Archive: October 18th, 2007
A Fine Frenzy - “Almost Lover” More of the new guard, this time with 22-year-old singer’songwriter Alison Sudol, under her stage name. (The synch seems off, sadly, but the original version I found was yanked.) Tags: none
Filed: Club Blue
The Iraqi government has “put the U.S. on notice” that they do not want permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, CNN reports today. The message was “delivered directly to Vice President Dick Cheney at the White House” by Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie, who told CNN that Iraqis say, “No, big fat no, N-O for the bases in Iraq”: The people of Iraq, the parliament, the council of representatives and the government of Iraq, they all say no, big fat no, N-O for the bases in Iraq. No military bases for Iraq because we believe that is in direct encroachment to our soveriegnty, and we don-t need it.
Video at Think Progress Tags: do not want permanent U.S. bases in Ira, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie
Filed: Dick Cheney, Iraq
From Rolling Stone: Sometime early next year, Dick Cheney is planning to start his third war in the Middle East. According to a wide range of Washington insiders - from Cheney sympathizers to anti-war activists - the vice president is angling behind the scenes for yet another unilateral military action, this time aimed at toppling the clerical regime in Iran. “It’s an open secret,” one leading analyst of Iranian relations tells Rolling Stone. Even though America remains bogged down in twin conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the insiders add, Cheney still has the clout to get President Bush to give the order - despite strong opposition from the State Department and the Pentagon, both of which believe that attacking Iran could have catastrophic consequences for the United States.
“For Bush, the Middle East is everything,” says Larry Korb, a former defense official in the Reagan administration. “Cheney reinforces the idea that Bush’s legacy will be what happens there. And Cheney can tip the balance.” In May, the vice president made the threat of war explicit when he boarded the aircraft carrier U.S.S. John C. Stennis in the Persian Gulf - from which vast firepower could be unleashed against Iran. “With two carrier strike groups in the Gulf, we’re sending clear messages to friends and adversaries alike,” Cheney declared. “We’ll keep the sea lanes open. We’ll stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region.” The speech, described as “saber-rattling” by one State Department official, was not circulated broadly to other officials in advance. Cheney “still kind of runs by his own rules,” according to an American diplomat.
From Chris Dodd’s website: The Military Commissions Act. Warrantless wiretapping. Shredding of Habeas Corpus. Torture. Extraordinary Rendition. Secret Prisons. No more. I have decided to place a “hold” on the latest FISA bill that would have included amnesty for telecommunications companies that enabled the President’s assault on the Constitution by illegally providing personal information on their customers without judicial authorization. I said that I would do everything I could to stop this bill from passing, and I have. It’s about delivering results — and as I’ve said before, the FIRST thing I will do after being sworn into office is restore the Constitution. But we shouldn’t have to wait until then to prevent the further erosion of our country’s most treasured document. That’s why I am stopping this bill today. Support Senator Dodd’s efforts here. H/T Bat for sending me this one!
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times Thursday, October 18, 2007 — 1:19 PM ET House Fails to Override Veto of Children’s Health Bill The House failed by 16 votes to override President Bush’s Democrats Taylor and Marshall voted against it. Rollcall here I’m disgusted……I’m going swimming.
Remind me again why it was so important to get them into power in 06? Oh that’s right….they were going to make everything better and stop all this bullshit. Riggghhhttt! So the President has corporations spy on us illegally and then talks congress into giving them immunity and make it alright for them to continue to spy on us. What a fucking country!!! Oh, and by the way, they were doing this PRIOR to 911. From the New York Times: Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday with the Bush administration that would give telephone carriers legal immunity for any role they played in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program approved by President Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a Congressional official said Wednesday.
Senators this week began reviewing classified documents related to the participation of the telephone carriers in the security agency program and came away from that early review convinced that the companies had “acted in good faith” in cooperating with what they believed was a legal and presidentially authorized program and that they should not be punished through civil litigation for their roles, the official said. As part of legislation on the security agency’s wiretapping authorities, the White House has been pushing hard for weeks to get immunity for the telecommunications companies in discussions with Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senator Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, the ranking Republican. A tentative deal was first reported by The Washington Post. The Intelligence Committee will begin reviewing the legislation at a closed session on Thursday. Tags: give telephone carriers legal immunity, National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program
Filed: Civil Rights, Enough of This Shit Already!
Working Assets has joined with musicians Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Ben Harper and Bonnie Raitt on a petition to Congress that will stop a pending bailout of the nuclear power industry. The artists have created video to help get the word out about the issue which you can watch below. And if you include your mobile number when signing the petition, we’ll send you a text message when a vote is imminent that will tell you how you can call to get a special message from Bonnie Raitt before being connected with your Congressional representative to speak out on this issue. Please help us remove a clause from a pending Energy Bill that could force taxpayers to underwrite construction of an unknown number of new nuclear power plants. Instead the bill should fund the renewable and efficiency technologies that can solve global warming, guarantee a secure economy, and create millions of jobs. Tags: Working Assets, Bonnie Raitt, bailout of the nuclear power industry
Filed: Energy Independence
From McClatchy: Security is so poor in parts of southern Iraq that U.S. and coalition civilian officials charged with helping local governments provide services are unable to meet regularly with many of their Iraqi counterparts, a U.S. government report released today says.
Coalition officials have not visited the province of Najaf to meet with officials there in more than a year and have managed only three visits to Karbala in the past year, the report says. Rocket and mortar attacks in Basra forced a British-led team of reconstruction experts to abandon its offices in the center of that province’s capital a year ago, the report says. Most of the team was sent to Kuwait and a few were relocated to an air base outside the city, where any meetings with local officials are now held. Coalition officials no longer travel to Maysan province, which is dominated by members of anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Army, the report says, and overland travel to Qadisiysah and Wasit provinces is a rarity. If reconstruction experts meet with local officials in those provinces, they generally travel by helicopter, the report says. Tags: Iraq, U.S. government report released today, Najaf, Coalition officials no longer travel to Maysan province, Muqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Army
Filed: Iraq
We can’t give our kids health insurance, but we can spend $55 million on a tent city for Cubans….. just IN CASE Castro should die. Here’s a question for ya…..they can already bring their boats to the U.S. shore, and if they get caught with dry feet, they’re in like Flint…..so why bother with a tent city. If they have to weigh the two….tent city….. Miami…..tent city…..Miami…..which do you think they’ll go for? And the Dept. of Homeland Security is going to check for criminals? Who they gonna check with? Raul? I don’t think so…….. Notice in this article it states that in the 90’s when they did this, the Haitians were sent home. They still are. Funny how we pick and choose who we’re going to save and who we aren’t. Of course, Haiti has nothing we want.
Full article at the Miami Herald Tags: tent city for Cubans, pop-up tent city to shelter migrants in case of a Caribbean boat crisis, Fidel Castro, Cuba, $40 million project that would build a second tent city on the base for 35, 000 migrants
Filed: Cuba, Guantanamo
The Pentagon plans on sending more reserves into Iraq, keeping troops there into 2009 A group of Palestinian refugees, who have been in a Jordanian refugee camp, are now headed for Brazil. Can you imagine the relief they feel! President Bush stated yesterday: “The security situation is changing dramatically. … The economy is getting better.” A new report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) says different. As we know, just because Bush says it doesn’t make it so. The U.S. is looking for new supply routes into Iraq in case Turkey closes off its borders due to a resolution the U.S. congress is considering regarding the Armenian genocide of 1917. Bush stated yesterday: “One thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire. It has more important work to do than antagonise a democratic ally in the Muslim world.” I have to agree with the knucklehead on this one. Their focus should be elsewhere….. like say…..ending the war…….or……impeachment. Turkey has decided to give the go-ahead for raids in Iraq. They voted overwhelmingly to send troops into Iraq. Syria backs this decision. The U.S. isn’t too happy about Iraq’s decision to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants. The U.S. says it fears it will mask military activities. Iran has also agreed to provide cheap electricity to the Southern part of Iraq from its own power grid and will build a large power plant between Karbala and Najaf, basically free of charge. Is it military activities the U.S. fears, or embarrassment? The Iraqi government is determined to crack down on security firms in Iraq. They plan to make foreign private security firms held accountable under Iraqi laws. Needless to say, it looks like Blackwater plans on withdrawing after their contract is up. God forbid they be held accountable!!!! Barnett Rubin takes a look at the crackdown on private security firms that is occuring in Afghanistan. SECURITY DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAQ 10/18/07 Iraqi families are paying thousands of dollars to smuggle their children out of Iraq. Many children are making the dangerous journey to Sweden alone. Tags: Iraq, Turkey closes off its borders, $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies, foreign private security firms, smuggle their children out of Iraq
Filed: Meanwhile Back in Iraq
It’s about sick children of poor families. And the majority of the public supports expanding this program. Yet the republicans are clearly still in the race for president. If for nothing else this administration has done in it’s seven years in power, what kind of sick, twisted mind could vote for a party that spends billions upon billions in this illegal, immoral war, but tell it’s sick children no? How did we get here? Stupidity and ignorance. We have no one to blame but ourselves. They talk about Bush’s and Congress’s low polling numbers. What about ours? Where do we, the American populace, poll out at? I guaran-damn-tee it’s not in the double-digits! Sometimes the legislative branch wants to go on without the president, pass pieces of legislation and the president can then use the veto to make sure he’s a part of the process.
Chimper-in-charge
Part of the process? Leaving congress out of your plans is acceptable though, right? Of course it is! Can’t stomp the guts out of the Constitution if they were allowed to have any true say in it. You are one smug bastard, sir.
Source: AP Tags: Child Health Veto, Bush, insurance, Congress, State Children’s Health Insurance Program
Filed: Bush, Congress, Incompetence, Party of Values |
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