ES!!!

Eureka

hey eureka

hey there folks

hey dosido, how ya been

I am a Jazz HO.

OK, you asked what was on my mind?

How do you explain why presidential “candidates” are blathering on and on about their “faith” to a teen taking civics? It’s so stupid I can’t stand it. And we’re kinda on the spiritual side. I think that makes it stupider.

Like praying and worship is government work now? sheesh.

Did I mention I’m very worried about our future as American citizens these days? :P

And what do I get my brother for Christmas?

Hi Suz,

sorry I missed your protest song thingie. It looked like fun. I noticed some disgruntlement expressed on previous thread ;) but I’m happy with the result!

At Head On Radio this evening, we had a good bit of fun with a comedy video of Christians Against Jesus.

Also, my son is at a midnight movie and I doubt I will sleep before he gets home.

Like praying and worship is government work now? sheesh.

Like the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives?

dosido, that was just bfl being a lawyer type and trying to yank my chain. he did do a real purty surrender statement when he raised the white flag – and, being a lawyer type, he plagiarized it

Hi Betsy – that’s awesome!!! Love it. So true.

Hiya All,
Glad to see everyone.

I don’t think it’s considered plagiarism if the boilerplate appears in Nolo Press…just cut and paste and presto. you’re legal.

Woman ticketed after goats caught mating
from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r…..after.html

Carol Medenhall of Dibble, OK received two tickets: one for allowing her goats to be seen mating in her yard, and another for allowing her goats to be seen relieving themselves in her yard.

City law said it is illegal for any two animals to have sex in public within Dibble city limits.

It’s also against law for them to relieve themselves in public even if the animal is fenced in on private land.

Always found the phrase “legal research” to be an oxymoron, since most of it is C&P. I’ll duck beneath my computer table now, while all the lawyers hurl brickbats at me.

judas forking priest, tex. i hope she fights that and wins (eyes rolling) egad

Laws like that really get my goat.

Huckabeeee has declared that God is on his side. I saw on TV where someone asked him to what he attributed the surprising success he is experiencing with his campaign. He said it was caused by the same force that allowed a 9 year old boy to feed 5000 people with four fish and two loaves of bread (or words to that effect). He said without that force, his campaign could not have achieved what it has achieved. (sorry, no link, it was on TV).

Kinda like Chimpy McFlightsuit thinks he could not have succeeded in destroying Iraq without a “higher power”’s intervention, either.

Hey TexBetsy! Love the video. Christians against the teachings of Jesus! bwahahaha!

I thought hanging dogs and such was a form of devil worship?

neuro, doonesbury has been running with that theme in the strips – boosh and aide discussing huck’s god tactic.

I think anyone dumb enough to outlaw goat on goat sex.. ought to have to collect fines from said goats.

Imagine three talk show hosts and a guest and a producer all laughing hysterically as they played it on the show tonight.

Calling Rick Santorum!

Have you been following Doonesbury this week? It is all about Chimpy trying to figure out how Huckabee can have God on his side if he has been on Chimpy’s side all this time. It is pretty clever (as always).

what gets me is how the cite was for acts in public when it was on private property. guess private is not so private anymore. pretty soon, the bedroom police will be making arrests for non-missionary position use.

I have not caught that Doonesbury theme, Suzanne. I spend too much time on the toobz and not enough time reading dead trees.

Coke! (that is to Suze – I just wrote more than you did)

neuro, its on the tubes too

Oklahoma is in the idiot news tonight. TBogg has a piece on some other craziness which I could not figure out.

So if God is responsible for Huckleberry’s surge in the polls, why doesn’t he ask his supporters to pray for rain in Georgia?

Thanks for the link, Suzanne. How do you look at previous days’ entries?

I think this is a fun gift:
http://gadget.brando.com.hk/pr…..cat_id=039

Upchuck alert:

This was contained within an article about Bush criticizing Congress. And then this!

“I presume they put him on there because he was a consequential leader,” Bush said. “And the fundamental question is, consequential to what end? What will the country look like 10 years from now? My hope, of course, is that Russia is a country that understands there needs to be checks and balances.”

neuro, click on previous at the top of the strip, center, and it opens up in new tabs

Not nearly as important as getting the Huckster into the White House.

Thanks Margot, that is cool!

Dripping with irony

Rice in Guantanamo closure appeal
from BBC World
Condoleezza Rice urges countries with nationals detained at Guantanamo Bay to help the US shut the camp.

But the Christian God is all powerful. You mean he can’t walk & chew gum at the same time?

Suzanne, Eureka, have all the contest results been announced now?

No, I just mean Huck saves his hardest prayin’ for what he wants the most.

well.. the UN General Assembly today voted to condemn the death penalty globally, but a few countries weren’t very happy about this.. said it interfered with their internal affairs an’ all.. Which countries?

Quoth the LA Times:
“The U.S. joined China, Iran, Sudan and Syria in opposing the resolution, arguing that it interfered with their sovereign rights.”

Great company you have us keepin’ there, shrub. Axis of, um, something…

yeap, ended up with 3 winners (one each category) plus the write in winner

“The U.S. joined China, Iran, Sudan and Syria in opposing the resolution, arguing that it interfered with their sovereign rights.”

Ye shall be known by the company ye keep.

What, we beat out North Korea?

It just makes me throw up a little in my mouth. But here’s the linky. I’m still adjusting to the new site so I don’t know how to make the link look nice…but it’s an ugly article.

don’t forget to digg this post and eli’s also if you haven’t already done so. thank you :) we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread

Guess he doesn’t want to win the R primary in Georgia & South Carolina.

Awww! I did use the linky thingie and nuthin’! OK just google terence hunt AP white house correspondent and Bush says Congress wasting time, money. What’s new, right?

the hugh’s list post from today has 703 diggs already

Nope. Exactly the opposite, as I understand the list. Apparently NK voted against the death penalty, or the list might be incomplete.

God works in mysterious ways. Huck isn’t gonna tell God how to git ‘er done.

Alicia, I loved your santa ad video!

I’m going to go digg that post right now.

Suz, I read earlier about the exposure Hugh’s list is getting. that’s so awesome.

I’m a tad freaked by how long the list is…and that the perps are still in power.

that’s what I mean, we went on record as being more evil than NK.

You religous types have all the answers. Us atheists jest cant match you intellectually. *g*

So What…Miles
Gotta say good taste and nice anti war tune merci

more likely they didn’t vote… some GA votes aren’t well attended… sort of like Obama never botherin’ to vote ’cause he’s too busy campaignin’. Clearly the Saudis and North Koreans support the death penalty.. It just excites my sense irony whenever shrub goes out of his way to drag us down to the level of his spiritual allies (genocidal lunatics in Sudan, etc)

is why the digg is so important – it really does help get the word out there to those who haven’t seen it or don’t know about it.

which is the audience that we need to get as pizzed off about the size of that list as we are

OK. Had been mislead into thinking that up was up on your scale.

The dog was “mangy,” so sayeth The Huckster. You know how Jesus felt about people (and I suppose dogs) with skin conditions.

Oh OK, so he healed some lepers, but if they were mangy lepers I bet he’d have washed his hands of them.

Voting, especially when it is publicly recorded, can be so incomvenient sometimes.

the real irony is that the issuance of a joint reservation by China, Iran, the Sudan, Syria and the US concerning their mutual concern that human rights resolutions violate their “national sovereignty”, effectively means that they had to collaborate to draft it. So, yeah, axis of idiocy. Yep. That’s us.

The dog was “mangy,” so sayeth The Huckster.

I have mangy coyotes in the country. But some are kinda cute. One had a tuft of fur on the end of his tail, like a poodle fresh from the groomer.

so we can talk to those countries about maintaining our right to kill our own people, but we can’t talk to them about achieving peace among nations.

I’m over at slate luvvin the doonesbury stuff. And then I catch the “mudline” thingy that quotes Hoekstra on the intelligence community “Incompetent, arrogant, political. They don’t think they’re accountable to anybody.” Impunity is the new black!

Thanks, ES – I just about peed myself when I forst saw it. Dailey makes one each year – the new one is about focus groups.

yeah, I can’t even imagine the conversation between Condi and her Iranian counterpart on this one… “well, our countries are on the brink of war, and we still might nuke you, but we need to work together to condemn this blatant attack on our sovereign right to violate the will of the world community with utter impunity when it comes to the rights of respective peoples.”

We’re being ruled people who lack any sense of irony whatsoever.

I wish I had buddies to mobilize. I’m surrounded by Clinton blamers. Really, over Thanksgiving, talk turned to politics and I had two people deep into la la land going on about how “some people would like to think 9/11 didn’t happen and that everything is all right now.”

Egads! You think the government is going to save you? The government didn’t save you and is sending us all down the river now. (I wanted to scream this but went to get the mashed potatoes instead). Ugh! I caught a quote by Andrew Napolitano “unless you work for it, get paid by it, or receive money from it, the government is not your friend.” or words to that effect.

sigh.

ugh.. why did an “our” and a “by” disappear from #71? :P

blub, i have no clue…. perhaps the nsa truck drove over your tubes, with the tires taking out the our and by.

So What…Miles
Gotta say good taste and nice anti war tune merci

Glad someone liked it. I really didn’t intend to post a protest song this evening. just started singing it this afternoon and thought firedogs might enjoy it.

es, my local pbs station had on the newport jazz festival from this year last nite. way way kewl if you get a chance to feast on that ear candy.

Eddie Harris was an unbelievable lyricist – put words to all the great bebop classics – no easy feat!

Would love to hear it, Suz. You wouldn’t know if they archived it, would you?

OK, I’ll stop lobbing the stinkbombs on this nice and fairly cool thread. I’m cranky and am putting myself to bed now. nighty night.

that is why we are overwieght – I can’t find it on YouTube, but it might be my favorite Eddie Harris lyric.

ES, i think its part of their pledge drive – along with steam trains in north america and all the christmas specials.

the hollywood execs accuse the writers of not caring for the community by striking, then refuse to show up to a la city council meeting on the effects of the strike on the community.

details at skippy.

skippy, that is just forking wrong. (spitting)

Thanks for the skippy linky.

Nite to dosido, i’m glad you liked that idea

I caught a quote by Andrew Napolitano “unless you work for it, get paid by it, or receive money from it, the government is not your friend.” or words to that effect.

He’s right of course. It isn’t your ‘friend’. It’s just an organization, a tool, we use. It’s something like a corporation in that regard. Corporations aren’t your friends either. They’re just a tool to create and distribute goods & services at exorbitantly high prices.

Is he arguing we should get rid of any organization which isn’t your friend?

g’nite dosido

When I heard MATRIX was the name of a spying project, then I knew they were using movie titles and such. Now there’s the “War on Christmas”. Does this mean “Christmas” is the name of a government spying project?

Remember, he knows who’s been bad or good and he watches you while you’re sleeping!

I bet project solstice is particularly evil, whatever it is.

hey npb, scarlet p came by today and we made signs here this afternoon.

good news, antiwar firepups!

the two party duopoly could be fractured in 08 if Bloomberg & Hagel team up… they would probably draw lots of disgruntled (R)’s and right-independents & libertarians, as well as everyone who can’t stomach voting for the neo-con, DLC, Hillary Clinton.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel have been conducting regular, private phone conversations over the past few months in an effort to “feel each other out” for a possible presidential run, sources have told the Huffington Post.

The development feeds speculation that the two men could mount a third-party White House ticket. And while the maverick Republican and the independent mayor have met in the past, the ongoing conversations provide the clearest indication yet that they are considering such a move.

or maybe you would really prefer another Clinton administration bombing the world?

Why are they waiting? Perhasps they want to run against a H.C. or B.O. and think if they announce to soon someone like Edwards would benefit.

Another point about Hagel is he sure got quiet and his war or war funding votes have returned to lock-step with the Republicans.

They could give us a President Huckabeeee or a President Romneybot.

yeah, he did get real quiet. the more fracturing over there the better, though.

as for war funding votes, what was the last one?

The 90-3 vote follows House approval earlier this week and sends the measure to President Bush to sign, which he is expected to do.

$696,000,000,000. no strings attached. That’s a lot of (D)’s in there voting the same way as Hagel.

This reminds me of the hoaxster that actually got Media coverage in NYC for getting all heated about pets exposing their genitalia and excretory organs in PUBLIC. He insisted that pets must were pants in Public, and started going around with a dog in pants, etc. It was all a prank but the media, and many in the public took it quite seriously.

A few years alter the same guy, under an alias, started up a “Cat House for Dogs”…posting requests for female dogs of various breeds in the newspaper to serve as paid entertainers for lonely sexless dogs. He was again interviewed, in disguise, and actually had some sort of house set up as a “doggie boudoir” with differently themed rooms like one filled with dog leashes and harnesses in a sort of Teutonic/Gothic theme, another all frilly with the Eiffel Tower painted on one wall, with little hydrants on astroturf; etc.

But this seemingly is a real law? In a rural area where people should know better?

Agreed re 90-3. We did have 21 votes with Feingold amendment though. Not Hagel.

Gonna join the sleepy heads and will catch up with you fearless, essential late late nite pups/citizin patriots in the morn. Will leave you with a link to the site of my American hero H.J. Stowitts http://www.stowitts.org. His life, paintings, manuscripts & surviving letters never fails to restore my spirits.
http://www.stowitts.org

Niters all you fine firepups.

I wonder what Hillary Clinton will ask Santa for this Christmas….

g’nite npb. nice eye candy at your little museum’s site thanks

sounds like NYC is going to the dogs

g’nite everybody

g’nite teddy

g’nite teddy.. am off to quilt world myself.

peace firepups

g’nite ES – thanks for the great music

Good morn’n!

g’morning tw3k – need coffee? i just ground some beans and made a fresh pot

sounds good to me, the coffee hound that i am :)

Coffee does not sound good to me right now (and I am a coffee lover).

I think that means time for bed. Good nite, folks

g’nite neuro

ok, firedogs, that’s it for me tonight. g’nite all

There was a spotting of Master Foo the other day.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fpc

Sign Judiciary committee member Congressmen Henry Wexler’s petitiom to impeach Vice President Cheney. Go to his site or this radio station and lirten why.

bigbrother,

Thanks for the link to the Wexler interview. Let’s hope the MSM starts paying attention. It was amazing to hear him say that the WaPo, NYT, and Boston Globe wouldn’t publish their op ed.

Our media is once again taking a dive for BushCo. Shame on them!

yo

Where’s Attaturk? Suffering from early morning post withdrawal!

Maybe the almighty Hawk is blowing in Ioway!

Tweety interviewed McCain the other day and praise him for not using religion in his ad:

MATTHEWS: Are you concerned about this election getting so focused on religion? I never saw so many religious messages to come on TV. I was up this morning, Mr. Huckabee, Governor Huckabee, with a very religious ad, Rudy Giuliani with kind of a more light-hearted, more secular religious ad. Your ad didn‘t do that, that I recall. What‘s this—is this now a battle of who‘s the most Christian?

MCCAIN: No, but I think that it seems to be a lot of emphasis on that. But I really think that Governor Huckabee‘s popularity has a lot do with his performance in the debates and his likability. In other words, he comes across as a very kind of…

ok -here’ McCain’s new ad out today:

http://www.johnmccain.com/mychristmasstory/

Good morning, pups. Only one columnist in the NYT today. Bobo is on vacation, thank heaven. Mr. Krugman says we were led “Blindly Into the Bubble,” and that the regulators were blinded by ideology. He also says it’s puzzling that Democrats haven’t been more aggressive about making the disaster an issue for the 2008 election.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready. I’ve got cranberry pecan muffins this morning. We’ve been getting more lovely rain. Have a wonderful Friday. Isn’t it the beginning of winter?

Play krug and Laurent

as an on the fly mashup.

Xmas of 68 I burn and stirred in Long Bihn, think that would make a good ad?

Thanks for posting that Krugman link, tw3k. I wanted to watch that yesterday, but found that a link previously posted was broken. Now I just need to find the hour required to view this. Krugman’s NYT editorial is a good one.

I listened to the first 15 or so. browser crashed and both the youTubes started playing at once, sounded good :)

Raven,

no. That would’ve been a bad ad, too.

I thought it was telling that he must have had that religious ad in the can, but didn’t mention it to Matthews.

Krugman:

Apologists for the mortgage industry claim, as Mr. Greenspan does in his new book, that “the benefits of broadened home ownership” justified the risks of unregulated lending.

But homeownership didn’t broaden. The great bulk of dubious subprime lending took place from 2004 to 2006 — yet homeownership rates are already back down to mid-2003 levels. With millions more foreclosures likely, it’s a good bet that homeownership will be lower at the Bush administration’s end than it was at the start.

Shelley:

Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.” -

I listened to the first 15 or so. browser crashed and both the youTubes started playing at once, sounded good

The tubz must have been crimped somewhere.

morning!

idk, my install is kinda funky still, the mozilla twins both have something going on with gtk er sompin.

Rain here too….unexpected and most welcome. :-)

Have been watching the rerun of the torture hearing yesterday with some excellent witnesses; made all the better by absence of the usual rethug pols. Ray McGovern in the audience.

I was really just being snarky and I felt like using the word “tubz” this morning for some reason. Thanks, Ted Stevens.

Good morning all. I watched the Krugman lecture yesterday, it was good except for his persistent cough and tendency of brainy econominsts to start every explanation with the word “so”.

Bilbo, I hope you didn’t have any retirement funds in the enterprise Percy Shelley was talking about.

It’s Not a Truck!

Good Morning, not that I got much sleep… . . z zzz

Secret Torture is Bush’s Legacy.

Bilbo, I hope you didn’t have any retirement funds in the enterprise Percy Shelley was talking about.

Not yet, but it ain’t over till it’s over, you know.

FYI -

Elisa Massimino from Human Rights First will be on the Washington Journal at 8:00 this morning. She was one of the panelists for the torture hearing yesterday and is an excellent speaker…..should be able to hold her own against any potential reich wing callers.

here’s the lineup for CSPAN this morning

WASHINGTON JOURNAL
Friday, December 21
Gail Wilensky, Future of Military Health Care Task Force, Co-chair discusses a report on medical aide for wounded soldiers from Iraq & Afghanistan. Then, Human Rights First’s Elisa Massimino talks about the CIA tapes investigation. Also, Citizens Against Government Waste Pres. Tom Schatz goes over Congressional earmarks.

7am – Newspaper Articles & Viewer Calls
7:30am – Gail Wilensky, Future of Military Health Care Task Force, Co-Chair | DoD Report
8am – Elisa Massimino, Human Rights First, Washington Director
8:30am – Tom Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste, President | Earmark Report [PDF ALERT]
9:30am – Newspaper Articles & Viewer Calls

fun thing bout the internets tho; it’s a truck too!

Good morning pups!

My little bit of poetry, which seems prescient is from Yeats:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Judge Kennedy wants to know, today, from the CIA and DoJ, if evidence – the Torture Tapes – was Destroyed rather than turned-over per Judicial Order.

That is one courageous judge.

One of my favorites. And this one too takes up the desert theme:

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

Frighteningly appropriate given all that going on in the Middle East.

btw I’m liking the video Eureka posted (I’m drowning out whacky cspan caller) I love the ducks.

Glenn Greenwald has a good post up:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

Glenn Greenwald
Friday December 21, 2007 04:28 EST
Reid and company target the True Enemy: “Dodd and his allies”

Not Yeats, but catchy -

Goopers going down today!
Zooba, Zooba
Goopers going down today!
All the Zoo Bay Duh

If this isn’t reaching out to the military, I don’t know what is.

We can only hope.

Does the Lake have anyone who’s gonna be at Kennedy’s session today?

Thirty minutes of thug callers….what a perfectly foul way to start the morning. :-(

Hello everyone :) Morning to the morning folk :) Night to the night folk :)
This is from the article posted on Texbetsy site.

‘Why would anyone want this man to be their leader?’
He’s just going for the #’s. The Country and its People’s voices don’t matter..he’s just playing the game.

‘Challenging tradition, Giuliani is devoting more of his attention to the delegate-rich Feb. 5 states — some two dozen including New York, California and New Jersey hold primaries and caucuses that day — while spending limited time in Iowa and New Hampshire.’

Elisa Massimino from Human Rights First will be on the Washington Journal at 8:00 this morning. She was one of the panelists for the torture hearing yesterday and is an excellent speaker…..should be able to hold her own against any potential reich wing callers.

I watched her in the hearing yesterday– she’s excellent. She’s solid. Very articulate and knows exactly what to express what’s wrong with these people.

egregious – I expect the CIA and DoJ will present a solid case that they both advised Bush to Not Destroy the Tapes and can document a clear chain of custody, up until the Tapes were Destroyed.

After today, all eyes will be on Rizzo and Rodriguez’ testimony, expected on Jan 16th. Rizzo will likely say that, as far as he knew, those Tapes were being safely kept.

Somebody, however, apparently gave Rodriguez the ‘go ahead’ to Destroy the Tapes – even though All Known Legal Advice was to hold the Tapes.

Who gave Rodriguez the ‘go-ahead,’ and how was it done if the Lawyers were left out?

nah, just basic i/o

Evidently I’m not very articulate but she sure is. You should have seen her handle the odious David Rivkin.

It’s gonna be fun on C-Span this morning. I’m sure the topic will bring out all the traitors from the far right. I hope they don’t “Betray us”.

any of those guys that think electric cars should be noisier?

That hearing is must see TV

I usually don’t pay much attention to the “Business Pages” in the local rags (just enough to be able to detect the horrid trends occurring in their early stages) but here are some interesting articles.

Apparently Asian banks are picking up lots of bargains in this sub-prime crisis.

Singapore’s Temasek Holding’s investing $5 billion into Merrill-Lynch

China Investment Corp. putting $5 billion into Morgan- Stanley ~ 9.9 percent of the bank once the investment converts to common shares in 2010.

Singapore Investment Corp. infuses $10 billion into UBS AG (The Swiss National bank) ~ 9 percent stake.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority acquired a 4.9% stake in Citigroup Inc. for $7.5 billion.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..Q56AOoOrgF

The credit crisis spread to the nation’s largest bond insurer Thursday, sending shares of MBIA Inc. plunging and calling into question the safety of tens of billions of dollars of company and local government debt held by investors…Wall Street firms have profited by bundling and selling pools of mortgages, auto loans, credit card bills and more to investors. The riskiness of these securities was thought to be offset by the promise from insurers like MBIA that they would step in to make principal and interest payments if issuers defaulted.

MBIA disclosed that of the $30 billion in mortgage debt guarantees it issued, $8 billion were for the the riskiest types.

One analyst said he was shocked by the magnitude of that exposure.

If MBIA or competitors like Ambac Financial Group Inc. and Financial Guaranty Insurance Corp. are unable to pay what could be a surge in claims on bad debt it could overwhelm the already-suffering credit markets.

MBIA shares nose-dived >26% Thursday, losing $7.07 to $19.95 and wiping out more than $880 million in market capitalization. That’s a quarter of their value in ONE DAY! The nations LARGEST bond insurer!!!

It’s estimated MBIA will lose >$7.5 billion after taxes from mortgage and CDO exposures.

Morgan Stanley analyst Ken Zerbe said the size of MBIA’s exposure was surprising and riskier than he previously thought. Zerbe questioned why MBIA waited to detail its positions. He recommends avoiding investing in all bond insurers until they can accurately assess the final size and scope of their mortgage and CDO losses.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..B8VFeoOrgF

egregious – I expect the CIA and DoJ will present a solid case that they both advised Bush to Not Destroy the Tapes and can document a clear chain of custody, up until the Tapes were Destroyed.

After today, all eyes will be on Rizzo and Rodriguez’ testimony, expected on Jan 16th. Rizzo will likely say that, as far as he knew, those Tapes were being safely kept.

Somebody, however, apparently gave Rodriguez the ‘go ahead’ to Destroy the Tapes – even though All Known Legal Advice was to hold the Tapes.

Who gave Rodriguez the ‘go-ahead,’ and how was it done if the Lawyers were left out?

the million dollar question!
thanks for the information.

I wish I had seen it, but don’t like to think of handling David Rivkin. It sounds like an episode of “Dirty Jobs” on A&E.

Or Fear Factor!

I’m sure she hit the showers right after the hearing :-)

You should have seen her handle the odious David Rivkin.

I was blocking his name when describing yesterday’s hearing….”odious” is being polite; people like him should be quarantined on a *very* small island where they can’t contaminate humans and where they will eventually eliminate each other, as is their wont.

Thanks a bunch for the Krugman link — I was almost late to work watching the first half! I’ll get the rest after I get home. Thanks again.

H/T to CHS from a post yesterday! Thanks for the NYT posts.

Yes, but you have to catch them in different ways. Cliff May, for example, calls for a quick mallett blow to the head. David Rifkin requires one of those forked sticks over the neck.

The Coward who wouldn’t go to Vietnam, is all for Torturing his Prisoners.

lmao

They are going to try to befuddle Judge Henry Kennedy by saying his order didn’t apply to Secret CIA Prisons that he didn’t mention in his order.

Kennedy is going to respond…”Did you mention that suspects and sources were being held in secret abroad? So how could I have ordered you to preserve evidence in places that you had created outside the law?”

DOJ Hack: “You couldn’t have, since you didn’t know!”

Kennedy: “Precisely…and it was your responsibility as an official of this Court to be forthright about evidence and witnesses in my Court. You concealed this information to constrain my order to situations that I was aware of, and which were fully covered. You knew my orders INTENT and failed to notify the Court of this critical evidence. That’s obstruction of justice, and the destruction of the evidence tends toward the misadministration of Justice. It could subject you, or other officials to charges of Misprision of Felony.

These disclosures bring serious doubt about the voluntary nature of the admissions by the witnesses that led to these convictions. Why should I not throw these confessions out?”

DOJ Hack: “Because it would seriously undermine our case, Your Honor!”

Judge Kennedy: “Which is PRECISELY why you should have preserved these recordings!”

The Krugman video had some funny lines — now we have free trade with China, they send us poison toys and tainted seafood, and we send them fraudulent securities.

A little while ago, I saw a reference to possible punishments for telecoms that collaborated with Bush’s warrantless wiretapping and wrote out an answer as to how I thought the US should handle them. The essential conundrum is how to punish the companies without destroying their economic value to the country. Generally, I’m in favor of light punishments and I concentrate on fostering “hate and discontent” in the company as opposed to actually hurting it.

Good morning

Been working my way through The Shock Doctrine. Everyone should read it. I think it should be delivered to all of congress and somehow make them read it. How many of them are complicit in this strategy?
John Edwards who is being attacked by Greenspan is the only one who goes counter to the books theories.

Thanks for the heads-up. That Glenzilla article led via Digby to a 10/10/07 Dana Milbank interview of Pelosi that contained this priceless bit:

Though opposed to the war herself, Pelosi has for months been a target of an antiwar movement that believes she hasn’t done enough. Cindy Sheehan has announced a symbolic challenge to Pelosi in California’s 8th Congressional District. And the speaker is seething.

“We have to make responsible decisions in the Congress that are not driven by the dissatisfaction of anybody who wants the war to end tomorrow,” Pelosi told the gathering at the Sofitel, arranged by the Christian Science Monitor. Though crediting activists for their “passion,” Pelosi called it “a waste of time” for them to target Democrats. “They are advocates,” she said. “We are leaders.”

Here is where she and Reid have led us per WaPo:

Democrats’ failure to address the central issues that swept them to power left even the most partisan of them dissatisfied and Congress mired at a historic low in public esteem.

Handed control of Congress last year after making promises to end the war in Iraq, restore fiscal discipline in Washington and check President Bush’s powers, Democrats instead closed the first session of the 110th Congress yesterday with House votes that sent Bush $70 billion in war funding, with no strings attached, and a $50 billion alternative-minimum-tax measure that shattered their pledge not to add to the federal budget deficit.

Priceless.

Here’s and interesting article that shows that Mother Natures great diversity in evolutionary strategies are often replicated in our “esteemed” politicians.

In this case it’s the California Ground Squirrel. Cowardly and victimized by snakes it has taken on the remarkable adaptation of eating the shed skins of rattlesnakes to make it appear that their burrows are actually occupied by nasty, venomous predators. Apparently they exude the rattlers aroma which signals to snakes that there’s a fellow snake within.

Kind of like how many Democrats try to smell like Republicans, and acquire the skin of these snakes at critical moments. “Please don’t bite me Mr. Rattlesnake! I’m just another one of your kind! I’m not one of those “waskelly” squirrels that make a lot of noise out on the surface but scurry underground at the first sight of a “hawk”.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/squ…..fltzSQMHsB

cinnamonape – That’s funny!

I think we’ll find that, just like in the CIA Leak Case, Addington had ‘Compartmentalized’ Rodriguez away from the formal channels of CIA and DoJ, so he could be Secretly Missioned to Destroy the Tapes.

This could be interesting…

I saw a reference to possible punishments for telecoms that collaborated with Bush’s warrantless wiretapping and wrote out an answer as to how I thought the US should handle them. The essential conundrum is how to punish the companies without destroying their economic value to the country. Generally, I’m in favor of light punishments and I concentrate on fostering “hate and discontent” in the company as opposed to actually hurting it

Some interesting ideas there. I do feel that the corporations have to hurt to assure future compliance. I have another suggestion. ANY time the Telecomms are brought a warrant (or an 3 day order) the Telecomms should have to bring that order to a Special Judge who will have a hearing to ascertain it’s validity. And after the surveillance has been carried out the material collected must be presented to the judge within one week to assure that the evidence falls within the bounds of the emergency directive or warrant. If it doesn’t it will be destroyed along with any further records. The Judge will also make a determination if the warrants are actually productive of the sorts of information the law enforcement agency has certified would be collected. If not he will terminate the warrant and wiretaps.

Scarecrow’s upstairs

Hi Mark, just circling back pretty late.

Sorry I didn’t make the point more clear. The point is that we should not trust the government, we were never meant to trust the government to take care of us. I offer this as a rebuttal to wingnuts to continually try to pull wool over our eyes with comments like “irrational fear of government” or “trust us”. etc.

And so the attitude of disgust that most people have for the current administration is entirely appropriate.