Let's talk some politics here #3

[Mike]

chadgumbo said:

Mike, if the White House has been monitoring the LFMB at all... I guarantee YOUR PHONES are tapped! ;D

Sleep well my friend

Good!!! They deserve to have to listen to my wife and mother-in-law talktalktalk...... ;D

[Scott Hays]

No jackboots pounding at my door, despite rumors and impending fascism through most of my life. I am not going to hold my breath. Even this scourge will pass.

Meanwhile, I leave tomorrow (high winds, blowing snow, freezing rain and chain requirements be damned) for central California and Christmas with loved ones who can't be with here in Oregon. If I don't get back before the New Year, may your Christmas be blessed and may your next year be better than the last one.

God bless us, Everyone!

[BillL]

If I don't get back before the New Year, may your Christmas be blessed and may your next year be better than the last one.

Let's talk about him while he's gone, eh?

And to all my friends here, whether we agree or not, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. There is truly lots to be thankful for and lots to wish and hope for. So, here's hoping your families are healthy and happy and looking forward to the wonders and challenges of tomorrow.

Bill L

[chadgumbo]

billl said:

And to all my friends here, whether we agree or not, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Bill L

True, we do have our disagreements here - but, like Bill, I also feel that we have come to think of one another as friends here. The conversation generally remains civil. I sometimes blog over at globegazette.com and the blogs there tend to deteriorate into personal attacks, and often are just outright (as Hank would say) ass klown stupid. Come join the fun there if you feel so inclined. This place (LFMB) is much more enjoyable, and it's fun to catch up with all the familiar names. Have a great holiday everybody

[Mike]

billl said:

Let's talk about him while he's gone, eh?

And to all my friends here, whether we agree or not, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. There is truly lots to be thankful for and lots to wish and hope for. So, here's hoping your families are healthy and happy and looking forward to the wonders and challenges of tomorrow.

Bill L

Pssst...you ain't heard this from me but, I heard the poor guy is a USC fan. He'll be needing support from his friends after the Rose Bowl.

Like Bill L, I hope everyone's family and loved ones are safe, happy, and healthy.

And indeed, to Bill L, Chad, Jashley, Hank, Rollin, Scott, and any other victim that wonders onto this fierce battleground ;D ......MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

[featphoto]

in the "every once in a while sanity prevails" department:

today's paper (in RI) on the front page holds the story that a judge in PA ruled that the school board in Dover can not force the science teachers to introduce intelligent design (even just a statement thereof) in their curriculum. besides using phrases like "breathtaking inanity" and “utter waste of monetary and personal resources" to describe the attempt, the judge branded the proponents as liars for attempting to hide their true agenda, that being the dissemination of Christan, biblical dogma in the public schools.

this judge is a Bush judicial appointee by the way ... whaddaya know ...

here's a link to the story: www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1142625,00.html

(you're going to have to cut & paste that I guess)

ah, it does my secular humanistic heart good ...

[Mike]

And here's another judge thing:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of U.S. President George W. Bush's authorization of a domestic spying program, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday

What was it that Tom Delay said during the Terry Schievo federally sponsored "butt show"? Oh yeah..."these judges will pay..."

Hmmm, I think we needed this guy to stand and fight! Or maybe he can do more good by not being on the bench. These DC criminals are getting hard to keep track of.

[Mike]

Now this has the potential to get interesting. Remember, the casino boat guy got murdered in Fort Lauderdale during the wire fraud investigation.
But the "juicy" murder indictments probably won't be until "ACT III" if the investigation makes it that far.


Abramoff May Plead Guilty in Fraud Case Next Week, Person Says
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Jack Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist at the center of a U.S. Justice Department-led investigation, may plead guilty in a Florida wire-fraud case as early as next week, a person close to the case said.

A plea may help federal prosecutors build cases against lawmakers and their staffs in both the Florida investigation and in a related probe of Abramoff's lobbying activity in Washington.

Abramoff's former business partner, Michael Scanlon, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to bribe members of Congress and their staffs, including Representative Robert Ney, an Ohio Republican.

Another Abramoff associate, Adam Kidan, pleaded guilty last week to wire fraud in the Florida case. Abramoff and Kidan were indicted in August in connection with a $147.5 million purchase of a casino boat company.

I haven't heard anything about Cheney doing hoity-toity $4,000 a plate fund raisers for their defense costs....yet.

[jashley]

Hoy Hoy All,

It is the night before Christmas and I couldn't let it pass without telling everyone here how much I respect your intelligence and the reasonableness of your arguments (and of course your taste in music) not to mention the fact that you all are able to keep your respect for one another while arguing about politics; this seems to be a rare thing today. Even though I have never meet any of you face to face I still consider all of you to be among my closest friends.

Happy Christmas, Chanaka, Kwanza or whatever holiday you choose to celebrate. I wish you and your family not only a fine holiday but a great next year.

Peace
j

[chadgumbo]

jashley said:

Even though I have never met any of you face to face I still consider all of you to be among my closest friends.

Happy Christmas, Chanaka, Kwanza or whatever holiday you choose to celebrate. I wish you and your family not only a fine holiday but a great next year.

Peace
j

My sentiments as well J. And I also would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas... and if there are any among you who have taken offense to my having said that - then you can go... er excuse me Happy Holidays ;D

Seriously, I hope the blessings of the season are upon you. - chadgumbo

[chadgumbo]

Oh, and one more thing - I almost forgot!

Happy birthday Mister I Share a Birthday with Jimmy Buffett, as well as the Birthday of Whom We Celebrate the Season.

Happy #55 Mike!

Chad

[Mike]

chadgumbo said:

Happy #55 Mike!

Chad

Thanks Chad!
55's not as scary as it looks. ;D

[Mike]

I hope everybody had a Great Christmas!!! (that's the word I use...Christmas)
Now, back to business.

Patriot Act? They don't need no stinking Patriot Act!

From the AP:
Secret court modified wiretap requests
Intervention may have led Bush to bypass panel

By STEWART M. POWELL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Government records show that the administration was encountering unprecedented second-guessing by the secret federal surveillance court when President Bush decided to bypass the panel and order surveillance of U.S.-based terror suspects without the court's approval.

A review of Justice Department reports to Congress shows that the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than from the four previous presidential administrations combined.

The court's repeated intervention in Bush administration wiretap requests may explain why the president decided to bypass the court nearly four years ago to launch secret National Security Agency spying on hundreds and possibly thousands of Americans and foreigners inside the United States, according to James Bamford, an acknowledged authority on the supersecret NSA, which intercepts telephone calls, e-mails, faxes and Internet communications.

"They wanted to expand the number of people they were eavesdropping on, and they didn't think they could get the warrants they needed from the court to monitor those people," said Bamford, author of "Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency" and "The Puzzle Palace: Inside America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization." "The FISA court has shown its displeasure by tinkering with these applications by the Bush administration."

To borrow from a very popular bumper sticker during the '90's:

"IMPEACH BUSH NOW"

[Scott Hays]

Okay ... who remembers the TIA (Total Information Awareness)? You know, the massive data-mining program designed to search through all major databases to gather information about everyone in one secure place? You know, the one under the leadership of Admiral John Poindexter ... a man convicted of five felonies in the Iran-Contra scandal (hmmm ... another one of those under the counter and around the hen house illegal manipulations of past Republican Administrations ... hey Hank, you say there are no "conspiracies"?) ... that was considered to be such an offensive affront to liberty, justice and the American way of life that it was ostensibly shut down?

Guess what? More bamboozelement and slight of hand by the Bushies ... change the name, make it disappear, and continue mining data on anyone suspected of doing anything for which there was no concrete evidence with which to obtain a warrant ... I mean, the FISA panel gave just about anyone a warrant (up to 72 hours AFTER the snooping had been done) if they had even a scrap of evidence or a reasonable inquiry ... the Bushies began receiving denials because they must have had NO EVIDENCE!

As I see it, this administration cannot be trusted or believed about anything they say, from here on out. The primary criteria for receiving any type of appointment to any position of authority in this Administration seems to be to possess the ability to either look the public in the eye and lie, mislead, misstate or selectively cite information that supports the Administration's foregone conclusions about whatever policy matter is being discussed -- whether it has to do with increasing global temperature, the amount of permissable poisons in the air, water or "clean skies", where the terrorists are, who has what weapons, and on and on ad nauseum. Everything this Administration has adopted as policy is based on lies and distortions of truth. It's either that, or these are the stupidest bunnies to crawl out of the hole in an awfully long time, and we should run them out of town for that reason.

Even the one thing that this President can point to as being "successful" is a joke. The economy is rebounding for only one segment of the population ... the people who have contributed to his campaigns, and they are succeeding in proportional amounts to the amount contributed. Everyone else is actually worse off today than they were a decade ago. Wages have stagnated, and more and more "efficiently run" companies are either eliminating all health and welfare benefits, or placing caps on what they offer so that the stagnated wages actually are declining. I left teaching, in part, because I had not had a raise in four years, I was being forced to pick up larger and larger chunks of my medical expenses, and any thought of walking a picket line to attempt to bring some semblance of sanity to the workplace is such a hot-button topic in every community that I needed to find some other way to support myself. And I was in a career that supposedly is comprised of "educated" people ... the ones that this Administration says are most likely to prosper the most in the "global" economy. Well, don't look now, but the "global" economy is upon us, and the global giants work in secret behind locked doors, and don't really give a rat's ass whose "country" benefits most from economic domination.

Meanwhile, there is a war being waged by the owners of capital on the middle and the working class. Major corporations ... you know, the "successful" and "skilled" entrepeneurs that we all should emulate ... are all going belly up (they say) because the workers of this country are robbing them blind with their health benefits and pay scales; they cannot compete with East and South Asian workers (who also are paid and owned by the same corporations that can't make it here). If they are going belly up, how can they still hold positions of leadership? If they are going belly up, how can they divvy up their financial resources to give their chief executives lucrative benefit packages just before declaring chapter 11?

They say that private enterprise is efficient and effective ... that it certainly can do a much better job than "government" in making business decisions. Doesn't look like they are being so successful to me, or making such great decisions.

We are a coporatist state, and have been since the 1970s. Democracy has been a sham for at least that long, but at least the illusion has existed strong enough to make most people think there was something we could do about it. This President is quietly removing the illusions. He is above the law (because he is the commander in chief, and we are fighting a war against a nebulous and impossible to pin down enemy that could be anywhere and everywhere). He could quite easily manufacture another crisis in the next couple of years that would necessitate him cancelling the 2008 elections.

Sounds far fetched? Well, how does this sound? We are now a nation that proposes preventative war (that is, if we suspect anyone has designs to do something bad to us, we have the right to take them out and prevent it from happening ... even if there is no substantive or even real threat that has to be addressed), which takes the place of "pre-emptive" war (initiate an attack before a villain attacks us), or the good old-fashioned war of self-defense which is sort of what the red-white-and blue moralizing used to call it. Iraq is an experiment to establish the norm. This administration has much grander plans.

Fortunately, they are not as smart as they thought they were, and have hit a few snags. Still, the elections have turned the spigot of support back on, and the future once again looks "rosy" to those who really DO think America is NUMBER ONE (and want us to prove it to everyone). But we are entering a period of protracted, continuous warfare. Reread 1984.

This president needs to be impeached. And those Republicans who thought that lying about sex was an impeachable offense had better be the first in line to sign on the dotted line.

[featphoto]

shays said:

... hey Hank, you say there are no "conspiracies"?) ...

nope, what I said was I'm not willing to classify everything I don't like as a conspiracy and base it on flawed logic