Say…Anyone out there really give a fuck? Really……Well here’s one member of your government who does.

What do you care about? Your health? Your family? Your children? How about something that is affecting all those and in a decidedly negative way? Let’s watch the third ranking Democrat in the Senate the Senator from North Dakota Byron Dorgan talk about how your government is doing.

Let’s listen to him talk about the American worker:

The Employee Free Choice Act:

Notice how he points out that the fat corrupt toads who have historically, and continue to do so it would seem, sat in the chamber of ‘The Greatest Deliberative Body in the World….’ had zip to do with helping workers?

Here’s ‘The Money Pit Part I:’

Anyone really think some of that 18 Billion never left the States…or just made a quick round trip to to some selected Solons…18 Billion in cash….no accounting. No wonder Bush can wear $7,000.00 boots, eh? Maybe the continuous, unrestrained voting  for more unaudited, off the books spending is starting to seem a little…er, understandable?

Anyone really think some of that 18 Billion never left the States…or just made a quick round trip to to some selected Solons…18 Billion in cash….no accounting. No wonder Bush can wear $7,000.00 boots, eh?

Let’s wrap this up with the Senator speaking at length on slave labor Immigration.

If any of this got ya going here are some phone numbers:

Madame Speaker of the House the Honorable Nancy Pelosi: (202) 225-0100

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: 202-224-3542

And most importantly call Senator Dorgan here: (202) 224-2551 and thank him for his work. He surely deserves some praise.

Oh..yeah…I almost forgot…..This………………………..

I liked this in particular:

‘…administration and military officials say it’s not that easy to distribute the money. They contend that Iraq’s lack of spending isn’t due to laziness or corruption, but rather Baghdad’s inability to determine where its money is needed most and how to allocate it efficiently.’

In other words they’ve got so much money they can’t figure out what to spend it on first. Thanks Madame Speaker, thanks Harry, thanks especially to ‘The One’ who has voted for every ‘emergency appropriation…’ for Iraq. And they are all, every one ‘….emergency appropriations..’ and not included in the nation’s budget. Budget…hah, what a concept.

Sometimes it really does only take one picture….And this is it for me.

Howie, Donna, Miss Nancy, Senator Obama,  ‘Fittin’ Harry Reid, Rahm ‘The Rabbit’ Emmanuel, Senators Schumer, Kerry, Kennedy, there is someone on the phone for you.

Sez it’s very urgent!

Yeah, something about don’t forget to pick up your ‘bag’.

No guesses as to what it’s stuffed with.

Your government for sale to…

Well, whoever wants to buy.

Hey! All this yellin’ and screamin’ about Barry….Wright….Sister Beezlebub…Scotty’s new book….Limbaugh….Well, guess what?

The Bush Presidency is a huge success. Click on the chart above to see just
how well he’s done ‘helping’ the nation recover from the Clinton fiasco.

Then….clik this….

as you can see things are so cool I posted a real cool clip for ya!

How you ‘creative class’ folks doin’ Ever thing Kooool?

Thas nice.

When Katie Couric is the only one who ‘gets it’ you know you are dealing with idiots….or worse….

Here is the woman who took Dan Rather’s spot:

‘…Katie Couric impressively argued that the media did fail to do its job — pointing out that the White House threatened networks which were perceived to be too critical with cutting off access to the war and that anyone who questioned the war was deemed unpatriotic and all of that "affected the level of aggressiveness that was exercised by the media"… ‘     

Not so rebutted elder newsman Charlie Gibson:

‘I think the questions were asked. I respectfully disagree with the gentle lady from the Columbia Broadcasting System [group giggles]. I think the questions were asked. . . . I can remember getting in trouble with administration officials for asking questions they didn’t feel comfortable with.

It was just a drumbeat of support from the administration. And it is not our job to debate them; it’s our job to ask the questions.’

Got that? Poor Charlie ‘got into trouble…’ what did they do Charlie make you drink Nescafe instead of your usual Cappuccino at the Presidential Pressers? Say, Charlie you still have all your arms and legs? Feet? Hands? Eyes? No blackouts Charlie? Oh good…everything’s just fine then.

No folks, this may seem like beating a dead dog but…

Clik thru and read the whole Glennzilla piece linked above, complete with video linky goodness, and you will find that since such a great job was, in fact, done on the MSM’s coverage of the run-up to and all that’s happened since in the Iraq conflict that…

Wait for it….

No changes are needed in our great corporatist media. They are doing a fantastic job keeping the people informed and actually deserve some more rewards for their work.

So….

My question to you is: ‘What relationship to the ‘facts’ of the political situation here in America do you think the corporatist press’s work bears to what you would consider reality?’

Here’s a nice poll for ya.

And give this some thought the next time someone sez: ‘Obama is a shoe in in the Fall.’ or ‘There is no way Hillary can win….’ Give these and similar statements another look and ask yourself ;

‘How does he/she, or even me, know that? What does it say that we might even be convinced of said outcome.

Here is the poll………

Have fun and remember….

As long as you think you know a lot…..you don’t really know Jack!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..Now this is….Well, Barry do you and McSame want to explain this given your votes to fully fund…..

‘Lil’ George’s excellent adventure in Iraqi land?

We don’t know what we got.”

by tristero

Good morning! Are you sitting down?

In one case, according to documents displayed by Pentagon auditors at the hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a cash payment of $320.8 million in Iraqi money was authorized on the basis of a single signature and the words “Iraqi Salary Payment” on an invoice. In another, $11.1 million of taxpayer money was paid to IAP, an American contractor, on the basis of a voucher with no indication of what was delivered…

The disclosure that $1.8 billion in Iraqi assets was mishandled comes on top of an earlier finding by an independent federal oversight agency, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, that United States occupation authorities early in the conflict could not account for the disbursement of $8.8 billion in Iraqi oil money and seized assets.

A billion here, a billion there…

And then check this out:

The mysterious payments, whose amounts had not been publicly disclosed, included $68.2 million to the United Kingdom, $45.3 million to Poland and $21.3 million to South Korea. Despite repeated requests, Pentagon auditors said they were unable to determine why the payments were made.

“It sounds like the coalition of the willing is the coalition of the paid — they’re willing to be paid,” said Mr. Waxman

And some more details:

In one instance, a United States Treasury check for $5,674,075.00 was written to pay a company called Al Kasid Specialized Vehicles Trading Company in Baghdad for items that a voucher does not even describe.

In another case, $6,268,320.07 went to the contractor Combat Support Associates with even less explanation. And a scrawl on another piece of paper says only that $8 million had been paid out as “Funds for the Benefit of the Iraqi People.”

But perhaps the masterpiece of elliptic paperwork is the document identified at the top as a “Public Voucher for Purchases and Services Other Than Personal.” It indicates that $320.8 million went for “Iraqi Salary Payment,” with no explanation of what the Iraqis were paid to do.

Whatever it was, the document suggests, each of those Iraqis was handsomely compensated. Under the “quantity” column is the number 1,000, presumably indicating the number of people who were to be paid — to the tune of $320,800 apiece — if the paperwork is to be trusted.

“…if the paperwork is to be trusted.” Now that’s funny. But the joke’s on us.

Tell ya what….
I ain’t laughing.

A Message from Our Founder…..

…well he ain’t really but hey…I figured you’d be tired of all the yellin’ and screamin’ from Sister Beezlebub and The Precious. So….

I thought I’d shove the discussion in another direction. No, don’t thank me….it ain’t that kind of direction.

Think about it…then….

‘Fight Back!’

Is time running out on ‘The Torturerers’?

Could be. This story seems to indicate that ‘some’ in the EU are ready to enforce the rule of law no matter who they need to confront. If you’ve read much of what I’ve been saying for the last four years you will know that this comes as no surprise to me.

Question is how surprised will the estimable Professor Yoo be not to mention Dean Edgerly when the Bundeskriminalamt, German State Police, come a callin’? Here’s the opening para:

‘It’s not easy for me to generate a lot of sympathy for a CIA man involved in a kidnapping, but I feel sorry for Bob Lady.

Lady, many readers will remember, was the CIA’s base chief in Milan, Italy, and nominally in charge of a February 2003 agency operation to snatch an al Qaeda suspect off the city’s streets.

Sounded like a pretty good idea at the time. It was only a few months after we’d been smacked, big time, by al Qaeda killers here.

But the snatch turned into a public relations nightmare two years later when Italian authorities announced they had eyewitnesses and indisputable evidence tying the CIA to the crime.

So last week 26 Americans, most of them CIA employees, went on trial in Milan for kidnapping, albeit in absentia and to little notice here. They are fugitives from justice, with international warrants issued for their arrests.’

Read the whole thing. The times….they be a changing thanks to the idiot twins Cheney and Bush.

Intoducing a Blogger I find to be very, very good….

She is to be found at: Anglachel’s Journal ‘You say I’m a bitch as if that were a bad thing…’ obviously a lady who is not…shy. She’s going on the blogroll, soon to be purged of sexist scumbags and other pests, but here’s an introductory post about….heh…..History….snort….yeah, one of my favorite subjects. Hey, read yer Santana.

‘Why am I so concerned about the way “radical” and “far left liberal” are being used in the blogs? First, I’m kind of pedantic when it comes to political definitions. These things mean something to me in a way they might not to ordinary readers. They have histories, they refer to specific modes of thought and action, and they are intended to have analytic power. More importantly, as I ended the last post, these labels have been used maliciously against Democrats by the Right in an attempt to distract voters from the core policies and actions of the party, measures that are far more harmful to Republican power than some upper-class idiot with too much time on his hands pretending he’s a “revolutionary” and killing people. It matters that we use language correctly and understand the various radical modes of action on the Left so that we can be effective radicals ourselves. In the current political environment, to promote humane, egalitarian and moderate policies is to be radical.’

Bold by me. Clik on thru and read the whole thing. She’s a very good writer indeed and comes to us from riverdaughter over at The Confluence which as you know, if you’ve been keeping track that is, is a blog resulting from the progressive radiation away from such cesspools ad dKos, TPM and OpenLeft. I’m really looking forward to reading more from her. Beats the sound of Barry sticking one of his feet in his mouth.

Flash Update: She, uppity bitch, defines Barry in terms of her Truman/Stephenson model. Sadly, Barry does not fare well here.

The Question of ‘What to Do About Professor Yoo’?

Today is our first meeting in meatspace about the the alleged criminal Yoo. Many have asserted he is a war criminal, so I believe, there is no question but that he has played a role in BushCo.’s attempt to negate the Geneva Convention and simultaneously insulate themselves from prosecuting under that set of international laws. Many have likened him to a mob lawyer cranking out whatever bogus motions or pleas it takes to keep his bosses out of jail. He has not yet been found guilty of anything but other facts and customs apply to his maintaining his position as Professor of Law at Boalt Hall Law School. I will report back what the group discussion is late today. Please study this post and the relevant links, making comments as you see fit, as the answer to my question is neither simple nor easy to achieve. But as I have already said to more than one commenter about this:

‘Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.’

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

My involvement with this issue goes back several years to when I found out that the despicable Yoo is a tenured Professor of Law at Boalt Hall Law School which is part of my alma mater the University of California at Berkeley. This fact I considered, and still do, a stain on my school’s reputation of which I generally am very proud. I have written on more than one occasion to the then Dean of Boalt and the President of the UC system asking that Yoo be sent packing. I have made it clear that I will not be receptive to any requests for help from the University until he is gone.

I have never received a single reply to my letters.

Question: Should we start a FaceBook petition to ask the UC Faculty Senate to fire Professor John Yoo?

Here’s the poll:

Exercise your right to speak out….

I will be ready to discuss this action starting at the next Drinking Liberally Brunch, which is Sunday April, 20th, at Luka’s Taproom and Lounge, world headquarters for Drinking Liberally, Oakland Chapter and lots of great Belgian beers. Feel free to drop in and let me know what you think.

There is a lot of outrage about Yoo’s cushy job at Boalt and, more importantly, his role in destroying whatever reputation our nation had as one that might be considered ‘Law Abiding….’

Question is are you willing to put some time and effort to do something?

Or is this gonna be another ‘All Hat…No Cattle….’ drive?