Comedians, artists and certainly political cartoonists tend to possess an anti-authoritarian, skeptical, irreverent streak. This makes the staunchly conservative cartoonist an especially odd bird. Flipping the traditional journalist ethos of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, rightwing cartoonists tend to ridicule the disenfranchised and excuse abuses inflicted by the powerful. In some cases, their cartoons literally spout the latest GOP talking points, revealing themselves to be not independent voices, but one more cog in a vast propaganda machine. There’s a key difference between being a critic and a shill.

This week, the atrocious Foley scandal served as a splendid GOP litmus test, separating those with a basic sense of deceny from the rabid partisans. Let’s see how the cartoonists did!
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The following YouTube video is a must’see (especially if you’re still wearing blinders!)

Schecter Takes GOP Hack To School

Hey, don’t knock it! A good, healthy coat of slime has helped many a Republican slither out of and away from tight places…

Foley to escape punishment by his peers

LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The House’s investigation of a page sex scandal has only one certainty: Former Rep. Mark Foley will escape punishment by his peers.

It is the Florida Republican’s sexually explicit electronic messages to teenage former male pages that have ignited what has become a pre-election firestorm.

Congress only can punish current members, officers and employees.

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And this…

Secret Papers Could Halt CIA Case

Libby Intends to Present Classified Evidence; Judge Skeptical

Associated Press
Saturday, October 7, 2006; Page A08

Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff intends to load up his criminal trial with information about nine national security matters, the names of foreign leaders and details about various terrorist groups, according to court filings in the Valerie Plame leak case.

In court documents, prosecutors argued that it would be “unnecessarily wasteful of time” to allow Libby to present “names of foreign leaders or government officials of other countries, or the names and histories of various terrorist groups.”

The danger for prosecutors is that the sheer volume and sensitivity of the classified information Libby wants to introduce could scuttle the trial. Once the judge identifies classified information Libby is entitled to present, U.S. intelligence agencies must rule on whether the secrets can be declassified. The trial would collapse if the intelligence agencies refuse to declassify the information.

link

By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 5, 4:06 PM ET
WASHINGTON

President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit the Homeland Security Department’s reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists.

In the law Bush signed Wednesday, Congress stated no one but the privacy officer could alter, delay or prohibit the mandatory annual report on Homeland Security department activities that affect privacy, including complaints.

But Bush, in a signing statement attached to the agency’s 2007 spending bill, said he will interpret that section “in a manner consistent with the President’s constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch.”

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it’s appropriate for the administration to know what reports go to Congress and to review them beforehand.

“There can be a discussion on whether to accept a change or a nuance,” she said. “It could be any number of things.”

The American Bar Association and members of Congress have said Bush uses signing statements excessively as a way to expand his power.

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Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - No sooner did Congress authorize construction of a 698-mile fence on the U.S.-Mexican border last week than lawmakers rushed to approve separate legislation that ensures it will never be built, at least not as advertised, according to Republican lawmakers and immigration experts.

GOP leaders have singled out the fence as one of the primary accomplishments of the recently completed session. Many lawmakers plan to highlight their $1.2 billion down payment on its construction as they campaign in the weeks before the midterm elections.

But shortly before recessing late last Friday, the House and Senate gave the Bush administration leeway to distribute the money to a combination of projects, not just the physical barrier along the southern border. The money may also be spent on roads, technology and “tactical infrastructure” to support the Homeland Security Department’s preferred option of a “virtual fence.”

What’s more, in a late-night concession to win over wavering Republicans, GOP congressional leaders pledged in writing that Native American tribes, members of Congress, governors and local leaders would get a say in “the exact placement” of any structure and that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff would have the flexibility to use alternatives “when fencing is ineffective or impractical.”

Story link

The two-party system; Democrats and Obfuscans. Nothing ever is as it seems.

Why all the posturing and rhetoric? Imagine the amount of time and energy that could be saved if politicians simply installed a huge pot on the Capitol grounds, filled it with taxpayer money, and yelled “Come and get it!” I suppose you couldn’t maintain a constituency without posturing…

With the mid-term elections less than one month away, hope rises that the Democrats will seize control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. If these glorious events occur, the likelihood is for Nancy Pelosi to become Speaker of the House. Here are links to her stand on the issues and actions she has taken in the House.
With the potential of her leadership, Nancy Pelosi has presented A New Direction For America.

By David Espo
The Associated Press

Friday 06 October 2006

Washington - Franklin Roosevelt had his first hundred days.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is thinking 100 hours, time enough, she says, to begin to “drain the swamp” after more than a decade of Republican rule.

As in the first 100 hours the House meets after Democrats - in her fondest wish - win control in the Nov. 7 midterm elections and Pelosi takes the gavel as the first Madam Speaker in history.

Day One: Put new rules in place to “break the link between lobbyists and legislation.”

Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Time remaining until 100 hours: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.

Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds - “I hope with a veto-proof majority,” she added in an Associated Press interview Thursday.

All the days after that: “Pay as you go,” meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority.

To do that, she said, Bush-era tax cuts would have to be rolled back for those above “a certain level.” She mentioned annual incomes of $250,000 or $300,000 a year and higher, and said tax rates for those individuals might revert to those of the Clinton era. Details will have to be worked out, she emphasized.

“We believe in the marketplace,” Pelosi said of Democrats, then drew a contrast with Republicans. “They have only rewarded wealth, not work.”

“We must share the benefits of our wealth” beyond the privileged few, she added.

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RIGHTS GROUP CLAIMS SECRET CIA PRISON IN GERMANY

NORTH KOREAN SOLDIERS CROSS DMZ AMID TENSION

U.K. TRIED TO CURB U.S. ON IRAQ

TALIBAN REVIVED IN SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN

WHITE HOUSE AIDE TO KARL ROVE, SUSAN RALSTON, RESIGNES OVER ABRAMOFF SCANDAL

BUCK O’NEIL DIES AT 94

FLORIDA’S JIM DAVIS GETS BOOST FROM BARACK OBAMA

This poor schmuck……he’s no Al-Qaida operative.

Criminal charges against accused al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla should be thrown out because of “outrageous government conduct” during his 31/2-year detention in a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina, Padilla’s defense lawyers say. “The government’s conduct vis-a-vis Mr. Padilla is a stain on this nation’s character, and through its illegal conduct, the government has forfeited its right to prosecute Mr. Padilla,” his lawyers said in a legal motion filed this week.

In two additional motions, the lawyers argue the case should be dismissed because the government took too much time between arresting Padilla and charging him.

They contend Padilla’s ability to defend himself is compromised as a result of the delay and the mental trauma he suffered.

Full story at the Sun Sentinel

See a pattern here? What we are doing is W R O N G!!! And the recently passed Detainee Bill is just going to further the wrong actions of the U.S. God help us………not only has Bush created an enormous amount of hatred for Americans around the world, he is pissing off our friends.

Canada is to make a formal protest to the United States over the case of a Canadian man deported to Syria in 2002 over suspected al-Qaeda links.

Maher Arar claims that he was tortured in Damascus after being detained by US officials while changing planes in the US on a flight from Tunisia to Ottawa.

A Canadian government inquiry cleared him of any involvement in terrorism.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the US should “come clean” about its “inappropriate conduct”.
Read more at BBCNews

Oh what a shock…….. Gee, wonder what the results of the Pentegon investigation will be.

By THOMAS WATKINS

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. Oct 7, 2006 (AP)- The Pentagon said Friday that it will investigate a Marine’s sworn statement that guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and described it as a common practice.

The Marine, a paralegal who was at the U.S. Navy station in Cuba last month, alleges that several guards she talked to at the base club said they routinely hit detainees.

“From the whole conversation, I understood that striking detainees was a common practice,” the sergeant wrote. “Everyone in the group laughed at the others’ stories of beating detainees.”

Read more at ABCNews