Saturday, September 6, 2008

Is The Investigation of Palin's alleged Abuse of Power Being Bushed?

Troopergate Speeding Up

ABC News has reported that the Alaska State Legislature investigation into Governor Sarah Palin’s abuse of power charges will be moved up a few weeks. The Legislative findings were to be revealed at the end of October, but now it appears the findings will be released a few weeks earlier, in early October.

“It’s likely to be damaging to the Governor’s administration,” said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation.

The McCain campaign will likely do everything it can to stall, because you know, well, they are for reform, and what better way to reform government that interfere and stall a investigation into abuse of power. It’s the Republican brand of reform, especially in Alaska. McCain seems to be fitting in well.

The Palin crew would like to move the investigation to a Personnel board dominated by Republican appointees, in which she reappointed one of them. Yeah, Alaska style GOP corruption at its best.

Fact is, Palin claims the State Legislature does not have jurisdiction over a personnel issue. First, the Legislature is the people’s institution and one of the basic core functions of the Legislative body is to serve a role of checks and balances. Get used to it, read your Civics book. Somewhere in one of the six colleges Palin attended, she had to at one point come across basic government functions. Is she afraid to have the people’s representatives look into it? If she is Mrs. Reform, what is she worried about? Second, they are not looking into a personnel matter per se, they are investigating ABUSE OF POWER, a matter well within the jurisdiction of the Alaska State Legislature.

Just to clarify another stretch of the truth by McCain/Palin. The luxury jet bought by a GOP Governor WAS NOT sold on eBay. It was listed with no buyer. A broker sold the jet for a LOSS not a profit that McCain directly said today. He is wrong and he lied.

(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.

Does Anyone Really Know What McCain Stands For?

Can't say that any of us do.

The only thing we are sure of is that McCain-Palin is the scariest couple since Bonnie and Clyde.

Question of the day -- Who knows the least about the national campaign strategy of John McCain and his advisers?

Is it members of the press corps covering John McCain, or people like me who frequently write about members of the press corps covering John McCain, or is it, maybe, both of us?

And then there is yet a fourth but much more intriguing option: Is it John McCain himself who knows the least about his campaign strategy?

"Know," that is, in the epistemological sense of knowing -- a sense that suggests a knowledge surpassing more than just, Oh yeah, I know this is what we're doing today, but as for tomorrow I haven't a clue.

What propelled my moment of searching doubt was the one-two punch of McCain's rambling Thursday night speech to the nation and the press-corps analysis that immediately followed; in particular, an analysis presented by reporter-pundit Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post.

In his coverage yesterday, Cillizza observed rightly enough that McCain's peroration "largely avoided the sort of red-meat rhetoric that might have whipped the live audience into a frenzy but alienate swing voters, who were clearly the target of the address."

So far, so good, no argument there. But a bit farther down Cillizza then wrote:

"The tone of the speech is … an acknowledgment by McCain and his senior advisers that given the decided tilt of the political landscape against Republicans, the only way the Arizona senator can win in the fall is to convince unaffiliated and independent voters -- and even some Democrats -- to cast a ballot for him."

Now here the waters begin to murk, if I may use that as a verb.

As for the "acknowledgment" that Cillizza cited, was he referring to what appears to be nothing more than rather perfunctory tips of the hat to independent voters? or was he referring to some actual, earnest, it's-in-the-playbook strategic attempt to convert the unaffiliated into believers?

Cillizza seemed to report the broader acknowledgment as fact; problem is, we don't know the more revealing facts behind the fact, and it may be that Cillizza doesn't know either.

It may even be that McCain himself is the root cause of this consternation, because in actual fact he doesn't know what in hell he's doing and is winging his strategic approach to the highest office in the land with the same sporadic cogency and message-muddled insincerity that led him, erratically, to choose Sarah Palin as a running mate.

On one hand we have the religious-right-rallying Palin haunting the stump, dreaming, presumably, of banning Dobson-disapproved books from the Library of Congress and issuing mandatory buffalo guns to middle schoolers, and on the other hand we have old neo-maverick McCain radiating a clinical sense of apocalyptic paranoia.

Does that sound like a consciously coordinated effort to "convince unaffiliated and independent voters -- and even some Democrats -- to cast a ballot for" the Grand Old Party?

What's more, Cillizza concluded his piece by conspicuously undermining its opening thesis:

"In many ways, McCain's speech to the assembled delegates in St. Paul was a return to his political roots [that is, his thoroughly conventional, non-maverick roots]. McCain's rise on the national scene was born in large part from his willingness to buck Republican orthodoxy….

"This year, however, McCain has focused far less on the areas in which he disagrees with the base of the party -- a strategic necessity as he sought the Republican presidential nomination. On the campaign trail, McCain speaks rarely -- if ever -- about the issues on which his maverick reputation is built."

Which of course is why McCain & Co. now strenuously flaps its lips about his maverickdom rather than demonstrating it in any proposed public-policy way (see yesterday's piece on the 'Softer Side of Sears' syndrome).

But hold up just a moment. First we were told, with what seemed like journalistic concurrence, that the McCain campaign is targeting non-institutionalized (but still medicated?) independent voters, yet then we're told he's crooning only to the base.

McCain can't have it both ways, and neither can Cillizza or any of his colleagues who happen to be reporting the same contradictory story. Ronald Reagan could get away with it because of his personal popularity and the simple chronological fact that he was following an immensely unpopular president, of the opposing party. McCain's charm, however, is, let's just say, wanting, plus he has a partisan albatross the size of Texas hanging around his neck.

My guess -- but it's only a guess, since the McCain campaign hasn't "acknowledged" this to me yet -- is that McCain-Palin 2008's strategy is merely a regurgitation of Bush-Cheney 2000/2004. The base, the whole base, and nothing but the base. Assassinate Barack Obama's character and thereby drive the independents and soft Democrats into mad despondency about the whole rotting, stinking electoral process.

How purely conscious McCain is of his own strategy, however, may be an open question, because he really does seem to be that discombobulated.

For personal questions or comments you can contact him at fifthcolumnistmail@gmail.com

THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter

Questions McCain Won't Be Asked......

But should be, if we had a real news media that served the people by informing them instead of misinforming them with GOP talking points.

McCain’s heroic story isn’t the whole story, questions need asking

By: Don Williams
Published September 5th, 2008

Sen. John McCain’s story is so heroic in the telling as to be almost mythic, and he shared that story Thursday night in prime time. As a brash young pilot descended from military officers, McCain found himself shot down by the North Vietnamese after arrogantly over-reaching during a flight. Suffering broken limbs, imprisonment and torture, he resisted his captors’ demands that he confess to war crimes. By resisting, he brought the wrath of enemies down on body and soul. They tortured him with a vengeance, finally breaking him, so that he told them what they wanted to hear. Then they threw him, ashamed and broken, into a cell, where he was saved by tap-tap-tappings from a fellow POW.

“Through taps on a wall he told me I had fought as hard as I could. No man can always stand alone,” McCain told delegates attending the GOP Convention as millions more watched on TV. “And then he told me to get back up and fight again for our country and for the men I had the honor to serve with. Because every day they fought for me. I fell in love with my country…”

At one point, McCain dramatically compared his own body to Barack Obama’s. “I have that record and the scars to prove it,” he said pointedly. “Senator Obama does not.”

This was not a metaphor, and Americans will find it tough to resist such a comparison in coming weeks. Just watch how quickly mainstream media fall in line. After all, who can resist a hero?

Still, immediately after McCain spoke, many talking heads seemed oblivious to the dramatic story they’d just heard. Several on CNN, MS-NBC and PBS commented on how McCain had criticized his own party during the speech and spoke as if urging voters to “throw the bums out,” oblivious to his own culpability as a long-standing Republican who voted with Bush/Cheney more than 90 percent of the time.

They missed the point. If McCain were running as a critic of Bush, where was his indictment of torture, kidnapping and spying on Americans? Where was his criticism of Bush’s infringements on our civil liberties? Where was his contempt for the president’s cover-up of global warming and Bush’s manifest disdain for every reasonable remedy? Where was McCain’s contempt for the mishandling of Katrina?

No, without embracing the Bush name, it’s clear McCain is running as McBush Lite–patriotic, pro-life, pro-nuclear, pro-oil and coal, pro-gun, contemptuous of those who advocate peace. Will mainstream media let him get away with it? Probably.

After all, they let Bush run in 2000 and 2004 without really plumbing his beliefs. Even during debates the questioning was hardly flesh deep. As I pointed out in my last blog, recent history would be far different had more reporters asked George W. Bush questions such as, “Do you believe America is fulfilling Biblical prophecy?” That question alone might’ve cost him many thousands of votes no matter how he answered, and it’s a question Americans deserved having answered. It isn’t too late to ask Sen. John McCain. I wonder. Are there any takers? It won’t be easy to challenge this man who is rapidly becoming a living icon of military heroism. Still, here are a baker’s dozen pertinent questions–plus corollaries–that should be asked before it’s too late for our nation and the world.

1. Sen. McCain, you have said repeatedly the Surge succeeded in Iraq. Does it follow that the success of the Surge redeems the entire War in Iraq and the way it was initiated? If that war has worked so well, which other countries would you be inclined to bomb, invade and occupy pre-emptively? Iran? North Korea? Russia? What about Pakistan? Saudi Arabia? Do you favor a military draft?

2. Do you believe in End-Time prophecy such as that taught by your running mate Sarah Palin’s former pastor? If so, which specific Biblical prophecy do you believe God intends America to fulfill in the Middle East? Do you believe in the Rapture, as many fundamentalists do? And that Jews who do not embrace Jesus are bound to spend eternity in hell?

3. Do you believe in a woman’s right to choose? If so, why select a running mate who opposes such rights? Do you believe in abstinence-only sex education? If not, why would you choose a running mate who does? One who drastically reduced funding for teen moms, according to the Washington Post, as well as aid to children with special needs, according to CNN?

4. Given that you’ve sponsored legislation to combat climate crises, how do you explain selecting a running mate who does not believe in curbing greenhouse gases and whose energy emphasis is on drilling for and burning more fossil fuels? Why have you voted against money for windmills and other alternative fuels?

5. Do you believe other species, such as the polar bear and wolf, have a right to exist? If so, why would you select a running mate who opposes putting polar bears on the endangered species list and who advocates shooting wolves from airplanes?

6. Do you believe in talking to our enemies? If not, do you support ending negotiations with North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela and other purported enemies?

7. Should we be worried that you publicly sang “Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran?” to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann,” and once suggested that selling cigarettes to Iranians would be a good way to kill them?

8. Should we be worried by a candidate who’s developed a reputation for cussing out opponents as well as reporters who ask reasonable questions and displaying other signs of agression against the powerless?

9. Given that Russia has about 1,000 ICBMS, with enough of them pointed at us to kill most Americans in one massive strike, do you think it’s wise to get involved in disputes near her border by sending ships and supplies to Georgia and, say, by installing missiles in Poland? Are you aware the Chinese have announced plans to build enough ICBMs to penetrate such a shield? Have we sparked a new nuclear global arms race?

10. Do you believe a false casus belli is ever justified to start a pre-emptive war? Do you renounce the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions that justified American military escalation in Vietnam?

11. Do you believe you killed civilians when bombing North Vietnam? If so, do you have any regrets?

12. Do you renounce the Bush administration for building a dishonest case for the bombing, invasion and occupation of Iraq, including forged documents and planted stories in the media?

13. Please explain to the American people the logic by which you advocate a massive expansion of nuclear facilities while threatening to bomb other countries for doing the same on a much more modest scale? While you’re at it, tell us how you will keep this technology from spreading while pouring billions into new reactors and creating a permanent class of nuclear scientists and technicians?

Obama has been clear where he stands on most such issues. If we knew where McCain stood, it might be possible to cast an intelligent vote come election day.

Lies, Lies, Extraordinary Lies!!!!

What Is Obama's Story?

-- by Dave Johnson

Almost every single thing Palin said in her speech the other night turns out to be just a lie -- and it doesn't matter. She now has 58% favorability among the public. And she has a story. Within a day of the Palin announcement a well-informed, liberal, Democratic, pro-choice friend told me that Palin is "a reformer" -- "just like McCain."

Here is what the Republicans understand: facts don't matter, stories do. So knowing this, they just lie and say anything they want as long as it reinforces the story. How do you fight this? Getting bogged down refuting the lies can never work because they'll just make up a ton more lies for you to refute and you can't keep up. Meanwhile, they keep reinforcing the story while you're mired in the refutation. This is why almost every single thing Palin said in her speech turns out to be just a lie. But look how her STORY has taken hold! The story overcomes all the lies, even though the entire story is based on the lies.

The Obama campaign was the beneficiary of just such a story during the primaries. Obama became the great progressive transformation that we all want, while Hillary came to represent the past. She became NAFTA and DLC and lobbyists. Once these stories took hold there was nothing at all Hillary could do about it. Everything started to reinforce it. "Experience" came to mean "Bill" which meant the past.

THAT is how a story works. Facts just get in the way. (NOTE I am not saying that Obama's story was based on lies, I am saying the power of a STORY took over and swamped Hillary.)

This is the power of - and the reason for - the "elite" storyline they are trying so hard to establish. If it can take hold there is nothing that can be done about it. So far it is just a little bit too unbelievable. But we have seen how they have tried to tell one story after another, to see if one sticks.

So what IS Obama's STORY today? The FISA swing and a few things like that got rid of the "great progressive transformation" story that won the primaries. What does he represent and how do we drive the new story? How do we establish a negative story about McCain that sticks?

Remember how at the end of the Kerry campaign people still were saying that they didn't understand what Kerry and the Democrats were about, were for, etc? They were saying that there was no story.

What is the Obama story, in a sentence? McCain is the maverick who will change Washington, and so is Palin-the-reformer. That is a story. It is a story because they said it is.

What is the Obama story?

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:22 PM PST on September 05, 2008.

(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.

PALIN: No Media Access

September 05, 2008
Categories: Sarah Palin

Back to Alaska

Howard Fineman reported tonight (and I heard something similar) that Sarah Palin will, after a brief stretch on the trail, head back to Anchorage and away from the national media.

"They're basically taking Palin back to Alaska," said Fineman, citing a senior McCain campaign official.

Fineman's source (and mine) said she'd spent much of the time between now and the middle of next week (when her son leaves for Iraq) straightening her affairs, tending to her official duties and packing her bags — having departed abruptly for the national stage. She also seems unlikely to do many major media interviews between now and then, and the campaign seems to feel no urgency about putting her on the Sunday shows.

The campaign will "also use the plane time and time on the ground to begin the education of Sarah Palin," Fineman said. "They want to take that pause to train."

Sarah Palin: Third Wave

This posting documents the extensive involvement of several of Sarah Palin's churches in the Third Wave Movement, also known as the New Apostolic Reformation, Joel's Army, and Manifest Sons of God. Journalists, bloggers, and others who wish to make use of this information are advised to read the preceding post, Part One in order to understand this movement in context of its history and theology. This movement is cross-denominational and there is no specific denomination that completely embraces it. It has been condemned by the General Council of the Assemblies of God since 1949. Please read the background information first if you do not have previous knowledge about the Third Wave Movement and an understanding of its relationship to Pentecostalism, Fundamentalism, and the larger body of Evangelicalism.

Again, if you are not familiar with the Third Wave, please take time to read this summary in Part One. However, if you are someone who can readily identify Todd Bentley, and know why he is in trouble, you have passed the test. Continue reading.

topic: All Topics

Wasilla Assembly of God
Senior Pastor Ed Kalnins

The church is a member of the General Council of Assemblies of God but is involved in numerous Third Wave/Latter Day Rain activities specifically condemned by the General Council of AoG since 1949 and again in 2000. This is the church of Palin's youth. They have posted on their site that she was a member until 2002 and frequently participates in events there including a recent speech for the graduation ceremony of the Master's Commission class. Just below that notice is an advertisement for a prophetic conference at the church to be led by Steve Thompson who oversees prophetic ministry at Morningstar Ministries, one of the internationally best known organizations in the movement. This is a repeat visit for Thompson.

Morningstar is a major force in the Third Wave movement and its founder, Rick Joyner, is a prolific author of Third Wave and Manifest Sons of God theology. You can purchase his books around the world including in Africa and Asia. Morningstar purchased part of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Heritage Park for their headquarters and conference center.
Becky Fischer, whose ministry was featured in the movie Jesus Camp, was a pastor for Morningstar before starting her own ministry and is still featured on the Morningstar Ministries website.

The students of the Master's Commission program have visited Morningstar and feature pictures of the visit on their site. This video is an example of the events that are held at Morningstar. A cell phone anointing can be viewed toward the end of the video. Frances Frangipane has also spoken at the church. He has co-written a number of leading Third Wave books with Joyner and Thompson.

Posted on the site is an upcoming visit by Bishop Thomas Muthee. He is also a repeat visitor to the church. Muthee is featured on the first Transformation video by George Otis of Sentinel Group. See the previous post, Part One for background on the Transformation videos. Muthee's story of saving the village of Kiamba, Kenya by combating a witch is well known in Third Wave groups.

In addition to the Transformation Video, Muthee's story is featured in a book by C. Peter Wagner titled Praying with Power. Wagner has served as the central coordinating figure of the Third Wave movement and heads the International Coalition of Apostles. Wagner's 500 Apostles each have churches and ministries under their authority, some with hundreds or even thousands.

The Master's Commission at Wasilla AoG is an international program that replaces college with religious training grounded in Third Wave ideas. The senior pastor, Ed Kalnins was a graduate of the first year's class in Phoenix, Arizona. The program at Wasilla last for three years and costs $7,900. per year. Students are trained in prophetic gifts, prayers, and intercession. Books by Francis Frangipane and Steve Thompson are included in the curriculm. Other texts for the program are by John Bevere who trained under Benny Hinn ( must watch this video) at Orlando Christian Center.

Juneau Christian Church
Senior Pastor Mike Rose

Palin's church in Juneau is pastored by Mike Rose. Juneau Christian is also listed as a member of the General Conference of Assemblies of God. Mike Rose is a longtime associate of Rodney Howard-Browne, an international leader in the movement. Many credit Rodney Howard-Browne with beginning the manifestation of Holy Laughter worldwide, including handing down the anointing for the Toronto Airport Blessing. He was interviewed by Tom Foreman on CNN in July 2006. In this video he is speaking in tongues with Kenneth Copeland.

The former General Superintendent of the Australian Assemblies of God, Andrew Evans, has written about Mike Rose as an example of someone who has learned how to accommodate manifestations of the Third Wave, such as Holy Laughter, in his own church without disrupting services. The article in Renewal Journal #7, 1996, described Rose as "an advisor of Howard Rodney-Browne's Revival Ministries committee... He informed me that he had sat in on over 110 of Rodney's meetings.."

An additional note about Juneau Christian Center - a Christians United for Israel (CUFI) event is scheduled for Juneau Christian Center but the reference has been scrubbed from Hagee's CUFI site.

The Juneau Christian Center changed its name from Bethel Assembly of God. Recently they have built a new youth center called the HUB for which they applied for $50,000 from the city council and were attempting to get a total of $600,000 in public funds. They presented this as a community center that would be open to all youth.

Church on the Rock, Wasilla
Senior Pastor David Pepper

The youth of Church on the Rock attended The Call, Nashville in July 2007. The Call is a Third Wave/Latter Rain youth movement designed to lead "Joel's Army" in taking dominion over the U.S. for the Kingdom. Lou Engle was also featured in the movie Jesus Camp. He leads the anti-abortion chants and rallies the kids to repeatedly yell `righteous judges.' This video features both Rick Joyner of Morningstar and Lou Engle of The Call explaining their view of the 'Joel's Army' movement. Engle is also founder of the Justice House of Prayer or JHOP.

An additional note on Church on the Rock - Jonathan Walker, Youth Pastor, lists `teaching abstinence in public schools' in his bio.

Wasilla Bible Church
Pastor Larry Kroon

I have not seen a direct connection to the Third Wave. They have had repeat visits by David Brickner, the international leader of Jews for Jesus. Promotional materials for the Liberated Wailing Wall, one of the major performance projects of Jews for Jesus, have included testimony from Larry Kroon, senior pastor of the church. See the ad with Kroon's testimony on page four.

They have also had seminars led by Art Mathias, former head of Alaska Christian Coalition. Mathias is head of Wellspring Ministries and teaches healing, deliverance
from evil spirits, and counseling. Mathias also conducts seminars around the country teaching Hebrew Roots materials.

These are just some examples of the Third Wave Movement at work in several of Sarah Palin's churches. An excellent summary of the dangers of the movement can be found on Southern Poverty Law Center's site This site also includes the answer the first question posed at the beginning of this article. Todd Bentley has now fallen from grace and left the Lakeland Revival but not because of this. Bentley's activities were widely supported by much of the movement leadership including Rick Joyner and C. Peter Wagner. Answer to question two - he has had to leave the Revival because he is getting divorced.

Return to Part One for the history and theology of this movement.

(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.

Westmorland (R- idiot Ga) : Obama Uppity nigger

Westmorland is a disgrace to the south and to America!

Westmoreland stands by ‘uppity’ remark: ‘It accurately describes’ Obama.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) is standing by the remarks he made yesterday that the Obamas are part of an “elitist-class…that thinks that they’re uppity.” According to the AP, Westmoreland says that he was unaware that the word was offensive:

In a statement Friday, Westmoreland - who was born in 1950 and raised in the segregated South - said he didn’t know that “uppity” was commonly used as a derogatory term for blacks seeking equal treatment. Instead, he referred to the dictionary definition of the word as describing someone who is haughty, snobbish or has inflated self-esteem.

“He stands by that characterization and thinks it accurately describes the Democratic nominee,” said Brian Robinson, Westmoreland’s spokesman. “He was unaware that the word had racial overtones and he had absolutely no intention of using a word that can be considered offensive.”

As the AP also notes, last year, Westmoreland “led opposition to renewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He also was one of two House members last year who opposed g i ving the Justice Department more money to crack unsolved civil rights killings.”

UpdateThe Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman isn't buying Westmoreland's excuse:

Having grown up in Atlanta, very near where Rep. Lynn Westmoreland grew up, I can say pretty unequivocally that there is no way a native Georgian could not have known the racial context of that word. Georgia in the 60s and 70s was a study in black and white (it's much more diverse now), and racial subtexts were everywhere. I do not buy his defense.

Palin Investigation: Three Weeks Early

Sources Tell ABC News that Report Will Be Released Almost Three Weeks Early

By LEN TEPPER

September 5, 2008—

ABC News has exclusively learned that Alaska Senator Hollis French will announce today that he is moving up the release date of his investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired. The results of the investigation were originally scheduled for release Oct. 31 but will now come almost three weeks earlier, according to sources.

The announcement is set for 9 a.m. AKDT time.

The Alaska state senator running an investigation of Gov. Palin had accused the McCain campaign of using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31, four days before the November election.

"It's likely to be damaging to the Governor's administration," said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation.

Palin, who has denied any wrongdoing and has said she has nothing to hide, has hired private lawyers to represent her in the matter.

Click Here for the Investigative Homepage.

Military Suicides; UP!

Army: Soldier suicide rate may set record again

www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0908/090408ap2.html

"Soldier suicides this year could surpass the record rate of last year, Army officials said Thursday, urging military leaders at all levels to redouble prevention efforts for a force strained by two wars. So far this year, there are 62 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers and Guard and Reserve troops called to active duty, officials said. Another 31 deaths appear to be suicides but are still being investigated."

Friday, September 5, 2008

Topics At The GOP Nasty-fest

The Republican Priorities: What The GOP Focused On (And Ignored) During The Convention

During the Republican National Convention this past week, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign worked hard to put distance between the senator and President Bush. Bush spoke briefly via satellite and Vice President Cheney didn’t address the crowd at all.

Despite these attempts, what was most evident during the convention was how similar the two men’s policies were. New ideas to address the country’s problems and actual policy discussions were given little attention. As FiveThirtyEight notes, instead, much attention was given to “the three P’s — Palin, Petroleum, and POW.”

ThinkProgress has put together an analysis based on the prepared remarks (a total of 38,055 words) of the convention speakers, looking at how many times Republicans said various words. A glimpse at conservatives’ priorities:

Bush Administration
Bush: 1
Cheney: 0
Gonzales: 0
Rumsfeld: 0

National Security
War/Wars: 38
Surge: 14
Nuclear Weapons: 4
Diplomat(ic)/Diplomacy: 3
Torture (McCain’s): 3
Guantanamo: 1
Osama Bin Laden: 1
Afghanistan: 0
Torture (not McCain’s): 0

Economy
Jobs: 36
Economy: 27
Middle Class: 2
Housing: 1
Social Security: 1
Unemployment: 1

Other
POW: 14
Maverick: 11
Hockey Mom: 5
Tyrannosaurus: 1
Elvis: 1

Health Care
Health Care: 26
Medicare: 1
Medicaid: 1

Environment/Energy
Drill/Drilling: 18
Nuclear (Power): 10
Clean Coal: 7
Environment: 7
Gustav: 6
Climate Change: 1
Global Warming: 1
Green Economy: 1
Katrina: 0

Science
Technology: 13
Internet: 1
Science: 1
Stem Cell: 0

Civil Rights
Immigration: 5
Gay/Gays: 0

The New York Times has an analysis of the Democratic convention here.

Greetings From The Angry Left

What I want to know is, what "Left" are they talking about. When I lived in San Francisco, home of Mark Morford, I was considered a moderate, even though I was very much against the nuclear build-up of the Reagan years, which included the insane idea of putting nuclear missiles, with hard target capability, 5 minutes from Moscow, putting the entire Soviet nuclear force on a "launch-on-warning" footing.

This was the early '80s. Our computer systems were not so good in those days, yet we were counting on the Soviet computer systems to know the difference between a real U.S. launch and blip on a radar screen somewhere that was not real. It happens all the time, even now.

The Soviet Union was put in a position where they didn't have but a few seconds to allow for human intervention in such a situation. The nearly bankrupt Soviet Union's computer systems could not possibly have been any where near as good as our systems and, as most of us remember, ours were not all that great.

Hell, even Saint Ronnie changed his mind about the wonder of nuclear weapons, once he figured out that the game of "Nuclear Chicken" would, some day, end in global destruction that would make "Noah's great flood" seem like a wonderful 40 day trip, sailing the high seas. Thanks be, Mikael Gorbachev was there to help him turn things around, to lead the world back from the nuclear abyss. Nevertheless, nuclear weapons still exist, but no longer are they limited to two super powers kept in check by a policy known as MAD (mutually assured destruction). The acronym certainly fit the times. ( Nukes were not limited to the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. even then. Israel had them then and they have more now, though they will never publicly admit it.)

Now, I live in Georgia. I still consider myself a moderate, but readily admit that, in times like these, I tend to move toward the left, mainly because the far Right scares the living begeebus out of me and the Left never has scared me. I don't like people, let alone groups of people, who have more power and money than sense, who go out of their way to scare me. I especially don't like it when I find out that they are intentionally trying to scare me for political gain. As a matter of fact in all honesty, I must confess that it makes me angry as hell.

So, if the Left, whoever they are, are angry, I don't blame them; no, not one iota. How could I possibly blame them for being angry when I, myself, am angry as hell and I don't like being angry anymore than I like being scared.

What I really don't like is nausea and nauseated is what I have been for the last few days, thanks to the hate and lie-fest known as the Republican convention, 08 and the ACNM's coverage of it.

No where were the police state type of arrests of journalists and non-violent protesters covered. Were it not for the Internet, no one would know about any of it and the American people should know about it because this kind of thing can happen to any of us who openly disagree with the policies of the authoritarian fascists who have been in power for the last 7 1/2 years.

Anyone who believes that McCain-Palin represent change have to be out of their minds, or so brainwashed that there is little hope for them and, therefore, possibly our country. Only the modern-day GOP would think that Palin's speech at the convention represents change or, even, civility. If anything it represents an escalation of hateful GOP oratory and, I believe, the true face of a malignant bigotry I did not want to believe still existed as it did in Nixon's GOP (remember Nixon's southern srategy? A strategy of bigotry and fear-mongering in 1968 directed at the Dixiecrats and their followers.)

Not only is this a truly dangerous time in and for this country, thanks to the Neocons and their Bush administration, it is truly a sad time for people like me.

Hey, peeved hippie! Stop your hatin' and learn to love the (McCain) bomb!

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Friday, September 5, 2008

"Fellow citizens, if the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain's resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry left never will."
-- George W. Bush, RNC '08

Aww, just look at you. You seem a little upset. A mite peeved, even.

Heck on a hot pancake, I'd even go so far as to say you were downright angry, given how I can see the ripples of general upsettedness and waves of appalledosity coursing through your hot liberal body like fresh biodiesel through a converted VW van. Really now, that can't be good for your chakras, can it?

What's wrong, buttercup? Right-wing politics got you down? RNC '08 making you gag? Toxic and inexcusable events of the past eight years make you deeply sick to your stomach, spleen, heart, mind, spirit and even your kneecaps? Or is it the wretched notion that the bizarro-world McCain-Palin agenda wants to continue more of the same?

Or maybe it's this: Maybe it's all this terrifying new evidence that there still seems to be this huge pile of Americans who aren't all that concerned with -- or even aware of -- just how violently the GOP continues to dump all over their very heads. Is that what's making your blood boil? Aww, there, there, now.

Really, I have to say, what nerve you libs have, daring to be angry at a time like this. This is a time of optimism and change! This is a time of true, red-blooded American mavericks, of hot Alaskan redneck babes and giant phallic guns and military fetishism and zero birth control, of teen pregnancy and God and freshly slaughtered moose on the dinner table!

Can't you sense the patriotism? Hell, McCain-Palin is so damn American it might as well be a McDonald's McRib sandwich dipped in Crisco and cooked over a Chevy Tahoe's exhaust pipe at a tailgate party in Kid Rock's bowels. Feel the jingoism, hippie!

You know what you should do, angry lefty? You should take a page from the Republican Convention. Just look how perky they all are, doing that incredible dance of the true blind American, completely blocking out the pain and misprision of their party's leadership -- the failed war, the fiscal disaster, the least popular president in a lifetime, the secrecy and scandal and historic ineptitude -- much in the same way an insane cat lady blocks out the all the cold lumps of fur piling up in the freezer. Really, why can't you be more like that?

I'll tell you this, peeved liberal: The GOP is laughing at your expense. Don't you see how they're tossing about "the angry left" catchphrase as though progressives are the only ones who've been molested by Bush's horrible policies and McCain's lust for more war, by illegal wiretapping, torture, environmental ignorance, the raping of the Treasury?

Oh sure, you and I both know there are plenty of angry Republicans out there too, furious at how Bush and now McCain have ruined their once-noble party and trashed the heart of the nation for the sake of oil cronyism and war profiteering. But there is simply no room for them at this particular table.

Right now, you get to be either one of two things: A furious lefty to be equated with North Vietnamese torturers, lured in by the "sham" of Obama's deep intelligence and potential historic greatness, or a deeply drugged conservative, numb to the world, lacking a foothold on a single issue you can defend but nevertheless shooting for the rafters with a giant rifle of gall. Take your pick.

Here's a fun fact: Do you know why Bush and others get to call you "the angry left" and lightning does not strike them dead on the spot? Simple, lovebug: because they know something you don't.

Here it is: Repubs know -- or rather, desperately hope -- that there remains a simply huge number of very ill-informed, reactionary Americans out there who are still operating on the lowest possible intellectual and cultural strata -- who are, for example, totally turned on by seeing Governor Palin in a power skirt wielding a rifle and a knocked-up teen daughter and a fetish for Creationism and oil and sexual ignorance, a woman who has called the war in Iraq "a task from God."

This is McCain's apparent message to these effortlessly terrified throngs (aka "Bush's base"): You know who should be running this country if and when I don't make it through my first term? Hot chicks with guns! Check that: Hot neocon MILFs with guns who can skin a moose and who reject condoms and who don't know a Shia from a Sunni from an Eskimo pie, but who know lots about foreign policy because she can see part of Russia from her desk. Yay America!

So I ask again, why so livid, liberal? Is it because it wasn't exactly "the angry left" who shoved institutionalized torture, pre-emptive military violence, or a complete disregard for science down the throat of American domestic policy? Is it the 4,000-plus dead U.S. soldiers, 10,000-plus wounded and brain-damaged, and tens of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians? Oh, you bleeding heart. So silly you are.

But don't you worry, because there's an even bigger secret looming that the right wing can't really mention right now. See, much as they want to sling "angry left" around and hope it sticks, there's simply no getting over the fact that, despite how it will take the Obama administration many years to repair the incredible damage Hurricane Bush hath wrought, most of us on the left are actually feeling pretty damn good these days. Happy, even.

See, we know the tide has turned. The Bush Dark Days are nearly over. The Obama groundswell is historic, extraordinary, unstoppable. The GOP had its turn, was handed six years of unprecedented, unchecked power, and very nearly destroyed the country. Even Republican leaders now openly admit their party is a mess, shattered and gutted by Bush, will take years and decades to restore to something resembling dignity. And McCain/Palin? An aberration, one of the most disquieting quasi-conservative tickets to ever give a nation the creeps.

So then, trust me when I say, try as they might, "the angry left" won't stick. As anyone with the slightest sense of history and poetic justice knows, such a jab is merely the final, desperate wailings of the bankrupt, the shameful, and the doomed.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Obama Could Pursue Criminal Charges Against The Bush Administration

If there is a chance in hell that criminal charges against the war criminals and Constitution-haters in the Bush administration will be filed, Joe needs to be quiet about it.

Junior will just pardon everyone, including himself. Of course, anyone who accepts a blanket pardon, is admitting guilt to any charge that could be brought against them.

A presidential pardon doesn't mean jack at the Hague.

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.

Biden's comments, first reported by ABC news, attracted little notice on a day dominated by the drama surrounding his Republican counterpart, Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

But his statements represent the Democrats' strongest vow so far this year to investigate alleged misdeeds committed during the Bush years.

"If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued," Biden said during a campaign event in Deerfield Beach, Florida, according to ABC.

"[N]ot out of vengeance, not out of retribution," he added, "out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president -- no one is above the law."

Obama sounded a similar note in April, vowing that if elected, he would ask his attorney general to initiate a prompt review of Bush-era actions to distinguish between possible "genuine crimes" and "really bad policies".

"[I]f crimes have been committed, they should be investigated," Obama told the Philadelphia Daily News. "You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve."

Congressional Democrats have issued a flurry of subpoenas this year to senior Bush administration aides as part of a broad inquiry into the authorisation of torturous interrogation tactics used at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Three veterans of the Bush White House have been held in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to respond to subpoenas: former counsel Harriet Miers, former political adviser Karl Rove, and current chief of staff Josh Bolten. The contempt battle is currently before a federal court.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

GOP Shows Their True Color: WHITE

The Anti-Obama Hate-Fest

By Robert Parry
September 4, 2008

The Republican Party, which has defined modern-day negative politics, was back at it again, bashing Barack Obama and the news media in an ugly display that rivaled the old days of Nixon-Agnew – or George W. Bush’s last convention where GOP operatives passed out “Purple Heart Band-Aids” to mock John Kerry’s war wounds.

After a slow start because of Hurricane Gustav, the convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, has turned into an anti-Obama hate-fest with a nearly all-white gathering laughing at and mocking the nation’s first African-American presidential nominee of a major party.

However, beyond the pulsating contempt visible on the faces of the GOP delegates, many of the nasty attacks on Obama – as well as the effusive praise for the Republican ticket – were blatantly false, as if testing the depths of American gullibility and bigotry.

In speech after speech, Republicans didn’t so much as tell the Big Lie as they deployed Wholesale Lies.

The Associated Press, which mostly had been recycling the Republican spin about the supposedly “maverick” ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin, was so struck by the litany of distortions that the AP produced a special fact-checking article describing how Republicans had “stretched the truth.”

For instance, Palin said about Obama, “it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate."

However, as the AP noted, Obama “worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year.”

Plus, the AP reported, “In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.”

The AP’s fact-checking article noted, too, that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s slap at Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden – that Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States" – was a “whopper.”

The AP wrote that “Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.”

Parallel Reality

The Republican National Convention also acted as if the Republicans had not controlled the White House for the past eight years and the Congress for most of that time.

"We need change, all right,” declared former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, “change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington - throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

Beyond this parallel universe of who runs Washington, there was fanciful puffery about the GOP “reformer” ticket – dubbed “maverick squared” – that doesn’t square with reality at all.

For instance, the AP cited Palin’s claim that "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

The reality, of course, was much different.

As the AP noted. Palin, as mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla, hired a lobbyist and made annual treks to Washington seeking earmarked spending that totaled $27 million, and then as Alaska’s governor for less than two years, she sought nearly $750 million in special federal spending, “by far the largest per-capita request in the nation.”

And as for that $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents, the truth is that Palin enthusiastically supported the project before she reluctantly opposed it, rejecting the “Bridge to Nowhere” only after it had become politically indefensible.

The Los Angeles Times discovered that Sen. McCain had specifically cited several of Palin’s earmarks on his annual list of wasteful pork-barrel spending.

In 2001, for instance, McCain's list included a $500,000 earmark for a public transportation project in Wasilla, and in 2002, he criticized $1 million targeted for an emergency communications center that Palin sought but local law enforcement said was redundant and a source of confusion.

Remaking Palin

Now, however, Palin has been transformed into a maverick reformer. McCain’s campaign even cites her experience as an abuser of the earmark process as part of the reason she supposedly understands why it must be scrapped.

McCain spokesman Taylor Griffin said Palin’s successes in getting earmarked funds “was one of the formative experiences that led her toward the reform-oriented stance that she has taken as her career has progressed."

Nevertheless, Palin wrote in a newspaper column just this year that "the federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship." [For more details, see Los Angeles Times, Sept. 3, 2008]

Beyond the GOP's reality-challenged speeches, there was the startling image of a nearly all-white convention – where only 36 of the 2,380 delegates were black, the smallest number in at least 40 years – rollicking in ridicule and bristling with animosity toward Obama, an African-American.

With their loud chants of “drill, baby, drill” regarding energy policy and boisterous shouts of “USA, USA” about “victory” in Iraq, there was a sense that St. Paul was hosting a convention of American Falangists, rather than that of a modern national party.

The whiff of authoritarianism extended to outside where demonstrators and journalists were swept off the streets in indiscriminate arrests.

What’s less clear about the GOP convention is whether the Republicans are on to something, that perhaps the United States has crossed over into a post-rational society that cares little about facts and reality or serious policy ideas and respectful debate, but rather is a nation moved by anger and ridicule, fear and nationalism.

That's what we're afraid of, quite frankly. If there are enough hate/fear mongers in this nation to get these two liars elected, they will get exactly what they deserve!

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth' are also available there. Or go to Amazon.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.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Palin: A True Bushie, Abuse of Power and All

By Robert Parry
September 1, 2008

You have to admire the Republican chutzpah. Still confronting a national scandal about packing the Justice Department with “loyal Bushies,” they pick a vice presidential candidate who – in her two executive jobs in Alaska – ousted top law-enforcement officials because they were insufficiently loyal or not malleable enough.

One of those firings has put Gov. Sarah Palin at the center of an ongoing legislative investigation that presumably will require her to testify about whether she was behind efforts by her husband and senior staff to pressure the state’s public safety commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law from the state troopers.

When the commissioner, former Anchorage police chief Walter Monegan, refused to go along, he was summarily ousted by Palin without much explanation.

Unless the Republicans can figure out a way to block Palin’s sworn deposition, she will have to either admit that she used her political influence to wage a family vendetta or she must face the risk that her continued denials of involvement will be contradicted by her own staff or by some other evidence.

However, if Palin admits that she did use her government office to punish a personal enemy – or that she fired the public safety commissioner because he refused to join in her family feud – the Republicans may have trouble continuing to sell Palin as a reform-minded governor.

Instead, Palin would appear to fit more neatly with Bush administration operatives who engineered the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 and who employed ideological litmus tests in deciding who to hire for career jobs at the Justice Department.

As Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, famously put it: the motive for purging the federal prosecutors was to eliminate those who were deemed not “loyal Bushies.”

Some of the U.S. Attorneys, such as New Mexico’s David Iglesias, had balked at political pressure before Election 2006 to bring what the prosecutors considered flimsy voter-fraud cases against prominent Democrats.

Now it appears that Sarah Palin shares the Bush administration's view about putting cronies in key law-enforcement jobs, making hers act like “loyal Palinistas.” As mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla and as governor of Alaska, she fired two top law-enforcement officials when they didn’t show sufficient loyalty or obedience to her.

Ousting the Chief

In 1996, after winning the election to be mayor of Wasilla then with a population of about 5,000, Palin sought to oust six department heads because they had signed a letter supporting the previous mayor, their old boss. Palin ultimately fired two of them, including the police chief.

Wasilla’s ousted police chief, Irl Stambaugh, sued Palin in 1997 for alleged contract violation, wrongful termination and gender discrimination The police chief claimed Palin fired him not for cause but for being disloyal and because he was a man whose size – 6 feet and 200 pounds – intimidated her.

However, a federal judge dismissed Stambaugh’s lawsuit.

So, having escaped any serious damage for punishing Wasilla’s police chief for a supposed lack of political loyalty, Palin had little reason not to throw her weight around when she became Alaska’s governor in December 2006.

By then, Palin was deeply involved in her family’s vendetta against her sister’s ex-husband, trooper Mike Wooten. Through complaints to his superiors, Palin already had helped engineer Wooten’s five-day suspension from the state police earlier in 2006 for various examples of personal misconduct.

In January 2007, a month into Palin’s term, her husband, Todd, invited Palin’s new public safety commissioner Monegan to the governor’s office, where Todd Palin urged Monegan to reopen the Wooten case. After checking on it, Monegan informed Todd Palin that he couldn’t do anything because the case was closed.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Monegan said that a few days later, the governor also called him about the Wooten matter and he gave her the same answer. Monegan said Gov. Palin brought the issue up again in a February 2007 meeting at the state capitol, prompting his warning that she should back off.

However, Monegan said Gov. Palin kept bringing the issue up indirectly through e-mails, such as comparing another bad trooper to “my former brother-in-law, or that trooper I used to be related to.”

Monegan also began getting telephone calls from Palin’s aides about trooper Wooten, including from then-chief of staff Mike Tibbles; Commissioner Annette Kreitzer of the Department of Administration; and Attorney General Talis Colberg.

Questioning ‘the Process’

Colberg acknowledged making the call, after an inquiry from Todd Palin about “the process” for handling a threatening trooper, and then relaying back the response from Monegan that the issue had been handled and nothing more could be done.

Monegan also told the Post that he warned each caller about the risk of exposing the state to legal liability if Wooten filed a lawsuit.

However, Todd Palin continued collecting evidence against Wooten and lobbying for his dismissal. The governor’s husband acknowledged giving Wooten’s boss, Col. Audie Holloway, photos of Wooten driving a snowmobile while he was out of work on a worker’s compensation claim.

Alaska’s Deputy Attorney General Michael Barnhill told the Post that a member of the governor’s staff, personnel director Diane Kiesel, also made at least one call to Col. Holloway about the snowmobile incident. [Washington Post, Aug. 31, 2008]

On July 11, 2008, Palin abruptly fired Monegan, saying only that she wanted to take the public safety department in a different direction.

Monegan then went public with his account of the mounting campaign against Wooten from the governor’s family and staff. Monegan told the Anchorage Daily News that Todd Palin showed him the work of a private investigator, who had been hired by the family to dig into Wooten’s life and who was accusing the trooper of various misdeeds, such as drunk driving and child abuse.

Though Palin insisted she wasn’t involved in the pressure campaign, a review by the Attorney General’s office found that half a dozen state officials had made about two dozen phone calls regarding Wooten.

A tape recording of one conversation – between Palin’s chief of boards and commissions Frank Bailey and police Lt. Rodney Dial in February 2008 – revealed Bailey saying, “Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, ‘Why on earth … is this guy still representing the department?’”

Expanded Investigation

On Aug. 2, the state legislature launched its own investigation into whether Palin “used her public office to settle a private score.” A bipartisan panel appointed special prosecutor Steve Branchflower to investigate and report back in a few months.

After Palin learned of Branchflower’s appointment, she questioned whether the investigation would be fair and objected to a comment from Democratic state Sen. Hollis French about the possibility that the case might lead to the governor’s impeachment.

Palin’s spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said, "Publicly elevating this to 'impeachment' raises doubts as to how fair a process some senators may intend for this to be." [Anchorage Daily News, Aug. 2, 2008]

However, with Palin now Sen. John McCain’s choice to be the next Vice President of the United States – and with much of the national news media hailing McCain’s “bold” choice of a fellow “maverick” and “reformer” – it’s unclear how far the state investigation will be allowed to go.

Still, there is a risk to McCain’s campaign that a deposition will either draw out from Palin an admission that she abused her office to pursue a personal vendetta or she will put herself at risk of having a sworn statement contradicted by others.

For a Republican Party that impeached – but couldn’t ultimately remove – President Bill Clinton for lying about a sex act, there might be some discomfort about having to justify any false statements by Sarah Palin.

But the Bush administration has demonstrated how well it knows how to frustrate investigations into Republican wrongdoing. For seven years, the administration has deployed its expansive claims of executive privilege and other obstructive tactics to thwart all kinds of fact-finding, including the probe into the firing of the nine U.S. Attorneys.

Presumably, a similar cloak of protection will now descend around Sarah Palin’s shoulders.

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth' are also available there. Or go to Amazon.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.

Sarah Palin, The Secessionist

Can't say that I don't understand the feeling these days, though, probably, for different reasons. But I'm not running for V.P. of the UNITED States.

Posted on Sep 1, 2008

If it seems like Sarah Palin Day, that’s because the McCain campaign decided to do the bulk of its news dumping during the holiday. On top of her husband’s DUI, her unmarried teen daughter’s pregnancy and her own state trooper issues, we now know about this bizarre nugget: Sarah Palin and her husband, according to the group’s chair, were once members of the Alaskan Independence Party, a political party that seeks a vote on Alaska withdrawing from the union.

Country first, indeed.

Time’s Mark Halperin says lawyers and journos are flocking to Alaska to probe this new national figure, who, it now seems, may have missed out on a full vetting.

ABC News / Political Punch:

Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, tells ABC News that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. Clark was AIP secretary at the time.

“We are a state’s rights party,” says Clark, a self-employed goldminer. The AIP has “a plank that challenges the legality of the Alaskan statehood vote as illegal and in violation of United Nations charter and international law.”

She says it’s not accurate to describe the party as secessionist—they just want a vote, she says, adding that the members of the AIP hold different opinions on what Alaska should be.

“My own separate opinion as an individual is that we should be an independent nation,” Clark says. Others in the AIP “believe that being a commonwealth would be a good avenue to follow.” Some advocate statehood—but a fuller statehood than exists now.

Read more

Study: Bankruptcies Soar For Senior Citizens

This, I fear, is only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg, as it were.............

By MATT SEDENSKY

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — First came the health problems. Then, unable to work, Ada Noda watched the bills pile up. And then, suffocating in debt, the 80-year-old did something she never thought she'd be forced to do.

She declared bankruptcy.

While the bankruptcy filing rate for those under 55 has fallen, it has soared for older Americans, according to a new analysis from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which examined a sampling of noncommercial bankruptcies filed between 1991 and 2007.

The older the age group, the worse it got — people 65 and up became more than twice as likely to file during that period, and the filing rate for those 75 and older more than quadrupled.

"Older Americans are hit by a one-two punch of jobs and medical problems and the two are often intertwined," said Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor who was one of the authors of the study. "They discover that they must work to keep some form of economic balance and when they can't, they're lost."

That's precisely what happened to Noda. She worked all her life, on a hospital's housekeeping staff, and later selling boat tickets to tourists. She cut corners when she needed to but always paid the bills she neatly logged in a ledger.

"I was born during the Depression," she said. "I paid the bills whether I ate or didn't, whether I went to the doctor or not."

It all worked fine for Noda, a widow for 23 years, until she was forced to undergo double-bypass surgery and deal with respiratory problems. She started using two credit cards more frequently for food and bills. Before long, she was $8,000 in debt and behind on car payments.

"I'd go to bed and all I had on my mind was bankruptcy," she said. "I had nothing left."

Noda's car was repossessed, but her trailer home wasn't in jeopardy because her daughter owns it. While she's covered by Medicare and receives $968 in Social Security each month, she relied on her job for other expenses. She had no choice but to get help from Jacksonville Legal Aid and declare bankruptcy.

Most bankruptcies are still filed by people far younger than Noda, but the percentage the younger filers make up has fallen over the 16-year period, according to the Consumer Bankruptcy Project analysis, which will be published in the Harvard Law and Policy Review in January.

In 1991, the 55-plus age group accounted for about 8 percent of bankruptcy filers, according to the study, which looked at more than 6,000 cases filed in 1991, 2001 or 2007. By last year, filers 55 and over accounted for 22 percent.

Each age group under 55 saw double-digit percentage drops in their bankruptcy filing rates over the survey period, older Americans saw remarkable increases. The filing rate per thousand people ages 55-64 was up 40 percent; among 65- to 74-year-olds it increased 125 percent; and among the 75-to-84-year-old set, it was up 433 percent.

A number of factors are contributing to the increase. Higher prices for ordinary consumer goods have hit seniors on fixed budgets. For older Americans living below the poverty level, or not far above, a safety net likely doesn't exist for economic setbacks such as medical problems. And some fall prey to scams that cripple their finances.

Warren noted increasing numbers of Americans are entering their retirement years with significant debt and are still paying off mortgages. She said it was wrong to assume that lives of luxury are bankrupting seniors; rather, they're incurring debts to meet needs such as medical treatment.

"There's no evidence that the problem is consumerism," the professor said.

Nor is there a significant aging trend to blame. While the country is set to experience a notable age shift in the coming years, no major one took place between 1991, when the average age was 33, and 2007, when it was 36.

Frank and Hazel Peters lived frugally their entire 53-year marriage. They always rented a home but decided after the husband's retirement from a factory job that they would cash in his 401(k) and buy a manufactured home down a gravel road in tiny Hastings, a town of cornfields and potato farms.

But they fell victim to fraud when they tried to fix a plumbing problem that had black, sulphur-smelling water coming through the pipes of their new home without enough funds to fall back on. They declared bankruptcy.

"We knew we had no other option," 73-year-old Hazel Peters said. "We'd probably be out on the street."

Bankruptcy, tough no matter a person's age, is especially hard when you don't have many years left to recover. Warren said some seniors fear telling their families because they're afraid they'll be put in a nursing home if they're seen as unable to take care of their affairs.

Many who file also express a sense of relief.

Wilona Harris, 71, filed bankruptcy two years ago because of medical bills she and her husband accrued.

"This phone rang all the time. It made you not even want to pick up. Sometimes you think, 'Let me go jump off a bridge somewhere,'" Harris said at her Jacksonville home. "You have to cry and try and figure out what in the world could I do."

At least now, Harris says, she can fall asleep without crying.

Thousands Expected Today For RNC Protest

Published on Monday, September 1, 2008 by Minneapolis/St. Paul Star-Tribune

About 50,000 are expected today, despite no-shows by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The protest begins at 11 a.m. at the Capitol building and will march to the Xcel Energy Center and back.

by Curt Brown

MINNEAPOLIS - Despite the big-name cancellations and the pre-convention police raids, organizers expect thousands of anti-war demonstrators to march this afternoon from the State Capitol to the site of the Republican National Convention.

They say their passion will not be dampened now that President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are skipping their convention speeches because of Hurricane Gustav. If anything, they say, the storm enhances their message that investing in human needs must outweigh waging an expensive war.

But the protesters are also concerned that aggressive police tactics could cull their numbers, which they estimate could reach 50,000 today.

"Even if the two main actors in the U.S. war in Iraq won't be there, that will not deter people from sending a loud message to the Republican Party and the country that we need to use our resources on human needs and saving people at home, not killing them abroad," said Meredith Aby, a Minneapolis organizer working with a coalition of 130 anti-war groups, labor unions and community organizations to plan today's march.

Protestors planned to rally at the Minnesota Capitol building starting at 11 a.m. today, then march to the Xcel Energy Center, where the convention is being held, and back. The route is about a mile and a half.

They insist the legal march will be peaceful and they urge families to take part. It's expected to be the largest of the protests scheduled this week.

"This protest is aimed at the war, the police state and the bread-and-butter issues," said Polly Kellogg, a professor at St. Cloud State University. "The protesters hold a much bigger and long-term perspective."

At Macalester College in St. Paul, an estimated 300 visitors, most sleeping on floors and sofas, have arrived at the school of 1,800 students to take part in protests.

"It's not just about Bush and Cheney," said Steve Sedlak, a junior from Pittsburgh. "We just don't like the way things are going."

On Sunday, more than 400 Veterans for Peace protesters solemnly followed a flag-draped casket through St. Paul's narrow streets. David Harris, 73, of Red Wing, a retired surgeon, was among seven booked into jail.

His group was met by dozens of Ramsey County sheriff's deputies in full riot garb, who detained nine people. Two, including a nun, were ticketed and released.

Sunday's showdown was peaceful, with media members easily outnumbering everyone else. But activists remain outraged; Katrina Plotz of Bloomington called it "a blatant pattern of intimidation and repression."

Authorities have conducted a series of raids in Minneapolis and St. Paul since Friday, targeting a group called the RNC Welcoming Committee. Five people are in custody pending possible conspiracy charges.

Independent journalists have also been stopped, searched and had gear confiscated. A woman driving a bus with an "Earth Activists" sign was surrounded by squad cars on Interstate 94 near the Cretin Avenue exit Saturday night.

"I'm just appalled that they're trying to put a damper on the whole thing," said Medea Benjamin, from San Francisco and a co-founder of the peace group Code Pink. She attended the DNC in Denver. She said her group's van was searched Saturday. Police found banners.

"The Denver police walked a fine line, but these police are doing a terrible job," Benjamin said. "We never thought this was how police would greet us in such a historically liberal state as 'Minnesota Nice.' "

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said items seized in the raids, including Molotov cocktails and tools to disable buses, convinced him the RNC Welcoming Committee was planning to "engage in criminal behaviors, not just voice their disdain for the Bush administration."

Coleman said Sunday his mother-in-law is among those who plan to march today. Protecting lawful protesters is a key factor behind the raids.

"We are making sure that people here to legitimately protest have the right to do that, but people engaging in criminal activity are not going to be able to do that," he said.

"When people come down to protest in the peace march, we don't need their public and personal safety threatened. It's just absolutely imperative that all the peaceful protesters have a chance to do that."

Jay Kvale, 66, of Hopkins said he'll be among those in the streets today.

"This is about opposition to the war and the casualties among Iraqi civilians and American troops," he said. "Of course, Bush and Cheney started the whole thing, but I don't think it's personal. It's just about changing injustices from happening."

Monday, September 1, 2008

WaPo Has Something Nice To Say About Obama/Biden

Now, that's news!

Biden, Obama a Comfortable Fit on the Campaign Trail

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 1, 2008; A22

TOLEDO, Aug. 31 -- Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. was warming up a crowd at a town hall meeting Sunday morning when a woman shouted, "You are gorgeous!"

"I haven't heard that in a long, long, long time," responded Barack Obama's new running mate. "And hanging around this lean, young-looking guy is making me feel pretty old, you know what I mean?"

The audience cracked up, and so did Obama. When it was his turn to speak, a woman called out for Biden and Obama quipped, "See, she thinks you're gorgeous, too, Joe."

Obama picked Biden as his running mate in part because his colleague from Delaware brings foreign policy heft and a working-class Catholic pedigree to the Democratic ticket. But as the two barnstormed through the Rust Belt on their first campaign swing together over the holiday weekend, it was clear that they also possessed a more elusive political quality: chemistry.

"Marriages of political necessity are often really awkward," said senior Obama aide Linda Douglass. But she said even Obama has been surprised at how quickly he and Biden have clicked on the campaign trail. "There's lots of laughing and collaboration and consultation," she said. "He's just this cheerful presence in the group."

Their rapport stands in contrast to the Democratic ticket in 2004, when Sens. John F. Kerry and John Edwards barely knew each other and grew to dislike one another. Edwards wasn't as tough on President Bush as Kerry wanted him to be, and Kerry campaign aides complained about prima-donna-type demands from Edwards, who, in turn, criticized campaign strategy.

On the Republican side this year, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) met Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin once before last week, when she was offered the job. The two have campaigned together since Friday, and McCain called her "a partner and a soul mate" in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

Biden and Obama have served together on the Foreign Relations Committee since Obama was elected to the Senate in 2004, and they have always had a friendly relationship, with Biden -- the chairman -- playing mentor.

Although they were rivals for their party's nomination this year, Biden has both privately and publicly praised Obama, and he provided help behind the scenes to smooth relations with the Clintons and to guide Obama on foreign policy, sources close to both senators said.

Senior Biden aide Antony Blinken joined Obama at the start of his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan in July. He later told Biden how impressed he was with Obama's grasp of the region and with his rapport with U.S. troops, aides to both said.

Senior Obama advisers said Biden was always a top choice for the No. 2 slot, but they weren't sure how the veteran committee chairman would adapt to a subordinate role. Campaign manager David Plouffe said Biden reassured Obama staffers in their first meeting, saying: "I work for you guys. I'm just part of the team

So far, Biden's role has been part father figure and part foil. He picks loose threads off Obama's jacket and warms up crowds with wisecracks and aphorisms. On Saturday morning, he and his wife, Jill, had French toast for breakfast with the Obamas. His grandkids hit it off with Obama's daughters and have already had one sleepover. At every event, he and Obama embrace and backslap each other, like a pair of long-lost brothers.

"I'm really pleased with Joe Biden," Obama said as the tour was getting started on Friday. "You know, our families have just really hit it off."

Biden also plays the role of validater, translating Obama's life story and values to the white, blue-collar Democrats he has struggled to attract. Describing his hard upbringing to the Toledo crowd, Biden said of Obama, "One of the things Barack and I share in common: I said I was raised by a dad who had to leave to go find work -- Barack was raised by a single mom who worked and went to school. We come from the same kind of stock you all come from."

Biden's new role gives him a chance at redemption after two failed presidential bids. Although widely respected within his party and once considered an Obama-like rising star, he has never clicked as a national candidate. And despite 36 years in the Senate, he remains prone to verbal gaffes and to talking too long.

But those attributes can come off as more endearing than exasperating alongside Obama, who is so polished that he borders on boring. At the start of the Toledo event, the Democratic nominee worked the rope line with his usual surgical precision and reached the podium far ahead of Biden, who was still posing for pictures with police officers and embracing elderly women.

He still has some rough edges. During a "60 Minutes" interview that aired last night, host Steve Kroft asked Biden about the plagiarism controversy that drove him out of the presidential race in 1988. The senator gave a halting response, mangling his explanation that he had forgotten to attribute quotes to British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock during a debate, although he had repeatedly credited Kinnock in previous references.

"I was arrogant. I didn't think I had to prepare," Biden responded. "But I think that I have a record that people can go back and examine and decide whether or not I mean what I say -- no matter how I say it."

As Biden meandered, Obama jumped in: "I like who he is. And I think the American people will."

One change in Biden since his ascent is his willingness to talk about the deaths of his first wife, Neilia, and their baby daughter, Naomi, in a traffic accident weeks after he won his first Senate race in 1972. Earlier this year, when Iowa voters would ask him about the accident, Biden would say that to talk about it was to relive it.

Now he accepts it as part of his appeal. On Friday night, when Obama and Biden met Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, Biden recounted how "Old Mr. Rooney" -- Steelers owner Dan Rooney -- dispatched some players from his championship team to the hospital room in Wilmington where Biden's two toddler sons, Beau and Hunter, were recovering from the accident. They brought the boys an autographed football as a Christmas present.

"And I have been a Steelers fan since that day," Biden told Tomlin.

"Not much has changed," Tomlin responded.

After attending the funeral Saturday of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), Biden recalled another harrowing moment in his life, when he suffered two brain aneurysms within months of dropping out of the 1988 race. Tubbs Jones had died suddenly of the same condition.

"When mine burst, fortunately as described to me by the neurosurgeons, it ricocheted off my skull instead of into my brain," Biden explained. "Had it been the other way around, I would be where she is."

Kerry On Palin and Clinton Supprters

Keep swinging, John!

Via Digby:

STEPHANOPOULOS: … Howard Wolfson, Senator Clinton’s former communications director, said that this pick might just work to draw women to the Republican ticket. Are you worried about that?

KERRY: Well, with all due respect to Howard, you know, I have much more respect for the Clinton supporters than that sort of quick- blush take with — I mean, how stupid do they think the Clinton supporters are, for Heaven sakes?

Do they think Clinton supporters supported Hillary only because she was a woman. For Heaven sakes, they supported Hillary because of all the things she’s fought for, because she fights for health care, which John McCain doesn’t support; she fights for children and children’s health care, which John McCain voted against; she fights for a windfall profits tax on the oil company, which John McCain opposes.

I mean, for Heaven sakes, the people who supported Hillary Clinton are not going to be seduced just because John McCain has picked a woman. They’re going to look at what she supports.

The fact that she doesn’t even support the notion that climate change is manmade — she’s back there with the Flat Earth Caucus. And I don’t see how those women are going to be fooled into believing — I think it’s almost insulting to the Hillary supporters that they believe they would support somebody who is against almost everything that they believe in.

STEPHANOPOULOS: OK.

KERRY: What John McCain has proven with this choice — this is very important, George. John McCain wanted to choose Tom Ridge. He wanted to choose Joe Lieberman. He wanted to choose another candidate, but you know what? Rush Limbaugh and the right wing vetoed it.

And John McCain was forced to come back and pick a sort of Cheney-esque social conservative who’s going to satisfy the base. What John McCain has proven with this choice is that John McCain is the prisoner of the right wing, not a maverick.

I like it. …

I do too. Kerry keeps swinging for the fences like that and someone’s going to want to test him for steroids.

Digby also shares some good advice, as always, on what our response to Palin might ought to be. While I tend to agree, that might be a tall order, as this well just keeps getting deeper. Your thoughts?

Look Out, Cindy

Seems we were right. Old Johnny has found himself another, younger beauty queen, in his dotage. Even old leopards don't change their spots, it seems.

Damn, he isn't even president yet. He is already falling back into old patterns. No telling what he might do with the power of the White House at his disposal.

FNS: McCain Calls Palin His “Soulmate”
By: Nicole Belle on Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Oh dear. Does Cindy know?

After only one meeting before naming her his running mate and little to no vetting, McCain has decided that Sarah Palin is his “partner and soulmate”. Ew, that’s a little creepy. Can you imagine him saying that about his true partner, Joe Lieberman, if the GOP hadn’t demanded he not pick Holy Joe as his running mate?

McCain continues the lies — he must really count on the low info voter taking everything at face value — by claiming he’s been following Palin’s career for years and years. Oh really? What’s McCain doing following a ex-beauty queen turned small town Alaskan mayor’s career, because she has hardly had enough time at the Governor’s mansion to be tracked for a year, much less years and years? And she stood up against oil interests? That’s not what environmentalists are saying. Being FOR drilling in ANWR is hardly standing up against the oil companies.

My favorite line? I don’t particularly enjoy the label “maverick”

Yeah, rrrriiiiiiiggggghhhhhtttttt.

Transcripts below the fold:

WALLACE: Let’s start with your choice of running mate. Of all the people you could have chosen, all the Republican leaders you’ve known for years. Straight talk, can you honestly say that Sarah Palin is the best person to put a heartbeat away from the presidency?

McCAIN: Oh yeah. She’s a…she’s a partner and a soulmate. [laughs] She’s…she’s a reformer. I don’t particularly enjoy the label “maverick,” but when somebody takes on the old bulls in her own party, runs against an incumbent governor of her own party, stands up against the oil and gas interests…I mean, they really are so vital to the economy of her…of the state of Alaska. I mean, it’s remarkable. It’s a remarkable person and I’ve watched her record and I’ve watched her for many, many years as she implemented ethics and lobbying reforms. I mean, she led on it; she didn’t just vote for it. She led it, I’ve seen her…take on her own party. Look, one thing I know is when you take on your own party in Washington, you pay a price for it. You do. You pay a price for it.

(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.

Oh, boy...This is Embarrassing.............

You can't make this stuff up, really!

When a Fox News morning host, Steve Doocy, testified to Sarah Palin's national security experience on Friday by saying that her state, Alaska, was so close to Russia, it drew hoots across the media and blogosphere (and even, no doubt, from a few Fox viewers).

This morning, on ABC in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Cindy McCain endorsed this very view.

Asked about Palin's national security experience, Cindy McCain could not come up with anything beyond the fact that, after all, her state is right next to Russia. "You know, the experience that she comes from is, what she has done in government -- and remember that Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia."

She added that Palin has "way more experience than...." but Stephanopoulos cut her off before she could say, for example, "Barack Obama" or maybe "others give her credit for."

Earlier in the interview, she said that Palin was "heavily experienced" in general, citing her going from the PTA to mayor to governor -- and having a son headed for Iraq. She actually said that she started her political career at the PTA "like everybody else."

Meanwhile, Palin's mother-in-law, Faye Palin, told a New York Daily News reporter that she didn't agree with Sarah on everything and hadn't yet decided how she would vote. She added: "I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative. Well, she's a better speaker than McCain," Faye Palin said with a laugh.

But this actually isn't as appalling as a phone interview Palin herself gave yesterday to reporter back home, at the Anchorage Daily News.

The reporter, Kyle Hopkins, asked, according to the transcript posted today, "Are you ready to be President Palin if necessary?"

"I am ... I am up to the task, of course, of focusing on the challenges that face America," she answered, and that was all she could say on her behalf on this question. Then she abruptly shifted to how her candidacy would help Alaska. "And I am very pleased with the situation that I am in, when, when you consider the situation now that Alaska will be in.

"And that is Alaska, and Alaskans will be allowed to contribute more to our great country and they'll be allowed to do that because I -- if we're elected -- will be in a position of opening the eyes of the country to what it is that Alaska is all about and what Alaska has to offer. So, I am happy to and very honored to be asked to do this. I know it's going to be great for Alaska."

Who said the woman was against earmarks? Actually, it seems like she sees herself as an Alaska earmark.

The early returns are not good, with most in the media still stepping lightly around the issue of John McCain's hypocrisy in asserting, for months, that Barack Obama is "dangerously" inexperienced in facing international threats -- and then appointing Palin as his running mate.

Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. It has been hailed by Bill Moyers, Arianna Huffington and others and features a preface by Bruce Springsteen. His email is: gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com

The CIA, Contras, Gangs, and Crack

History of CIA Involvement in Drug Trafficking

"In my 30year history in the Drug Enforcement Administration and related agencies, the major targets of my investigations almost invariably turned out to be working for the CIA." -- Dennis Dayle, former chief of an elite DEA enforcement unit.³

The foregoing discussion should not be regarded as any kind of historical aberration inasmuch as the CIA has had a long and virtually continuous involvement with drug trafficking since the end of World War II.

1947 to 1951, France

CIA arms, money, and disinformation enabled Corsican criminal syndicates in Marseille to wrest control of labor unions from the Communist Party. The Corsicans gained political influence and control over the docks--ideal conditions for cementing a long-term partnership with mafia drug distributors, which turned Marseille into the postwar heroin capital of the Western world. Marseille's first heroin laboratories were opened in 1951, only months after the Corsicans took over the waterfront.⁴

Early 1950s, Southeast Asia

The Nationalist Chinese army, organized by the CIA to wage war against Communist China, became the opium baron of The Golden Triangle (parts of Burma, Thailand, and Laos), the world's largest source of opium and heroin. Air America, the CIA's principal proprietary airline, flew the drugs all over Southeast Asia.⁵

1950s to early 1970s, Indochina

During U.S. military involvement in Laos and other parts of Indochina, Air America flew opium and heroin throughout the area. Many GI's in Vietnam became addicts. A laboratory built at CIA headquarters in northern Laos was used to refine heroin. After a decade of American military intervention, Southeast Asia had become the source of 70 percent of the world's illicit opium and the major supplier of raw materials for America's booming heroin market.⁶

1973 to 1980, Australia

The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. Among its officers were a network of U.S. generals, admirals, and CIA men--including former CIA Director William Colby, who was also one of its lawyers. With branches in Saudi Arabia, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America, and the U.S., Nugan Hand Bank financed drug trafficking, money laundering, and international arms dealing. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths, the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt.⁷

1970s and 1980s, Panama

For more than a decade, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was a highly paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge by U.S. drug authorities as early as 1971 that the general was heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. Noriega facilitated "guns-for-drugs" flights for the contras, providing protection and pilots, safe havens for drug cartel officials, and discreet banking facilities. U.S. officials, including then-CIA Director William Webster and several DEA officers, sent Noriega letters of praise for efforts to thwart drug trafficking (albeit only against competitors of his Medellín cartel patrons). The U.S. government only turned against Noriega, invading Panama in December 1989 and kidnapping the general, once they discovered he was providing intelligence and services to the Cubans and Sandinistas. Ironically, drug trafficking through Panama increased after the U.S. invasion.⁸

1980s, Central America

The San Jose Mercury News series documents just one thread of the interwoven operations linking the CIA, the contras, and the cocaine cartels. Obsessed with overthrowing the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, Reagan administration officials tolerated drug trafficking as long as the traffickers gave support to the contras. In 1989, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations (the Kerry committee) concluded a three-year investigation by stating: "There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on the part of individual contras, contra suppliers, contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the contras, and contra supporters throughout the region. . . . U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war efforts against Nicaragua. . . . In each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government had information regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or immediately thereafter. . . . Senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the contras' funding problems."⁹

In Costa Rica, which served as the "Southern Front" for the contras (Honduras being the Northern Front), there were several CIA-contra networks involved in drug trafficking. In addition to those servicing the Meneses-Blandon operation (detailed by the Mercury News) and Noriega's operation, there was CIA operative John Hull, whose farms along Costa Rica's border with Nicaragua were the main staging area for the contras. Hull and other CIA-connected contra supporters and pilots teamed up with George Morales, a major Miami-based Colombian drug trafficker who later admitted to giving $3 million in cash and several planes to contra leaders.¹⁰ In 1989, after the Costa Rica government indicted Hull for drug trafficking, a DEA-hired plane clandestinely and illegally flew the CIA operative to Miami, via Haiti. The U.S. repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite Hull to Costa Rica to stand trial.¹¹

Another Costa Rican-based drug ring involved a group of Cuban Americans whom the CIA had hired as military trainers for the contras. Many had long been involved with the CIA and drug trafficking. They used contra planes and a Costa Rican-based shrimp company, which laundered money for the CIA, to channel cocaine to the U.S.¹²

Costa Rica was not the only route. Guatemala, whose military intelligence service--closely associated with the CIA--harbored many drug traffickers, according to the DEA, was another way station along the cocaine highway.¹³ Additionally, the Medellín cartel's Miami accountant, Ramon Milian Rodriguez, testified that he funneled nearly $10 million to Nicaraguan contras through long-time CIA operative Felix Rodriguez, who was based at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador.¹⁴

The contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies, and banks) to these CIA-linked drug networks. At least four transport companies under investigation for drug trafficking received U.S. government contracts to carry nonlethal supplies to the contras.¹⁵ Southern Air Transport, "formerly" CIA-owned and later under Pentagon contract, was involved in the drug running as well.¹⁶ Cocaine-laden planes flew to Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and other locations, including several military bases. Designated as "Contra Craft," these shipments were not to be inspected. When some authority wasn't apprised and made an arrest, powerful strings were pulled to result in dropping the case, acquittal, reduced sentence, or deportation.¹⁷

Mid-1980s to early 1990s, Haiti

While working to keep key Haitian military and political leaders in power, the CIA turned a blind eye to their clients' drug trafficking. In 1986, the Agency added some more names to its payroll by creating a new Haitian organization, the National Intelligence Service (SIN). SIN's mandate included countering the cocaine trade, though SIN officers themselves engaged in trafficking, a trade aided and abetted by some Haitian military and political leaders.¹⁸

1980s to early 1990s, Afghanistan

CIA-supported Moujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking while fighting the Soviet-supported government, which had plans to reform Afghan society. The Agency's principal client was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the leading drug lords and the biggest heroin refiner, who was also the largest recipient of CIA military support. CIA-supplied trucks and mules that had carried arms into Afghanistan were used to transport opium to laboratories along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The output provided up to one-half of the heroin used annually in the United States and three-quarters of that used in Western Europe. U.S. officials admitted in 1990 that they had failed to investigate or take action against the drug operation because of a desire not to offend their Pakistani and Afghan allies.¹⁹ In 1993, an official of the DEA dubbed Afghanistan the new Colombia of the drug world.²⁰

Endnotes

¹ Gary Webb, "Dark Alliance" series, San Jose Mercury News. Beginning August 18, 1996.

² Celerino Castillo, Powder Burns: Cocaine, Contras and the Drug War (Mosaic Press, 1994). Los Angeles Times lengthy series of articles, October 20, 21, 22, 1996. Roberto Suro and Walter Pincus, "The CIA and Crack: Evidence is Lacking of Alleged Plot" (Washington Post, October 4, 1996). Howard Kurtz, "Running with the CIA Story" (Washington Post, October 2, 1996). Douglas Farah and Walter Pincus "CIA, Contras and Drugs: Questions on Links Linger" (Washington Post, October 31, 1996). Tim Golden,"Though Evidence is Thin, Tale of CIA and Drugs Has a Life of Its Own" (New York Times, October 21, 1996).

³ Peter Dale Scott & Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) pp. x-xi.

⁴ Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (New York City, New York: Harper & Row, 1972, chapter 2).

⁵ Christopher Robbins, Air America (New York City, New York: Avon Books, 1985) chapter 9. McCoy, Politics of Heroin.

⁶ McCoy, Politics of Heroin, chapter 9.

⁷ Robbins, Air America, p. 128 and chapter 9. Jonathan Kwitny, The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA (New York City, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987). William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995) p. 420, note 33.

⁸ Scott & Marshall, Cocaine Politics; John Dinges, Our Man in Panama (NY, New York: Random House, 1991); Murray Waas, "Cocaine and the White House Connection", Los Angeles Weekly, Sept. 30-Oct. 6 and Oct. 7-13, 1988; National Security Archive Documentation Packet: The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations (Washington, DC).

⁹ "Kerry Report": Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy, a Report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, 1989, pp. 2, 36, 41.

¹⁰ Martha Honey, Hostile Acts: U.S. Policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s (Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1994).

¹¹ Martha Honey and David Myers, "U.S. Probing Drug Agent's Activities in Costa Rica," San Francisco Chronicle, August 14, 1991.

¹² Honey, Hostile Acts.

¹³ Frank Smyth, "In Guatemala, The DEA Fights the CIA", New Republic, June 5, 1995; Blum, Killing Hope, p. 239.

¹⁴ Martha Honey, "Drug Figure Says Cartel Gave Drugs to Contras" Washington Post, June 30, 1987.

¹⁵ Kerry report, Drugs.

¹⁶ Scott & Marshall, Cocaine Politics, pp. 17-18.

¹⁷ Scott & Marshall, Cocaine Politics; Waas, "Cocaine and the White House"; NSA, The Contras.

¹⁸ New York Times, Nov. 14, 1993; The Nation, Oct. 3, 1994, p. 346.

¹⁹ Blum, Killing Hope, p. 351; Tim Weiner, Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget (New York City, New York: Warner Books, 1990) pp. 151-2.

²⁰ Los Angeles Times, Aug. 22, 1993

Sources for more information

World Wide Web

Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Covert Action Quarterly
http://www.worldmedia.com/caq/

The National Security Archive
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive/

Organizations

The National Security Archive
Gelman Library, Ste. 7012130 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20037
Voice: (202) 994-7000
Email: nsarchiv@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu
Contact: Peter Kornbluh

Congresswoman Maxine Waters
330 Cannon House Building
Washington, DC 20515
Voice: (202) 225-2201
Contact: Joseph Lee

Covert Action Quarterly
1500 Mass Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20005
Voice: (202) 331-9763
Fax: (202) 331-9751
Email: caq@igc.apc.org
Contact: Terry Allen

Latin American Working Group
110 Maryland Ave. NE Box 15
Washington, DC 20002
Voice: (202) 546-7010
Fax: (202) 543-7647
Contact: Lisa Hargaard

Publications

Lorraine Adams, "North Didn't Relay Drug Tips", The Washington Post, Oct. 22, 1994, p. 1.

William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995).

Celerino Castillo with David Harmon, Powder Burns: Cocaine, Contras and the Drug War (Mosaic Press, 1994).

John Dinges, Our Man in Panama (New York City, NY: Random House, 1991).

Martha Honey, Hostile Acts: U.S. Policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s (Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1994).

Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy, December 1988.

Jonathan Kwitny, The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA (New York City, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987).

Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1972).

Clarence Lusane, Pipe Dream Blues: Racism and the War on Drugs (Boston: South End Press, 1991).

National Security Archive, Documentation Packet: The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations (Washington, D.C. October 1996).

Christopher Robbins, Air America (New York City, New York: Avon Books, 1985).

Peter Dale Scott & Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America (Berkeley, California: University of CA Press, 1991).

Murray Waas, "Cocaine and the White House Connection", Los Angeles Weekly, Sept. 30-Oct. 6 and Oct. 7-13, 1988.

Tim Weiner, Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget (New York City, New York: Warner Books, 1990).

Chief Fired By Palin Speaks Out

This accusation is about typical Republican behavior. This seems tame compared to the illegitimate Bush administration and, therefore, one of their chief enablers, John McCain.

Abuse of power? Nah, just politics as usual in the GOP. The Democrats are also pretty capable in this area, especially in the Southland. But those Democrats are now Republicans, or Blue Dog Democrats. What the hell is a blue dog anyhow?

Washington Post

29/08/08 "Washington Post" -- - The July firing of Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan by Gov. Sarah Palin, who was announced as John McCain's running mate on Friday, has unearthed a stream of soap-opera-like details about Palin, her husband, her family and top state appointees. The controversy has also cut against Palin's reputation for holding an ethical line and standing up to colleagues in the Republican Party over matters of principle.

Monegan, 57, a respected former chief of the Anchorage Police Department, said in an interview with The Washington Post's James V. Grimaldi on Friday that the governor repeatedly brought up the topic of her ex-brother-in-law, Michael Wooten, after Monegan became the state's commissioner of public safety in December 2006. Palin's husband, Todd, met with Monegan and presented a dossier of information about Wooten, who was going through a bitter custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly. Monegan also said Sarah Palin sent him e-mails on the subject, but Monegan declined to disclose them, saying he planned to give them to a legislative investigator looking into the matter.

Palin initially denied that she or anyone in her administration had ever pressured Monegan to fire the trooper, but this summer acknowledged more than a half a dozen contacts over the matter, including one phone call from a Palin administration official to a state police lieutenant. The call was recorded and was released by Palin's office this month. Todd Palin told a television reporter in Alaska that he did meet with Monegan, but said he was just "informing" Monegan about the issue, not exerting pressure.

"She never directly asked me to fire him," Monegan said.

But he said Todd Palin told him Wooten "shouldn't be a trooper. I've tried to explain to him, you can't head hunt like this. What you need to do is back off, because if the trooper does make a mistake, and it is a terminable offense, it can look like political interference.

"I think he's emotionally committed in trying to see that his former brother-in-law is punished."

The allegation against Palin, "undercuts one of the points they are making that she is an ethical reformer," said Democratic state Sen. Hollis French, who is managing a $100,000 investigation into the firing of Walter Monegan.

(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 Seeks To Make War Powers Permanent

Will some one please ask the following, obvious question: Does THE the most partisan administration I have ever seen, really intend on turning these kingly powers over to a Democratic administration? I have a hard time believing that.

So, the GOP must be completely sure that the White House, at least, is theirs' to keep forever. How can they possibly be so sure? They would have to be really sure, right?

Uh, is this the "enabling act," writ large?

By declaring indefinite state of war

By John Byrne

31/08/08 "Raw Story' -- As the nation focuses on Sen. John McCain's choice of running mate, President Bush has quietly moved to expand the reach of presidential power by ensuring that America remains in a state of permanent war.

Buried in a recent proposal by the Administration is a sentence that has received scant attention -- and was buried itself in the very newspaper that exposed it Saturday. It is an affirmation that the United States remains at war with al Qaeda, the Taliban and "associated organizations."

Part of a proposal for Guantanamo Bay legal detainees, the provision before Congress seeks to “acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us and who are dedicated to the slaughter of Americans.”

The New York Times' page 8 placement of the article in its Saturday edition seems to downplay its importance. Such a re-affirmation of war carries broad legal implications that could imperil Americans' civil liberties and the rights of foreign nationals for decades to come.

It was under the guise of war that President Bush claimed a legal mandate for his warrantless wiretapping program, giving the National Security Agency power to intercept calls Americans made abroad. More of this program has emerged in recent years, and it includes the surveillance of Americans' information and exchanges online.

"War powers" have also given President Bush cover to hold Americans without habeas corpus -- detainment without explanation or charge. Jose Padilla, a Chicago resident arrested in 2002, was held without trial for five years before being convicted of conspiring to kill individuals abroad and provide support for terrorism.

But his arrest was made with proclamations that Padilla had plans to build a "dirty bomb." He was never convicted of this charge. Padilla's legal team also claimed that during his time in military custody -- the four years he was held without charge -- he was tortured with sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, forced stress positions and injected with drugs.

Times reporter Eric Lichtblau notes that the measure is the latest step that the Administration has taken to "make permanent" key aspects of its "long war" against terrorism. Congress recently passed a much-maligned bill giving telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for their participation in what constitutional experts see as an illegal or borderline-illegal surveillance program, and is considering efforts to give the FBI more power in their investigative techniques.

"It is uncertain whether Congress will take the administration up on its request," Lichtblau writes. "Some Republicans have already embraced the idea, with Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, introducing a measure almost identical to the administration’s proposal. 'Since 9/11,' Mr. Smith said, 'we have been at war with an unconventional enemy whose primary goal is to kill innocent Americans.'"

If enough Republicans come aboard, Democrats may struggle to defeat the provision. Despite holding majorities in the House and Senate, they have failed to beat back some of President Bush's purported "security" measures, such as the telecom immunity bill.

Bush's open-ended permanent war language worries his critics. They say it could provide indefinite, if hazy, legal justification for any number of activities -- including detention of terrorists suspects at bases like Guantanamo Bay (where for years the Administration would not even release the names of those being held), and the NSA's warantless wiretapping program.

Lichtblau co-wrote the Times article revealing the Administration's eavesdropping program along with fellow reporter James Risen.

He notes that Bush's language "recalls a resolution, known as the Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed by Congress on Sept. 14, 2001... [which] authorized the president to 'use all necessary and appropriate force' against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks to prevent future strikes. That authorization, still in effect, was initially viewed by many members of Congress who voted for it as the go-ahead for the administration to invade Afghanistan and overthrow the Taliban, which had given sanctuary to Mr. bin Laden."

"But the military authorization became the secret legal basis for some of the administration’s most controversial legal tactics, including the wiretapping program, and that still gnaws at some members of Congress," he adds.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Conspiracy Theory? Oh, Pulleze

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Conspiracy-Theorist-by-Josh-Mitteldorf-080831-377.html

August 31, 2008

Conspiracy Theorist!

By Josh Mitteldorf

The reason that conspiracy theories – any conspiracy theories – are deemed implausible on their face is that they require so much silent loyalty to pull off. “And why hasn’t someone – anyone – come forward to tell this story? Do you mean to tell me there isn’t one honest man close enough to the inside of this thing – no one who would be willing to go public and blow this thing to pieces?”

For four years now, election theft has been in the backwaters of American journalism, while the mainstream press has steered clear of the issue. Same old conspiracy theorists fussin’ and bellyachin’. Neither have the Democratic victims of this fraud been willing to speak out. Al Gore (FL 2000), Max Cleland (GA 2002), and John Kerry (Ohio 2004) have not merely been silent on the issue, they have actively worked to discredit the truth that elections were stolen from them.

Now it really gets weird. Two of Karl Rove’s computer experts have come forward with details about how it was done. Stephen Spoonamore and Michael Connell are lifelong Republicans, and insiders in campaigns going back to George Bush, Sr in 1988.

Here’s a segment from a transcript of Mark Crispin Miller’s recent interview on the Thom Hartmann show:

[Mark]: Spoonamore...a lifelong Republican and erstwhile member of the McCain campaign until he discovered so much about the Republicans’ election fraud that he resigned, and a prominent expert on computer crime. Now two years ago, Thom, this guy gave a long interview to ... the news division of one of the three major networks. It's up online, you know, people can get it at my blog.... It's stunning... This guy has come out and said, and he has documentary evidence to prove this,... that the Bush team has been stealing elections since and including 2000. Spoonamore has named Karl Rove's IT guy...Mike Connell, a fervent Catholic and fanatical pro-lifer who told Spoon that he has helped the Republicans to steal elections to save the babies. I’m not making this up. Whenever Karl Rove wanted something done, he would say to Connell ‘just make it happen’, and this kind of thing has included Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004, also Don Siegelman’s stolen re-election in Alabama in 2002. Evidence suggests he was involved in the theft of Max Cleland's re-election in Georgia in 2002.

The mystery is what sustains the veil of silence in the ‘liberal media’, including NPR, the New York Times, and even The Nation? And yet more mysterious: Why isn’t this a campaign issue? There is little doubt that millions of votes will be stolen from Obama this November, via a devil’s grabbag of dirty tricks. I know personally election integrity activists who have approached the Obama campaign with solid evidence about elections that have already been stolen from him, and Obama’s staff has rebuffed them.

Now that the perps themselves have come forward, what is keeping the lid on this story? We have no clear answers, but there is indirect evidence of three means that are being used to maintain the silence:

* Prominent Democratic insiders are Republican agents in disguise. Bob Frum, James Carville and Donna Brazile are examples.

* Group-think is a powerful force. It is difficult to sustain an independent position that is at odds with the underlying reality on which so much public communication is based.

* Threats of violence and threats of prosecution. This administration has assassinated opponents (Paul Wellstone, Athan Gibbs, with several other suspicious deaths) and used selective prosecutions (Don Siegelman, Bob Ney, Eliot Spitzer) to end the careers of politicians who threatened their modus operandi.

The valiant few who have been willing to talk about the issue, despite their vulnerability and national prominence, include John Conyers, Stephanie Tubb Jones, Dennis Kucinich, and Cynthia McKinney. Print media that have featured articles on the subject: Rolling Stone, Harper’s Monthly, and In These Times.

I have faith that there remains a core of democracy in the American system, and that the truth will come out in time. When the history of vote theft is laid bare, it will change the landscape of American politics for generations to come.

Transcript of Miller/Hartmann interview

Brad Friedman’s blog on Mike Connell

Free Press article on Connell

Videos of Stephen Spoonamore talking about vote thef

Authors Website: http://mathforum.org/~josh

Authors Bio: Josh Mitteldorf was educated to be an astrophysicist, and has branched out from there to mathematical modeling in a variety of areas. He has taught mathematics, statistics, and physics at several universities. He is an avid amateur pianist, and father of two adopted Chinese girls. This year, his affiliation is with the University of Arizona, where he studies the evolution of aging.

(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.

GOP Spooked By Ghosts Of Katrina

If this isn't the ironies of all ironies!

Three years after hurricane Katrina drowned a very special American city, while George W. Bush and John McCain celebrated the latter's birthday in Sedona, Karina's brother, Gustav, threatens the GOP's biggest party of all. Then, the president seemed oblivious to what the rest of us were seeing on our TeeVee screens. Now, he is so "busy" at emergency command stations, he may not have time to visit McCain's nominating convention.

Gee. Too bad, eh John?

There is little doubt in my mind that McCain is praying for a disaster. Out of pure selflessness and leadership, he can turn the GOP convention into a telethon for the Gulf Coast and save himself and his party from looking like losers, compared to what just took place in Denver.

Yep, that's just what people want right now, to be asked for more money at a time when everyone is suffering from disaster fatigue and everything neccessary for life in America costs much more than it did only a year ago.

He can make a couple of trips to the disaster zone, looking presidential, before he is even officially nominated.

Nevertheless, no matter what he does, this is a storm that will remind the nation of the horror of Katrina. The almost comedic (had people not been killed in massive nmbers and lost everything they had) very late response by the Bush administration will be remembered as well. The fact that little has been done in New Orleans till this day by the federal government, and New Orleans is a major port city shoud not go unnoticed. Its suvival is of very high importance to the nation and its security.

So, where is Cheney? With Junior so engaged, Cheney doesn't have much to do. He could come to the convention.

Maybe he's busy trying to tie Gustav to Iran.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Officials with the McCain campaign and the Republican National convention are considering changing the event's agenda as Hurricane Gustav bears down on the Gulf Coast.

The Republican National Convention is set to kick off Monday in Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minnesota.

Sen. John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, plans to meet with officials in charge of the party's convention planning in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sunday to review the latest news on Hurricane Gustav and what their options might be and then consult with the presumptive presidential nominee to determine what changes may need to be made.

"I wouldn't call it a nightmare, but it is a very perplexing challenge," said a GOP official planning the event.

A senior McCain source said Saturday that officials are considering turning the convention into a service event, a massive telethon to raise money for the Red Cross and other agencies to help with the hurricane.

"He wants to do something service-oriented if and when the storm hits and it's as bad as its expected to be now," the McCain source said.

They are also hoping to get McCain himself to a storm-affected area as soon as possible.

McCain had suggested to a Fox News interviewer that the convention could be suspended if it seemed that a festive gathering was inappropriate in light of the destruction the storm may bring. Watch as the Gulf Coast prepares for Gustav »

President Bush, who is scheduled to address the convention Monday night, is making contingency plans in case the storm keeps him in Washington.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said there are "no schedule changes yet, but we're making contingency plans" because of the hurricane. She said it is a "serious and scary situation," so the White House is "closely monitoring" the storm.

A Republican official involved in convention planning said that various options are being explored, including having the president speak to Republican delegates via satellite and updating them on the storm rather than traveling to Minnesota.

Perino said she expects to have more details by Sunday morning.

Republican Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Charlie Crist of Florida, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Rick Perry of Texas -- whose states that lie in the path of Gustav, named a Category 4 hurricane Saturday afternoon -- will skip the GOP convention because of the storm.

The storm has forced last-minute changes in the convention's announced schedule: If the convention -- originally scheduled to start Monday -- commences by Tuesday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's speech will probably move to that night from Wednesday.

Other changes were being contemplated Saturday afternoon.

The hardest decisions, like whether to cancel a day or two of the four-day gathering or to or condense days, will be made at the last second, GOP officials said. But the logistics of those decisions are being discussed.

There are two scenarios under consideration for Bush's speech, slated for Monday night. If the president is on hand to speak, his wife, Laura, will give a short speech. If he is not, the first lady will give a longer speech, and the president will speak via satellite.

That decision will probably not be made until Sunday evening or Monday.

Officials won't discuss in detail how McCain's plans might change. They won't talk about McCain in any detail, but he is likely to go Monday or Tuesday to an aid station in an area hit by the hurricane, if it continues on as expected.

Earlier Saturday, President Bush declared a state of emergency in Mississippi, following similar declarations in Louisiana and Texas.

The president ordered federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in the areas in the forecast path of Hurricane Gustav.

Bush checked in with the four governors whose states are in Gustav's potential route.

The president pledged the full support of the federal government to those states, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

Bush and his administration were heavily criticized in 2005 for not moving fast enough to send federal help to the Gulf Coast when Hurricane Katrina hit.

(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.

McCain's "Out-right Lie" On Taxes

August 31, 2008

'OUTRIGHT LIE' ON TAXES.... When he's not talking about Britney Spears, arugula, or tire-pressure gauges, John McCain tends to attack Barack Obama on taxes. In fact, most of McCain recent ads feature the phrase "higher taxes" -- in all caps -- alongside Obama's picture.

Obama is no doubt aware of McCain's deceptive attacks, and emphasized his tax plan in his acceptance speech in Denver on Thursday: "You know, unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America. I'll eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow. I will -- listen now -- I will cut taxes -- cut taxes -- for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class."

With that in mind, it was encouraging to see the Washington Post editorial board note today that "McCain's ads on taxes are just plain false," and his campaign's message is peddling a "phony, misleading and at times outright dishonest" line.

[T]he McCain campaign insists on completely misrepresenting Mr. Obama's plan. The ad opens with the Obama-as-celebrity theme -- "Celebrities don't have to worry about family budgets, but we sure do," says the female announcer. "We're paying more for food and gas, making it harder to save for college, retirement." Then she sticks it to him: "Obama's solution? Higher taxes, called 'a recipe for economic disaster.' He's ready to raise your taxes but not ready to lead."
The facts? The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that the Obama plan would give households in the bottom fifth of the income distribution an average tax cut of 5.5 percent of income ($567) in 2009, while those in the middle fifth would get an average cut of 2.6 percent of income ($1,118). "Your taxes" would go up, yes -- but not if you're someone who is sweating higher gas prices. By contrast, Mr. McCain's tax plan would give those in the bottom fifth of income an average tax cut of $21 in 2009. The middle fifth would get $325 -- less than a third of the Obama cut. The wealthiest taxpayers make out terrifically.

The Post doesn't seem fond of any plan to cut taxes, but the editorial board nevertheless concludes that McCain has been pushing an "outright lie."

Given that news outlets are generally very reluctant to use the "l" word when it comes to McCain's shameless dishonesty, it was encouraging to see Hiatt & Co. set the record straight.

—Steve Benen

(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.

Axis Of Evil Defeats NeoCons

One of the best things that could come of this nightmare called the Bush administration:

The word 'neoconservative" would become as despised as the term 'fascist" and held as with as much contempt as "nazi" or "communist."

More than once, I have heard said, in their defense, "but you would have to agree, that they do believe in what they are doing; they believe they are doing the right thing?

Say what? Hypocrisy is not the only high crime available to the powerful.

Some of the most evil actors on this planet believed that what they were doing was right. Hitler believed in what he was doing. He was delusional as hell but he believed his on B.S.

Admittedly, this gang of Bushites have major hypocrisy going for them, but that is the least of our worries, at this juncture.

Olympic Foreign Policy Games

By SAUL LANDAU and FARRAH HASSEN

The Olympic spectacle dictates a sports metaphor. In 2002, high level neocons dominated much of Bush’s National Security Council and Defense and State Departments, challenging US enemies across the world in a slugfest, which they did. Now, years later, the tally is clear. The fiendish foes have won the Gold. The neocons-- those who remain in government and have not resigned, been canned or gone to jail – have proven themselves big time losers.

Unlike the athletes, the neocons, unfortunately, represented the US public, the real losers. The neocon strategy, the use of --or threat of-- military power to create a US dominated world order, has left its legacy: wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a stumbling, debt ridden US economy. They have left the country weaker and more pessimistic.

Vice President Dick Cheney relied on Scooter “The Felon” Libby and Douglas Feith. Whispering into Bush’s ear, Defense intellectuals Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle charted a disastrous course. Supposedly steeped in history, they apparently did not understand that all power – even that of the USA-- has limits.

Reversing Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum, they have screamed loudly and carried a twig. They roared threats at “Axis of Evil” members North Korea and Iran. In June 2007, US officials engaged in direct talks with North Korea regarding its nuclear weapons, as the Koreans had demanded in the first place. In July 2008, Under Secretary of State William Burns met with Iranian negotiator Said Jalili and EU envoys in Geneva to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. Once again, Bush felt forced to abandon the neocon stand of “no negotiating with evil.” The Iranians seated at the table smirked at the US officials.

In 2002, the neocons, intent on invading Iraq no matter what, pressured Saddam Hussein to readmit UN weapons inspectors to verify the presence or lack of WMD. They apparently convinced Bush and the US media that facts did not matter. So, Bush spent five years with WMD egg on his face – which he joked about at national press dinners -- while neocon reporter Judith Miller left the New York Times and will skulk forever in journalistic purgatory.

The much fabled surge has or hasn’t worked. Think of the promise after five and a half years! The neocons assured US troops to expect greetings with flowers. Instead, they still get shot and bombed. Over 2.4 million refugees have fled mostly to neighboring Syria and Jordan, with another 2.7 internally displaced. Gen. Petraeus told Congress that war had to stop between ethnic groups. It has not stopped. Kurds and Arabs continue fighting in the north, around Kirkuk, and Turkey makes regular incursions into Iraqi territory to fight Kurdish rebels. It is also unlikely that the Iraqi Parliament will get its act together in time to stage regional elections, which they swore they would hold this year.

The bright eyed neocons also promised a “new” and “democratic” Middle East, with Iraq as step one. But the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime has not ushered in democracy and human rights to Iraq—or inspired a democracy “domino effect” throughout the region. Before the invasion, Wolfowitz had asserted that Iraq as the “first Arab democracy” would “cast a very large shadow, starting with Syria and Iran, across the whole Arab world.” (BBC News, April 10, 2003)

Instead, in the wake of a broken Iraq, the Bush administration’s “democratizing” mission for this turbulent area of non-democracies has morphed into a combination of hand-wringing, begging and cajoling U.S.-allied states in the region. Rather than increasing political participation, the non democratic state rulers, like Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, have cracked down on democratic opposition. Because Bush did not keep his promises or carry out his threats, Washington has lost friends and influence and gained hostility. The downhill slide has not ended.

The Israelis, heartened by the exuberance shown by Bush for their own aggressive impulses, played their neocon role in July 2006 when they attacked Lebanon in response to a Hezbollah incursion. The IDF and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert still lick their wounds from their defeat in that war. Indeed, they inadvertently helped enhance the popularity of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah throughout the Arab region. According to the 2008 Arab Public Opinion Poll, conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon and the UAE, Nasrallah, followed by Syria’s Bashar al-Asad and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, topped the list of popular leaders. The same survey found that 83% of Arabs hold an “unfavorable view” of the US. (Shibley Telhami )

Another serious neocon fiasco occurred in Israel. Instead of achieving a settlement with a weak PLO leadership that would not insist that Israel revert to its 1967 borders as dictated by the UN, the neocon attempts to destroy Hamas contributed to its electoral victory in Gaza in January 2006. The US choice to represent all Palestinians is a widely rejected Abbas government that cannot mobilize support for any initiative. In addition, the Israelis followed neocon chutzpah and kept expanding settlements on Palestinian land, a serious obstacle to any peace agreement:

The US military has shown it has power -- to kill lots of people in Iraq and Afghanistan. But this fact of possessing unparalleled air, sea and ground power has not brought victory in either place – just as it didn’t in Vietnam and Korea. By making war its substitute for diplomacy, Washington abrogated its diplomatic role in the region. Instead, less than prestigious regimes have taken the initiative that logically belonged to the great power to help negotiate settlements with Iran and Syria, in Lebanon with Hezbollah and in Palestine with Hamas,

The 18 month political crisis in Lebanon, pitting the Western-backed government against the Hezbollah-led opposition, ebded last April thanks to the Doha Agreement. Qatar—alongside the Arab League and Syria—and not the US, helped broker a diplomatic solution leading to the formation of a national unity government. Under the agreement the opposition maintains its veto power over cabinet decisions—fulfilling a key demand from Hezbollah. This embarrassed Bush (thanks to his neocon strategy), who sought to undermine Hezbollah’s power.

In June, Egypt mediated a truce between Israel and Hamas, in which Israel agreed to allow a limited flow of goods to and from Gaza, in exchange for Hamas halting rocket attacks against Israeli targets. The truce is fragile, but significantly Israel recognized the failure of the Bush administration and neocon approach to isolate Hamas. As Menachem Klein, a former nongovernmental Israeli negotiator, stated, “Israel is acknowledging, in effect, that its blockade has not worked and Hamas is here to stay.” (Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2008)

The Israelis also ignored Washington’s admonition about responding to Syrian peace feelers. So, Israel turned to Turkey, leading to the beginning of indirect talks between Syria and Israel. Even with many neocons gone from the upper echelons, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could still not define a controlling US space in the volatile region. The members of this power-minded clique did their damage.

Even in its own “backyard,” Washington has lost power and prestige. The US government pays hundreds of millions of dollars to Colombia each year – using the never ending “war on drugs” as a pretext – to insure Bogota’s minimal obeisance.

Alan Garcia in Peru would like to kiss US butt; however, anti-US sentiment prevents him from fully bending over. In the rest of the lower continent, Fidel Castro’s disciples run Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. In early August, President Evo Morales won an important referendum against US-backed elitists who wanted to divide – and then conquer -- Bolivia. More than 62 percent of voters in this Andean nation ratified the mandate of Morales and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia.

Castro’s political cousins head governments in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Even Honduras and Guatemala have moved away from US control in Central America. Only El Salvador – polls show it will change in the next year’s election – remains obedient.

Using force and threat proved unsuccessful in the extreme. Bush’s policies have made the world more dangerous. As grisly photos of the Russian-Georgian conflict put new blemishes on TV screens, a neocon who advised the Georgian government on its disastrous course emerges as John McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser. Randy Scheunemann, paid by Georgia for four years to lobby – until March 2008--had helped design the Iraq war strategy when he directed the Project for a New American Century. He also assured them of US support against Russia. Like the other neocons, he assumed the façade of toughness. When Russian planes and tanks hit, Bush sent humanitarian aid to Tbilisi and made more empty threats to Moscow.

Given Scheunemann’s – and fellow neocons – proven record of bungling, a McCain victory presages a continuation of the course that has led the country downhill. Imagine President McCain surrounded by neocons! Wouldn’t it behoove the Obama campaign to publicly draw some obvious lessons?

Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow, author of A BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD (A/K-Counterpunch) and producer of many films. See http://roundworldproductions.com/Site/Films_by_Saul_Landau_on_DVD.html

Farrah Hassen is the Carol Jean and Edward F. Newman Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

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Saturday, September 6, 2008

Back to Alaska

Sources Tell ABC News that Report Will Be Released Almost Three Weeks Early

By LEN TEPPER

Friday, September 5, 2008

Hey, peeved hippie! Stop your hatin' and learn to love the (McCain) bomb!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Posted on Sep 1, 2008

By MATT SEDENSKY

About 50,000 are expected today, despite no-shows by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The protest begins at 11 a.m. at the Capitol building and will march to the Xcel Energy Center and back.

Monday, September 1, 2008

History of CIA Involvement in Drug Trafficking

1947 to 1951, France

Early 1950s, Southeast Asia

1950s to early 1970s, Indochina

1973 to 1980, Australia

1970s and 1980s, Panama

1980s, Central America

Mid-1980s to early 1990s, Haiti

1980s to early 1990s, Afghanistan

Endnotes

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World Wide Web

Organizations

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Sunday, August 31, 2008

Olympic Foreign Policy Games

I will give you the kingdoms of the world....