"I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had of followed our lead we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."—Trent Lott at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, as reported Dec. 6 in ABC News' political Weblog, The Note.

"I want to tell you, ladies and gentleman, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches."—Strom Thurmond, then-governor of South Carolina, in a speech from his 1948 "Dixiecrat" presidential campaign.

Puke on Bush

So, I took a long break to contemplate the fact that outspending democrats 2 to 1 gets Repblicans a small gain. The lesson they will learn from this is that the need to take in even more money, outspend democrats 3 to 1 or more next time, and get even bigger gains, while becoming more beholden to the special interests that give them the money. Luckily for the GOP, most of those special interests share the James Wattian view that it's OK to destroy the environment, because Jesus is returning soon.

Meanwhile, Bush cronies throughout the government get nice fat bonuses, while civil servants don't get their raises, the unemployed don't get extensions, nobody gets condomns, more people get aids, and Bush's Texas oil buddies get sweet contracts to drill for oil in countries with dictators and horrible human rights records, like Equatorial Guinea (today's LA Times). Maybe we should invade that little country first, while the inspectors are looking for weapons in Iraq. Someone said, well, Equatorial Guinea doesn't have any weapons of mass destruction. I said sure they do, they have machetes and they've killed tens of thousands of people with them....

The Bush hypocrasy makes me sick. I'd throw up on the asshole if I could get within two feet of him. I'm sure the Japanese would consider it payback for Pappa puking on them.

Finally, today, with the two new vacancies in the Bush Junta, we're in a recession without a chief economic advisor, a Treasury Secretary, or an SEC Chief. Wow. These guys really are clueless. I'm sure another trickle down replacement is in the wings waiting right now, like all those scabs waiting for your union jobs. Remember, when it comes to the rich, the only thing that trickles down is the shit down their legs.

NRA is not for tough enforcement of existing gun laws. Huh. More lying Republicans.

From USA Today

The NRA's traditional call for strict compliance with existing laws suggests it would favor tough enforcement. In fact, the opposite is true. For years, the gun lobby has fought to weaken enforcement by adding loopholes to gun-control laws, while undercutting efforts to keep guns from criminals and crack down on lawbreaking dealers. Consider:

* Punishing dealers. The Tacoma gun shop that once owned the sniper rifle has a history of sloppy record keeping, according to The Seattle Times. Two years ago, the shop could not account for 150 guns, as required by law, but it kept on doing business. Now investigative sources say a federal inspection has found that another 100 guns are missing from the shop, which raises the risk that guns are falling into the hands of criminals.

Such lax monitoring can be traced to a 1986 NRA-backed law that hampers the ability of federal authorities to inspect dealers and prosecute violators. The measure limited inspections of shops to once a year, reduced penalties for dealers who failed to keep proper sales records and added new burdens on prosecutors bringing criminal charges. That helps explain why in 1999 federal agents found 21,000 guns missing from dealer inventories, but revoked just 20 licenses.

* Barring sales. A 2000 court order in Washington state barred Muhammad from harassing his then-estranged wife and children -- an order that would prevent him from legally buying a gun. A 1994 federal law forbids the sale of firearms to individuals who are subject to such restraining orders. Yet, if the NRA had its way, even that protection would be gutted. It unsuccessfully tried to kill the 1994 measure, which expanded the list of those barred from buying guns to include stalkers or harassers under court ''stay away'' orders.

* Tracking guns. Last week, after investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) spent days combing the Tacoma gun store for records of the sniper weapon, the dealer belatedly filed a report saying that the $1,600 rifle was stolen between July and October. The dealer had not noticed that the rifle was missing until agents asked about the gun found in Muhammad's car, the Tacoma News Tribune reported.

Little wonder the BATF didn't investigate the shop sooner. With 500 inspectors to regulate 64,000 dealers, the agency has trouble ensuring that sellers keep better track of guns, and the NRA has worked to keep it that way. For two decades, it has sought to undermine the BATF's authority, cut its budget and damage its reputation. In a 1995 fundraising letter to supporters, for instance, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called BATF agents ''jackbooted thugs'' bent on harassing law-abiding gun owners.

more

The Bush administration even wants an FDA panel on women’s health policy to include a doctor who doesn’t approve of prescribing contraceptives to adult women, but will if they really insist. He also suggests reading Scripture to treat PMS.

Now we know where Enron got the idea!

Seems that while an executive at Harken, Dubya signed off on the same schemes Enron used to hide losses! When will we get a special prosecutor? The Republicans smelled a stupid land deal and had a special prosecutor the next day. Now we've had all kinds of evidence that Dubya and Dick were up to no good when they were corporate executives, but still no special prosecutor. I sure hope these lying scumbags get what's coming to them, but I'll bet they'll not only get away with it, but will be re-elected to boot. Typical hypocrasy from the right, with a typical lack of response.

Some Democrats are “willing to do anything to try to prevent the president of the United States from having the basic authority he needs to deal with a dangerous threat to the American people, but Democrats need to be careful what they call for. They’re liable to get it.” -- Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.)

I call for draft-dodger Trent Lott to drop dead and for GW Bush and Dick Cheney to go to prison for their corporate crimes.

Remember the lost disc that a Democratic Senator's aide found in a Washington DC park? It was Karl Rove's PowerPoint presentation for some rich Republicans (redundant?). Read all about it here. Great stuff, like:

"No evidence that Enron attacks, POTUS political activity or economy has significantly impacted the President's rating."

I just wanted to take this moment to mention a few subjects the White House desperately wants you to forget about:

Harken
Halliburton
Enron
Kenny Boy
Energy Policy
Environment
Economy
Unemployment
Poverty

I don't think that we should allow anything to diminish our focus on avenging the 3,000 Americans who were murdered and dismantling the network of terrorists who we know to be responsible for it. The fact that we don't know where they are should not cause us to focus instead on some other enemy whose location may be easier to identify. — Al Gore, speech to the Commonwealth Club, in San Francisco, 9-23-02

There is an old saying in Tennessee. I know it's in Texas. They say, "Fool me once, shame on you." You can fool me, but you can't get fooled again. — GW Bush, 9-17-02

What are the National Security implications of allowing Mexican trucks into the US?

The environmental angle is reason enough to stop this madness.

The proposed presidential action once again raises a question central to the NAFTA debate: Must increased free trade come at the expense of American environmental standards and the public health?

Yet another bone-headed move from an administration that many Republicans are beginning to hate: the extreme right wing, the ones that think Jesus is coming back soon, so it's OK to screw the whole planet up, you know, the James G Watt. Terrorism is a holy war to them, too. Well, they act like it's a war, until it starts messing with their cash flow. See, Mexican trucks mean a lot of CEOS just made a nasty way to make money perfectly legal. They want to do this because it will save them a fortune in shipping to hire non-union driven, smog-belching, death traps to ship goods on US highways.

But, what kind of inspections will these trucks be subject to? Tom Ridge is talking about tightening borders, while his "boss" is going to sign a bill to let any Mexican truck in? McVey's little rental truck bomb was nothing compared to what an 18 wheeler full of oxidizer will do.

I'm beginning to think that Bush is still doing coke! Either that, or his particular brand of extreme right wing politics makes a person act like they're wasted.....

Remembering John O'Neill

A few people have asked me what I'll be doing on September 11. I've heard suggestions that we all say the pledge. I won't say the pledge again until Bush is out of office. And even then, I never say "under God" anyway, which just pisses people off. Hey, I do love to piss off Republicans. So, on September 11, I've decided I'm going to remember John O'Neill.

"No longer is it just the fear of being attacked by international terrorist organizations -- attacks against Americans and American interests overseas. A lot of these groups now have the capability and the support infrastructure in the United States to attack us here if they choose to do so."—John P. O'Neill, 1996

I'm going to start reading the book about September 11 that actually tells the Forbidden Truth. I'm going to hug my family. Oh, and I'm going to work.

What Bush Really Thinks of Our Union Firefighters

I've been taking a bit of a break out of pure disgust for the Brunch Bushians (from an Arianna Huffington essay in the LA Times that my wife pointed out to me this morning) who just had their own little pep rally with their wacko friends down in Waco. But a New York Daily News story my brother-in-law brought to my attention really pissed me off. In fact, I immediately printed out a copy and distributed it to my co-workers, starting with the NRA members who swore Gore would take away their guns. Yeah. Right. Well, the price of voting based on this misinformation is coming due.

The International Association of Firefighters caused a furor yesterday by voting unanimously to consider boycotting President Bush's October speech honoring the 343 FDNY personnel who died in New York.

The umbrella group for the nation's firefighter unions is furious that Bush cut $340 million in funding last week, some of which would have improved outdated radio equipment - a key reason so many firefighters didn't hear warnings to get out of the twin towers Sept. 11.

I guess Bush doesn't have any buddies who make high tech radio gear for firefighters. If, for example, the Carlyle Group made these radios, I guarantee there'd be plenty of "your money," as W likes to put it, to go around. Be sure to read the whole story about Bush cutting funding for firefighters. The last little bit of hypocrisy is typical Republican BS.

Just hours after signing it, Bush waters down the new Corporate Fraud law

Bush spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the White House views the provision as shielding whistle-blowers from company retaliation only if they talk to a congressional committee “in the course of an investigation.” The protections would not apply when evidence is provided to individual lawmakers or aides, she said.

Even Republicans were dismayed by this blatant effort to water down the new law, which will, of course, slip under the national radar, like all the other sneaky back-room deals from the Bushies.

Our intention is to protect any whistle-blower who exposes wrongdoing to an individual member of Congress, a congressional committee, a media outlet or any other public entity. Whistle-blowers need full protection. Otherwise they won’t come forward. Problems won’t see the light of day.”—Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa

If anybody actually thought this President would do anything to hurt his CEO buddies, read the last entry directly below, from the only socialist member of congress.

“The hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions made by the wealthy and powerful profoundly shape public policy. The end result of that process is that Congress pays far more attention to the needs of the rich, than to ordinary citizens.... [We must have taxpayer funding of elections] otherwise our capital will continue being a playground for corporate lobbyists.” —Rep. Bernie Sanders, Socialist, Vermont

Brian's Hawaii Vacation with Inflatable Spider Man

In the tradition of the Gnome Liberation Front, Brian--one of the stage managers here at Lion King Los Angeles--has taken his inflatable Spider Man on vacation to Hawaii. Sometimes we worry about Brian, but hey, worryin's what we do. We're just happy that Brian has found a way to release his weirdness that even airport security seems to think is harmless.....

“By any measure you want to use, Halliburton has been a great success story.” —Dick Cheney. Source: Michael Cooper, NY Times Aug 25, 2000

“We don’t discuss Halliburton issues.” —Mary Matalin, Cheney’s chief political aide. Source: Allan Sloan and Johnnie L. Roberts, NEWSWEEK

"Bush was elected on a promise to end the contradiction between presidential rhetoric and presidential rationalization. So far, all he’s done is change the subject from sex to money." — William Saletan

I'm still waiting for Jerry Falwell to tell me why God is punishing Texas....

Could it be for letting the antichrist takeover the country? Hmmm... As an atheist, I can easily say that disasters are all random. But, as a strict determinist, Mr. Falwell is stuck having to explain this one. Are there too many gay people in Texas? Maybe there are too many people with dark skin? Jerry, have you talked to the enlightened people at bob jones University on this one?

Oh, that's it! Bush put a hugely disproportionate number of minorities in prison, where homosexual relations are infamous, and where, conveniently, those minorities can't vote. Since minorities tend to not vote for Bush, this got him elected, but, it has now invited God's wrath, because all those dark-skinned people are having sex in prison. Damn, Jerry, what a dilemma! Get Bush elected by locking up people who would vote against him, or invite God's wrath.... What to do? Well, Jerry, W could have just done what his brother helped him do in Florida: just say all those minorities spent time in prison, so they're still not allowed to vote, but at least they're not having gay sex in prison.

I know this gets you excited, Jerry.... All this talk of gay sex, dark skin, and bondage.... Just let me know why God is punishing Texas and I'll leave you alone.

Of course, I think today's report that oil refineries attract lightning is very interesting when it comes to that God's wrath stuff.....

Meanwhile, in the real news, Bush continued to talk out of both sides of his silver-spoon fed mouth, condemning the very business acts he perpetrated with pride (and presidential cover from his old man). Cheney is hunkered down in a bunker again, this time avoiding the bombs from Judicial Watch, a very CONSERVATIVE organization that is suing him, and Halliburton, for ripping off investors when they LIED about earnings.

Just wait, these dog waggers will be inventing some sort of international crisis soon. The heat is a little too much for them right now, their lies are getting tired, and they need a sideshow to feed the media....

WorldCom Gave More to Republicans

During the 1999-2000 election cycle, WorldCom gave more than 70% to Republicans, especially Bush. Lately, they've been spreading a little more evenly, unless you count the fund raiser this month where Bush raised $28 million, $100,000 of which came from one of the events vice-chairmen, WorldCom.

Republicans quickly tried to distance themselves from the scandal, as Bush called for an SEC investigation into the matter. Bush renewed his call for new measures to hold corporations accountable and promised to crack down on the corruption. But the president does not plan to call on his party to return the $100,000 check WorldCom wrote for the $30 million fundraiser.

Of course not. Has he returned Enron money? Will he investigate Cheney's role in the Halliburton fuzzy math? Will he investigate Kenny Boy? Will he investigate Army Secretary White? I think it's time we took a good look at Alcoa and Treasury Sec. Paul O'Neill.

Cheney's Halliburton Scandals

I just went to look up a link for "Cheney's role in the Halliburton fussy math" so I looked up "Cheney Halliburton scandal." I realized that this is a new one. The other Cheney Halliburton scandal is selling to Iraq and Libya! So I had to search for "Cheney Halliburton accounting scandal." Wow. There are so many scandals going on in this administration that I have to be more specific when I search for one!

Politically Incorrect

Last night, on the penultimate Politically Incorrect, the token conservative, Genevieve Wood, tried to blame Clinton's affair and lying, without mentioning Newt's, or Clarence's, or, well, she tried to blame Clinton for the current corporate malfeasance. Typical conservative; when faced with an argument you can't win, just say, well, what about Clinton? I'm sure we'll hear lots more of the same crap from Ann Coulter tonight. I'm sure Ariana can handle her. And while Coulter is spewing her crap tonight, remember John O'Neill.

BUSH'S SICK JOKE IS A LIE

Not only is Bush a liar, but his trifecta joke is sick. Carl Rove has been using terroism as a way to silence critics, which is wagging the dog in a much bigger way than the man they love to hate ever did. But Bush keeps telling his sick trifecta joke, even though it's a blatant lie, and it's offensive to almost every body!

‘You know, when I was running for president, in Chicago, somebody said, would you ever have deficit spending? I said, only if we were at war, or only if we had a recession, or only if we had a national emergency. Never did I dream we’d get the trifecta.’ — PRESIDENT [sic] BUSH

Jonathan Chait's article in the New Republic was the first to point out this blatant, sick lie. Since then, the White House hasn't been able to come up with a date and time for this alleged quote. Neither has anyone else. Meanwhile, the deficit grows. Social Security is being raided to pay for tax cuts to the rich. The US is selling treasuries, mostly to rich people, and we have to pay this back, with interest. So, Bush's rich buddies get tax breaks, buy treasuries, and collect the interest on the deficits they caused. Meanwhile, anytime anyone tries to criticize him for it, they just announce some new vague threat of terror to take everyone's attention off the truth. Can you imagine the screams if Clinton were doing this? Oh, the hypocrasy....

Are we seeing a pattern here?

Deregulation. Corporate Tax Cuts. Laws that make it easy to move offshore. Big-Business friendly SEC appointments. FERC appointments of former energy executives. And now Bush is wagging his finger at crooked CEOs. Seems like just yesterday he was shaking their hands, giving them nicknames, flying on their jets, and spending their money on ads making fun of Al Gore for his populist bent. Now, sensing the populist bent that's about to rush through the electorate, Bush is admonishing the lack of ethics in business. Hmmmm..... Let's see. Bush is saying CEOs should be accountable, and yet he has not mentioned Cheney, who was cooking the books while he was CEO of Halliburton.... The latest debacle is WorldCom. Wonder who they gave their money to during Bush's campaign?

 In the 1999-2000 election cycle, WorldCom and its employees tilted much more Republican in their giving, with 70 percent of WorldCom-related contributions going to Republicans and 30 percent to Democrats. With a total of $1.7 million in contributions for 1999-2000 cycle, WorldCom ranked number 58 among the top 100 political donors. (MSNBC)

Is this a suprise? Republicans are the friends of big business. They brag about it. They gave them huge tax cuts. They gave them deregulation. They gave them a liscense to steal, which they are doing, and now that they've been caught, these Republican hypocrites, who were standing on public property singing about God after the long over-due Pledge of Allegience decision, are wasting time whining about the fact that not everyone believes in their viscious, racist, God of Hatred. Instead, they are still removing regulations from bills that would control these out-of-control CEOs, even when the regulations would help protect us from terroists. The hypocrasy makes me sick. I wish Tom DeLay and Dick Armey would come sing about their sick little God to my face. I have a few questions about their ethics that their God might not like.

Major Crimes Up

Crime rates are rising: Partly because of the bad economy and unemployment; partly because the Bush administration is cutting funding to anti-crime efforts; and partly because class warfare is being waged by the Enron elites on the working people of this country. Until we address the root problem of crime, which is greed, we will not alleviate it. That may never happen in a country where people like Ken Lay can chose and fund the people who regulate their companies. So, we'll have to focus on band aid approaches, like arresting and incarcerating people.

The Bush administration has proposed several reductions in grants and other assistance to state and local law enforcement agencies, including an 80 percent drop in funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services program. The Clinton administration initiative, which aimed to provide funding for 100,000 police officers, has been popular with many local governments but has been criticized by some Republicans as ineffective.

Well, OK. I wonder what the Republicans are planning to stop this problem? Arresting cancer patients for smoking pot? Sending the FBI in to find hookers in New Orleans? C'mon people... We're talking about a president who waved at Stevie Wonder, asked the president of Brazil if he had blacks there too, and TRADED SAMMY SOSA! This man is an idiot, surrounded by greedy, extremist, racist, Nazi thugs. They thrive on crime. Many of them are white colar criminals themselves. But we'd have to let all the marijuana offenders out of jail to make room for these silk suit sap heads.

John Kerry for President

After graduating (with a higher GPA than Bush, although that's not saying much) from Yale, Senator John Kerry joined the Navy and fought on a gun boat in the Mekong Delta, where he earned the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart. When someone like dares to question the patriotism of this man, he defends himself.

"Let me be clear tonight to Senator (Trent) Lott and to (House GOP Whip) Tom DeLay: One of the lessons that I learned in Vietnam, a war they did not have to endure, and one of the basic vows of commitment that I made to myself, was that if I ever reached a position of responsibility, I would never stop asking questions that make a democracy strong," Kerry said at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s annual dinner in March. "Those who try to stifle the vibrancy of our democracy and shield policies from scrutiny behind a false cloak of patriotism miss the real value of what our troops defend."

Bush couldn't even read that sentence, much less think of it himself. And, Kerry was being kind. Here's an explanation of why Tom DeLay didn't go to the war.

He and Quayle, DeLay explained to the assembled media in New Orleans, were victims of an unusual phenomenon back in the days of the undeclared Southeast Asian war. So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself. Satisfied with the pronouncement, which dumbfounded more than a few of his listeners who had lived the sixties, DeLay marched off to the convention.

What an asshole. I can only hope I get to say that to his fat face someday.... But wait, with Republicans, there's always more! This is from MSNBC:

After Democrats questioned whether Bush received any warning of an impending attack prior to Sept. 11 and wondered why the CIA hadn’t warned him, Vice President Dick Cheney called the Democrats’ comments “irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders in a time of war.” This prompted Kerry to jump to the defense, calling Cheney’s remarks as “historically incorrect and threatening.” Cheney, he said, was “attempting to suggest that there is a patriot card to be played here, which I think is completely inappropriate. It’s misplaced patriotism.”

As much as I admire Kerry, I'm afraid only a Southern Democrat, Like John Edwards of North Carolina, is going to stand a chance against a gun-totin, red-neck, coke-head, oil-boy from Texas. Let's face it. Edwards got elected in Jesse Helm's land. That's double tough. Since Edwards didn't serve in the military, Maybe he'd pick Kerry as his running mate.....

The Bush Money Machine Steamrolls Washington

Tonight at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, the GOP fat cats are filling the trough to the tune of $28 million—just shy of their own record of $30 million. In a big land rush to gush forth the last of the soft money that gets to go into general slush funds, the GOP is filling its war chest with a fervor greater than any they ever criticized Clinton for. And, to be fair, the Democrats are raising a lot of soft money too. Of course, the Dems get a lot of money from hard-working, middle class folks through unions and environmental organizations. The Republicans get their money from big, rich corporations they're doing favors for.

Case in point: Drug companies. Two days ago, the GOP unveiled a prescription drug plan that industry is backing. Tonight, these pharmaceutical companies are among 21 donors paying $250,000 each at tonight’s GOP fundraising gala.

Robert Ingram, GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s chief operating officer, is the chief corporate fundraiser for the gala; his company gave at least $250,000. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group funded by the drug companies, kicked in $250,000, too. PhRMA, as it is best known inside the Beltway, is also helping underwrite a television ad campaign touting the GOP’s prescription drug plan.

The GOP's drug plan, predictably, requires seniors to buy insurance for drugs; Democrats want the drug benefit to be covered by Medicare. The companies, of course, cry that that would drive down profits. Well, they'll cry about how they won't be able to do Research and Development if they can't make the outrageous profits they do. They'll tell you about how expensive it is to develop these drugs, and how risky, and how they deserve the profit because of the risk. What they won't tell you is that the profit they MIGHT lose if Medicare covered durg costs would be more like the difference between the CEO getting $100 million a year, or only $50. The CFO might have to take a big cut in pay, down to $20 million. Hell, some of the executives daughter's might have to go to Harvard driving a Toyota instead of a Mercedes! Heaven forbid! I just love it when these guys cry poverty. It breaks my heart.

Now you folks out there who spend 30% of your fixed income on drugs you need to stay alive and healthy, tell me who you're going to vote for. C'mon. It's really simple. Vote for Republicans and pay through the nose for their summer home in the south of France. Vote for Democrats and get your prescriptions covered by Medicare. You folks in Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Oregon, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Tennessee, South Carolina, Missouri, Georgia, Louisiana, South Dakota, New Jersey and Minnesota: the balance of the Senate is in your hands. Only you can stop Resident Bush and his extreme right wing, anti-working man, anti-environment, anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-science, anti-civil rights, anti-logical administration.

Big Tobacco Terror, part 2

Remember the ads, paid for with our tax dollars, telling us that buying drugs helped finance terror? Never mind that a vast majority of marijuana is grown in this country and Canada by farmers who've been driven out of business because of corporate welfare programs disguised as farm bills. Let's just look at cocaine, the majority of which comes from Columbian Drug Lords. In his story about big tobacco nicking the terror act, Mark Shapiro notes:

U.S. and Colombian law enforcement officials told me that the cigarette smugglers with whom the tobacco companies did business were actually engaged in the laundering of profits from drug sales in the United States.

Interesting. Since 1997, approximately $15 million dollars of tobacco money has gone to Republicans (and about $3 million to Democrats). Since the tobacco companies have made hundreds of millions laundering money by smuggling stogs, it's fair to say that their political bribes came from drug money. So, Bush accepts drug money, helps launder drug money, pressures Representatives to remove a clause from the patriot act that would make it harder to launder money, and -- well, it looks like Bush and the GOP are helping the terrorists! By Bush's definition, that makes him one.

The tobacco companies didn’t care that in striking that provision they might have opened the American people to greater risk of a terrorist attack and funding terrorist groups that might attack our own people. — Rep. Henry Waxman

These comapnies talk big about merely being concerned with foreign liability problems. They can spin all they want, but the fact is they're protecting illegally obtained profits and their drug lord friends. And their political contributions got them the quid pro quo they needed: the big GOP players pounded little GOP Rep. Oxley from Ohio, and the provision was removed.

The Patriot Act provision would have trumped the revenue rule and provided clear legal standing to the plaintiffs in those lawsuits. But it was not to be. According to a congressional source close to the House-Senate negotiations, Oxley removed the provision from the bill at the behest of the White House and GOP whip Tom DeLay, under pressure from Big Tobacco.

Anyone else feel sick?

Terrorists among us: Republicans and Big Tobacco

A report by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids reveals that Republicans received 82 percent of the more than $18 million that the tobacco industry has poured into political campaigns since 1997.

And what did Big Tobacco get in return? Tom Delay, the White House, and GOP Rep. Michael Oxley of Ohio, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, removed section 107(B) from the US Patriot Act, which would have expanded the definition of money laundering to include “fraud or any scheme to defraud against a foreign government or foreign government entity, if such conduct would constitute a violation of this title if it were committed in interstate commerce in the United States.” Since Big Tobacco smuggles cigarettes into other countries in order to avoid paying taxes and tarrifs (which fund anti-smoking programs which save lives), this would have been bad news for big tobacco and their Republican minions. Good thing they bought themselves some GOP politicians, so they can keep on cheating, killing, and making it easier for terrorists to launder money. Read the story at MSNBC by Mark Schapiro, an associate of the Center for Investigative Reporting, based on his article, “Big Tobacco: Uncovering the Industry’s Multibillion-Dollar Global Smuggling Network,” which appeared in The Nation, May 6, 2002. Schapiro also co-produced a version of this story for the PBS newsmagazine NOW With Bill Moyers (which aired April 19).

Hate Mail

I know I'm doing something right when the hate mail comes in. This time it was over the Daschle ad parodies I did. For those of you who don't know, like this idiot who wrote to complain, the Bush administration OK'd ads that the RNC ran in Notth Dakota showing Sadaam Hussein next to Senator Daschle, saying we import oil from IRAQ because Daschle won't let us drill in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge. So, I made a couple of versions that are simple turn-around-is-fair-play.

Bush supports Hussein

Cheney supports Hussein

Of course, what this person doesn't realize is that every bit of hate mail reinforces my drive to do this.

As a viewer of the web, I would like to comment on how anti-American your website is.

Speaking specifically, the pictures asking why we buy oil from this man (Sadaam Hussein) is because Bush, Cheney, and others in the Administration is too busy selling him the equipment and personally benefiting from the transactions. Liberals always accuse Republicans of being scandal tarred with oil. Let's look at the facts. Republicans want to drill in the Alaska, Democrats and other environmentalists won't have it. Because we can't depend on our own land for our nation's needs, we are forced to buy oil from nations who don't share our common interests. If it weren't for Mexico and Russia, post September 11 oil prices would've been unaffordable for the average American family. While I do support new innovations for the conservation of resources, I realize the urgent need to stop depending on OPEC for our supply of oil. We are buying Hussein's weapons of mass destruction for him to use against us... because some empty headed liberals won't wake up. You know, at our rate, there will be no Alaskan Refuge left for us, or the animals, to enjoy after a nuclear attack.

Secondly, don't blame the right, nor President Bush (as you indirectly imply) for the Electoral College system. This wasn't a conservative initiative, it was drafted along with the Constitution. I'm sorry that Al Gore did not win the majority of the votes in the Electoral College, but George Bush is our legitimate President, and if I do say so, he's done a hell of a job so far.

Do you read the news? Bu$h ran ads in North Dakota with Hussein and Daschle side by side. It said why is this man selling us oil? Because Daschle won't let us drill in Alaska. So, you see, I was doing a parody of an attack the Bushies made on a liberal. So, why don't your write the Junta leader and his dog Cheney and tell them how un-American it was of them to compare Daschle to Hussein.

Second, my site is very American. I practice free speech. If you had your way and I wasn't allowed to have my web site, then you would be the un-American one. In fact, that would make you a fascist pig. Wait! You already are! Without dissent, it's not America.

I don't always accuse all Republicans of being tarred with oil. Just the ones who are. And there are some Democrats who are too, like Breaux of Louisiana. Your generalization of liberals shows that you don't care so much about the facts, or the issues, only with showing your hatred of people not like you.

Yes, let's look at the facts. If light trucks were required to get 3 miles better per gallon, that would provide more oil per day than ANWR. All the flags that all the patriotic people put on their cars wasted more oil in aerodynamic loss than ANWR holds.

As for Hussein attacking us with nuclear weapons, well, he doesn't have a missile that can get here, and if he did, that wonderful 60 billion dollar star wars shield will protect us, right? Hussein is not part of OPEC. The countries in OPEC that we do buy oil from are our friends, right? Bush Sr. goes over there and hangs with the Saudi's all the time! They're old friends! And they don't sponsor any terrorism with the money we give them, do they?

Hussein isn't the one you have to worry about. The Bush's, in their greed to get rich off oil and weapons, are much more dangerous.

Oh, and I suggest you take a few classes before you try to argue with me about this stuff. You just come off sounding stupid.

I didn't blame the right for the electoral college. I only said that the fact that red-necks' votes count more than mine is the only way an idiot like Bush could get elected. That and the supreme court, armed cops turning blacks away from polling places in Florida, and a scrub list that wrongly included 50,000 people as felons who weren't.

The most un-American thing I can think of is rigging an election. The people's vote is tantamount to successful Democracy. Apparently, you'd throw out Democracy to get your guy in. Whatever it takes, right?

Real American, asshole. Now go crawl back in your hole.

Fun, isn't it? I just hope you idiot "conservatives" keep on writing, because it's the best way to show what you're all about.

Now, for some serious critique of the neo-conservative hypocracy, read this bit which remembers the Bushies actually making fun of Al Gore wanting to do exactly what Bush has now proposed to do about home land security.

Santa Clarita, California, George W. Bush's dream world:
Republican, hot, dry, and drilled.

A First Person Account of the White House's Low-watt Logic

Howard Ris, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Mass., wrote this account of how the Vice-Resident's energy task force brought environmentalists in late and told them their input wasn't going in the policy. What Mr. Ris writes that most people didn't know is that...

"...my environmental colleagues and I also made various attempts to meet with another White House task force — this one charged by President [sic] Bush to develop administration policy on climate change, in the wake of the president’s decisions to abandon the Kyoto Protocol and reverse his campaign commitment to couple mandatory reductions of greenhouse gases with other pollutants from fossil fuel power plants. As with the energy task force, our requests to present our ideas and analysis were rebuffed."

None of this should surprise any of us since we know that these guys are about making money for themselves and their friends. Even if it involves cooking the books like Dick Cheney did at Halliburton. Even if it allows more pollution, which actually kills people (of course, more children with asthma and more adults with lung cancer makes the HMOs rich, and they're big Bush donors too). Bush is a terrorist who uses pollution to kill people at home, and weapons built by the Carlyle Group to kill civilians (collateral damage) around the world.

Greenpeace to expose chemical dangers

Greenpeace plans to release a map showing how a terrorist attack on the Kuehne Chemical Co. bleach plant in South Kearny, NJ, could unleash a lethal cloud of chlorine vapor over New York City. The chemical company is, of course, fighting this, saying why don't you just paint a big bull’s eye on us and give the terrorists guns.

Hmmmm.... Any terrorists worth their weight already know the location of chemical plants, nuclear waste, other hazardous waste, and many other prime terror targets are. So, the bull’s eye was painted on them when they put a dangerous chemical plant so close to a major city. As for giving the terrorists guns, well, the FBI tried to look into gun purchase records to see if any terrorists had purchased weapons, but Att. Gen. Ashcroft said no. And the NRA, a bunch of terrorists hating red-necks if ever I saw any, applauded. I guess the NRA's interpretation of the second amendment even applies to terrorists.

As far as trying to hide the information about this plant's location, the only people who wouldn't know about it are the very people who should: New York and New Jersey residents who could be harmed by it, and who, through political means, could remove the threat completely by forcing these people to move to a safer place, adopt safer production techniques, or to stop making the dangerous chemicals altogether. Greenpeace uses grassroots organizing to make it's points, and this is as grassroots as it gets. Give the information to the people and let them decide for themselves.

Kuehne Chemical Co. could manufacture chlorine more safely, but they don't want to cut into profits. This release of information about an imminent toxic threat, coupled with their dedication to providing information on safer production and alternatives, is exactly why people like me are members of Greenpeace. Furthermore, while we make the transition to safer production and storage methods, the companies that manufacture toxic substances should be required to tell their neighbors what's up. The corporations, of course, will plead poverty, and continue to whine that the government should hide the information from everyone, even the people who could be killed.

But environmentalists are determined to keep exposing the information, arguing that chemical companies are engaged in far riskier behavior by not adopting safer manufacturing methods after Sept. 11. Greenpeace’s posting of the Kuehne (pronounced kee-nee) map will coincide with a "Run for Your Life" road race the environmental group is sponsoring at a nearby park to demonstrate that most people can’t outrun a spreading chlorine cloud. A serious incident could kill tens of thousands — even hundreds of thousands by some estimates — and damage the lungs of millions more.

And what about accidents? The U.S. Public Interest Research Group estimates there are between 25,000 and 50,000 accidental releases of toxic materials every year. Don't the people who live near these potential accident sites have a right to know what's going on next door? Can we not extend John Stuart Mill's harm principle to the preclusion of harm? Isn't that what we've told Israel it's OK to do? Isn't that what we're doing in Afghanistan, even when thousands of civilians become collateral damage?

Predictably, there will soon be a Republican sponsored bill to make it a crime to divulge the location of these ticking time-bombs. In their rush to help the big-businesses that get them elected, the Republicans are going to endanger the lives of their own constituents. Considering where most Republicans come from, most of these constituents could care less. Apparently, they like being polluted and lied to. That's why they elect Republicans. If they pulled their heads out of their asses for a moment, they'd realize that this is, like practically everything else, about greed. If they really think that terrorists haven't already gotten all the info they need, they're just fooling themselves and their stockholders. The real reason they want this information kept secret is because they know that if their neighbors knew what they were up to, they'd have to spend a whole bunch of money actually making their plants safe, instead of spending that money on lobbyists to keep the plants unsafe and hidden from the public.

The push for safer technologies got a boost in December, when Washington’s Blue Plains waste-water treatment plant completed its conversion from chlorine-gas disinfection to much safer liquid chlorine bleach a year ahead of schedule. Jerry Johnson, the general manager of the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority, said the plant’s stockpile of chlorine and sulfur dioxide put the capital in a "particularly critical situation" and "we decided the best course of action would be elimination of the threat." Jeremiah Baumann, an environmental health advocate with the Public Interest Research Group, points out that dozens of other water utilities have switched to ultraviolet light and ozone. "It’s not just activists who think the better solution is to use an alternative chemical," he says.

Elimination of the threat. Now doesn't that sound better than trying to hide it?

"Beware the military industrial complex." President Eisenhower, Janurary, 1961

Now, in this war on terror, who is the military industrial complex? Well, one billion dollar defense corporation is really a group of military companies called the Carlyle Group. They're in the news today because they suddenly pulled the plug on a planned IPO for their subsidy, United States Marine Repair, which now will be purchased by United Defense Industries, of which Carlyle owns %49.

Just who is the Carlyle Group? Well, for those of you who've been asleep or who just pay too much attention to Republican spin, the Carlyle Group is mostly rich Republican white guys who make a ton of money off war. The list of owners is impressive: Reagan Defense Secretary Carlucci, Bush Jr. election rigger and former secretary of state James Baker, Former British Prime Minister John Major, former Bush Budget Director Darman, and, amoung many others, former president Bush himself. So, while $hrub's pentagon shells out money for war toys to the military industrial complex Ike warned us about, his father gets richer. This of course means that Resident Bush will get rich off his civilian killing war the old fashioned way: he'll inherit it!

Hey, Ike, guess what? A bunch of rednecks whose votes count more than everyone else's didn't listen! Now the government is the military industrial complex.

This is what my wife Robin got me for Christmas! The first time I really tore into it, the next day Bush reported his pretzel incident. I call it my voodoo Bush bag.

Felony Convictions of Reagan Administration: 29
Felony Convictions of Clinton Administration: 1

Yep. This fact, of which I remind idiot Republicans (and even to those few smart ones) often, is pointed out in today's Doonsebury. I'm not sure what the record for felony convictions is (and I couldn't find any reference to it on line), but if they don't kill everyone who knows the truth, the Bush administration might just break it. I think we should start with a man my friend Blaise calls Spiro T. Cheney.

Bush is the Anti-Christ

I'm sitting backstage at the Pantages Theater doing show number 666 of the Los Angeles production of the Lion King, and I started looking for sites about Bu$h being the son of Satan. I don't go in for that hocus-pocus crap myself, but for those of you who call yourselves "believers," especially you hypocritical right-wingers who hate the poor, the persecuted, and anyone else who doesn't believe like you do, I think you should know that you voted for the anti-christ. For those of you in Babylon being persecuted by your president: RUN! The devil's spawn has taken over America and will be attacking soon because he knows it's the only chance he has to continue his high approval ratings and get re-elected. If the great horned one had to actually debate someone who DISAGREED with him he'd never stand a chance.

Remember Jesus' solemn warning concerning the deception of the End of the Age.  "Take heed that no man deceive you." [Matthew 24:4]  Jesus repeated this warning against unparalleled deception, "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." [Matthew 24:11].  Once more, a third time, Jesus warned, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." [Matthew 24:24] 

These quotes can be found with evidence of Bush's Skull and Bones background in the Illuminati. That's right. It's a Bush family tradition to belong to the same Satanic cult as Hitler. I don't put much stock in this stuff, but it is true that Hitler worshipped the same demonic crap that Bush joined at Yale. Ah, but he's "born again" and "God chose him." Well, I was born fine the first time, thank you. And there is no God. Only an over-blown, egotistic, trust fund baby who actually has the balls to think that a God would chose him over a man who actually cares about nature.

And some days I feel like really going after the bastards

OK, so yesterday I had the post birthday blues, but today I started seeing some major news organizations, and congress, asking some of the questions I've been screaming about. Like, who stopped the search warrant for Moussaoui's computer? How many meetings did Enron really have with the executive branch they paid for? How much did Bush really know? Why are Ari Fleischer and Condoleeza Rice lying about the Aug. 6, 2001 memo that Bush saw? For some preliminary answers to these and other perplexing questions about the Bush Junta, check out my Bush News page, and for a compilation of evidence that is getting more corroborated every day, read the Bush Treason Archives Blog.

Some days I just feel like giving up

For all my mighty talk of blogging being the new journalism, on days like this, after depressingly close to 40 birthdays, I wonder if any of it makes any difference. I should just give up, and, as I've been told, focus on things closer to home. As if the environment, and all the other issues the Bushies are trashing, weren't "close to home."

The only people who read this send hate mail. Bush will be re-elected while he and his big business cronies destroy the world. For me to think I can make a difference just seems absurd on days like these. Absurd and exhausting. It's days like these when I feel like the guy on "Greatest Police Chases" who, when finally confronted by a cop after a high speed chase, said, "I need a beer."

So, happy birthday. I hope yours goes better than mine.

On Sept. 9, 2001, despite numerous reports of an eminent attack from various agencies, Bush threatened veto of anti-terror money

Of course, this headline hasn't appeared anywhere and won't. I found it buried in a Washington Post story, "‘Something ... going to happen soon’ -- Administration was on alert, but downplayed a savvy foe" by Barton Gellman. The heightened alert was enough for congress to want to divert $600 million from the star wars missle defense scam, er, shield, but the White House threatened a presidential veto.

"As late as Sept. 9, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld threatened a presidential veto when the Senate proposed to divert $600 million to counterterrorism from ballistic missile defense."

Even red-neck, gun-toting, Charlton Heston worshipping, racist assholes I know are saying that at the very LEAST this proves what incompetent boobs are in the Bush administration, and that maybe these guys were a little too busy cutting taxes on millionaires to worry about terrorism.

Angry liberals like me, who would love five minutes with my friends in that hall in Dade county with those pudgy little paid Republican congressional aides turned rioters, are willing to risk Dick Cheney's mysterious threats and take this a little further.

Hey, Dick, you suggested we were unpatriotic for questioning you guys. Well, eat this: I think you guys knew something was going to happen. You knew we were going to be hit. You just didn't think it would be that big (even though your CIA director and the FBI told you it was going to be big). The reason you didn't do anything is because you had this nifty little plan for eradicating the world of Al Qaida. All you needed was an excuse to use it. So you figured, maybe a little high-jacking would be just the thing to make people get behind your pre-planned war on terror. Why try to stop it? The Carlyle Group, Halliburton, Unocal, and Enron would all start making even more money. Carlyle would build the weapons of war, Halliburton would sell oil drilling equipment, Unocal would get their pipline through Afghanistan that you couldn't get from the Taliban, and Enron would get access to the oil and gas in central Asia. As a nifty little by-product, all the idiot people in America would give you sky-high approval ratings and, as long as we didn't catch Bin Laden before then, your re-election would be all but guaranteed (without help from the Supreme Court, Katherine Harris's illegal scrub list, or Florida State Troopers turning black voters away at gun-point).

Well, Dick? You'll have a whole hour with your Republican buddy Tim Russert on Sunday. You guys can make out for a whole hour and talk about how great you are. My friends and I will just keep getting ready for the next Republican funded riot in Florida, because we will never get over it, and we will not let it happen again.

You and Georgie boy are the terrorists, Dick. You've killed more civilians than Bin Laden. You've stolen from the poor and given to the rich. You've kicked children out of shelters, their moms off welfare, and their deaths and disease are on your dirty hands. Hell, Dick, you even voted to force women to have babies in cases of rape, incest, and the mother's life at stake. You sold oil dirlling equipment to Iraq, despite the embargo, and you lied about it. You've agreed to let polluters continue, and even increase their pollution, which directly CAUSES the deaths of tens of thousands Americans EVERY YEAR. You are a crook, a traitor, and if you ever want to answer some tough questions, come talk to me instead of Tim Russert.

Is this a threat from Dick-head Cheney?

“They [Democrats] need to be very cautious not to seek political advantage by making incendiary suggestions that were made by some today that the White House had advance information that would have prevented the tragic attacks of 9/11,” Cheney said. “Such commentary is thoroughly irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders in a time of war.”

Or what, Dick? Are you threatening Democrats? What are you going to do to them if they do seek political advantage from this? Are you going to withhold documents that prove your guilt in everything from the Enron fiasco to selling illegal oil equipment to Iraq? Maybe you're going to arrange to have some of your friends in the Arab world crash something into my building?

I don't like your tone, Dick. What exactly do you intend to do to those of us who plan to milk every bit of political advantage out of this that we can? Fact is, Dick, that you people knew what was happening and you did nothing to stop it because you had a plan to go to war, and this gave you an excuse. You have buddies building bombs and planes getting rich off this, buddies in oil and gas that get to build a pipeline out of central asia now, and your little worm of a boss has sky-high approval ratings he would never have had if you hadn't ignored all the information and let those planes crash. Where was the Air Force? Why did Bu$h stay at that school, where everyone knew he was going to be, if he had been threatened? Why not release the memos if they are so general. Who turned down the warrant for Mousaoui's computer? Why did you tell John O'Neill to "back off" investigating Bin Laden's brothers? Didn't you shoot down flight 93?

C'mon, Dick-head. I'm waiting for you. I'm not even bothering with your boss now, because he's too busy waving at blind people, choking on pretzels, and looking surprised everytime he completes a sentence.

Terror Timeline

In my quest to discover who denied FBI counter terrorism agents a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer before 9-11 (which I haven't found yet), I stumbled upon a timeline that really spells it all out. Check this out: A TIMELINE SURROUNDING SEPTEMBER 11TH - IF CIA AND THE GOVERNMENT WEREN'T INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS WHAT WERE THEY DOING? Some of the more interesting points:

7. January, 2001 - The Bush Administration orders the FBI and intelligence agencies to "back off" investigations involving the bin Laden family, including two of Osama bin Laden's relatives (Abdullah and Omar) who were living in Falls Church, VA - right next to CIA headquarters. This followed previous orders dating back to 1996, frustrating efforts to investigate the bin Laden family. [Source: BBC Newsnight, Correspondent Gregg Palast - Nov 7, 2001].

11. June 2001 - German intelligence, the BND, warns the CIA and Israel that Middle Eastern terrorists are "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." [Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001.]

15. Summer 2001 (est.) - Pakistani ISI Chief General Ahmad (see above) orders an aide to wire transfer $100,000 to Mohammed Atta, who was according to the FBI, the lead terrorist in the suicide hijackings. Ahmad recently resigned after the transfer was disclosed in India and confirmed by the FBI. [Source: The Times of India, October 11, 2001.]

16. Summer 2001 - An Iranian man phones U.S. law enforcement to warn of an imminent attack on the World Trade Center in the week of September 9th. German police confirm the calls but state that the U.S. Secret Service would not reveal any further information. [Source: German news agency "online.de", September 14, 2001, translation retrieved from online.ie in Ireland.]

27. September 6-7, 2001 - 4,744 put options (a speculation that the stock will go down) are purchased on United Air Lines stock as opposed to only 396 call options (speculation that the stock will go up). This is a dramatic and abnormal increase in sales of put options. Many of the UAL puts are purchased through Deutschebank/AB Brown, a firm managed until 1998 by the current Executive Director of the CIA, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard. [Source: The Herzliyya International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism, http://www.ict.org.il/, September 21; The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal.]

28. September 10, 2001 - 4,516 put options are purchased on American Airlines as compared to 748 call options. [Source: ICT - above]

29. September 6-11, 2001 - No other airlines show any similar trading patterns to those experienced by UAL and American. The put option purchases on both airlines were 600% above normal. This at a time when Reuters (September 10) issues a business report stating, "Airline stocks may be poised to take off."

30. September 6-10, 2001 - Highly abnormal levels of put options are purchased in Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, AXA Re(insurance) which owns 25% of American Airlines, and Munich Re. All of these companies are directly impacted by the September 11 attacks. [Source: ICT, above; FTW, Vol. IV, No.7, October 18, 2001, http://www.fromthewilderness.com/
members/oct152001.html. ]

31. It has been documented that the CIA, the Israeli Mossad and many other intelligence agencies monitor stock trading in real time using highly advanced programs reported to be descended from Promis software. This is to alert national intelligence services of just such kinds of attacks. Promis was reported, as recently as June, 2001 to be in Osama bin Laden's possession and, as a result of recent stories by FOX, both the FBI and the Justice Department have confirmed its use for U.S. intelligence gathering through at least this summer. This would confirm that CIA had additional advance warning of imminent attacks. [Sources: The Washington Times, June 15, 2001; FOX News, October 16, 2001; FTW, October 26, 2001, - http://www.fromthewilderness.com/
members/magic_carpet.html; FTW, Vol. IV, No.6, Sept. 18, 2001 - http://www.fromthewilderness.com/
members/sept1801.html; FTW, Vol. 3, No 7, 9/30/00 - www.fromthewilderness.com/
free/pandora/052401_promis.html.

37. September 15, 2001 - The New York Times reports that Mayo Shattuck III has resigned, effective immediately, as head of the Alex (A.B) Brown unit of Deutschebank.

39. October 10, 2001 - The Pakistani newspaper The Frontier Post reports that U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain has paid a call on the Pakistani oil minister. A previously abandoned Unocal pipeline from Turkmenistan, across Afghanistan, to the Pakistani coast, for the purpose of selling oil and gas to China, is now back on the table "in view of recent geopolitical developments."

45. December 25, 2001 - Newly appointed afghani Prime Minister Hamid Karzai is revealed as being a former paid consultant for Unocal. [Source: Le Monde.]

46. January 3, 2002 - President Bush appoints Zalamy Khalilzad as a special envoy to Afghanistan. Khalilzad, a former employee of Unocal, also wrote op-eds in the Washington Post in 1997 supporting the Taliban regime. [Source: Pravda, 1/9/02]

49. January 10, 2002 - Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself from the Enron investigation because Enron had been a major campaign donor in his 2000 Senate race. He fails to recuse himself from involvement in two sitting Federal grand juries investigating bribery and corruption charges against ExxonMobil and BP-Amoco who have massive oil interests in Central Asia. Both were major Ashcroft donors in 2000. [Source: CNN, Jan. 10, 2002 - FTW original investigation, The Elephant in the Living Room, Part I, Apr 4, 2002.]

50. February 9, 2002 - Pakistani leader General Musharraf and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai announce their agreement to "cooperate in all spheres of activity" including the proposed Central Asian pipeline. Pakistan will give $10 million to Afghanistan to help pay Afghani government workers. [Source: The Irish Times, 2/9/02]

Read the whole thing:A TIMELINE SURROUNDING SEPTEMBER 11TH - IF CIA AND THE GOVERNMENT WEREN'T INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS WHAT WERE THEY DOING?

Bush Knew, Cheney Flew (Turk182) — Remember John O'Neill

Here's an interesting little story that lends some credence to the US Representative Republicans most love to call crazy, Cynthia McKinney (D., Georgia), who has asserted that an investigation into 9-11 might reveal that the Bu$h administration knew a lot more ahead of time than they've told us. After all, it's not really good for a Shrub re-election bid if people find out that John O'Neil and this Minneapolis Agent were not allowed to follow through on investigations that may have stopped the high-jackings. Here's a quote from the MSNBC story, Unheeded Warnings:

Last week, in little-noticed testimony before a Senate panel, FBI Director Robert Mueller referred to another internal document that may prove more explosive: notes by a Minneapolis agent worrying that French Moroccan flight student Zacarias Moussaoui might be planning to “fly something into the World Trade Center.”

The notes are especially eerie because Moussaoui faces charges that he was part of the 9-11 plot. Sources say the notes Mueller referred to were written in early September 2001—days before the attack. The author was part of a counterterrorism team desperately trying to figure out what Moussaoui was up to. He had been arrested in August on immigration charges after a Minnesota flight instructor reported that he showed a suspicious interest in learning how to steer large airliners. When agents learned, from French intelligence, that he had radical Islamic ties, they sought a national-security warrant to search his computer—and got turned down.

Got turned down? By whom? Let's see, they wanted a national security warrant, so would that be the NSA that issues those? Or is that the Justice Department? Was it Condoliza Rice's N$A or John Ashcroft's justice Department that refused a warrant to find out what Maoussaoui was up to? Who in the Bush administration is responsible for not obtaining this warrant? Who turned down this agent? Who told John O'Neil not to investigate the Bin Laden family? Not familiar with John O'Neill? Check out this Salon.com story about the French Book "Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth":

"...former FBI deputy director John O'Neill (who died in the attack on the World Trade Center, where he was the chief of security) resigned in July [2001] to protest the policy of giving U.S. oil interests a higher priority than bringing al-Qaida leaders to justice. Brisard claims O'Neill told him that "the main obstacles to investigating Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate interests and the role played by Saudi Arabia."

Posted on a construction wall near the Capitol Records building in Hollywood

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."—The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the US

Besides being a badly mangled sentance that my English teacher would have thrown back in my face, this amendment does NOT say the right of "a person" to bear arms. It says the right of "the people", which is prefaced by "a well regulated militia." If it said "a person" instead of "the people" then every single gun control law in the country would be unconstitutional. In fact, the opposite is true. Courts, including the supreme court, have interpreted the second amendment to mean the people, as in "well regulated militias," not individuals, have the right to bear arms. Furthermore, we've allowed people to have weapons, as long as they are registered, like cars. We make people who drive big chunks of steel at high speeds take safety tests, maintain registration, tags, and liscenses. And yet, in many places, driving small pieces of steel or lead at speeds faster than the speed of sound requires no safety tests, no liscenses, no background checks (at gun shows) - nada, zippo, zilch. And that's the way the NRA likes it. Let everyone have a gun if they want one. Sure, guys, Florida tried that and they now have the highest violent crime rate in the country.

But forget all that. Go back to the amendment. Not a single one of you National Redneck Association members could argue for 5 seconds with me on what that amendment says. It's all there in black and white. MILITIA. Any gun ownership you get outside the national guard is a gift, so shut up, and sit down. When you stop screaming your slogans and think about it for a minute you'd realize no one wants to send in Jack-booted thugs to confiscate your weapons. We just want them registered, with proof that you can operate them safely, store them safely, and that they're not bazookas, or howitzers, or nuclear bombs.

That brings up a little side point. Why is it that every time I ask an NRA member what the limit is they never answer? Where do you draw the line? Should we all be allowed automatic weapons? Rocket launchers? How about a tank? It says "arms" not guns, so don't I get to own a howitzer? Where do you draw the line?

So why is the Bush administration, and Pentecost wanna be singer John Ashcroft in particular, now going to argue that they believe the second amendment gives an individual exactly what the amendement doesn't say? Why would they do this when every court in the nation has said that government has a right to restrict gun ownership? Well, it's pretty simple. Go to the chart on this page about the 2000 presidential election. Look at the states in the Bush win column. Can you say red neck? Sure, I knew you could.

Now a lot of these rednecks are union workers, who are pro-choice, environmentalists, working class people, natural Democrats. But Charlton Heston whips them into a drooling frenzy over their guns and they forget about everything else and vote for a rich, coke-head, elitist, AWOL, draft dodging brat who cares more about corporations and making his crooked Enron buddies rich than he does about good paying jobs for these rednecks dumb asses. It's all a trick. Bush could care less about the second amendment. All he cares about is getting union workers in swing states to vote for him so he can steal more money from Social Security, sell more bonds (to rich people) to cover the deficits, cut taxes for millionaires while the middle class pays for it, cut funding for family planning and give it to religions (as long as they believe in Jesus), stop research on zygotes that would save lives and cure diseases, raid cannibus clubs where patients smoke a natural pain reliever approved for them by their doctors and their states' voters, and all kinds of environment destroying, civil liberty removing, horrendous stuff. But Charlton Heston gets up and says the second amendment comes first, and that's how all these stupid red-necks vote.

Amazing.

I'm just waiting for the day that Heston raises up a gun and says the standard line "when you take it from my cold, dead hands" and somebody, like the bug in Men In Black, says, "your proposal is accepted." The world will be a better place without him convincing good people to vote for evildoers like GW Bush and his minions.

Hypocrasy from on High: "Justice" Scalia Quotes

"The Supreme Court of the United States does not sit to announce 'unique' dispositions." —US v. Virginia

"Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances."—Bush v. Gore

This scumbag, who spent his whole career stressing the importance of precedent and judicial consistency, threw out all his life-long values and convictions to appoint an AWOL coke-head (who couldn't even remember his name) to the presidency of the United States. This little weasel has asserted that he's holier than the Pope because he believes that state sponsored murder, even though you occasionally kill an innocent person, is morally right. I guess he figures that the values he's professed all his life take the back seat to aiding a Junta into power so we can stop a woman's right to remove a zygote from her body, so we can arrest terminal patients for using a natural medicine for pain relief, so we can dump waste in water and air, so we can give big corporations huge tax cuts, corporate welfare, and permission to pollute more, and, well, you get the idea.

Contact any NRA fanatics you may know, especially in swing states, and tell them that that bastard Charlton Heston is a liar; Democrats will not send the Jack-booted thugs to take your guns, but republican$ will send them to take your union, your clean environment, your social security, your budget surplus, your freedoms, your job, and anything else they can to make them, and their Enron contributors, richer and more powerful.

What's your vote worth?

If you want your vote to actually count as ONE vote in the next presidential election, move to Wyoming. Nice state, if you can stand the kind of red-necks that kill gay people by tying them to a fence and beating them to death. Seriously, I'm sure there's plenty of friendly people there. Hell, 60,421 people there actually voted for Gore (but they were probably beaten for it).

To find out exactly what your vote is worth compared to those more important people in Wyoming, check out this page where I've listed each state, its number of electors, the actual number of people who voted, the votes per elector, and the percentage of Wyoming's vote each state's voter counts as. It's not pretty. In California, my vote counted less than half a Wyoming vote. In Massachusetts, your vote counts just over a third of Wyoming's.

Anybody ready to abolish the electoral college yet? Of course you are! In fact, a majority of you probably are. Well, you know what good a majority does for you in this country. And don't expect the National Redneck Association (NRA) to ever let go of the lopsided power this colonial leftover gives them. Because they can't win an argment, or a court case, on gun control, they depend on this pre-slavery dilution of big state votes to put Juntas like Shrub's in power. The only argument I've ever heard for the electoral college is that candidates would ignore little states. Well, I can argue with that all day, but here's just one for now: candidates ignore states that are decided already. States like Wyoming aren't visited now, because the outcome is certain. Same for California. Bush and Gore spent most of their time in "battleground" or "swing" states. If we eliminated the college and just went for the popular vote (or, even if we just eliminated the two vote bonus based on each state's senators), candidates would go anywhere and everywhere that they might pick up a vote. It would actually force them to go more places!

Why am I wasting my time? This will never happen and democracy in this country is now forever lost thanks to the right-wing nuts who think it's OK to destroy the planet, since Jesus is coming back soon anyway.

"The president and his budget director are finally being honest about their misguided priorities — more tax cuts for Enron paid for by effectively raising taxes on middle-class students and their families," — David Sirota, a spokesman for Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, commenting on the Bush administration's efforts to eliminate a student loan consolidation program that lowers payments.

There was a ton of Bad Bush News today, from EPA announcing they're going to let mining operations dump billions of tons of waste in rivers, that Bush rejected an EPA plan that would have reduced air pollution, instead of increasing it, which Clear Skies will do, the NRA (National Redneck Association) bragging that their red-neck drones in the midwest (where a vote counts more than in populous states) got Bush "elected," and an energy department release of a document (now that the "energy" bill has passed the Senate) that reveals a Bush staffer asked an industry representative for a wish list to be made into regulation (or the lack of it).

All you idiots who said this asshole couldn't do much damage: I hope you're paying attention now. Go back to your corner and stick your head back up your asses. And stay there until after we have a real election, where votes count, and I personally kick the asses of any pudgy little Republican congressional staffers who stage riots to stop vote counting.

"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness."—George Washington, 1790

"Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?"—Ronald Reagan, 1980

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.''—George W Bush, 2001

Watchdog quits EPA

Robert Martin was the EPA's ombudsman until he quit, in disgust with the Bush administration, on earthday, 2002. This man actually made a difference to people who were harmed by the big industries, and others, who pollute this planet. He butted heads with Bush political appointees in the EPA since they started showing up to "protect" the environment. Then, Martin stumbled onto Christie Whitman's corruption--helping her husband and his huge stake in Citigroup Corp.

In Denver the EPA had decided to leave radioactive contamination in the middle of a neighborhood, at the Shattuck Chemical Superfund site. After many complaints, they finally decided to remove the pollution, and the company that had to pay for the cleanup was Citigroup Corp. Martin discovered that Whitman, the EPA administrator, is married to a former officer of Citigroup who now manages roughly $800 million of the firm's investments. Whitman refused to recuse herself from the case. The EPA settled, allowing Citigroup to pay $10 million to get off the hook, while actual cleanup costs will be between $70 million and $100 million. Furthermore, while New Yorkers were suffering breathing problems and other maladies after the twin towers collapse, Whitman issued a statement assuring people that everything was fine, meaning Traveler's Insurance (owned by Citigroup) didn't have to pay any claims.

This is Environmental Protection? Read the whole story here.

Conservatives Aren't NORML

My letter to Andrew Sullivan: The nut case who sent you the e-mail in defense of our Marijuana laws spouted out a lot of facts about The Netherlands, but didn't back any of them up. There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. For some well researched statistics, check out norml.org or the mpp.org. I was glad to see you were unconvinced. Let's use prohibition as an example: did prohibition stop, or even slow, drinking in this country? No. It did make the mafia stronger, just as prohibition of drugs has made the cartels stronger. But even that is off the point. No one would argue that coke and heroin are bad news, but there are plenty of arguments that pot is no worse, or even less worse, than alcohol or tobacco. And having John Ahscroft (your kind of conservative?) busting terminal cancer patients who are smoking pot for pain, in states that voted to let them do it, under a doctor's orders, well, let's see some right-wing nut defend that.

I could care less what your sexual orientation is. When it comes to politics, if you want to be in the same party as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and GW Bush for that matter, that's your stupid mistake to make. My contention is with your statement that somehow Republicans stand for "small government, a free society, market economics, and a strong defense." Certainly this doesn't apply to the idiot you "elected." In case you've been busy, the latest stories were about how Bush has increased spending more than any president since Johnson. Even if you take homeland defense out of it, what you have here is a deficit spender who says he wants smaller government while he doles out tax cuts and government projects to Enron. The blue dog Democrats seem to be the only ones who want a balanced budget and controlled spending. Bush only cares about re-election and he knows that pork is the ticket.

Furthermore, you seem to suggest that Democrats aren't for a "free society." What kind of logic is that? Only Republicans are for freedom? Give me a break. This is the typical crap a lot of you right-wingers spew: if anyone is against your policies they're somehow not patriotic. Please spare me. You and John Ahscroft can go sing some hymns about God and Freedom but that doesn't mean you're for a free society. To say that progressives aren't shows that you'd rather call us commies than debate us, Mr. McCarthy.

Finally, I wonder where you come down on your Religious fanatics' (Face it, how many atheist Republicans are there? The party has been taken over by Ralph "Enron" Reed and company) feelings about the environment. Are you with the James Watt theory that "We don't need to protect the environment; the second coming is at hand." This seems to be this born-again Jesus freak president's position. So, you'd have these guys destroy the world in the name of a "free market"? And, do you really think Bush is for a free market? Only when it helps the people who got him elected. This is the politics of money, and it is anything but free. Republicans are for the elite, and free markets, if they ever were truly free, or if they ever actually calculated the true costs and benefits of actions, would be the one thing Republicans couldn't stand.

Beyond all the philosophical discussions you and I could have on conservatives vs. progressives, the bottom line at the moment is that this drunk, AWOL coke-head in the White House was not elected. Have you read Greg Palast's Harper's article? The Katherine Harris scrub list contained 8000 names it shouldn't have in Florida, mostly of black people who were wrongly (feloniously) turned away from the polls, in some cases at gun point. Seems the only way your precious "conservative" could win an "election" is to have white state troopers in Florida point guns at black people trying to vote.

If they were pointing guns at gay people, I assume you'd still profess that they are the party of a "free society." Even while they're forcing my kids to pray in school, arresting you for sodomy, forcing abortions into back alleys with clothes hangers, cutting taxes for billionaires, sponsoring third world coups, bombing civilians in the middle east, giving money to terrorists while denouncing them, and executing innocent people?

Scott Supak
http://supak.com

The Selling of an Energy Policy

President Al Gore's Op/Ed piece in Sunday's New York Times offers little hope for the future, since it's about the Junta that is squatting in the White House and how their "energy" policy is sending us down the road to ruin. Remember, the Republicans are the party who brough you Interior Secretary James Watt who said: "We don't have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand." For a few quotes that actually make sense to those of us who use our brains, read the Gore essay. Here's a quote:

Under the presidency of George W. Bush, the environmental and energy policies of our government are completely dominated by a group of current and former oil and chemical company executives who are trying to dismantle America's ability to force them to reduce the extremely dangerous levels of pollution in the earth's atmosphere.

I'd love to see GW Bush's reply, that is, assuming he can even spell Kyoto. One thing I do know: Dumbya is guilty of some extremely evil things.

Organic Gardening News

Visit our new blog for organic gardening news and views about organic farming and sustainable agriculture. I think this one is crowded enough, and I needed a place to put stuff quickly, where it wouldn't clog up our organic gardening site.

On my travels to find a quote from James Watt at the new organic gardening news site, I found this great list of quotes from the religious fanatics who are actually in charge of this country right now.

"Don't let anything like trees in the Clearwater National Forest get in the way of providing jobs and fueling the economy, even if that means cutting down every last tree in the state." --Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth R-ID during her 1994 campaign

Cloning with Clothes Hangers

Once again the idiocity of the extreme right has reared its monkey head in the form of George W. Bush, spewing out the word unethical like he was some backwoods Texas steer screwing preacher. These people want abortions performed on back alley butcher tables with wire clothes hangers (apt punishment for women who get pregnant due to recreational sex). Along a similar vein, they want to call a glob of cells smaller than the head of a pin a human life and ban all human cloning, even though it could cure a wide range of debilitating human ailments (in people a lot bigger than the head of a pin). Of course, human cloning will happen, in England, Italy, and plenty of other places around the world. The thought of brain drain doesn't scare Bush at all, having had his vacuumed out by the many kilos of coke he snorted while AWOL from the National Guard, and kids with less powerful, uh, connections, died in Viet Nam. I'd really like to see Georgie Boy argue with the 40 Noble prize winners who support cloning for research and theraputic purposes.

Using Crisis to Justify their Pay-back to their Energy Donors

At Long Last? By PAUL KRUGMAN

Yet a few months ago, Republican activists ran ads with side-by-side photos of Tom Daschle and Saddam Hussein, declaring that both men oppose drilling in ANWR — and Dick Cheney, when asked, stood behind those ads. Administration critics could, with rather more justification, run ads with side-by-side photos of George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, declaring that both men oppose increased fuel efficiency standards. (Actually, I'm not aware that Iraq's ruler has expressed an opinion on either issue.) Of course, if such ads did run, there would be enormous outrage. After all, turnabout wouldn't be fair play because, well, just because.

Krugman also points out that "Tom DeLay recently declared that if we'd had a leader like Mr. Bush, we would have won the Vietnam War." WOW. That is amazing, since Bush's daddy made sure he got in the National Guard during Nam, where Bush proceeded to get so coked up that he couldn't pass his physical, so he went AWOL. So, on my travels to awolbush.com I found an impressive list of who served and who didn't. This is amazing. Seems the whole idea that Republicans are better War Mongers is based on the fact that very few of them actually served in the military. Ironic, isn't it, that the party of War has no experience in it. Maybe that's why they're so willing to send young men to die.