Tuff Talk!

Tuff Talk on Earmarks but what about signing statements

pResident Bush delivered his final State of the Union address on Monday and even before the champagne corks went popping in the GOP section, Bush's Tuff Talk was spun into more lies and deception.

In what can only be described as calculated distain for the nation he serves, an arrogant pResident triumphantly stood before a nation of people who's economic prospects stand in ruins but for those who chose to ignore the basic tenants of our Constitution, human rights and divine doctrine to join in his world-wide pillage. Ever jubilant, this cheerleader/actor delivered the opening monolog to this, hopefully the final act in the saga "Death of a Nation". With but 355 days of this tragedy left, Bush and his corporate sponsors have quite the finale yet to perform.

Not wasting a moment, even his SOU was filled with lies and deception. As he smugly twisted fact to fiction, he sounded almost like a good President. By his account, he has worked hard to create a peaceful middle east, his policies have strengthened our economy, schools and environment. As he spoke it seemed even he enjoyed reading his script and who could blame him, for his entire cast of players were assembled before him, except for those who were spirited away in the previous scenes. And though half the room was scripted to sit somberly though his monolog, he seemed eager for an oscar performance.

As he spoke about all his accomplishments and visions, he sternly spoke of a need for this Congress to step up for the economy. He demanded they pass his stimulus package as-is; that they support his Defense Act with no addendums, earmarks or loopholes. Tuff Talk from our 'Uniter' pResident indeed!

But as he continued, with fools-grin, demanding Congress agree to stop adding pork to all the important bills yet to come in his final days, he quietly and confidently, knew of a loophole with the power of Kryptonite to Superman, that he was prepared to use-again (more than any President in history) were they to not heed his demands. A loophole granting him absolute power and eviscerating the three branches of government... his Executive Signing Statement.

The next day, following his rejecting Congress' first version because it could have "opened the Iraqi government to pursue expensive lawsuits against US Corporations", he decided to sign the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act into law... even with sections he did not approve. Because he would simply add a Signing Statement to ignore the parts he didn't want.

One such provision sets up a commission to probe contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another expands protections for whistle-blowers who work for government contractors. A third requires that U.S. intelligence agencies promptly respond to congressional requests for documents. And a fourth bars funding for permanent bases in Iraq and finally, the part barring the pResident from attempting to privatize Iraq's oil industry without Congressional approval.

In his Statement, his "Memorandum of Justification" for the waiver, Bush cited his Nov. 26 "Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship" between Iraq and the United States as justification to ignore these provisions.

Oddly though, the "Liberal" Mainstream Media... has done little to report his grievous dereliction of duty- which certainly was worth a headline if not a front page intro. No even though his Declaration of Principles has been aggressively opposed by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress as not-only unprecedented, but also potentially unconstitutional because it was enacted without the agreement of the legislation branch, they remain conspicuously silent.

what gives?

Throughout his presidency, Bush has issued more than 151 signing statements overriding 1149 provisions of laws.

How is it that this lying deceiver can again get away with hood-winking the American Public with Tuff Talk and not less than 24 hours later, go back on his own stern words... without so much as a peep from the press???

We read the law is passed that says no perminant bases, mandatory legislative branch oversight, speedy responses from Bush Administrators to Congressional document requests and protection of whistle-blowers... and he evisorates it all with an Executive Statement... and then to boot... he adds he will not tolerate any legislature that seeks to control how the oil money is controlled!

And there isn't even a story on the news! My friends the end times for this once-great nation have arrived... wrapped in the flag and presented in HiDef on every channel... no news, just views... no facts, just their fiction-presented in mindless programing and endless consumption.

At this point are we really to believe that if Congress denies his "Retroactive Immunity" requests for Telcoms and his staff effective 9/11/2001... that he won't just issue another Signing Statement that the MSM will also conveniently forget to report? Liberal-bias my arse!

Bush's Report Card-redux

The folks at JibJab.com made this for the 2005 year in review...
its sadly still relevant 2 years later.

How will he spin his plans tonite?

Lies, Lies, Lies

The Center for Public Integrity just released a scathing database study listing all the times a Bush administration officials made false statements about the threat from Iraq, WMDs and AlQaeda connections, leading up to the Bush-bred invasion.



There are 935 entries immediately available for the public to search and scrutinize. The CPI chairman Charles Lewis said the project took nearly a year to complete, and was systematic in its construction.



He stated "We took a two-year period, from September 11th forward, and tracked eight officials, including two White House press secretaries, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, the pResident and the Vice President, looking at all their statements, and interlaced with various fine journalistic accounts, like Bob Drogin’s and others. We looked at government reports, Senate Intelligence Committee reports, the Duelfer Report—you name it, we have all those reports in there. We have whistleblower accounts, the most credible ones, Richard Clarke, of course, and many others. And we wove that into the chronology, so you know what they’re saying at the time, and you know what they are actually discussing privately, hearing and thinking behind the scenes. And it’s very useful, because then you get to put it all in context. "

This database is likely become the "deep throat" of the Bush Administration...
only ironically it comes from the crooks themselves this time.


Already news agencies and governmental offices and the international community are connecting the dots- when things were said and how they became embroidered into consensus. Its going to become quite clear exactly who manufactured the charge for war and how they duped Congress, the Press, our allies and citizens into believing their lies.



As Lewis said "the public has never really seen all this woven together. Most people don’t connect the dots. We felt it was useful for the public to know. "

Dozens of White House coverups and scandals continue to unfold. Last week officials admitted deleting more than 5 million emails and deliberately erasing backup and archive tapes. Karl Rove and his second laptop which he used while acting as King George's "Merlin", magically lost all its eMails too when commanded by court and congress to testify. Yes even ex-Press Secretary Scott McClellon's book comes out stating Cheney told him to lie about the WMD intelligence. Overseas, the UK press is clamoring about a document it wants declassified that too shows the evidence of WMDs was contrived and in that case, the author was found dead days after news was disclosed.



While it seems all the rats are abandoning ship, there's still one "fluffing" Bush, his pinup girl, press secretary Dana Perino, who's been giving blondes a bad name with her "blond-ness" shining through in her press conference as she tries to do damage control only to be "punked" by CPI Chief Charlie Lewis- boooyaah!!!

look at this video!

The right-wing chickenhawk pundits, liars and GOP Congressmen might be fluffing their feathers today...
but lets see who's flapping in a couple weeks!

Nukes, NATO & New World Order

Calling for a complete restructuring of NATO and a trilateral pact combining the US, NATO and the EU together in a “grand force” to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former military heads from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a “nuclear first-strike” option remains the “indispensable instrument” since there is “simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world”.

Their manifesto, written following discussions with active commanders and policymakers, sounds so much like the New World Order the media and power-elite keep insisting is a conspiracy, that many are unable or unwilling to publicly air their views. It has been presented to the Pentagon in Washington and to NATO’s secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, over the past 10 days. The matter will surely be discussed at a NATO summit in Bucharest in April.

“The risk of further [nuclear] proliferation is imminent and, with it, the danger that nuclear war fighting, albeit limited in scope, might need to become possible,” the authors argued in the 150-page manifesto for the urgent transformation of western military strategy and structures. “The use of nuclear first-strike weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.” But apparently they forgot about the Depleated-Uranium munitions widely used by coalition forces throughout the middle east leaving 3.5 billion years of radiation poison from the aerosolized ordinances. Just as massively destructive in widespread small doses as a single tactical bomb)

The authors - General John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff under Bill Clinton and former NATO Supreme commander in Europe, General Klaus Naumann, Germany’s former top soldier and ex-chairman of NATO’s military committee, General Henk van den Breemen, a former Dutch chief of staff, Admiral Jacques Lanxade, a former French chief of staff, and Lord Inge, field marshal and ex-chief of the general staff and the defence staff in the UK - paint an alarming picture of the threats and challenges confronting the west in the post-9/11 world and naturally, deliver a withering verdict of our ability to cope.

Not surprising, the five commanders argue that the west’s values and way of life are under threat, and the west needs help to summon the will to defend themselves. The key threats being:

· Political fanaticism and religious fundamentalism. Not withstanding the US born-again christian president who admittedly "talks to God"?

· The “dark side” of globalisation, meaning international terrorism, organized crime and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.- As opposed to state-sponsored mercenary death-squads, resource extortion, child slavery and gross human rights violations associated with the "positive" side of corporate greed- oh and the inconvenient fact that most WMD's are made and financed by the west.

· Climate change and energy insecurity, causing a scramble for resources and potential “environmental” migrations on a mass scale. Meaning the west's imperial conquest in the form of "free-market capitalism" consisting of domination of resources and inhabitants by an elite, friendly to powerful corporate interests, who will use such a global military to decrease surplus populations and maintain subjugation of the remainder.

And lastly and most insideously,
· The weakening of the nation-state as well as organizations like the UN, NATO and the EU. Meaning their plans for the ascension of the Corporate Kingdom and a One-World-Government to save the imminent collapse of the west way... but that still might not sit well in the US.

To prevail, the generals call for a complete overhaul of NATO decision-taking methods, a new “directorate” for US, European and NATO leaders to respond rapidly to crises, and an end to EU's obstruction-of and rivalry-with NATO. Among the most radical changes demanded are:

· An end to veto powers by member-nations and a shift to majority rule in NATO: Bully-Rule.

· The end of national "conditions" in NATO operations -meaning the bully rules and all must follow.

· Exclusion of any NATO member in decision-making of NATO operations for alliance members not taking part in the operations. Bully-way or the Highway!

· First-Strike capability without UN security council authorization if “immediate action is deemed necessary (by the bully) to protect large numbers of human beings”.

All this surfaced in the wake of the conspicuous headlines condemning NATO's performance in Afghanistan. Touched-off by Bush administration defense secretary, Robert Gates' comments that some allies could not conduct "proper" counter-insurgencies, the five ex-military goons declared that NATO’s future was "on the line" in Afghanistan's Helmand province. “NATO’s credibility is at stake in Afghanistan,” said Van den Breemen and according to their manifesto, “NATO is at a juncture and runs the risk of failure,”

Coincidentally, this week the Bush Administration named their man in Iraq, Gen Patreas, as a possible head of NATO... So as the latest in a long line of commanders, most of whom left calling for the US to leave Iraq, General Patraes however had no problem ignoring human rights and codes of conduct, to "win at any cost" and bring about a turn in the war. For that barbarism, he will be awarded the command of this New World Order's pretorian guard.

Klaus Naumann, Germany's top military commander who single-handedly revived combat operations and the Luftwaffe, dormant since Nazi rule, delivered a blistering attack on his own country’s performance in Afghanistan. “The time has come for Germany to decide if it wants to be a reliable partner.” By insisting on “special rules” for its forces in Afghanistan, the Merkel government in Berlin was contributing to “the dissolution of NATO”.

Naumann conceded that the plan’s retention of the nuclear first-strike option was “controversial” even among the five authors. Inge argued that “to tie our hands on first use or no first use removes a huge plank of deterrence”. Though again he failed to admit that he feels tactical nukes were not only a reality, but perfectly acceptable to use- which kind of nullifies the word deterrent.

Big words from five fear-mongers who's economic future depends on conflict and strife. Our media seems content to play this one down but its very notion should cause public outcry the likes of which our nation has never heard. For what these mercenaries of terror are proposing is nothing short of the end of democracy and the beginning of a one-world rule.. exactly what the Bilderberg Group has been planning for nearly a century.

Bush-ness as Usual

Today more allegations that the Bush administration has lost or deleted millions of classified emails were leveled. For years, the Bush administration alleges it relied on an inadequate archiving system for storing the millions of e-mails sent through White House servers, but newly uncovered facts say the White House scrapped the custom archiving system that was ordered by federal court during the Clinton administration. Also,from 2001 to 2003, the Bush White House recorded over computer backup tapes erasing the last line of defense for preserving e-mails, even though a similar practice landed the Clinton administration in legal trouble.

As a result, several years' worth of electronic communication have been lost, including e-mails documenting administration actions in the run-up to the Iraq war, the Valerie Plame incident, both election fraud debacles, the ENRON case and the whole special prosecutor scandal to name a few...

As usual, White House officials said last week that they have "no reason to believe" that any e-mails were deliberately destroyed or are missing. But over the past year, they have acknowledged problems with archiving, saving and finding e-mails dating from early in the administration until at least 2005.
The administration's e-mail policies have been repeatedly challenged by lawmakers and open-government groups, in congressional hearings and in court. Two groups, the National Security Archive and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, have accused the White House in lawsuits of violating the Federal Records Act because of what they say is its failure to preserve millions of e-mails, a charge the White House rejects.

The White House's record-keeping problems have thrown new attention on a gap in statutory language covering the retention of presidential records."If it is a presidential record, then it does need to be retained. It doesn't matter what the format is -- e-mails can be records," said Susan Cooper, a spokeswoman for the National Archives and Records Administration. But the agency has no power to intervene if an administration is not preserving presidential records, inadvertently or not, Cooper said.

The law governing non-presidential federal records is stronger. The National Archives can demand an explanation from any federal agency that it suspects is mishandling records, and it can request a Justice Department probe. Private parties can sue to force compliance with federal records laws, but not the presidential-records statute.
Controversy surrounding the Bush administration's policies intensified on Thursday, when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released details of a briefing by White House special counsel Emmet T. Flood, in which he disclosed that a 2005 White House study had identified 473 separate days in which no electronic messages were stored for one or more component offices.

In the presidential offices, for example, not a single e-mail was archived on Dec. 17, 20 or 21 in 2003 -- the week after the capture of Saddam Hussein. According to the study summary that the committee released, e-mails were not archived for Vice President Cheney's office on four days in early October 2003, coinciding with the start of a Justice Department probe into the leak of a CIA officer's identity, which later led to criminal charges against Cheney's chief of staff.

This e-mail controversy echoes the GOP-led witch-hunt that rocked the Clinton administration a decade ago, when GOP-led congressional probes found that thousands of White House e-mails had been lost, spending nearly $12 million to retrieve missing e-mails for congressional investigators from backup tapes.

The GAO report concluded that Gore's office "did not implement adequate records management practices to ensure that all e-mail records generated or received were preserved in accordance with applicable law and best practices."

By the end of Bill Clinton's presidency, White House officials said the problem had been solved. But shortly after Bush took office, his administration began taking steps to phase out the system. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel would not comment on why the back-up/archival system was eliminated.

In April, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino referenced the e-mail software change in answering a reporter's question about millions of lost e-mails alleged by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive. "I wouldn't rule out that there were a potential 5 million e-mails lost," she said. "There was no intent to have lost them."

Now, true to form, the White House appears to have changed its stance-again. "We have no reason to believe that any e-mails, at all, are missing," spokesman Tony Fratto said Thursday, before declining to answer further questions Friday.

--move along--
nothing to look at here, just your typical despots in action
- step lively - next on our tour-

the ancient artifacts we formerly cared about...

the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Ignorance & Greed!

Information about the manipulative nature of this administration is widely available, but people don’t want to hear it. Once and a while a story is spectacular enough to break through and attract media attention, but the swell quickly subsides into the general glut of bad news over which we, as citizens, have little control.

Coming at us like this–in waves, massed and unbreachable–knowledge becomes symbolic of our disempowerment–becomes bad knowledge–so we deny it, riding the crest until it subsides from consciousness. We have heard ourselves protesting, “I didn’t know!” but this is not true. Of course we knew about the deceptions –devisive naming conventions, like Patriot Act, Clear Skies, Leave-No-Child-Behind and Islamo-fascist. We knew that Saddham and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11; knew that waging war on the other side of the planet would cost billions and that cutting taxes would not help pay for it. We knew that a war on Terror with no end and no defined adversary is unwinable; Knew that capturing votes through pitting gay marriage initiatives, anti-abortion issues and anti-gun rhetoric during an election was deceptive and manipulative. Not a lot perhaps, but we knew a little. We knew enough.

But we wanted the money, the revenge, the feeling of redemption- the security. So when the choice was offered to us, we chose to ignore what we knew. “Ignorance” In this root sense, ignorance was an act of will, a choice that we made over and over again, especially when information overwhelms us and knowledge becomes synonymous with impotence.

We would like to think of our “ignorance” less as a personal failing and more as a massive cultural trend, an example of doubling, of psychic numbing, that which characterized the end of the millennium. If we can’t act on knowledge, then we can’t survive without ignorance. So we cultivate the ignorance, even go to great lengths to celebrate it. The faux-dumb aesthetic that dominates TV and Hollywood –RealityTV, Fear Factor, faux-life terror dramas– must all be about this. Fed on a media diet of really bad news, we live in a perpetual state of repressed panic. We are paralyzed by bad knowledge, from which the only escape is playing dumb. Ignorance becomes empowering because it enables people to live. Stupidity becomes proactive, a political statement- Our collective norm.

Maybe this exempts us as an individual, but it sure makes us entirely culpable as global consumers.

Where do you stand?

Underwater AlQaeda!

Once again the Bush Administration shows those watching... that they could care less about our planet and the things that live on it... Except for THEIR interests and need for "national security". Bush policy has long been suspected of having ulterior motivation - either that or they are the most incompetent and inept group of businessmen to ever steal their way into power and bankrupt the most technologically advanced culture in modern history...

Today yet another example of how the neo-con need for funding its defense contractor buddies outstrips any care for citizens, animals, nature or protection of the planet's resources. How far is Cheney willing to go ignoring environmental law when it comes to his personal piggy bank, the principal shareholders of the multinational energy, defense, monetary and chemical corporations?

In today's resource-righteous right-wing reality, fear trumps sanity, and protection from fear -permits atrocity.

Yesterday in an all-to-typical split decision of the 9th circuit appeals court, right-wing judges placed by this administration and its predecessors, decided to overthrow a lower court's decision to uphold the ban on the military using a new sonar device in its submarines that is so powerfully loud, that it has clearly been proven to harm undersea life! -Its also the first presidential override honored since a 1972 law gave states the right to review federal activities that affect their coastal resources.- but clearly no legislating from the bench here.... just acting out marching orders.

One can only assume that the Bush administration's "intelligence" fears AlQaeda is plotting an attack underwater... Presumably Cheney's intel-experts have "undeniable proof" that Bin-Laden has been building " a new breed of silent-running submarines" in mountain caves of Tora Bora... Maybe using that yellow-cake that Valerie Plame's husband "discovered". Or maybe that earthworm gear thingy from that Clancy novel starring Shaun Connery...



They must have classified satellite imagery of these submarines being transported by sherpas down the mountainsides, hundreds of miles across the desert to the Straits of Hormuz where they are no-doubt being deployed to attack our fleets- but of course they can't actually SHOW US them cuz it risks national security and all!



So of course, we must take action... and rather than using all the unbelievably superior surveillance equipment we (as the most technologically advanced nation on earth, who spends more on defense in a year than the entire planet does in three) must utilize an experimental -and no-doubt expensive- killer sonar, regardless of the fact that the blasts emitted from it can kill sea life because of its "sophisticated" technology.

Well I for one am not ashamed to say these TERRORIST EXTREMISTS in office are neither sophisticated nor honest. They have motives that again clearly show they don't care about anything but taking taxpayer money from the middle class, since they exclude wealthy and corporate citizens, and giving it to themselves via their corporate defense contracts.

Nevermind that polar bears have trouble swimming in oils slicks and really need that ice-cap to live on. Nevermind that whales, who's TRUELY sophisticated sonar has allowed them to talk to eachother across thousands of miles underwater for millions of years... No, Cheyenne wants to use some neanderthal sonic club to boom out an image so his undersea mercenary soldiers can spot the terrorists so bent on killing americans that they'd rather build sophisticated submarines than create electricity or running water where they live.... AND WE BUY THESE LIES!

Never have so many been so stupid for so long... but its not for the ruling elite not trying... this brilliant stupidization of the voter public, this consumerization of the citizenry of our nation has been long in making and vast in its execution... why even radical changes in planetary weather and plague-like disfunctions of insects, plants and sea creatures have not swayed the spell cast upon us. Vast exposés of their criminal antics are turned into conspiracy theories and the whistle-blowers have their character assassinated and are put to shame...

So on we go... now killing ever-more animals in our NEED for more advanced weaponry...

Like old W coulda said,

"ya never know how they'r gonna hit cha... heh heh
so ya gotta git-r-done up right - in advance... see...
cuz thats the a-mar-i-kan way .... see... wooohah! ... heh heh"

alright I took liberty to poke fun at our foolish nation and its ridiculous ways... so sue me.

Global Warming Debate-Solved!

The Bush administration and its multinational corporate friends, motivated by ideology and profit, have repeatedly been sited for censoring reports highlighting global warming and softening scientific findings to lessen the threat of global climate destabilization. This week several scientists have come to Capitol Hill to protest the Bush administration’s alleged interference in science linked to the environment.

Meanwhile a high school science teacher has created a video on YouTube that completely clarifies the debate about Global Warming and explain what our real questions must be... with more than 3 million views, his video has created quite a stir on the viral video medium.

Many harsh criticisms were leveled against him and rather than running away or lashing back, he struggled for several months researching and refining his thesis until he created a sound and irrefutable response... which he presented with humility, kindness and a good sense of humor.

Then he backed it up with dozens of short lessons to overcome the many objections to his initial posting.

In fact so great was his presentation that thousands of people forwarded his original post and several have even created websites to promote his message.

I urge you... though you all know I readily condemn this administration's role in many of our planet's and nation's problems... I freely admit it is not ALL their fault.

Please watch this man's humble arguments and do the right thing...
Politics aside... this is possibly the greatest decision we face in the history of mankind.

Vets Killing Spree -another secret

The New York Times has revealed at least 121 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been charged with committing murder after they returned home from duty. The Times said the numbers indicated a nearly 90 percent increase in homicides involving active-duty military personnel and new veterans since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

The Times said about one in three of the victims were spouses, girlfriends, children or other relatives and while many of the killer veterans showed signs of combat trauma, most were never evaluated for or diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder until after the homicides.

Couple this with the alarming truth of an unprecedented suicide rate among soldiers both in the field and upon returning home. 6125 soldiers took their own lives in 2005. Thats 120 suicides per week!

Now put this in perspective with the stories you heard a year ago of this administration cutting funding for our medical hospitals, privatizing veterans benefits programs and denying coverage for PTSD thereby insuring most returning vets never receive the care they were promised by recruiters and it becomes clear that this administration has never cared for its soldiers or its citizens. Citizens produce children to be consumed as cannon-fodder for the elite multinational corporation's quest for world domination.

In fact if you look at the staggering migration of multi-national corporation's assets and workforces outside the US, it might become clear that Corporate Citizens are the only ones this administration has been serving and when the dust settles, they will be the only "citizens" left standing.

Our economy is descending into a recession the likes of which it may never recover... The Bush Administration has spent $1.6 Trillion dollars on the war thus far and is likely to double that before the next president leaves office. Thats more than $40,000 owed by each family in the US.

Meanwhile our currency, which is based on debt and our ability to pay it.... is in serious jeopardy. The credit industry is writing off billions of dollars in bad debt and selling off huge sums to foreign interests. Mortgage failures coupled with sharply rising energy costs and subsequent rising prices for all our goods and services have us teetering on the brink of total economic collapse. And if the world economy decides to switch to the Euro as its world currency because the Dollar is so devalued, we will become the next third world nation... in the giving up our last rights and liberties for assurances of protection and safety...

... like the ones they've given to our young men and women as they recruit them into service.... get the picture? Uncover the secrets... Connect the Dots.

Charlie Wilson's War- the sequel

I recently went to see the Tom Hanks film Charlie Wilson's War. Last summer I shared a room with a fellow activist who, like me, was given a chance to lobby our Congress for the Alaska Wilderness Coalition. I noticed a thick book he was engrossed in and asked him about it. He was reading the best-selling novelby George Crile, Charlie Wilson's War and said it was a chilling revelation into the inner-workings of the Congress we were to meet with the next three days.

We talked into the night of the startling truths behind the veil of righteousness that was either required to keep our world at peace-or was the very reason for it being so horrific. Oddly enough, the book, and now movie mirror exactly the same conundrum... but as usual.. only a few will be privy to engage in such discussion. Privy-perhaps the wrong word for it infers elite or special when what I mean is few will have an opportunity to realize that there are deeper questions that need asking after watching this film.


Film Critic James Rocchi said it best-
I didn't leave Charlie Wilson's War, the new film from director Mike Nichols, dissatisfied or unamused. I walked out of Charlie Wilson's War angry. No reasonable person expects a film -- any film -- to capture the complexity and scope of real events with absolute precision; adaptations are translations, and as the old Italian saying goes, "The translator is a traitor." It's one thing to compress, combine and fictionalize a story to fit the sprawling, ugly mess of it onto the big screen; it's another to take only the best, shiniest parts of a real, ugly story and turn it into a feel-good comedy. Translation may be traitorous, but Charlie Wilson's War feels like a conscious act of treason against reason itself. As film critic David Thompson has said, "We learn our history from movies, and history suffers ...." Charlie Wilson's War isn't just bad history; it feels even more evil, like a conscious attempt to induce amnesia.

The movie is ridiculously nearsighted and does a great disservice to our historic perspective. Summed up with the movie's final sentences spoken by Hanks which perfectly illustrate how the truth, like so many headlines, can be manipulated to tell only the part that paints the best reflection of what we want reality to be, rather than what it truly is. Sort of a Dorian Grey Portrait-this story snapshots a moment in time showing the best image possible, while the real truth lies buried, like the portrait hidden in the attic, in the untold history that followed those final words.

“These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world. And the people who deserved the credit are the ones who made the sacrifice. And then we fucked up the endgame.”

Does anyone realize the endgame was us disowning Afghanistan after arming it to the teeth and training its citizens to be efficient terrorists? That the subsequent struggle for power amid the aftermath, created the Taliban, bin Laden and alQaeda? At least there was a moment, originally in the film, but left on the cutting room floor by the producers, where Gust contacts Wilson years later to tell him to turn on his tv to see the 9/11 attacks.

gee-kinda wrecks the warm-fuzzy afterglow of the film doesn't it?

Charlie Wilson's War stops being funny
...when you realize we're living in the sequel.

Army finds itself Not Guilty

Army throws out conviction of Abu Ghraib commander.

The US army has thrown out the conviction of the only officer court martialed in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, Commander of Abu Ghraib during the prisoner abuse exposure was instead given an administrative reprimand. Barring any new information, the decision means no officers or civilian leaders will be held criminally responsible for the prisoner abuse.

Now I'm for defending the troops... but this is getting a bit ridiculous. Now a full two years after those horrid pictures were released, just weeks after learning the CIA destroyed (some) of the tapings of interrogations there and the FBI releasing documents chronicling two dozen incidents, after this administration has overturned centuries of law (Habius Corpus) and ignored UN policy regarding torture and abuse, with NO convictions of any suspects to any plots on US soil and NO ability for detainees to have a fair trial or even free speech (Maher Arar)... , six months after another commander of Abu Ghraib, Col. Janis Karpinski, provided proof that Sec of State Donald Rumsfeld sanctioned torture under her watch to German Courts (cuz our wouldn't allow it)...

...the ARMY BRASS decides upon its own investigation, that its done no wrong and should exonerate everyone except the unfortunate ones caught on film at Abu Ghraib! ! ! ! !

Like that stupid banner ad on this site constantly says... HELLLLOOOO!!!! ? ? ? is anyone paying attention? So the actual troops following order... are in jail... but the ones GIVING the orders are free to move about the country... Rumsfeld... Cheney... Tenet... Ashcroft... and now all the way through the ranks up to the folks that were caught on camera... are okay in the eyes of THIS legal system???

I think it WELL PAST time for a change... don't you?

Police State Video

This is actual f police footage from the 2002 WTO summit... not liberal media.

Its taken dozens of FOIA requests (Freedom Of Information Act) to finally show-by their own video that no bottles were ever thrown, no violence was ever perpetrated by the protesters, none of what the media told viewers ever happened.

By their own words, the riot police attacked peaceful protesters exercizing their Constitutional Right to protest policy and government.... s Previously a vangard of the USA... we were not like those foreign governments who attack their citizens... we do not brutalize and torture....





what a difference the Bush Administration has made.

AT&T 'Ready to Filter' the Web

During a panel discussion at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, AT&T’s top lobbyist said the company was ready to implement new technologies that would allow it to inspect and filter Web traffic.

James Cicconi, AT&T’s senior vice president for external and legal affairs, said that the time was right to start filtering for content at the network level. “We think a network-based solution is the optimal way to approach this,” Cicconi said, according to a New York Times reporter who attended the panel.

It’s no secret that major ISPs have been working with technology companies such as Cisco to filter content with deep-packet-inspection software. Last year, AT&T revealed its plans to work with MPAA, RIAA and broadcasters to use and deploy “digital fingerprinting techniques.

According to public statements, their rationale for playing traffic cop is to ferret out pirated content: sniffing through our digital packets for material that infringe on copyright.

Can You Trust the Filter?

But the technology can be used for other purposes, and the phone giant has shown that it has no qualms invading our communications to hand over our private records to government, or censor speech or block service “without prior notice and for any reason or no reason.”

AT&T has also touted plans to become gatekeepers to the Web with public relations bromides about “shaping” Web traffic to better serve the needs of an evolving Internet.

In reality, Cicconi and his cohorts within the entertainment industry are waging a quiet campaign to control how video and other rich content gets distributed via the Web. The popular trend in video, however, is streaming in the opposite direction. More and more people are becoming their own creators and distributors of homespun video content. YouTube now boasts more than 100 million views each day, but it is just the beginning of this revolution.

Peer-to-peer traffic is spreading via popular technologies like BitTorrent and Gnutella, which allow users to upload and share videos, music and other rich media without a middleman or content gatekeeper. The bulk of this traffic is legal.

Peer-to-Peer Traffic ‘Not Acceptable’

Also at the Las Vegas panel was NBC Universal’s general counsel Rick Cotton, who told the Times that the volume of peer-to-peer traffic online was “overwhelming.”

“That clearly should not be an acceptable, continuing status,” Cotton said, and AT&T seems more than happy to step in.

These executives’ vision of a better Internet ” AT&T’s “Your World Delivered” ” is not one that is shared by the more than 1.5 million people who have spoken out in favor of a neutral, open and free-flowing Internet.

For us, the Internet isn’t about one company delivering our world or filtering our content. It’s about simply offering a high-speed connection at reasonable rates ” and then getting out of our way.

This article is from SavetheInternet.com. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their Web site and register an account, if necessary, to view all their articles on the Web. Support quality journalism.

Congressional Aide Tracker

Mr. Duke goes to Washington. Sixty-four of the members of the last Congress resigned, retired, were defeated, are now sitting in jail or have received pardons from pResident Bush. As last Sunday's Doonesbury cartoon featured above points out, many of them are on their way to fulfilling the grand Washington tradition of hiring themselves out as lobbyists to lean on their former colleagues. Ever since Grover Norquist and Tom Delay's 1995 "K Street Project" brought about the GOP takeover of K Street, its been hard to keep track of all the folks cashing in after public service. What often flies below the radar, however, are the huge number of congressional staffers who take the opportunity of their bosses leaving to join the lobbying corps themselves. They are prized by K Street not just for their insider knowledge of how Congress works, but also for the extensive contacts they still have with their former coworkers and subordinates as well as the lack of oversight and attention given them by anyone.

click to enlarge.

Now it's time to drag them into the sunshine, both Democrat and Republican alike. The Sunlight Foundation, CMD's partner in the Congresspedia project, has developed a cool distributed research tool to marry citizen brain power with a fancy new database to figure out who exactly is hiring these insiders, and they want you to participate. Like so many other participatory projects, many hands can make this formerly daunting task light work.

Once the results are in, the CMD staff will work with the participants to get the results entered into the SourceWatch profiles of the corporations and lobbyists, ensuring that professional reporters and citizen journalists alike will be able to use the information to perform some high-caliber muckraking on the DC influence scene. Even Craigslist's Craig Newmark is participating because, as he says, "This 'revolving door' thing is of great concern since some staffers, working for shadowy politicians, might do more damage as lobbyists."

Everything you need to know is at Sunlight's website. This is your chance to become vigilant citizens by participating in Democracy in an unprecedented way

Featured Participatory Project: Find the Newest Congressional Staffers-Turned-Lobbyists

Movie Industry Lobby Censors for Bush

The Motion Picture Association of America, lobby for big media, doesn't like showing picture the Bush Administration doesn't want you to see. Once again, the myth of liberal media stands exposed to truth... what do you think?

Alex Gibney's new, critically-acclaimed documentary Taxi to the Dark Side follows the path of Afghan taxi driver Dilawar, who was wrongly accused of terrorist ties and was tortured to death by interrogators in the U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base. The film critically examines the Bush administration's torture doctrine at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.



The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has rejected Taxi's poster as being not suitable for all audiences. The poster for the film simply shows two soldiers walking away from the camera, holding a hooded detainee between them.

The Taxi ad art is an actual photograph taken by Corbis Photographer, Shaun Schwarz, who's original image was intentionaly deleted by the military- but not before he transferred a copy to his flash drive. The original shot was of only one soldier and the hooded detainee, a second soldier was added digitally for balance and effect.

According to ThinkFilm, which produced the documentary, the MPAA objected to the image of the hood.

Last year, the MPAA also censored censored the poster for the documentary The Road to Guantanamo, because it showed a detainee hanging by his handcuffed wrists, with a burlap sack over his head and a blindfold tied around the hood.



Poster images for Taxi and Road are based on factual evidence. But interestingly, many horror films released for Christmas... as well as several slasher films shown on TV during the christmas holiday... show hoods, torture, dismemberment and far more horrific imagery.... but thats okay... cuz the Bush Administration doesn't mind showing images that create terror and fear... just not the ones they're actually doing in our name!!!

A look at some of the posters the MPAA has approved as suitable for all audiences this holiday season.

Morality of Politics

Adelheid Meirs created some excellent charts visualizing much of the teachings of George Lakoff regarding the differences between liberals and conservatives in todays... newspeak. What do you think?



heres one that focus's on the differences in educational concepts:


and another charting the differences in government spending ideology: