December 2008 archive

Dec 09 2008

So where’s Dodd’s resignation?

I have a hard time suffering fools.   How dare anyone who has been in the Congress or the Senate for the last eight years criticize the big three.  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

These corrupt and incompetent fools have mismanaged this country into bankruptcy.  Instead of oversight, they gave the same people who ripped off the system another 780 billion tax payer dollars without any plan or strings attached.  If anybody ought to resign because of gross mismanagement, it is the fools in DC.  

 

Dec 09 2008

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XXIII

America the Ugly

Fruited Plains



Food?

At the edge

of forests healthy

for everything

but animals or trees

lie the fruited plains

blistered with toxins

alchemically nurtured

in a liquid

roughly water

strange brew

what’s inside of you

America Amerika

Groves of blemished trees

bearing produce

invisibly bruised

dripping venomous juices

like Snow White’s apple

We are fashioned

into laboratory mice

to ascertain

how much poison

we can consume

and remain vaguely human

while we are forced

to pay exorbitant fees

for what passes

as our health

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 29, 2006

Dec 09 2008

Late Night Karaoke

It’s An Open Mic

Planet P Project Why Me

Dec 09 2008

The Greek police kill school student – big wave of mobilisations all over Greece

Original article, and editorial from Marxistiki Foni (Marxist Voice), via In Defence of Marxism:

On Saturday night, an officer of the Special Forces of the Greek Police killed a young 15-year old school student, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, in Exarchia in the centre of Athens, (just 200 meters from the office of our paper). This is the modern “democratic” manner in which a police officer answered the usual anti-police slogans that a small group of ordinary and completely unarmed school students were raising against him. The police officer shot at the group of school students in an area where there are many coffeehouses full of people and at an hour (9pm) when there are many youth gathered together enjoying an evening out.

Dec 09 2008

In memory of John Lennon, December 8, 1980

Dec 09 2008

Open Thread

So I’m reading the NOLA blogs and I come across this from oyster over at Your Right Hand Thief, highlighting the music of New Orleanian glyn styler..

The older guy in the video made me think of David Vitter.

When it comes to sleaze, I think the video has nothing on the US Department of the Interior bureaucracy.  But that’s just my take.

Open thread is open!

Dec 08 2008

Four at Four

  1. The Guardian reports for a Second consequtive day, the Pakistan-based Taliban destroy supplies bound for NATO in Afghanistan. Approximately 50 shipping containers of supplies were destoyed in the assult. “The militants struck a container terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar, in north-west Pakistan, just over a mile from yesterday’s attack, in which gunmen torched more than 100 trucks.”

    According to Mohammad Zaman, a security guard at the terminal on the Peshawar ring road, “The militants came just past midnight, firing in the air, sprinkled petrol on containers and then set them on fire… They told us they would not harm us, but they asked us not to work for the Americans.”

    Yesterday’s attack was the largest yet by the Taliban. The NY Times reports the Attacks expose the vulnerability of the route from the port of Karachi through Peshawar. “The United States relies on the route for an overwhelming proportion of its supplies for the war in Afghanistan.” 80 percent of U.S. matériel for the occupation of Afghanistan goes through Pakistan.

    The AP reports Taliban vows violent response to US troop increase. “The current armed clashes, which now number into tens, will spiral up to hundred of armed clashes. Your current casualties of hundreds will jack up to thousand casualties of dead and injured,” read a statement posted on a Web site attributed to Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban.

    “The Taliban has a permanent presence in 72% of the territory of Afghanistan, up from 54% last year, and is expanding its control beyond the rural south of the country, the International Council on Security and Development, formerly the Senlis Council, says in a report today”, reported by The Guardian.

    An analysis, “Afghan Strategy Poses Stiff Challenge for Obama“, by the NY Times, surmised the occupation is pretty much another Bush failure.

    After seven years of war, Afghanistan presents a unique set of problems: a rural-based insurgency, an enemy sanctuary in neighboring Pakistan, the chronic weakness of the Afghan government, a thriving narcotics trade, poorly developed infrastructure, and forbidding terrain.

    I believe the United States should never have invaded Afghanistan. What do we have to show for seven years of war and occupation?

Four at Four continues with Bush’s lasting impact on federal courts, Blackwater mercenaries charged with voluntary manslaughter, and another sign of the decline of the American Empire.

Dec 08 2008

Iowa Supreme Court to Hear Arguments in Same-Sex Marriage Case

The Iowa Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday on a same-sex marriage case that challenges whether Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act enacted in 1998 is constitutional.  The case specifically challenges whether a ban on same-sex marriage violates the Iowa constitution’s “equal protection” clause (Article 1, Section 6) and “due process” clause (Article 1, Section 9).  Decisions from Iowa’s high court usually come two to six months after oral arguments.  

The case, Varnum v. Brien, was filed by Lambda Legal in 2005.  The plaintiffs in the case are a group of same-sex couples who tried to get marriage licenses in Polk County in late 2005 or early 2006, including Kate Varnum and her partner Trish, who has legally changed her last name to Varnum also.  The defendant in the case is Timothy J. Brien, the Polk County Recorder who refused to issue marriage licenses to the couples.  Brien informed the couples he could not issue marriage licenses to them by state law, citing the Defense of Marriage Act (Iowa Code, Section 595.2).

Dec 08 2008

New Definitions: Unseemly Shamelessness.

BEFORE (unrepresentative and inaccurate):

PhotobucketMerrill Lynch boss seeks 10-million-dlr bonus

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The chief executive of troubled Wall Street firm Merrill Lynch is seeking a 10-million-dollar bonus this year in the midst of a financial crisis which plunged his company into dire straits, US media reported Monday.

Dec 08 2008

The List of Crimes and Definitive Links

For anyone who hasn’t been around for a couple of days, we are discussing and trying to create a petition drive to appoint a Special Prosecutor in the continuing quest for justice (or as close as we can get) for the crimes of Bushco.

Time to build the list! Here is what we have so far, thanks to NL for the restructuring. Note the bolded section which is a bit of a rewrite, more below the fold.

Dear Attorney General Holder, we the undersigned citizens hereby petition you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to aggressively investigate and prosecute the many and various crimes that we believe have been committed both by, and under, the Bush Administration.

For eight long years the citizens of the United States have witnessed the President, the Vice President, and Bush administration officials commit crime after crime. In an atmosphere of deliberately politicized corruption that has shocked the conscience of our nation, all attempts at investigation and accountability have been blocked or deflected by the corruption and politicization of the Department of Justice itself; the very Department that you are soon to head.

The corruption of the most basic tool of justice and accountability, the subpoena process, has been particularly alarming. By refusing to enforce the Congressional power of subpoena, and thus their power to hold the Executive Branch of our government accountable, former Attorneys General Gonzalez and Mukasey have subverted the very concept of justice and the Rule of Law upon which our nation was founded.

We as citizens are subject to the Rule of Law, and we demand that our government and its officials be as well. We as citizens have lost faith in the credibility of our justice system due to its abuse, corruption, and subversion by the Bush Administration. Only you Attorney General Holder, can restore that faith. And it it is our belief that it may only be restored by the aggressive and unrelenting prosecution of those who have corrupted it by bringing to the light of day the crimes that have been covered up or rendered “legal” by that corruption.

The most important founding principle of America is that no man is above the law. Our Constitution itself is meant to guarantee that principle. Perhaps the most egregious crime of all has been to subvert the Department of Justice to place the President and the members of his administration above the law itself. That principle must be restored and we insist Attorney General Holder, that it is your responsibility to do so. As citizens of a democracy meant to be of, by, and for The People, we, your “employers,” demand that you do so.

The list of offenses is long, ranging from minor violations of the Hatch Act, to conspiring to wage aggressive, preemptive war. The most egregious, and we believe, prosecutable items:

(insert rest of list, which we shall build, here)

We also refer you to Representative Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment.

These investigations and prosecutions that we so strongly urge you to undertake and pursue will have many consequences. Some of them could prove to be politically inexpedient for our new President and the Democratic Congress. To this end, we remind you that you work not on behalf of or for the President or the Congress, but for the People of the United States of America. We urge you to, unlike your predecessors Attorneys General Mukasey and Gonzales, ignore these political considerations and consequences in the pursuit of justice, no matter what, or to whom, the cost.

To that end, we petition you to appoint and fully empower an Independent or Special Prosecutor and to fully fund and support their investigation and prosecution of all the parties implicated therein.

Our justice system has been corrupted and compromised. Our standing as an nation that hews to the Rule of Law above all else has been gravely and perilously threatened.  Only one man, standing independent from all other considerations, can restore both the Rule of Law in our great nation and the integrity of the Department of Justice itself, Attorney General Holder. And that man is you.

Dec 08 2008

Don Siegelman Needs Our Help

Don Siegelman’s fight for justice against the false charges made against him by elements in the Bush Administration reaches a critical point tomorrow.  His appeal goes before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday, 12/9/08.  We hope the 11th Circuit will throw out the false charges against Siegelman and clear this good man.

But Don needs our help.  He needs to raise another $30,000 toward his legal fees.  Not only for Don, but the magnitude of this case and it’s relation to the firings of attorneys across the country could blow the lid off the case for numerous Justice Department crimes of this past and passing administration.

Don Siegelman isn’t just fighting for his freedom — he’s fighting for the integrity of our democracy. I hope you’ll join me in supporting his legal defense fund today, before his appeal hearing tomorrow.

Al Gore has sent a letter on this.  Find:

                    “A Message from Al Gore regarding Don Siegelman”

                                         …below the fold–

Dec 08 2008

Whining time is over, ladies and gentlemen.

Cross-posted from Progressive Independence

No, I’m not dead.  College and upcoming finals have eaten away at my time, but after next week I’ll have a few weeks to get back into the swing of things.  Now to business.  It’s no secret that since winning the recent presidential election, the left has been in an uproar over president-elect Barack Obama’s right-wing administrative-cabinet picks.  Complaints have been all over the blogosphere as well as mainstream news web sites such as Yahoo.

Obama’s creatures are pushing back, essentially telling people to shut up, drink the Kool-Aid, and line up behind the Obamassiah.  From the second link:

Responding to rising discontent on the left to President-elect Barack Obama’s centrist cabinet picks and early policy decisions, deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand has told progressive critics to take a deep breath.

With a long list of tasks ahead of him, Obama needs liberals to stand by him as he deals with a faltering economy, home foreclosures, an auto bailout and two wars, Hildebrand wrote Sunday on Huffington Post. Even so, Hildebrand added, Obama was elected “to be the president of all the people – not just those on the left.”

‘This is not a time for the left wing of our Party to draw conclusions about the Cabinet and White House appointments that President-Elect Obama is making,” Hildebrand wrote. “Some believe the appointments generally aren’t progressive enough. Having worked with former Senator Obama for the last two years, I can tell you, that isn’t the way he thinks and it’s not likely the way he will lead. The problems I mentioned above and the many I didn’t, suggest that our president surround himself with the most qualified people to address these challenges.”

I’m inclined to tell fellow left-wingers to shut up and stop complaining as well, although for very different reasons.  It was obvious to many independent left-wing voters that Democrat Obama would govern no differently if elected than his Republican counterpart, John McCain.  More competently, perhaps, and with smarmier rhetoric, but such differences are in style, not actual policy substance.  Too many liberals, fearful of another four to eight years of GOP domination, cast their ballots for the first politician with a “D” after his name that looked like a winner, either in spite of, or many cases, ignoring, the Democratic nominee’s actual record as a legislator.

Well, guess what ladies and gentlemen: you got the president and Congress you wanted.  You who voted for Obama have no right to complain now that he’s doing the exact opposite of what you deceived yourselves into thinking he’d do.  YOU voted for this.  YOU are responsible for making it happen.

This is not to say that all is lost, or that because people voted for a right-wing Democrat he cannot be pressured into fulfilling the false hopes placed in him.  Everybody makes mistakes, and mistakes can be corrected.  The time for complaints is over.  The time for action, for marching on Washington and demanding genuine change, for not going away until we get it, is now.

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