anyone else hear that sound...
of the four horseman of the Apocolypse riding down Broadway?
Judge Alito has been confirmed by the Senate, pretty much down party lines save for one republican and four democrats...juuuuuust ridiculous...and the filibuster was voted down...
it has become painfully obvious that George or at the very least Darth Cheney, made a deal with Satan.
The debate starts tomorrow people so time to flood your Congressfolk with call and e-mails, faxes and little love notes saying that you want them to vote against Alito. Most likely this is going to go straight down party lines just as the Committee vote did, and sadly there are still more GOPers than Dems, but you gotta make sure that at least they know how their constituents feel about this. Patrick Leahy himself said on the news this morning that he will vote against his confirmation and believe that Alito's voice would be damaging to the checks and balances on the court.
...and if there's a shot that a GOPer in your area might not be too pleased with Alito, get at them, too!!!
In the meantime...speaking of getting at some GOPers...we all know that, particularly under this administration, the Republicans have been abusing their priviledges beyond the usual politicial nonsense, yet here's further proof, or rather, confirmation. Apparently, Congress was working on a budget cutting bill that would have saved us some money on health insurance. The health insurance industry said "wait a minute!" and next thing ya know, the republicans are having a
secret meeting to which no Democratic congressfolk were invited, and we, the people, lose $22 billion in savings (out of $26 billion originally planned)...and, of course, this is not the first time that these secret meetings have occured. Of course, folks are bringing it up now because the of the Abramoff scandal...they couldn't possibly have brought this up, you know...SIX YEARS AGO?!?!
And speaking of things the gov't is hiding...those photos of Bush and Jack Abramoff that Time Magazine had found are now being
witheld by the White House. They mean absolutely nothing and do not prove at all that Bush knew Jack Abramoff...but they are being witheld...until they can be doctored or shredded or burned or completely wiped out of existence and forgotten...
*and someone please tell Dan Bartlett not to go to this barber again or wear those glasses...he looks like a pasty 12 year old in this photo...rather, like some Karl Rove lovechild...eeek...
other sketchy things the conservatives are up to...did you hear about this
UCLA alum who was offering to pay student for tape recordings of classes taught by "liberal" leaning professors? The guy was willing to pay $100 for tape recordings, $50 for handwritten notes and $10 class handouts...and even the conservatives are annoyed with him...well, annoyed that he offered
money...
IN THE MEANTIME...it's heavy defense week as Bush looks to
defend the wire tapping policy which is now being called a "terrorist surveillance system" (we can thank Alberto "lemme just play with this law here..." Gonzalez for that term). But even
Bill O'Reilly on the Today Show this morning was saying "Why he couldn't get the warrant later, I don't know..." Can you hear the whirrrrrrrrrr of that spin machine?
And while in Kansas (a friendly red state), the president's people decided to say "no, he's not living in a
bubble! he can talk to the regualr folks!" and allowed him to do a question and answer section. One of the questions asked by a student was why the government was cutting $12.7 billion from financial aid, o which Bush replied: "What we did is reform the student loan program," he said. "We're not cutting money out of it. . . . We're not taking people off student loans, we're saving money in the student loan program, because it's inefficient."
Luckily Harry Reid caught up on this: "The President may think that gutting $12.7 billion from student aid isn't a cut, but our students certainly do,"
AND just so ya know...Bush, who apparently likes to take out his frustrations with exercise, will definitely be pedalling for a few hours tonight as it has been reported that the government was indeed
forwarned about Katrina's impact, contrary to Bush's statement of "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees..." 48 Hours before the hurricane hit, the White House recieved detailed e-mails to the Situation Room, describing nearly exactly the impact this storm would have on the Gulf Coast...and again George I'm sure is more worried that this
got out...
Something else for him to work out...Apparently the
rebuilding in Iraq is "badly hobbled", primarily by "gross understaffing, a lack of technical expertise, bureaucratic infighting, secrecy and constantly increasing security costs..."
okay, can we please get Haliburton out of there and get someone who knows what they're doing?
Amidst all this is the real sad news...that we cna't even go to
Canada anymore...
and this is why you must KEEP E-MAILING!!!! E-mail, call, fax, write your friends and family, the press and your Congressfolk and let them know that you are PAYING ATTENTION!!!
I got one word for ya: FILIBUSTER!!!!
Peace --Alex
"Get the President AWAY from the TV!"
yeah I'm sure Bush' people were randomly making sure all the TV's were on the cartoon network during the morning shows as Dan Bartlett went on each to defend the new found yet unpublished
photos of George with Jack "sure I can get you in with the President" Abramoff. George, and his spokespuppets, all vehemently deny that he even knew who Abramoff was, and that all the photos prove is that Abramoff was indeed invited-with hundreds of other people-to various donor events. But perhaps they doth
protest too much right now...damn they are workin' that spin machine HARD...
And speaking of having to spin things...Let's see how they work this one. Apparently within the Department of Justice's
voting section, a "small and usually obscure unit", there are lawyers who are accusing senior officials with playing politics in certain voting cases such as Tom DeLay trying to wipe the Democrats off the Texas map, and Georgia essentially trying to keep black and poor voters from hitting the polls by requiring all folks to have a drivers' license or other photo ID in order to vote...one of the lawyers, by the way, who approved the Georgia ID verification was a gentleman named Hans von Spokavsky (was gonna make a name joke here, but Holly Martins at
wonkette beat me to it), who happens to be the former head of the Georgia GOP, was recently named to the Federal Election Commission in a recess appointment by the president ("[cough] Katherine Harris [cough]" [also stolen from Holly Martins].
And despite the economy supposedly doing fabulously well, Ford Motors has to cut
30,000 jobs...
And, if you hadn't heard about the Medicare drug plan issues, here's some
further proof that so far it's only benefiting the pharmaceutical companies...and rich people..
Lastly...if you go to
MoveOn.org, you can learn how to personally present petitions to your congressfolk asking them to vote against Judge Alito...you can do that or just CALL and EMAIL them cause they are paying attention and a little extra nagging so they know that YOU are PAYING ATTENTION can't hurt.
John Adams, while in Philly in 1775 working on declaring our independence from Great Britain wrote this to an impatient James Warren:
"We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments. But there is great danger that those governments will not make us happy. God grant they may. But I fear that in every assembly, members will obtain an influence by noise not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls..."
And both he and Abigail quoted Daniel Defoe in their letters to each other: "Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could."
While impeachment scares me, mainly because, look who comes next, this adminsitration needs to know that we will not be ruled by noise, meanness and ignorance. Hence, it is necessary that we KEEP E-MAILING!!! E-mail, Call, Fax, Write your friends and family, the press and your congressfolk and let them know that you are PAYING ATTENTION and will not let Bush and his cronies run this country further into the ground with the time they have left. And as this is an election year for Congress, get behind your democratic or independent (or maybe even ashamed and angry republican) candidates NOW. And, as always, pass it on, pass it on, pass it on...
Peace --Alex
ABC tryin' to say something?
So I was at home last night, procrastinating on memorizing a couple of arias, when I stared watching "Enemy of the State" on tv. I never felt the need to see it in the theatre, and when it came out, it may not have been as big a deal, but now, I don't even need to tell you the renewed signifigance of the flick.
If you do not know the story, it is about how the head of the NSA and a certain Congressman are out to get a spy bill passed that would allow nearly unlimited access under the guise of "national security". One Congressman who is against the bill, is killed...and it is caught on tape by an environmentalist's study camera. The head of the NSA finds this out, wants the tape and uses and abuses all his power in order to get it back.
Yes, the film is over the top. It's a Hollywood thriller. But with what's been going on of late, it is definitely relevant; and while perhaps not to the film's extreme, one cannot help but wonder if such stuff is or has been going on. I don't think any government since Nixon has brought out or created more conspiracy theorists, and the adminsitration has no one to blame but themselves for that.
I found it rather amusing that ABC decided to show it at this time. It may have been shown on a Saturday night, but you know...there were some of us watching indeed...
and can I tell you how much I love Bob Schieffer right now? He was just about Paul Bremer's new book out, where Bremer talks about how he thought that there were not enough troops in Iraq and tried to tell this to Rumsfeld while he was working in Iraq. Schieffer says, that's great to say NOW, but why didn't you say this publicly while you were there? Taking the "company line" while lives were at stake helped no one. It is once again an example of how people are too afraid of losing their government jobs for speaking out; this is not the way a democracy is supposed to work. The transcript of his final thought is not available on the website yet, but I will post it later.
DON'T FORGET TO CALL OR E-MAIL YOUR CONGRESSFOLK ABOUT FILIBUSTERING or at least VOTING AGAINST JUDGE ALITO!
Peace --Alex
who let in Jay Edgar Hoover?
DAMN! Big brother really is after us if the government is trying to get into Google...good lord...And thankfully Google said "No dice, man!"
The government said that they were looking for people who looked up child porn....is it just me or does that just sound like an excuse after all the NSA nonsense?
Your government at work, people...
Stevie Wonder makes a good point...
I was listening to the Talking Book album this morning and there is a line in the song "Big Brother" that goes:
"I don't even have to do nothin' to you. You'll cause you're own country to fall..."
The new Zogby poll says that Bush's approval rating has gone back down to 39%, more people are seeing Iraq as a partisan war, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights are
suing the government for spying on their communications with foreign clients (mainly Arabs being held in Guantanamo and other sites and have yet to be charged), and despite all the talk of
progress in Iraq, a
reporter who was kidnapped last week may be killed on Friday if terrorist demands for the US to release 8 female Iraqi prisoners are not met.
Oh and don't forget the scandal that continues amidst congress where
Speaker Hastert has been awful quiet of late...though apparently the Republicans are looking to (finally) make
restrictions on lobbying...I just wanna see the language they use as one cannot doubt that there may be some
loopholes if they're setting it up...I mean, come on, the sub-headline is "Some oppose ban on privately funded trips"...
And then there is Alito ("Alitooooo, I just dodged a judge named Alitoooooo"). The Dems have
delayed the vote a week so this the time to CALL, EMAIL, FAX, and/or WRITE your
Senators and Congressfolk and let them know how you feel about Alito and that you would prefer that they vote against his nomination. During the hearings, it was proven that he is merely another Thomas and Scalia (and potentially Roberts as Roberts voted with Thomas and Scalia on the
Oregon death-with-dignity case) and as he is ready to "leave the door open" for a reversal of Roe v. Wade, it is imperative that you get out there and make sure your Congressfolk get an earful from you about this. Particularly after today's vote that, while essentially
avoiding a vote on their first abortion case in 5 years, Sandra Day O'Connor did write that it the appellate court that had banned the NH law on parental notification was overstepping its bounds.
And shall I also mention the
2002 memo that was found recently that talks about how a transfer of uranium between Niger and Iraq was "'unlikely' because of a host of economic, diplomatic and logistical obstacles..."
and lastly, there for all to see, was Al Gore mincing no words when he said that the Bush administration was breaking the law when they started spying on people without warrants...thanks to my friend Fred, you can see the whole speech right
here.
The walls are indeed crumbling, and like on the last episode of "My Name Is Earl" where Earl ended up being the hands of karma- without even realizing it- that fell upon the nasty fast food manager played by John Favreau, we too can be the (not so) unwitting hands of karma that bring this administration down...except
SO KEEP E-MAILING!!! E-MAIL, CALL, WRITE, FAX your friends and family, the press and your COngressfolk and let them knwo that you are PAYING ATTENTION!!! and pass it on, pass it on, pass it on :)
Peace --Alex
so....
this is just a sad state of things...Alito could be confirmed any minute...Schumer and Kennedy and Leahy did hammer at the questions, but Alito who has shown that he definitely shares philosophies with Scalia and Thomas (duh!), looks like he'll get the nod. And Roe V. Wade could go yet.
I mean, for all the conservatives and just people who say "There's no WAY Roe v. Wade would be overturned. No one would allow it", well the headlines have said that this man would "leave the door open to reversing Roe v. Wade". And with this administration and that court, anything could happen. Time to hunker down ladies and all folks who are pro-choice...or really pro-life as we care about the
lives of women and unwanted children.
CALL, EMAIL, WRITE, FAX YOUR CONGRESSFOLK PEOPLE and let your voice be heard on this!!! and do it NOW!
does the IV travel?
As George and Co. head out on the latest
PR tour for the presidency ("the economy IS okay!
Iraq IS
progressing! The wiretapping is NOT illegal! I gave back
my Abramoff money!") I just begin to wonder if the Jack Daniels IV attached to his desk is portable? Or perhaps one the of the secret service guys is there strictly to provide the president with a bulletproof flask?
I mean, besides George having to defend his presidency, the man actually had to sit down with former secretaries of state and generals to discuss Iraq (I say he HAD to sit down with them as I just don't picture him as the guy that suggested this meeting happen...) and "hear things that he didn't like"...
On thing that killed me yesterday was seeing
Dick Cheney defend the illegal wiretapping saying that if we'd had it earlier, we might have prevented 9/11...Um...last check...there was some extremely obviously titled memo about terrorists- "
Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the US." - as I recall...and other
threats and
reports that were not looked into - PAYING ATTENTION TO THOSE may have prevented 9/11...I was so ready to run over and dopeslap that man upside the head when I heard that business...and as I recall, no pundits have brought this up as yet, so you might want to send a note to your local and national news agency to bring this up next time Darth Cheney tries to defend the wiretapping with that claptrap...
At least we can have a nice chuckle over the Abramoff fiasco...the GOPers are just
twitching in their boots and even Newt Gingrich is sayin' "DeLay...Um, Tom...I think it's time you, you know...
step down..." AND suddenly there's a
charitable boom amidst the crusty indictable bunch...
AND Samuel (Sc)Alito apparently has "been warned" by Senate Democrats that he may recieve "pointed questions" during his hearing and the plan is to
delay judgement til the end of the month rather than a quick and easy confirmation, as hoped for by the administration...
And speaking of chuckles...David Letterman slammed Bill O'Reilly the other night. Never quite seen Dave like this and it is something to see...and you can see it at
O'Reilly's site even...
IN THE MEANTIME....KEEP E-MAILING!!!! It appears to be working but there's always more work to do! E-mail, call, write, fax your friends and family, the press and your Congressfolk and let them know that you are PAYING ATTENTION!!! and as always, pass it on, pass it on, pass it on!
Peace --Alex
If I may steal from wonkette...
Happy Abramoffukkah!
I doubt anyone can find Pepto, Alka Selzter, Rolaids or Valium in the nation's capitol these days as GOPers and some Dems alike are twitching with the knowledge that the ever infamous
Jack Abramoff has signed off on a
plea bargain with federal prosecutors...heh heh heh...can ya hear the shredders? the whir of hard drives being erased?
IN THE MEANTIME...who knew? Apparently somebody got to the
Homeland Security office and said, "You know what? Why IS Wyoming getting more Homeland Security Aid...other than it being Cheney's home state?" They are actually restructuring things so that cities and states under the
most threat (New York, Los Angeles, Boston, etc) will get the most money. Wow! What a concept! Only took 'em 4 years to figure that one out. Now if we can only get them to actually find Osama Bin Laden...
The hearings for Samuel Alito start up next Monday and the Washington Post has done their
analysis and figured out that while sometimes you can't tell just what side he's on, for the most part, he's just what Bush is
looking for...(ya might want to send a
note to your Senator about this?)
Oh and if you forgot that
Bush was still pushing for this, as the short extension of the present Patriot Act passes, Bush is pulling his "if you're not with us you're against us" thing saying that "partisan" people (translation: the Democrats...not including the Republicans who want to make some changes) "don't want protect the country". ...I listen to that on the news and admittedly my gut reaction is just to want to go up and give him a dopeslap and just say "You...STUPID..BUGGER!" all the while smackin' him upside the head. I know it can't just be me....
Yeah, cause he's been so good at protecting the country by creating a breeding ground in Iraq for terrorists, not having enough Homeland Security funds to protect our rather naked ports, and NOT YET HAVING FOUND OSAMA BIN LADEN...yeah, good job there, man...stellar...
All right so as you ponder how Bush with spying on Americans and promoting torture along with the aforementioned above is somehow NOT inspiring some hatin', KEEP E-MAILING!!! E-mail your friends and family, the press and your Congressfolk and let them know that you are PAYING ATTENTION!!! And as always pass it on, pass it on, pass it on! It's a new year and we gotta lotta work to do!
Peace --Alex
