Shirley Bassey
Bye Bye Blackbird

I hope most of his time is spent dealing with investigations against him. This sucker needs to be taken down. Let’s see if he tells Patrick Leahy to go fuck himself this time around…….

Dick Cheney has forged a reputation as the most powerful but also least visible vice-president in recent history. In the next few weeks, however, he will be forced to fight some of his battles in the open - in the courtroom and on Capitol Hill.

The first test will come in the criminal trial of his former chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, charged with lying to a grand jury during an investigation into how a CIA agent’s name was leaked. The trial, due to begin in two weeks, is likely to set an ignominious precedent when Mr Cheney becomes the first vice-president to testify in a trial.

Mr Cheney’s legal team are also steeling themselves for the launch of legislative investigations by the new Democrat-controlled Congress.

In 2004 the vice-president felt confident enough to dismiss questions from Patrick Leahy, then a powerless Democrat, with a lewd invitation for him to do something sexually impossible. Now, he faces political revenge: Mr Leahy, the incoming chairman of the judiciary committee, has said he will issue subpoenas to secure documents that show whether the Bush administration authorised torture as part of its “war on terror”.

He also vowed to look into no-bid Iraq contracts, including those awarded to Halliburton, a company the vice-president once ran. He said: “At the risk of incurring another of Vice-President Cheney’s special season’s greetings, I ask: A-Where did all the money go?- ”

Mr Cheney enters this spotlight a weakened but not necessarily chastened figure, with fewer allies. Disaffected Republicans blame him as much as President George W. Bush for their minority status. His image for gravitas has been tarnished by public mockery. A dead deer recently found outside his residence revived mocking stories of when he went hunting and accidentally shot his friend in the face.

More at FT.com

From the David Letterman Show

President Bush proves to be an inspiring and electrifying public speaker.
Check out that woman in the background at the end. Classic.

H/T Silent Patriot for the great videos!

Ava Lawry’s Year in Review Video …… I love this kid!

The year of Republican corruption and scandals in review. We will remember these politicians. Happy New Year to all! I pray that this year will bring a fresh start to America and a chance for us to redeem ourselves. Peace!

GAZA CITY: For the children of Gaza, prisoners of the narrow coastal strip surrounded by the Israeli Army, the outside world is nothing but fury, violence and tragedy - a menacing universe that they fear. Most of Gaza’s minors - 840,000 out of a population of 1.4 million - have never left their narrow piece of land stretched out on the Mediterranean coast, access to which is strictly controlled by Israel.

They grow up in frustration, anguish, anger and poverty.

Bassam Nasser, 37, director of the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, was one of the rare Palestinians in Gaza allowed to study at a university in Tel Aviv.

“My generation knows Israel because we used to work in Israel, so we are ready to make peace,” he said. “We know Israelis are human beings.” “I remember Israelis visiting Gaza in the 1970s to have their cars fixed, or to buy furniture because it’s cheaper here. And I remember my friends working summer jobs in Israel.”

“The kids today never see Israelis as human beings. All they see are soldiers, in tanks or helicopters. For them, they are just killing machines.

Continue reading at the Daily Star

But hey…..let’s send in more troops!

BAGHDAD, Dec. 29 (UPI) — About 90 percent of Iraqis feel the situation in the country was better before the U.S.-led invasion than it is today, according to a new ICRSS poll.

The findings emerged after house-to-house interviews conducted by the ICRSS during the third week of November. About 2,000 people from Baghdad (82 percent), Anbar and Najaf (9 percent each) were randomly asked to express their opinion. Twenty-four percent of the respondents were women.

Only five percent of those questioned said Iraq is better today than in 2003. While 89 percent of the people said the political situation had deteriorated, 79 percent saw a decline in the economic situation; 12 percent felt things had improved and 9 percent said there was no change. Predictably, 95 percent felt the security situation was worse than before.

The results of the poll conducted by the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies and shared with the Gulf Research Center, has a margin error of +/- 3.1 percent.

Read more at UPI

H/T Celestine Profit for posting this in comments!

From CBS:
If you had 15 seconds to tell the world whatever you want to, what would you say? Well, now’s your chance to be seen and heard on national television, courtesy of CBS Interactive. Post your 15’second video on YouTube, and CBS Interactive will select one to be broadcast on TV! The first selection will air on Sunday, February 4, 2007

Oh how I long for a video camera. They asked for it……let’s give it to them. I’d be hard pressed to video my thoughts without swearing, but I could do it. Can you?

Am I right in thinking that, if issues such as gay marriage and abortion did not exist, Dems could keep a perpetual hold on the White House? Wouldn’t it be in everyone’s best interest to try to resolve these issues once and for all, instead of allowing them to remain ammunition for republicans who are hell-bent on destroying the freedoms we have? There will always be a large portion of Americans that will never accept a free-for-all, over-the-counter abortions for everyone. And, in time, they will take away a woman’s right to choose.

All or nothing.

Is there a middle ground… another way of thinking, that can solve our problems? Isn’t it worth thinking about and talking about? I don’t think the dems/libs are in the wrong here. But I do see right-wing Christians kicking our Constitution in the ribs, and I don’t see them stopping until it’s lying spread out on the floor dead.

Edwards Can’t Get Across Gay Marriage Bridge

(Portsmouth, New Hampshire) Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards was asked about his position on same’sex marriage at a town hall meeting Friday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

“[It's] the single hardest social issue for me personally,” Edwards said.

“Civil unions? Yes. Partnership benefits? Yes,” he said. “But it’s a jump for me to get to gay marriage. I haven’t yet got across that bridge.”

“I wish I knew the right answer,” he said after one member of the overflow audience booed.
…

LGBT civil rights groups say they will press all of the candidates for their positions on same’sex marriage. But in New Hampshire, with its all important primary, civil unions play better than same’sex marriage.

Source: 365Gay.com

Gee, didn’t see this coming. Of course, the U.S. is upset with Iraq for releasing them, because that doesn’t ft into their plan.

By Sudarsan Raghavan and Robin Wright
Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, Dec. 29 — Two senior Iranian operatives who were detained by U.S. forces in Iraq and were strongly suspected of planning attacks against American military forces and Iraqi targets were expelled to Iran on Friday, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

The decision to free the men was made by the Iraqi government and has angered U.S. military officials who say the operatives were seeking to foment instability here.

“These are really serious people,” said one U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They were the target of a very focused raid based on intelligence, and it would be hard for one to believe that their activities weren’t endorsed by the Iranian government. It’s a situation that is obviously troubling.”

George W Bush quotes:

Saddam Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction.

We can’t allow the world’s worst leaders to blackmail, threaten, hold freedom-loving nations hostage with the world’s worst weapons.

And yet, as Saddam Hussein was put to his death, the President slept. Good Lord, they didn’t want to wake him just for this because he had worked nearly three hours this week!! For all the fuss he’s made about the guy over the years you’d think he’d have some profound statement, but no. Of course this guy is used to sending people to their deaths. He’s got a thing for death. Most Americans were wrapped up with mixed emotions about Saddam’s death last night. Worried for the U.S. troops. Worried for the Iraqi citizens. Praying and hoping this event wouldn’t bring with it more violence……but not the President. Nooooo, he was snug in his bed, not a worry in the world. What a dickhead!