"Attorneys for Cheney and the other officials said any conversations they had about Plame with each other and reporters were part of their normal job duties because they were discussing foreign policy and engaging in an appropriate "policy dispute." Cheney's attorney went farther, arguing that Cheney is legally akin to the president because of his unique government role, and has absolute immunity from any lawsuit.

"So you're arguing there is nothing -- absolutely nothing - these officials could have said to reporters that would have been beyond the scope of their employment [whether it was] true or false?," U.S. District Judge John D. Bates asked.

"That's true, your honor."

--from http://dailykos.com/

Whoa, back up there a minute bucko! Cheney's lawyer states he should be immune from all prosecution for anything he says. I had no idea he was the head of a church! or was a king!

As an administrator, he has every right to brainstorm in private meetings with other members of the administration any damn thing they want. But stating these things in public? No way. There is a huge difference between thinking things up, discussing them in private and then consulting with the proper legal and other levels of authority before mentioning anything in public. I would expect the war department to have thought about 40 scenarios (at least) to invade anyone, and also ways to defend ourselves. That does not bother me. Just like I hope members of the judicial branch worry about ways to protect civil rights. Or health and human services worry about ways to protect us from the West Nile virus or stockpile anthrax vaccine or flu vaccine. Just like my job as a wastewater treatment operator is discharge clean water within a budget, plan for future, more stringent regulations and then work with political and budgetary entities to make sure the money and the infrastructure are there so we meet any problems before they arise. and have emergency response plans ready in case we have a blocked sewer line or whatever. You take into consideration the proximity of any surface water impoundments and streams and rivers.

But, what we plan about and what we discuss to the public are very, very different. There is a level of security that people should not know. In a egalitarian society that may not be popular, but it is true. I would not want anyone to know security details of a large metropolitan water system and its weak points, but they need to be discussed. And if you give out too much information or act vindictively or unprofessional, "you're fired!" This is not hard to understand. There is no divine right of kings or kings in the U.S. You want to be the CEO administration, then act accordingly. Unprofessional, incompetent, lose job. Duh.

As an aside, this does bring up the myth of a CEO as a "rock star." I read business pages and see what the size of a golden parachute is for running a company into the ground. Rather amazing. Hire me to run a company into the ground. Why not? But how many of us get proxy voting shares with our 401ks? and how many of us actually know who does what with our investments? Our lack of knowledge and activism allow business to run amok. and I am not blaming--I do it too. It probably is not common knowledge who serves on the Boards of the companies we invest in or that many, many people are on the Boards of many companies. And these companies deal with each other. A very closed good old boys club. An exploration for another day.

But to say anyone, POTUS, Veep or anyone can say what they want PUBLICALLY (to reporters, not in private with peers) and are immune from prosecution shows how privileged and disconnected from reality and responsibility Cheney really is. And he needs to be ripped for it.

rojo

WTF, Thursday edition @ 04:19 am

I am a relative youngster, compared to some I know, AARP card excluded. But I sit here this morning looking at the news that Detroit has now asked for impeachment. The State of Vermont has asked for impeachment. Oberlin, Berkeley, San Diego and others have this on their upcoming ballots. For Chrissakes, when will Mainstream Media get a clue the populace is unhappy and we could care less about insider arguments and stories and the same old talking heads. Do we really need to see John McCain again on a Sunday morning? PEOPLE ARE PISSED! The same old, same old is getting people disinterested in that status quo. Record profits for multi-national corporations while the middle class disappears is not helping the demeanor of everyone.

I don't know if I have ever seen the country so polarized since the Vietnam era. If there is not significant change now, I feel that there will be major change in the next election, but this unrest foments splinter groups and wackadoos to take matters into their own hands. What strikes me is that the progressives will probably work within the system of the country they hold dear. I am more worried about backlash right wing or libertarian extremists taking matters into their own hands when they lose voice in the upcoming elections and are still listening to the vehemence and hate being sold by Rush or Glen Beck or Michael Savage.

and all this precludes people in power not trying to foment Armagedon to fulfill Biblical prophecy (in their opinion) so they can speed up the coming rapture.

Happy Thursday! but do something nice and compassionate today for someone.

rojo

Every time I say I am done with politics and do not want to read anymore something draws me back. I started reading blogs a few years ago by daily reading www.juancole.com and his blog entitlled Informed Comment. It is by far and away the best commentary on Iraq going and I started reading because of the shallow coverage of what I know now as MSM. He had more insights about that geographical area and politics than anyone I heard on TV as I knew we were being sold a war we did not need. So today from Juan Cole:

"In case you missed it, I posted some passages showing what the Jordanian newspapers really thought of Cheney's visit here.

For a trip down memory lane, see my posting on Cheney's similar Middle East trip of April, 2002.

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt warned Cheney against an Iraq War and said that it would produce a hundred Bin Ladens! Abdullah II spoke of the "apocalyptic" consequences and worried that the region would go up in flames. So were these leaders of the region right in 2002, or was smarty pants CIA-operative-betrayer Cheney? He'll be hunting quail in Texas in a year and a half, and Abdullah II will have to deal with a million extra residents in his country-- displaced Iraqis. Jordan only has 5.2 million citizens. And, Cheney won't be helping Jordan deal with the burden on services or with feeding the Iraqi refugees he helped create. It will just be Abdullah II and a volatile situation that could explode, just as did the Palestinian refugee problem created by Israeli expulsions and land expropriation in 1948 and 1967."

So far Mulbarek seems correct but what is troubling is that there may be millions of Iraqi-expatriates that I never thought of. and mostly in the Middle East, overcrowding marginal infrastructure.

So let's keep adding fuel to the flame instead of finding aid and diplomatic solutions. And then blame the cultural milieu for causing the problems. "Damned Arabs anyhow. Why can't they be like our Jewish friends?" Why in America is creating a situation and then blaming those involved considered acceptable leadership. Please keep that in mind with upcoming elections. Where do want our vision to go?

I am often surprised that more people have not accepted the Kucinich stance of a cabinet Peace Minister. We spend BILLIONS on war machines and much less on diplomacy and training young adults to be diplomats and visonaries.

Thought for a day.

rojo

Hi Ho, Hi Ho,
I fear and in lockstep we go.

from www.rawstory.com

"Dobson went on to enumerate a series of meetings convened by Christian right leaders in Washington to discuss the supposedly existential threat to the United States from a nuclear Iran.

“I heard about this danger [from Iran] not only at the White House but from other pro-family leaders that I met during that week in Washington," he said. “Many people in a position to know are talking about the possibility of losing a city to nuclear or biological or chemical attack. And if we can lose one we can lose ten.

"If we can lose ten we can lose a hundred," he added, “especially if North Korea and Russia and China pile on.” "

Hold on a minute there, bucko. I feel like I am listening to the bastardized lyrics of Junko Partner.

Am I to believe a group of crazed fear-mongers in a room together talking about the implicit dangers of Iran nuking the crap out of us. and then being piled on by Russia, China and North Korea. How afraid are these people in their lives? They believe in their God and his Son has already saved them.


1) There are loose nukes out there.
2) One will go off in the U.S. because people hate us. The reasons,and many are false, are too numerous to mention. We are targets!
3) I refuse to live my life afraid of this, and believe covert intelligence and enforcement are better than trying to be the biggest swinging dick in town via military force. I believe Britain tried that here once.
4) Maybe Fishbone is right.

I hope that if this is true that more than the Christian Right is informed. After all, they will end up ascending in the rapture and we get their Volvos.

Or is this another delusion that the world is ending and all is going on according to the Divine Plan of Revelation? These folks are seriously twisted. Sadly, they run our government and really believe that they are doing God's will bringing the end times.

rojo

In case you missed this little tidbit...

rojo

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

It's a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the Iraqi parliament, but many have fled the country's civil conflict, and at times it's been difficult to arrive at a quorum)....

What is clear is that while the U.S. Congress dickers over timelines and benchmarks, Baghdad faces a major political showdown of its own. The major schism in Iraqi politics is not between Sunni and Shia or supporters of the Iraqi government and "anti-government forces," nor is it a clash of "moderates" against "radicals"; the defining battle for Iraq at the political level today is between nationalists trying to hold the Iraqi state together and separatists backed, so far, by the United States and Britain.

from Think Progress

Okay, Iraq wants us to leave. The majority of Americans want out. How bull-headed is this administration.

rojo

Take the time to read this and see that there is much on the table this week and until the end of May in Iraq. Yes, we are in the middle of a civil war we helped start. What happens if the Kurds secede over oil revenues? What role would Turkey play? The Sunni countries? the Shiites?
Just thinking aloud and I really don't know any answers.

rojo

After a week off and a clear head--okay, my head cannot hold all the stupidity and scandals it can see anymore--I have a few comments.

First is Obama's comments on Detroit automobile industry. Gas prices are at almost all time highs adjusted for inflation. I think 1983 was actually higher. I drive through Colorado and see all the damn big diesel pickups. Or Excursions. Or the Bellaraphons. Or whatever. Who the hell needs to play urban cowboy that much?? Or are our kids so fat we need that big of an SUV to carry them all. I was listening to my favorite local talk radio host yesterday (give him a web listen, he is good) and he had a caller say he had a pickup that got him 18 mpg and he was happy with that. I had a '63 VW that got 42 mpg. Granted it had few extras, but it worked. Now we brag over 18 mpg. D'oh! Is it any wonder we voted for Bush? It will take decades for the American auto industry to get up to speed. There is the need for long-lasting, well-built cars that get good mileage. The ONLY reason they sell big vehicles is because they can load them with extras and options, raising the profit margins. and the public is so stupid, they demand them.

Chevy even touted the new electric car they were going to market, but then said "oh, we may not be able to find batteries. Sorry" What!!!! This hasn't stopped the Prius and Insight. And I wonder how honest they are after watching "Who killed the electric car." They just keep diggin deeper.

And maybe Congress can grow testicles (no, I really do want to see Nancy Pelosi with testicles, just a euphemism. I am hoping to see her as President after the impeachments. She would make a good President and would be my first choice for the first female President over Hillary, but I digress) and get the energy policy meeting records for this administration. I do fear that even if they did press oil companies (remember they are not Standard Oil of Ohio, but BP; or Texaco, but Shell), they will take their product to China or elsewhere.

rojo

I incorrectly made mention of Altnet in my last post. I apologize. It really should be alternet. Link to the relevant story is attached. rojoo

I have taken time of off writing anything to actually gain a sense of perspective and sanity. Between work, kids and everything (still can't get my checkbook to balance) I needed a little space.

But here are two issues worth looking at. The first is the television show that showed the run-up to the Iraq war. The war that shows we have no moral high ground and can be fat and happy as occupiers, not just as consumers. It is Bill Moyers Journal and the link will show you the reporting that was not done, except by Knight-Ridder (now McLatchey) news service. God, it is good to have Bill Moyers back again. He is what a Texas Christian should be. Watch the show and be amazed. Digby, as usual, had a marvelous comment.

One other item is tracking the vote in Ohio in 2004. Altnet had a very wonderful article that took a couple of days to sink into my feeble brain. During the 2004 election, the Secretary of State Blackwell, he who certified the election before the recount was even started, let alone completed--he who threw out tens of thousands of voter registrations because they were on the incorrect bond paper, he who provided so few voting machines in black neighborhoods (predominantly democratic voters) so that hundreds of thousands inner city voters could not vote even though they waited in line over 8 hours, he who lost over 50,000 thousand provisional votes, and he who certified election results in counties with 587 voters as giving over 1300 votes to Bush!, yes that man who is now facing possible felony charges for voter fraud. Well, it has been traced that the computer address that ran the election count after 10 pm election night (Kerry had a fine lead then) was not the Secretary of State's computer. He ceded control of the count from his computer to the same IP address as the IP address as the Republican National Committee computer. The same server that has lost 5,000,000 Karl Rove emails. Avedon Carol has condensed two links on her excellent website, showing this story.

How hard is it to win (or fix) an election when you control the count from party headquarters? We need paper trails on all votes! Otherwise businesses like Diebold can fix elections. By the way, does it seem strange to you that one week after the Democrats won the House and the Senate and the oversight was going to begin--JUST ONE WEEK--Diebold put their election machine division up for sale. All of a sudden after 6 years it is no longer profitable.

rojo

1) I am not a fear monger or a conspiracy theory nut job, except when it comes to Kennedy's assassination (one guy and a magic bullet that changes direction. even I am not that gullible).

But today I happened across an entry in dailykos regarding who knew that the French warned of imminent air attack. The time lines presented were somewhat surprising in that Ashcroft refused to fly after that time. Tells me somebody said something. But I am still open to the fact that warnings were general in nature and NBD. Mr. "Don't Show Me Boobs" is kind of weird after all.

But, in the comments section--someone posted that there were war games (probably headed by Cheney) that day were being run and that there were 22 "hijacked airplanes" on the FAA's screens that day. (google war games + 9/11 + Cheney and see what you get) And East Coast fighter planes were in Canada tracking a phantom long-range nuclear bomber (this in the era of ICBMs and subs???) so there was confusion as to if and what may be the real hijacked planes and that there were no interceptors available. It makes sense that the media could not actually tell us for a while how many hijacked planes there really were. No one knew because of the bogeys.

So we warned of an imminent attack that week. War games happened to fall on the day of the attack, confusing the issue. These are facts. So either this administration are the unluckiest SOBs on the planet, except for the FEMA command sight was set up the night before as part of the war games. Or someone was complicit in the plan. Or there were tremendous security leaks letting terrorists know when there would be radar confusion.

I don't know what to think. I would never want to believe that someone could be complicit in planning the attacks to further a political agenda. My heart would break that people could be that unscrupulous. Unlucky--can't be that unlucky. Security leak, probable. or maybe a combination of all of the above. God help us all (if you believe in that) if this was a plan involving officials of the U.S. government.

rojomojo

This from an article in www.salon.com today:

Blackwell, for his part, said liberals are trying to use the Fairness Doctrine to accomplish what they could not in a free market, and asserted that liberals are "terrible" at making talk radio. "If liberals think it is just too hard to compete with the Sean Hannitys of the world," Blackwell said, "then they should focus on what they do best -- make ice cream."

Blackwell was the wonderful head of the Committee to ReElect GW. Some of his shenanigans included voter disenfranchisement (sending people to the incorrect districts in Hamilton County), voting rights issues (all voter registartion had to be on paper of X bond material, surprised he did not say with a Cartier watermark, which cancelled the voing rights of thousands in predominantly balck and poor counties), was so soundly beaten in his race as Governor that teh RNC pulled all his funds and may yet receive a jail sentence if the new Ohio Attorney General continues investigating voter fraud.

So let's see--what does he do best. Oh yes, that is lie, cheat and steal and sleep at night becasue his "tricks" to keep Republicans in power have cost over 100,000 lives and have further sunk our country "SURGE ON, dudes!" into a quagmire where we are not wanted (rose petals, my ass.) Free market--how about free voting place? When you really look at the economy in the U.S., it has never really been a free market economy. There have been tariffs to keep imports down, keeping jobs in America. There has been little Outsourcing to other countries until the past 15 years. The amount of money given to farmers and agribusiness is more than to welfare queens. The Savings and Loan (rememebr Neil Bush) bailout cost business nothing, just the taxpayers.

Face it. If you want free market, you had better be one of the top 1% in America. Business Weekly, I think, showed that that 6% of America controls and profits from over 50% of the economy. The middle class and the upper middle class were consciously made by trade unions and the New deal. It has been slowly dismantled by the far right in teh name free trade and free market. Correct me if I am wrong, but if I made all the incorrect projections that Bill "Fish Lips" Cristol has made in my workplace, I would be pushing a broom. "It's good to be the King."

Keep that in mund as we listen to people speak about how liberals don't know how to do anything. Create the middle class. Make higher education affordable. Give voter rights and expand the decision making base in the U.S. so it not just rich white guys who can perform militia justice.

Make ice cream my ass. Without a liberal agenda, Blackwell would not even have voting rights.


rojo

I mentioned Ohio voter fraud in my last post and here is an update. It will be interesting to see if 2008 results differ much.

rojo

From Josh Marshall's talkingpointsmemo.com

"I feel really bad about the server problems the White House/RNC seems (no, not a typo -- they appear to be a single entity) to be having on the email front. Believe me, I run a small business that is heavily dependent on cranky servers and other gizmos. So I know how hard this can be. But I think this might be a case where that NSA 'terrorist surveillance program' may really come in handy. I'm told the NSA has some very capable data recovery tools they've developed. And even if those guys are too busy hunting al Qaida, doesn't the FBI have some pretty good forensic computer geeks? What happens when, say, a company like Enron (okay, perhaps not a great example) says some emails were 'mishandled' and now are gone forever. I guess that's just the end of it, right? Normally, it's not kosher for a government agency to offer direct assitance to a private entity or political organization. But, hey, we're pretty far down that road I guess. So let's have the FBI go down and take a look at these servers and see if these emails have really disappeared forever."

-- Josh Marshall

I work at a business and when the email gets lost we have IT guys come in and fix it. Now, they can't always find every email. But, what are the chances that a whole batch of emails on a specific topic from a certain time period gets lost? I am always amazed that in the electronic age, even without going to the NSA extent that Josh Marshall jokes about, that people feel that lost emails is an excuse. Get real.

I believe that there are charges such as failure to cooperate with an investigation, obstructing justice and so on that can be brought to bear as a cudgel. How many low level flunkies will allow themselves to be sacrificed in order to get to the head of Hydra (ooops, sorry, this is not Marvel comics). How much fear is instilled by the ruling minions that no one has yet rolled?

The worst part about this is that MSM is not really covering this in depth. Only geeks are reading this sort of thing and the average worker bee does not know how deep or how high this corruption and borderline legality may go. But what this does is reshape any idea the average citizen has about routine rights to privacy and voter rights. The arguments have been pushed so far to the right, favoring a ruling class of honchos that can place you under surveillance, and limit voting that no one knows how much they are being manipulated. Specific rights won in the 60s by minorities are disappearing so fast that "separate but equal" rules could be favored by some and then placed on talk radio and covered in MSM as a serious discussion and then would become part of the general lexicon of the American speech. If you think I am joking, just remember that Ted "Tubes" Stephens kept a job after his gaff and that Tom "Let's Bomb Tehran" Tancredo was not only not laughed out of office, but was reelected! I am sure that Tancredo is a native American name and he does not look anything like the dark-skinned immigrants he is always beating up in speeches. I mean, did not the Italians emigrate from somewhere, Tom? Wittgenstein was right in the sense that redefining words will redefine the thought paradigms of a culture. And dictate the limits of the debate.

The past two U.S. elections have been decided by voter rights manipulation. Ohio election officials have been charged and convicted with rigging the recount which cost Kerry the election. How many lives (Iraq death toll is now over 650,000) have been lost over someone's LUST FOR POWER AND CONTROL?! How many people know that felonies were committed in Ohio? Where is the media outrage? Civic outrage?

And these people have the balls to call themselves Christians? Nice ethics.

rojo

I have always thought this woman was one of the hottest women (Joni Mitchell and Annie Lennox, too) in the music business. I have often scoffed when people talk about Brittany or Beyonce. and am amazed at Christine Aguilera's talent, but this from one of my favorite woman pop stars--

A better Democratic strategist - Tori Amos: ""The way to really combat the right wing is to not be subservient to them on any level, particularly when it comes to ideology," she continued. "Therefore, you better offer up another ideology that can combat theirs, and as a preacher's daughter, I understand their ideology inside and out. Frankly, they've all hijacked Jesus and his message. I'm sorry, but 'Love thy neighbor as yourself' is nowhere to be found, especially in our current regime, who, in the name of God, is sending our young men and women to die over there [in the Middle East]."

rojo

About two weeks ago, i went on a rant about Circuit City and workers wages. I did not have a handy-dandy visual showing the differences in worker's hourly wage vs. CEO salary pay. Well, here it is. Hourly wages up 4.3% since 1995 and CEO wages up 298%. Yeah, trickle down sure as fu works. rojo

I am very depressed. I have taken the time to watch a very good video entitled Unprecedented. It shows how the election in 2000 was thrown in Florida. Thrown, stolen, whatever. Let's not mince words. It was brother sucking off brother.

I really do not want to hear how it was all fair. Governor Crist deserves kudos for his current action.

What depresses me is that we have, because of the action in Florida in 2000, have cost over 500,000 lives, lost any moral primacy that America has ever had world-wide (to the point we are viewed internationally as an occupying force), placed America in deeper debt, and has ruined our reputation world-wide.

All for brotherly payback. may they rot in hell, regardless of their self-religious beliefs. At the very least, they should be fined and family fortunes lost. I have often wondered if a class action suit by the survivors of the Iraqi debacle action the personal fortunes of GW would be worth anything.

rojo

Welcome to your generation's Vietnam. I hope fervently that Iran does not become the new Cambodia. There is a little more at stake here other than the Domino Theory. Like the world's oil supply. I hope I do not sound callous or indifferent to the loss of lives in either conflict.

This administration would have been happy in the Red Scare days of the 50s. Now we have the terrorist scare of the 00s. What the hell are people thinking? Civil Liberties have been rolled back. Good paying jobs are leaving in droves as free market global economic theory is king (at least it isn't called trickle down theory anymore). The middle class is dissolving (this was a political and union creation). The Conservative Supreme Court finally had to step in and say "Wake up, what the hell are you doing?" when it comes to the EPA and air pollution.

Where is the moral and emotional outrage?????? I am getting up off my fat senior ass and starting to join planned demonstrations. I actually hoped that I would not have to as there are many other young people who should be more pissed off. Think ahead -- what will life be like without health insurance when you are 50 +? Or will you be a member of the ruling class? Civil Liberties won in the 60s are disappearing. Environmental rules are being rolled back.

And for a President who does not want pork in his budgets--Why is this war not in the budget? Did he forget it was going on? He reminds me of Pee Wee Hermann when he falls of his superbike during his adventure -- "I meant to do that." How in the hell can you say there should be no pork and unfunded mandates (no, not Jeff Gannon and Karl Rove) and forget to fund the war!!!!!!

Why aren't people incensed?

rojo

Livin' the dream in the U.K.

Yes, record profits on investments and workers wages are stagnant. Gotta love any attempts at explanation of trickle down economics. Sure, it makes it to the working class.

It is troubling that people still believe that shit. But maybe because they are of the investor class and it all looks good there. And who cares about sub-prime mortgages because those who lose their houses aren't me---and the government will bail out business. Again

rojo

Gakked from rocketboom.com --

"Austrian Hans Steininger was famous for having the world’s longest beard (it was 4.5 feet or nearly 1.4 m long) and for dying because of it.

One day in 1567, there was a fire in town and in his haste Hans forgot to roll up his beard. He accidentally stepped on his beard, lost balance, stumbled, broke his neck and died!"

rojo