Hope & Change Part II
President-Elect Obama continues to Clintonize his cabinet.
P.S. Fool:
http://arlingtonian.blogspot.com/2008/06/senator-obama-dont-be-fool.html
posted by John | 9:09 PM
Republicus
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door." The Statue of Liberty (P.S. Please be so kind as to enter through the proper channels and in an orderly fashion)
- The "Elite"
- Okay. Honeymoon's Over.
- Hope & Change
- Two-Faced Democrats
- Vote Of Confidence
- President-Elect Barack H. Obama
- Thugs
- Do Your Duty Tomorrow.
- Morning Glory Vs. Closer
- The Surge Is Working
Monday, November 17, 2008
President-Elect Obama continues to Clintonize his cabinet.
P.S. Fool:
http://arlingtonian.blogspot.com/2008/06/senator-obama-dont-be-fool.html
245 Comments:
We are the Borg...
Resistance is not futile.
No, I think it will become quite entertaining...
I believe it will be futile but highly entertaining.
Never a dull moment.
lovin' every minute of it...
so much to prove, so little time.
you are getting very sleepy...
lol
Perfect.
They say five million people are going to turn out for the Washington Woodstock Inaugural party.
There may never again be like opportunity to rid mother earth of her parasites...
Let's hope Obama hasn't p*ssed off too many CS's in Dept. of Homeland Security. ;-)
Obama is the Jimi Hendrix of presidents.
WTF?!!? Fatty can call 5,000,000 people parasites but John the morality police deletes a comment singling out the obvious?!!? I suppose calling blacks "coons" a few posts back has been removed too???
Like Jimmy Hendrix is right... a real "experience".
Plato, "Gorgias"
POLUS: Then what, in your opinion, is rhetoric?
SOCRATES: A thing which, as I was lately reading in a book of yours, you say that you have made an art.
POLUS: What thing?
SOCRATES: I should say a sort of experience.
POLUS: Does rhetoric seem to you to be an experience?
SOCRATES: That is my view, but you may be of another mind.
POLUS: An experience in what?
SOCRATES: An experience in producing a sort of delight and gratification.
POLUS: And if able to gratify others, must not rhetoric be a fine thing?
SOCRATES: What are you saying, Polus? Why do you ask me whether rhetoric is a fine thing or not, when I have not as yet told you what rhetoric is?
POLUS: Did I not hear you say that rhetoric was a sort of experience?
SOCRATES: Will you, who are so desirous to gratify others, afford a slight gratification to me?
POLUS: I will.
SOCRATES: Will you ask me, what sort of an art is cookery?
POLUS: What sort of an art is cookery?
SOCRATES: Not an art at all, Polus.
POLUS: What then?
SOCRATES: I should say an experience.
POLUS: In what? I wish that you would explain to me.
SOCRATES: An experience in producing a sort of delight and gratification, Polus.
POLUS: Then are cookery and rhetoric the same?
SOCRATES: No, they are only different parts of the same profession.
POLUS: Of what profession?
SOCRATES: I am afraid that the truth may seem discourteous; and I hesitate to answer, lest Gorgias should imagine that I am making fun of his own profession. For whether or no this is that art of rhetoric which Gorgias practises I really cannot tell:—from what he was just now saying, nothing appeared of what he thought of his art, but the rhetoric which I mean is a part of a not very creditable whole.
GORGIAS: A part of what, Socrates? Say what you mean, and never mind me.
SOCRATES: In my opinion then, Gorgias, the whole of which rhetoric is a part is not an art at all, but the habit of a bold and ready wit, which knows how to manage mankind: this habit I sum up under the word 'flattery'; and it appears to me to have many other parts, one of which is cookery, which may seem to be an art, but, as I maintain, is only an experience or routine and not an art:—another part is rhetoric, and the art of attiring and sophistry are two others: thus there are four branches, and four different things answering to them. And Polus may ask, if he likes, for he has not as yet been informed, what part of flattery is rhetoric: he did not see that I had not yet answered him when he proceeded to ask a further question: Whether I do not think rhetoric a fine thing? But I shall not tell him whether rhetoric is a fine thing or not, until I have first answered, 'What is rhetoric?' For that would not be right, Polus; but I shall be happy to answer, if you will ask me, What part of flattery is rhetoric?
POLUS: I will ask and do you answer? What part of flattery is rhetoric?
SOCRATES: Will you understand my answer? Rhetoric, according to my view, is the ghost or counterfeit of a part of politics.
POLUS: And noble or ignoble?
SOCRATES: Ignoble, I should say, if I am compelled to answer, for I call what is bad ignoble: though I doubt whether you understand what I was saying before.
GORGIAS: Indeed, Socrates, I cannot say that I understand myself.
SOCRATES: I do not wonder, Gorgias; for I have not as yet explained myself, and our friend Polus, colt by name and colt by nature, is apt to run away. (This is an untranslatable play on the name 'Polus,' which means 'a colt.')
GORGIAS: Never mind him, but explain to me what you mean by saying that rhetoric is the counterfeit of a part of politics.
SOCRATES: I will try, then, to explain my notion of rhetoric, and if I am mistaken, my friend Polus shall refute me.
Wow, such a lively blog!!! Here's some funny stuff to liven it up...will weak little johnny get this off in time to save his two fans from having to encounter it? That's the burning question...hahahhahahahaha.
Poll Data: GOP Fast Becoming Rump Party
The new Gallup poll shows that the Republican Party as an institution has a 61% unfavorable rating, with only 34% favorable. And the numbers have only gone downhill since the election -- in October they were at 40% favorable and 53% unfavorable.
But it actually gets worse for the GOP from there.
A separate question in the data set showed 59% of Republicans saying the party needs to be more conservative, compared to only 12% who say the party should be less conservative. So not only is the pool of Republican voters shrinking, but the ones who remain are really nuts.
We could be seeing the emergence of a pattern common in democracies, when a ruling party is turned out of power in a landslide: The folks who are left to pick up the pieces are often the most extreme elements, and are in fact the least fit to actually clean things up.
Hmm, can anyone say Palin/Bachmann in 2012?
Watch it Eat This only conservatives are allowed to cut and paste on this blog. It the classic double standard around here. Kind of like being unpatriotic for attacking Bush while attacking Obama, well that's all well and good!
"Watch It Eat This only conservatives"?
What does that mean?
Should say "Watch it 'Eat This'"... referring to the previous poster.
Dora's obviously still obsessed with Alice's weight. ME-OWWWWW! LOL!
John,
Kelly and I have an idea.
http://rescivitatis.blogspot.com/
Give it a gander.
Phelonius
I want to ditto what Phelonius just said. :)
Dora is dopey.
I'm out. Pit vipers make lousy pets.
o.t. - john - what do you want to bet THIS is the next BIG cause for the left? i mean now that global warming has proven to be a scam?
Happy Thanksgiving, John! Enjoy the holidays.
John, what do you think should be the first item on our agenda now that McCain has won the election as predicted?
Happy Thanksgiving all...this is a beautiful expression of my sentiments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7_MYrVzU-Y
Bill Clinton drove Hale Boggs to his last flight to Alaska.
Boggs was the lone dissenter on the Warren Commission.
Boggs (Cokie's dad) died that night. His plane has never been found.
Bill Clinton was later elected President and soon enough began work on the North American Super Highway.
When Clinton was Governor of Arkansas, he used to skip church on the Sabbath and hang out and smoke pot at a secret Castro-ite airport in Mena Arkansas.
None dare call it treason.
Exeunt: "Joe" 'The' "Plumber"
Enter: Joe The Backstabber
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2008/11/lieberman_contributed_to_gop_s.html
What do you think the leftists will try next; I mean now that the depression has proven to be Clinton's fault and Obama has failed in his economic plan to address it?
Do you think the people will now demand Sarah Palin move directly into the Whitehouse?
Sarah Palin is hot - but
being sexy is not a good reason for being elected on a national level.
.
LOL
hahahahhahahhahaha
Being black doesn't trump the Constitution either. Until he produces a valid Hawaiian birth certificate, he NOT my CINC.
FJ and other low rent slobs are still obsessing over the birth certificate that has already been on Obama's blog for over a year.
McCain was the one born outside the US - as was Tom Delay.
If McCain and Delay were not white, FJ and other racists would be whining about them.
Btw FJ - Obama is NOT your CINC.
The President (Bush - then Obama) is the commander in chief of the Army and Navy. He is not the CINC of people who work for the census etc.
Bush tried to extend the CINC title to areas beyond the military so chickenhawks suchs as yourself were under the delusion he was your commander or some such.
Yeah -- Obama is not your Commander in Chief, but neither was Bush the draft dodger. Even if a military hero like Kerry won, he would only be the CINC of the military, not Civy clowns like FJ.
So calm your ass down.
Wolff: Murdoch ‘absolutely despises’ O’Reilly
In Michael Wolff’s forthcoming biography of Rupert Murdoch, “The Man Who Owns The News,” the author writes that the media mogul has seemed to turn away lately from his cable news network, and isn’t fond its top-rated personality, Bill O’Reilly.
“It is not just Murdoch (and everybody else at News Corp.’s highest levels) who absolutely despises Bill O’Reilly, the bullying, mean-spirited, and hugely successful evening commentator,” Wolff wrote, “but [Fox News chief executive] Roger Ailes himself who loathes him. Success, however, has cemented everyone to each other."
“The embarrassment can no longer be missed,” Wolff wrote, in another section of the book. “He mumbles even more than usual when called on to justify it. He barely pretends to hide the way he feels about Bill O’Reilly. And while it is not that he would give Fox up—because the money is the money; success trumps all—in the larger sense of who he is, he seems to want to hedge his bets.”
Wolff describes Murdoch as not wanting News Corp. to be defined by Fox News. And so last year’s purchase of the Wall Street Journal, he wrote, “was in no small way about wanting to trade the illiberal—the belligerent, the vulgar, the loud, the menacing the unsubtle—for the better-heeled, the more magnanimous, the further nuanced.”
Jon - A fascinating study
of what makes so-called
conservatives:
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html
I, like countless other Americans, have sworn to protect and defend the Constitution, not the president. And if the man won't satisfy the Constitutional requirement, then he can go f*ck himself and is to be ignored.
All that little MacDaddy, Barack, has to do is show us the proof. But he can't.
Fucking Jackass: Get a clue. This issue was settled; or take it to court if you are sooo positive he's not a citizen. Otherwise you're no better than Al Qaeda, undermining the authority of our CINC when our nation is at war. Support out troops!
Alice: Or "Fatty Pig Fatty"... If you want anyone to take you seriously, show some self control and drop a couple of tons.
Obama's a friggin' metic. Just another road sign on the highway to tyranny.
Plato, "Republic"
By degrees the anarchy finds a way into private houses, and ends by getting among the animals and infecting them.
How do you mean?
I mean that the father grows accustomed to descend to the level of his sons and to fear them, and the son is on a level with his father, he having no respect or reverence for either of his parents; and this is his freedom, and the metic is equal with the citizen and the citizen with the metic, and the stranger is quite as good as either.
Yes, he said, that is the way.
Otherwise you're no better than Al Qaeda, undermining the authority of our CINC when our nation is at war. Support out troops!
LOL! Get a clue.
Obama was born in Kenya.
Obama's a fraud.
Since the issue would be easily laid to rest with the showing of Obama’s original birth certificate, some are asking why the former Illinois senator has not produced it and take his refusal to mean he “has something to hide.” Meanwhile, as with the many other controversies that came Obama’s way during his campaign – and which he successfully overcame - he appears to be handling this one in the same manner. It remains to be seen what Dec. 1 will bring when his response is due to the Supreme Court but his Fight the Smears website still proclaims the same message that it has for months.
So much for "Change" or any "spirit of bipartisanship" in the Whitehouse...
"We will file lawsuits on his actions, every time. As long as we have money , we will keep filing lawsuits until we get a decision as to his citizenship status," Gary Kreep, chief of the United States Justice Foundation, told WND today.
"We're already talking to groups who are willing to be plaintiffs," he said.
As WND reported, Kreep filed the California challenge with presidential candidate Alan Keyes as a plaintiff.
The complaint urges the California secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast until Obama's citizenship and related eligibility to hold office is resolved.
It is just one of more than a dozen legal challenges brought forward so far over Obama's citizenship. The cases all cite Obama's clouded history and the U.S. Constitution's requirement that a president be a "natural-born" citizen.
Wow... Fat-man & Robin (FJ) are more concerned with some manufactured BD controversy than allowing the President elect to deal with an emerging terrorist threat and the collapsing economy...
...and stupidity forced to hide in anonymity is more interested in supporting citizen(???) Obama than he is the ACTUAL CURRENT President of the United States or the US Constitution.
Supporting the current president isn't in doubt at this point. You and Fatass refuse to even give the popularly elected President a fair chance. And you still refuse to defend how in the past you called critics of the sitting president unpatriotic etc.
George Bush - lacking self awareness:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081128/pl_afp/uspoliticshistorybush
FJ - trying to sound like a Plato quoting liberal. LOL
Alice, why don't you take a look at his birth cerificate if you care so much? It's posted on one of his websites? Maybe you should ask your friends in the grassy knoll to hold your hand so you won't be shocked that a black man can be born in the USA.
In all honesty - It was McCain that was born outside the US . He was born in the Panama canal zone.
One of McCain's father's disgraceful acts was trying to prevent President Carter from returning the canal zone to Panama.
You cannot really blame Jhn McCain for his father's actions, but McCain picked up some of these same unthinking imperial-ish attutdues from the old man - Thus, you saw his bonehead "let's stay in Iraq! The surge worked!" nonsense. Same when McCain objected to quitting bases.
nb - FJ, you never served in the military - so stop saying you made the military pledge.
re McCain's imperialistic attitude - The folks noticed and that's why the elected Obama.
Btw - Alice, why does Obama's passports say born in the USA?
Did he trick the passport office with his secret Muslim crazy preacher Commie black majick and show the passport office the same birth certificate he has shown you?
When the racist and anti semitic Andy Martin invented the birth certificate rumor he had his audience in mind, but even he did not expect people to believe in such stuff after the election.
Kreep (creap?) thinks that "natural born" citizen means white skin. It does not - Rather, it just means you were born in the USA. Like Bush being born in Connecticut or Obama in Hawaii or Carter in Georgia.
With people like Tom Delay - born in Venezuala or McCain (born in Panama), it is an issue.
We kjnow what your attutudes inducate.
HYPOCRACY!
Jeesus! Does anybody care what this pack of repudiated, irrelevant little non-entities think about his citizenship...or anything else. They're totally out of it...good only for jokes and kicking around.
Pressure's building.
Either sign the petition, or remain a UN internationalist stooge.
Sign it, hypocrites.
Why does Barack Obama's college application to Columbia identify him as an Indonesian and where's the record of his passport being stamped upon entry into Pakistan?
Fatass: For every ton you drop I'll get that many people to sign your BS petition!
We don't give a shit if he's Martian, Dickable, and neither does anybody else.
He WON.
You LOST.
Live with it.
Too bad this piece of shit wasn't born in antarctica:
Just embarrassing
George W. Bush is delusional. That’s the only explanation, short of alternate universes, for his comments on what his legacy will be in an interview conducted by his sister, Dorothy Koch.
The most delusional statement of all has to be Bush’s view of his nation-building invasion and occupation of IraqLet’s start with No Child Left Behind.
“I think the No Child Left Behind Act is one of the significant achievements of my administration because we said loud and clear to educators, parents and children that we expect the best for every child, that we believe every child can learn, and that in return for Federal money we expect there to be an accountability system in place to determine whether every child is learning to read, write, and add and subtract,” he said.
Bush said because of his administration’s No Child Left Behind policy, the “achievement gap” between white children and African-American and Latinos is “narrowing.”
“The promise of No Child Left Behind has been fulfilled,” Bush said.
Among its “17 Reasons NCLB Must Go,” NoChildLeft.com lists disappointing educational results, schools labeled as failures despite being underfunded or serving challenged students such as those for whom English is a second language, narrowing of curriculums to accommodate “teaching to the test,” forcing out underachieving students in order to raise school-wide test scores, loss of current and future teachers, and stagnation within the educational system.
So much for No Child Left Behind. What else does Bush want us to remember?
“I surrounded myself with good people,” Bush said. “I carefully considered the advice of smart, capable people and made tough decisions.”
One word: Heckuva Job Brownie.
Wait, two words: Donald Rumsfeld.
Bush said he wants to be known as a president “that focused on individuals rather than process; that rallied people to serve their neighbor; that led an effort to help relieve HIV/AIDS and malaria on places like the continent of Africa; that helped elderly people get prescription drugs and Medicare as a part of the basic package; that came to Washington, D.C., with a set of political statements and worked as hard as I possibly could to do what I told the American people I would do.”
Let’s take these one at a time. Bush rallied people to serve their neighbors by abandoning their neighbors so they had no choice.
HIV/AIDS relief in Africa? BlackAgendaReport.com doesn’t think so.
The Bush administration undermines its vaunted AIDS efforts in Africa by tying aid dollars to contracts for American firms, and barring funds to groups that deal with sex workers - a primary vector of the disease. Such political-religious restrictions have led to the growth of epidemics centered among sex workers, and a critical shortage of condoms in Uganda - a country that was once touted as an AIDS success story but is now on a backward slide.
Prescription drug coverage? Check with the Heritage Foundation.
According to the latest official projections, the net, ten-year cost of the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) drug entitlement is $720 billion.
When Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act in 2003, CBO and Administration officials said that the initial ten-year cost (over the period from 2004 to 2013) was going to be roughly $400 billion…
Estimates of the 10-year cost of the Medicare drug benefit will only balloon as the baby boom generation starts to retire and join the Medicare rolls. If Congress repealed the entitlement and instead adopted targeted and expanded MDDC program, the new policy could save taxpayers billions while assisting those seniors who actually need help.
Want more from the guy who implemented “Faith-Based Initiatives” as way of providing taxpayer dollars to religious groups?
“I’ve been in the Bible every day since I’ve been the president…I would advise politicians, however, to be careful about faith in the public arena,” he said.
“In other words, politicians should not be judgmental people based upon their faith. They should recognize — as least I have recognized I am a lowly sinner seeking redemption, and therefore have been very careful about saying [accept] my faith or you’re bad. In other words, if you don’t accept what I believe, you’re a bad person. And the greatness of America — it really is — is that you can worship or not worship and be equally American. And it doesn’t matter how you choose to worship; you’re equally American. And it’s very important for any President to jealously protect, guard, and strengthen that freedom.”
But the most delusional statement of all has to be Bush’s view of his nation-building invasion and occupation of Iraq.
“I’d like to be a president [known] as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace.”
I’m sure you would like to be that president, Mr. Bush. We would like for you to be too. Unfortunately, you are the biggest screw-up and failure ever to hold the office. That, W, is your true and abiding legacy.
I wouldn't repaint AF1 just yet if I were you.
The massive tsunami of recent right wing corruption begs the question, does conservatism necessarily engender such activity. It seems quite clear that they are corrupt by nature. As Mort Sahl said, Liberals feel guilty about wealth; Conservatives believe they deserve every penny they steal.
I don't think it needs repainting; just extreme fumigation and delousing.
Lmao...most amusing spectacle, here...all the weak, drowning nazis grasping at straws to stay afloat after their shit scow got torpedoed by the good guys.
All you've done is extend your own ring of Gyges. The corruption today is 100x worse than it was in 2004. You simply won't read about it anymore. Good job, noble "progressives".
Don't bother arguing with them, FJ. They're blind to bats in their own cave.
High-ranking members of Congress were flown to a lush Caribbean resort this month for a three-day conference planned and paid for by several of the country's most powerful corporations - a violation of federal ethics rules, critics say.
Six members of the Congressional Black Caucus attended the 13th annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference in sun-drenched St. Maarten, including embattled Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel and New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne.
Three New York City officials attended, including Comptroller William Thompson and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr., as well as Gov. Paterson, who was the keynote speaker at a luncheon on the second day of the gathering.
The politicians were seen by The Post during the Nov. 6-9 conference, walking among the palm trees on the breezy grounds of the sprawling, terra cotta Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Casino.
Paterson's office said he'd paid for his own travel and lodging during his visit. But other legislators enjoyed free airfare, meals and hotel rooms covered by the trip's organizer - and paid for by donations from corporations such as IBM, AT&T, Verizon, Citigroup, Pfizer, Macy's and American Airlines, a Post investigation discovered.
Officials with those companies were observed at the conference - sometimes acting as featured speakers at daily seminars and freely mingling among the pols at social events. Citigroup - which just last week received a massive bailout from the federal government - was one of the conference's biggest sponsors, ponying up $100,000 to help finance the event, according to one of the lobbyists at the gathering.
A spokesman for Citigroup told The Post the company has financially supported the conference for several years, but would not reveal an amount.
Phone giant Verizon gave $35,000, according to spokesman Brian Malina. The yearly event - always held in a Caribbean country - is a big draw for black politicians, as well as for community activists, lobbyists and special-interest groups looking to promote their agendas.
According to conference organizers, the main goal is "promoting business relationships between some of America's largest firms and the Caribbean's most successful enterprises."
Lol...some dingbat story from newsmax or one of their other lie factories.
Why aren't we hearing about indictments and arrests and prison terms like we are for all the DOZENS of wingbat thieves and perverts and "spiritual leaders" of the reich?
When you've got some of those, let us know.
Yours truly from the Corrupt Bastards Club
Uncle Ted Stevens
... and Charlie Rangel's just a fine upstanding citizen who just doesn't realize he needs to pay taxes on income property...
I wonder how much cash he's got stashed in his refrigerator...
btw - How much time did Nancy Pelosi's mom get for taking kickbacks back in the old Baltimore days?
How much money did Joe Biden's kids get for lobbying?
The Democratic Party has unlimited tolerance for corruption in their own party and zero tolerance for it in the Republican Party.
Only because they're the world's biggest HYPOCRITES.
Obama's an illegitimate pretender to the Office of the Presidency. He will never acquire legitimacy until he submits his bona fides and they are accepted by the American people.
Hahahaha...what a pathetic and WEAK pack of tools...like he said...indictments, trials, convictions, prison terms, not silly right wing rumors about minor, ancient, imaginary or exaggerated transgressions...the real thing, now, ya heah? hahahaha
Obama's "legitimacy?" Lmao...get out and buy a paper...you'll read about a recent landslide with the greatest number of votes ever recieved by a presidential candidate. Meanwhile your little monkey is the most reviled and laughed at piece of shit in history.
The ass kicking is getting to easy.
Alice - if he is a Kenyan, why would his Columbian applications say Indonesia?
But you are wrong in any event - his Columbian application says born in Hawaii.
You gotta stop reading racist literature for primary sources.
Hey - re that Turkey video. It's hard to imagine Obama bothering to continue what may be the dumbest White House tradition. He is just too intelligent.
Look at the wee man smile and laugh at his own bad jokes and puns when "pardons" the bird. Just look at the chump and contemplate the insanity that led him to win over serious men like Gore and Kerry.
Alice - your racist trolling has become a bore.
The GOP's McCarthy gene: "There may be assorted intellectuals and ideologues in the party, maybe even a few centrists, but there is no longer an intellectual or even ideological wing. The party belongs to McCarthy and his heirs -- Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Palin. It's in the genes."
Time to exercise some editorial control. The people on here are an embarrassment to conservatism.
Alice is called "racist"...if you go by the following definition that I found:
"Updating the definition of "racist"
Peter Kirsanow:
[T]he better dictionaries are in the process of updating the definition of racist to reflect contemporary usage:
Racist—n.,adj. 1. Any person who performs any act, holds any belief or makes any statement that negatively reflects upon or adversely affects Barack Obama or his policies, positions, interests, conduct, associates, or holiness. 2. Any act, belief or statement that negatively reflects upon or adversely affects Barack Obama or his policies, positions, interests, conduct, associates, or holiness. Synonyms: conservative; Republican; red state; rural; churchgoer; gun owner. "
LOL!
Actually, the Columbia accusation is being made in a video from black minister in Harlem... so maybe it is racist.
I guess this proves WHO the racists REALLY are, eh anonymouse?
As it is...the Constitution of this land requires...REQUIRES that the POTUS be a natural born citizen. It does not care if that person is WHITE or PURPLE or YELLOW or RAINBOW STRIPED or BLACK he or she must be natural born AND a citizen.
California's Govenator could NOT be POTUS.
But I see that these lefties do not care about our Constitution unless it benefits them.
The U.S. economy has been in recession since December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced on Monday.
Lol...wow, these geniuses make some really fine points. I think they'll be taking that president thing away from O like purdy soon.
Another corrupt Democratic bites the dust. So sad for the political patronage gang...
"I was framed," claims the defendant.
Nobody said the constitution forbids blacks from being President. It's the ludicrous theories being presented that the President Elect's BC is illegitimate. McCain was born in Panama yet nobody questions his citizenship.
Alice & FJ want nothing less than to hold Obama's ACTUAL BC in their hands or they'll never believe its real!
Diebold Vote Company Whistleblower and GOP Cyber Security Expert: 2002 Chambliss Senate Race Was Rigged
EST Dec. 1, 2008
WASHINGTON, Dec 01, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/
In an exclusive interview with Velvet Revolution ("VR"), a DC based non-profit dedicated to a clean and accountable government, a former Diebold vote machine contractor who was in charge of preparing the 2002 election between Saxby Chambliss and Max Cleland has stated that the software patches placed on the voting machines in the weeks prior to the election could have rigged the election in favor of Republican Chambliss. The contractor, Chris Hood, was ordered by the President of Diebold, Bob Urosevich, to secretly install uncertified software patches on machines in predominantly Democratic counties, according to Mr. Hood. Saxby Chambliss won a surprising victory after trailing badly in the pre-election polls.
The interview with Mr. Hood, posted by Velvet Revolution ("VR"), can be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKnIghBsU58. Rebecca Abrahams, a former ABC News producer who conducted the interview, states, "Jim Martin should be concerned about the veracity and validity of the runoff election results after anomalies in the last election and the statement by Chris Hood. In fact, voters should demand to know if Chambliss had any knowledge that the 2002 election was rigged and whether he knew that Georgia citizens voted on electronic voting machines that had been patched with uncertified software days before the election in clear violation of Georgia law."
Stephen Spoonamore, a cyber security expert and lifelong Republican, has also stated that he believes that the 2002 Georgia Senate race was rigged in favor of Chambliss. "If you look at the case of Saxby Chambliss, that's ridiculous. The man was not elected. He lost that election by five points. Max Cleland won. They flipped the votes, clear as day." Spoon said in another exclusive interview posted on YouTube by VR at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzKbigGoMoo.
VR has been working with whistleblowers who have stated that the GOP, under the direction of Karl Rove, has been using computers to change election results. In order to protect the runoff election from such manipulations, a federal RICO lawsuit is being pursued in Ohio to take depositions from those who have been implicated in this illegal strategy. Last week, the attorneys in that case sent document holds to Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel asking that she retain all memory cards and hard drives used in the runoff, and all documents related to uncertified patches. Cliff Arnebeck, the lead attorney in that case states, "Karl Rove has made a career out of rigging elections. Electronic voting machines like those being used in Georgia are his favorite tool, so this important race cannot be watched too closely."
Complete coverage of this suit is at www.rovecybergate.com.
VR is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the Saxby Chambliss election rigging.
"McCain was born in Panama yet nobody questions his citizenship. "
His dad was military. Children born to military parents in other countries are considered natural born.
My nephew was born in Germany while his parents were there while he was stationed there. He is still a US citizen.
And, btw...he provided his birth certificate when asked.
McCain was asked to provide his birth certificate just like Obama.
Also, if the whole BC thing is ludicrous than why doesn't Obama just provide it for the court??
Then I guess the Constitution of this land is dead!
Just a few from the administration:
Partial list of resignations from the Bush Administration -- not including the hordes of other GOPs:
Former assistant to the President Felipe Sixto was charged with stealing from a Cuba-related nonprofit organization. Edgar Johnson, who worked for the Department of the Interior, was charged with taking bribes. Julia McDonald, deputy assistant secretary at the Department of the Interior, resigned after an investigation found she gave government documents to lobbyists.
The number two person at the department of the interior, Steven Griles, was sentenced to 10 months as a part of the Jack Abramoff Scandal. Abramoff was also responsible for taking down Roger Stillwell from the Office of Insular Affairs, Robert Coughlin, who was chief of the criminal division at the Justice Department, and David Safavian, who was chief of staff in the General Services Administration.
Lester Crawford, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, who resigned and pled guilty to holding stock in companies that he was regulating. Claude Allen was the assistant to the president for domestic policy. He resigned for a scheme of defrauding Target stores.
Brian Doyle was deputy press secretary for Homeland Security. He went to prison for child porn. Frank Figueroa also worked for Homeland Security as head of Operation Predator and got in trouble for exposing himself to a girl in a mall.
John Korsmo, chairman of the Federal Housing Board, was convicted of lying about inviting banks that he was supposed to be regulating to a fundraiser for a Congressional candidate. His wife — deputy chief of staff at the Labor Department — also lost her job in the scandal.
Head of the ATF, Charles Truscott, resigned for ordering employees to help his child with a school project.
Ken Tomlinson was chairman for public broadcasting and resigned after he was exposed for running a horse racing operation out of his office.
The executive director of the CIA, Dusty Foggo, pleaded guilty in the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal.
Janet Rehnquist, who is daughter of the late Supreme Court Justice, resigned from her position as Inspector General after it was learned she delayed an audit of Florida’s pension fund at the request of Jeb Bush.
Deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks David Smith, resigned after killing a buffalo and accepting the corpse as a gift.
Philip Cooney was chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and resigned when it was discovered that he revised scientific reports on global warming. A press aide at NASA, George Deutsch, resigned for keeping the governments’ top scientist from talking about climate change.
The administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Thomas Scully, resigned after pressuring employees to say the medicare drug bill would costs less than it really would. Sean Tunnis, also of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, faked documentation about his medical education.
Bernie Kerik was going to be head of Homeland Security before he was indicted. Scooter Libby, the vice presidents chief of staff, was convicted on four felony counts of lying in the CIA leak case. And finally, Alberto Gonzales, who resigned from his position as Attorney General after being accused of lying to Congress about the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys.
Kelly,
Worry not.
We lived through Carter, we lived through Clinton, and we can live through the insanities I have read here.
They will have to grow up someday, and that does not make them bad people. They are just young people that will need some life experience.
As it is, we have to survive the socialists again and we can do just that. The Republic will be stronger for all of that I sincerely believe.
Yeah, only those under thirty voted for Obama...you sanctimonious peabrain.
Why the Republicans Must Lose
Nothing short of defeat will put the GOP back on its limited government track
Radley Balko | October 22, 2008
Radley Balko, Libertarian, is a senior editor of reason. A version of this article originally appeared at FoxNews.com.
I grew up in a particularly conservative part of the already conservative state of Indiana. I voted for Bob Dole in 1996 and George Bush in 2000, generally because—though I'm not a conservative (I'm a libertarian)—I'd always thought the GOP was the party of limited government. By 2002, I was less sure of that. And by 2004, I was so fed up with the party that I did what I thought I'd never do—vote for an unabashed leftist for president.
Since then, "fed up" has soured to "given up." The Republican Party has exiled its Goldwater-Reagan wing and given up all pretense of any allegiance to limited government. In the last eight years, the GOP has given us a monstrous new federal bureaucracy in the Department of Homeland Security. In the prescription drug benefit, it's given us the largest new federal entitlement since the Johnson administration. Federal spending—even on items not related to war or national security—has soared. And we now get to watch as the party that's supposed to be "free market" nationalizes huge chunks of the economy's financial sector.
First, they had their shot at holding power, and they failed. They've failed in staying true to their principles of limited government and free markets. They've failed in preventing elected leaders of their party from becoming corrupted by the trappings of power, and they've failed to hold those leaders accountable after the fact. Congressional Republicans failed to rein in the Bush administration's naked bid to vastly expand the power of the presidency (a failure they're going to come to regret should Obama take office in January). They failed to apply due scrutiny and skepticism to the administration's claims before undertaking Congress' most solemn task—sending the nation to war. I could go on.
As for the Bush administration, the only consistent principle we've seen from the White House over the last eight years is that of elevating the American president (and, I guess, the vice president) to that of an elected dictator. That isn't hyperbole. This administration believes that on any issue that can remotely be tied to foreign policy or national security (and on quite a few other issues as well), the president has boundless, limitless, unchecked power to do anything he wants. They believe that on these matters, neither Congress nor the courts can restrain him.
That's the second reason the GOP needs to lose. American voters need to send a clear, convincing repudiation of these dangerous ideas.
If they do lose, the GOP would be wise to regroup and rebuild from scratch, scrap the current leadership, and, most importantly, purge the party of the "national greatness," neoconservative influence. Big-government conservatism has bloated the federal government, bogged us down in what will ultimately be a trillion-dollar war, and set us down the road to European-style socialism. It's hard to think of how Obama could be worse. He'll just be bad in different ways.
The truth is, unless you vote for a third-party candidate (which really isn't a bad idea), you don't have much of a choice this November. You can either endorse the idea of a massive, invasive, ever-encroaching federal government that's used to promote center-left ideology, or you can endorse the idea of a massive, invasive, ever-encroaching federal government that's used to promote center-right ideology.
Sadly, if the GOP does lose, it's likely to be interpreted not as a repudiation of the GOP's excesses, but as an endorsement of the Democrats'. When the only two parties who have a chance at winning both have a track record of expanding the size and scope of government, every election is likely to be interpreted as a win for big government—only the brand changes.
Voting yourself more freedom simply isn't an option, at least if you want your vote to be taken seriously (and I'm not denigrating any third parties here; I'm just reflecting reality).
Which brings me back to why the Republicans need to get throttled: A humiliated, decimated GOP that rejuvenates and rebuilds around the principles of limited government, free markets, and rugged individualism is really the only chance for voters to possibly get a real choice in federal elections down the road.
Of course, there's no guarantee that's how the party will emerge from defeat. But the Republican Party in its current form has forfeited its right to govern.
Al Moron...
Gee thanks.
You have really done well there. I am humbled.....
sheesh
"A humiliated, decimated GOP that rejuvenates and rebuilds around the principles of limited government, free markets, and rugged individualism is really the only chance for voters to possibly get a real choice in federal elections down the road."
I agree totally. The GOP made the same mistake in this last election as it did with the Bob Dole election.
You are not going to get some middle-of-the-road fossil out of the box and excite an electorate. Sarah Palin, love her or hate her, excited some of the electorate because she spoke her mind and was not a left-over from the Indian Wars. McCain was done for as soon as he was nominated.
If there are going to be choices, they have to be REAL choices and not just mouth-music.
Alice I think you're gonna find that black President really won't damage things in the way you might fear and that a lot of your fears will dissipate over time.
Just sit back and relax. If it helps, think of Africa.
America will be ok.
Sarah Palin was a nice lady, but I don't know anyone with some college who thinks she was prepared.
She was a liar and not a normal political liar like Bush or Clint, but a dumb pathological liar. Plus, she was absurdly uneducated about basic science and culture.
Granted, she was sexy. But that's just not enough. Bush drove our economy into a ditch and you need serious people to help get is out.
Hey, how about those health records? Eh? Ha.
felonious says: I agree totally. The GOP made the same mistake in this last election as it did with the Bob Dole election.
Jeezus you are one dumb hump. Is that what they said was wrong with the GOP/Reich?
Obama is CERTAINLY the lehman bros. 3/4 of their directors are on his "economic recovery" staff. That doesn't bode well for America's future... think "Africa" for certain!
Every right wing blog I've visited this morning is dying. Good riddance.
You must not be going to the right ones.
Chambliss wis.
No super majority. :(
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
American history is way overdue for a one-termer. So we elected an Africa-American president. Yay. God Bless America (I'm serious; it's a beautiful thing). But yaddah-yaddah-yaddah, been there, done that, now.
Reparations paid in full (if not after the Battle of Antietam).
The Hispanic-Americas want their messiah, too, and it ain't Richardson.
The Bush Dynasty is just warming up. If Jeb don't make it, Jorge P. most certainly will (if not both in turn).
And there's Jindal, Palin, Romney, and many others ready to rumble in '12.
By that time, the Clinton's will have turned Obama into a vrtual White House lawn jockey.
The Democras were on life support after the election of '04, but were able to get back in the game because Bush grabbed the Third Rail, botched reconstruction in Iraq, and was blamed for the ill-maintained levees of New Orleans while a carefully orchestrated strategy of incessant, hyperbolic hystera sceamed bloody murder everytime Bush smiled and waved.
At this point, however, outside of ther own circle-jerking choir, normal people have realized that they've been crying wolf over and over again and know them as The Deranged, Uhinged, Bush-Hating Left (a.ka. assholes)--who Obama tries damn hard not to acknowledge--personally or even policy-wise-- or resemble in any way (even though they were his bedrock base).
Anyway, a lot can happen in four years.
Enjoy your interregnum, fools.
Nostril,
You would know about being dumb.
You do not know jack shit about politics.
Everything I said stands, and when your ignorant bones are rotting in the earth what I said will still stand true.
Since you and your ancestors do not know what the meaning of the Reich was, I will inform your banana eating forbears and you. The Reich and this government, even including the Carter administration, have nothing at all in common. The Obama administration will be judged on what it does, but I predict that they will not compare to the Reich.
You hair-brained egret, the Reich was pure evil. Even one of limited intellectual capability can see that. Guantanamo Bay is a holiday vacation next to a Belsen-belsen. The next time you decide to draw historical allegory, you might want to at the very least look up this thing called "wikipedia." It sucks, but I think you can maybe handle it, if you try really really hard.
Hahaha...great stuff.
You come here
you push a button...
and, voila...
the most hilarious outbursts from deranged, defanged dingbats.
Hello dingbat!!!
I agree!
Please post some more.
We need more dingbat!
Hey Johnny!
Did you know that the race I am involved in is now a federal case?
Do GOPthieves grow on trees...hat few GOP losers are still around will soon be in jail:
Nevada's No. 2 indicted
By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY and BRENDAN RILEY, Associated Press Writers
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
A grand jury has indicted Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, a Republican hoping to unseat U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, on charges stemming from his management of a multibillion-dollar college savings program in his previous job as Nevada's state treasurer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More News
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Obama is delivering diversity, but some seek more 12.03.08
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Clark County grand jury indictment handed up Wednesday names Krolicki and Kathryn Besser, his former chief of staff in the treasurer's office. They face arraignments Dec. 18 in Clark County District Court.
The indictment accuses Krolicki of two counts of misappropriation and falsification of accounts by a public officer, and two counts of misappropriation by a treasurer. The four counts all are felonies, and each carries a possible sentence of up to four years in prison.
Besser faces two counts, including being a principal to misappropriation and falsification of accounts and being a principal to misappropriation by a treasurer.
Hey losers!! Get ready to lose Fox. Even Murdoch hates it.
The author of a new book about media mogul Rupert Murdoch believes that Murdoch's negative feelings about Fox go far beyond a personal distaste for the crude O'Reilly's bullying.
According to Wolff, the real issue is that Murdoch has "come to like the liberals more than the conservatives -- and many of them have come to like him, too. ... His life is now largely spent around people for whom Fox News is a vulgarity and a joke."
"He saw a market niche," Wolff explained. "It was easy to get into, it was easy to service these people, it was cheaper to service these people, and he went for it. ... He saw a money-making formula."
Wolff believes that now Murdoch, "wants something else. ... He is becoming something else."
Wolff explained, "One of the interesting things about Murdoch is that he is -- how would we say this? -- henpecked." In the 1980s, Murdoch was influenced by his second wife, who was "classically, and in a doctrinaire way, a Catholic conservative." But "now he's with a woman 38 years his junior, quite young, quite liberal, quite open, and certainly engaged with all of the Hollywood people."
"...Fox News is a vulgarity and a joke."
Subject: Action Alert - Costco says 'No' to Christmas...literally...Please help; I know you're stupid enough.
Costco has 520 stores nationwide. But you will not find "Christmas" in a single store.
That's because Costco says it will not use the term "Christmas" on its website or in its stores.
Instead, Costco is telling customers it purposely chooses to use the generic "holiday" verbiage.
You know, they stock holiday gifts, not Christmas gifts.
Last week, a customer wrote to Costco and asked this direct question – "Does Costco use the word
'Christmas' in your store advertising or on any signs anywhere in your stores during the Christmas season?"
Kory Rosacrans, staff manager for Costco replied, "I guess the answer would be No."
Costco wants you to do your "Christmas" shopping with them,
while refusing to recognize that Christmas even exists.
Take Action!
Do what I'm doing. Write to Costco and bitch like a religiously-insane handjob.
We have two wars going badly and our economy is dying but the only thing on my mind
is punishing American businesses who fail to jump thru my idiotic rhetorical hoops.
Sincerely,
Donald E Wildmon,
Founder and Chairman,
American Handjob Association
Solution: Don't do your Christmas shopping or partonize businesses that take advantage of the Christmas holiday while refusing to acknowledge its existance.
Ah, now I have a blog entry of my own in the works :)
btw, John, did you see the link that James left on here earlier?
Res Civitatis
It is still in its infancy, but we think it has potential.
Here's the solution: Ban religious bigots; they threaten our freedoms.
Here's another solution:
Three parts purex to one part anti-freeze.
Try it; you'll like it.
Over half a million jobs lost by the monkey administration in November alone!!
Thank gawd the adults are returning. But will it be soon enough?
Clearly not.
The scrambled, alcoholic pscychopath must go now.
The GOP is in a permanent minority position:
"They're making a huge mistake in assuming that just because Bobby Jindal is young and of unusual ethnic origins that he's the equivalent of Barack Obama -- in the same way they mistakenly calculated that Sarah Palin would attract female voters just because she's a woman, even though she possessed none of the positive qualities of Senator Clinton. It's totally shallow and vaguely racist. A party which has so often dealt in identity politics and racial divisiveness to suddenly go, "Hey, look over here! We have an ethnic, too!" seems weird and awful to me.
Additionally, Jindal's religious extremism won't manufacture any new Republican voters from the middle -- he's anti-choice without exceptions, he supports teaching creationism as a science in public schools and, yes, he once performed an exorcism on a friend who he believed was possessed by a demon. Yeah, if there's one thing the Republican Party needs more of, it's religious zealotry.
So we have an exorcist, a Bush, a turkey geeker who makes people explode, and Newt, who, by the way, wrote a book imagining if the South had won the Civil War. If these cable reality show misfits represent the future of the Republican Party, it's going to be a seriously entertaining four years.
Typical GOP scum at work:
One of their favorite no bid contractors:
ETHICS -- KBR GAVE TROOPS ICE TAINTED WITH 'BODY FLUIDS AND PUTREFIED REMAINS': A former technician who worked in Iraq for scandal-ridden contracting company KBR in Iraq has filed a class-action lawsuit saying the company "exposed everyone at Joint Base Balad in Iraq to unsafe water, food and hazardous fumes from the burn pit there." Joshua Eller's suit includes particularly disturbing charges about KBR's indifference to proper sanitization and the disposal of human remain. "The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that 'still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces,'" the Army Times reported. Eller also accused KBR of failing to maintain a medical incinerator, meaning that "medical waste, such as needles, amputated body parts and bloody bandages were burned" in an open-air pit. Earlier this week, several Indiana National Guard soldiers also filed suit against KBR saying they were "exposed to a carcinogen while protecting an Iraqi water pumping plant shortly after the U.S. invasion in 2003."
_________________________________
Depression II...
The Labor Department reported this morning that 533,000 jobs were lost last month, and unemployment surged to 6.7 percent. The job losses are much higher than the 300,000 losses that analysts predicted. This is the 11th straight month of job losses and the largest monthly decline since 1974. Nearly 2 million jobs have been lost this year.
____________________________________
Planet Poisoning Scum:
Yesterday, the Interior Department "unveiled a new rule that challenges Congress’s authority to prevent mining planned on public lands." Congress has "emergency power to stop mineral development, and has used it six times in the last 32 years" but Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne "has ignored that Congressional directive, saying it was procedurally flawed."
__________________________________
Good Investing........
New financial disclosures show that the RNC spent "a total of about $180,000 for clothes and various accessories for the family of vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin," including expenses at outlets like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Toys R Us and Victoria's Secret. The McCain campaign paid Palin's traveling makeup artist $68,400, "and her hair stylist received more than $42,000 for roughly two months of work."
_______________________
The Insane Crackpot FActor.......
The Supreme Court plans to meet today to decide whether to hear a case challenging President-elect Barack Obama's right to be president based on his citizenship at birth. Justice Clarence Thomas picked up the petition to hear the lawsuit "after it was denied by Justice David H. Souter." Thomas "referred it to the full court, which decided to distribute the case for the judges' conference."
______________________
More of their bloodthirsty boys at work.......
The Blackwater Worldwide guards who shot and killed 17 Baghdad civilians in 2007 could face a mandatory 30-year prison sentence. Prosecutors, who could issue charges as early as Monday, might use a 1988 drug law that "calls for 30-year prison terms for using machine guns to commit violent crimes of any kind, whether drug-related or not."
what the hell's going on HERE?
kelly, john and phelonius - if you want to have fun with the moonbats, install haloscan at your new blog.
Nanc, just distinguishing which John we are talking about...the one on our blog is John O. I think I will leave it as it is.
The revolution is beginning. Enraged workers occupy a factory in Chicago. Realize how stupid they were to ever support the rich thieves party.
LOL. Good luck w/the factory occupations. These jokers will be all locked up in jail before the end of the week.
This ain't Argentina.
John - since you have some BC freaks commenting on your blog, this might interest you.
http://www.anonymousliberal.com/2008/12/question-for-obama-birth-certificate.html
kelly - i thought it was THIS john!
Nanc, that is why I left the clarification.
btw...I took care of a bug on the comment area of the new blog.
I left the link for this John so he could come see what Phelonius and I put together. We later invited my very own John O. to join us.
it's lovely from what i've seen. hope you don't mind if i pop in once in awhile.
why don't you pinheads get on the phone?
Monday, December 8, 2008
Orders in Pending Cases
*****
08A407 DONOFRIO, LEO C. V. WELLS, NJ SEC. OF STATE
The application for stay addressed to Justice Thomas and referred to the court is denied.
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/orders/courtorders/120808zor.pdf
"something deeply troubling about President Bush's relationship to reason, his disdain for facts, and his lack of curiosity. . . ."
_VP Al Gore
Sounds like SCOTUS. But then SCOTUS won't be paying the piper, Obama will.
It would have been a lot harder to overthrow Richard, than John.
We now have our "John". Thanks, SCOTUS.
So, how's locking those workers up going, peabrain?
I was hoping you were right...that would have been just the incident we needed.
Thomas taking the case up was just his way of finishing it off...even that reichsjudge couldn't stop laughing at the idea.
I love the way the workers now clamour for their chains by even taking over their jail and demanding imprisonment.
"We have a right to work." LOL! Silly b*stards, aren't they?
Does this demented peabrain ever make sense?
Nevada GOP head going to live with mommy...hahahahahahahahaha:
How bad have things gotten for Republicans in Nevada? Pretty soon, they won't have a home in Las Vegas.
Over the weekend, volunteers helped pack up the Nevada Republican Party's Southern Nevada offices for what was billed as a "move."
In fact, the GOP's possessions were headed for storage as its headquarters temporarily relocate to Northern Nevada, according to the party's executive director, Zac Moyle.
Moyle said he's planning to live at his parents' house in Reno and work out of the party's Carson City office until the legislative session ends in mid-2009.
Obama Derangement Syndrome
Shut up about the birth certificate.
By David Horowitz
The continuing efforts of a fringe group of conservatives to deny Obama his victory and to lay the basis for the claim that he is not a legitimate president are embarrassing and destructive. The fact that these efforts are being led by Alan Keyes, a demagogue who lost a Senate election to the then-unknown Obama by 42 points, should be a warning in itself.
The birth-certificate zealots are essentially arguing that 64 million voters should be disenfranchised because of a contested technicality as to whether Obama was born on U.S. soil. (McCain narrowly escaped the problem by being born in the Panama Canal zone, which is no longer American.)
What difference does it make to the future of this country whether Obama was born on U.S. soil? Advocates of this destructive campaign will argue that the constitutional principle regarding the qualifications for president trumps all others. But how viable will our Constitution be if five Supreme Court justices should decide to void 64 million ballots?
Conservatives are supposed to respect the organic nature of human societies. Ours has been riven by profound disagreements that have been deepening over many years. We are divided not only about political facts and social values, but also about what the Constitution itself means. The crusaders on this issue choose to ignore these problems and are proposing to deny the will of 64 million voters by appealing to five Supreme Court Justices (since no one is delusional enough to think that the four liberal justices are going to take the presidency away from Obama). What kind of conservatism is this?
It is not conservatism; it is sore loserism and quite radical in its intent. Respect for election results is one of the most durable bulwarks of our unity as a nation. Conservatives need to accept the fact that we lost the election, and get over it; and get on with the important business of reviving our country’s economy and defending its citizens, and — by the way — its Constitution.
First of all, I really doubt that Horowitz himself left that message on this blog that was copied from elsewhere..
But, he has a point...the majority in this country could care less that there is a requirement in the Constitution for the POTUS.
The SCOTUS is not stupid. They can see what would happen if they overturned that election. Just imagine.
Hey Nostril,
Read any papers from Chicago lately?
Oh, those pure as the driven snow, people loving, animal loving dems....
would they EVAR think of selling a senate seat???
Not one o' THEM?
Oh say it ain't so nostril, while I laugh and laugh......
EVAR??! Here ya go peephonyus...We can match you 20 of your thugs to 1 of ours right down the line...so wouldn't it be better if you just didn't stick your imbecilic ass out in public?
It's why you keep getting it kicked off.
JACK ABRAMOFF
TOM DELAY
RANDY DUKE CUNNINGHAM
DUI / DWI
COINGATE
ESPIONAGE
SERIAL KILLERS, TELEVANGELIST & TALK SHOW HOSTS
2002 NEW HAMPSHIRE PHONE JAMMING
KENTUCKY MERIT SYSTEM SCANDAL
CORRUPTION / BRIBERY
FRAUD / EMBEZZLEMENT
PERJURY
ASSORTED FELONIES
GOV. GEORGE RYAN
RAPE
BILL ALLEN AND VECO OIL
DRUGS
PROSTITUTION
LEWD CONDUCT
RAPE / PEDOPHILES
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
UNINDICTED RAPISTS
MURDER
VEHICULAR HOMICIDE
The List:
Abramoff, Jack
Adams, Tom
Adams, Jim
Aiken, Steve
Alishtari, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali
Allen, Bob
Allen, Claude
Allen, Bill
Alonos, Miram
Anderson, Tom
Ankeney, Randal David
Aragoncillo, Leandro
Atchison, John David R.
Bakker, Jim
Barnes, Martin G.
Barter, Merrill Robert
Beaird, John
Bena, Parker J.
Beres, Lou
Beverage, Sam
Biggins, Bob
Binder, Alan
Bird, Calvin
Bland, Wilton Frederick
Blessing, Louis
Blitch III, Brooks E.
Bloom, Philip H.
Blundell, Brian
Bobrick, Bill
Boggio, Scott
Botes, Stephan
Boylan, Joe
Brady, Kevin
Brock, Darrell
Broderick, Thomas
Brooks, Howard L.
Brown, Shawn
Bryan, John
Buhr, Andrew
Bundy, Ted
Burcham, Tom
Burt, John Allen
Butler, John
Cagle, Charles "Chig"
Cappelli, Angelo
Carona, Deborah
Carona, Michael S.
Carpenter, Jared
Carroll, Cherie
Casamento, Richard
Casseday, Randall
Childers, W.D.
Childs, Keola
Cianci, Vincent
Coan, Kevin
Collins, John J.
Colyandro, John
Condos, James
Constantine, Lee
Corrigan, Larry
Cortelyou, Scott Eller
Coughlin ,Paul
Coutretsis, Andrea
Cowdery, John
Craig, Larry
Cramer, Carey Lee
Crawford, Lester
Cunningham, Randy “Duke”
Curtin, John R.
Dasen Sr., Richard A.
Davis, Ronnie
Davison, Pat
DeLay, Tom
Delgaudio, Richard A.
DeShon, Ronnie Gene
Dibble, Peter
Dickens, Joshua
Disponett, Dave
Doolittle, John
Doyle, Dan
Doyle, Victoria
Doyle, Brian J.
Druce, Thomas
Druen, Dan
Elizondo, Nicholas
Ellef ,Peter
Elliott, Matthew Joseph
Ellis, James
Fabian, Alan
Fawell, Scott
Federici, Italia
Fields, Vincent
Fleischman, Donald
Fletcher, Earnie
Floren, Livvy
Flory, Michael
Floyd, Larry Dale
Foggo, Kyle “Dusty”
Fossella, Vito J.
Fox., Galen
Franklin, Larry
Frankum, Eddie
Gallagher, Dennis
Gardner, Richard
Garofalo, Dave
Gillin, William
Giordano, Philip
Glavin, Matthew
Gosek, John
Goyette, Richard R.
Graves, David
Grethen, Mark A.
Griles, J. Steven
Groe, Trish
Habay, Jeffrey
Hamilton Jr., John J.
Hansen, Shaun
Harbin, Ben
Harding, Russell
Harris, Mark
Hathaway, W. John
Hazlette, Tim
Healy, Chris
Heaton, William
Heldreth, Howard Scott
Hicks, Brian
Hiller, Bradley R.
Hintz, Mike
Hoffman, Debra V.
Holland, Robert
Holt, Delecia
Hooks Sr., Michael
Hopfengardner, Bruce D.
Horsley, Neal
Houchen, Pamela J.
Hughes, Marshall
Hurley, Steven M.
Iadanza, Richard
Matricarid, Edmund III
Isenhour, James K.
Jacoby, Mark
James, Rayfield
Janklow, Bill
Jensen, Scott
Jones, Jody
Juliano, Richard
Kaelin, Jeffrey
Kauffman, Allen D.
Kerik, Bernie
Kidan, Adam
Kimmerling, Earl "Butch"
King, Lawrence E. "Larry" Jr.
Klaudt, Ted
Kline, Ronald C.
Knapp, Max
Kohring, Vic
Kontogiannis, Thomas
Kott, Pete
Krusee, Mike
Lambert, James R.
Law, David
Lay ,Michael Aaron
Leonard, Richard
Leung, Katrina
Libby, I. Lewis "Scooter"
Limbaugh, Rush
Linnen, Stephen
Loeper Jr., F. Joseph
Looper, Byron “Low Tax”
Loren-Maltese, Betty
Lukens, Donald "Buz"
Luongo, Gerald J.
Malloy, Patrick G.
Malone, Lance
Manuel, Thomas G.
Martin, Hayes
Matricardi III, Edmund
Matthews, Jon
Maysky, Eugene
McCurnin, Joseph "Joey Buses"
McGee, Charles
McGuire, Patrick Lee
Meadows, Cory
Merla, John
Michael, John
Mixon, Michael
Monteleone Jr., Joseph
Morency, Nicholas
Murgatroyd, Dick
Murphy Jr., Glenn
Muschany, Scott
Nash, James J.
Neal, Rebecca
Newton, Chris
Ney, Bob
Nguyen, Tan
Nielsen, Jeffrey
Nighbert, Bill
Nixon Jr., Kenneth E.
Noe, Bernadette
Noe, Thomas
Noonan, Thomas J.
Novak, Lawrence
Nugent, Johnny
O’Grady, Raymond
Oleen, Lana
Ortloff, George Chris
Owens, Leonard Ray
Palughi, Anthony J.
Parker, Brent
Patti, Jeffrey
Pazuhanich, Mark
Placa, Alan J.
Privette, Coy
Prokos, Alexandra
Pugh, Edward
Rader, Dennis L.
Randall, Tom
Randall, Jeffrey Kyle
Rathmann, Rolf
Ravenel, Thomas
Raymond, Allen
Regola, Robert
Renzi, Rick
Rice, Steve
Ring, Kevin
Ringo, Robert R.
RoBold, Warren
Rosen, Steve
Rowland, John
Rudy, Tony
Russell, Beverly
Ryan, George
Safavian, David Hossein
Scanlon, Michael
Scannapieco, Matthew V.
Schepp, Brent
Schofield, Robert T.
Schrenko, Linda
Scott, Randy
Seidensticker, Mark
Shortridge, Tom
Shaner, Matt
Siljander, Mark Deli
Skandalakis, Mitch
Skiles, Paul
Slocum, William
Smeltzer Jr., Fred C.
Smith, Rick
Stanley, Roger “The Hog”
Stevens, Ben
Stevens, Ted
Stillwell, Roger
Stockman, David
Stroupe Jr., Wade
Stumbo, Bobby
Sumrow, Ray
Swartz, David
Symington, Fife
Taff, Adam
Taft, Bob
Tanonaka, Dalton
Tate, Mark
Tebano, Armando
Teele, Arthur
Temple, Merle
Thompson, Joe
Thompson, Donald
Thomson, Gary Russell
Tobin, James
Treffinger, James
Tristano, Michael
Turbyfill, Basil
Van Vleet, Rick D.
Vanderwall, Robin
Velella, Guy J.
Vellanoweth, Robert
Volz, Neil
Wade, Mitchell
Walker, Derek
Walters, Nick
Warner, Larry
Weissmann, Keith
Weldon ,Terance
Westberg, Craig
Westlake, John E. "Jack"
Westmoreland, Keith
Weyhrauch, Bruce
White, C. Stephen
Wilkes ,Brent
Williams, Robin
Wilson, Bob
Zachares, Mark
Zimmerman, Al
Who was the moron piece of crap who was telling us these boys would be in jail? You tin eared freaks don't seem to have clue one on anything. The Revolution is under way!!
Workers Win a Big Round in Chicago Factory Sit-In
Michael Tarm, The Associated Press:
"The creditor of a Chicago plant where laid-off employees are conducting a sit-in to demand severance pay said Tuesday it would extend limited loans to the factory so it could resolve the dispute, but the workers declared their protest unfinished. The Republic Windows and Doors factory closed last week after Bank of America canceled its financing. About 200 laid-off workers responded by staging a sit-in at the plant, vowing to stay until getting assurances they would receive severance and accrued vacation pay. Their action garnered national attention, seen by some as a symbol of defiance for workers laid off nationwide."
The workers haven't won anything. Forcing BofA to play a PR card isn't a victory. All that's going to happen is that BofA is going to loan Republic some more money, and THAT money will then go into the owners Swiss Bank.
"Thanks guys," say Republic's owners.
Dora Dope and her visious fifth communists are tearing Evan apart on his blog.
Mr. Sayet does not have time to defend hisself it appears.
That's what the right wing is...merely the collecting pot for the low, the repressed, the vicious, the bigotted, the uneducated, the greedy, the gullible, the narrow and the hateful.
Hilarious to watch the reich having a premature orgasm over Blago.
Kelly - The SCOTUS overturned the election in 2000 - If they thought they could do so agains legally, they would jump at the chance. Don't you think a fascisti like Scalia would love that?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/opinion/07egan.html?_r=1&scp=26&sq=december+07+2008&st=nyt
FJ - you are well above your intellectual pay grade trying to make allusions to "Richard" or "John."
To begin with, you don't know what you're talking about and you have your facts wrong. But even more important it's misplaced tendentiousness. People such as yourself should stick with the basics.
You fooled no one pretending to take the soldiers oath. So don't try to attempt historical literacy or any form of erudition.
Happy Holidays!
Overturning another election would bring a lot more ire from the left...this time.
The left now being a large and growing majority in the country.
Well dora, I'm certainly above YOUR intellectual pay grade, otherwise you'd occasionally be capable of refuting one of my cited facts... But since you haven't... best suck it girl, put your tail between your legs, and slink away into another anonymous troll identity.
Hey Nostril,
All I did was come and here and push a single button...
I am still laughing!
Methinks thou dost protest a bit much?
You thought this was a "thug for thug" match?
Ain't no demmy can have enough thuggism! Your party thrives there. Now give me another list of minor characters and I will give you a list of major players.
What a bunch of "mouth music" players.
Explain away all you want to! HEH!
It is entertaining as well as a sad demonstration of your own unwillingness to do anything other than stand in defense. I have an idea. Brought this up before here on this site.
Bring up a position and be willing to defend it.
Last time I did that it was a sad betrayal of leftist ideology. Nothing there but empty Marxist dogma. Even the Bulgarians have shrugged that shit off. Try to give me something better, but make sure it is grounded in that elusive thing called 'reality.'
Dora betrayed her lack of intellectual veracity many months ago.
This is like seeing the un-dead walk the earth. Creepy, but yet there is this sort of "watch the accident" kind of amazement there.
The left, like a disease that afflicts populations, has been there for many years already. If you have a huge population that has the bubonic plague, that does not make the bubonic plague 'correct' or 'desirable.' It simply means that a lot of people have been hoodwinked into a populist and leftist mentality. It does not mean that they cannot be taught. Unlike the bubonic plague, these sad idealists CAN be taught if they have the wisdom to listen to reason.
On another note, somebody at work asked me today if I would be willing to put up a bid on a Senate seat and what would I be willing to sell for that?
I suggested that I really have nothing that a Chicago Mobster would really want.
Who's that moron talking about "cited facts"...isn't that the fool who told us the Chicago rebels would be in jail last week...instead of receiving their pay and becoming symbols for America's attitude toward GOPigs.
And who is this Dora who seems to be haunting his tiny head? hahahaha
On another note, I was asked if I'd sell my soul for a little remodel job like Stevens or Coleman...I said I jus simply dint have anything that a corrupt contractor might want.
They're just pissed because Blago is not yet in prison with GOP governor RYAN.
And this is highly amusing:
OK, there are no continuing electoral ramifications, since a Democrat has already won his seat but is a highly entertaining tale of typical GOPig behavior:
Seven months after the drunk-driving arrest that effectively ended his congressional career, Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y) was sentenced today to serve five days in jail, a ruling his attorneys immediately vowed to appeal.
Alexandria General District Court Judge Becky Moore gave the retiring lawmaker the sentence after determining that his blood alcohol content at the time of his arrest in May was at least 0.15, which carries a minimum five-day sentence. "Congressman Fossella, I've been sworn to follow the law and so I must impose jail time," Moore said, according to the Associated Press.
This sounds like an excellent time to recap the most thoroughly hilarious of all Campaign 2008 stories.
You can find reference to each of these events at the always excellent NY-13 Blog.
1998: Rep. Vito Fossella, new in Congress, votes to impeach President Clinton.
May 1, 2008: Vito Fossella is kicked out of Washington, DC's Logan Tavern for excessive drunkenness, following a party at the White House in honor of the Super Bowl champion New York Giants (blech).
Shortly after, he is arrested for driving while intoxicated in Alexandria, Virginia. When asked about his destination, Fossella informs police that he is "going to visit his sick daughter". This is especially noteworthy because his family lives in New York City.
Mr. Fossella was asked to recite the alphabet between the letters D and T. "The subject immediately started and said ‘A, B,’ " the officer wrote in his report.
After the officer explained the test again, Mr. Fossella started: "D, E, F, H, G, H, I, J, L," and then was able to finish.
Mr. Fossella swayed when he stood on one leg and stumbled when asked to walk nine steps heel to toe and turn, the report said.
Sharp-eyed commenter ericy points out this hilarious episode as well:
Fossella also contested the testimony of Alexandria police officers, including the more lurid charge that he threatened to defecate on the station floor if he was not allowed to use the bathroom.
Fossella is bailed out of jail by Air Force Lt. Col. Laura Fay.
May 2, 2008: Fossella holds a press conference in which he revises his story, changing the word "daughter" to "friend". Sheesh, what could he have been thinking? "Daughter!" Ha!
May 5, 2008: Speculation begins swirling about the relationship of this mystery woman, Laura Fay, to the Congressman. Folks start asking questions about why exactly Fossella though he had a daughter in Northern Virginia. Notably, Fay refuses to tell who her child's father is.
May 7, 2008: Laura Fay calls multiple friends and relatives in an effort to prevent them from revealing details about her baby's paternity.
May 8, 2008: Fossella admits in a press conference that he is the father of Fay's 3-year-old daughter.
Democrats start looking for strong Staten Island-based candidates to succeed the doomed congressman.
May 10, 2008: Despite entreaties from the Republican Party to step down, Fossella declines to step down as a candidate.
May 19, 2008: Vito Fossella steps down as a candidate, choosing to spend more time with one of his families.
The Post reports that Fossella also carried on an extramarital affair during law school, in which he lied about being married.
May 21, 2008: First-choice Republican Dan Donovan decides not to run.
May 23, 2008: Second-choice Republican Andrew Lanza decides not to run.
May 24, 2008: Third-choice Republican Stephen Fiala decides not to run.
May 27, 2008: Democratic City Councilman Mike McMahon officially gets in.
June 15, 2008: Following the untimely passing of GOP nominee Frank Powers - a genuinely tragic moment in this saga - the Staten Island GOP nominates this guy:
"If Straniere is the nominee, there will be prominent people who will be front and center opposing him," said Guy V. Molinari, the former Staten Island borough president who spent years building the Republican Party on Staten Island. "This man was a candidate for various offices for 20 years, and he brought nothing but grief to the Republican Party," he said. "We threw him out of office and got him off of Staten Island. And we don’t want him back."
Say hello to Bob Straniere.
November 4, 2008: Even as John McCain wins NY-13, Democratic City Councilman Michael McMahon wins election to the United States House of Representatives, winning 61% of the vote to 33% for Republican Bob Straniere. This is the most lopsided margin of any seat switching hands.
December 8, 2008: Fossella is sentenced to five days in jail
Greenspan said, in a prepared statement, "Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity (myself especially) are in a state of shocked disbelief."
Well, yes. One of the fundamentals of conservative, free market, laissez faire, Objectivist economics is that business people will act sanely and sensibly, thereby protecting people who trust in them. That's a theological belief. Now, watching the bubble burst, Greenspan was doing a remarkable thing, and he does deserve some credit for it. He was acknowledging reality!
Then he said, "I made a mistake in presuming they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders." Which means they need to be regulated. By someone else. By government.
"In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working," Waxman said. Meaning this notion that individual greed would, as if "guided by an invisible hand," lead to the greatest social good.
"Absolutely, precisely," Greenspan replied.
The acolyte of Alissa Rosenbaum, the apostle of Adam Smith, the enabler of George W. Bush, had acknowledged that their god - the free market - had failed.
A Hill staffer emails about the long-term political implications of the neo-Hooverites blocking the auto bailout:
It is possible that there was some sort of covert nod-and-wink between Bush and the Senate GOP that the latter could have their cake and eat it, too. Senate Republicans could posture against unions (and try to set the UAW up as the villain) and vote against the bill, while Bush would subsequently use the TARP authority for a bridge loan.
In the long run, the political fallout from this maneuver (whether Bush invokes TARP authority or not) means that the GOP has not only written off New England and the Mid-Atlantic, but the Midwest, and is hunkering down in its Dixie and Plains base. The GOP used to consider Indiana as a given, Ohio as a must, and Michigan as a like-to-have. Now all three are gone, along with Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The Stain of Torture
>
>By Burton J. Lee III
>Post
>Friday, July 1, 2005; A25
>
>Having served as a doctor in the Army Medical Corps early in my career and as presidential physician to George H.W. Bush for four years, I might be expected to bring a skeptical and partisan perspective to allegations of torture and abuse by U.S. forces. I might even be expected to join those who, on the one hand, deny that U.S. personnel have engaged in systematic use of torture while, on the other, claiming that such abuse is justified. But I cannot do so.
>It's precisely because of my devotion to country, respect for our military and commitment to the ethics of the medical profession that I speak out against systematic, government-sanctioned torture and excessive abuse of prisoners during our war on terrorism. I am also deeply disturbed by the reported complicity in these abuses of military medical personnel. This extraordinary shift in policy and values is alien to my concept of modern-day America and of my government and profession.
>The military prides itself, as do physicians, on being professional in every sense of the word. It fosters leadership and discipline. When I served as White House physician, my entire professional staff was drawn from the military, and they were among the best and most competent people I have met, without qualification.
>The military ethics that I know absolutely prohibit anything resembling torture.. There are several good reasons for this. Prisoners should be treated as we would expect our prisoners to be treated. Discipline and order in the military ranks depend to a large extent on compliance with the prohibition of torture -- indeed, weak or damaged psyches inclined toward torture or abuse have generally been weeded out of the military, or at the very least given less responsibility. In addition, military leaders have long been aware that torture inflicts lasting damage on both the victim and the torturer. The systematic infliction of torture engenders deep hatred and hostility that transcends generations. And it perverts the role of medical personnel from healers to instruments of abuse.
>Today, however, it seems as though our government and the military have slipped into Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." The widespread reports of torture and ill-treatment -- frequently based on military and government documents -- defy the claim that this abusive behavior is limited to a few noncommissioned officers at Abu Ghraib or isolated incidents at Guantanamo Bay. When it comes to torture, the military's traditional leadership and discipline have been severely compromised up and down the chain of command. Why? I fear it is because the military has bowed to errant civilian leadership.
>Our medical code of ethics requires us to oppose torture wherever it is inflicted, for any reason. Guided by this ethic, I served as a volunteer with the international group MEDICO in 1963, taking care of people who had been tortured by the French during Algeria's civil war. I remain deeply affected by that experience today -- by the people I tried to help and could not, and by their families, which suffered the most terrible grief. I heard the victims' stories, examined their permanently broken bodies and looked into faces that could not see me because of the irreparable damage done not only to their senses but also to their brains. As I have studied reports of torture throughout our troubled world since then, I have always found comfort in knowing that at least it did not occur here, not among Americans.
>Now that comfort is shattered. Reports of torture by U.S. forces have been accompanied by evidence that military medical personnel have played a role in this abuse and by new military ethical guidelines that in effect authorize complicity by health professionals in ill-treatment of detainees These new guidelines distort traditional ethical rules beyond recognition to serve the interests of interrogators, not doctors and detainees.
>I urge my fellow health professionals to join me and many others in reaffirming our ethical commitment to prevent torture; to clearly state that systematic torture, sanctioned by the government and aided and abetted by our own profession, is not acceptable. As health professionals, we should support the growing calls for an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate torture in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, and demand restoration of ethical standards that protect physicians, nurses, medics and psychologists from becoming facilitators of abuse.
>America cannot continue down this road. Torture demonstrates weakness, not strength. It does not show understanding, power or magnanimity. It is not leadership. It is a reaction of government officials overwhelmed by fear who succumb to conduct unworthy of them and of the citizens of the United States.
>The writer is a former physician to the president to George H.W. Bush and a board member of Physicians for Human Rights. He will take questions today at 12:30 p.m.
john - you need warren's troll vacuum...
Nanc is being hysterical - She actually loves these comments.
FJ is the real hysterical one though. He reminds me of Frauline Bauer.
I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq
By Matthew Alexander
Sunday, November 30, 2008; B01
I should have felt triumphant when I returned from Iraq in August 2006. Instead, I was worried and exhausted. My team of interrogators had successfully hunted down one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the mastermind of the campaign of suicide bombings that had helped plunge Iraq into civil war. But instead of celebrating our success, my mind was consumed with the unfinished business of our mission: fixing the deeply flawed, ineffective and un-American way the U.S. military conducts interrogations in Iraq. I'm still alarmed about that today.
I'm not some ivory-tower type; I served for 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, began my career as a Special Operations pilot flying helicopters, saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, became an Air Force counterintelligence agent, then volunteered to go to Iraq to work as a senior interrogator. What I saw in Iraq still rattles me -- both because it betrays our traditions and because it just doesn't work.
Violence was at its peak during my five-month tour in Iraq. In February 2006, the month before I arrived, Zarqawi's forces (members of Iraq's Sunni minority) blew up the golden-domed Askariya mosque in Samarra, a shrine revered by Iraq's majority Shiites, and unleashed a wave of sectarian bloodshed. Reprisal killings became a daily occurrence, and suicide bombings were as common as car accidents. It felt as if the whole country was being blown to bits.
Amid the chaos, four other Air Force criminal investigators and I joined an elite team of interrogators attempting to locate Zarqawi. What I soon discovered about our methods astonished me. The Army was still conducting interrogations according to the Guantanamo Bay model: Interrogators were nominally using the methods outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual, the interrogators' bible, but they were pushing in every way possible to bend the rules -- and often break them. I don't have to belabor the point; dozens of newspaper articles and books have been written about the misconduct that resulted. These interrogations were based on fear and control; they often resulted in torture and abuse.
I refused to participate in such practices, and a month later, I extended that prohibition to the team of interrogators I was assigned to lead. I taught the members of my unit a new methodology -- one based on building rapport with suspects, showing cultural understanding and using good old-fashioned brainpower to tease out information. I personally conducted more than 300 interrogations, and I supervised more than 1,000. The methods my team used are not classified (they're listed in the unclassified Field Manual), but the way we used them was, I like to think, unique. We got to know our enemies, we learned to negotiate with them, and we adapted criminal investigative techniques to our work (something that the Field Manual permits, under the concept of "ruses and trickery"). It worked. Our efforts started a chain of successes that ultimately led to Zarqawi.
Over the course of this renaissance in interrogation tactics, our attitudes changed. We no longer saw our prisoners as the stereotypical al-Qaeda evildoers we had been repeatedly briefed to expect; we saw them as Sunni Iraqis, often family men protecting themselves from Shiite militias and trying to ensure that their fellow Sunnis would still have some access to wealth and power in the new Iraq. Most surprisingly, they turned out to despise al-Qaeda in Iraq as much as they despised us, but Zarqawi and his thugs were willing to provide them with arms and money. I pointed this out to Gen. George Casey, the former top U.S. commander in Iraq, when he visited my prison in the summer of 2006. He did not respond.
Perhaps he should have. It turns out that my team was right to think that many disgruntled Sunnis could be peeled away from Zarqawi. A year later, Gen. David Petraeus helped boost the so-called Anbar Awakening, in which tens of thousands of Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and signed up with U.S. forces, cutting violence in the country dramatically.
Our new interrogation methods led to one of the war's biggest breakthroughs: We convinced one of Zarqawi's associates to give up the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader's location. On June 8, 2006, U.S. warplanes dropped two 500-pound bombs on a house where Zarqawi was meeting with other insurgent leaders.
But Zarqawi's death wasn't enough to convince the joint Special Operations task force for which I worked to change its attitude toward interrogations. The old methods continued. I came home from Iraq feeling as if my mission was far from accomplished. Soon after my return, the public learned that another part of our government, the CIA, had repeatedly used waterboarding to try to get information out of detainees.
I know the counter-argument well -- that we need the rough stuff for the truly hard cases, such as battle-hardened core leaders of al-Qaeda, not just run-of-the-mill Iraqi insurgents. But that's not always true: We turned several hard cases, including some foreign fighters, by using our new techniques. A few of them never abandoned the jihadist cause but still gave up critical information. One actually told me, "I thought you would torture me, and when you didn't, I decided that everything I was told about Americans was wrong. That's why I decided to cooperate."
Torture and abuse are against my moral fabric. The cliche still bears repeating: Such outrages are inconsistent with American principles. And then there's the pragmatic side: Torture and abuse cost American lives.
I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans.
After my return from Iraq, I began to write about my experiences because I felt obliged, as a military officer, not only to point out the broken wheel but to try to fix it. When I submitted the manuscript of my book about my Iraq experiences to the Defense Department for a standard review to ensure that it did not contain classified information, I got a nasty shock. Pentagon officials delayed the review past the first printing date and then redacted an extraordinary amount of unclassified material -- including passages copied verbatim from the Army's unclassified Field Manual on interrogations and material vibrantly displayed on the Army's own Web site. I sued, first to get the review completed and later to appeal the redactions. Apparently, some members of the military command are not only unconvinced by the arguments against torture; they don't even want the public to hear them.
My experiences have landed me in the middle of another war -- one even more important than the Iraq conflict. The war after the war is a fight about who we are as Americans. Murderers like Zarqawi can kill us, but they can't force us to change who we are. We can only do that to ourselves. One day, when my grandkids sit on my knee and ask me about the war, I'll say to them, "Which one?"
Americans, including officers like myself, must fight to protect our values not only from al-Qaeda but also from those within our own country who would erode them. Other interrogators are also speaking out, including some former members of the military, the FBI and the CIA who met last summer to condemn torture and have spoken before Congress -- at considerable personal risk.
We're told that our only options are to persist in carrying out torture or to face another terrorist attack. But there truly is a better way to carry out interrogations -- and a way to get out of this false choice between torture and terror.
I'm actually quite optimistic these days, in no small measure because President-elect Barack Obama has promised to outlaw the practice of torture throughout our government. But until we renounce the sorts of abuses that have stained our national honor, al-Qaeda will be winning. Zarqawi is dead, but he has still forced us to show the world that we do not adhere to the principles we say we cherish. We're better than that. We're smarter, too.
howtobreakaterrorist@gmail.com
Matthew Alexander led an interrogations team assigned to a Special Operations task force in Iraq in 2006. He is the author of "How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq." He is writing under a pseudonym for security reasons.
Wow! Have you seen the devastating things Colin Powell, long time GOP icon and house nigrah of the Republican party, has to say about that same lunatic party.
You gotta love seeing EVERYONE with an ounce of decency or sanity abandoning the garbage scow and leaving nothing but freaks behind.
Yes, Skank is right, a troll vacuum would clear out the sanity here and leave total, unadulterated insanity in its purest form...a wonder to behold.
The GOP thugs just keep falling:
Guilty Plea For Another Abramoff Crony
By Zachary Roth - December 12, 2008, 4:27PM
James Hirni, the former lobbyist who was charged last month in connection with the wide-ranging Jack Abamoff probe, pleaded guilty today to providing an all-expenses paid trip to the World Series in New York to two congressional staffers, including entertainment at a strip club and a chauffeur-driven SUV.
Hirni was at the time a lobbyist for an equipment rental company that was pushing legislation in Congress. He recently was fired from his job doing "Republican outreach" for Wal-Mart, after news of the charges surfaced.
One of the two staffers who received the free trip, Trevor Blackann, a former aide to GOP senator Kit Bond, pleaded guilty last month to failing to disclose the trip on his tax returns.
Hirni's lawyer last month told ABCNews.com that Hirni is cooperating with prosecutors, suggesting that the feds are still working to build cases against bigger fish.
The cut-and-pasters: Nostril, you and your high school drop-out know-nothings do not scare anybody with your ability to cut and paste other left-wing nut-jobs and expect that to impress anybody with an education.
Oh...so sad....
The fact of the matter is that is that Nostril is not reading the Chicago papers of late and has gone into total denial of reality.
Let's see here.....
The Democratic Governor of Illinois was on record for selling a Senate seat? How shocked are we supposed to be?
I say that we are not surprised at all. No shit? A Dem is guilty of political corruption?
STOP THE PRESSES!
God almighty! You hide your head in a sand hill democrats may be allowed some surprise I suppose, but to defend this by defending it with the "other guys do it" is the same defense that teenagers use when they are caught stealing their parent's alcohol during the prom night.
Digest this: the Governor of Illinois was caught red-handed selling a Senate seat. Accept reality, painful though it may be, and realize that acceptance is the first step in the 12 step program.
No matter how many lesser characters you can come up with in the opposition, you still have to swallow this reality.
You know have to accept the next question.
How many people will Obama throw under the bus to cover his ass on this one?
Rahm Emmanuel... soon to receive the tire tracks.
Hahaha...this Phonyass is a riot. Duh, who's saying Blago is innocent, peabrain?
Hang the dumb shit. Dems are the first to want to get rid of him...as opposed to trying to elect him to another term like your freaks did with seven felonies, "minor" character Ted Stevens. Then tell me how the last Gov. of Illinois, Ryan, who is still in jail is a minor character, but the current gov is not.
Then tell me all about how MINOR Ney, Vitter, DeLay, Foley, Stevens, Craig, Abramoff, Scooter and a couple dozen other MEGA GOOPs I can name are.
And, of course, your president and veep are the biggest criminals on the planet. And how many ethics scandals does your bimbo bitch, Palin, have hanging over her now?
YOu have got to be the single stupidest piece of oblivious shit around...next to that farmer yokel.
McCain was always too good to represent these freaks, though he forgot that for a while...
McCain Whacks RNC, Defends Obama Over Blagojevich (VIDEO)
John McCain sideswiped the Republican National Committee on Sunday for the intense focus it has placed on Barack Obama's relationship (however thin) to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Saying he was confident that information would be made public regarding the president-elect's contacts with the embattled Illinois governor -- who is accused of putting up Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder -- McCain urged his Republican colleagues to keep their political priorities in order.
McCain's a Republican? Who knew? ROTFL!
Mac's an old line Republican who is finally able to admit embarrassment at the weird collection of freaks who remain in the party.
McCain's been an embarrassment to the RNC since 2000. He's likely to switch parties as soon as Republicans regain the majority next election.
What!? They're counting all the votes in Minn.
Damn I hate it when they do that, says Norm.
Too funny to watch the GOP at war...with itself.
Even the Bush weirdos are attacking the anti-bailout fanatics.
Hahaha...some party...they're all embarrassed of each other, I guess.
Then there's the Shoe War...hahahahaha
A total descent into farce.
Waddle your fat cow butt back to buffet Alice, wrong AGAIN:
Allegations raised on the Internet say the birth certificate, showing that Obama was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961, is a fake.
But Hawaii Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino and the state's registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, say they checked health department records and have determined there's no doubt Obama was born in Hawaii.
The nonpartisan Web site Factcheck.org examined the original document and said it does have a raised seal and the usual evidence of a genuine document.
In addition, Factcheck.org reproduced an announcement of Obama's birth, including his parents' address in Honolulu, that was published in the Honolulu Advertiser on Aug. 13, 1961.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Illinois General Assembly have said they will begin impeachment proceedings Monday, as well as introduce bills to set a special election for the Senate seat and to strip the governor of his authority to fill the seat. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed papers Friday with the state Supreme Court seeking to strip Mr. Blagojevich of his powers.
Mr. Blagojevich's spokesman on Sunday denied rumors that the governor will step down Monday. "I'm sure that he's not resigning," Lucio Guerrero said. Instead, Mr. Blagojevich intends to be in his Chicago office Monday signing a bill to give tax credits to film makers if they come to Illinois.
The conversations between Mr. Emanuel and Blagojevich aides on the Senate vacancy were the latest chapter in a long, if not particularly close, relationship between the Illinois governor and one of the state's most prominent congressmen. As two rising stars of the Illinois Democratic Party -- Mr. Blagojevich is now 52 years old; Mr. Emanuel is 49 -- it was natural that they would have contact over the years.
...and considering the fact that Rahm filled the 5th District Illinois House seat that Blagojevich vacated in 2002 when he stepped into the governor's office.
You forgot to remind "PHonyass" of the Duke.
Hey Phonyass, that Cunningham thing is the gift that NEVER stops giving...kinda like Abramof
Mitchell Wade, a former defense contractor who pleaded in 2006 to bribing Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) for $1.8 million in exchange for government contracts, will be sentenced today. Wade's apparent cooperation with investigators, including providing evidence against former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA), is expected to help lessen his punishment. (San Diego Union Tribune)
This'll make the Illinois Democrats back down from talk of impeachment...
Gov. Rod Blagojevich hasn't ruled out signing a bill creating a special election to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat, his spokesman said Monday, the first hint the embattled governor may loosen his grip on the seat.
lol...any kind of Republican is yesterday's news...except for the ones who are still lined up to go to jail.
Then why are Illinois voters demanding a special election? You'd almost think they didn't trust the Democrats...
And thanks to Democratic governors from McGreevy to Spitzer and Bagojevich... the RNC is virtually assured a relatively rapid reputational rehabilitation.
Soon people will spit after uttering the name "Obama".
Shoe-Hurling Iraqi Fast Becoming a Folk Hero Around the World 12/16
Why didn't I think of this?
Looking at 2010: Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) says he won't run for another term. He sees little future as a GOP Congressman from Michigan during his lifetime.
Ten to One we see that guy throwing shoes at a Bush dummy on Leno within the month.
The brain dead can't think.
Supreme Court needs a fly swatter: The Supreme Court has turned down another challenge to Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president because of his citizenship. 12/16
I won't take that bet, but how will we know if it's a dummy or the real Bush?
ERIC FEHRNSTROM
The case of the vanishing GOP voter
By Eric Fehrnstrom, 2008
Eric Fehrnstrom is a Republican communications consultant.
The number of people who identify themselves as Republicans has gone from 36 percent in 2004 to 28 percent in 2008.
As the party ran out of new ideas, it lost the high ground on some of the old ones like fiscal accountability and ethics. Federal spending is now out of control. The annual federal budget deficit is closing in on $1 trillion. Our congressmen and senators were co-opted by a corrupt system. Some were marched off to jail. For a reason, Obama was viewed as "fresh" and "inspirational." Ron Kaufman, Republican National Committee member from Massachusetts, says the GOP came to Washington in the 1994 Republican revolution promising change, "but failed to deliver and so we got kicked out." Even before Colin Powell crossed party lines to endorse Obama, longtime Republican friends announced they were voting Democrat for the first time in their lives.
Hey John, remember this?
Where is this?
Keep your magic underpants on you MORmON...
Only thirty one shopping days left until the great Obamination begins.
GOP Crime Wave Continues Unabated:
Ex-White House Aide Convicted
Former Official Had Ties to Abramoff
By Del Quentin Wilber and Derek Kravitz
Washington Post
December 20, 2008
A former top White House official was convicted yesterday of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a lavish golf trip to Scotland and his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
It was the second time that David H. Safavian, former chief of staff at the General Services Administration, has been convicted on federal charges stemming from the government's wide-ranging probe of Abramoff.
A jury in the District yesterday convicted Safavian of obstructing a GSA inspector general's investigation into the 2002 golf trip, which was largely financed by Abramoff, and of lying on a financial disclosure form about its costs. Safavian also was convicted of making false statements to an FBI agent and a GSA ethics officer. Safavian was acquitted of giving a false statement to a Senate committee.
A hillybilly succubus or simply a magnet for corruption?
Larissa Alexandrovna
My bad feeling about Sarah Palin has lately become more of a philosophical theory on the nature of good and evil. Either that or I had some really bad Chinese take-out. But I am starting to think that rather than a joke, Sarah Palin is like some sort of curse unleashed on anyone who enters her orbit and a person surrounded by an assortment of strangely dark and even criminal elements. She is also a menacing force against those whom she perceives as foes. She is like some hillbilly succubus around whom bad things tend to happen and bad people seem to gravitate.
Just think about this for a moment:
In early October, Sarah Palin dropped the ceremonial first puck for Philly Flyers and they ended up on a two week losing spree. Then Sarah Palin drops the ceremonial first puck on October 24 for the St. Louis Blues. Shortly thereafter, the Blues goalie, Manny Legace, slipped on the carpet put down for Palin and suffered a hip injury.
In September-October, threats against then-Presidential contender (and now President elect) Barack Obama and his family increased dramatically. A report released by the Secret Service attributed the sharp rise in threats to the stump speeches/hate speeches delivered by Palin.
In 1996 when Palin took office as mayor of Wasilla, the city seemed to not have much of a drug problem. By the time Palin left in 2002, Wasilla was well on its way to becoming the meth capital of Alaska. Maybe this little mess all started when Palin fired the long-time police chief?
Even something as benign as Thanksgiving became something far more sinister around Sarah Palin.
Add to this some additional tid-bits, like her husband's DUI, her association with anti-Semitic garbage and a secessionist party , and all sorts of black magic crazy, and you start to get a sense that something is not entirely kosher in Palin's world.
And I don't have to tell you what Palin did to the McCain campaign, not to mention the GOP.
So here is the latest (emphasis mine):
WASILLA -- A 42-year-old Wasilla woman was arrested Thursday at her home by Alaska State Troopers with a search warrant in an undercover drug investigation. Sherry L. Johnston was charged with six felony counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance.
Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, the Wasilla 18-year-old who received international attention in September when Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, announced their teenage daughter was pregnant and he was the father. Bristol Palin, 18, is due on Saturday, according to a recent interview with the governor's father, Chuck Heath.
Troopers served the warrant at Johnston's home at the "conclusion of an undercover narcotics investigation," said a statement issued Thursday by the troopers as part of the normal daily summary of activity around the state.
Troopers charged Johnston with second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance -- generally manufacturing or delivering drugs -- as well as fourth-degree misconduct involving controlled substances, or possession.
I cannot imagine that Mrs. Johnston suddenly began to "manufacture or deliver" drugs only in the last two months. The investigators involved in the bust have even said their sting had been going on for "a while." This means that more than likely, Mrs. Johnston's alleged activities were going on during this election cycle.
Think about this for a moment. Here you have Johnston, whose son has knocked up Palin's teenage daughter, allegedly manufacturing or delivering drugs (meth?) during a Presidential campaign in which Palin is running for Vice President of the United States. Palin is still at this point also governor of Alaska. Did no one think to do a background check on the family of a boy soon to marry the daughter of a governor/VP candidate? Was Palin herself not informed about the investigation either or was the arrest held-off until after the election? And really, if Mrs. Johnston had been engaged in these activities for some time, was she only caught now because her orbit entered Palin's?
I am not saying that Palin is responsible for Johnston's activities. But Palin is responsible for the type of people she allows into her life. Now had this been a single, isolated event, then I would think nothing of it. We cannot always be aware of what people we know are engaged in. But Palin is a person known as a control freak, a governor with the ability to be incredibly aware of what those in her orbit are engaged in. So is it that she did not know this?
In addition, consider this latest scandal against the backdrop of the number of other scandals, the amount of bad luck, and the seemingly dark forces that appear to be part of this woman's life, and a strange pattern seems to emerge.
Maybe it is just simply that corruption attracts corruption? My father always says that if you want to understand a person, look at the people with whom they keep company. Maybe this is just another indication of Palin's character?
So, is it true that the reason no one's heard a peep out of Rahm Emmanuel is that they need to turn the tapes over to Blago's defense attorneys???
ROTFL! The president elect's chief of staff has a "mute" button...
Wow!! That is the most comments I've ever seen at a non-superstar blog!!! I think it is a measure of how horrific the lead photo is!
www.culturism.us
Endless GOP Crime Wave:
Former White House Aide Pleads Guilty To Bilking Government-Funded Group
By Zachary Roth - December 19, 2008, 4:38PM
Felipe Sixto -- the former aide to President Bush charged with stealing from a government-funded agency that works for democracy and human rights in Cuba -- pleaded guilty today to theft from a federally aided program, reports the Associated Press
Sixto resigned in March from his White House job as special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs.
Before that, he had worked as chief of staff of the Center for a Free Cuba, from which he stole more than $579,000 by overcharging the center for radios and flashlights, according to the Justice Department.
His sentencing is set for March.
Truuuuuuuly
Endless:
Alaska state senator pleads guilty to conspiracy in federal corruption investigation
MARY PEMBERTON
AP News
Dec 19, 2008 18:22 EST
A state senator pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to help an oil services company bribe another state senator to influence his vote on a proposed oil tax.
State Sen. John Cowdery was one of five state legislators charged in an ongoing federal investigation into corruption in Alaska. Three others have been convicted, and a fourth is awaiting trial.
The 78-year-old Anchorage Republican was accused of being a go-between for a $25,000 bribe between officials of VECO Corp. and state Sen. Donny Olson, D-Nome.
Merry Christmas, John!
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