My thoughts on the christian fundmentalist zealots' "intelligent design" turned into a long piece posted here.

Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam   (Likewise, I hope Iraq will be to Bush what Nam was to LBJ- just more so!)

Be Nice to America or we'll Bring Democracy to Your Country  (both from CarryaBigSticker.com)

"This is working very well for them."   Barbara "the bitch" Bush speaking of the displaced poor in the Houston Astrodome.  More below.

"Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"  Tom DeLay's question to young evacuees in the Astrodome

"Mr. Cheney, Go f*ck yourself!",  A gulf coast resident's edict to the evil bastard during Cheney's staged photo-op on the coast after Katrina.  Of course this is exactly what Cheney told a US Senator in 6/04.

Delay, Frist, Abramoff, Safavian... Wasn't this the crowd that was going to "restore honor and integrity" to Washington? If this is what integrity looks like, let's bring back Oval Office blow jobs.  Arianna Huffington

When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind - Bill Moyers

From newspaper articles on Katrina:

Katrina exposed "squalor that would shame a Third World country, as well as racial and political divisions reminiscent of apartheid South Africa."   The Hindu, a daily in Chennai India.

"America the 'High and Mighty' had become America, the 'Humbled and Muddy.", the Himalayan Times, Kathmandu, Nepal

"Images of tanks roaming the streets of New Orleans, soldiers attempting to enact martial law: This is more like Iraq than America.... Soldiers who were trained to point their guns at Iraqi civilians are now pointing their guns at innocent evacuees in New Orleans."   the World Journal, Taiwan

"Whether you are in peril in Darfur, Sudan, Ruhengeri, Rwanda or New Orleans, saving your black behind isn't a priority for the American government, founded on a doctrine of white supremacy." - the Monitor, Kampala, Uganda

"Some of you may have heard me observe a time or two - going back to when George W. was still governor of Texas - that the trouble with the guy is that while he is good at politics, he stinks at governance. It bores him, he's not interested, he thinks government is bad to begin  with and everything would be done better if it were contracted out to corporations.   We can now safely assert that W. has stacked much of the federal government with people like himself. And what you get when you put people in charge of government who don't believe in government and who are not interested in running it well is ... what happened after Hurricane Katrina." -  Molly Ivins in another of her great pieces.

"If our advocacy is inadequate to the task, then a hurricane will make the case for us.",  Mark Davis, director of the Coalition to Restore
Coastal Louisiana, who fights to defend the wet-lands south of New Orleans.  When New Orleans was built in 1718, there were more than 150 miles of protective wetlands between it and the Gulf.  Now there are only less than 30 miles of wet-lands to buffer flooding from hurricanes. (more).
 

Opt Your High-Schoolers Out of the Regime's Military Recruiting Program
Recognizing the need for more cannon fodder, the regime inserted a provision in their infamous "Child Left Behind Act" which forces public schools to release personal information about their students to the regime's military recruiters.  It recently been revealed that the Dept of Offense has has been amassing data on individual students in a huge data-base.  The info includes Social Security numbers, ethnicity, GPA, personal email addresses, height, weight, and even the cell phone numbers of kids.  All of this without their parent's permission!  Even worse, kids as young as 14 are being targetted.  Worst of all, the regime is using a private corporation, BeNow, Inc, to "maintain" the database.  Like other such corporate databases, the data will be stolen and/or be sold to other corporations.

A little known provision of the law allows parents to opt their kids out of the regime's cannon fodder recruitment program.  LeaveMyChildAlone.org eases the tasks by providing a script which generates opt-out letters to both the regime's Dept of Offense and to your local school board and superintendent.    Entering your zip code inserts the names and addresses of your local school board and superintendent into that letter.  They also have blank pdf form letters.

Bill Frist- Lying Criminal Greedhead
After having "lost" tons of money from his campaign contributers in stupid stock market investments, the ever greedy multimillionaire senator apparently learned a lesson in insider trading from the play books of his fellow greedheads and has acted to protect his own loot.   He ordered his "blind" (ha!) trust to sell all of his and his wife's and kid's HCA stocks just before the stock took a huge nose-dive.  He said he sold the stock to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.  This is utter BULL SHIT!  He's owned millions in HCA for the entire 11 years he's been a senator while he voted for many bills benefiting HCA.  He was repeatly critized for this glaring conflict of intesest yet he refused to divest the stock until it peaked.   Here's just a few examples:  When he entered the senate, the stock was a $27 a share.  When he did everything possible to block Clinton's patients' bill of rights, it was $24.   When he championed the Medicare prescription drug bill that directly benefited HCA, the stock was at $41.  When he was pushing for "malpractice reform", the stock was at $40 a share.   This glaring conflict of interest sure didn't bother him at any of those points.  It's NOT coincidental that he sold all of his stock when it peaked at $58 a share and at the same time corporate insiders were selling 2.3 million of their shares.

His would-be defenders say he's innocent because he ordered the sell a couple of months before the stock tanked.  This is yet more BULL SHIT-  the insiders were selling their stock at the very same time.

Frist and his supporters also tout the "blind trust" which held his stock.  He said in 1/03 that, "It should be understood that I put this into a blind trust. So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock."  That was a LIE.  Although he didn't know exactly how much HCA stock it held, he knew how much it held when he had to set it up and he received numerous reports on when it bought more stock.  Eight months before he LIED in the interview,  he was told by that his "blind" trust had bought an additional $.75 to $1.5 million in HCA stock  and just two weeks before the LIE, he was informed it had bought even more HCA stock.   He in fact received over 20 updates from the "blind" trust 2001 and July 2005.

The matter stinks so badly that the regime's federal prosecutors in southern NY have felt compelled to subpoena documents and the regime's SEC has launched and offical investigation.    Of course, the investigations will be whitewashes.  The SEC has a rich history of both whitewashes and letting criminal corporations and executives escape  with mere slaps on their wrists.  Even if the media doesn't allow the story to die and the investigations are somehow compelled to do real investigations, don't look for any of the truth to emerge before the '06 mid-term elections.  (more)

Yet More Corrupt congress Idiots
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington released a report naming the 13 most most corrupt  politicians in Congress.  Although some democrats made the list, the vast majority were ripublicans.  The list and the resons for inclusion in the list:

*  Sen. Bill Frist: Violated federal campaign finance laws in how he disclosed a campaign loan and his recent sale of stock in HCA Inc.

*  Rep. Roy Blunt: Tried to insert provisions into bills that would have benefited, in one case, a client of his lobbyist son and in another case, the employer of his lobbyist girlfriend, now his wife.

*  Sen. Conrad Burns: He earmarked over $3 million in appropriations an Indian tribe in Michigan that was a client of lobbyist Abramoff. The senator received substantial campaign contributions from Abramoff and various clients.

*  Rep. Bob Ney: He went on a golf outing to Scotland in 2002, arranged by Abramoff, at a time when the congressman was trying to insert a provision into legislation to benefit one of Abramoff's tribal clients.

*  Rep. Tom Feeney:  He lied by falsely reporting that a golf trip to Scotland with Abramoff in 2003 was paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, which denied it.  Two other privately funded trips also have the stench of pay-off about them.

*  Rep. Richard W. Pombo: He paid his wife and brother $357,325 in campaign funds in the last four years. He also supported the wind-power industry before the Department of Interior without disclosing that his parents received hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from wind-power turbines on their ranch.

*  Rep. Maxine Waters: Members her family got over$1 million in the pasteight years by doing business with companies, candidates and causes that Waters has helped.

*  Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.):   Pennsylvania taxpayers paid for his children's private schooling while they lived in Virginia.

*  Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and William J. Jefferson: Both congressional veterans are under federal investigation.
Cunningham for his dealings with a defense contractor who allegedly overpaid him when he purchased Cunningham's house and Jefferson for his role in an overseas business deal.

*  Rep. Charles H. Taylor (R-N.C.):  His private business interests, including a savings and loan in Asheville, N.C., and personal business interests in Russia have the strong odor of corruption.

*  Rep. Marilyn N. Musgrave (R-Colo.) and Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.): Both have received wide critism for their possibly unethical campaign activities.

This is the same bitch who said she didn't want to trouble her “beautiful mind” with all of the needless death and destruction  wrought by her idiot son's stupid attack and resulting quagmire in Iraq.   However evil that bit of stupidity reveals her to be, the bitch's latest utterances ranks right down there in depravity with the infamous statement by fellow rich bitch Leona Helmsley that, "only the little people pay taxes."

PS:  Calling her a bitch is entire fair and just since that's exactly what she called Hillary Clinton.

The downside to his falling poll numbers is that his regime will attack yet another country which poses little or no danger to us or will aiding another terrorist attack by ignoring warnings.  The regime has done both of these things in the past.   The regime lied about the threat posed by Iraq and mounting evidence definitely indicates they aiding the 9/11 attack by ignoring and hiding evidence pointing to the attack.  They'll also such attack(s) just like they used 9/11 and Iraq in the '02 and '04 elections as rationale for swaggering chest-thumping and will use them to tar all opponents as weak on terrorism and unpatriotic.

• It ends the protection of critical habitats.
• It mandates that the Department of Interior respond to requests to developers plans to rape critical habits within an unreasonable180 days.  If a rape plan is nixed, us taxpayers must pay the rapists for any value that is allegedly lost.   This "takings" provision will be used by these greed-heads to extort money from the government.
• A political appointee will be making all decisions instead of scientific experts.  This will be Gale Norton, the right-wing nut understudy to infamous rapist James Watt.  Undoubtably all of her decisions will be just like her past ones which always benefit those who wish to rape the nation.    Currently, the ESA requires decisions to be based on the "best scientific and commercial information" available.  That's gone also.
• It eliminates any protection for threatened species.
• It ensures few, if any, species will be added to the existing list of endangered species by mandating the the Fish and Wildlife Service duplicate all data on habitat decisions in every state in which the species exists.

Other News:
In yet another bid to aid corporate enviromental rapists, the regime's EPA (Extra Pollution Agency) wants to let polluters spew more pollution before they even have to report it- much less stop the spewing.  Details

A senate committee led by right-wing nut James Inhofe held a sham hearing on global warming.  Exhibit A was testimonly by none other that novelist Micheal Crichton who merely echoed the ripublican's BS on global warming.  Real scientists such as those from the nation's best scientific body- the National Academy of Sciences- were not invited.   One ripublican senator said scientists who support the global warming theory weren't invited to testify because the senators already know what they had to say.

 In the dark of night, corporate stoolies in the senate inserted a "rider" in the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that will
seriously degrade organic standards and hence consummer confidence in foods labeled organic.  It allows a political appointee- the USDA head- instead of the current National Organic Standards Board to control what can go into organic foods.  This is a wet-dream of big agriculture- and especially the big corporations since the USDA has already said pesticides, hormones, tainted feeds, and animal drugs should be allowed in organic foods.  It also reduces the amount of public input required before decisions are made.  (more info:  1, 2, 3)

Basically, the morals mulah is trying to ensure that those who do not subscribe to his and his fellow zealots' anal, prudish morals be punished via unwanted pregnancies and unwanted kids.  This very often means the public-at-large is also punished via more expense for schools and welfare,  more pollution, etc.

My guess is that he, like his pope, are also driven by their bible's edicts to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the creatures of the earth.   That is just what this over-crowded world needs- yet more kids- and unwanted ones at that.  A blowback of this ignorant "moral" stance is that the very people whose morals he objects to are also going to "be fruitful".  Maybe he's not worried since he is a good catholic and hopes their wanton overproduction will overtake that of the saner population.

What other unknown tipping points are going to be passed?  Hurricanes maybe?  The 9/05 Science reports that the proportion Category 4 or 5 hurricanes has almost doubled since the 1970's.  A paper in the journal Nature says hurricanes have almost doubled in intensity over the last 30 years.  The Journal of Climate published a study postulating that global warming will triple the number of Category 5 hurricanes.   Even regime supporters are getting worried.  A insurance industry study warns, "We are witnessing a precipitous rise in weather-related losses in the U.S., and numerous projections that climate change will likely magnify those losses in the years ahead."  No real worry for them tho'- their bribed politicans in the congress and the White House will ensure their profits for writing dumb insurance policies on development on beaches will be covered via taxpayer subsidies.

The Regime's Post-Katrina Looting Frenzy Begins - Yet More Crony/Disaster Capitalism
The Bush regime wasted no time using the Katrina disaster to further their prime mission- transfer wealth upward / ensuring the rich get richer and everyone else gets poorer.  Although Bush stayed on vacation long after the devastation of the Gulf became obvious even to Fox TV viewers, he jumped into action on the items really important to him and his funders.   Only 4 days after Katrina hit, Halliburton was given $29.8 million to bring their Iraq "rebuilding" program to the Gulf.   Cheney's corporation looted the treasury via the Iraq disaster and they will do it yet again via the Gulf disaster.   Fluor, Bechtel and the Shaw Group- all big funders of the regime and many of which also engaged in looting via the regime's Iraq quagmire- have also been recruited by the regime to join in the post-Katrina looting frenzy.

Aiding, abetting and approving of corporate looting is just the first installment.  With Karl Rove's appointment as "recovery czar", their major goal is to turn the affected Gulf region into a paradise for greedy capialists (a redundancy...) .  Like the PNAC's blue-print for global conquest which fingered Iraq for attack, the greedy right-wingnuts have already developed a plan for the rape and looting of the Gulf region- the Heritage Foundation's "From Tragedy to Triumph."   It's an appropriately titled play book since the rich will definitely trump from what it advocates!   It's a veritable treasure trove of means to enrich the greedy rich and corporations and further improvish the poor and middle classes.  Their basic, overarching "reconstruction" goals are to prevent the poor and lower tiers of the middle class from returning to their homes and to turn the area into a haven for the greedy rich.

Although New Orleans has not yet been drained (and likely won't be anytime soon to disuade the poor from returning), the regime has wasted no time in enacting a play right out of the play book it has taken a first step.  The idiot-in-chief issued an imperial edict that the corporate looters do not have to comply with the federal law which requires paying their peons prevailing wages.  You can bet the saving will NOT be reflected in the crooks bills.  Instead, the low wages will be used to further increase their obscene profits.  This is of course right out of the Heritage Foundation's play book.   It gets even worse- rather than bringing the displaced back to rebuild their region (however ill-paid...), these crooked corporations are importing laborers (mostly Mexican...) from unaffected regions to do their work.  This is yet another vivid example of the ripublicans' goal of transferring wealth upward by ensuring the greedy rich get even richer while they stiff the less fortunate.

The corporate looting in Iraq has been termed "Disaster Capitalism" by Namoi Klein.  A more descriptive term is "Crony/Disaster Capitalism".   Just another piece of evidence of this synergistic duality:  Before "Brownie" headed FEMA, another idiot with no relevant experience but just happened to have managed Bush's '00  campaign, Joe Allbaugh, was installed by Bush as head of FEMA.  Shortly before Bush attacked Iraq, he fled that job so to profit from the regime's Iraq disaster by helping corporations with their looting in Iraq.  Already he's used the same MO by getting both Halliburton and the Shaw Group first installment,  no-bid contracts worth over $230 million to bring their Iraq looting to the Gulf region.  He'll reap millions from this disaster - e.g. the Shaw Group got a first-installment of $200 million via FEMA and Corps of Engineers contracts.

The idiot-in-cheif said there would be, "a team of inspectors general reviewing all expenditures."   Yes, they'll be "reviewing" them- so that each and every instance of corporate looting which is uncovered can be white-washed via a inspectors general's bogus stamp of approval.   Rest assured, after the recent demotion Bunny ___  who blew the whistle on the Corps of Engineers illegal contracting with Halliburton (and after having "promised" to do her no harm),  the regime's IGs have gotten their marching orders.  If this "stick" was not enough motivation, they have the "carrot" example afforded by the Corp of Engineer's very own inspector general who cashed-in by taking a very well paying job with a corporation which (surprise!) builds levees.  I'm only mildly surprised he wasn't rewarded with a plum job with Halliburton!

Yet another thing the regime has done to transfer even more  wealth to the greedy rich is by giving education vouchers to the displaced.  In another bit of synergistic duality,  this also helps with another regime goal- gutting of public education.  If/when the truth comes out, we'll find that the greedy rich got a hugely disproporatate share of these illegal vouchers.

Least you think the estimated $200 Billion cost for rebuilding will put a damper on the regime's prime means of transfering wealth upwards- tax cuts for the greedy rich- think again.    The Treasury Secretary (a more appropriate title is  "Treasury Looter") is already calling for more yet tax cuts as a way to fund the rebuilding.   This is yet more "Voodoo Economics" (Bush I's term) and is utterly insane- unless of course one is a member of the greedy rich class!  Instead of making the rich pay their fair share of taxes, the regime is planning to gut federal program which benefit the poor. It's yet more synergistic duality...

Another angle the regime will play is using federal payouts to shore-up flagging support in preparation for the mid-term '06 elections.  They've done it before.  After the hurricanes hit Florida shortly before the '04 election, FEMA very quickly gave folks in areas completely unharmed by the hurricanes over $30 million to fund purchases such as new wardrobes, cars, lawnmowers, vacuum cleaners, furniture and appliances.  The reason was that Florida was a battle-ground state and Bush needed shoring-up for his re-election.  According to a 5/19/05 Washington Post article, Homeland Security sources said, "...FEMA's efforts to distribute funds quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key political battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall were undertaken with a keen awareness of the looming presidential elections.”   Use of taxpayer money to further their political  power was futher confirmed in a memo from FEMA "consultant" Glenn Garcelon.  The memo glaringly pointed out the political advantage to Bush's re-election afforded by the pay-outs.   This was all now-deposed FEMA chief Michael "Brownie" Brown needed to purposely bypass his very own agency's funds review process in order to help re-elect Bush.  (more)

Then there were the very low interest, huge 9/11 recovery loans given by the regime to businesses completely unaffected by 9/11.  Look for this model to be used in the wake of Katrina also.   While a small shop-owner at ground zero could get nothing and fewer than 11% of the plum loans went to companies in New York City and Washington, the regime gave loans to thousands of businesses completely unaffected.  Some examples, just in Knoxville TN:  a plum $980,000 "9/11" loan was given to Carol Ann Norton owner of Carol Ann's Suburban Hallmark card shop so she could buy a building and another $998,000  plum loan was given to Classy Lady Inc. owner David Horner so he could also buy a building.  Other's "affected" by 9/11 who got loans- just in Tennessee mind you- were a chiropractor, a dentist, a jeweler, a tobacco shop amd a Baskin-Robbins in Brentwood, a child-care center, a used car lot,  and a boat builder in Spring Hill.  Chip Headrick, owner of King of Kleen carwash in Chattanooga, received a $920,000 loan.  (more: cached or orginal), and another article, Billions in 9/11 recovery loans were misused)

Like Iraq, the list of abuses by the Bush regime under the guise of "reconstructing" the Gulf will surely grow.  Again, for the blue-print, just read the Heritage Foundation's "From Tragedy to Triumph" play book.

For further info on the regime's rape and looting in "reconstructing" the Gulg region:
Katrina Unleashes Corporate Vultures,   Heritage Foundation Capitalizes on Katrina, Sidney Blumenthal's From Gulf to Shining Gulf, WorkingForChange's A prescription for exclusion

Bush promised to aid rebuilding of the areas affected by Katrina.   He said the same thing about Iraq.  Of course that was yet another of his lies.  Iraq "reconstruction" was and is a farce.  His "reconstruction" sole success has been "awarding" no-bid contracts to his ever greedy corporate sponsors and, worse, allow them  to steal yet more from taxpayers.   The same MO is already underway in the regime's "recovery" from Katrina.

The democrats in congress are finally showing a bit of spine by demanding an independent investigation of the Katrina fiasco instead of yet another white-wash by the regime.   Of course, if recent history is any guide, they will cave-in.  The prime example of this is their failure to demand an independent investigation of the Bush regime lies about Iraq as revealed (partially....) by the Downing St. memo.

Speaking of "independent investigations", the most recent one- the 9/11 commission- has recently been further proven to have been largely a farce used by the regime to clear itself.   Try as it might tho' some truth is oozing out.  Condi Rice testified before the commission that, "no one could have predicted terrorist would hijack planes and fly them into buildings."  While most of the "liberal" media was otherwise occupied by Katrina, a portion of the commission's report which the regime demanded be classified as secret was released.  It shows that Rice was lying yet again.  The report documents a pre-9/11 FAA report which warned of just such a thing.   That, coupled with Rice's evasion merely stating the title of security breifing the idiot-in-chief received only a month before 9/11 ("Terrorists intent on attacking the US") vividly shows the regime for what it is- a cabal of deceitful incompentents more interested in enriching the rich than in protecting the nation.

-------
When the idiots in congress were busy giving the credit industry the personal bankrupcy law they craved, Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) proposed a sensible exception for victims of natural disasters.  It was killed on a party-line vote by the ripublicans who also banned any debate on the idea.   Watch for these same idiots to co-op Lee's idea but tailor such an exception in their usual fashion- it'll be an exception which benefits the greedy rich the most and affords relatively little for the peons.

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Not only can the regime allow the poor to suffer needlessly, it astoundingly cannot even protect FEMA workers or the assets of it's corporate and rich supporters in New Orleans.  They have all contracted with "private security firms."   Most notoriously, these firms infamous and brutal Blackwater and firms using Isreali thugs.  This is yet another example of regime and  corporate policies and practices in Iraq coming home.

The bad news is that Bush will very likely appoint someone just as evil to fill the slot.

Brandon Mayfield is the Justice Department's worst nightmare. Not because he's done anything illegal or dangerous to American security but because he hasn't.

That simple reality, now repeatedly admitted and apologized for, is likely to give both the Justice Department and the Patriot Act their most pointed courtroom challenge since the act was passed. This summer in Portland saw the first hearing on three lawsuits--featuring a media superstar lawyer, more government lawyers than could fit at the defense table, the Fourth Amendment, a claim for major damages and repeated concerns expressed by US senators--taking on the post-9/11 operations of the Justice Department.

The case began in March 2004 after the terrorist bombings in Madrid, when the Spanish government found a partial fingerprint in a bag containing detonators. Spanish officials sent a digital copy of the partial print to the FBI, which ran it through its 40 million fingerprints and came up with a match for Mayfield, in the system because of a teenage arrest.

Checking him out, the FBI found that Mayfield was a Muslim convert who attended the Bilal Mosque, a suburban temple also attended by some members of the Portland 7--convicted for trying to go to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against the United States. In fact, Mayfield, an attorney, had represented one of the Portland 7 in a child custody case. The FBI became extremely interested. But by April the Spanish were saying that the Mayfield match was "conclusively negative." The FBI then sent a team to Spain--although reportedly never asking to see the original print--which reportedly returned saying the Spanish were satisfied, although the Spanish kept saying that they weren't.

By late April the FBI picked up a rumor that the European media were about to go public with the Mayfield story, and decided to move. Telling Federal Judge Robert Jones that the fingerprint was a "100 percent match," the FBI got a warrant to arrest Mayfield as a "material witness." (This June the ACLU reported that in a sharp increase in the practice, seventy people have been detained as material witnesses since 9/11--all but one of them Muslim.) On May 6, 2004, Mayfield was taken to federal prison, where he spent the first week in lockdown.

As an attorney, he knew that the lack of actual charges against him was not reassuring. Mayfield asked his federal public defender three questions--Could he be sent to Spain? Could he be tried for the bombing? Could he be executed if convicted?--and was told that the answer to all three was yes. Except, as he kept telling people, it wasn't his fingerprint. After he'd spent two weeks in custody, when the Spanish told the FBI they had now matched the fingerprint to an Algerian, the FBI finally agreed, released Mayfield and apologized.

A month later Mayfield was telling the Portland City Club, "We need to be safe and secure in our homes, not just from the bad guys but the government as well." And he didn't even know then just how much he needed such protection.

The FBI repeatedly insisted that the problem was just a simple, unfortunate law enforcement mistake, and had absolutely nothing to do with the new powers of the Patriot Act. But Mayfield was certain that his home and office had been the object of "sneak and peek" searches. It took until March 2005--almost a full year after the FBI had arrested, released and then apologized to Mayfield--for the Justice Department to admit: "Mr. Mayfield is hereby notified that the following property was seized, altered or reproduced during [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] searches of his residence: three hard drives of three desktop computers and one loose hard drive were copied; several documents in the residence were digitally photographed; ten DNA samples were taken and preserved on cotton swabs and six cigarette butts were seized for DNA analysis; and approximately 335 digital photographs were taken of the residence and the property therein.... Mr. Mayfield is also hereby notified that he was the target of electronic surveillance and other physical searches authorized pursuant to FISA."

It took another two weeks for the admission--in the course of testimony by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the House judiciary committee--that, well, yes, the FBI had used the Patriot Act in the Mayfield case. Gonzales insisted, "I might add that based on what I know today--and I'm limited in what I can say because this matter is in litigation--I don't believe that the Brandon Mayfield case is an example where there was a misuse or abuse of a provision of the Patriot Act."

Senators weren't so sure. Later, Senator Russell Feingold noted that the Mayfield case "had a big effect on the whole attitude that anybody who criticized the law really wasn't concerned about terrorism." Senator Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, argued at another committee hearing on the Patriot Act, "I'm thinking of Brandon Mayfield, the Portland attorney," against whom the FBI had no real evidence except that he "did hang out with Muslims." Conservative Republican Larry Craig seemed to evoke the Mayfield case without mentioning it when he told the committee, "I find it very difficult to believe that the federal government can enter my home, strip my hard drive, go through my records and then exit out the back door without telling me they were there."

By then Mayfield was moving on his three lawsuits against the federal government--an effort that gained momentum in June with the court-ordered release of an FBI internal memo, dated before his arrest, noting that the bureau had insufficient evidence to charge him with anything but should arrest him before the media got the story. First, he wants back everything the FBI seized in searches that the government now admits had no national security justification; the government says it needs the information for its legal defense. Second, he's seeking financial damages. Finally, he's challenging the Patriot Act clause that makes it so much easier for the government to do searches. Previously, under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the only justification for a secret search was acquiring information on foreign intelligence. Under the Patriot Act that need only be part of the reason, greatly widening the areas where the Justice Department can seek--and apparently always get--a warrant for such a search.

To one of Mayfield's attorneys, Elden Rosenthal of Portland, the sneak-and-peek expansion abandons the Fourth Amendment unnecessarily. "We won World War I, we won World War II, we won the cold war without throwing out the right of Americans to be secure in their homes, without throwing out the Fourth Amendment," Rosenthal says.

On July 15 Federal Judge Ann Aiken held a preliminary hearing in Portland on government efforts to dismiss Mayfield's lawsuits. The day featured the first courtroom appearance of Mayfield's other attorney, celebrity lawyer and CNN legal commentator Gerry Spence, who charged that the FBI arrested Mayfield only because of his Muslim identity, even when there was no evidence he'd ever been to Spain or left Portland. "I am sure that had it been Billy Graham, or one of Billy Graham's children, the FBI might have said that we'd better check it out," he mused. "No airline tickets. How did he get over there to Spain? Must have been that magic carpet. The Muslim magic carpet." To Spence--looking, with his swept-back gray pompadour touching his collar, like a retired gunfighter who'd gone into corporate security--the point of the trial was clear: "Although they say, 'We're really sorry,' we haven't had an opportunity to say if sorry is enough."

Two weeks later Aiken agreed, rejecting government efforts to dismiss the lawsuits, rejecting motions to remove the FBI fingerprint experts as defendants and ordering the government to release all information about the searches and what it was holding.

With more preliminary motions, potential appeals on motions, discovery and a trial ahead, Brandon Mayfield's case against the government has years to go. But in a fairly spectacular development, the Patriot Act itself is at last on trial--although unlike Mayfield, it's not being held in lockdown.

Roberts is not the squeaky clean "good guy" the regime's propaganda machine is spinning him as.  That's just the veneer over a right-wing reactionary.  Just in his brief stint as a judge, he's already proven to be an outright criminal.  While he was deciding a case the Bush regime really wanted to go their way, he sat for job interviews for a seat on the supreme court with them.  This failure to recuse himself (or even notify the other side in the case!) makes him a Federal Criminal.  Federal law as well as common decency requires judges to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.  For this alone, Roberts deserves a through Borking.

"Four years after the frightening experience of September the 11th, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response
in a time of emergency. When the federal government fails to meet such an obligation, I, as President, am responsible for the problem, and for the solution. So I've ordered every Cabinet Secretary to participate in a comprehensive review of the government response to the hurricane. This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina. We're going to review every action and make necessary changes, so that we are better prepared for any challenge of nature, or act of evil men, that could threaten our people."

Here's what the right-wingnut said in the 8/22/05 broadcast of his The 700 Club:

ROBERTSON: There was a popular coup that overthrew him [Chavez].  And what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually  nothing. And as a result, within about 48 hours that coup was broken;  Chavez was back in power, but we had a chance to move in. He has  destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he's going to make that a  launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over  the continent.

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination,  but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we  really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than  starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this  man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of  influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine,  we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without  question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge  pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take  him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that  ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one,  you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have  some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over  with.

ROBERTSON: Wait a minute, I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should, quote, "take him out," and "take him out" can be a number of things including kidnapping. There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time.

Had a "liberal" said the same thing about a regime flunky who happens to head another nation, he/she would be in a regime gulag or "rendered"  to another country for torture post-haste.  The regime has instead done essentially nothing about Robertson.  Rummy said such assassination were illegal but, pointedly, did not say the regime didn't engage in them!   If anyone richly deserves to be tortured in a regime gulag or assassinated, it's Pat Roberson.  I'm sure one could find a reference in his bible which justifies, if not demands, just such things.

Now it begins: America's biggest relief and recovery program since the New Deal. And the omens aren't good.

It's a given that the Bush administration, which tried to turn Iraq into a laboratory for conservative economic policies, will try the same thing on the Gulf Coast. The Heritage Foundation, which has surely been helping Karl Rove develop the administration's recovery plan, has already published a manifesto on post-Katrina policy. It calls for waivers on environmental rules, the elimination of capital gains taxes and the private ownership of public school buildings in the disaster areas. And if any of the people killed by Katrina, most of them poor, had a net worth of more than $1.5 million, Heritage wants to exempt their heirs from the estate tax.

If you believe that God made the world for you and instructed you to dominate it and be fruitful, then you are likely to see yourself as above and beyond the natural world. If you are God's chosen, then how can you fear that he will not provide for you no matter how large your numbers grow or what you do to your surroundings? God, after all, can change nature's laws, which are part of his "intelligent design" in the first place. So you are unlikely to fret about practicing environmental restraint or worry about environmental toxins - righteousness being the best prophylactic against disease in a world where God's will is done.
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According to Bush's political base, the future is theirs; nature was put here for us to use as we please; God will provide; and foolish unbelievers will be abandoned, like those desperate refugees at the New Orleans Super Dome, in a trashed and shredded world. We had our chance, but decided to listen to scientists, believe in dinosaurs, hug trees, and wring our hands over pupfish, spotted owls, and the odd centipede or two. While our jaws drop at their arrogant and reckless behaviors, they just shake their heads and chuckle condescendingly at all of our "liberal whining." It's a holy war, after all, and they are most righteous.

 Bush's assault on the environment makes perfect sense once you see the bargains that drive it. The fundamentalists give Bush political power; his corporate cronies get free reign to plunder the land for their profit; and the fundamentalists get the heads of nature-worshipping enviros on an arsenic platter. The rest of us, of course, get left behind.

Bush has refused to grant her main and easily satisfied wish- a simple meeting with her.  Instead, he recently drove passed her on his way to a political fundraiser at an adjacent ranch with 230 other rich folks.

Not content with their leader's completely ignoring her, the right-wingnut media is resorting to what's worked so well for them in the past- a smear campaign.  Bill O’Reilly hurled the ever popular slime that she is “in bed with the radical left” and that “this kind of behavior (mincing words...) borders on treasonous”  and linked  her with “people who hate this government, hate their country”.  Rush "dope fiend" Limbaugh said she was “trying to pull a little bit of a swindle” and, that “she’d been totally co-opted by…the whole Michael Moore leftist mentality.”   Fred Barnes called her a crackpot while Michelle Malkin said Sheehan’s dead son wouldn’t approve of his mother’s "crazy accusations”.

If the polls on their handling of their Iraq quagmire continue to drop, I fully expect them to parade out a bogus "Iraq Veterans for Truth" group.

A good read on the subject is Arianna Huffington's It takes a village to smear Cindy Sheehan.  The scorching lead:

The right wing attacks on Cindy Sheehan -- desperate, pathetic, and grasping at straws -- expose much less about their target than about the attackers.  I mean, trying to slime a grieving Gold Star mom because she is inconveniently questioning the reasons her son was sent off to die in Iraq?  Why that would be like trashing a much-decorated war hero or outing an undercover CIA agent.  Oh, right... How much longer can the Bushies get away with mauling the very values they profess to stand for before their supporters start getting wise to the fact that the only value they really value is power?

• "The right wing is, finally, starting to crack in the face of emergent public disfavor. Same thing happened during the Vietnam era when the anti-war movement started to catch on -- accusations of treason,  commie-sympathizers, etc., every conceivable epithet, hallmarked the right wingers' "defense" of the idiocy of the war. Maybe Bush should enlist the services of that magnificent man of peace, Henry Kissinger, to bail him out. It worked once (sort of) -- remember "Peace With Honor"?"
• "Time for another terror alert".
• "Where do I start with this piece of manufactured offal?"  Easy: THE OFFAL OFFICE ...."
• "Their plans are far more sinister: The next time the motorcade passes Mrs. Sheehan, they're going to let Laura drive."

• Bogus credit reports revealing members of the Bush regime stiffing their debts to the greedy rich and their corporate sponsors. Hell, maybe some hacker can access and doctor their actual reports.
• Get their credit card info and purchase really bizarre stuff like Viagra from Canada and repeated abortions for the Bush twins.  Maybe stem cell treatment for the obviously senile Barbara Bush.
• Publish a Natl. Enquirer type mag targeting the regime.  The cover: the actual photo of Bush with the teleprompter box on his back at one of the debates with the caption "Bush's Body Harbors Alien Fetus-  President Claims All Fetuses Are Precious!"   Inside: Bush's recent hospitalization for cocaine addiction and his treatment with fetal extracts.  Cheney's channeling of Hitler and Stalin.   Bush's declaring liberals "enemy combatants" and orders their torture in its gulags and those of countries they are "rendered" to.
• Doctored photos and videos.  The undoctored one of Rummy shaking hands with Sadam can be used as a model.   Maybe Rummy and Bush- in campy drag- taunting and abusing Iraqi prisoners in one of their gulags.
• Parodies.  A film depicting the the Bush's recent fundraiser for the rich at an adjacent ranch in Texas ala the rich's orgy in "Eyes Wide Shut" would be ideal.  Some script elements:  The Bush's moon Cindy Sheehan from their limo as it passes.  A closeup of Bush's ass reveals it's emblazoned with tattos-  "Enron" in a heart/arrow on one cheek and "Property of Greedy Corporations" and the logos of some of them on his other cheek.   The password for the mansion is "Onward Christian Soldiers".  It's also the score for the orgy scene.  Now for the orgy scene: Cows and other farm animals instead of the sexworkers in the film.  The masks are shed in climatic scenes to reveal George with a goat, Laura taking on a bull and Rove having his way with, say, a chicken.

• A "fredom walk" to "support our troops"?  Supporting our troops by freeing them from a quagmire of the regime's making is a far better than an bunch of jingoisticm, swaggering chest thumping.
• Just whose freedom is being walked for?  Given the Patriot Act and its planned sequel, it's certianly not our freedom.  Nor could it be for the troops who, by via the regime's stop-loss orders and call-ups of the ready reserve, are being impressed into service and are hence de-facto slaves.  Freedom of Iraqis?  The only thing being "freed" there is oil and freedom of greedy corporations to otherwise loot Iraq (and the US Treasury).
• With a roughly estimated 80-90% of the troops having voted to re-elect their idiot-in-chief, 80-90% of them deserve absolutely no support.    I say let 'em die and rot in the war they ratified with their vote.
• The regime should actually support its troops who have been injured as a result of their attack on Iraq by restoring the money they've taken from veterns' care and given in tax cuts to it's greedy supporters.
•  Look for his puppet masters to stage him in yet another carrier landing type PR stunt for the chickenhawk-in-chief during the event.  I doubt there will be another "mission accomplished" banner tho'- even his spinmeisters don't have the balls to try that sort of thing again.  There may be a "Iraq constitution accomplished" banner- if the Iraqis' drafting it don't do something like try to recind the "economic liberalization measures" impossed under the regime's  Bremmer regime.

The report indicates the targeted folks are POed with the direction the US has taken and with both the idiot-in-chief and the congress due three main factors:  Iraq having become a quagmire, the economy/job insecurity and health care costs.  It also indicates that the use of what it calls "cultural themes" by the ripublicans – specifically gay marriage, abortion, traditional family values, and the role of religion in public life" trumps the foregoing concerns of the targeted group.  It also notes this effect is particularly true for non-college voters.  Well duh!  "Cultural themes" are gut-level/simplistic wedge issues which the ripublicans have used so effectively to entice support the (to  be kind...) more simple-minded segments of the populace.  This ploy is merely a re-hash of Nixon's "southern stragety".  Their ultimate goal remains essentially the same- further enrichment of the rich and corporate america and hence themselves- only the issues used have changed.  Instead of appealing to rampant racism, they are playing to their target audience's rampant homophobia, jingoism and, overriding it all, their religious zealotry combined with their inability to think for themselves.   To wit, the following BS from a typical member of that group:

I’m proud to be an American because of the way this country was founded. And they stand up for this nation’s Christian heritage. There’s no question that – I believe this with all my heart – that this country is blessed the way it has been for all these years because of the way it was founded.  And God’s looked on us favorably. And I think Republicans have that at heart, most of them do. And it shows in the moral stance they take. Because you hear all the time that there are no absolutes, but there truly is, and I think that they recognize that and try to push that through in their agenda.

Republicans seem to cave into the religious right, to the point that they promote state rights but throw all that out the window and get involved in Terri Schiavo.

•  Democrats are "...perceived as directionless and divided, standing for nothing other than their own personal enrichment".
• "Republicans are overwhelmingly seen as a party that is unrepentant in its fealty to corporate interests and unconcerned with the growing economic uncertainty felt by most Americans facing employment concerns, stagnant wages, rising prices, and the crushing cost of health care seemingly hanging over every aspect of their lives"
• There is "... absolutely no sense that Democrats have a viable alternative vision that would truly promote broad economic growth or increased prosperity for working Americans."  Of course not- they receive tons of money from corporations who are hedging their bets on the ripublicans.
• "...voters very much see Republicans as the ascendant party at this moment.  Republicans will bear the lion’s share of the blame if voters remain incensed at the direction of the country and the leadership in Washington, but Democrats are currently seen as part of the problem in Washington, not part of the solution".

While it's is hard to argue against these issues as at least first steps at solutions to real problems,  most of these issues are pocket-book issues and reflect an appeal to a very base, almost selfish "what's in it for me" attitude.  Then again, considering the targeted audience, this sort of appeal will be much more effective that one based on a "what's best for the country" thesis.   Alas, the solutions urged on these issues run against the interests of the folks who actually control the US- the greedy rich and corporate america.  The stances hence have little chance of actually becoming realities unless the stance on "ethics and lobbying reform" is expanded to a radical separation of money from politics.  Of course that will not happen since the democrats are almost as addicted to political money as the ripublicans.   How else does one explain the large numbers of democrats who support legistation such as NAFTA, CAFTA, the recent energy bill... ad nauseum other than by following the money?

In conclusion:  I think the report is more about marketing tactics and the political spinning of issues to gain power rather than a heartfelt desire to do what's best for America.

Kafka Does Iraq: The Disturbing Case of Abdul Amir Younes Hussein  by Arianna Huffington is a summary of a CBS cameraman treatment by the regime in Iraq.  First, he's shot by regime forces in 4/05 while filming the aftermath of a car-bombing.  The regime forces issued a phony apology but then turned around and arrested him 3 days later for alledgely engaging in "anti-coalition activity."  He's since been shuttled from one regime gulag to another for months.  After repeated demands from CBS, the regime finally said he'd receive a hearing before one of their Kafka-esque/kanagroo courts then promptly renegged.  His case was then sent to Iraqi criminal authorities who decided not to prosecute him. Instead of releasing him, the regime's military kept him in jail and further stated it'll keep him their for at least another 6 months.  If this happened to someone with CBS on their side and whose story has been reported in the NY Times and Wall St. Journal, what sort of treatment does an ordinary Iraqi receive.  It's no wonder why a growing number of Iraqis hate us.

Bush Administration Paradox Explained by Robert Reich says the reason the regime is so good at succeeding politically (so far...) and so poor at governing is that it is filled with yes-men.  A snippet:

With governing, it's been almost criminally incompetent - failing to act on clear predictions of a terrorist attack like 9/11 or a natural disaster like Katrina, botching intelligence over Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction, failing to secure order after invading Iraq, allowing prisoners of war to be tortured, losing complete control over the federal budget, creating a bizarre Medicare drug benefit from which the elderly are now fleeing, barely responding to the wave of corporate lootings and running the Federal Emergency Management Agency into the ground. Not since the hapless administration of Warren G. Harding has there been one as stunningly inept as this one.

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House OKs Religious Discrimination
The house voted to allow Head Start to discriminate in hiring.  (more)

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News from Behind The Facade- by John Pilger, 9/14/05.  Snippets:

On 9 September, the American federal appeals court handed down a judgment against Jose Padilla, an alleged witness to an alleged "plot" inmate of Guantánamo Bay, allowing the US military to hold him without charge, indefinitely. Even though there is no case against him, the Supreme Court is unlikely to overturn this travesty, which means the end of the Bill of Rights and of the "very core of liberty... freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive", as an American jurist once famously wrote.
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In his classic work, The Grand Chessboard, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the godfather of American policies and actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, writes that for America to dominate the world, it cannot sustain a genuine, popular democracy because "the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion... Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization". He describes how he secretly persuaded President Carter in 1976 to bankroll and arm the jihadis in Pakistan and Afghanistan as a means of ensuring America's Cold War dominance.

The Official State Religion List  from the World O'Crap blog is a great satirical piece which, like all good satire, has a rather pointed message.  It started with religious zealots (including that paragon of Constitutional law, Clarence "The Clown" Thomas) advancing the utterly assinine claim that the states can establish their own offical state religions under the 1st Amendment  Many of this group of idiots further said states should do so and that folks that don't their state's offical religion can just move to a state whose religion suits them.  Based on this the piece's author decided a list of state religions was needed before "the Official Religion clause of the First Amendment becomes binding on everybody".  This is an excellent idea since, as the author notes "...most people don't want to buy a house, get the yard looking nice, and only then learn that their state's religion is "Professional Wrestling."  Some of the entries:

Iowa	Hindu, Jedi, Shaker
Mississippi	Baha'i, Harry Potter-style Witchcraft
Nebraska	Zoroastrianism, Canadians
Wyoming	Rastafarianism
West Virginia	Reformed Church in America (RCA); Zenith, Magnovox
Texas	Secular Humanism, Football
Idaho	Atheists

Going further, US territories and colonies are included:

Iraq	Showgirlism
Johnston Island	Promise Keepers
Midway Island	Jewish Mysticism, as practiced by ditsy celebrities
N. Mariana Islands	Dittoheads
Virgin Islands	Conservatives

Most pointedly, there's no state listed without any offical religion or "the 1st Amendment"- i.e. all religions and religious beliefs.

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No More Mister Nice Blog - it has the excellent tagline:  It's Karl Rove's world. We just live in it. A snippet:

The people who are whining about "religious litmus tests" in the case of Roberts are the same people who didn't want you to vote for Kerry because he's a pro-choice Catholic.  I guess some religious litmus tests are more bigoted than others.

Yeah, the rightwing-nuts that holler about not using "religious litmus tests" on their shealth zealot nominee, John Roberts,  would also be the screaming bloody murder if a muslim, athesist or agnostic was ever nominated.   What a lousy bunch of utter hypocrites....

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Drinking Liberally - "Promoting democracy one pint at a time".  I can drink to that!  It has 90 communities in 37 states plus DC  (listing).  Some entries  and snippets: Bush Could Use a Lesson in Intelligent Design:   "Since then, the GOP designed an energy bill that doesn't give us energy independence, reduce prices at the pump or promote conservation."  I think its intelligently designed- it transfers even more of the peon's money to greedy corporations.   Of course intelligence doesn't necessarily imply wisdom! The Bush Administration: Lost in Space:  Shuttle launches and Iraqi invasions suddenly seem to have a lot in common: After initial failure, there was no new plan; they just tried the failed plan again.

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A great site of news articles and columns and reader responses thereto- and more.  The bumper stickers (above) are especially witty.

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NOW's The Truth About George Bush  site contains pointed news about the exploits of the Bush Regime.  The War page is especially good at highlighting some of the BS of regime and its supporters.    I do wish it provided links to the news articles tho'.

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BuyBlue.org  A listing of "blue" leaning businesses.   Alas, there's only a handful of 'em.

president-bush.com- I like their poster with the heading: "The rich aren't like us.  Their kids don't go to war."

George W. Bush - AWOL from Supporting our Troops  http://www.awolbush.com/