I agree completely. The Sierra Club is unfortunately very much like the current Senate Democrats.

Shame on both.

The Sierra Club appears to be following the “Washington Post” transformation.

Wow, Jane, what a beautiful picture and place.

Let’s go!! I’ve got a Subaru, it goes everywhere.

Somebody’s gotta FITZ!

Boo-hoo times in Freeperitaville:

“George W. Bush shames the American people once again. First by taking his shoes off in a D.C. mosque after 9/11, while the Towers still smoldered, to proclaim the “religion of peace”. Then by holding hands with the Saudi leader, strolling through the lillies in Crawford. Now apologizing for the First Amendment to a dictator.
Absolutely despicable.”

Do I hear 27%?

-GSD

I got the same response to my email this morning to the Sierra Club “20% pro-environmental voting record was a wrong statistic†that their non partisan bla bla. Something’s askew, thanks.

Thanks for the post, Jane. Earlier today I asked for more information, and you provided it. I see the issue more clearly now. There was never a chance that I would support Chaffee in any way, I just had questions about whether the Sierra Club had some reasonable basis for endorsing him. It appears they did not. Control of the Senate is the key issue. I will let them know what I think.

Mr Colorado:
That’s so true. Unfortunately, you’re preaching to the choir. (And I have done tha same!) Is there a plan whereby we can regenerate the brains of the brain-dead Dems?

Heard on NPR that GW Clusterfuck referred to the People’s Republic of China using he official name of the govt. in Taiwan..

What a clod buster this guy is. Apparently the White House has been planning this event for months- just didn’t bother to tell the idiot in chief the name of the country he was hosting.

I am embarassed daily to be living in a country that elected this idiot even once. Holy shit!

I agree that the methods of the current Bushite GOP machine, and the lack of any independence shown by moderate GOP Congresspeople, indicate that Sierra Club approach is wrong. After grip of Bushites on GOP is weakened, then it may not be wrong, but that is certainly a hypothetical situation now. I don’t like the Total Partisan War posture at all, but reluctantly concluded some time ago that is the only realisic approach for all non-Bushites in the immediate future.

So we need a majority of Democrats in either House or Senate. That simplifies things, since then the issues of how infuriating they are, or how crooked, or how spineless, or two-faced, or what nasty legisltation they introduced, are irrelevant.

Just rank them by probability of defeating them in November and go down the list in that order. Do Dems have a good chance of defeating Chafee, or are there better targets? That is all that I think is important now.

Their defense is so 1070s and that is the problem. The Sierra Club wants to believe that their are still moderate Republicans.

Not really.

When push comes to shove, they fold. Chafee does have a better environmental voting record on specific targeted votes, but where it really matters–budgets, leadership, appointments, earmarks, etc. he is AWOL. And so are most special interest groups who spend all their energy on one set of issues.

Chafee does not serve in a vacuum. All of his actions and votes matter. He is a Republican. His party is at war with the environment.

Chafee may sit out a fight here and there, or save an environmental regulation from the worse-case-GOP-backed scenario every now and again, but the sum total is not his LCV rating. That is only a snapshot.

Chafee is part of a Republican political ecosystem that is very dangerous to our planet. Supporting him is like protecting cats in the Australian outback or snakehead fish in the Chesapeake Bay.

If you look at an invasive species in isolation, it provides zero threat and may even have some benefits in its proper place. But Chafee’s party is an invasive species feeding on our nation.

He can not be supported just because some of his actions (isolated from the rest) are cute or even sensible.

There are many, many, many environmental/social justice organizations that get it.

These action oriented groups deserve support.

The Sierra Club is old, established and dedicated to fighting the last war. They seem to think that the way they did things in the 1970s will still produce results. Too bad they are stuck in their rich and active fantasy worldview.

We are fighting for planet’s survival and neither Chafee or the Sierra Club is really in the game.

Let’s hope they wake up. We need everybody if we want to have a hope of saving our Country and our planet.

GSD:
I want to (mildy) disagree (maybe). You said “Now apologizing for the First Amendment to a dictator. Absolutely despicable.”

If I were in Shrub’s place (O! The Humanity!) I might express regrets that one person in our country saw fit to exercise their free speech rights in that manner. However, that’s what you get in a “free society.” I hope that’s what Shrub was saying. I don’t believe that he was apologizing for the fact that it is possible to express disssent in this country. I’m sure you see the distinction.

Reading this entry made me recall newsreports of active infiltration of the Sierra Club by conservatives. Is this Chafee thing the result?

From Sirotablog:

RE: NRDC
Here are a few reasons why enviro groups rot from the inside out. But these can apply to just about any group.

1) Money - some folks sell out for money, such as in the case of the Greenpeace co-founder. The sad fact is getting involved full time into environmental activism is a great way to become destitute.

Also in their need to keep money coming in, the enviro groups have to modify their message so as to not to piss off their main contributors - middle and upper middle class folks.

This leads to a form of self-censorship. Cases of this can be seen with the NRDC support of coal mining. Or the Sierra Club’s silence on the water situation in the southwest and the overdevelopment of said area.

2) Ideological shifts. What happens in this situation, is when the founder and his/her associates retire or die and a new group gets control of a organization there is bound to be a drift from the founders original goals.

Also cronyism and favoritism is bound to creep in as organizations get bigger and wealthier. This leads to institutional stupidity and expresses itself in all sorts of areas. Such as the inability to reach out to minority and religous groups in order to stregthen the movement.

3)Infiltration by corporate goons. Businesses do not like enviro groups period and spend lots of money trying to destroy or marginalize them. They even sick the U.S. and foreign gov’ts on them when possible. So it should come as no suprise that business would send in imposters to derail a institution from the inside. There are documented cases of this occuring.

Pope writes: “We need more Republicans like Senator Chafee.”

Pope, dude, listen up–we don’t need more Republicans like Senator Chafee. We need more Democrats, period, because then we wouldn’t need intermittently sentient Republicans, get it?

Rwcole:
“I am embarassed daily to be living in a country that elected this idiot even once. Holy shit!”

When you go to Europe, they will give you an earfill about that! (In restaurants, hotels, on the streets — I am stopped repeatedly to “defend” the actions of this administration. I cannot. (I hope that does not make me a traitor!)

ps. I did NOT get this when Clinton was in office. (Wonder why?)

I agree with dengre: the Sierra Club is still stuck in the ’70s mindset that having so-called “principled Republicans” in Congress is helpful to its cause. That would be the case were the Democrats in the majority, but as long as the radical-right GOP holds power environmental protections will continue to be flushed down the tubes — and the feeble handful of moderate Republicans will continue to be ineffectual. A vote for a Republican, any Republican, is a vote against the environment … regardless of the individual candidate’s position.

If Chafee is defeated in the primary and the conservative Laffey wins….then the seat will default to the Democrat–almost 99% sure.

If it is Chafee verse the leading Dem. Whitehouse…it will be a fight. But, I don’t know that Chafee has the fight in him. He is an honest to goodness moderate Repub. along the Jeffords line and he must be getting awfully weak-kneed about the Falwell/Coulter Wing running the show.

Also lookie here. Kyrgyzstan is looking to boot the US out now too. Looks like Russia is twisting some arms these days and ain’t liking the US encroachment on their spheres of influence.

RWCole. I think that was a deliberate and infantile slap at China. Interestingly, the Falun-Gong protester was given the honorary Jeff Gannon day pass from the Whitehouse. Perhaps that was why the Secret Service took soooo long to toss her out. So she could get her point across. You know, religious freedom and all that happy stuff.

http://www.forbes.com/entrepre.....82604.html

-GSD

Sonate–Yeah I know- lots of friends from across the pond. At least the germans elected someone who may turn out to be a wanker too- and I don’t take shit from brits- looks what they’re stuck with.

What is the funding breakdown, who funds the Sierra club?

OT:
Revolt of the generals
The denunciation of the administration’s handling of Iraq by former US army chiefs is unprecedented

Sidney Blumenthal
Friday April 21, 2006
The Guardian

Almost all voted for Bush in 2000. Serving their civilian neoconservative superiors, they endured contempt. Donald Rumsfeld’s closest aide, the undersecretary of defence for intelligence, Stephen Cambone, joked that the army’s problems “could be solved by lining up 50 of its generals in the Pentagon and gunning them down”, according to Michael Gordon and General Bernard Trainor in their new book on the Iraq invasion, Cobra II. In September 2001, Rumsfeld held a Pentagon meeting where he declared the “bureaucracy” - the career professionals - to be “a serious threat to the security of the United States”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq.....17,00.html

Message left at HuffPo:

“There is no question that the environment will be in safer hands if the Democrats take control of the Senate. Chafee will never help them do that. The Sierra Club needs to review its endorsement policy and bring it into alignment with the real world.”

I invite you all to go there and leave your comments.

the question isn’t whether or not the lefty blogs are right and the mainstream old line advocacy groups of the left are wrong–we are, and they are, if you see what i mean. the question is–why?

i think the useful analogy here is charter schools. they are public schools that are put together by strong teacher/parent groups behind them. they tend to start out very well, getting higher scores for their kids than regular public school. but after a couple of years those numbers even out–they become what they started out trying to improve upon.

that’s the deal. all these 70s groups started out trying to change the world, then were co-opted and became a part of that world. they remained true to some bastardized version of their core ideals, but they started believing that getting a D improved to a C was somehow real progress. now we come along, with the cold clear vision of how things actually are, and right now we are on fire. the question is–can we continue to channel this anger and energy in the right direction? can we create something permanent and positive? or will we too just turn into co-opted losers like those who went before us.

jane, if someone offered you 250k a year to blog for them, and they were a mainstream paper, would you do it?

please check out my site for further info on my wife’s art show on saturday for those in the LA area.

Sheldon Whitehouse and Matt Brown aren’t the only two Rhode Island Democrats running for Senate. Carl Sheeler, an ex-Marine, has called for Bush’s impeachment and talks seriously about promoting alternative energy resources. He’s definitely a long shot, but he’s part of the current complicated Rhode Island political equation. Furthermore, recent reports suggest that Matt Brown may drop out of the race soon. He’s running out of money and his campaign is in disarray. Many Rhode Island Democrats, myself included, wish that Chafee would switch parties. He’s a strong environmentalist, he voted against the war in Iraq, and he announced that he didn’t vote for Bush in the last election. It would be better to have a Democrat in the Senate — I’ll bet that most Rhode Island Sierra Club members won’t shed a tear if , say, Whitehouse beats Chafee. But as a personality and on the issues, Chafee can come across as a more compelling and straightforward politician than his likely opponent Whitehouse.

Eventually Hitler’s generals turned against him too–tried to blow him up. Don’t think the american generals are up to that- they’ve got nice pensions and lifetime priveleges to look forward to.

Looked at Yahoo News to read about the apology business. Well, it was done in private in the Oval Office. You can’t tell exactly what the President said from a one sentence report. I can’t see the point of making a big deal about a private apology that may have been needed if this oppressive dictator was V. pissed off. But maybe it should not have been publicly reported. Some of these Freepers are total fanatical nuts.

But, below is something to be steamed about. This, along with RumDum’s modernization efforts that are now reported to have left out defenses against new generation of surface anti-naval missles. (I don’t have a link that that story right now, but Iran has them, along with other not very friendly countries, and they may be critical in protecting Persian Gulf.)

RumDum strikes again! Or the Bushites are in actuality such weak incompetent fools that they have no real power over their own political machine.

***
Senate Bill Shorts Gear for Troops By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
Thu Apr 20, 3:46 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A Senate measure to fund the war in Iraq would chop money for troops’ night vision equipment and new battle vehicles but add $230 million for a tilt-rotor aircraft that has already cost $18 billion and is still facing safety questions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....ng_add_ons

Rwcole (#19)
I boutght a T-shirt in Germany in the late 1990s. It states:

America Has:
Bill Clinton
Steve Wonder
Bob Hope
Johnny Cash

Germany has:
Helmut Kohl
NO Wonder
NO Hope
NO Cash

Although the shirt is dated (substitute for Kohl), I’d never give it up.

Sonate.

I thought that I made it apparent that that was a post from a right winger at Free Republic. I called it “Freeperitaville” as a lark.

I hold NONE of those assertions in that post. The post in question was placed in quotes.

I’ll try to make myself a little clearer next time. That was not me or my opinions, it was the howling of a right winger lamenting the “Bush Sellout” to the Chinese dictator.

-GSD

I’m not a democratic socialist - I’m a libertarian socialist but I’m working for the dems this year for regime change at home.
So there’s some collateral damage?

Tell that to the inhabitants of SW Asia.

None of these fools has to die but they do have get out of the fucking way of the peace train.
That said I think all the dems need to ante up early as Murtha withdrawalists at the very least.
Also I think ratification of the ERA is necessary to fix Roe V Wade around the policy plank.
Stopping the Start wars program and releasing Leornard Peltier are also minimal demands as is a signed committment to downsize the overall size and power of the USSA state.
Oh and repeal the prohibition and all laws against sex work. We don’t cops in our bedrooms and living rooms thank you very much.
The dems just can’t cruise to the next election without pulling back from the fatal ‘ GOP Lite’ route of the DLC.
If any of these newly elected dems don’t listen to us then we know what to do to them.
There is a price for our support. We want recallable rotatable delegates that report back to the base - no more of this representational crap. These people are public servants who should fucking know how to read a webpage.
All major decisions must be reffered back to the base. ACID, AMNESTY and ABORTION!

OUTLAW the REPUBLICANS!

GSD- Go Bernie! just saw that. Go Bernie! (be prepared for questions…)

As a 501c3 how does the Sierra club use their status to endorse political candidates that may be in opposition to their members and donors?

GSD (#28)
Once again, I am too literal. (After years on this site, you probably know what I mean!) Thanks for the clarification. (I might have been the only one who needed it.) Thanks again.

#18 GSD–I don’t think they’d plant a mole in a crowd unless it was about heckling a political opponent. That’s really the only antagonist that gets them to do anything as effective and resourceful as that. BTW, where are you from in NH? I am from Hopkinton.

#23 RG–This might indeed be a case of necrotized complacency, but I think there’s a case to be made that a conscience can be revived. I like your wife’s work-what time does it start? Didn’t see it on site.

ppp says:
April 20th, 2006 at 6:44 pm

As a 501c3 how does the Sierra club use their status to endorse political candidates that may be in opposition to their members and donors?

—-

They are not a 501c3.

not what I read?

Unless there is a typo in the original post I’m wondering who cares if two Democrats say that they would not have voted for Frist. The Republicn conference in the Senate choses the majority leader.

Great post Jane & comments also. Listenin & learnin…

What’s the #1 environmental problem today? Global warming.

Perhaps the Sierra Club knows that George Bush is the only one out there with a plan to actually reverse global warming.

A nuclear winter.

Sonate.
S’alright.

Chis.
Milford.

We should have and FDL NH meeting someday.

-GSD

Breaking News: Massive earthquake in Russias northeast penninsula.

professor rat:
“I’m a libertarian socialist”

I’m sorry, I find that to be a contradiction in terms. (No offense, I just do not understand.)

ppp -

From their website:

“Note: Contributions, gifts, and dues to the Sierra Club are not tax deductible.”

They are not a 501c3.

ppp says:
April 20th, 2006 at 6:44 pm

The Sierra Club is a 501c4 organization.

Jane - when I enclose a small letter c within parentheses, how do I keep the copyright symbol from appearing (as in 501(c)(4)) in WordPress? Thanks for your help with this.

Is this old news?

http://www.sierraclub.org/compass/

OT http://www.editorandpublisher......1002383792
===EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Blade’ Hires Investigator to Probe Pulitzer Complaint

By Joe Strupp

Published: April 20, 2006 7:15 PM ET

NEW YORK Ron Royhab, the editor of The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, has revealed that the newspaper has hired an outside investigator to track down who sent an anonymous letter to the Pulitzer Board accusing the Blade of improper actions related to its ‘Coingate’ series, which was a finalist for a Pulitzer this year but did not win.

“We are trying to get to the bottom of something we find to be quite disturbing,” Royhab told E&P Thursday afternoon. “Wouldn’t you want to know if someone is trying to injure your reputation?”===

Jane - an addendum to my previous post: the copyright symbol appears in the preview section, but not in the actual comment.

“Nullifying the press”
“The Bush team served up Scott McClellan’s stolid stonewalling as the perfect device to humiliate and demote the media. And reporters played along.”
By Jay Rosen
http://www.salon.com/opinion/f...../mclellan/

President Bush’s job approval rating slipped this week and stands at a new low of 33 percent approve, down from 36 percent two weeks ago and 39 percent in mid-March. A year ago this time, 47 percent approved and two years ago 50 percent approved (April 2004).

The old BS ain’t workin’.

http://www.pollkatz.homestead......age001.gif

This is how the Republicans are going to try to win the election.
–
Hundreds arrested in immigration raid
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Federal agents conducted a nine-state raid Wednesday and arrested more than 1,100 people on illegal immigration charges.
Most of the 1,187 illegal immigrants arrested are being processed for deportation, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tina Sciocchetti in Albany.
http://www.news14charlotte.com.....mp;SecID=2

Re: that quake, it’s still rockin’ and rollin’ :

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqc.....170_60.php

Henny Penny, the sky is falling.

Crummy Rummy on Daily.

http://movies.crooksandliars.c.....henny-.mov

-GSD

“What’s the matter with Kansas?”

this is scary- note Hitler’s birthday

As Bush and Hu stood at attention outside the White House, an announcer said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the national anthem of the Republic of China, followed by the national anthem of the United States of America.”

“Republic of China” is the formal name of the island 100 miles off the Chinese mainland. China is known formally as the People’s Republic of China.

Taiwan is a most delicate issue for China. Beijing claims sovereignty over the self-governing island, which split from the mainland in 1949 as civil war ended on the mainland.

Oops- it wasn’t Clusterfuck himelf who committed this gaffe- it was an “announcer”. You can guess what happened. The goopers can;’t get them selves to utter the words “People’s Republic” so instead they would rather create an international incident.

ccmask
That’s a German owned company. I find that detail interesting, I got a dollar says they won’t raid Pilgrims Pride chicken plants.

I saw that Haley Barbour’s got an inlaw that just got a 100 million dollar FEMA contract.

33% is- I believe- ties for the lowest clusterfuck JAR in history- but records are made to be broken. Come on 29!

?

Sierra Club’s unique blend of c-3 educational outreach work, our c-4 advocacy efforts, and our PAC’s (political action committee) grassroots strength make the organization very effective indeed.

http://www.evergreenpolitics.c.....obby_.html

Chicken pluckers lead a tough enough life without immigration raids in mid pluck.

Suzanne Malveaux on CNN and the Hu Jintao visit.

“This has been a diplomatic disaster.”

Poor Chimpy can’t get a Goddamn break.

-GSD

I love it.

CCMask. I predict large scale terrorist sweeps, immigration sweeps and porn sweeps.

Hence the Halliburton Relocation Centers. I wonder if Bush and Rove plan on putting in “purple finger” voting stations inside?

Making a Tax-Deductible Stock, Bond or Mutual Fund Gift to The Sierra Club Foundation

i’m really hesitant to write this… i hope no one will think i’m trolling… and i certainly don’t want to defend the sierra club - but, i’m not quite ready to condemn them either…. this just doesn’t seem as clear-cut to me as naral thanking leiberman for his vote against alito.

i hope you-all will be willing to help me understand… when i try to put myself in their shoes, here’s some of my problems…

what if the sierra club thinks there is no chance of the dems being in the majority this election cycle? aren’t they better off with chaffee in his key position?

or.. what if sierra club support now is what is “owed” for previous key help in committee? how could the sierra club ever ask for help from a republican again - if they know there would never be any future support?

or.. what if the sierra club is thinking really long term… and worried about the level of support they can expect from dems? for example - the dems here is MA seem to be pretty badly affected by nimbyism with regards to the proposal to put wind turbines in nantucket sound. if the sierra club always support dems - then they will lose all leverage.

now, i do wish the sierra club wasn’t supporting chaffee. but, i just can’t (yet) condemn them for it.

what am i missing?

p.s. i’m not a member & don’t give them money… not because i’ve had a problem with them… i just have other environmental organizations higher on my priority list.

Thanks, Jane. And here I just gave the Sierra Club more of my hard-earned money. Think I can get them to give it back? Think they’ll print my screed if I write a letter to the editor of SIERRA magazine? Think we’ll ever stop being betrayed by people we think should be working WITH us and fighting FOR us?

Remember when Newt Gingrich blamed liberals for that Susan Smith baby drowning….

Why do Redstates rear so many high school kids that want to shoot everyone?

-GSD

He is corrupt.

Anyone know where to leave comments on this issue on the SierraClub website? I’m a member but i can’t seem to figure out if there’s an online blog or feedback area on their (overly massive and difficult to navigate) national website.

Still OT, but interesting (to me!)
http://www.editorandpublisher......1002383792
===The anonymous letter to the Pulitzer Board, however, begins, “Ten months before the 2004 presidential election–and 15 months before The Blade published its first Coingate story–the paper’s then-politics reporter Fritz Wenzel was tipped off about Tom Noe’s alleged campaign contribution scam in support of the Bush campaign and about problems with Noe’s coin investments for the state. Wenzel, with close ties to Noe, sat on the story and did not tell Blade editors what he knew.” Then it details various tips, dinner meetings and other intrigue, and alleged ethical conflicts, naming names throughout.===

===Royhab’s letter to Gissler recounted the Coingate investigation step-by-step, related that Wenzel was not involved in it at all, and described the early Noe tips as nothing but “rumors,” adding that editors “in no way conspired to ‘cover up’ anything.” ===

http://www.editorandpublisher......1000991071
===Shoptalk: More Dread in Ohio
By Joe Strupp
Published: August 01, 2005

The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, is on top of the newspaper world, thanks to its “Coingate” reports (see feature, this issue). But while the paper is rightly thumping its chest with each new revelation, it’s also coming under some scrutiny — not for what it has printed, but for what it may not have. Rumors swirl around a veteran Blade scribe, former political reporter Fritz Wenzel. Nothing at all is proven, but it’s worth recalling the dangers — even if it’s just in public perception — of jumping from political campaigning to political reporting and back again.

Wenzel, a longtime GOP campaign worker in Oregon, spent 10 years on the Blade politics beat before returning to the world of political consulting in May, virtually the day after he left the paper. One of the key contacts he made along the way was the man now at the center of the Coingate accusations, Tom Noe, a major Republican fund-raiser who attended the wedding of Wenzel’s son, P.J., a state GOP employee.===

The beauty is it’s a Fox poll, the wingers can’t spin the bias. He dropped 14 points in a year, but 6 of that was in the last month. That’s an accompishment. In his past life this is where he’d dump it to some wealthy investors and walk away.

The Sierra Club is one huge, sellout disappointment. Al Gore has the right perspective on the greedy Republican Earth destroyers AND their Democratic collaborators in the rape and destruction of the environment. This issue alone is enough to get my vote if Gore runs in 2008. One can only wonder at how much more air and water pollution has been added to the ecosystem as a result of the the Bush war in Iraq and his other toxic antics.

To make the Devil’s advocate case for the Sierra Club’s endorsement, they are not committed the way the Labor movement is to the Democratic Party, but have to treat each candidate on his or her merits with respect to their goals. I know nothing about Chafee’s environmental record, and obviously he’s an enabler, but the S.C. has to work with individual Congressmen so they are pretty much trapped if one of them comes across for them (I assume Chafee did, or they wouldn’t endorse him). It’s just one of those things.

rwcole–Don’t worry, Bush wasn’t elected either time. ‘00 fraud in Florida. ‘04 fraud in Ohio. ‘08 new black ops false flag postponed elections if they think diebold ES&S triad won’t get the job done. ‘12–won’t be any. Permanent government.

Oklahoma kiddo @66 - run al run!

Bout time fer Clusterfuck to start spending more time with his lovely family.

Blub, you can send an email to your state or regional Sierra Club chapter by finding your state under the My Backyard tab. I’m sure the earfuls we’ll send them will make their way to the national organization. The endorsement of Chaffee is the top item of “Sierra Club News” on my state page. Just bizarre.

Gergen just shoved the Bush machine under the bus on Anderson Pooper.

-GSD

Said: “Many of us said back after Katrina, now is the time to change gears, shake up staff and reach out to Democrats but we were brushed off.”

They lost the left, right and center.

It’s a disappointment. When will they learn that the few remaining moderate Republicans actually have to seek permission from leadership before going against the GOP? The only dissent allowed is meaningless dissent.

More Republicans in both chambers would vote their conscience were they allowed. But as it is, both house are ruled not by majority, but by majority of the majority. A vote for Chafee is a vote for Bill Frist.

And I know it’s off topic, but I love to say it: Impeach the Decider! Impeach the Decider!

Egregious,

Then Bush can have the plaque on his statue modified: George W. Bush President 2000-Infinity.

-GSD

That flippant comment of the RNC controlled govt selling off our natural resources to the highest bidder is patently false. The RNC central is leasing out our natural resources to a low ball bidder and then not collecting the rent. This is the preferred way as any long term damage to the environment will remain the govt’s responsiblity. It also leaves more room for the bidder to pay off (contribute) to its peoples’ deputy.

Next, don’t go to Huffington Post to mouth off to Pope. He/she/it will never read those comments, if we’re lucky some administrative assistant will read the comments. Go the Sierra Club web site, find the public forum, and dump on the pope there. Go ahead dump on his head, it’ll bio-degrade.

“…the undersecretary of defence for intelligence, Stephen Cambone, joked that the army’s problems “could be solved by lining up 50 of its generals in the Pentagon and gunning them downâ€

Ok, now we are the Soviet Union. Kill all the intelligent, experienced people. [and just who is left??] Welcome to the new USSR.

I’m sure most everyone here has gone to the TPM Docket web page listing political scandals. I just visited the page and sweet Jeebus I cannot belive how large that page is getting…..so many that I had forgotten some of them.
–
The Grand Ole Docket tracks trial dates, court appearances and sentencing hearings for players in the current array of national political scandals. But not just any crook can make it on the Docket - it only tracks perps who’ve been named by prosecutors in indictments or plea agreements.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/grandolddocket.php

Can’t ever remember a party fucking everything up as badly as today’s goopers. Makes Nixon look like a genius.

Looking back on this administration- hisorians will notice the post 9/11 period- where everyone was afraid to print the truth about Clusterfuck. It led him to believe that there was zero accountability- just like his previous fifty some years. That was all he needed to know. The rest is history.

Sorry, I missed something. Since when have the Bushies been persnickety about selling our resources to the highest bidder? It’s more like first-come, first-served.

Deborah L #16 in the Christian Right Fight thread…you don’t suppose the reason McCain sucked it up about Bush’s campaign tactics in SCar is he recognized a brother in sleaze?

All I can say is that environmental politics does make for some strange bedfellows. Gingrich was a passionate supporter of the Endangered Species Act back when he was House Speaker. A friend of mine who was quite high profile in the academic issues at the time (a liberal Dem) recounted several meetings he and others had in DC prepping Gingrich for the battle. And, Gingrich was attacked at the time by none other than David Ridenhour (spouse of the not-so-delightful Amy) and rabid anti-environmentalist- one of the causes of The National Center for Public Policy Research. (And BTW, I am not defending SC support of Chafee, or defending Gingrich.. but just to say that there have been some unexpected allies.)

http://www.nationalcenter.org/prging.html
===”Given the Speaker’s apparent contempt for private property rights, his penchant for ‘junk science’ and his indifference to the plight of Americans suffering under unreasonable regulations, he ought to be the environmental movement’s poster boy — not its villain,” said David Ridenour, Vice President of The National Center for Public Policy Research. Ironically, at the very time Speaker Gingrich has been villified by the environmental movement, he’s been working to ensure that they have greater say in the nation’s policies. Recently, Gingrich established a House Task Force on the Environment designed to give environmentalists veto power over all environmental legislation. Gingrich appointed Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) to co-chair the Task Force, one of the House of Representatives’ most rabid environmentalists — Democrat or Republican. Boehlert received a 92% score in the League of Conservation Voters’ environmental scorecard — higher than 53% of House Democrats.===

Stephen Parrish–re typing 501(c)3 without it becoming the copyright sign, in real life if you type backspace after the ) then it turns back into what you want. On this site I am still experimenting, as you see: 501(c)??

OT
ccmask 21

Donald Rumsfeld’s closest aide, the undersecretary of defence for intelligence, Stephen Cambone, joked that the army’s problems “could be solved by lining up 50 of its generals in the Pentagon and gunning them downâ€

That Cambone, he’s so funny. He and Hadley signed up early early on for use of “tactical pre-emptive nukes.” He took the dutiful notes from Rumsfeld to use 9/11 to go after Hussein. He even plays a nice prominent role at the end of the Mora story in the New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/.....227fa_fact

(Reading the Mora article is like watching Ol Yellar - I really want to just stop at certain points and pretend we got a different ending)

…Mora attended a meeting in Rumsfeld’s private conference room at the Pentagon, called by Gordon England, the Deputy Defense Secretary, to discuss a proposed new directive defining the military’s detention policy. The civilian Secretaries of the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy were present, along with the highest-ranking officers of each service, and some half-dozen military lawyers. Matthew Waxman, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, had proposed making it official Pentagon policy to treat detainees in accordance with Common Article Three of the Geneva conventions, which bars cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment, as well as outrages against human dignity.Going around the huge wooden conference table, where the officials sat in double rows, England asked for a consensus on whether the Pentagon should support Waxman’s proposal.

This standard had been in effect for fifty years, and all members of the U.S. armed services were trained to follow it. One by one, the military officers argued for returning the U.S. to what they called the high ground. But two people opposed it. One was Stephen Cambone, the under-secretary of defense for intelligence; the other was Haynes. They argued that the articulated standard would limit America’s “flexibility.†It also might expose Administration officials to charges of war crimes: if Common Article Three became the standard for treatment, then it might become a crime to violate it. Their opposition was enough to scuttle the proposal.

In exasperation, according to another participant, Mora said that whether the Pentagon enshrined it as official policy or not, the Geneva conventions were already written into both U.S. and international law. Any grave breach of them, at home or abroad, was classified as a war crime. To emphasize his position, he took out a copy of the text of U.S. Code 18.2441, the War Crimes Act, which forbids the violation of Common Article Three, and read from it. The point, Mora told me, was that “it’s a statute. It exists—we’re not free to disregard it. . . .

Not long afterward, Waxman was summoned to a meeting at the White House with David Addington. Waxman declined to comment on the exchange, but, according to the Times, Addington berated him for arguing that the Geneva conventions should set the standard for detainee treatment. The U.S. needed maximum flexibility, Addington said. Since then, efforts to clarify U.S. detention policy have languished. In December, Waxman left the Pentagon for the State Department.

The part Mora got wrong? DOJ is complicit in every single war crime by linking arms with Addington and kissing the ring for Bush and Cheney. If DOJ won’t draw the line in the sand, by refusing to aid and abett, wtih briefs and roadshows, violations of war crimes, then Mora got it wrong. The Administration is free to break the law when no prosecutors at DOJ will take a stand. A stand is NOT moving on to a lucrative private practice. A stand is not saying “Well, I didn’t thing it wsa a good idea at the time, but Addington called the shots.”

Kris is the only one from DOJ I would give a nod to for taking a stand. When the torture memos came out, every person in DOJ who did not publically and voicerously come out ON THE RECORD condeming what was taking place — is complicit. I don’t mean that in a “who should be punished way” but I do mean it in a “this is what changed the country” way.

Bad things happen. All the time, every administration, every confrontation. Through plan and by happenstance or simle neglect. . But never before have we had the Department of Justice of the United Sates of America, en masse, accept and endorse, through affirmation or silence, such massive breaches of law set into motion by the Executive Branch. Over an over, one revelation after another, and all we hear are Fine saying “we can’t investigte” and Moschella “it’s all legal” and Gonzales “I can’t talk about how we break the law - it might sound bad” (ok, I’m extrapolating a little there) But DOJ lawyers are not military - they can walk, they can complain. They just didn’t and it stuns me over and over.

How much would have been shut down, if DOJ had not given cover, over and over? Not just the AG - he’s the boss, but if his policies were overwhelmingly unpopular, they could not stand in the end. If, after the torture memos came out, 300 resignations were submitted, or even 100, then what? We won’t know. If, after the NSA program (or whatever parts of it have been acknowledged)a petition from within DOJ to the AG - then what? But there really hasn’t been a ripple. Internal bickering is not a ripple when the massive issues that we face are on the line. Instead, we have Bybee now sitting in a lifetime appointment to Circuit Court and Haynes who, but for Sen Leahy, would be doing the same (and is still on the nominatios list)

Another quote from Mora: When you put together the pieces, it’s all so sad.â€

Yep.

Here is quote from Cambone that shooting the Generals would solve problems. Doozy quote from RumDum too. Are you sure some of these neocons are *ex*-Trotskyites, or ex-Bolshevicks, or whatever. They certainly think like the old Bolshies. They have certainly bought into the “Give me the person and I’ll give you the case” [against them] idea of Beria (Stalin’s chief of secret police). Now we find they fantasized about liquidating all the intellectuals and qualifed professionals -including those in the military. Interesting. Conservatives, my fat ass!

*************************
Revolt of the generals

The denunciation of the administration’s handling of Iraq by former US army chiefs is unprecedented

Sidney Blumenthal
Friday April 21, 2006
The Guardian

The analogy between Iraq and Vietnam has proved to be most compelling to the generals who planned and conducted the Iraq invasion. They kept to themselves their profound disquiet about the rapid rejection of the original plan for invasion that took 10 years to develop, the inadequate downsized force, the absence of preparation for the occupation, and the disastrous decision to disband the Iraqi military.
Almost all voted for Bush in 2000. Serving their civilian neoconservative superiors, they endured contempt. Donald Rumsfeld’s closest aide, the undersecretary of defence for intelligence, Stephen Cambone, joked that the army’s problems “could be solved by lining up 50 of its generals in the Pentagon and gunning them down”, according to Michael Gordon and General Bernard Trainor in their new book on the Iraq invasion, Cobra II. In September 2001, Rumsfeld held a Pentagon meeting where he declared the “bureaucracy” - the career professionals - to be “a serious threat to the security of the United States”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm.....33,00.html

Still too OTBush Under Siege – Day Two.

Jeb Bush that is.
A sit-in at Gov. Jeb Bush’s office stretched into a second day Thursday as about 30 college students protested the state’s response to the boot camp beating of a teenager who later died.

Now get ready for this – a Bush saying this – hold on – here it comes:
he told the students he does not have the constitutional power to carry out their demands.
Saywhu?

Now if his brother could learn to say it to Cheney and Rumseld.

Mary: Memorable Quotes from Judgment at Nuremberg

Ernst Janning: There was a fever over the land. A fever of disgrace, of indignity, of hunger. We had a democracy, yes, but it was torn by elements within. Above all, there was fear. Fear of today, fear of tomorrow, fear of our neighbors, and fear of ourselves. Only when you understand that - can you understand what Hitler meant to us. Because he said to us: ‘Lift your heads! Be proud to be German! There are devils among us. Communists, Liberals, Jews, Gypsies! Once these devils will be destroyed, your misery will be destroyed.’ It was the old, old story of the sacrifical lamb. What about those of us who knew better? We who knew the words were lies and worse than lies? Why did we sit silent? Why did we take part? Because we loved our country! What difference does it make if a few political extremists lose their rights? What difference does it make if a few racial minorities lose their rights? It is only a passing phase. It is only a stage we are going through. It will be discarded sooner or later. Hitler himself will be discarded… sooner or later. The country is in danger. We will march out of the shadows. We will go forward. Forward is the great password. And history tells how well we succeeded, your honor. We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. The very elements of hate and power about Hitler that mesmerized Germany, mesmerized the world! We found ourselves with sudden powerful allies. Things that had been denied to us as a democracy were open to us now. The world said ‘go ahead, take it, take it! Take Sudetenland, take the Rhineland - remilitarize it - take all of Austria, take it! And then one day we looked around and found that we were in an even more terrible danger. The ritual began in this courtoom swept over the land like a raging, roaring disease. What was going to be a passing phase had become the way of life. Your honor, I was content to sit silent during this trial. I was content to tend my roses. I was even content to let counsel try to save my name, until I realized that in order to save it, he would have to raise the specter again. You have seen him do it - he has done it here in this courtroom. He has suggested that the Third Reich worked for the benefit of people. He has suggested that we sterilized men for the welfare of the country. He has suggested that perhaps the old Jew did sleep with the sixteen year old girl, after all. Once more it is being done for love of country. It is not easy to tell the truth; but if there is to be any salvation for Germany, we who know our guilt must admit it… whatever the pain and humiliation.

OT — I’m an avid reader of FDL, and have been following all the criminal legal proceedings against politicians, which are covered so well here. But what struck me is that there’s not a lot being said about the civil lawsuits like those described in two articles I read today:

Attorney Pursues Iraq Contractor Fraud

and

Blood is Thicker than Blackwater

Does anybody know if anybody is specifically blogging and keeping track of these types of issues on the Civil Dockets?

April 27th. The Claude Allen trial will remind the average American that in Bushworld a seat next to the President and all of the perks involved were not enough for Conservative Christian Claude Allen.

Drip, drip, drip.

-GSD

As to the Cambone comment. Just like Savage, just like Horowitz. They are the haters and the genocidaires.

And, things move so quickly here…FYI:

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1066

===Stephen A. Cambone
Undersecretary of defense for intelligence
Project for the New American Century: Study member
National Institute for Public Policy: Study member
Rumsfeld Space and Missile Commissions: Staff
Despite—and perhaps because of—his close relationship to the defense secretary, Cambone is apparently widely disliked in the Pentagon. Tom Donnelly, PNAC military analyst and lead author of Rebuilding America’s Defenses, wrote in the Weekly Standard that “fairly or not, Cambone has long been viewed as Rumsfeld’s henchman, almost universally loathed—but more important, feared—by the services.†(6) The Washington Monthly reported in late 2001, “It would be hard to exaggerate how much Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his top aide Stephen Cambone were hated within the Pentagon prior to September 11. ===

I lost my link in teh BUsh Under Siege post.
http://tinyurl.com/gc59o

rwcole 79
I think that’s it - and over and over, every shocker has been met with cover from Congress, the military brass and DOJ and with some bizarre concept of “balancing†adopted by the purchased media as cover. I say Dana Milbanks on Olberman last night, opining on The Generals, and he mentioned the support from Myers without ever mentioning Julie. So – Myers and his pal Pete, pretty much cancel out the other guys. Such a strange view, that reporting leaves out the negative facts so that it all balances.

Well, truthfully, the Sierra Club has never been one of my high priority causes. Oh, I’m certainly not “Smokestack Sam” in my views. The environment is important, but it’s not one of my red-hot issues.
On Chaffee, it seems that from reading everything, he gets endorsed by the Sierra Club, he’s a republican, but moderate to liberal, and opposes many WH issues. Some here defend Chaffee, others hope he’ll help the Democrats in other ways.
Me? I say sorry, but he wears the wrong uniform. He’s part of the enemy, and he needs to be taken down. He may be a “good guy” and all that, he may have some sort of 100% record on the environment…but I don’t care. I don’t have the luxury of deciding which among the enemy truly is a good guy, or decent soul, or whatever.
It’s all about subpoena power. At the end of the day…election day…control of the Senate and power of subpoena goes to the team with the most votes. “Good guy” Chaffee’s “R” counts just as much as idiot R’s such as Brownback, Cornyn, et al in determining Senate power.
Sorry, Mr. Chaffe, but you’re wearing the wrong uniform. He needs to be taken down.
Ghostman

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/

Link to HARRIS poll released today- Clusterfuck with a 35% rating. Right track/wrong track going into the toilet.

Dems, though, show only a four point advantage on the generic ballot question. Can’t figure that one out. Most polls are giving dems double digit leads.

President Bush’s job approval ratings remain low, with 35 percent of U.S. adults giving him a positive rating and 63 percent giving him a negative rating. Attitudes toward the state of the country have changed more substantially in the last month. More than one-quarter (27%) of U.S. adults say things in the country are going in the right direction, while 65 percent say things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track. In March, nearly a third (31%) of adults thought things were going in the right direction, while 60 percent said things in the country had gotten off on the wrong track.

These are some of the results from the latest Harris Poll of 1,008 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone between April 7 and 10, 2006 by

rwcole 93 - how was the question asked?

I think there are many more people who will say they are willing to vote for a Dem next time, than who will say that they think Dems will do a better job. They haven’t sold anyone that they are a good alternative; it’s just they are the only alternative