John Bolton representing us at the United Nations. The"culture of life" turns out to be the "culture of corruption" and lies. The"milestone" rhetoric about Iraq is a worn out substitute for real progress. Innocent Iraqis are dying. I hope we soon come together as if our children's and grandchildren's lives depend on it.
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Bellingham Herald oct 21,05

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Characteristics of a corrupt nation
Imagine a country...
...where dissidents and even groups potentially harmful to business interests are surveilled and infiltrated, the reading habits of its citizens are scrutinized, photos and damaging news stories are suppressed or buried by the government and a complacent media, land can be seized for the "common good," citizens are routinely roughed up by a brutal police force.
Imagine a country with questionable elections, a growing myriad of state secrets and outright lies, where citizens are held in jail indefinitely without benefit of trial, a country that invades other countries under pretext to grab natural resources, and practices war crimes in the eyes of most of the world and unbeknownst to its citizens.
Is this a Soviet, totalitarian regime?
No, it is Bush's United States of America.
When a frog is placed in a pot of slowly heating water, it doesn't notice until it boils to death.
It's getting hotter in here.
Diana Conover
Bellingham

Hypocricy Watch

And the winner of the Ms. Hypocricy U.S.A. contest isssss:

Hutchinson: Indictments Should Be “On a Crime and Not Some Perjury Technicality”

On Meet the Press, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson picks up where Bill Kristol left off:

I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on the crime so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation were not a waste of time and dollars.

Why is she the winner you might ask... Wellllllllll; back on Feb. 12, 1999 Senator Hutchinson voted to Impeach Pres. Bill Clinton based on two Articles alleging that the President had provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony !!!

Stephanie Miller

Stephanie Miller....documenting the apocalyspe and making it sound fun.

Mama on the rethugs reaching out to blacks....."It's kind of like the one finger victory salute."
hear her live on am 1090(seattle) 9am-noon

Still Looking for Answers - Friday Edition

Juan Cole is very busy this morning and sharp as a tack... as usual. He spotted this article about the feasibility of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq

'US can withdraw from Iraq while Army is being created'

Washington, Oct 14 (PTI) Former Secretary of Defence Melvin Laird has said the United States can withdraw from Iraq while Iraqi army is being created, as happened in case of Vietnam.

Laird noted in an article in Foreign Affairs that the United States managed to withdraw American forces while creating a viable South Vietnamese army.

The same approach, he claims, could work in Iraq today.

"I believed then and still believe today that given enough outside resources, South Vietnam was capable of defending itself, just as I believe Iraq can do the same now.

"For me, the alleged prison scandals reported to have occurred in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay have been a disturbing reminder of the mistreatment of our own PoWs by North Vietnam.

" The minute we begin to deport prisoners to other nations where they can legally be tortured, when we hold people without charges or trial, when we move prisoners around to avoid the prying inspections of the Red Cross, when prisoners die inexplicably on our watch, we are on a slippery slope toward the inhumanity that we deplore." PTI

And he expands on how lies that got us into war with Iraq went unquestioned

Miller and the Neocons

- at many levels.

More WMD Pie in the Sky

... How to explain Bush's strange agenda? Well, when someone doesn't read the newspapers and doesn't know anything about the wider world, and just accepts whatever close aides tell him, then he might easily believe 10 impossible things before breakfast. The real question is who his aides are really working for, who wants Bush to believe these dangerous fantasies.

Audio commentary

be sure to check out the "Pap Attack" for some really great short commentary.......the photo links are worth it!! Pap makes every word count!
can be heard on "Ring of Fire" with Bobby Kennedy Jr.....
Saturdays 5-7pm ET • Rebroadcast: Sundays 3-5pm ET

brownie to investigate brownie

brownie will be lookin' up brownie's brown growler ...hmmmm...boy that is sooooo reassuring. keep it up you arrogant, incompetent, criminal, bullies....... people are starting to notice.

6:44 p.m. (CBS) — CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports that Michael Brown, who recently resigned as the head of the FEMA, has been rehired by the agency as a consultant to evaluate its response following Hurricane Katrina.

and this is an interesting piece.....

CRONYISM in the Bush Administration
HOW MANY MORE MICHAEL BROWNS ARE OUT THERE? TIME Probe Finds the Bush Administration is Putting Connections Before Experience For Some Positions

Posted Sunday, Sep. 25, 2005
New York – The Michael Brown debacle – the resignation of President’s former point man on disasters -- has raised questions about whether political connections, not qualifications, have helped an unusually high number of Bush appointees land vitally important jobs. ONLINE: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1109345,00.html
Among TIME’s examples:
-- At the Food and Drug Administration, TIME obtained internal e-mail messages that show scientists’ drug-safety decisions are being second-guessed by a 33-year-old doctor-turned-stock picker, Scott Gottlieb.
full article

and this from david brooks
.........And as I say that, you always got to go back to competence. And sometimes in my dark moments, I think he's "The Manchurian Candidate" designed to discredit all the ideas I believe in. And so he has to follow through on that. That's the crucial thing for the next two years for him.

and so it goes as they destroy our federal government... not suprising since they never liked it much....with the exception of all that military hardware and "assets", as they like to refer to the patriotic, brave citizens they use for their personal adventures. oh and the cash flow...they have really been enjoying that....wheeeeeeeee.......how much more will we put up with!??!

wake up sheeple!

Peace is on the march

here are some photos of the peace march in bellinham sept 21(till the batteries gave out..oops)
http://kali.memes.com/~ware/peggy/peacebhamsept/

and here is the seattle march of the nationwide march sept 24
http://kali.memes.com/~ware/peggy/peacesept24/

mark nails bushworld

mark just sums up where we are here in America with these thugs in charge.......

Fine Wine For A Big Quake Sure a quake kit is a great thing -- if you can afford it. Too bad about everyone else
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, September 21, 2005


............As Katrina proved in no uncertain terms, if you're poor or from the lower classes and a massive natural disaster strikes, you are, of course, screwed, given how you do not have extra money, no cash reserves to spend on motels or plane tickets, no credit card numbers to keep written down in a safe place. You do not have a car. You do not own a cell phone. You do not have wealthy relatives in Miami with a few spare rooms in their beach house. When disaster hits, you simply do not have anywhere to go.
All of which means the Bush administration will consider you, essentially, trash, disposable, invisible -- except for when the TV cameras find you floating face down in the flooded street and suddenly Bush's poll numbers collapse and Dubya comes on to pretend he understands your plight and will have his mom send you cookies and a warm condescending hug ASAP.
full article

All the News that fits their agenda

Another prime example of the MSM being a day late and a dollar short (as it were).

TIME MAGAZINE - Sep. 26, 2005
Saddam's Revenge
The secret history of U.S. mistakes, misjudgments and intelligence failures that let the Iraqi dictator and his allies launch an insurgency now ripping Iraq apart
By JOE KLEIN

Why didn't TIME take up this story when Scott Ritter wrote about it over a year ago?

Published on Friday, July 23, 2004 by Tribune Media Services
Saddam's People are Winning the War
by Scott Ritter

Anybody got any theories?

Emotional Rather blasts 'new journalism order'
By Paul J. Gough

... occasionally forcing back tears, he (Dan Rather) said that in the intervening years, politicians "of every persuasion" had gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a "new journalism order."

He said this pressure -- along with the "dumbed-down, tarted-up" coverage, the advent of 24-hour cable competition and the chase for ratings and demographics -- has taken its toll on the news business. "All of this creates a bigger atmosphere of fear in newsrooms," Rather said. ...

cheers all over again

here come the compassionate conservatives again....cheers
hope all will stand with barbara boxer for this new assault

Exceptions in new EPA rules would allow testing pesticides on children
By Andrew Schneider
Sun National Staff
Originally published September 14, 2005

.........."For the first time in our nation's history, the EPA has proposed a program to allow for the systematic and everyday experimentation of pesticides on humans," Rep. Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat and leading critic of the testing policies, said in a statement yesterday. "Moreover, the proposed program is riddled with ethical loopholes."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, who also demanded improvements in protecting human test subjects, voiced similar criticism.
"The EPA proposed rule on human testing has several large loopholes that undermine the very purpose of the rule. No wonder the pesticide companies are saying such nice things about it," Boxer said.
"This is unethical and contrary to recent direction from Congress."

full article

more bush's America....

great article by Thom on bush's disasterous "energy policy"....

Carter Tried To Stop Bush's Energy Disasters - 28 Years Ago
by Thom Hartmann

In his recent news conference, George Bush Jr. suggested that our nation's "problem" with high gasoline prices was caused by the lack of a national energy policy, and tried to blame it all on Bill Clinton. First, Junior said, "This is a problem that's been a long time in coming. We haven't had an energy policy in this country."
This was followed by, "That's exactly what I've been saying to the American people -- 10 years ago if we'd had an energy strategy, we would be able to diversify away from foreign dependence. And -- but we haven't done that. And now we find ourselves in the fix we're in." As is so often the case, Bush was lying.
Consider President Jimmy Carter's April 18, 1977 speech. Since it was given nearly three decades ago, when many of the reporters in Bush's White House were children, it's understandable that they don't remember it. But it's inexcusable that Bush and the mainstream media (which, after all, has the ability to do research) would completely ignore it. It was the speech that established the strategic petroleum reserve, birthed the modern solar power industry, led to the insulation of millions of American homes, and established America's first national energy policy. "With the exception of preventing war," said Jimmy Carter, a man of peace, "this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0503-22.htm

bush's America

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. does a great job of outlining the perilious times we live in......the bush crime family is taking us full speed ahead over the cliff....the only conclusion i can come to is they must be criminally insane cuz they have children and grandchildren too. how can so many be affected by such severe anti-social personality disorder????? i hope they can be stopped......


Published on Friday, September 16, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Those of Us Who Know That America’s Worth Fighting for Have to Take It Back Now from Those Who Don’t
by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.Speech delivered at the Sierra Summit 2005San Francisco, CaliforniaSeptember 10, 2005

..........This is the worst environmental president we’ve had in American history.
If you look at NRDC’s website you’ll see over 400 major environmental roll backs that are listed there that have been implemented or proposed by this administration over the past four years as part of a deliberate concerted effort to eviscerate 30 years of environmental law.
It’s a stealth attack.
The White House has used all kinds of ingenious machinations to try to conceal its radical agenda from the American people including Orwellian rhetoric. When they want to destroy the forests, they call it the Healthy Forest Act. When they wanted to destroy the air, they called it the Clear Skies Bill.
But most insidiously, they have put polluters in charge of virtually all the agencies that are supposed to protect Americans from pollution.
full article

riverbend returns

after no posts since july 15 riverbend has returned!!! her post on sept 11 puts our criminal foreign policy into words......
.......I remember almost immediately, Western media began conjecturing on which Islamic group it could have been. I remember hoping it wasn’t Muslims or Arabs. I remember feeling that way not just because of the thousands of victims, but because I sensed that we’d suffer in Iraq. We’d be made to suffer for something we weren’t responsible for.E. looked at me wide-eyed that day and asked the inevitable question,
“How long do you think before they bomb us?”
“But it wasn’t us. It can’t be us…” I rationalized.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s all they need.”

......It has been four years today. How does it feel four years later? For the 3,000 victims in America, more than 100,000 have died in Iraq. Tens of thousands of others are being detained for interrogation and torture. Our homes have been raided, our cities are constantly being bombed and Iraq has fallen back decades, and for several years to come we will suffer under the influence of the extremism we didn't know prior to the war. As I write this, Tel Afar, a small place north of Mosul, is being bombed. Dozens of people are going to be buried under their homes in the dead of the night. Their water and electricity have been cut off for days. It doesn’t seem to matter much though because they don’t live in a wonderful skyscraper in a glamorous city. They are, quite simply, farmers and herders not worth a second thought. Four years later and the War on Terror (or is it the War of Terror?) has been won:Score:
Al-Qaeda – 3,000
America – 100,000+

Congratulations.

sept 11,2005 post

the flood of katrina is followed by a tsunami of compassion!

after another quarter of record profits for these thugs the corporate welfare and looting continues.....the people need relief from this compassionate conservatism.....


Bush lifts wage rules for Katrina
President signs executive order allowing contractors to pay below prevailing wage in affected areas.
September 9, 2005: 11:43 AM EDT

........Bush's action came as the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid, and drew rebukes from two of organized labor's biggest friends in Congress, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats.
"The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Miller said.
"President Bush should immediately realize the colossal mistake he has made in signing this order and rescind it and ensure that America puts its people back to work in the wake of Katrina at wages that will get them and their families back on their feet," Miller said.
"I regret the president's decision," said Kennedy.
"One of the things the American people are very concerned about is shabby work and that certainly is true about the families whose houses are going to be rebuilt and buildings that are going to be restored," Kennedy said.
full article

Is it pay back time, yet?

Okie dokie... In Bush's FEMA appointments we've got a shining example of how utterly corrupt the Republicans are: political patronage, ultra-cronyism. I think we need an investigation by an independent council/prosecutor(meaning someone who hates Bush with a passion). The investigation should be in depth, reporting it's findings in mid-Nov. 2008. The staff could leak give progress reports to the press every week. With subpoena power, an unlimited budget and years to dig, there should be plenty of dirt uncovered. The person chosen to head the investigation should have certain Starr-like qualities. The investigation should have a name; hmmm, lets see.... Oh, I know!... we could call it; the BrownieWater Scandal. [/satire]

his mother's son

this crime family that has seized power and taken over our resources for their own personal use again show their contempt for the people of the country they exploit........mommie bush shows her true colors as she walks by people suffering and pronounces them "lucky"..... her son, when left to his own devices, reverts to cocktail party banter as rescue efforts were shut down to orchestrate the photo-op bush needed to rescue his tattered image.....


HOUSTON Former first lady Barbara Bush is getting attention for some of the comments she made about New Orleans evacuees who are now in Houston. In an interview with the American Public Media program "Marketplace," she said the relocation is "working very well" for some of those forced out of New Orleans. She noted that many of the people at the Astrodome were "underprivileged anyway."
and......
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

also

and incompetence is the nicest thing that can be said.......

By Paul Krugman - The New York Times - 09/06/05
Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized.
Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the USS Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday — without patients.

what the hell is going on??????

FEMA's Crime Spree - September 6th, 2005
Just take a look at this list:FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations
FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food
FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
FEMA turns away generators
FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"

wake up sheeple!!!!!!!!!!!!