Do terrorists have multiple lives, like cats?

How many times did we kill the al Qaeda number 1 and number two in Iraq?

Jeebus, I've lost count, by now.

And then there;s this:

Previous Boasts Of Success Against Al-Qaeda Come Back To Haunt GOP

By MARC McDONALD

For years, George W. Bush and the GOP have been boasting that America is winning the fight against Al-Qaeda.

Now that cocky claim has come back to haunt Bush and the Republicans. The Associated Press has reported that U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaeda has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since 9/11.

You'd think that Bush would have learned a lesson in humility after his 2003 PR stunt fiasco when he strutted in his flightsuit across the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln beneath the "Mission Accomplished" banner. I mean, here we are four bloody years later, and no end in sight in Iraq's civil war.

And now Bush's boast that America is winning in the fight against al-Qaeda has been completely debunked by the new report by U.S. intelligence analysts.

This latest revelation makes a mockery of the cocky claims that we've been hearing from Bush and his supporters over the years. For example, on Sept. 7, 2006, Bush boasted in a speech to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation that "America is safer and America is winning the War on Terror."

Bush hasn't been the only right-winger to make such ridiculous, unsubstantiated claims since 2001. Take Fox News regular Richard Miniter, whose silly book, Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror, was the toast of the conservative media in 2004.

Miniter created an even bigger splash in the right-wing world in 2005 with his book, Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush is Winning the War on Terror. The book breathlessly detailed such bombshells as "the Bush administration’s secret plan to hit Al-Qaeda before Sept. 11, 2001."

I guess the accepted story about Bush taking month-long leisurely vacations at his Crawford ranch and ignoring critical PDBs was nothing more than a Liberal Media Falsehood.

Anyway, for those taking notes, let's review a couple of facts:

1. George W. Bush and right-wing nut-cases like Miniter have been arrogantly boasting for years that America is "winning" in its fight against Al-Qaeda.

2. U.S. intelligence analysts now believe Al-Qaeda has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since 9/11.

Don't expect this latest development to change many minds in the die-hard, wing-nut camp. After all, we're talking about Kool-Aid drinkers who still believe to this day that Saddam was behind 9/11. I'd imagine the right-wing blogs are already gearing up to attack the "liberal" Associated Press for reporting this story in the first place.


(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Has Anyone Else Noticed Inflation, Across the board?

Except for Chinese poison toothpaste, fish and exploding tires, which are still cheap.

Stealth inflation

July 13, 2007 - 6:50am.

How the government hides the rising cost of living

By BONNIE ERBE

I usually try to be timely, but this week in this column I admit I'm way behind. I unearthed a report released more than two years ago, but which contains such informational dynamite, its contents are worth dissecting even two years hence. So here goes.

I've often wondered why inflation is so clearly rampaging well beyond levels reported by the federal government. Case in point: On a fairly regular basis I buy 10 pound bags of carrots at my local Harris Teeter grocery store. When I started buying them two summers ago, a 10-pound bag was retailing for $3.99. It is now selling for $5.99.

I'm sure each and every one of you, dear readers, has a similar story. Or many, many, many such stories. How did we get to the point where $4 isn't shocking as the tab for a cup of coffee (or a coffee drink, as renamed by Starbucks.) How is it that when regular gas drops from $3.50 per gallon to $2.85 (as it recently did at my local gas station in suburban Washington, DC) we feel as if we're getting a bargain?

I've racked my brain trying to reconcile Labor Department reports of inflation running in the 2-3 percent range, while watching as housing, food, clothing, and transportation costs rise by double digits each quarter. Is the government hiding something? I'm no conspiracy theorist, so that explanation seems not to fit.

Here's one explanation, however, that might. In January 2005, Bear Stearns issued a report on America's growing underground labor force. It said in relevant part:

"The growing extralegal system in the United States has distorted economic statistics and government budget projections. The stealth labor force has enhanced many of the economic releases that investors follow closely. Payroll numbers understate true job growth and inflation has been artificially dampened by this seemingly endless supply of low-wage workers.....Real estate prices have been boosted by the foreign population infusion. The productivity miracle may be exaggerated because the government is incorporating the output of millions of illegal immigrants but not counting their full labor input."

In other words, illegal immigration and the underground, cash economy it creates has become so powerful a force, it artificially dampens inflation rates, boosts real estate inflation (putting home ownership beyond the ken of young Americans) and reduces the wages of the average American.

Wow, that's blockbuster news. This part of the report was barely publicized when it came out two years ago. Reporters noted its finding that there are something like 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States, compared with the popularly-cited 10 million figure. A Google search on the Internet revealed references to the inflation finding in Barron's and the Wall Street Journal.

The inflation finding should have been trumpeted on the front pages of the nation's major newspapers, on cable networks and on news Web sites. Instead, it was fairly buried. Did major news outlets bury this angle fearing its contents were not politically correct? Perhaps. But the American public may be getting the message nonetheless.

The U.S. Senate recently killed President Bush's signature effort at immigration reform that would have, in essence, granted amnesty over time to those here illegally. Senators reacted to polls showing the legislation was wildly unpopular with the American public.

Perhaps the public is beginning to wake up to the U.S. environmental destruction wrought by unfettered illegal immigration. The equation is simple. More people equals more development and consumption, more pollution and less open space.

Now we have another, this time financial, equation to contemplate. Unfettered illegal immigration boosts inflation while hiding the effects from the general public. Bear Stearns' experts could be wrong. But I doubt it. By "outing" this hidden impact of illegal immigration, let's hope we build the political will to end it, or at least slow it down.

(Bonnie Erbe is a TV host and columnist. E-mail bonnieerbe(at)CompuServe.com.)

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

As If We Still Needed Proof....

This is really scary, people!

At last the proof is here: Bush is an idiot.

July 13, 2007 - 7:28am.

By HAL BROWN

One sentence, primarily one word, in Bushes press conference proves it. “The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th, and that’s why what happens in Iraq matters to the security here at home.” Dear readers, dear folks, the people blowing the crap out of themselves and hundreds of Iraqis every week are, well, just folks.

What a gold plated moron. I can't believe one of his speech writers had this on a flash card for him to memorize before the press conference. "Folks" as in a group of folksy people.

His calling terrorists folks is pure Bush and proof our president is an idiot.

I hate to provide alternatives for our limited vocabulary president, but he could have called the bombers fanatics or zealots.

Perhaps to make up for this odd characterizationd Bush reverted back to the name calculated to induce the same trembling in us that the evermore cadaverous Michael Chertoff feels in his gut.

According to the New York Times he referred to al Qaeda at least 30 times.

Maybe he should call al Qaeda, to paraphrase the title of adman Jerry della Femina's 1970 book¹ about the advertising industry, the wonderful folks who brought us 9-11.

Of course he wants us to believe the fiction about fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here. That nutsy theory has been so discredited that all but the certifiably paranoid still believe it. But Bush persists in playing Henny Penny running around trying to convince us all that unless we listen to his dire warnings that bin Laden clones will be falling out of the sky.

He's an idiot who managed to sell his idiocy to lots of Americans for some time. But now he's like a defeated political candidate who has thousands of left over bumper stickers and expects to sell them all on eBay.

Hell, remember all the "bin Laden Wanted Dead or Alive" stickers? I wonder how many of them are in the warehouses of all the companies still listed on Google as having them for sale.

Bush conveniently neglects reminding us that the man responsible for 9-11 is still at large somewhere in the border region between two countries that are presumably our allies.

Oh well, what else can you expect from our idiot president?

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Alternative Universe

The 'news' is a weird alternate universe

Joe,

I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the news hallucination industry. Jennifer's assertions (Lies about 'failed terror attacks' in UK) will be proved correct or incorrect in a court of law -- well, that is, to the extent that even a simile of a criminal justice system exists in "civilized" western societies. At least in U.K. courts, a decent defense attorney is provided to those who are not wealthy. Here in the land of freedom and justice for all, you get a drunk or an incompetent and with no budget for good investigation, unless you have deep pockets (like a fellow named Abramoff).

The funny thing to me is that people are up in arms over current media antics as though they were something new. Throughout our history, the media has pretty much worked hand-in-glove with the government when push came to shove: Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish American War, both phases of the Thirty Years War of the Twentieth Century, Korea, Vietnam, Central America, Iraq I, Iraq II, etc. Nothing changes.

I stopped taking newspapers, except local ones for public notices, back in the early 90s. As a state fish biologist, I would read "news" stories in the press pertinent to issues I was dealing with on a daily basis. The inaccuracies, deliberate and politically driven, got me to thinking. I concluded that if publishers (and TV station owners) would deliberately foul up stories on these relatively innocuous issues, then they surely were doing an even bigger hatchet job on larger ones. About the same time I quit watching TV news.

Well, nearly 20 years have passed since making that decision. Guess what? I find that I am much better informed than people who watch the tube and read big papers regularly. I also find that on those rare occasions when I tune in to a news show, or read a paper in a cafe, I feel that I have been transported to some weird alternate universe, one populated by apparently receptive zombies. I can no longer tolerate the "news" for more than about two minutes at a time without erupting into a screaming rage -- an impotent response, I know, but at least it relieves my tension.

Best,

Harvey
Shoshoni, Wyoming

------

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Alternative Universe

The 'news' is a weird alternate universe

Joe,

I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the news hallucination industry. Jennifer's assertions (Lies about 'failed terror attacks' in UK) will be proved correct or incorrect in a court of law -- well, that is, to the extent that even a simile of a criminal justice system exists in "civilized" western societies. At least in U.K. courts, a decent defense attorney is provided to those who are not wealthy. Here in the land of freedom and justice for all, you get a drunk or an incompetent and with no budget for good investigation, unless you have deep pockets (like a fellow named Abramoff).

The funny thing to me is that people are up in arms over current media antics as though they were something new. Throughout our history, the media has pretty much worked hand-in-glove with the government when push came to shove: Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish American War, both phases of the Thirty Years War of the Twentieth Century, Korea, Vietnam, Central America, Iraq I, Iraq II, etc. Nothing changes.

I stopped taking newspapers, except local ones for public notices, back in the early 90s. As a state fish biologist, I would read "news" stories in the press pertinent to issues I was dealing with on a daily basis. The inaccuracies, deliberate and politically driven, got me to thinking. I concluded that if publishers (and TV station owners) would deliberately foul up stories on these relatively innocuous issues, then they surely were doing an even bigger hatchet job on larger ones. About the same time I quit watching TV news.

Well, nearly 20 years have passed since making that decision. Guess what? I find that I am much better informed than people who watch the tube and read big papers regularly. I also find that on those rare occasions when I tune in to a news show, or read a paper in a cafe, I feel that I have been transported to some weird alternate universe, one populated by apparently receptive zombies. I can no longer tolerate the "news" for more than about two minutes at a time without erupting into a screaming rage -- an impotent response, I know, but at least it relieves my tension.

Best,

Harvey
Shoshoni, Wyoming

------

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Junior Has Learned A New Word.

Going Over The Edge With 'Precipitous'

By Henry Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 13, 2007; C01

Just as the '70s were quagmire years, our era could be The Precipice Years, thanks to President George W. Bush in a news conference yesterday.

In a strategic and linguistic coup, the president seemed to be saying that in our fight in Iraq we can forget about the shopworn old Vietnam menace called the quagmire. Now it's time to bravely face its equal and opposite menace, the precipice, as in the dread "precipitous withdrawal."

"Extremist groups would be emboldened by a precipitous American withdrawal," he said.

And: "A precipitous withdrawal would embolden al-Qaeda."

The word became a theme of the occasion, a mantra, even seducing the media, which have been looking for a fuzzy, buzzy word of this sort ever since "granularity," Bush's "shock and awe" and Bill Clinton's "triangulation" faded.

A reporter asked if it were possible to "not withdraw precipitously, but begin some sort of gradual withdrawal that prevents ethnic cleansing."

Nice try, but we all know that "gradual," like "escalate," is one of those words people associate with a quagmire, and we are so over that. (Also, "ethnic cleansing" is so '90s, when it blew genocide off the page -- that was back when we were all working to "read from the same page," as it happens.)

Anyway, our precipitous president is not a quagmire guy, so he doesn't do gradual anything. Instead of escalations, he does surges. He wants us to worry about precipitousness, not the quagmire: the fall, not the stall; the brink, not the sink; the steep, not the creep; the plunge, not the grunge; the edge, not the dredge.

Granted, the Iraq Study Group used it in December in the form of "precipitate," and the National Intelligence Estimate used it in January. Bush has used it at least since 2005, one student of the presidency said.

But yesterday may well have been one of those "benchmark" moments when "the facts on the ground" change and we need to acquire "new skill sets" to handle things, as we say nowadays.

It's like one of those moments when we've listened to some piquant Britishism for years, never daring to use it ourselves, and suddenly we're all saying "at the end of the day" instead of "when all is said and done," and things that vanish "go missing."

(Saying "Happy Christmas" instead of "Merry Christmas" stubbornly remains an affectation, however.)

Back to the precipice: People even know what "precipitous" means. They sense the steep, headlong dangerousness it has implied for centuries. It rarely means anything good, unless we're in a drought and we get precipitation, or in chemistry class and a super-saturated solution precipitates some gunk to the bottom of the test tube.

Pages of the Oxford English Dictionary warn of the threat signaled by this word: "headlong fall . . . perilous . . . thrown down . . . violent hurry . . . excessive suddenness . . . descent."

F. Scott Fitzgerald said in his notebooks: "Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice and I'll tell you a story," which is just what the president did yesterday.

The story he told was about the American people: "When they really think about the consequences if we were to precipitously withdraw, they begin to say to themselves, maybe we ought to win this, maybe we ought to have a stable Iraq." Unless it precipitously turns into a quagmire.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Junior Just Keeps On Digging His Own Grave!

Invoking a privilege is one thing, but telling a person not to show up in response to a subpoena -- if only to actually invoke the privilege -- is quite another.

It's not just worse, it's a felony under federal criminal law. See for yourself.

18 U.S.C. Sec. 1505 : ... Whoever corruptly ... influences, obstructs, or impedes ... the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress ... [s]hall be fined under this title, [or] imprisoned not more than 5 years ... or both.

18 U.S.C. Sec. 1515(b): As used in section 1505, the term "corruptly" means acting with an improper purpose, personally or by influencing another, including ... withholding, [or] concealing ... information.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Pope Pisses Off Everyone.

Who does this guy think he is, telling every other church that they can't be a church?

This guy gave me the creeps the first time I ever laid eyes on him.

I sure wouldn't leave young boys in the same room with him, that's for sure.

Dismay and anger as Pope declares Protestants cannot have churches

· Text quotes 'absence of sacramental priesthood'
· Declaration criticised as huge step backwards

John Hooper in Rome and Stephen Bates
Wednesday July 11, 2007
The Guardian


Pope Benedict XVI. Photograph: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

Protestant churches yesterday reacted with dismay to a new declaration approved by Pope Benedict XVI insisting they were mere "ecclesial communities" and their ministers effectively phonies with no right to give communion.

Coming just four days after the reinstatement of the Latin mass, yesterday's document left no doubt about the Pope's eagerness to back traditional Roman Catholic practices and attitudes, even at the expense of causing offence.

The view that Protestants cannot have churches was first set out by Pope Benedict seven years ago when, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he headed the Vatican "ministry" for doctrine. A commentary attached to the latest text acknowledged that his 2000 document, Dominus Iesus, had caused "no little distress".

But it added: "It is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to [Protestant communities], given that they do not accept the theological notion of the Church in the Catholic sense and that they lack elements considered essential to the Catholic Church."

The Pope's old department, which issued the document, said its aim was to correct "erroneous or ambiguous" interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, which ended in 1965. Quoting a text approved by the Council, it said Protestant churches, "because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood", had not "preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery".

However, other Christians saw the latest document as another retreat from the spirit of openness generated by the Council, which laid the basis for talks on Christian unity. Bishop Wolfgang Huber, head of the Protestant umbrella group Evangelical Church in Germany, said: "The hope for a change in the ecumenical situation has been pushed further away by the document published today."

He said the new pronouncement repeated "offensive statements" in the 2000 document and was a "missed opportunity" to improve relations with Protestants. The president of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, pastor Domenico Maselli, called it a "huge step backwards in relations between the Roman Catholic church and other Christian communities".

A statement from the French Protestant Federation warned that the internal document would have "external repercussions".

The Church of England reacted more cautiously than seven years ago when Dominus Iesus was issued and the then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, denounced it as unacceptable. The spokesman for the current archbishop, Rowan Williams, said: "This is a serious document, teaching on important ecclesiological matters and of significance to the churches' commitment to the full, visible unity to the one church of Jesus Christ."

The Vatican's statement had fewer misgivings about the Orthodox Church, which had "true sacraments" and a genuine priesthood. But their failure to acknowledge the Pope's authority meant they suffered from a "defectus", politely translated from Latin as "a wound".

On Saturday, the Pope freed Catholics to ask for masses to be celebrated according to the Latin rite abolished by the Second Vatican Council. This meant the reinstatement of a Good Friday prayer describing Jews as blind to the Christian truth.

The president of the Italian rabbinical assembly, Giuseppe Laras, yesterday called it "a heavy blow". He told the daily Corriere della Sera: "We are going back. A long way back."

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

This is the hoot of all hoots..... and we just bet there is more to come

Nothing like a little hypocrisy to shiver our timbers>>>>

However, we won't be posting much on this unless there is really something big; something that could actually serve to change things for the better for American and the world.

We have biger fish to fry at the moment.

July 11, 2007 at 07:55:58 Fear and Trembling in Washington, D.C. by Wayne Madsen Page 1 of 1 page(s) http://www.opednews.com

Pamela Martin Escorts Catered to Washington's Most Powerful

Pamela Martin & Associates escorts counted some of Washington's wealthiest and most elite among their client-el according to individuals and places WMR has matched to the agency's phone records from 1994 to 2000.

A phone extension at the Cosmos Club in Washington appears on the list. The current and past members of the club include a number of Nobel Prize laureates, and Pulitzer and Presidential Medal of Freedom honorees.

There are a number of lawyer/lobbyists on the list representing a number of sectors, including international banking, high technology, and housing.

WMR has also determined that PMA calls were placed to the District of Columbia courthouse, the DC Housing Authority, and the DC Police 3rd District Headquarters.

A Capitol Hill news bureau is also found in the phone records.

Larry Flynt Exposes GOP Senator David Vitter

Larry Flynt's ongoing investigation into the dirty secrets of prominent elected officials has exposed another hypocrite. Monday's confession of marital infidelity by GOP right-wing marriage-protection advocate Senator David Vitter of Louisiana was the result of a multi-pronged investigation launched and run by Larry Flynt, publisher of HUSTLER Magazine.

Within hours of a phone call from the offices of HUSTLER Magazine asking Vitter to comment on an article HUSTLER reporters were working on, Vitter ran to the Associated Press in an attempt to get ahead of the story.

As of 2 p.m. West Coast time on Monday, only Larry Flynt and the HUSTLER investigative team knew that Vitter's phone number appeared on the phone records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam. Flynt's team is currently continuing its investigation into improprieties by other high-ranking elected officials.

Senator Vitter, a churchgoing Catholic who is married and has four children, is seen as a hard-line right-winger. A staunch supporter of President Bush, Vitter has built his reputation on family-values platforms such as marriage protection and abstinence-only programs.

In opposition to same-sex marriage, Vitter recently stated, Marriage is a core institution of societies throughout the world and throughout history. It's something that has provided permanence and stability for our very social structure.

Sen. Vitter announced his support for Rudy Giuliani in March and was tapped by the presidential nomination candidate to serve as his Southern Regional Chair.

Chinese Embassy a Client of Pamela Martin & Associates

The phone records of so-called "Washington Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey show that the embassy of the People's Republic of China was a possible client of the Pamela Martin & Associates (PMA) escort agency.

On August 3, 1999, a phone call was made from PMA to a phone registered to the Chinese embassy at 2201 Wisconsin Avenue, Northwest Washington, DC.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com

For more, visit Wayne Madsen Report, which its publisher, Wayne Madsen, keeps refreshed with more news than any one reporter has a right to.

Wayne Madsen is an investigative journalist, nationally distributed columnist, and author who has covered Washington, DC, politics, national security, and intelligence issues since 1994. He has written for The Village Voice, The Progressive, CAQ, Counterpunch, and the Intelligence Newsletter (based in Paris).

Look for his new book, Overthrow a Fascist Regime on $15 a Day: The Internet Irregulars vs. The Powers That Be!, in the fall.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoevwith the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Rudy, the G, is going down in flames.....

How very appropriate!

Doug Adams

Producer

NBC News

Updated: 5:48 p.m. ET July 11, 2007

WASHINGTON - If there was one lesson of the 2004 election cycle, it was respond to attacks quickly and directly. In the summer of 2004, John Kerry let a slowly building media campaign against his Vietnam War experience explode into a debacle. From that campaign a new phrase entered the political lexicon: “swift boating.” Now it appears that Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani may have his own “swift boaters.”

Now the International Association of Fire Fighters, the union for professional firefighters with a long history of support for Democratic candidates, is getting into the act with a 13-minute video that is essentially a long attack ad against Giuliani’s support for firefighters when he was mayor of New York. It is buttressed by a comprehensive Web site titled “ Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend.”

Both the video and the Web site were unveiled Wednesday. Simultaneously, the video is being uplinked to YouTube and at least a handful of other Internet video sites like video.google.com.

---

Campaigning on tragedy

Many firefighters are incensed by Giuliani’s use of 9/11 in his presidential campaign, and they are determined to pierce what they call the “myth of Giuliani,” said Harold Schaitberger, international president of the union.

Schaitberger said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Hardball” that union members were offended that Giuliani, who was mayor during the Sept. 11 attacks, is using the tragedy to raise money and create a theme for his presidential campaign, and they claim that he is distorting the truth to do it.

“He’s out and around the country ... trying to sign up our members so he can use them as a backdrop,” Schaitberger said.

The video uses testimonials from a half-dozen firefighters and relatives of firefighters who died in the World Trade Center attack. And while the arguments aren’t completely new, when coupled with the images of rescue workers at the World Trade Center site, the video is powerfully effective and potentially damaging to the Giuliani campaign.

Giuliani criticizes attack as partisan

The Giuliani campaign issued statements pointing to the IAFF’s history of endorsing Democratic candidates and noting Schaitberger’s affiliation with the 2004 Kerry campaign and the Democratic Leadership Council. It quoted a retired New York firefighter saying “firefighters know the difference between politics and leadership.”

And it released a statement from Howard Safir, Giuliani’s fire commissioner and then police commissioner in New York, praising the former mayor’s support for firefighters on and after 9/11. “Firefighters across the country have no greater friend than Rudy Giuliani,” Safir said.

But Schaitberger said the campaign against Giuliani was not driven by politics.

“It’s not about a Republican candidate,” he insisted. “It’s about a candidate trying to build his candidacy on a legend of 9/11.”

Schaitberger acknowledged that with 281,000 members, “our union is politically diversified — it’s a cross-section of our country.” But he maintained that he and the union’s leadership “do speak for our members, and the fact is that our members are more than concerned about the treatment of those who were lost on that day.”

CONTINUED: Making their case

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1 | 2 | Next >

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The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

More Gooper Wimpy Dicks

YouTube: After being denied entry to a Kirk event despite buying a ticket, Iraq War veteran, Josh Lansdale, approaches the Congressman and asks him to explain his position on the Iraq War. From the video, it looks like this Iraq Vet is not going to get an answer anytime soon.

Odd that Kirk wouldn’t want to speak to an OIF veteran, especially considering he claimed to be one.

Mike Stark of Calling All Wingnuts attended Rep Bob Goodlatte’s (R-VA06) town hall meeting and videotaped him taking similar lumps. And BNF has Vet Mom Sue Dinsdale confronting Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA04)

I tell you, the netroots are going to make sure to turn up the heat this summer on these chickenhawks.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Goopers Still Standing my The Cretin Idiot

WTF is it gonna take?

A Nuclear device set off in a large city?

Millions of dead Americans and others?

Financial losses that will make the Crash of '29 look like a picnic at the beach?

How much more until America wakes the hell up?

GOP still stand by Bush, blocking war plan

Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

(07-11) 14:27 PDT Washington -- Republican congressional support for President Bush's Iraq war policy may be splintering, but enough GOP senators remained united with the president today to sidetrack legislation that would have made it harder to return military units to the war zone.

Republican leaders succeeded in blocking the proposal from coming up for a final vote, but seven of their members joined 48 Democrats and one independent in trying to require the Senate to consider the proposal of Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. Still, the 56-41 vote left frustrated anti-war senators short of the 60 votes required to break the procedural filibuster.

But the focus was on the growing numbers of Republicans who turned away from the war now in its fifth year. With anti-war Democrats convinced that the public is on their side -- and the 2008 elections already looming

-- Democratic leaders are only too glad to force vote after vote in both houses of Congress requiring Republicans to support Bush or break with their president and support a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Democratic leaders also hope the repeated votes make the case to their party's base that they're carrying through on their 2006 campaign promise to try to end the war, but Republicans are blocking the effort.

The president wants Congress to hold off on any policy changes until Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, reports in September about how Bush's decision to increase combat troops has worked. But Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine became the latest Republican to break with the president when she and Hagel said they would co-sponsor a bill that calls for most American forces to leave Iraq by next April.

One other Republican, Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, had already endorsed the plan of Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Jack Reed of Rhode Island. The Senate began debating the measure Wednesday as it continued its consideration of the fiscal 2008 military authorization bill.

The pressure on Republicans also will intensify in the House on Thursday when Democrats, bolstered by a new Gallup Poll showing that more than 70 percent of Americans support withdrawing almost all U.S. forces by next April, are scheduled to debate and vote on a measure calling for just that.

"If Republicans vote their constituencies, we are going to get over half of them,'' forecast House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

After the Senate vote, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said anti-war forces in Congress have momentum, but she blasted the Republican Senate minority for blocking action on Webb's proposal to give military units longer rests in this country before being redeployed to Iraq.

"Except for a handful of Republicans, Republicans in the Senate are desperately clinging to the status quo. And this time, they have gone too far,'' Boxer said.

Of the seven Republicans who sided with the Democrats, six are up for re-election next year, if they choose to run again, and all of them are prime Democratic targets. They are Collins, Hagel, Smith, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, John Sununu of New Hampshire and John Warner of Virginia. Snowe also voted for the redeployment measure.

But three senior Republican members, Richard Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio and Pete Domenici of New Mexico, opposed the measure despite saying the past few weeks that they think it's time to start withdrawing from Iraq.

A group of Republican senators met Wednesday with administration officials at the White House to warn that support for the war is ebbing and the president must change policy soon.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who also faces re-election next year ,was asked repeatedly if Wednesday's defections were a harbinger of future wider splits in his party ranks.

But he deflected the question.

"We're pleased to have succeeded'' in blocking the Webb-Hagel plan, McConnell said. "Many of us feel Gen. Petraeus should be given the opportunity to operate without our advice on this bill. Another assessment will come in September.''

In the House, leaders plan to vote before the August recess other anti-war steps, including a ban on permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, offered by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and a House version of the de-authorization of the war proposed by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., belittled a possible bipartisan proposal calling for implementation of last year's Iraq Study Group proposals. He said the time has past for such an idea.

"It doesn't have the teeth of a toothless tiger. It won't change one thing the president does,'' Reid said.

E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein@sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/11/BAGDBQUMGU7.DTL

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Bush Pardons Entire GOP

or something like that.......

Al kidding aside:

Do any of them realize that the acceptance of a pardon is an admission of guilt?

No one who has admitted guilt should ever be allowed to set foot in D.C again, period!

Prez "pre-emptively" saves all Repubs from becoming "prison bitches." Dems: "Can he do that?"

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Allegedly reacting to some sort of hallucinogenic fever dream following an overlong bubble bath during which he reportedly sputtered lots of motorboat noises and ate one too many purple crayons, President Bush today made the stunning yet somehow entirely understandable announcement that all Republicans in his administration are hereby officially excused from any and all crimes they have committed, are in the process of committing, are planning to commit, or even merely fantasize about committing while encased in sweaty latex bodysuits in any one of a number of GOP-friendly D.C. fetish dungeons.

"People! My people!" Bush shouted suddenly during an otherwise completely useless press conference, raising his arms over his head and tilting his head back and convulsing slightly, just as a nameless reporter finished asking a question about... oh like it even matters because we all know the answer would've been complete bulls--- anyway so let's just say, immigration policy reform.

"Come to me, you shockingly large numbers of corrupt and disgraced Republican senators, representatives, aides, deputies, secretaries, lobbyists, governors and mayors and secretly gay meth-snorting right-wing Christian evangelists, and I shall remove from you the burden of legal, ethical, spiritual and yes even genital responsibility for all crimes you have almost certainly committed under the dark umbrella that is me! I am the walrus!"

Bush was apparently emboldened by his unprecedented and widely reviled commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence just recently, a move widely considered to be one of the more repellent abuses of power in a kaleidoscopic drunken funhouse of abuses lo these past 6.5 years, though he appeared to be staring up at the heavens as he spoke, just little bit astonished that lightning was not striking him dead on the spot.

"DeLay! Gonzales! Abramoff! Rumsfeld! Frist and Scalia and Ashcroft and Rove! Hastert and Duke Cunningham and Dusty Foggo! Ralph Reed! Mark Foley, Ted Haggard and Jeff Gannon! Abu Ghraib instigators! Guantanamo endorsers! WMD believers! FEMA! Plamegate! Terry Schaivo hypocrites! Torturers and influence peddlers and domestic wiretappers, Halliburton bribers and no-bid contractors and dark Carlyle Group overlords!

"Also: Sex education misinformers, global warming deniers, scientist muzzlers, Energy Task Force liars, Iraq Study Group deniers, 9/11 Report ignorers, Medicare scammers, Diebold voting machine swindlers! Bogus Jessica Lynch and Saddam statue and fake Thanksgiving turkey event stagers! And all the rest I can't remember because wow there are just so damn many! Come to me and be not someone's prison bitch despite how you really, really deserve it! I hereby pardon you aaaaaalllll!"

Curiously, the bizarre announcement came as no surprise to White House insiders. An anonymous source close to the president suggested that Bush secretly hoped that, if he made another big, vaguely unconstutional, degrading announcement that stabbed at the very heart of the republic, Dick Cheney might come up from behind again and give him another approving pat on the butt, much like a master gives a puppy. Cheney was unavailable for comment, as he was off shooting hundreds of flightless pheasants in the face with a shotgun from 2 feet away, and chuckling sinisterly.

Stunned reporters who attempted to ask Bush some immediate follow-up questions were quickly shouted down by the president. "Yay, me! The list of criminals in my administration is so long, I thought I'd just take care of it all in one file swipe," Bush shouted, apparently invoking yet another cute Bushism that might or might not refer, Freudian-slip style, to his love of either illegal wiretapping, Karl Rove's 'accidentally' deleted emails, or Lynne Cheney's secret stash of erotic lesbian digital photography.

"Whoops, I mean fell swoop! Yes! Wait a sec, what's a fell swoop? What funny words in my mouth! Say it over and over again, 'fell swoop fell swoop fell swoop fellswoop fellswoopfellswoop.' Haw! Loses all meaning."

White House spokesman and former Fox News automaton Tony Snow, himself rumored to be seeking regular psychiatric treatment to combat recurring nightmares in which his emaciated soul is being eaten by angry pink rabbits in a dank Wal-Mart sub-basement in Alabama, was quick to step in and deflect reporters' questions as Bush was carefully led offstage, frothing slightly at the mouth.

"Let me say right here and now: It is fully within the president's constitutional right to, uh, preemptively pardon all criminal Republicans who are all, of course, totally innocent and who have all been -- or, you know, will soon be -- wrongly accused by terrorist-loving liberals who hate our freedoms and have a very obvious gay agenda," he muttered, his eyes rolling around in his skull like marbles in Satan's pinball machine.

"Hey! Don't forget the crazy stuff Bill Clinton did almost 10 years ago! Oh my God! And what about Sept. 11th? Your children are in danger! Twin towers! Death from above! Support our troops! Gay agenda! Watch Fox News or the terrorists win! P.S.: Ann Coulter, please call me because you left a spiked bra and a switchblade and a gallon of ketamine at my apartment. Thank you. No more questions at this time."

Word of the Universal Republican Pardon (URP) quickly spread to the current Democratic congressional leadership, who were, naturally, slightly upset.

"This is a true outrage!" screamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, apparently frantically entering search terms into Wikipedia in her office iMac in an attempt to see what the hell was actually happening.

"He can't do that! Wait, can he? Can he do that? Isn't there some sort of, like, legal or constitutional mechanism in place to stop him from doing stuff like that?" Pelosi scanned the confused faces of the various congressional aides standing around her office, but got nothing back but lots of people staring at their feet. "Hello? Anyone? What the hell do I pay you people for?!"

Pelosi then sighed heavily and sipped some organic green tea. "You know what it makes me wish? It makes me wish there some sort of, say, large political body here in Washington, one that was right now controlled by, say, a completely different political party than this awful president," she said wistfully, as the aides glanced at each other furtively and rolled their eyes.

"Wouldn't that be great? And this group would have, say, some sort of legal and political oversight power to step in and stop this sort of thing, to formally rebuke the president and demand some sort of accountability and maybe even launch formal impeachment proceedings? Can you imagine?"

"I like to think it would be some sort of deeply flawed but absolutely essential system of, oh I don't know, checks and balances or something, and it would help ensure that this cretinous mealy mouthed little sonofabitch couldn't get away with stuff like this anymore.

"That would be so cool, wouldn't it? Man, I wish we had something like that here in America. Don't you?"

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

These People Scare Me!

They should scare you. You would be a damned fool of you weren't scared.

But we must press on!

These People Scare Me

By: Scarecrow

What’s wrong with this picture? (h/t to Amato at C&L)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has called an urgent multi-agency meeting for Thursday to discuss a potential new al Qaeda threat on U.S. soil, ABC News reported on Tuesday.

Top intelligence and law enforcement officials have been told to meet in the White House Situation Room to report on steps to minimize or counter the threat and what steps are being taken to tighten security at government buildings, ABC said.

The meeting would be one of a number that have been convened in light of new intelligence and information learned from the recent failed car bomb attempts in London, ABC reported, citing a senior U.S. administration official.

The unnamed official told ABC the level of concern of a new attack in the United States was now higher than it had been in some time.

The White House had no immediate comment on the report.

Here are your choices for what this story means (there may be more than one correct answer):

A. If there is an imminent threat, requiring an emergency security meeting, then (1) why is it publicized but with no useful information given to the public (2) why is the meeting not scheduled until Thursday? “Bin laden planning to attack America, but not until next Friday?” Did Cheney steal the “For the President’s Use Only” insta-selective-declassification wand again?

B. It will take two days to get the lab tests back on Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff’s “gut feeling” that an attack is likely. His abdomen is flashing pink, now, and the Administration has turned intelligence gathering into navel gazing. For more on Chertoff, read Larisa Alexandrovna (h/t Stephen Parrish).

C. The President needs to couple fear of al Qaeda, 9/11, and the war in Iraq as a distraction from the upcoming report that almost none of the milestones set in the Supplemental Iraq Funding bill two months ago have been met.

D. The President needs to rekindle fears to keep a growing number of Republican Senators from cutting and running on his Iraq policies. None of them will figure out what the British know, that killing people in Iraq does nothing to protect us from home grown terror threats, though there probably is a connection.

E. The President and his party are terrified that the American people hate this war; they have no confidence in the President and 70 percent want a withdrawal by next Spring while over 60 percent think it was a mistake to invade Iraq in the first place.

F. The President fears the American people will agree that Senator Webb’s amendment, which requires that the Pentagon give our combat soldiers sufficient time between deployments to recover, reequip and retrain before being sent back to an impossible mission, is the best way to “support our troops,” and that it means the surge can’t extend beyond next Spring.

G. The President and his party have concluded that Senator Lieberman’s argument that we should “give our troops a break” by not giving them sufficient time between deployments has exposed the President’s supporters to the charge they don’t really support the troops.

H. Or they realize that Senator Graham’s arguments (CSPAN-2 last night) that “we have Al Qaeda on the run” and that the Webb amendment is the equivalent of the U.S. Cavalry “coming to the rescue of al Qaeda” makes Republicans look even more ridiculous.

Frankly, I have a hard time picking a favorite, so I’ll stick with “all of the above.”

The American people can figure out that if there really were a genuine, imminent threat of another attack on US soil it would mean (1) the policy of “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here” has both failed and even worse, likely provoked another attack here and (2) it’s foolhardy to have our forces, including much of your National Guard, bogged down in Iraq.

This President and his party have lost the war, lost the argument for war, betrayed the public’s trust, lost the confidence of the American people and lost the right to govern. It’s time for them to go.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers
.

I read the news today, Aw God!

Today's News July 11, 2007

Bush threatens to veto congressional bill on Iraq mission change. Elizabeth Dole latest to signal break with White House. Bush, like his mentor in Berlin in 1945, is delusional and remains in his bunker.

Libya upholds death sentence for Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor. What message did Washington send Libya? Bush sends letter to Qaddafi wishing better ties. Bush likes countries that execute people, especially innocent people.

Bush's former Surgeon General says Bush administration politicized public health issues. White House urged Carmona to stay away from Special Olympics because it is tied to Kennedy family.

Gonzales lied to Congress. So, what else is new? Bush sticks by his little amigo.

Nazi Pope Benny Ratzinger rolls back Second Vatican Council. Pope rejects ecumenism and calls Protestants "defective." The Latin-spouting hyena also rejects "Oriental" churches -- note that he believes he is more "Orthodox" than they.

Bush resurrects old GOP right-wing "Captive Nations week" baloney. The world's laregst "captive nation" condemns Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Burma, Cuba, Syria, and Zimbabwe. Libya is off the list. Tibet is not on the list.

COUNTRY FOCUS ARTICLE OF THE DAY: Maldives. Maldives to hold referendum on future form of government.

Other Recent and Noteworthy News

Watergate exhibit at Nixon Library is no more. Part of the "Sovietization" of American history. Watergate? What's that?

Cops rough up 70 year woman for not watering her lawn. Another reason why America needs an extreme no-holds-barred makeover and why some cops need to be sent to Guantanamo to be waterboarded.

Rumsfeld called off attack on "Al Qaeda" leadership in Pakistan. Of course he did, "Al Qaeda" works for Rumsfeld and his neocon pals. For example, why is there no security to enter and attend meetings at the American Enterprise Institute? Answer: Comrades do not attack their friends.

Bush's French friend's English sounds an awful lot like an imitation of Inspector Jacques Clouseau. Maybe he will say Bush looks like a "minkee."

1976 Air France hijacking to Uganda staged by Israel as a "false flag" operation. Binyamin Netyanyahu's brother, Yoni, and a British grandmother, Dora Bloch, died in the operation.

Blackwater involved in rendition of prisoners. Company headed by right-wing Christian lunatic supports Bush administration's torture program. Very Christian. It's what "Jaysus" would do.

U.S. seeks extradition of former Comverse CEO Jacob "Kobi" Alexander from Namibia. The Israeli-born Alexander's company Comverse was cited in Justice Department memos as being possibly being involved in wiretapping of Justice Department, including FBI, surveillance systems.

U.S. Navy planned to overthrow and kill Maltese Prime Minister Dom Mintoff in the 1980s.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Take the Damn Gloves Off!!!!

Dear Congress-critters,

We are ready for a hell-fire fight for our country. If you are too corrupt or scared, you had better get some courage, some intestinal fortitude borne of real faith, or get the hell out of the way.

If you, our elected officials, won't do what needs to be done, the people will, and you guys and gals will be collateral damage.

Do you hear us?


Go to Original

Over-privileged Executive
The New York Times | Editorial

Wednesday 11 July 2007

It is hardly news that top officials in the current Justice Department flout the law and make false statements to Congress, but the latest instance may be the most egregious. When Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wanted the USA Patriot Act renewed in the spring of 2005, he told the Senate, "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse." But The Washington Post reported yesterday that just six days earlier, the F.B.I. had sent Mr. Gonzales a report saying that it had obtained personal information it should not have.

This is hardly the first time Mr. Gonzales has played so free and loose with the facts in his public statements and Congressional testimony. In the United States attorneys scandal - the controversy over the political purge of nine top prosecutors - Mr. Gonzales and his aides have twisted and mutilated the truth beyond recognition.

Congress and the American public need to know all that has gone on at the Justice Department. But instead of aiding that search for the truth, President Bush is blocking it, invoking executive privilege this week to prevent Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, and Sara Taylor, a former top aide to Karl Rove, from telling Congress what they know about the purge of federal prosecutors.

Mr. Bush's claim is baseless. Executive privilege, which is not mentioned in the Constitution, is a judge-made right of limited scope, intended to create a sphere of privacy around the president so that he can have honest discussions with his advisers. The White House has insisted throughout the scandal that Mr. Bush - and even Mr. Gonzales - was not in the loop about the firings. If that is the case, the privilege should not apply.

Even if Mr. Bush was directly involved, Ms. Miers and Ms. Taylor would have no right to withhold their testimony. The Supreme Court made clear in the Watergate tapes case, its major pronouncement on the subject, that the privilege does not apply if a president's privacy interests are outweighed by the need to investigate possible criminal activity. Congress has already identified many acts relating to the scandal that may have been illegal, including possible obstruction of justice and lying to Congress.

The White House argues that its insistence on the privilege is larger than this one case, that it is protecting the presidency from inappropriate demands from Congress. But the reverse is true. This White House has repeatedly made clear that it does not respect Congress's constitutional role. If Congress backs down, it would not only be compromising an important investigation of Justice Department malfeasance. It would be doing serious damage to the balance of powers.

Ms. Taylor is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, and Ms. Miers before the House committee tomorrow. They are expected to claim executive privilege. If they do, Congress should use the powers at its disposal, including holding them in contempt, to compel their testimony.

AMEN, SAY IT AGAIN

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Alert:: Solar Power Mess

Gore Vidal Sounds Off on Solar Power Caper

Posted on Jul 6, 2007

Truthdig/Zuade Kaufman

Note to public utility companies: Do not cross Gore Vidal. A week after representatives from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power came to his Hollywood Hills home to inspect (and then shut down) his newly installed solar power system, Vidal is still “on the grid,” unable to use solar until the system is fully re-inspected. As his fans would expect, the puissant author and tough customer has let fly with some strong words about the utility company, the state of California and the state of the country at large.

Although the DWP insists that the shutdown was a safety-related standard procedure according to their protocol, and that there were some issues with the way in which his solar system was set up and activated, Vidal questions the use of said protocol and the motives behind it. Simply put, he tells Truthdig’s Associate Editor Kasia Anderson, “[utility companies] have no intention for anyone to use solar power so long as there’s a drop of oil anywhere in the world.”

Kasia Anderson: Let’s just catch up here in terms of where things stand at this point in the saga. ...

Gore Vidal: Well, in the saga of light and day and the dark of the moon ... exactly a year ago, there was a total blackout. I live in the Hollywood Hills, and the area around [my street] and other streets that go up from down below from the flats to the high mountaintop to help people cross over to the Valley—this is a street that people like to take to get from Hollywood, let’s say to San Fernando Valley, Burbank, and so on. That said, to my astonishment, I was, like everybody else, on the grid; I never questioned it, never thought about it. Next thing I know, for eight days we are without any power of any kind in the house, and some genius somewhere in the municipal divisions had managed to turn my telephone off. So, I had no telephone, no light, no nothing, and was forced, at enormous expense, to move with my godson, who is an expert—he’s part of the Green Party in France, where he lives, and he is not an American—I hope there was no resentment over that, but he was very helpful in just setting this thing up.

A lot of people fled. I was one of them. For one thing, I was not about to have a stroke; there was no air conditioning or anything else. So, I went to a hotel and stayed there at a huge expense for 10 days, maybe longer. And every day they’d say, “Oh yes, we’re getting closer,” and, “Well, your buildings are too old!” Well, this house was built in the ’20s; that’s quite true. But why not tell me, the buyer of the house, when I bought it? Did anybody from Power and Water come by to say, “Well, you’d better check on such and such?” No, they didn’t. We did check on everything to make sure everything was OK. And so many people who had rented this house over many years had cheated everybody. We had one couple—he declared bankruptcy, she wisely did not, and she ended by owing us $45,000 in rent—doing nothing about light, anything else. I dare give no more examples of her bad citizenship, because the [Los Angeles Department of Water and Power] would immediately say, “She did it! She did it!” You know, they’re looking to blame somebody for the mess they made over here. The least they could do is transfer the fault elsewhere—well, they can’t. This was arbitrarily their own mess.

So in due course, my godson the Green Party man had worked out how simple it would be, and he got hold of some very nice solar people out here, so we did everything by the book to install, just to transfer over from the grid, which uses up what’s left of the oil in the world, and simultaneously we went to work to collect as much sunlight as we could. We didn’t think there was a war against it. I should have known better—this is America!—that anybody could have grabbed this, whether it be a municipal department who could claim it was under them, and you must clear everything with them ... well, that’s power! That’s real power. And it’s not power in the sense we like to think of it, which is power for the people who pay for ... power! And should get it in return and not have it taken away from them on some spurious thing: “Well, you didn’t clear; we have eight members of the board, and you have to clear it with all eight and you didn’t.”

And so we tried to, because we were told, after the initial installation had been made, that we must apply for inspection from the [DWP], which has invented a lot of rules which don’t exist anywhere in the Constitution, in the state of California’s laws, in any rulings by the state Assembly. The whole government has been thrown out by this one little bureau, sitting—cowering—over there in this great big building, and legislating our water, our power. “We have our rulings,” they say. Well, I’m sure you have; I’m sure you make 20 a day! And not necessarily the rulings of the citizens of the state of California. We’re not held by your rulings. We can be advised by them. We can be protected by them, and we know that’s what you care the most about: the well-being of the citizens of the state. You’re famous all over the world! California cares. The municipality of California cares!

Actually, nobody cares about anything except keeping total control and making sure that people, outsiders (even though I’ve been an insider in this state since 1929), are not going to get away with anything. They’re not going to be independent of the grid. The grid is holy. It drinks water desperately, like somebody starving in Death Valley. And, I shouldn’t think we were to be taken seriously on an important matter like this, which involves everybody! Who owns the sun? Well, I don’t think a little department strung up in this vast bureaucratic maze of so many little departments (and big departments) has any particular rights.

Anderson: So, just so that I understand the process, ... the contractor and your godson were aware of the procedures from the beginning and knew the DWP’s rules and [were] doing all the paperwork. As far as you knew, at the point of installation, you were good to go.

Vidal: Oh yes. More than good to go; people had been walked through it to see whether everything was correct and so on. No complaints. I don’t have affidavits, but I probably could collect them.

Anderson: And their initial complaint happened after they were finally made aware, last week, that it was installed and there hadn’t been an inspection. And their claim at that point was that it had been incorrectly and without permit ... [installed]?

Vidal: My first prediction—I like to think of myself as an authority on bureaucracy—would be that it was improperly installed. They didn’t know one wire from the other, the inspectors who came, and that’s why they made such a mess. They tore out my elevator, which gets me up from the downstairs part—I’m a gimp—and that was an unpleasant thing to do, because I woke up the next morning ready to go downstairs, and the machine wasn’t working; they had somehow ripped out the insides of it. I have some electrical stuff in the bathroom, which I need, and they had torn that out! This is a clean sweep! And they were not going to admit it. So, I started to call up the solar people, and they said, well, this isn’t solar that you’re going on, and I said, well, it basically is. They’ve torn everything up, and it’s because it’s “incorrectly done.” None of the people they sent over to examine it knew how it worked. So, they just went merrily around ripping wires out of the ground and pulling them out of the walls, without being invited in. It was also invasion of privacy.

And it was very daring, I thought. If we lived in a country of law, I’d have known exactly what to do: I’d bring charges. But we don’t. This is a country of cronies! “Heck of a job, Brownie!” I should have screamed from the housetops. “Heck of a job!”

The worse the work is, the more highly it’s celebrated, and there’s a bit of skimming going on all the time, too. Otherwise, why are there so many of these little departments, you know? Making rules by which the public must live—but they don’t have to! That is really strange.

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(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.