Active troops ask congress to end Iraqi occupation

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sixty five active duty service members are officially asking Congress to end the war in Iraq -- the first time active troops have done so since U.S. invasion began in 2003.Three of the service members will hold a press conference Wednesday explaining their decision to send "Appeals for Redress" under the Military Whistleblower Protection Act to their members of Congress. Under the act, National Guard and Reservists can send communications about any subject to their member of Congress without punishment.

Like the Mafia, Only Dumber

William Rivers Pitt lists a roll call of recent GOP criminals and doesn't even mention the Crime Bosses (Bush, Rummy, Chenny, Rove). I would appologise for the list being long, but that is the Republicans' fault.

Pitts post is as follows:

Josh Marshall, who runs the excellent blog Talking Points Memo, recently posted a reader's take on "The 5 Stages of Republican Scandal." As follows:
1. "I have not been informed of any investigation or that I am a target."
2. "I am cooperating fully, but this whole thing is a political ploy by the Democrats."
3. "I'm SHOCKED by the mistakes made by my subordinates."
4. "I'm deeply sorry for letting down my friends and family. I now recognize that I am an alcoholic. I will be entering rehab immediately, so I have no time for questions."
5. "Can I serve my time at Eglin Federal Penitentiary (aka Club Fed)?"

We have seen a fair amount of this already, and will soon see a lot more of it. The news media is all abuzz about Republican scandals, from Foley to Abramoff, but simply hearing about it from the television does not do the situation justice, if you'll pardon the bad pun. You have to see it all in one place to understand the depths to which the GOP has sunk.

Bear in mind, as you peruse the following roll call, that these guys are getting busted for this stuff while their party has absolute control over the House, the Senate, the White House and the Justice Department. Huffington Post columnist Stephen Elliot pegged it recently when he wrote, "The fact is if you control the Senate, the White House, and the courts, and you're still getting busted for bribery, stalking children, and money laundering, then something is really sick at the Republican core."
Indeed. Thus, without further ado and in no particular order ...

Jack Abramoff: The disgraced "super-lobbyist" has been nailed for wire fraud, and is cooperating in the investigation into the bribing four Republican members of congress.

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas): Once the most powerful man in the House of Representatives, Texas congressman DeLay now stands indicted on three counts of money laundering, charges stemming from his all-out attempt to secure a permanent Republican majority in the House. His story isn't finished; the Abramoff investigators have been sniffing around his door for months now.

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio): Ney has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Jack Abramoff. Ney pulled #4 out of the bag of GOP excuses above, announcing that he has entered a rehab clinic for alcohol addiction.

Tony Rudy: Once the deputy chief of staff for Tom DeLay, Rudy has pleaded guilty to bribing a Republican House member, said member widely assumed to be Bob Ney. Rudy also pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Abramoff in return for favorable actions on Abramoff's behalf by his former boss.

Mike Scanlon: Another Republican lobbyist and former DeLay press secretary, Scanlon has pleaded guilty to stealing millions of dollars from Native American tribes, on whose behalf he was supposed to be lobbying Congress regarding casinos. Scanlon is also cooperating with federal investigators.

Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-Calif.): The California congressman has pleaded guilty to accepting $2.5 million in bribes, in exchange for steering federal contracts to a number of defense firms. Cunningham is currently staring down the barrel of eight years in prison.

Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.): There isn't much more to say about this fellow, who has joined Rep. Ney in the I'm-an-alcoholic-going-to-rehab club.

Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) : Long considered to be little more than the mush-mouthed front man for Tom DeLay, Speaker of the House Hastert has found himself swept up in the Foley scandal. Several fellow congressmen have said that they warned Hastert about Foley's improper behavior, but nothing was done about it until the Foley emails went public. The watchword for today is "cover-up."

I. Lewis Libby: Cheney's former chief of staff, "Scooter" Libby, has been indicted on five counts of lying to investigators regarding the outing of deep-cover CIA agent Valerie Plame.

David Safavian: Once the head of the White House Office of Federal Procurement, Safavian has been convicted of four counts of lying to investigators regarding a bribe he took from Abramoff.

Claude Allen: Formerly a domestic policy advisor to the White House, Allen was arrested for shoplifting thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from various retail stores.

Brian Doyle: Formerly the Department of Homeland Security's deputy press secretary, Doyle was arrested for attempting to seduce a 14-year-old girl over the internet.

James Tobin: Tobin, who served as the northeast field director for the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, has been convicted on two counts of conspiracy stemming from a phone-jamming scheme in New Hampshire during the 2002 midterms. Tobin made dozens of phone calls during this time to the White House political affairs office. He was sentenced to ten months in prison.

Susan Ralston: An aide to White House political advisor Karl Rove, Ralston resigned recently after her multiple meetings with Jack Abramoff became public knowledge. Ralston was also in the habit of accepting gifts, such as tickets to sporting events, from the disgraced lobbyist.

Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.): Doolittle hasn't been convicted of anything yet, but has rolled out the "not a target" line regarding the investigation into Abramoff's bribery scheme.

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.): Like Doolittle, Burns has deployed the "not a target" line regarding the Abramoff probe. He is, however, apparently a "target" of the probe, a fact that has his staffers splitting rhetorical hairs at warp speed.

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.): Rep. Dale Kildee, the only Democrat on the House Page Board, dropped an interesting brick the other day. While commenting on a conference call between page board members regarding "other allegations" beyond those directed at Rep. Foley, Kildee said, "It was about other allegations and I'd like to leave it at that. Let me just say, not about Mr. Foley." These "other allegations" appear to be augering towards Rep. Kolbe, who took two former pages on a camping trip several years ago. A federal investigation has been opened to look into the matter.

Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.): The senate majority leader is currently under investigation by the SEC for seemingly taking advantage of insider information to make a killing on stocks, the company attached to said stocks being owned by his family.

Lester Crawford: Once the Bush administration's FDA commissioner, Crawford has been charged in federal court for conflict of interest, and for making false statements related to his investments. He recently pleaded guilty to the charges.

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.): The home of Weldon's daughter was raided by federal investigators on Monday. The investigators are looking hard at her lobbying firm, and whether her well-connected father improperly steered business her way. Weldon has pulled out #2 above, laying the whole thing off on a Democratic plot to destroy him.

Tom Noe: A four-star Republican fund-raiser in Ohio, Noe has just gone on trial for stealing millions from a fund for injured workers and spending it on himself.

Here's the best part: George W. Bush has officially declared that this is now National Character Counts Week. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up.

"America's strength is found in the spirit and character of our people," reads the Bush proclamation. "During National Character Counts Week, we renew our commitment to instilling values in our young people and to encouraging all Americans to remember the importance of good character." Someone apparently forgot to circulate the "Character Counts" memo among the ranks of the Republican Party, it seems.

At the end of it, you have to think of this crew as being like the Mafia, only a lot dumber. Think about it. The Mafia's criminal enterprises operate under heavy scrutiny from local, state and federal officials, all of whom have subpoena power, not to mention the ability to tap phones and kick down doors.

The Republican criminal enterprise that is currently unraveling in all directions, on the other hand, operated virtually free from restraint or scrutiny. They own the government, from the Oval Office to the FBI to the Capitol Dome, and yet somehow they are managing to get busted left and right.

GOP Confident They Can Steal The Vote

Thom Hartman just announced this story.
Read the article at the Daily KOS.

Several journalists have commented recently about the President's and Karl Rove's strange confidence that Republicans will not lose the mid-term elections, despite public polls and other evidence to the contrary.

Now we know why. The Republicans are purging the election rolls in Ohio and 3 other states--a tactic that worked well for them in Ohio and Florida in past elections. They are especially targeting university students, who tend to vote for liberal candidates (probably because their idealism hasn't been purchased, co-opted or crushed yet). They are being purged in many cases because they have been assigned new dorm rooms, which is technically a change in address.

Read the post. Find out what to do. Demand an absentee ballot.

The Neo-Cons will stop at nothing to win. Good citizens must resist this subversion of our government and constitutional rights.

This plan includes involvement by the Diebold company which has created new voter registry systems which have been installed over the last year.

The Republican De-evolution

Love him or hate him you had to respect Ronald Reagan. He had big ideas. He knew how to express them. He got people excited. He launched a Republican Revolution which swept politicians like Newt Gingrich into office. But now, the heirs of Reagan are a different breed altogether. The revolutionary zeal seems to be wearing thin due to the abrasive quality of the Neo Conservative power grabs and disrespect for the conservative values that fueled the revolution.

Conservative talk radio had a lot to do with fueling the Reagan revolution, and it may be heralding the end as show host after host reaches for their favorite weapon: Blame the Democrats. Apparently Democrats are responsible for Al Qaeda, 9/11, and now the Foley scandal. But the accusations are sounding thin and the public is not responding like they used to.

As Time Magazine reports:
”On conservative commentator Laura Ingraham's show, the longest-serving Republican House Speaker in history explained why he would not resign despite a sex scandal that has produced a hail of questions about his leadership and the failure to stop one of his members from cyberstalking teenage congressional pages. "If I fold up my tent and leave," Dennis Hastert told her, "then where does that leave us? If the Democrats sweep, then we'd have no ability to fight back and get our message out."

The Republicans are hardly even pretending to have big ideas or better ethics any more; they are just desperately trying to hold on to power for power’s sake. And you can hear their fingernails screeching on the marble roofs of the Washington D.C..

I don’t want to talk about Foley and the pages. I think it is sick. And there are so many other examples of Republican corruption (election fraud, lies, WMD, Jack Abramoff, torture, habeas corpus, wire tapping, lies, lies, and more lies) that should resonate with voters. There are so many reasons for true conservatives and true people of faith to turn away in disgust from these Neo Conservatives. But those issues just seemed to roll off the conservative voters like water off a duck. They didn’t seem to penetrate. The Foley scandal seems to resonate with people. People finally seem to care about this lapse or lack of ethics.

Perhaps this signals the end of the Revolution. Perhaps conservative voters will finally see these hypocrites for the power hungry liars that they are. Or maybe the Neo Cons will once again tilt the voting machines. Maybe they will make voters afraid enough one more time. Maybe the talk radio host can screech shrilly enough to get the old dogs to roll over for their masters one more time.

But how many more times can they pull this off? Maybe the old dogs will learn a new trick. Maybe Democrats will take the house. Maybe they will clean house. Maybe…

My Heroes in the Media

There are a few shining lights that have somehow survived the screeching howl that is typical media news. The brightest lights in the media these days are Bill Moyers and Heith Olbermann.

I watched Bill Moyers’ PBS Special about Jack Abramoff and the corruption of lobbyists and members of Congress. It was chilling to those of us who respect the Constitution. Catch the reruns if you can.

In a related article, Lincoln Weeps, Moyers says:
“Once upon a time the House of Representatives was known as "the people's house." No more. It belongs to K Street now. That's the address of the lobbyists who swarm all over Capitol Hill. There are 65 lobbyists for every member of Congress. They spend $200 million per month wining, dining and seducing federal officials. Per month!”

Meanwhile Keith Olbermann is continuing to speak the truth to the man sitting in our White House. Keith questions how we can accept so many lies from our President and his administration in A Special Comment About Lying.
Read it Here.
Or Watch it Here.
“Mr. President, these new lies go to the heart of what it is that you truly wish to preserve.
It is not our freedom, nor our country—your actions against the Constitution give irrefutable proof of that.
You want to preserve a political party’s power. And obviously you’ll sell this country out, to do it.
These are lies about the Democrats -- piled atop lies about Iraq -- which were piled atop lies about your preparations for al Qaida.
To you, perhaps, they feel like the weight of a million centuries -- as crushing, as immovable.
They are not.
If you add more lies to them, you cannot free yourself, and us, from them.
But if you stop -- if you stop fabricating quotes, and building straw-men, and inspiring those around you to do the same -- you may yet liberate yourself and this nation.
Please, sir, do not throw this country’s principles away because your lies have made it such that you can no longer differentiate between the terrorists and the critics."

For Cheney "Free Speech" = "Assault"

If you had any doubt that the Neo Cons want to dismantle the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Read this article from the Rocky Mountain News, where Cheney has a man arrested at a shopping mall for expressing his opinion about the administrations Iraq policies:

Arrest over Cheney barb triggers lawsuit
By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News October 3, 2006

A Denver-area man filed a lawsuit today against a member of the Secret Service for causing him to be arrested after he approached Vice President Dick Cheney in Beaver Creek this summer and criticized him for his policies concerning Iraq.

Attorney David Lane said that on June 16, Steve Howards was walking his 7-year-old son to a piano practice, when he saw Cheney surrounded by a group of people in an outdoor mall area, shaking hands and posing for pictures with several people.

According to the lawsuit filed at U.S. District Court in Denver, Howards and his son walked to about two-to-three feet from where Cheney was standing, and said to the vice president, "I think your policies in Iraq are reprehensible," or words to that effect, then walked on.

Ten minutes later, according to Howards' lawsuit, he and his son were walking back through the same area, when they were approached by Secret Service agent Virgil D. "Gus" Reichle Jr., who asked Howards if he had "assaulted" the vice president. Howards denied doing so, but was nonetheless placed in handcuffs and taken to the Eagle County Jail.

The lawsuit states that the Secret Service agent instructed that Howards should be issued a summons for harassment, but that on July 6 the Eagle County District Attorney's Office dismissed all charges against Howards.
The lawsuit filed today alleges that Howards was arrested in retaliation for having exercised his First Amendment right of free speech, and that his arrest violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful seizure.

Vote for Change

I am not naïve enough to believe that the Democrats are pure of heart and uncompromised. But I am also not naïve enough to believe the Republicans when they pound their chests and proclaim themselves the only party that can save America from terrorists.

I smell fear. I smell fear in Washington D.C.. I smell fear in the White House. I smell fear in the Congress. I smell fear in the Senate. The Neo Conservatives who have hijacked the Republican party are afraid because there is a chance that control of the Senate and maybe the Congress might go to the Democrats.

What happens if the Democrats get control of the Senate and/or the Congress?
Maybe nothing. But maybe a little thing called Congressional Oversight. Hearings, Subpoenas, Investigations, Fact Finding, and dare I say it….Impeachment….Prison.

Will it happen? Will the Democrats gain control? Will the Democrats hold these corrupt NeoCons responsible for bankrupting our treasury, starting illegal wars, repealing the Constitution? Who knows? But I know this: If voters just go to the polls and vote business as usual, we will never get the chance to find out.

I wish we had viable third party candidates. But we don’t. So our only chance to derail this horrible run away train called the Bush Administration is to vote Democrat in this election. Then we have to hold our elected officials responsible.

So vote Democrat. And tell your candidates why you are voting Democrat: to hold the administration accountable and to restore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Then maybe we can work to solve some real problems, like Global Warming, Heathcare, Poverty.

So suck it up Independents, Libertarians, Communists, Anarchists, Greens, and Conservatives and vote Democrats for Congress and Senate. It may be a long shot, but it is the best shot we all have.

Do Not Talk About July 10th, 2001

Talk about anything, but do not talk about July 10th.
Talk about Congressman Foley and teenage pages.
Talk about Abortion and the Supreme Court.
Talk about School Shootings.
Talk about how Democrats and the media re ganging up on the President.
Talk about how Bill Clinton "melted down" on TV.
Talk about anything.

But do not talk about July 10th, 2001: the day that George Tenet, the Director of the CIA, warned Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Adviser to the President, that an attack from al Qaeda on the U.S. was imminent.
Do not talk about how Ms. Rice did nothing.
Do not talk about how the President did nothing.
Do not talk about how the 9/11 Commission was not told of this meeting or this warning.

Talk about Michael Jackson; I hear he refused a psychological exam…

(ps: I could give you links for all of these stories, but you just have to go to Fox News.)