zed?

Its like seeing my name in lights…

No Crony Left Behind.

LOL! They referred it to the justice department?!
Is that like the circular file?

A criminal referral to the Bush Justice Department? That will go far!

DELBERT!

Some of the people who were influencing those decisions had a financial interest in the programs that were being pushed, officials said.

Isn’t that how Cheney made all his money? It’s not like a lot of these bozos can make it in a fair competition…

I wonder if there’s any tie-in to Neil Bush’s Ignite! educational software enterprise. Considering how much theft and screwing of taxpayers came out of Brother Neil’s foray into the Savings & Loan industry, we can be confident he’s just as much a crook now.

Pardon me, but education is really for the Republican upper classes. Hadn’t you heard?

Another scandal for the MSM to ignore. Lazy,complicit, compliant, corrupted, compromised and collusive. America’s answer to Pravda.

Babs’ version of All In The Family faces cancellation…

Sun-Myung Moon is heavily invested in this program and traveled worldwide with Neil. Moon bailed out Falwell’s Liberty University (source for Bush’s DOJ employee takeover). Google Moon’s companies.

What a stupid bunch of jerks! The kids that don’t learn to read right end up spending all their class time doing stupid stuff instead of reading the book and that keeps the rest of us from learning. They should use whatever reading books help kids learn to read. The republicans are selfish!

Jane, hope you’re feeling well. You’ve been busy today. Keep up the good work.

But on the other hand, everything they touch has turned to gold for some croney.

Wonder what Gonzo knows about all of this?

I never bought that they were sincere in caring about education with all their platitudes about “No Child Left Behind,” but stealing from school reading programs is pretty friggin’ low.

Just wait until they find out about the baby slave trading being done by the Department of Health….(And I hope I’m only joking)

Well I am gonna go do other stuff. Politics is making my brain hurt. See y’all later on.

A la Krugman, I think we need to start looking into the departments that haven’t had any scandals yet. There can’t be too many of them left so it wouldn’t take too long.

Bye Cassie – Happy Friday!

More on Moon’s political influence:

http://cellwhitman.blogspot.com/

cathy @ 19

A la Krugman, I think we need to start looking into the departments that haven’t had any scandals yet. There can’t be too many of them left so it wouldn’t take too long.

Dept of the Cavalry?

cathy @ 19

A la Krugman, I think we need to start looking into the departments that haven’t had any scandals yet. There can’t be too many of them left so it wouldn’t take too long.

Waxman’s already asked for all those emails. From all those departments. *g*

LS @ 12

Wrong school. The DOJ kiddies came from Regent U. Not that Falwell would mind the credit.

Guitar_Playing_Bastard @
6

DELBERT!

RAWKS!

That is the T’birds he’s playin’ with there isn’t it?

“We have made referrals to the Department of Justice,” Higgins said.

And who, exactly, runs the Department of Justice again? I don’t recall….

All of their programs were named as the opposite of what their actual function was. The Clear Air Act made the air dirtier. The No Child Left Behind Act left children behind. The Department of Homeland Security dismantled any effective security. What’s crazy is that special interests made tons of money from these programs anyway – and they still had to break the law to make more!

Corruption rots from the top down. We thought Enron had bad leadership, but look at our country.

Bush has effectively performed a coup d’etat. He can commit crimes because he owns the DOJ. He controls the army. He’s taken most of the National Guard to Iraq. He’s got all his buddies on the Supreme Court. What’s going to stop him? Subpeonas that he ignores?

puppethead @
8

I wonder if there’s any tie-in to Neil Bush’s Ignite! educational software enterprise. Considering how much theft and screwing of taxpayers came out of Brother Neil’s foray into the Savings & Loan industry, we can be confident he’s just as much a crook now.

i asked the question when the news of this hit last thread. Per the other folks’ links, it looks to be so.

puppethead @
8

I wonder if there’s any tie-in to Neil Bush’s Ignite! educational software enterprise. Considering how much theft and screwing of taxpayers came out of Brother Neil’s foray into the Savings & Loan industry, we can be confident he’s just as much a crook now.

Ignite! is the company Old Bar directed her tax-deductible Katrina donation to, right?

Two other linkies re the educational scandal, as found by a few of us downstairs:

1. Yes, it looks like dear bro Neil is involved.

2. And for those who want to get a jump on the details (and lots of Texas cronies), here’s a jam-packed article.

Phule @ 17

Just wait until they find out about the baby slave trading being done by the Department of Health….(And I hope I’m only joking)

You’d like to hope so, but there was the alleged child prostitution ring under Bush the Elder, which got quite a bit of news coverage.

Oh wait, no not really. It’s all from The Washington Times, so twenty years ago the Moonies were trying to destroy the Bush family. Now they’re doing business with them.

I think Moon is behind an awful lot of what has been happening. Plus, he owns U.P.I.

http://www.nhne.com/misc/sunmyungmoon.html

SnarKassandra @
18

Well I am gonna go do other stuff. Politics is making my brain hurt. See y’all later on.

She keeps mentioning this “other stuff” but I am not aware…

LS @
16

Wonder what Gonzo knows about all of this?

To the best of his knowledge, he cannot recall having any recollections of what he might have known of it.

Mental Equinox @ 34

LS @
16

Wonder what Gonzo knows about all of this?

To the best of his knowledge, he cannot recall having any recollections of what he might have known of it.

Oh, yeah, I forgot.

The state of public education in this country is beyond sad. For anyone interested I’d recommend Shame of the Nation by Jonathon Kozol. If we are ever going to dig ourselves out of the hole we’ve put ourselves in real education (not an excuse to enrich the testing companies) has got to be high on the list.

JR @ 36

The state of public education in this country is beyond sad. For anyone interested I’d recommend Shame of the Nation by Jonathon Kozol. If we are ever going to dig ourselves out of the hole we’ve put ourselves in real education (not an excuse to enrich the testing companies) has got to be high on the list.

By keeping the population stupid, they can be controlled by Fox News and Repug logic.

And what about Bill Bennett’s grab at Dept of Ed dollars with his partner Mr. Milken
if not illegal certainly immoral

Wow, they got some serious moderation time-delay over at HuffPost, but they finally posted my comment on Brian (”awful day”) Williams’ post:

Actually, Mr. Williams, your first paragraph is not accurately descriptive of the process. At some point after opening the package, NBC made copies of the contents. Pretending to meticulously describe what NBC did — calling authorities, turning over the contents, not putting them into a drawer — you omit this crucial step.

Who decided to make the copies? Did law enforcement know and approve of making copies? Did they participate in making the copies?

Only when we know when NBC made THAT critical decision — the decision to tamper with evidence, preserve its own version of that evidence, and retain it for possible future use — can we clearly evaluate your decision.

Your description of it needs more truthiness. I await your response.

The thing about this story, is that it has dots to all of the culprits. Bush family members, Gonzo, Moon, education of DOJ personnel and God knows what other departments, money and political manipulation by a convicted criminal (Moon). This is big and it is really scary.

Mental Equinox @
34

LS @
16

Wonder what Gonzo knows about all of this?

To the best of his knowledge, he cannot recall having any recollections of what he might have known of it.

After searching his memory for memories of what he could remember remembering…

but wait, they’re missing an angle – how can they cash in on home schooling, too? oh. never mind, that’s mostly their base.

(with all due respect to the small [?] percentage of non-wingnut homeschoolers)

OT Cnn JSC: female hostage escapes….male hostage dead. Gunman dead.

OT, but fits nicely into the broader scandal theme.

Pentagon lawyers abruptly blocked mid-level active-duty military officers from speaking Thursday during a closed-door House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee briefing about their personal experiences working with Iraqi security forces.

The Pentagon’s last-minute refusal to allow the officers’ presentations surprised panel members and congressional aides, who are in the middle of an investigation into the effort to train and organize Iraqi forces.

Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Martin Meehan, D-Mass., called the Pentagon’s move “outrageous” and left open the possibility of issuing subpoenas.

One correspondent suggests: “My guess: the training is not going well, there are some big gaps, and a bunch of horror stories that the Pentagon doesn’t want aired. … That said, this will backfire.”

from http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/005994.html
The rest of the article is behind a subscription firewall. My army major efriend says speculation at end of quote is close to the truth. Just ONE of the military scandals yet to be revealed.

Georgesimian @ 37

JR @ 36

The state of public education in this country is beyond sad. For anyone interested I’d recommend Shame of the Nation by Jonathon Kozol. If we are ever going to dig ourselves out of the hole we’ve put ourselves in real education (not an excuse to enrich the testing companies) has got to be high on the list.

By keeping the population stupid, they can be controlled by Fox News and Repug logic.

During the past few years I have taught episodically at my local university. They openly admit that HALF of incoming freshmen are sent to high school level remediation. I’d look out over my classes and think ‘man, 3/4 of you people shouldn’t even be here.’

Yet they all expect at least “B’s” just for showing up. I’ve been taken to my Sups more than once over a (charitable) “C” grade.

TeddySanFran @
29

puppethead @
8

I wonder if there’s any tie-in to Neil Bush’s Ignite! educational software enterprise. Considering how much theft and screwing of taxpayers came out of Brother Neil’s foray into the Savings & Loan industry, we can be confident he’s just as much a crook now.

Ignite! is the company Old Bar directed her tax-deductible Katrina donation to, right?

RIGHT

WASHINGTON –A federal investigator looking into allegations of conflict of interest and mismanagement in a $1 billion-a-year Education Department reading program said Friday he has made criminal referrals to the Justice Department.

Add the nine billion that went on a walkabout in Iraq and were starting to talk serious money.

Despicable is not enough to express the moral bankruptcy involved here.

Georgesimian @ 37

By keeping the population stupid, they can be controlled by Fox News and Repug logic.

Unfortunately it will also bankrupt the country in the process.

Gooper domestic policy is a process of finding somethin to yell about that ends up causing govt. to spend billions that goopers pocket. Gooper foreign policy is the process of finding some fuckin country to invade that will end up spending billions of dollars that goopers will pocket…

Political Science 101

“‘I think we’re very close to a criminal enterprise here,’ House Education and Labor Committee chairman George Miller, D-Calif., said at an investigative hearing Friday.”

I’d say that characterization pretty much sums up the Bush Administration in its entirety, wouldn’t you?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/5/184242/4509

http://www.thecarpetbaggerrepo…../8542.html

EPU’d

File under “Everything They Touch Turns to Shit”:

the reverse Midas touch.

(”Midas well profit from yet another gov’t. program at the expense of the taxpayers, eh?”)

TeddySanFran @
39

Wow, they got some serious moderation time-delay over at HuffPost, but they finally posted my comment on Brian (”awful day”) Williams’ post:

Actually, Mr. Williams, your first paragraph is not accurately descriptive of the process. At some point after opening the package, NBC made copies of the contents. Pretending to meticulously describe what NBC did — calling authorities, turning over the contents, not putting them into a drawer — you omit this crucial step.

Who decided to make the copies? Did law enforcement know and approve of making copies? Did they participate in making the copies?

Only when we know when NBC made THAT critical decision — the decision to tamper with evidence, preserve its own version of that evidence, and retain it for possible future use — can we clearly evaluate your decision.

Your description of it needs more truthiness. I await your response.

I made a couple of comments on a Richard Cohen post last week or so ago. I’m still waiting for them to show.

punaise @ 52

File under “Everything They Touch Turns to Shit”:

the reverse Midas touch.

(”Midas well profit from yet another gov’t. program at the expense of the taxpayers, eh?”)

Midass

spaghetti happens @ 50

“‘I think we’re very close to a criminal enterprise here,’ House Education and Labor Committee chairman George Miller, D-Calif., said at an investigative hearing Friday.”

I’d say that characterization pretty much sums up the Bush Administration in its entirety, wouldn’t you?

And Mr Miller is a confidant and close supporter of Madame Speaker iirc.

But wait – there’s more!

Sen. Mel Martinez repeatedly violated federal election law during his 2004 campaign, including accepting donations that exceeded legal limits, a new audit shows.

The Florida Republican’s campaign also failed to report enough information about its donors almost half of the time, according to a survey that was part of a broad Federal Election Commission investigation released Wednesday.

His campaign released a statement that said Martinez had learned from the mistakes and would adjust for the future.

And exactly how is Martinez adjusting?…Or has that question been asked too many times this week…We might be over our quota…

More at the link.

puppethead @ 31

Phule @ 17

Just wait until they find out about the baby slave trading being done by the Department of Health….(And I hope I’m only joking)

You’d like to hope so, but there was the alleged child prostitution ring under Bush the Elder, which got quite a bit of news coverage.

Oh wait, no not really. It’s all from The Washington Times, so twenty years ago the Moonies were trying to destroy the Bush family. Now they’re doing business with them.

That is a true story I remember when it was on the news.

I never bought that they were sincere in caring about education with all their platitudes about “No Child Left Behind,” but stealing from school reading programs is pretty friggin’ low.

Who knows what the future holds with this case, but up until now, this TPM column by Reed Hundt pretty much summed for me up how much the wingnuts in charge of education care about the young minds of America.

Clusterfuck invented his “No Child Left Behind” gimmick to help win the presidency. It was the “compassion” in “Compassionate Conservativism”.

What the thing boils down to is that schools who don’t get a high enough percentage of it’s students to pass a Clusterfuck test lose money and get shit on- eventually their students get vouchers to go to Jerry Falwell’s school.

The net result is that teachers ignore the brightest kids- who will pass the Clusterfuck test anyway- and also ignore the kids who are so far behind that they will never pass. The focus is on a handful who are on the borderline.

Is this good for education in this country? Well there will probably be some minor improvements in the percent passing the Clusterfuck test- and the bright kids who are the future of science and math in the country will get bored and quit tryin- also the bottom of the food chain will just slip further and further behind.

Course lots of goopers will make money out of it- and what the hey- it wasn’t intended to actually improve anything- it was intended to get an idiot elected to the White House.

Georgesimian @ 27

All of their programs were named as the opposite of what their actual function was. The Clear Air Act made the air dirtier. The No Child Left Behind Act left children behind. The Department of Homeland Security dismantled any effective security. What’s crazy is that special interests made tons of money from these programs anyway – and they still had to break the law to make more!

Corruption rots from the top down. We thought Enron had bad leadership, but look at our country.

Bush has effectively performed a coup d’etat. He can commit crimes because he owns the DOJ. He controls the army. He’s taken most of the National Guard to Iraq. He’s got all his buddies on the Supreme Court. What’s going to stop him? Subpeonas that he ignores?

He could send it all over to the Department of Lessons Learned. No lesson left behind there.

Everything they touch starts out as shit, and they turn it into toxic waste.

grape_crush @ 56

But wait – there’s more!

Sen. Mel Martinez repeatedly violated federal election law during his 2004 campaign, including accepting donations that exceeded legal limits, a new audit shows.

The Florida Republican’s campaign also failed to report enough information about its donors almost half of the time, according to a survey that was part of a broad Federal Election Commission investigation released Wednesday.

His campaign released a statement that said Martinez had learned from the mistakes and would adjust for the future.

And exactly how is Martinez adjusting?…Or has that question been asked too many times this week…We might be over our quota…

More at the link.

Marinez has learned to hide his crooked behavior better.

Oh- I forgot- the other consequence of the “No Child Left Behind” program is that the best teachers LEAVE schools with at risk kids- why should they risk gettin shit on when they can teach without interference in a nice comfortable suburban school. Nice work Clusterfuck!!!

Leave only the newest, poorest, and least talented teachers in the schools that most need good teachers- and then fuck the ones who ARE there cause the latinos can’t pass a reading test.

Fuckin insane.

In California the state has resorted to teaching what is on the state test and nothing more. NCLB is a joke and everyone but this adminsitration knows it. We also have children who go the entire way through school getting A’s and B’s but can’t pass the exit exam. Hence NO diploma.

Let’s not- by the way- pretend that it’s a bit more difficult to teach READING in ENGLISH to kids who don’t SPEAK english—hell no- that’ll never do!

More for Waxman and Leahy to dig into.
They are going to be busier than a one legged man in an a$$ kicking contest.

Bush: Today we are changing the name of the Department of Justice to reaffirm my commitment to Alberto Gonzalez. From now on, it will be called the Gonzo Department of Secret Justice.

The Clusterfuckers could hardly have designed a system more likely to destroy education in this country if they had TRIED- and maybe they did. They’d rather have all the kids goin ta christian schools and gettin a small stipend from the county.

“ but stealing from school reading programs is pretty friggin’ low.“

Well, there’s stealing from a children’s hospital where kids are dying from a lack of basic supplies.

You can scarcely imagine people are capable of such acts.

What I’m wondering about is Kennedy’s conflict of interest. How vigorous will he be, since he’s a co-sponsor on NICLB?

tbsa @ 64

In California the state has resorted to teaching what is on the state test and nothing more. NCLB is a joke and everyone but this adminsitration knows it. We also have children who go the entire way through school getting A’s and B’s but can’t pass the exit exam. Hence NO diploma.

You just need to understand the priorities here in California. It is far more important to keep a ready supply of bodies that can be locked up at fabulous cost than to give them an education in the first place. Kids can’t vote but that prison guard lobby sure gives the Governator plenty of bucks.

There’s all those stupid people that want to have a beer with Bush, who doesn’t drink because if he did, he’d fall off the wagon. What would they talk about?

Kennedy got totally fucked with this bullshit program.

. . .I think we’re very close to a criminal enterprise here,” House Education and Labor Committee chairman George Miller, D-Calif., said at an investigative hearing Friday. “Have you made any criminal referrals, Mr. Higgins?”

“We have made referrals to the Department of Justice,” Higgins said.

Miller said his committee may also make criminal referrals. “I think when we put the evidence together we may join you in those criminal referrals,” Miller told Higgins. . .

i love it!

and now, in the mirror-
image of that sort of corruption,
we have seen the dubious/wrongful pro-
secutions by steve biskupic in WI. . .

and so, i’ve offered a few smallish
thoughts, tonight on the actual, as-
published, opinion released today
by judge frank easterbrook of
the seventh circuit, vacating the
conviction of (democrat) georgia
thompson (she was prosecuted for
simply doing her job, per easterbrook!),
a conviction won by steve biskupic,
and at least apparently, the prime reason
his name came off of kyle sampson’s
purge-list. . . whew. [and obviously, my
piece needs some editing, as i can’t
really even describe it in a small sentence.]

what’s the upshot? my punch-line?

i think judge easterbrook’s law clerks
read your stuff, jane, marcy and christy. . .

do take a look. . . oh, and here’s a pdf of
the whole opinion, as well. . .

out for a friday night on the town, now. . .

will edit/polish my piece tomorrow. . .

No Child Left Behind, because we’ll put the rest in prison.

grape_crush @
56

But wait – there’s more!

Sen. Mel Martinez repeatedly violated federal election law during his 2004 campaign, including accepting donations that exceeded legal limits, a new audit shows.

The Florida Republican’s campaign also failed to report enough information about its donors almost half of the time, according to a survey that was part of a broad Federal Election Commission investigation released Wednesday.

His campaign released a statement that said Martinez had learned from the mistakes and would adjust for the future.

And exactly how is Martinez adjusting?…Or has that question been asked too many times this week…We might be over our quota…

More at the link.

didn’t Mel replace Liddy Dole as head of the RSCC?

rwcole @ 73

Kennedy got totally fucked with this bullshit program.

I think BushCo allied with him early on to neutralize one of our fiercest liberal voices. I was always suspicious of the alliance, and now I know why.

Georgesimian @
67

Bush: Today we are changing the name of the Department of Justice to reaffirm my commitment to Alberto Gonzalez. From now on, it will be called the Gonzo Department of Secret Justice.

Hunter Thompson woulda been all over that sh*t. I do miss him.

Teddy Yeah:

It profitith a man nothing to gain the whole WORLD and lose his soul- but for POPCORN?

Gotta run, but some might find this overview of kleptocracy, or control fraud, useful:

Individual “ccontrol frauds” cause greater losses than all other forms of property crime combined. They are financial super-predators. Control frauds are crimes led by the head of state or CEO that use the nation or company as a fraud vehicle. Waves of “ccontrol fraud” can cause economic collapses, damage and discredit key institutions vital to good political governance, and erode trust. The defining element of fraud is deceit —the criminal creates and then betrays trust. Fraud, therefore, is the strongest acid to eat away at trust. Endemic control fraud causes institutions and trust to become friable —to crumble— and produce economic stagnation.

William F. Black, “When Fragile Becomes Friable,” delivered in a workshop in Delhi, in 2005. Black has been a S&L regulator, and did a lot of investigating of the last wave of S&L failure and fraud.

eCAHNomics @
70

What I’m wondering about is Kennedy’s conflict of interest. How vigorous will he be, since he’s a co-sponsor on NICLB?

I think he’ll be all over it just because he was a co-sponsor. I believe he feels seriously abused by the Chimpenfuhrer on this and is looking for a hook.

puppethead @ 8

I wonder if there’s any tie-in to Neil Bush’s Ignite! educational software enterprise. Considering how much theft and screwing of taxpayers came out of Brother Neil’s foray into the Savings & Loan industry, we can be confident he’s just as much a crook now.

That would be a bummer, if they pushed “Ignite”. Quite a while ago I read something to the effect that Ignite is a BS program. I went to look up the conditions for funding of Reading First and it is not supposed to be tied to a particular teaching method.

didn’t Mel replace Liddy Dole as head of the RSCC?

nope, he replaced Mehlman at the RNC. Dole was succeed by Nevada’s John Ensign at the NRSC

egregious @
69

“ but stealing from school reading programs is pretty friggin’ low.“

Well, there’s stealing from a children’s hospital where kids are dying from a lack of basic supplies.

You can scarcely imagine people are capable of such acts.

There’s stealing from soldiers to pay Halliburton mercenaries…

TeddySanFran @ 83

didn’t Mel replace Liddy Dole as head of the RSCC?

nope, he replaced Mehlman at the RNC. Dole was succeed by Nevada’s John Ensign at the NRSC

Thanks TSF. I realized that about the time the edit timed out.

Georgesimian @
27

All of their programs were named as the opposite of what their actual function was. The Clear Air Act made the air dirtier. The No Child Left Behind Act left children behind. The Department of Homeland Security dismantled any effective security. What’s crazy is that special interests made tons of money from these programs anyway – and they still had to break the law to make more!

Corruption rots from the top down. We thought Enron had bad leadership, but look at our country.

Bush has effectively performed a coup d’etat. He can commit crimes because he owns the DOJ. He controls the army. He’s taken most of the National Guard to Iraq. He’s got all his buddies on the Supreme Court. What’s going to stop him? Subpeonas that he ignores?

Hey, Georgesimian, I think that the war profiteering corporate news monopolies do enough already to demoralize and disempower the American people. It is their only propaganda triumph–making the great progressive American majority feel like it is the minority. 75% of the American people now oppose their heinous war, despite 24/7 relentless war propaganda. The opposition started at 56% (Feb. ‘03, before the invasion), which would be a landslide in a presidential election–and probably was. And opposition has grown and grown and grown. So the fascist propaganda has failed! And our democracy is creaking back to life, with rebellions everywhere. For instance, there was a big voter boycott of the rigged electronic voting machines in ‘06, with Absentee Ballot voting getting up to 50% and above in some places. There is much more awareness about these Bushite-controlled machines and their “TRADE SECRET,” PROPRIETARY vote counting code, and other forms of election theft. And it appears to me that in ‘06 the voters proved that they can outvote the machines in some cases. (I think this is one of the reasons Rove implemented the US Attorney purge rather hastily in November, to try to turn the tide back.) Anyway, I see a lot of signs of life, and a lot of people working very hard to restore our democracy–and some taking great risks with lives and careers (whistleblowers, for instance).

We shouldn’t be giving vent to statements of defeatism–unless we really, really need to–but instead we should be looking to help people understand that they are not alone in their antiwar and progressive views, despite what they see and hear in the “news,” and helping to re-empower and, above all, to re-enfranchise the American people.

If you encourage people (or yourself) to think that this fascist junta is all-powerful and cannot be defeated, you aren’t doing people a lot of good, and it’s not really true. Think of Nelson Mandela, for instance, in jail for 29 years, to emerge and become the first black president of South Africa. Or think of the vast, long term fascist oppression in South America, where a huge leftist (majorityist) democracy movement is now in progress, with leftist governments elected in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, and big leftist movements in Paraguay, Peru and Mexico (likely to win future elections). How have people survived these enormously corrupt fascist governments? By faith and good will, and by practical means like attention to transparent vote counting and grass roots organization.

If it can happen in South America–where they have suffered so much–it can happen here, where modern democracy was first born.

dakine01 @ 81

eCAHNomics @
70

What I’m wondering about is Kennedy’s conflict of interest. How vigorous will he be, since he’s a co-sponsor on NICLB?

I think he’ll be all over it just because he was a co-sponsor. I believe he feels seriously abused by the Chimpenfuhrer on this and is looking for a hook.

There’s lots of MassPups who’re close to his office; I hope they’ll take note of this corruption and alert the Senator that we’re unhappy with the stench.

I’m looking forward to Condi’s upcoming testimony/subpeona. She’s a much better liar than Gonzo. She doesn’t get tired and cry.

I gotta get something off my chest. OT:

Much has been made of the “I don’t recall” statements by Abu G. But what troubles me is the “I can’t answer that” responses. I wish when he (or anyone else does this) they would ask: “Why can’t you answer that?” or “Who told you not to?”

It’s frustrating. It’s so loaded with possible interpretations.

PS: I know Leahy’s son is a regular reader and sometimes commenter here, so I hope you relay this to your dad. (Pretty please!) Thanks.

My puppy heard about the speculation that the poisoning of the national dog food supply was done deliberately to make money. She’s quit peeing on papers with Clusterfuck’s face- now she shits all over em.

rwcole @ 90

My puppy heard about the speculation that the poisoning of the national dog food supply was done deliberately to make money. She’s quit peeing on papers with Clusterfuck’s face- now she shits all over em.

Making the term shit-for-brains a bit closer to the truthiness.

Oh yeah- Condi’s the queen of all liars- LIAR par excellence.

Georgesimian @ 88

I’m looking forward to Condi’s upcoming testimony/subpeona. She’s a much better liar than Gonzo. She doesn’t get tired and cry.….Yet.

Corrected.

Peace Patriot @ 86

Georgesimian @
27

All of their programs were named as the opposite of what their actual function was. The Clear Air Act made the air dirtier. The No Child Left Behind Act left children behind. The Department of Homeland Security dismantled any effective security. What’s crazy is that special interests made tons of money from these programs anyway – and they still had to break the law to make more!

Corruption rots from the top down. We thought Enron had bad leadership, but look at our country.

Bush has effectively performed a coup d’etat. He can commit crimes because he owns the DOJ. He controls the army. He’s taken most of the National Guard to Iraq. He’s got all his buddies on the Supreme Court. What’s going to stop him? Subpeonas that he ignores?

Hey, Georgesimian, I think that the war profiteering corporate news monopolies do enough already to demoralize and disempower the American people. It is their only propaganda triumph–making the great progressive American majority feel like it is the minority. 75% of the American people now oppose their heinous war, despite 24/7 relentless war propaganda. The opposition started at 56% (Feb. ‘03, before the invasion), which would be a landslide in a presidential election–and probably was. And opposition has grown and grown and grown. So the fascist propaganda has failed! And our democracy is creaking back to life, with rebellions everywhere. For instance, there was a big voter boycott of the rigged electronic voting machines in ‘06, with Absentee Ballot voting getting up to 50% and above in some places. There is much more awareness about these Bushite-controlled machines and their “TRADE SECRET,” PROPRIETARY vote counting code, and other forms of election theft. And it appears to me that in ‘06 the voters proved that they can outvote the machines in some cases. (I think this is one of the reasons Rove implemented the US Attorney purge rather hastily in November, to try to turn the tide back.) Anyway, I see a lot of signs of life, and a lot of people working very hard to restore our democracy–and some taking great risks with lives and careers (whistleblowers, for instance).

We shouldn’t be giving vent to statements of defeatism–unless we really, really need to–but instead we should be looking to help people understand that they are not alone in their antiwar and progressive views, despite what they see and hear in the “news,” and helping to re-empower and, above all, to re-enfranchise the American people.

If you encourage people (or yourself) to think that this fascist junta is all-powerful and cannot be defeated, you aren’t doing people a lot of good, and it’s not really true. Think of Nelson Mandela, for instance, in jail for 29 years, to emerge and become the first black president of South Africa. Or think of the vast, long term fascist oppression in South America, where a huge leftist (majorityist) democracy movement is now in progress, with leftist governments elected in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, and big leftist movements in Paraguay, Peru and Mexico (likely to win future elections). How have people survived these enormously corrupt fascist governments? By faith and good will, and by practical means like attention to transparent vote counting and grass roots organization.

If it can happen in South America–where they have suffered so much–it can happen here, where modern democracy was first born.

I see a lot of signs of life, too. I just want people to be aware what’s going on, so we can do something about it. I’m pretty sure we can still get our country back, but when the DOJ won’t investigate crimes in the WH, then the President, by default, has absolute power. Don’t you think?

Georgesimian @ 88

I’m looking forward to Condi’s upcoming testimony/subpeona. She’s a much better liar than Gonzo. She doesn’t get tired and cry.

And boy, can she repeat a talking point…

Georgesimian @ 88

I’m looking forward to Condi’s upcoming testimony/subpeona. She’s a much better liar than Gonzo. She doesn’t get tired and cry.

IF she testifies, which I doubt, I’ll be very curious about whether they can control her filibustering. “Reclaiming my time!” anyone?

Remember this one.. “the map we laid out was Afghanastan, not Iraq.”

What a way with words!

Thank you, Peace Patriot.

Please keep the stuff about my puppy to yourself. She’s already being watched by the secret service.

I can’t believe that Kneel Bush’s software won’t crop up as this moves along.
How unfortunate this will have to be referred to the same DoJ that no longer has a shred of credibility. This administration is a joke, but nobody’s even smiling.

Mark the date. Brooks on NewsHour sez we’re never going to get Karl Rove.

rwcole @ 90

My puppy heard about the speculation that the poisoning of the national dog food supply was done deliberately to make money. She’s quit peeing on papers with Clusterfuck’s face- now she shits all over em.

Rice gluten is also contaminated I have not heard a word about it on the news.

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/…..01610.html

http://www.petconnection.com/b…..aring-set/

Here’s Condi from 60 Minutes…

CONDOLEEZZA RICE:
The president asked, I believe – though none of us recall the specific – conversation, the president asked a perfectly logical question. We’d just been hit and hit hard. Was – did Iraq have anything to do with this? Were they complicit in it? This was a country with which we’d been to war a couple of times, that were firing at our airplanes in – the no-fly zone. It made perfectly good sense to ask about Iraq. I will tell you, Ed, when we went to Afghani – to- Camp David to plan our response to the al Qaeda attack, it was the map of Afghanistan that was rolled out on the table. It was Afghanistan that became the focus of – the – American response. And – Iraq was – put aside with the exception of – worrying about whether Iraq might try and take – advantage of us in some way. The president focused our energies and our attention on winning in Afghanistan, and expelling the Taliban and thereby, expelling al Qaeda.

Don’t you love it? Gonzo needs a lesson from her about how to use “I don’t recall”.

GWB is a sympton, not the problem. The problem is that politicians have learned since 11/22/63 that the American people can be bought off, with their own money. We Americans are far too comfortable for our own good.

Jonathan @ 102

GWB is a sympton, not the problem. The problem is that politicians have learned since 11/22/63 that the American people can be bought off, with their own money. We Americans are far too comfortable for our own good.

Yeah. It’s all Clinton’s fault for making the economy so good.

Ms H. said…

“This ought to play well in the heartlands.”

Only if it turns out that they were stealing from something other than inner city programs.

Otherwise, heckfire, it might actually give them a bump in at least a few of the reddest of the red heartlands.

.

eCAHNomics @ 100

Mark the date. Brooks on NewsHour sez we’re never going to get Karl Rove.

4-20-07,
Bobo emits squealing grunting noise.

Got it.

I want Lieberman out. I don’t want my party to allow him to caucus. I understand the consequences of such an action. Lieberman is not much different than a common blackmailer.

Bustednuckles @
66

More for Waxman and Leahy to dig into.
They are going to be busier than a one legged man in an a$$ kicking contest.

or a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs ……

dakine01 @
25

Guitar_Playing_Bastard @
6

DELBERT!

RAWKS!

That is the T’birds he’s playin’ with there isn’t it?

Yes, indeed, the Birds.

Moon (Bushies big sugar daddy) – GOP donor organ:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0612/S00361.htm

fahrender @ 107

Bustednuckles @
66

More for Waxman and Leahy to dig into.
They are going to be busier than a one legged man in an a$$ kicking contest.

or a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs ……

A one-armed paper hanger.

4:20, 4/20

!!

Oklahoma kiddo @ 107

I want Lieberman out. I don’t want my party to allow him to caucus. I understand the consequences of such an action. Lieberman is not much different than a common blackmailer.

Agreed. Call the Republicans’ bluff. What GOP senator are they going to take committee assignments away from to give to Lieberman? No one. They don’t want him. He’s of no value to them as a Republican. He’s only useful to give a bipartisan spin on things. As a junior GOP senator he’s useless.

eCAHNomics @ 100

Mark the date. Brooks on NewsHour sez we’re never going to get Karl Rove.

Gonzo.

Cheney.

Bush.

Rove will skate.

Moon over Paraguay..la, la, la (nothing to do with Paraguay):

http://griperblade.blogspot.co…..myung.html

eCAHNomics @ 104

Jonathan @ 102

GWB is a sympton, not the problem. The problem is that politicians have learned since 11/22/63 that the American people can be bought off, with their own money. We Americans are far too comfortable for our own good.

Yeah. It’s all Clinton’s fault for making the economy so good.

If I had a nickel for every time Brooks was wrong about something, I’d have a big ol’ sack of nickels.

cleter @ 112

Oklahoma kiddo @ 107

I want Lieberman out. I don’t want my party to allow him to caucus. I understand the consequences of such an action. Lieberman is not much different than a common blackmailer.

Agreed. Call the Republicans’ bluff. What GOP senator are they going to take committee assignments away from to give to Lieberman? No one. They don’t want him. He’s of no value to them as a Republican. He’s only useful to give a bipartisan spin on things. As a junior GOP senator he’s useless.

I’m sensing an irresistible urge; something about emperors and clothes, or lack thereof.

You think goopers wouldn’t offer the moon to Lieberman to take the majority in the senate? Shit- they’d make him temporary majority leader. All of a sudden they would be calling the shots again- and there’d be a free shot at the next supreme court justice.

Not a new Republican phenomenon.
Back in the early seventies, I had a friend who worked for a company that oversaw Head Start programs. He once accompanied his boss to DC to negotiate for a new contract. He came back disgusted. The terms were simple: a $300,000 contribution to CREEP (Nixon’s notorious Committee to Re-elect the President).

From the Ed. Committeee hearing:

Written Testimony of John P. Higgins, Jr.
Inspector General, U.S. Department of Education

“Mismanagement and Conflicts of Interest in the Reading First Program”April 20, 2007

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the work of my office. Reading First is a $1 billion per year program that was established to provide kindergarten through third grade reading programs based on scientifically based reading research. The goal of the program is to ensure that every student can read at grade level or above by the end of the third grade.

In May 2005, my office began receiving allegations about Reading First. The allegations indicated that the Department was promoting and excluding specific programs and assessments, as well as using consultants with ties to these programs and assessments. As a result, we decided to perform a series of six reviews. My comments today will focus on the work we performed at the Department. To put our work in context, it is important to understand that the Department of Education’s Organization Act prohibits Department officials from exercising any control over the curriculum of a school. In addition, the No Child Left Behind Act includes a similar prohibition.

Through our work, we found that the Department:
1) appeared to inappropriately influence the use of certain programs and assessments;
2) failed to comply with statutory requirements and its own guidance;
3) obscured the requirements of the statute; and
4) created an environment that allowed real and perceived conflicts of interest.

…

Higgins Opening statement

Bush poll numbers are drifting lower, towards all-time low — per Rasmussen. Note the very high percentage of those who “strongly disapprove” = 45% now.

barrelhse @ 100

I can’t believe that Kneel Bush’s software won’t crop up as this moves along.
How unfortunate this will have to be referred to the same DoJ that no longer has a shred of credibility. This administration is a joke, but nobody’s even smiling.

Managers of the Bush family trust funds have been smiling since 2001.

rwcole @ 119

You think goopers wouldn’t offer the moon to Lieberman to take the majority in the senate? Shit- they’d make him temporary majority leader. All of a sudden they would be calling the shots again- and there’d be a free shot at the next supreme court justice.

i believe i’ve read hear that that wouldn’t happen until the next election which means it probably wouldn’t happen ….

Scarecrow @ 121

Bush poll numbers are drifting lower, towards all-time low — per Rasmussen. Note the very high percentage of those who “strongly disapprove” = 45% now.

Damn! Just love good news!!

rwcole @ 119

You think goopers wouldn’t offer the moon to Lieberman to take the majority in the senate? Shit- they’d make him temporary majority leader. All of a sudden they would be calling the shots again- and there’d be a free shot at the next supreme court justice.

What GOP senator are they going to screw? And what is he/she going to do about it? Would Trent Lott just roll over and let Al Gore’s running mate be majority leader? No. They do not in fact want Al Gore’s running mate. As a quasi-Dem he is a useful tool. But they are not going to screw one of their own to take him in.

This is Moon over Paraguay, coincidence? Guarani reservoir…

http://www.signonsandiego.com/…..aguay.html

Well, wasn’t the whole point to privatize/drive into a ditch education–just put an end to public education once and for all? Kids in kindergarten homeschooled, Blackwater handling military matters in Iraq, government just can’t provide governmental services/obligations–at least this government cannot.

For some reason Bushies hate to share!!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, sent the following letter today to U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings about information that the Department of Education failed to provide to the Committee to assist in its investigation of mismanagement and conflicts of interest in the Reading First program.

***

Dear Madam Secretary:

Today, your Department issued a state-by-state report on the federal Reading First program. This report includes comprehensive information on the assessment products that the states use to evaluate student progress on reading.

As you know, Education and Labor Committee staff members have been conducting a months-long investigation into mismanagement and conflicts of interest in Reading First. As part of that investigation, on February 27, 2007, Committee investigators submitted a written request to the Department for state-by-state breakdowns of the Reading First funding that went to specific reading programs (which included core, supplemental and assessment programs) in use by the states. Committee investigators reiterated this request during a meeting with Department staff on March, 29 2007.

The Department did not provide the requested information in full to the Committee until yesterday, Wednesday, April 18, 2007. Yet much of the requested information is the same as the information on assessments included in the report that is being publicly released today. It is obvious that a great deal of time went into preparing and formatting this report. It is therefore clear that much of the information requested by Committee investigators was available earlier than the date it was provided by the Department to the Committee.

It is inconceivable to me that the Department withheld the requested information from Committee investigators who have been conducting a formal Congressional inquiry. Please respond to this letter in writing by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow with the following information:

When the Department first possessed the information in today’s report on types of reading assessments used by the states; and
Whether, to your knowledge, Department staff deliberately withheld that information from Committee investigators.
This is an inquiry into troubling evidence of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Reading First program. The Committee is investigating the corrupt process by which the program was implemented. It goes without saying that I expect and demand the Department’s full cooperation in providing documents and information in a timely manner.

Sincerely,

GEORGE MILLER
Chairman, Education and Labor Committee

it’s waaaay past my bed time. night all …….

Chris Matthews just called “Barbara Ann” a Beatles song lol

AZ Matt @ 125

Scarecrow @ 121

Bush poll numbers are drifting lower, towards all-time low — per Rasmussen. Note the very high percentage of those who “strongly disapprove” = 45% now.

Damn! Just love good news!!

That’s an interesting poll. Same poll shows that Hillary is just as loathed as Newt–about 49% say they would definately not vote for either of them.

Cozumel @ 130

Chris Matthews just called “Barbara Ann” a Beatles song lol

tweety is a twit

dakine01 @ 78

Hunter Thompson woulda been all over that sh*t. I do miss him.

Was it not HST who said, “In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward mobile.”

punaise @ 42

but wait, they’re missing an angle – how can they cash in on home schooling, too? oh. never mind, that’s mostly their base.

(with all due respect to the small [?] percentage of non-wingnut homeschoolers)

Not to mention, the small percentage of non-broke homeschoolers. That’s the genius of the Republican crime family scheme…team up with the religious wrong to not only get the fundies to vote for you, but steal ‘em blind in the process.

I know everyone here is concerned about Gonzo’s feelings after yesterday. From CNN:

“Attorney General Gonzales is in good spirits,” the official said. “He’s optimistic, feeling good. He is eager to get on with the other important work of the department.”

AZ Matt @ 135

I know everyone here is concerned about Gonzo’s feelings after yesterday. From CNN:

“Attorney General Gonzales is in good spirits,” the official said. “He’s optimistic, feeling good. He is eager to get on with the other important work of the department.”

Remember the rug

I used to say that I loved reading about scandals because it means you know about them. Scandals go on all the time, and when you don’t read about them it means that the perps are not getting caught. Never did I think I’d get too much of this particular good thing.

New thread from Phoenix Woman.

Compare and Contrast

AZ Matt @ 137

I know everyone here is concerned about Gonzo’s feelings after yesterday. From CNN:

“Attorney General Gonzales is in good spirits,” the official said. “He’s optimistic, feeling good. He is eager to get on with the other important work of the department.”

Meaning: “He gonna keep on doing what he’s been doing all along. He won’t learn his lesson until he’s been thrown out on his ass and deposited in prison.”

As soon as I heard the words “education, corruption, crime, financial interest, and programs” I thought, “Ignite!”

guten nacht, fahrender.

sleep well.

dakine01 @
76

grape_crush @
56

But wait – there’s more!

Sen. Mel Martinez repeatedly violated federal election law during his 2004 campaign, including accepting donations that exceeded legal limits, a new audit shows.

The Florida Republican’s campaign also failed to report enough information about its donors almost half of the time, according to a survey that was part of a broad Federal Election Commission investigation released Wednesday.

His campaign released a statement that said Martinez had learned from the mistakes and would adjust for the future.

And exactly how is Martinez adjusting?…Or has that question been asked too many times this week…We might be over our quota…

More at the link.

didn’t Mel replace Liddy Dole as head of the RSCC?

No .. Ensign replaced Dole as head of the RSCC … Martinez was made head of the RNC .. well he split the duties … replacing Mehlman

Scarecrow @ 123

Bush poll numbers are drifting lower, towards all-time low — per Rasmussen. Note the very high percentage of those who “strongly disapprove” = 45% now.

It’s one point away from the lowest ever … although Rasmussen has a habit of pushing Smirk’s ratings up a tad .. once they realize its gone that low .. just look earlier this year .. when it had hit 36 .. the next day it was back up to like 39 .. or 40

Rasmussen isn’t very reliable- they had him at 40 just a few days ago. I don’t put much stock in anything he reports.

I notice that Gonzo didn’t come before the cameras personally to tell us how good he feels- difficult to do after a gallon of tequila.

dakine01 @
81

eCAHNomics @
70

What I’m wondering about is Kennedy’s conflict of interest. How vigorous will he be, since he’s a co-sponsor on NICLB?

I think he’ll be all over it just because he was a co-sponsor. I believe he feels seriously abused by the Chimpenfuhrer on this and is looking for a hook.

Jane, thanks SO MUCH for bringing this to light. You and Christy have done so much this week to help the poor children I teach every day by spreading the word about the despicable chicanery of the Bush administration against the children of America.

I teach in a Title I school (and have always taught in Title I schools by choice). I have firsthand, daily knowledge of the effects of this heinous NCLB law and the corrupt US Dept. of Education. And for the last few years, I had the double displeasure of teaching in Dubya’s brother Jeb’s “state” of Florida, which supported all those hairbrained profiteering schemes no questions asked.

My job is to teach children to read. I do so and my children meet the “requirements” of NCLB. But, unfortunately, some of the kids at my school don’t meet those requirements.

Last year it was actually only 9 out of 650 who failed to make “adequate yearly progress” in 5th grade mathematics and reading. The rest actually met the goals. Some of these kids who didn’t were ESE (special education) students and some were ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students. Most were just very poor African-American kids who had a great deal of trouble in school from the start. They made progress but not enough, according to the arbirtrary standards set by Jeb.

The result of this “failure” of only 99% of our kids making the grade? We are under sanctions which include restructuring our entire curriculum. If we “fail” again this year, we face possible restaffing, or firing, of the entire school staff. Our Title I funds have been drastically reduced in order to set aside a huge amount of money to pay to transport “choice” students to other schools, if their parents choose to move them. Another huge chunk is mandatorially set aside to pay for the after school SES (Supplemental Educational Support) programs after school that are open to any for-profit company that fills out an application. Tutors are not required to be teachers or even college graduates. There is little accountability but huge profit in this scheme.

This money used to be budgeted for textbooks, hiring additional staff members, supplies, and technology that helped all students at our school. We have 93% of our population receiving free/reduced lunch services, over half are minority ( the corrupt school lunch program is another blog post) and a high amount of non-English speaking transient students.

My experiences colleagues are retiring to get out. Few of the newbies make it past a year or two of this very stressful job. And every year those of us who stay anyway are tarred and feathered in the local media with the state’s “A Program” school grades. There is no disctinction made that a huge majority of our kids make it and do well; there is only the “C” grade and the implication that we are not as good as the all-white, upper middle class schools.

I refuse to give in and give up. But we could sure use noble people like the firepups sending a few letters and making a few phone calls to Rep. Miller and Sen. Kennedy, both of whom are on the record for renewing NCLB and resisting calls for a major overhaul. My kids and my colleagues are drowning out here while Bush’s cronies are getting richer by the minute. Please speak out, speak loudly, and help us.

#12 Sun Moon is behind just about every thing.

“a video game called Left Behind: Eternal Forces. … was marketed by Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s News World Communications.”

When “beautiful mind” Barbara Bush donated to the Katrina cause, she specified that the money be applied to her son Niel’s “educational software”

http://www.pollster.com/

Link to good source of polling data- they do a running average of Clusterfuck’s poll ratings- it’s just under 35 at the moment- a bit-( Point of two) above his low.

P J Evans @
24

LS @ 12

Wrong school. The DOJ kiddies came from Regent U. Not that Falwell would mind the credit.

You’re right.

AZ Matt @ 121,
That is something I’m forwarding around. Thanks!

cleter @ 118

If I had a nickel for every time Brooks was wrong about something, I’d have a big ol’ sack of nickels.

And then you could bonk him upside the head with it.

Priscilla, Queen of the Beach @ 148 -

I read your post & feel like weeping. My children attended a Title 1 school when NCLB was enacted and it’s absolutely the worst piece of legislation passed in decades. I read something in the Post at the time quoting right-wing groups in New York who were pushing this as a way to essentially gut the public school system. I’m stopping here because I could write reams (as I’m sure you could) about the actual awful effects of this legislation and the letters we wrote to politicians and the State Board of Ed. people in Maryland. Amazingly enough, the best response was from a Republican, Wayne Gilchrest, who was our representative back then. He had been a teacher and voted against it! He’s the only republican I’ve voted for since I changed party back in ‘92.

The modern republican party is a criminal enterprise.

Beth @
154

Priscilla, Queen of the Beach @ 148 -

I read your post & feel like weeping. My children attended a Title 1 school when NCLB was enacted and it’s absolutely the worst piece of legislation passed in decades. I read something in the Post at the time quoting right-wing groups in New York who were pushing this as a way to essentially gut the public school system. I’m stopping here because I could write reams (as I’m sure you could) about the actual awful effects of this legislation and the letters we wrote to politicians and the State Board of Ed. people in Maryland. Amazingly enough, the best response was from a Republican, Wayne Gilchrest, who was our representative back then. He had been a teacher and voted against it! He’s the only republican I’ve voted for since I changed party back in ‘92.

The modern republican party is a criminal enterprise.

Beth, thanks for the comment. Thankfully, there are many committed teachers who refuse to let NCLB drive us away from doing what we love to do: making a difference in children’s lives. I support anyone of any party who opposes this terrible law. Sadly enough, it’s a group of Republican House members who have tried to introduce legislation to allow states to opt out of the testing requirements without losing federal funding.

The Democratic party has been strangely silent or they only talk about “fully funding” the monstrosity (Kennedy’s and Miller’s statement) and creating “national standards” to replace the ad-hoc state standards.

What needs to be done, IMHO, is to trash the dang thing and actually work to combat poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, inadequate medical and mental health care, and create living-wage jobs, family support networks, affordable housing, and supportive, fully-funded public schools that ACTUALLY provide the same resources to ALL children, no matter the color of their skin, their home language, or the political (or non-political) bent of the neighborhoods where they live.

This is the future of America that we are talking about, after all. For years I heard that “we” couldn’t afford to fix the crumbling schools and then PRESTO! billions upon billions pulled out of the hat for the Iraq war. Priorities, America!

lolo @ 57

puppethead @ 31

Phule @ 17

Just wait until they find out about the baby slave trading being done by the Department of Health….(And I hope I’m only joking)

You’d like to hope so, but there was the alleged child prostitution ring under Bush the Elder, which got quite a bit of news coverage.

Oh wait, no not really. It’s all from The Washington Times, so twenty years ago the Moonies were trying to destroy the Bush family. Now they’re doing business with them.

That is a true story I remember when it was on the news.

Maybe a deal was struck to suppress the information in exchange for….

But if the story was a slander, one wonders why Bush Jr. and his brothers would want to have anything to do with the Moonies and the Washington Times. I mean if someone falsely accused me (or my father) of being involved in a child sex ring that would make them anathema for eternity.

And wasn’t Dubya and some of the brothers also implicated in this in some way?

Funny how power, political influence and money tainted this “great man of principle, George W. Bush”….. bwahahahahahahahaahaha!

Scarecrow @ 123

Bush poll numbers are drifting lower, towards all-time low — per Rasmussen. Note the very high percentage of those who “strongly disapprove” = 45% now.

That’s three time the number of strongly support, by the way! Bush’s numbers in the Rassmussen poll, which generally massages the data in the Republicans favor…have been consistently under 40% this month, and look as if they have plunged to seek a new lower plateau.

The “surge” is an utter failure and the corruption of this Administration is finally getting the sanitary effects of sunlight.

The MSM can’t easily ignore the Senate Hearings and people are steadily relying on direct media to get their information.

And this was all before the Tilman Cover-Up hit the press circuit! When those Joe-Bobs that worshipped Tilman hear about the cover-up of the Friendly Fire incident…they won’t trust anything that comes out the Pentagon’s gobs anymore!

Georgesimian @
94
Peace Patriot @ 86
Georgesimian @
27

All of their programs were named as the opposite of what their actual function was. The Clear Air Act made the air dirtier. The No Child Left Behind Act left children behind. The Department of Homeland Security dismantled any effective security. What’s crazy is that special interests made tons of money from these programs anyway – and they still had to break the law to make more!

Corruption rots from the top down. We thought Enron had bad leadership, but look at our country.

Bush has effectively performed a coup d’etat. He can commit crimes because he owns the DOJ. He controls the army. He’s taken most of the National Guard to Iraq. He’s got all his buddies on the Supreme Court. What’s going to stop him? Subpeonas that he ignores?

Hey, Georgesimian, I think that the war profiteering corporate news monopolies do enough already to demoralize and disempower the American people. It is their only propaganda triumph–making the great progressive American majority feel like it is the minority. 75% of the American people now oppose their heinous war, despite 24/7 relentless war propaganda. The opposition started at 56% (Feb. ‘03, before the invasion), which would be a landslide in a presidential election–and probably was. And opposition has grown and grown and grown. So the fascist propaganda has failed! And our democracy is creaking back to life, with rebellions everywhere. For instance, there was a big voter boycott of the rigged electronic voting machines in ‘06, with Absentee Ballot voting getting up to 50% and above in some places. There is much more awareness about these Bushite-controlled machines and their “TRADE SECRET,” PROPRIETARY vote counting code, and other forms of election theft. And it appears to me that in ‘06 the voters proved that they can outvote the machines in some cases. (I think this is one of the reasons Rove implemented the US Attorney purge rather hastily in November, to try to turn the tide back.) Anyway, I see a lot of signs of life, and a lot of people working very hard to restore our democracy–and some taking great risks with lives and careers (whistleblowers, for instance).

We shouldn’t be giving vent to statements of defeatism–unless we really, really need to–but instead we should be looking to help people understand that they are not alone in their antiwar and progressive views, despite what they see and hear in the “news,” and helping to re-empower and, above all, to re-enfranchise the American people.

If you encourage people (or yourself) to think that this fascist junta is all-powerful and cannot be defeated, you aren’t doing people a lot of good, and it’s not really true. Think of Nelson Mandela, for instance, in jail for 29 years, to emerge and become the first black president of South Africa. Or think of the vast, long term fascist oppression in South America, where a huge leftist (majorityist) democracy movement is now in progress, with leftist governments elected in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, and big leftist movements in Paraguay, Peru and Mexico (likely to win future elections). How have people survived these enormously corrupt fascist governments? By faith and good will, and by practical means like attention to transparent vote counting and grass roots organization.

If it can happen in South America–where they have suffered so much–it can happen here, where modern democracy was first born.

I see a lot of signs of life, too. I just want people to be aware what’s going on, so we can do something about it. I’m pretty sure we can still get our country back, but when the DOJ won’t investigate crimes in the WH, then the President, by default, has absolute power. Don’t you think?

Oh, yes, I agree. We have suffered a fascist coup. But I would say that Bush, Cheney, Rove and associated felons SEEK absolute power–and have asserted it–but they do not have it yet. Look at the rebellion of the fired US Attorneys, just for an example. Give people just a little hope–a Democratic Congress that will at least investigate–and those who have been abused, or who are outraged at the crime and malfeasance they have witnessed start coming foward. And there have been similar rebellions with the military jag lawyers, the generals and other officers, in the intelligence community, and among grass roots activists who are not going to take election fraud any more, or who are protesting the war, or who are fighting for impeachment–for instance, inspiring impeachment resolutions in about a dozen state legislatures (any one of which has the power under Jefferson’s Rules–the official rules of Congress–to submit a bill of impeachment to the US House, and get impeachment proceedings started).

Then there is Congress, which quickly rescinded that sneaky section of the Patriot Act that gave Bush carte blanche on US Attorneys. I wish they would do the same on the Iraq War Resolution–just rescind it. Hell, I wish they would invalidate the 2004 election and rescind all of Bush’s appointments since then. But we are dealing with a complicit Congress, shaped by Diebold/ES&S “trade secret” vote counting, with many members who voted for the war, and/or war funding, and are hogtied to the ‘military-industrial complex’ and global corporate predators. They are still not very representative of the American people–but are most definitely an improvement over that last bunch of derelicts (the Diebold I Congress).

It is not easy to overturn a fascist coup by peaceful, democratic means. It takes patience and persistence. I think the matter rests with the American people–not with our leaders–and I have always had faith in the American people through our darkest hours. And I’ll tell you why. It was two stats: 56% opposed the war from the beginning. And 63% oppose torture “under any circumstances” (May ‘04). It’s hard to recall now how dark those days were. When I read those stats, to tell you the truth, I felt like crying. They moved me deeply. And I also thought: What’s wrong with this picture? These people are not crazy Bushnuts. These people are DISENFRANCHISED.

MOD NOTE: ZIG ALERT

Peace Patriot, thanks for your eloquence and erudition!

and GeorgeSimian, thanks for your wise questions….

Heckuva job, Spellings. Maybe you can pay Armstrong Williams to talk up the Reading First program as something other than a boondoggle for loyal Bushies.

Peace patriot @ 86:

Great post!

Read that Margaret Spelling is going to be on MTP tomorrow to talk about VT. Think Russert will ask her about this latest development?

puppethead @ 8

I wonder if there’s any tie-in to Neil Bush’s Ignite! educational software enterprise. Considering how much theft and screwing of taxpayers came out of Brother Neil’s foray into the Savings & Loan industry, we can be confident he’s just as much a crook now.

Combine that with the information found at http://www.elladvocates.org/me…..oct06.html that reveals in 2006 that Ignite’s investors include President Bush’s parents, George H. W. and Barbara, along with Middle Eastern oil interests (like ARAMCO), a fugitive Russian tycoon, and Taiwanese high-tech firms.

Shiny Happy People, sing along everyone!