Bushies: We're history's actors

AUSTIN, Texas -- 'The aide (a senior adviser to President Bush) said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.' -- Ron Suskind, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 17, 2004.

Creators.com - Creators Syndicate

Don Bushleone

Ohio's presidential vote count is back in the state Supreme Court

Ohio's presidential vote count is back in the state Supreme Court

Ohio vote count battles escalate amidst new evidence of potential criminal activity
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
December 18, 2004

The epic legal battle over Ohio's presidential vote count is back in the state Supreme Court, with an election challenge claiming George W. Bush was wrongly declared the winner on Nov. 2 and seeking a court-ordered reversal of that victory.

Meanwhile, efforts to recount Ohio's vote may have been fatally tainted by the Republican Party, raising questions of what the GOP has to hide, and prompting demands for criminal prosecution.

New affidavits point to possible criminal activity by top Ohio election officials, raising yet more questions about the 2004 vote. Rhonda J. Frazier, a former employee of the Ohio Secretary of State's office, has confirmed in an affidavit taken by Cynthia Butler, working with freepress.org, that the Office had secret slush funds. Frazier says it also failed to comply with the requirements of 'The Voting Reform Grant' that required all the voting machines in Ohio to be inventoried and tagged for security reasons.

'I was routinely told to violate the bidded contracts to order supplies from other companies for all 17 Secretary of State offices throughout the State which were cheaper vendors, leaving a cash surplus differential in the budget,' Frazier states, 'After complaining about the office's repeated practices of violating grants and contracts I was fired.'

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has come under intense fire for his role in officiating the disputed Ohio balloting and vote count. Blackwell served as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign while running an election he says went 'smoothly.'

The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Election 2004

How Iran Is Winning Iraq (washingtonpost.com)

If you had asked an intelligence analyst two years ago to describe the worst possible political outcome following an American invasion of Iraq, he might well have answered that it would be a regime dominated by conservative Shiite Muslim clerics with links to neighboring Iran. But just such a regime now seems likely to emerge after Iraq's Jan. 30 elections.

Iran is about to hit the jackpot in Iraq, wagering the blood and treasure of the United States. Last week an alliance of Iraqi Shiite leaders announced that its list of candidates will be headed by Abdul Aziz Hakim, the clerical leader of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. This Shiite list, backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, is likely to be the favorite of Iraq's 60 percent Shiite majority and win the largest share of votes next month.

Iraqis who aren't part of the Shiite religious juggernaut are frightened by what's happening. The Iraqi interim defense minister, Hazim Shalan, this week described the Shiite political alliance as an "Iranian list" created by those who wanted "turbaned clerics to rule" in Iraq. Shalan is no saint himself -- like interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, he was once part of Saddam Hussein's Baathist network. But he and Allawi speak for many millions of Iraqis who don't want to see an Iran-leaning clerical government but are powerless to stop it.

Senior U.S. commanders in Iraq had hoped Allawi's slate would win in January, but they are beginning to assess the consequences of Shiite victory. Not only would it empower the mullahs, it would alienate Iraq's 20 percent Sunni Arab population, who mostly won't be able to vote next month because of the continuing wave of terrorism in Sunni areas. As sectarian tensions increase, post-election, so will the danger of a real civil war. What will become of the U.S. military mission in Iraq? Will we really arm one group of Iraqis in a sectarian conflict against another?

Given the stakes for the United States in these elections, you might think we would quietly be trying to influence the outcome. But I am told that congressional insistence that the Iraqi elections be "democratic" has blocked any covert efforts to help America's allies. That may make sense to ethicists in San Francisco, but how about to the U.S. troops on the ground?

[As IF! Did anything out of Washington EVER made sense to the boots on the ground ?!? -- law]

How Iran Is Winning Iraq (washingtonpost.com):

Christmas in the land of outsourcing

Have some Nam bread while you wait in the line for Sandip.. err... Santa



Common Ground Common Sense

Have hope...they did not last long after their second inauguration

"QUOTE(PaineInTheArse @ Dec 16 2004, 02:10 PM)

Have hope...they did not last long after their second inauguration

Common Ground Common Sense

Daily Kos :: This Week in Fascism! Midweek Edition

I want everyone to understand that America will probably not become another Nazi state, but I do believe we are well on our way to a Corporate Nationalistic Anti-Communistic state that is akin to 1930's Germany and Italy. Zeke I suggested the term falangism which is well covered in Hobson`s Choice from 7-10-2003 by James R. MacLean.

Excellent Articles for further research

14 signs of a fascist society from Free Inquiry Magazine March/April 2003 (volume 23 # 2). This is a short outline of indicators

The Rise of Pseudo Fascism by Dave Neiwert (orcinus). Dave did a seven part series on this issue.

Here are some excellent diaries that Henry David and spirited reminded me were still in Kos's, thankfully huge, archives

Fascism, American Style: Anticipating the Trends by bionicKitty. Kitty shows us some interesting points and there is a long discussion with some excellent points and links.

Fascism arrives in America: the Elephant in the Bathtub by Black Maned Pensator. This is a sermon from U.U.C. pastor Davidson Loehr titled "Living Under Fascism" that I read during my research prior to starting the Diary. A MUST READ.

Nascent Fascism: Are We in Stage One? by lightiris. Lightiris does some very good work analyzing where we are on the road to a Fascist State.

Nazis and U.S. Politics by NeoLotus. NeoLotus does an excellent job of describing Hitler's rise to power with emphasis on its significance for today.

Newsie8200 has also produced a compilation Blog that is Media News Monday!.

Oldschoolpundit makes The Daily Pundit: A Diary of Today's News 12/13/04 another good review.

I will use the 14 points from the Free Inquiry Magazine as the outline for the referenced Diaries. I cannot place blame for all the items listed here to any one group. I believe certain individuals and groups support individual items and ignore or are apathetic toward other items. This allows the countries move toward fascism to proceed at an accelerated pace.

4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.

It is all too apparent that we have achieved this goal, but this point needs to be emphasized as well.

How many US soldiers have really died in Iraq? by deafmetal. Learn the truth and tell others. It's important.

10 reasons to fear the draft by Liberation Learning. This is a very well prepared Diary on the possibility of a Draft. A must see.

Who will speak for you? by NeoLotus. A very well researched atricle with good references that needs much mor attention.

Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 12 by RubDMC. I included this picture here where other pic's usually fall under 'Human Rights'

Just In: Reserve's Top General warns of draft again by Liberation Learning. News from earlier in the week that deserves our attention.

Oh, MOMMMA (The Make Our Military More Manly Act) by houndcat. A look at where our military budget stands with a satirical (I hope) solution

The Ghetto of Wars.. err.. Fallujah by lawnorder. Straight out of 1984. Orwell would be so proud after turning over in his grave.

Presidential Medal of Freedom to Commit War Blunders by lawnorder. Doesn't this remind us more and more that were getting closer to Nazism and not just Fascism.

Daily Kos :: This Week in Fascism! Midweek Edition:

TIME.com: Wither The Dollar

Wither The Dollar
A weak dollar should be good for U.S. exports. But it's already causing pain overseas, and in the long run it could drive up the cost of living at home



The dollar's long slide — and widespread expectations that it will slip further — has officials on three continents fearing that their economies are stretched to the breaking point. They're assigning plenty of blame anywhere but their own backyard, and the accountability void only deepens worries of a dollar-induced global-domino recession.

Is the falling dollar really such a big deal? Since 2001, it is down 33% against the euro and 20% against the Japanese yen and has weakened against the pound and Canadian dollar as well. This broad slide has made goods produced in the U.S. more affordable to foreigners with stronger currencies. In the short run, foreign buying is a boon to U.S. factories that only now are emerging from their worst rut since the Great Depression. In fact, though U.S. officials say they want a strong dollar, the open secret in Washington is that they are in no rush to make it happen. For one thing, the steps the U.S. must take to shore up the buck are painful, probably involving some combination of tax hikes and budget cuts to rein in the U.S.'s massive borrowing needs. The federal budget deficit tops $400 billion, and tallying all forms of money flowing in and out of the nation, the country's total accounts deficit will come to about $665 billion this year, or a record 5.7% of GDP. President George W. Bush has said he wants to cut that deficit. Again, few believe he will take measurable steps until he has run out of options, because his plans for private Social Security accounts and making tax cuts permanent would require money the government doesn't have.

Besides, the weak dollar is a big factor in the revived manufacturing sector. After some lean years, exports are picking up, and factory profits are on a roll. In the third quarter alone, equipment maker Caterpillar attributed $102 million of sales largely to the benefits of a falling dollar. General Motors is opening new Cadillac dealerships in Europe. "The drop in the value of the dollar certainly helps," says James Taylor, Cadillac manager in Detroit. Other U.S. multinationals are reaping windfalls too, converting overseas revenues into the weak dollar and getting more of them.

TIME.com: Wither The Dollar -- Dec. 20, 2004

The Bill of Rights: Take time to contemplate its value

The Bill of Rights: Take time to contemplate its value

TODAY is Bill of Rights Day, which Franklin Roosevelt made into an official observance on Dec. 15, 1941, just a week after Pearl Harbor. Those first amendments to the U.S. Constitution have protected Americans from a number of ill-conceived or malicious government acts too numerous to tally. For every known misuse of government authority they prevented, there must have been myriad additional abuses that never came to be as politicians gradually learned how severely those 10 amendments restricted their actions.

Today we fondly remember James Madison as the genius from whose pen flowed these important guarantors of liberty. It is not often recalled that Madison wrote the Bill of Rights reluctantly. The great irony of their creation is that these words of absolutism, these stones that make up the wall separating liberty from tyranny, were borne of political expediency.

In 1788, nine states had ratified the Constitution, but New York, Virginia, North Carolina and Rhode Island held out for a bill of rights. Though they all signed on before a bill of rights was created, their reluctance set in motion Madison"

The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News

AlterNet: Battlefield Earth

The environment is in trouble and the religious right doesn't care. It's time to act as if the future depends on us "

When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.

Remember James Watt, President Reagan's first secretary of the Interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever-engaging Grist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, "after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."

Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the bible is literally true – one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In this past election several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. That's right – the rapture index. Google it and you will find that the best-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the left-behind series written by the Christian fundamentalist and religious right warrior, Timothy LaHaye. These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the 19th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative that has captivated the imagination of millions of Americans.

Its outline is rather simple, if bizarre (the British writer George Monbiot recently did a brilliant dissection of it and I am indebted to him for adding to my own understanding): once Israel has occupied the rest of its "biblical lands," legions of the anti-Christ will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. As the Jews who have not been converted are burned, the Messiah will return for the rapture. True believers will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to heaven, where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts, and frogs during the several years of tribulation that follow.

I'm not making this up. Like Monbiot, I've read the literature. I've reported on these people, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious and polite as they tell you they feel called to help bring the rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That's why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelations where four angels "which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released to slay the third part of man." A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed – an essential conflagration on the road to redemption. The last time I Googled it, the rapture index stood at 144 – just one point below the critical threshold when the whole thing will blow, the son of god will return, the righteous will enter heaven and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire.

So what does this mean for public policy and the environment? Go to Grist to read a remarkable work of reporting by the journalist, Glenn Scherer – "The Road to Environmental Apocalypse." Read it and you will see how millions of Christian fundamentalists may believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed – even hastened – as a sign of the coming apocalypse.

As Grist makes clear, we're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half the U.S. Congress before the recent election – 231 legislators in total – more since the election – are backed by the religious right. Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th congress earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups. They include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Conference Chair Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Policy Chair Jon Kyl of Arizona, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. The only Democrat to score 100 percent with the Christian coalition was Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, who recently quoted from the biblical book of Amos on the senate floor: "the days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land." he seemed to be relishing the thought.

AlterNet: Battlefield Earth

Common Ground Common Sense

From Common Ground Common Sense




From Porta Pulpit (www.portapulpit.com )

This picture is making the rounds and a lot of people are trying to caption it. I have no idea if it is real or not. I just know it looks like that place is were it came from. Have you all seen this picture and is it real? If it is real I just can not get my mind out of the gutter for this one. To many dirty thoughts come to the head. I just want to know if it is real or not.

Here they are trying to say we are the ones without moral values. Is this another Bush gives the finger one?"

And they complain when we yell STUPID

Wife of soldier who confronted Rumsfeld speaks out

He voted FOR BUSH

by racerx

Wed Dec 8th, 2004 at 15:07:44 CDT

These people MIGHT wake up someday...

'...he felt compelled to be over there,' Wilson said, adding that both she and her husband voted for President Bush in November and support him '100 percent.' But she said she was not impressed with Rumsfeld's answer.

http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=2666447

(emphasis added)

both she and her husband voted for President Bush in November and support him '100 percent.' But she said she was not impressed with Rumsfeld's answer.

Diaries :: racerx's diary ::

...'He is always like that,' she said. 'I don't think he understands the concept of biting one's tongue. It wouldn't matter if it was Bush himself standing there. He would have dissed him the same.'

Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, a 31-year-old member of a Tennessee National Guard unit, asked Rumsfeld why vehicle armor is still scarce, nearly two years after the start of the war.

'Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?' Wilson asked.

The question prompted shouts of approval and applause from the estimated 2,300 soldiers assembled in a hangar in Kuwait to hear Rumsfeld...

...She doesn't watch TV reports on the war while their two children - 10-year-old Megan and 5-year-old Thomas - are home because 'it scares them to death.'

'...he felt compelled to be over there,' Wilson said, adding that both she and her husband voted for President Bush in November and support him '100 percent.' But she said she was not impressed with Rumsfeld's answer.

'He seemed like he was stuttering and stumbling - like he was caught off guard,' she said. 'Rumsfeld's answer seemed like he was sidestepping around the question.'

She added, 'If there is something lacking perhaps that is why our death toll is climbing.'

YA THINK????"

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Smoking while Iraq burns

Its idolisation of 'the face of Falluja' shows how numb the US is to everyone's pain but its own

Naomi Klein
Friday November 26, 2004
The Guardian

Iconic images inspire love and hate, and so it is with the photograph of James Blake Miller, the 20-year-old marine from Appalachia, who has been christened 'the face of Falluja' by pro-war pundits, and the 'the Marlboro man' by pretty much everyone else. Reprinted in more than a hundred newspapers, the Los Angeles Times photograph shows Miller 'after more than 12 hours of nearly non-stop, deadly combat' in Falluja, his face coated in war paint, a bloody scratch on his nose, and a freshly lit cigarette hanging from his lips.

Gazing lovingly at Miller, the CBS News anchor Dan Rather informed his viewers: 'For me, this one's personal. This is a warrior with his eyes on the far horizon, scanning for danger. See it. Study it. Absorb it. Think about it. Then take a deep breath of pride. And if your eyes don't dampen, you're a better man or woman than I.'

A few days later, the LA Times declared that its photo had 'moved into the realm of the iconic'. In truth, the image just feels iconic because it is so laughably derivative: it's a straight-up rip-off of the most powerful icon in American advertising (the Marlboro man), which in turn imitated the brightest star ever created by Hollywood - John Wayne - who was himself channelling America's most powerful founding myth, the cowboy on the rugged frontier. It's like a song you feel you've heard a thousand times before - because you have.

But never mind that. For a country that just elected a wannabe Marlboro man as its president, Miller is an icon and, as if to prove it, he has ignited his very own controversy. 'Lots of children, particularly boys, play army, and like to imitate this young man. The clear message of the photo is that the way to relax after a battle is with a cigarette,' wrote Daniel Maloney in a scolding letter to the Houston Chronicle. Linda Ortman made the same point to the editors of the Dallas Morning News: 'Are there no photos of non-smoking soldiers?' A reader of the New York Post helpfully suggested more politically correct propaganda imagery: 'Maybe showing a marine in a tank, helping another GI or drinking water would have a more positive impact on your readers.'
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Yes, that's right: letter writers from across the nation are united in their outrage - not that the steely-eyed, smoking soldier makes mass killing look cool, but that the laudable act of mass killing makes the grave crime of smoking look cool. Better to protect impressionable youngsters by showing soldiers taking a break from deadly combat by drinking water or, perhaps, since there is a severe potable water shortage in Iraq, Coke. (It reminds me of the joke about the Hassidic rabbi who says all sexual positions are acceptable except for one: standing up 'because that could lead to dancing'.)

On second thoughts, perhaps Miller does deserve to be elevated to the status of icon - not of the war in Iraq, but of the new era of supercharged American impunity. Because outside US borders, it is, of course, a different marine who has been awarded the prize as 'the face of Falluja': the soldier captured on tape executing a wounded, unarmed prisoner in a mosque. Runners-up are a photograph of a two-year-old Fallujan in a hospital bed with one of his tiny legs blown off; a dead child lying in the street, clutching the headless body of an adult; and an emergency health clinic blasted to rubble.

Inside the US, these snapshots of a lawless occupation appeared only briefly, if they appeared at all. Yet Miller's icon status has endured, kept alive with human interest stories about fans sending cartons of Marlboros to Falluja, interviews with the marine's proud mother, and earnest discussions about whether smoking might reduce Miller's effectiveness as a fighting machine.

Impunity - the perception of being outside the law - has long been the hallmark of the Bush regime. What is alarming is that it appears to have deepened since the election, ushering in what can only be described as an orgy of impunity. In Iraq, US forces and their Iraqi surrogates are no longer bothering to conceal attacks on civilian targets and are openly eliminating anyone - doctors, clerics, journalists - who dares to count the bodies. At home, impunity has been made official policy with Bush's appointment of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, the man who personally advised the president in his infamous 'torture memo' that the Geneva conventions are 'obsolete'."

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Smoking while Iraq burns:

Daily Kos :: BREAKING: Witness Says Voting Company Tampered With Machines

BREAKING: Witness Says Voting Company Tampered With Machines
by sixmoreweeks
[Subscribe]

Mon Dec 13th, 2004 at 22:31:58 CDT

This is breaking news here from The Blue Lemur (Raw Story) that concerns the witness that Presidential candidate David Cobb (Green Party) brought up at the hearing today in Ohio with John Conyers.

The story is below the fold.


Diaries :: sixmoreweeks's diary ::

Correction from RAW STORY: An earlier version of this article and headline incorrectly stated David Cobb was the Libertarian candidate. Cobb was the Green Party candidate.

12/13/2004
Witness says voting company tampered with machines after vote and tried to plant false information into Ohio recount
Filed under: General-- site admin @ 10:15 pm

Green says voting company tampered with recount effort

By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor

David Cobb, the unsuccessful Green Party presidential candidate, aired startling allegations at the Democratic House Judiciary Committee’s Columbus hearings Monday, alleging that a voting company representative tampered with voting equipment in Columbus last Friday and attempted to plant false information into the Ohio recount.

Cobb says that a witness who had requested anonymity watched a representative of Triad Systems enter the Columbus Board of Elections unannounced and tamper with a vote tabulator which then lost all data.

The representative then, Cobb said, tried to convince employees to post false information so that it would appear as if the data was valid and had never been lost.

This following is RAW STORY ’s transcript Cobb’s speech as recorded by Inside Track News’ broadcast (mp3 file), an independent media outlet that covered the event. The story has been followed in detail at The Brad Blog.

“A representative from Triad Systems came into this county’s Board of Election’s office unannounced, that is on this Friday. He said he was just stopping by to see if they had any questions about the upcoming recount.

“He then headed into the back room where Triad supplies tabulators, that is the machine that counts the ballots, is kept. This Triad representative told them that there was problem with the system, that the system had a bad battery and it had ‘lost all its data.’

“He then took the computer apart and started swapping parts in and out of it. And in another [incomprehensible] in the room. And he had spare parts in his coat, as one of the people moved in [sic] remarked how very heavy it was.

“He finally reassembled everything and said it was working but not to turn it off. He then asked which precinct would be counted in the 3 percent recount test and that one which had been selected as if it had the right number of votes was relayed to him he then went back and did something else to the tabulator.

“The Triad Systems representative suggested that since the hand recount had to match the machine count exactly and since it would hard to memorize the several numbers which would be needed to get the count exactly right, that they should post this series of numbers on the wall where they would not be noticed by observers such as to make them look like employee information or something similar.

“The people doing the hand count could then he said just report those numbers no matter what the actually counted in the ballot. This would then ‘match’ the tabulator report for this precinct exactly.

Minority leader of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) replied, “David Cobb, I need to you to arrange a meeting with our staff immediately.”

Cobb asserted that such practices were “going on across the state.”

The Cleveland Free Press’ Editor David Fitrakis also submitted a list of documented Ohio voting irregularities Dec. 8, which Conyers’ office has posted online in pdf format.

###

Correction: An earlier version of this article and headline incorrectly stated David Cobb was the Libertarian candidate. Cobb was the Green Party candidate.

MORE: http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=490

Daily Kos :: BREAKING: Witness Says Voting Company Tampered With Machines

BRAD BLOG TOO: BREAKING UPDATE!: CLINT CURTIS 'STUNS' JUDICIARY COMM HEARINGS IN OHIO WITH 'JAW DROPPING' SWORN TESTIMONY!

"BREAKING UPDATE!: CLINT CURTIS 'STUNS' JUDICIARY COMM HEARINGS IN OHIO WITH 'JAW DROPPING' SWORN TESTIMONY!

PUBLICLY NAMES FEENEY IN FRONT OF COMMITTEE AS ASKING HIM TO DEVELOP 'VOTE-RIGGING' SOFTWARE!

Testimony Described as 'Show Stopper'!
'Stunner', 'Jaws Dropped'!
Audible 'Gasps' heard in chamber room!"

The software programmer, whose sworn affidavit was first reported by The BRAD BLOG, named Republican U.S. Congressman Tom Feeney (a Republican member of the Judiciary Committee!) as having asked him to create "vote-rigging" software when he was a Florida Congressman prior to 2000 elections!

Curtis was the only witness to be sworn in at today's hearings.

Here is the exclusive account as we've just received it by a very reliable BRAD BLOG source inside the committee hearings!

The following account may sound melodramatic but it is highly accurate.

None of these are quotes and represent my best recollection.

At apprx 1p, after a witness had finished, cliff arnebeck -- who had given a presentation some time before -- interjected and asked to call one more witness. He was given permission to do so. He said he was calling clint curtis.

Some of the audience literally gasped while others applauded. They clearly knew who he was.

Curtis stood at the front of room with arnebeck seated behind him. Curtis was about five to ten feet from the members of congress. At the front of the room, he placed his hand on a bible and was sworn. To my knowledge, he was the only witness sworn.

Arnebeck began a direct examination of curtis with basic questions, name, residence....

Then got to his qualifications.

Then, he asked curtis something like whether voting machines could be hacked. He said yes. Arnebeck asked him on what he based that opinion. He said because I wrote a program that could do it. Arnebeck asked when that happened. Curtis said feeney had asked him to design such a program at yang enterprises.

Jaws dropped. Tubbs jones and waters looked shocked.

Tubbs jones, waters and nadler asked questions. Waters asked him to repeat who asked him to do it. Congressman feeney, he said. Nadler asked him some questions, as did tubbs jones and a state senator.

Curtis was asked what he would conclude if there was such a substantial deviation btwn exit polls and actual results. He said he would conclude the election had been hacked. Gasps. Could have heard a pin drop.

In the end, curtis was very very convincing to everyone in attendance. He was a show stopper, a stunner. It was a really amazing moment.

BRAD BLOG TOO

Yahoo! News - Killings Sting Proud Battalion

My -Sadr- Lay -City

Last week, in a makeshift military courtroom, the unit's reputation came under assault. Soldiers from 1-41 described how a member of a rogue platoon hauled an unarmed Iraqi man away from his family one hot August morning and casually fired two shots into his head. Then he photographed the corpse.

As disturbing as the testimony was for soldiers from a proud unit, it was just one episode in a shocking series of killings. Over a period of 26 days in August and September, seven 1-41 soldiers were charged with six murders on two continents.

Soldiers have described renegade infantrymen who bragged about their kills. In one case, they testified, soldiers from a 1-41 platoon argued over who should get credit for killing an unarmed Iraqi because they had bet on who would be the first.

Four of the victims were Iraqi civilians. In addition to the two alleged executions, soldiers were accused of shooting a critically wounded Iraqi teenager in a "mercy killing," and shooting an unarmed Iraqi, who, according to two soldiers, was waving a white cloth. Two more infantrymen were charged with murdering two fellow 1-41 soldiers in Kansas.

Court testimony suggests a unit in chaos, plagued by a handful of out-of-control soldiers and riven by internal divisions.

Soldiers said one squad leader ordered his men to take no prisoners, and at least one soldier who complained about misconduct had to be transferred for his safety.

Another 1-41 soldier was punished for kicking an Iraqi corpse after urine from the body dripped onto the soldier's hands.

Experts in military history say they cannot recall another case where so many members from a single unit were charged with so many killings in so short a period. In all, a dozen American servicemen in Iraq have been charged with killing civilians. During the Vietnam War, 122 servicemen were convicted of killing noncombatants.

Some military legal experts say the killing of civilians — whether accidental or intentional — can be expected in a war where insurgents use terrorist tactics such as car and roadside bombs, while also blending in with civilians and firing from mosques, schools and hospitals.

"The circumstances in Iraq are novel," said Eugene Fidell, a lawyer...
Yahoo! News - Killings Sting Proud Battalion

Common Ground Common Sense

Common Ground Common Sense:

Investigative reporter Webb dies of self-inflicted wounds

Sacramento Bee

Gary Webb, 49, was found dead of gunshot wounds to the head in his home on Friday. The investigative reporter won more than 30 journalism awards in his career, which included stints with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, San Jose Mercury News and the Sacramento News & Review. He was best known for his controversial Mercury News series linking the CIA to the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles.


http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=75563


-----

so how does one shoot ones self repeatedly in one's head?
"

Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican

Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican

by John Gray

Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.

All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

Joe takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government subsidized ride to work; it saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

Its noon time, Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his life-time.

Joe is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dads; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republican’s would still be sitting in the dark)

He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to. After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.

He turns on a radio talk show, the host’s keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn’t tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day) Joe agrees, “We don’t need those big government liberals ruining our lives; after all, I’m a self made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have”.

Welcome to MichaelMoore.com!

Another Tennessee Paper Finds a Guardsman Who Questioned Rumsfeld

Another Tennessee Paper Finds a Guardsman Who Questioned Rumsfeld

NEW YORK When Specialist Thomas Wilson, with a little help from an embedded reporter from a Chattanooga daily, asked Defense Secretary Rumself a pointed question about a lack of armored vehicles in Iraq this past week he wasn’t the first Tennessee National Guardsman to do so.

According to the Tennessean in Nashville, Brandon Sandrell was there first, more than a year ago, and the paper printed a photo of the guardsman with the Pentagon chief.

The paper also published a photo of a wrecked Humvee that Sandrell was traveling in when a bomb was detonated under it during a night patrol near Baghdad just before meeting Rumsfeld. Due to lack of armor, the soldiers had place sandbags on the floor of the Humvee, Sandrell said.

Sandrell said he raised the armor issue with Rumsfeld at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where the soldier was recovering from shrapnel wounds that nearly severed his left arm.

Quoted in the newspaper, Sandrell said: 'He (Rumsfeld) was making his rounds and thanking me for my service, and he asked me, 'What do you guys need over there, what are you lacking?' I told him we needed up-armored Humvees.'

The secretary replied that he was working on it.

Sandrell, 21, left the Guard on Oct. 1.

A Pentagon spokeswoman declined to comment to the newspaper.

When the attack on the Humvee took place on Sept. 7, 2003, Sandrell said, he had no protection in his Humvee except what he could improvise. 'I had armored it myself. We had sandbags in the floorboards and I had an extra flak vest, so I hung it on the driver's side door,' he told the Tennessean.

'I loved my time in the National Guard. If I could do it again, I would. For the sake of all the guys going over there, I hope they get more protection on the vehicles. They fight a different way over there,' he said.

Another Tennessee Paper Finds a Guardsman Who Questioned Rumsfeld

Daily Kos :: Make a Difference to An Innocent Iraqi Today

"I am happy to report that there is something very real that I (and hopefully some of you as well) can do to help those Iraqis whom the Administration refers to as 'collateral damage'.

Raed, (from "where's Raed" fame) an Iraqi blogger, has set up an Emergency Victims Relief Fund on his blog. You can donate through paypal (the button is on the upper right at his blog), western union, or bank transfer, and the money is used directly for medical supplies and other necessities."

Raed in the Middle

This is the most recent shipment of meds that Raed bought with the Fund. They were shipped to the refugee camp of Garma, which is just outside of Fallujah. I have absolutely no doubt, whatsoever, that these medical supplies saved lives and were a godsend to quite a number of people.

As you all are aware, Relief Organizations have been leaving Iraq in droves because of the security situation, making it more and more difficult for those caught in the crossfire to get the help they need and deserve. If this isn't our responsibility, I just don't know what is. Let's show these Iraqis that there are some in America who have not forgotten their plight. Let's do something real. Please donate whatever you can afford to this fund. Thank you and God Bless.

Daily Kos :: Make a Difference to An Innocent Iraqi Today:

WE ARE NOT LOSERS!!!

We are doing exactly what Neocons want: internalizing and accepting the death of the DNC" this is a FALSE history the Repugs are trying to write about us. They are telling everyone we suffered a "massive" defeat and we are enabling them.

What kind of "massive defeat" is this, if Kerry only got 2% less votes than Bush ? This was not a Mondale race!!

Daily Kos :: WE ARE NOT LOSERS!!!

Daily Kos :: A Snippet of Sunday Morning Talk

In the panel on steroids in sports Tavis Smiley did an excellent job of “changing the frame” (google "Lakoff")

Rather than comply with the focus on cheating in sport, or falling into the [GOP] trap of discussing role models and/or big money sports, Smiley broadened the discussion to the issue of a “cheating culture”.

He did it smoothly and effortlessly and in one breath linked together the cheating and dishonesty in corporate practices, in politics, in interpersonal relationships and in sport. When George Will tried to deflect the point by suggesting that we have higher standards today than we’ve ever had and the cheating and dishonesty simply isn’t tolerated because of the increase in scandals, Smiley looked at him and asked, “Do you really believe that George?”

Not only did he manage to connect this basically diversionary story to serious political and cultural issues, he’s one of the few people to speak the unspeakable: that not only do we [GOPpies] tolerate a level of trickery, deceit, dishonor and even danger in many of the institutions and aspects of our daily lives, but we also celebrate them. Progressives need more of this. And Smiley provided a textbook example of how to do it. It’s worth having a look at.

Daily Kos :: A Snippet of Sunday Morning Talk: "a "

BRAD BLOG TOO: E-TV: Yang Attorneys Claim No Wrong Doing in Feeney/Curtis 'Vote-Rigging' Charges!

E-TV: Yang Attorneys Claim No Wrong Doing in Feeney/Curtis 'Vote-Rigging' Charges!
Statement Made by Fowler & O'Quinn - Feeney's Old Law Firm!
...BRAD BLOG connects the dots and follows the money...

Yesterday we reported that Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI) had issued a terse -- yet patriotic -- statement on their website in regard to Clint Curtis' allegations (first reported here) that YEI had colluded with U.S. Congressman Tom Feeney (then a Florida Legislator, Speaker of the House, as well as YEI Corporate Counsel and registered lobbiest) to create a "vote-rigging software prototype" at Feeney's request in 2000.

This was the text posted yesterday on the YEI website...

Recently there have been several accusations against this corporation by Clinton Eugene Curtis. All of the allegations are 100% FALSE!! An official statement will be forthcoming. Thank you for your concern and God Bless America.

Curtis has also alleged malfeasance by YEI and their CEO, Mrs. Li-Woan Yang concerning the shipping of secrets to China from Yang, over-billing to the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT), and the employement of an illegal-alien, Hai Lin Nee (a/k/a Henry Nee) who, Curtis charges, added added "wiretapping routines" to software that YEI created for NASA and FDOT among others.

This morning, Elites TV announced that they had received the following statement from Michael A. O'Quinn, Esquire of Fowler & O'Quinn, P. A. representing himself as "outside general counsel" for YEI.

Here's O'Quinn's statement, in total, as reported by Elite TV:

Dear Sir or Madam,

As outside general counsel to Yang Enterprises, Inc., please be advised that Yang Enterprises, Inc.'s response to the allegations of Mr. Curtis is as follows:

(1) Mr. Curtis's allegations are categorically false; and

(2) Mr. Curtis is a disgruntled former employee trying to harm a former employer by lying and making false allegations.

Thank you,

Michael A. O'Quinn, Esquire
Fowler & O'Quinn, P. A.
28 W. Central Boulevard
Orlando, Florida 32801

As The BRAD BLOG has previously noted, there seems to be no basis currently known for O'Quinn/YEI's "disgruntled former employee" charge.

Curtis has told us, and we have confirmed with several additional sources, that he was not fired by YEI, but rather submitted his resignation effective December 2000.

Afterwards, YEI then asked Curtis to stay on until a permanent replacement could be found. One was soon found, but he reportedly quit the same day and Curtis ended up staying at YEI for another six weeks past his original resignation date.

BRAD BLOG TOO: E-TV: Yang Attorneys Claim No Wrong Doing in Feeney/Curtis 'Vote-Rigging' Charges!