SCOTUS 1 Constitution 0, Senate Abdicates, House GOP Thinks They're Bad, Condi the Baptist and Osama's Dupe Bush.

The land of the free is a little less free today. The five anti-American, anti-Constitution, authoritarian Supreme Court Justices that voted to basically do away with the Fourth Amendment are Justice Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Clarence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy.

We also have to thank the weak-sister Democrat Senators that were too gutless to even put up a fight over the conservative freaks Roberts and Alito.

A divided Supreme Court ruled today that evidence can be used against a
defendant even when seized in violation of a long-standing rule requiring a
knock on the door before executing a search
warrant.
The 5-4 decision, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, ran counter to previous
decisions requiring suppression of evidence obtained in violation of the
so-called "knock-and-announce"
rule.

Breyer, by contrast, wrote that the decision does indeed diminish the
requirement and represents a significant departure from "basic principles"
established by the court and common
law.
He took particular exception to Scalia's claim that "causality" -- a direct
link between the violation and the evidence -- should be a factor in applying
the exclusionary rule. That reasoning, said Breyer, could make the Fourth
Amendment unworkable.

The Senate has once again decided that doing it's job is just too much trouble. They handed Bush his $94.5 billion compromise emergency bill on a 98-1 vote. Despite the fact that the bill eliminated oversight of Iraq construction contracts and cut veteran's funds the Democrats couldn't rouse themselves to do anything other than vote "Aye".

"I am pleased that Congress has addressed these urgent national priorities
within the spending limits I set," Bush said.

Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, who was the only senator to vote
against the emergency bill, did so because the new budget cap did not include $7
billion he wanted for additional health and education funding.

The House wasn't any better. They just give Bush what he wants when he wants it. This kind of makes the Congress pointless. It's no wonder that Americans are sick of this bunch.

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives maintained its track
record of providing absolutely no checks and balances on the Bush
administration's warmaking this week, when it voted 351-67 to authorize another
$66 billion in "emergency" spending for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

While the House will hold a symbolic "debate" on the Iraq imbroglio
Thursday, that endeavor has been so constrained by the House Republican
leadership that it will be of no more consequence than the discourse in a mock
legislative exercise for high school students – although, in fairness to the
students, a mock Congress would undoubtedly take the Constitutional imperative
of shared responsibility for warmaking more seriously than does the actual
Congress.

But why work when the perks of the job pays more than your salary anyway? And besides, you know that your politically ignorant constituents are going to keep on sending you back to profit from your position, instead of doing your job.

More than a dozen lawmakers reaped book royalties ranging to millions of
dollars last year, according to their annual financial disclosure reports,
released yesterday. And when they weren't at their writing desks, some were at
gambling tables or lottery kiosks, netting a few thousand dollars from casinos
or winning tickets.

Meanwhile, scores of House and Senate members and their spouses traveled the
world as guests of think tanks and corporations, even though recent lobbying
scandals have prompted some to curb their wanderlust.

Over in the House the Republicans are up to their old crap of, if you don't support our version of the war on terror, then that makes you a traitorous Al Queda supporter.

Choreographed by the GOP, the debate unfolded four months before midterm
elections that will decide the control of Congress. The administration, for its
part, was so determined to get its message out that the Pentagon distributed a
highly unusual "debate prep book" filled with ready-made answers for criticism
of the war.

Partisan lines were drawn quickly.

"Is it al-Qaida or is it America? Let the voters take note of this debate,"
said Republican Rep. Charles Norwood of Georgia, attacking war critics as
defeatists who do not deserve re-election.

Real men weren't swayed by the lunatic ravings of the rabid right.

Republican Wayne Gilchrest, a Purple Heart and Bronze Star honoree, took it a
step further. "While you were in combat, you had a sense of urgency to end the
slaughter," Gilchrest told
the Washington Post. "And around here we don't have the sense of urgency."

Jim Webb, the former Secretary of the Navy who's challenging George Allen for
a Senate seat in Virginia, summed it up best. "They're sending other people's
kids to war," Webb said
of the Republican Congress. "They're allowing other people's kids to suffer from
bad schools, outsourced jobs, crime-ridden neighborhoods, deflated futures, no
health insurance. They've lost sight of why they should be in government in the
first place."

Even Majority Leader Boehner’s Confidential Strategy Memo For Thursday’s Iraq Debate has gotten out, thanks to Think Progress.

1. Exploit 9/11. The two page memo mentions 9/11 seven times. It describes
debating Iraq in the context of 9/11 as “imperative.”

2. Attack opponents ad hominem. The memo describes those who opposes
President Bush’s policies in Iraq as “sheepish,” “weak,” and “prone to waver endlessly.”

3. Create a false choice. The memo says the decision is between supporting
President Bush’s policies and hoping terrorist threats will “fade away on their
own.”

Condi went to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, N.C. Like any good Republican Condi won't miss an opportunity to suck up. The thirst for power is the common thread that links the GOP to the Religious Right.

Appealing to the evangelicals, Rice asked rhetorically: "If not for America,"
would issues such as religious liberty, human trafficking, HIV/AIDS prevention
and violence in Sudan even be addressed?

It had to be rhetorical, because Condi wouldn't like the true answer to her question.

The Republicans have the nerve to accuse us of being Al Queda supporters while their idiot president has been trying to do exactly what Osama wants more than anything else.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A blueprint for trying to start a war between the United
States and Iran was among a "huge treasure" of documents found in the hideout of
terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi officials said Thursday.

Lame Democratic Leadership, Mollohan Gets Rich, Bush Road Trip, The New Zarqawi, Iraqi Women's Rights Not, War on Terrorism Not and Saving Marriage.

The Democratic party is in need of a major change of leadership and direction. Over the last few years their idea of an oppositon party has been to try to be more like the party it was opposing. Now the party, instead of recruiting real Democrats from inside the party, is retreading Republicans and running them as Democrats. The party is going from lame to pathetic.

In Virginia, national party leaders tapped James Webb, a former Republican, to try to sway moderates into voting for the Democrats. His opponent in the primary, Harris Miller, a former lobbyist and establishment centrist Democrat used a million of his own money and still lost to the Kerry/Schumer backed Webb.

The Democratic primary between the ex-Republican and Republican-lite generated so much excitement among rank and file Democrats that a staggering 3% turned out to vote.

In Kansas, the latest fad, if they have fads in Kansas, is Republicans switching parties and running as Democrats. There seems to be a falling out between those wanting to suck up to Big Business and those wanting to suck up to the Religious Right in the Republican party in Kansas. I guess it would just be too much trouble to find a actual Democrat to run for office in Kansas.

There was a lot of hope that Illinois Senator Barack Obama would go to Washington as a real Democratic firebrand, but now he seems to be leaning toward establishment Democrat team player. But there's still hope for Barack and he has what it takes to make a statement for the grassroots Democrats that expect their party to stand for something.

But when we really get down to it, it looks like it's going to be up to us faceless, nobodies to wrest the control of the party away from the corporate leadership and return it to the people.

One excellent example of an establishment Democrat is Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-W.Va.), he managed to raise his personal worth from $565,000 in 2000 to at least $6.3 million in 2004. I didn't realize that public service was so profitable. It's time for a change in West Virginia.

There's just been all kinds of good news for the President this week, the death of Zarqawi, Rove won't be indicted and his visit to Iraq. Unfortunately for all of us he's still the worst president this country has ever had.

The day before the American leader and Iraqi leader met in Baghdad, Al Queda announced their new leader. Mr. Bush, Mr. Maliki meet Mr. Muhajir.

I wonder if Bush talked to Prime Minister Maliki about women's rights? They seem to be in short supply in Iraq. A group of women's rights demonstrators got the hell beat out of 'em Monday.

While Bush is all fired up on his war on terrorism, people with functioning brains like the folks a Oxford Research Group have a different take on it.

LONDON (AFP) - The US-led "war on terror" is increasing the risk of terrorist
attacks and distracting governments from greater threats to global security such
as climate change, a think-tank warned in a report.

The Oxford Research Group urged countries, especially the United States and
Britain, to rethink their security policies to counter future instability.

"The war on terror is a dangerous diversion and prevents the international
community from responding effectively to the most likely causes of future
conflict," a press statement about the report said.

The US and British governments insist there is no alternative, but "there is
abundant evidence that the 'war on terror' is proving deeply counterproductive
-- making the risk of future terrorist attacks on the scale of New York, Madrid
or London more not less likely," it said.

Let's see, idiot from Texas or Oxford. Even an ignorant country boy like myself has no problem with that choice.

Now if the Republicans and the Religious Right are right about the threat to marriage being the biggest problem facing the country, we'd better get busy and do something about it. Charles M. Madigan of the Chicago Tribune lays out the obvious solution. Let's see how serious the right really is.

A brilliant idea came to me as the Senate Republicans pushed their hopeless
proposal for a constitutional amendment to protect marriage from amorous gay
people. I agree with all of the arguments about marriage being a foundation in
our culture and the best way to raise a family and nourish values.

That being the case, let's focus on the real threat.

It's time to arrest and imprison everyone who has ever been divorced, make it
illegal to have serious marital problems and set up a federal agency to enforce
it.

Religious Right Says Cancer Good Science Bad, Bad Finger, Bush Reviews Iraq, Zarqawi Wanted Alive Then Dead, Taliban and Beer.

The FDA has just announced the approval of a new HPV vaccine, Gardasil. What Gardasil is supposed to do is nothing short of miraculous. It's believed that it will eradicate the STI (sexually transmitted infection) that affects 80% of women by age 50 and is the cause of almost all cervical cancer.

This is great news. Who in their right mind could object to it?

Well, no one has ever accused the Religious Right of ever being in anything close to a right mind.

That's right, the Religious Right is up in arms about their chattel, or as the rest of us call them, our daugthers, receiving the vaccinations.

It seems that in their twisted little fantasy world, a vaccine that would prevent a STD will turn their normally chaste little Christian girls into wanton harlots. Trust me, as someone that grew up in rural eastern Oklahoma, where taking a girl to church was a natural part of dating, they don't need a vaccine. Their repressive upbringing will have them in the back seat and waiting, about five minutes after church is over. Thanks Dad.

Despite the benefits
of the vaccine, conservative organizations began to rally against it last
year. One of the most vocal opponents was the Family Research Council. The
council, according to its mission statement, “promotes the Judeo-Christian
worldview as the basis for a just, free, and stable society.” Last October the
council’s president, Tony Perkins, spoke against the vaccine. “Our concern,” he
said, “is that this vaccine will be marketed to a segment of the population that
should be getting a message about abstinence. It sends the wrong message.” He
went on to say that he would not vaccinate his 13-year-old daughter

.

Thanks to the idiot Bush's attempt to turn the social services part of the government over to the Religious Right, the CDC now has Dr. Reginald Finger on the board. Dr. Finger describes his job as liaison between the CDC and Focus on the Family. This means that those of us who believe our daughters are destined for something other than a lifetime of subservience to their husbands, can just go to hell for all Bush, Finger and the Religious Right cares.

The only member of the 15-member panel to publicly state his opinion about
making the vaccine routinely available is Reginald Finger. Dr. Finger nominated himself to the ACIP after
the ultra-conservative Focus on the
Family was asked to provide a list of scientists to nominate for various
federal boards. Dr. Finger (sorry, I can’t get over that name) describes himself
as a liaison between the CDC and Focus on the Family. He says, “Focus on the
Family wants to have good relationships at CDC - and I can help make those happen.”

He has also said that if “people begin to market the [HPV] vaccine or
tout the vaccine that this makes adolescent sex safer, then that would undermine
the abstinence-only message.” For the record, Finger would also be wary of approving an HIV
vaccine, should one become available.

Thanks, Feministing.com.

Meanwhile, in Fantasyland Bush is having a major review of the situation in Iraq. You know Bush is really on top of things by statements like this,

"I thought your assessment of the situation in Iraq was very realistic,..."

Yeah, like Bush would know reality if he fell face first into it.

There's a lot of speculation going on about Bush's little Camp David getaway/Iraq Summit. Everything from declare victory and leave to just more window dressing. I'll go with the latter.

Could President Bush be getting ready to declare victory in Iraq and get out?

Bush aides have been sending an odd combination of signals these last
several days from the White House and Camp David. On the one hand, they're
officially tamping down expectations of a troop withdrawal announcement. But on
the other hand, there are signs of an unusual amount of commotion within Bush's
inner circle.

One reason I think this review is just more Rove inspired propaganda is that it seems that Bush is looking into plans to have 50,000 troops in Iraq indefinitely.

Mr. Bush on Friday made clear that the American commitment to the country will
be long-term. Officials say the administration has begun to look at the costs of
maintaining a force of roughly 50,000 troops there for years to come, roughly
the size of the American presence maintained in the Philippines and Korea for
decades after those conflicts.

Probably not a good idea considering that we have made enemies of the whole region.

The war in Iraq has generated some of the most startling images in the Middle
East today: a dictator's fall, elections in defiance of insurgent threats and
carnage on a scale rarely witnessed. Less visibly, though, the war is building a
profound legacy across the Arab world: fear and suspicion over Iraq's
repercussions, a generation that casts the Bush administration's policy as an
unquestioned war on Islam, and a subterranean reserve of men who, like Abu
Haritha, declare that the fight against the United States in Iraq is a model for
the future.

The death of Bush's propaganda poster boy Zarqawi is probably going to have unintended consequences.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq will launch "major attacks" to avenge the death of leader Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, a web statement thought to be from the group has said.

Maybe instead of using Zarqawi for propaganda purposes to start his illegal war. Bush should've eliminated him when he had the chance.

Miklaszewski wrote that "the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp
in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam." That is, the Bush White
House let Zarqawi alone so it would have an easier time selling the war in Iraq.

Things must be going better in Afghanistan? Well, no. The Taliban are starting to pick up where they left off. Things like this happen when you let an idiot and his suck up generals run a war.

KABUL, Afghanistan,
June 10 — A large springtime offensive by Taliban
fighters has turned into the strongest show of force by the insurgents since
American forces chased the Taliban from power in late 2001, and Afghan and
foreign officials and local villagers blame a lack of United States-led
coalition forces on the ground for the resurgence.

But despite all the doom and gloom there is some good news, at least for the dumber sex. There may be an ingredient in beer that helps prevent prostate cancer. It gets better, you have to drink a whole lot of it.

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) -- A main ingredient in beer may help prevent prostate
cancer and enlargement, according to a new study. But researchers say don't rush
out to stock the refrigerator because the ingredient is present in such small
amounts that a person would have to drink more than 17 beers to benefit.

Yearly Kos, Net Effect on Democrats, The Internal Fight, The Grassroots Giveth, Too Close to Call and Greedy Old Pricks.

Here's the Yearly Kos promo, I've had it for days and always forgot to post it. Sorry 'bout that.

The Yearly Kos Convention is taking place right now in Las Vegas. More than 1,000 blogger and activists are getting together to enjoy their new found prominence as the left's answer to the right wing propaganda machine.

Quite a few prominent Democrats had the good sense to show up. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid D-NV was the keynote speaker and showed his understanding of the power of the internet.

"Because of you, no attack will go unanswered," Reid told the audience.
"Because of you, no lie will avoid the truth."

Reid's proposed bill, called the Iran Intelligence Oversight Act, would
require an updated national intelligence estimate on Iran, with an unclassified
summary made public.

It also would require the president to report to Congress his
objectives and strategies for Iran.

The Daily Kos and the other big time progressive blogs and news services sure have my thanks and best wishes for continued sucess.


If it wasn't for the progressive internet sites the Democratic party still wouldn't know it had grassroots or how they felt.

The Democratic Party leaders in Washington continue to stumble about looking for
a coherent message. But the message from the grassroots is getting louder and
clearer: Democratic voters want to fight the 2006 Congressional elections as a
progressive party that promises the country a course correction--out of the
quagmire that is Iraq, out of the swamp of corruption and incompetence that is
Republican Washington and, as described elsewhere in this issue, toward a
renewed and real politics of the common good.

Even in Congress, the real Democrats are starting to take on the establishment Democrats for control of the party. It's up to us to help them get it.

When the House of Representatives voted Thursday on the question of whether
to allow old media companies to colonize and control the internet, the two men
who would like to be majority leader in a Democrat-controlled Congress split
their votes.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, the Maryland Democrat who has long
been seen as the heir apparent for the majority leader post if Democrats regain
power, stuck to his usual pattern: He did as the lobbyists for the largest
corporations – and their allies in the Bush administration – asked.

The Dems had better take notice, because the grassroots are hard at work helping them close the fundraising gap with the GOP.

A surge in small, individual contributions is lifting Democratic campaigns
this year and is helping close a Republican fundraising advantage that has
existed for years in national politics, according to Federal Election Commission
data.

Democratic House and Senate candidates and their two major campaign
committees are enjoying stronger grass-roots support than at any time since the
GOP took over both chambers of Congress in the 1994 elections, according to
strategists from both parties who have reviewed the most recent FEC data
released this spring.

The fight for the House still has too much time and too many variables to call. But this is the real battle between good and evil.

The wise people of Washington are knee-deep in numbers these days, trying to
compute which candidates are vulnerable and which ones are lost causes, and
where to devote precious money and resources. Oh, the joy and the horror of all
those calculations, all those parsed polls and historical averages -- like
fantasy baseball, only with the future of the country at stake.

Just a couple of reasons you shouldn't vote Republican.

First you know that the GOP loves a huge military budget, but for the GOP, the military is secondary to the defense contractors. Fort Sam Houston in Texas can't afford to pay it's electric bill.

It's stranger than fiction, a tale bizarre beyond belief: The Army that helped
conquer Iraq in three weeks doesn't have enough cash to keep the lights on at
Fort Sam Houston.

Second, the GOP doesn't believe in accountability, at least for themselves. $21 billion has just vanished and they don't even want to know how or why.

When word of the missing money first surfaced in 2004, Congress passed
legislation creating an office of Special Inspector General, assuming that this
new agency would root out the problem and figure why all that taxpayer money had
disappeared, and why only minimal reconstruction was going on in destroyed Iraq,
instead of a massive rebuilding program as intended.

The new inspector general, an affable attorney named Stuart Bowen, went
to work and came up with a report in early 2006 that sounded scathing enough.
Bowen found cases of double billing by contractors, of payments for work that
was never done, and other scandals. But he never came up with more than $1
billion or so worth of problems.

Now we know why.

Enjoy today, Monday's coming fast.

Political Power and What To Do With It, Big Brother, Unimportant Enviornment, King George, Gutless Congress, Murtha, Newt, Bad Zarqawi & Good Zarqawi.

The Nation is looking ahead. It's what all of us that are concerned about the direction of the country should be doing. It's not too early to be thinking about what to do with power once we get it.

The GOP is tanking in the polls. But they also have almost unlimited resources and a propaganda machine without equal. So they're certainly not out of it.

The Democrats on the other hand are benefiting from GOP mistakes instead of anything of their own doing. And I think this will make November's races more of a toss-up than a blowout. Hope I'm wrong.

If we are lucky enough to gain control of one or both houses of Congress, we'll still have a lot of work to do on our own party, simply because there are so many of them not much better than the Republicans. Unless we are willing to hold our party to higher a standard, it will be a Pyrrhic victory, not only for the Democrats, but for the country.

William Greider's article, The Future Is Now , really nails it, from how the Right screwed themselves and us along with them to what the Democrats need to do if we regain power.

A coherent alternative agenda that will fulfill these principles does not yet
exist. Nor will a liberal-progressive program emerge miraculously if the
Democratic Party should somehow regain power in the next few years, since many
Democrats in Congress have internalized the market ideology and collaborate with
the right. But elements of that alternative agenda are already ripe for
discussion. Before we explore some of them, however, we should examine the
economics of why the right failed.

Robert L. Borosage addresses power and what we do with it if we get it, in The Turning?

Tomasky is silent about the failure of military Keynesianism to deal with
stagflation in the 1970s, and the corporate offensive that declared open warfare
on liberal economics, unions and consumer and environmental groups. Corporations
built not only the ideological arsenal of the right but also the money wing of
the Democratic Party. Democrats found that, as the majority in Congress, they
could fill their campaign coffers with corporate contributions. Liberal Atari
Democrats and conservative New Democrats learned to scorn unions as a special
interest, and to champion much of the corporate agenda--balanced budgets, free
trade, deregulation, privatization, capital-gains tax cuts, opposition to the
minimum wage, even the short-term stock options that gave CEOs a
multimillion-dollar personal incentive to cook the books. Democrats stopped
speaking to the common good less because they were mugged by women's or civil
rights groups than because they found it literally paid to stop fighting for
working people in the economy.

The good news is we are making a start to do the right thing as Katrina vanden Heuvel and Sam Graham-Felsen point out in Sweet Victory: Bold Ballot Initiatives.

Now, thanks in large part to the efforts of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, progressive
organizations are learning how to use ballot propositions to promote bold,
innovative policy around the country. Launched five years ago, BISC provides
state and national advocacy groups with key research and training in effective
referendum strategies.

The solution is simple, return to liberal basics, the greatest good for the greatest number of people. But we'll have to work hard to apply that simple strategy.

One of the problems with the Right being in control is pro-government and business federal judges. Big brother is getting bigger.

Companies that provide Web-based telecommunications services must allow
wiretapping by law enforcement officials, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday.

The ruling upholds a Federal Communications Commission decision that
companies such as Vonage Holdings Corp., the country's largest provider of
Internet phone service, are under the same legal obligation as telephone
companies. The requirement for a wiretap-compatible system could mean higher
expenses for broadband service companies, and it marks the further spread of
regulation into Internet phone services.

Another problem with the Right and conservative Democrats is that they don't give a damn about the enviornment.

NASA is canceling or delaying a number of satellites designed to give
scientists critical information on the earth's changing climate and
environment.

The space agency has shelved a $200 million satellite mission headed by a
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor that was designed to measure
soil moisture -- a key factor in helping scientists understand the impact of
global warming and predict droughts and floods. The Deep Space Climate
Observatory, intended to observe climate factors such as solar radiation, ozone,
clouds, and water vapor more comprehensively than existing satellites, also has
been canceled.

Bush is running the government more and more on his own whim with complete disregard for the law and the principles this country was founded on.

During the presidency of George W. Bush, the White House has made an
unprecedented reach for power. It has systematically attempted to defy, control,
or threaten the institutions that could challenge it: Congress, the courts, and
the press. It has attempted to upset the balance of power among the three
branches of government provided for in the Constitution; but its most aggressive
and consistent assaults have been against the legislative branch: Bush has time
and again said that he feels free to carry out a law as he sees fit, not as
Congress wrote it. Through secrecy and contemptuous treatment of Congress, the
Bush White House has made the executive branch less accountable than at any time
in modern American history. And because of the complaisance of Congress, it has
largely succeeded in its efforts.

And Congress shows that we have born followers instead of leaders representing us.

Am I missing something? I mean, I wasn't exactly an A student in civics class,
but I do clearly recall that the way the U.S. Constitution was written -- and
remains unamended -- is that Congress passes bills and the president either
signs them into law or vetoes them. If he signs a bill, it becomes a law that
the executive branch is then constitutionally required to enforce.

Am I wrong about that? Did I miss the passage of a constitutional amendment that
changed the balance of power established by our founders?


If not, then the president of the United States has broken the law, not just
once, but hundreds of
times.
That's how many times this guy has signed bills into law and then, after the
camera left, signed a separate document he calls "a signing statement," that, in
effect, says, "Just kidding. Here's which parts of that bill I just signed that
I will enforce, and which parts I won't enforce."

In anticipation of a November victory, the Democrats are already starting to fight among themselves. This is probably a good thing, because they sure need to learn to fight somewhere.

Rep. John P. Murtha (Pa.), one of the Democrats' leading antiwar voices,
startled his political colleagues yesterday by announcing he would seek a senior
leadership position if the Democrats win control of the House in November.

Looks like Newt Gingrich will crawl out from under his rock to run for President. Compared to a lot of the Republicans running, Newt seems almost sane.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) expects to run for president in 2008
if the contest for the Republican nomination still seems wide open late next
year, he said yesterday.

They're saying that the death of al Zarqawi will be a major turning point in terrorism. I doubt it, but once again, I hope I'm wrong.

BERLIN, June 9 -- The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi could mark a turning point
for al-Qaeda and the global jihadist movement, according to terrorism analysts
and intelligence officials.

His death does mean the end of his being the poster boy for Bush's pre-war fantasy Iraq/Al Queda connection.

From the moment President Bush introduced him to the American people in October 2002, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi served a crucial purpose for the administration,
providing a tangible focus for its insistence that Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein was linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network responsible for the attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001.

And guess what? Bush had three chances to get al Zarqawi, but he declined. You could understand why Bush was hesitant about getting Osama, since the Bush's and bin Laden's had been in business deals together for years. Apparently Bush just wanted al Zarqawi around for propaganda purposes.

Did you know Bush was given three plans to kill Zarqawi before the Iraq war and
refused to kill him? I'm sure you didn't - because this devastating NBC
story was published once and then never cited again. Bush needed to keep Zarqawi
alive to "sell" his illegal and insane invasion. As a result of Bush's
insanity, hundreds needlessly were murdered by Zarqawi.

44 Democrats Sell Us Out, Good Bye Tom DeLay, Trade Deficit, Zarqawi's Replacement, Haditha First of Many?, Cost of Dead Iraqis and Ann Coulter.

44 Democrat Congressmen, including my smarmy Republican voting squirt, Dan Boren, voted to hand the internet over to the major telecoms, not because they believe in representing the people, but because they are just little suck-ups to Big Business.

"Net neutrality" advocates believe that phone and cable companies should be
barred from blocking, slowing down or otherwise discriminating against the
Internet content that flows over their networks. They fear network owners will
cut deals to give some content providers priority delivery, putting those who
don't pay for this at a disadvantage.

Phone and cable companies say they will not block Web sites but should be
allowed to manage their networks -- which handle an ever-increasing amount of
traffic -- and to charge more to those who want guaranteed fast delivery

.

Here are the sellout "Democrats", the ones that need to be replaced with real Democrats.

John Barrow, Shelley Berkley, Sanford Bishop, Dan Boren, Leonard Boswell, Rick Boucher, Allen Boyd, G.K. Butterfield, Dennis Cardoza, Russ Carnahan, Ben Chandler, William Clay, James Clyburn, Jim Costa, Bud Cramer, Joseph Crowley, Henry Cuellar, Artur Davis, Lincoln Davis, Norman Dicks, Harold Ford, Bart Gordon, Gene Green, Luis Gutiérrez, Brian Higgins, William Jefferson, Eddie Johnson, Jim Marshall, Kendrick Meek, Gregory Meeks, Charles Melancon, Michael Michaud, Dennis Moore, Ed Pastor, Nick Rahall, Mike Ross, Dutch Ruppersberger, Bobby Rush, David Scott, John Spratt, John Tanner, Tom Udall, Robert Wexler, Al Wynn


Here's an excellent article on the people we voted for to represent us, but instead they put themselves first and latched on to the corporate teat. It's by John Nichols of The Nation.

The First Amendment of the Internet – the governing principle of net
neutrality, which prevents telecommunications corporations from rigging the web
so it is easier to visit sites that pay for preferential treatment – took a blow
from the House of Representatives Thursday.

Bowing to an intense lobbying campaign that spent tens of millions of
dollars – and held out the promise of hefty campaign contributions for those
members who did the bidding of interested firms – the House voted 321 to 101 for
the disingenuously-named Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement
Act (COPE). That bill, which does not include meaningful network-neutrality
protections creates an opening that powerful telephone and cable companies hope
to exploit by expanding their reach while doing away with requirements that they
maintain a level playing field for access to Internet sites.

Well known Texas crook and all around low life, Tom DeLay gave his farewell speech to Congress. Unrepentant and bombastic, which I'm sure he'll remain until his cellmates takes a fancy to his girlish good looks. At least, he'll finally realize that homosexuality is not a choice.

He was forced out of his leadership post after being indicted in September for
allegedly funneling corporate dollars into Texas legislative races. Defiant as
always, he flew on a tobacco company's jet to his arraignment, and told Time
magazine that he had prayed that Americans would see Christ through his smiling
mug shot.

Course, after a statement like that, he could get off on an insanity plea. Here's the transcript.



More good news on Bush's economy. Well, for the oil companies and China, for the rest of us it pretty much sucks.

Critics of President Bush point to the soaring trade deficits to bolster their
argument that the administration's free trade policies are not working and have
contributed to a loss of nearly 3 million manufacturing jobs since Bush took office.

The deficits have spawned rising protectionist sentiment in Congress where
many lawmakers are pushing for legislation that would raise trade barriers in
this country as a way to protect American workers from what they see as unfair
foreign competition. Much of their ire has been aimed at China, with which the
United States suffered a deficit of $202 billion last year.

After Bush blew it by not catching Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussien became the poster boy for the "evil ones", caught Saddam and al Zarqawi became the face of evil. Now that al Zarqawi's dead, for about the tenth time, someone has to represent the evil that the righteous War President can lead us into battle against. The newest bad guy is Abu al-Masri, an Egyptian and a veteran of the Afghan conflicts.

Almost as soon as American officials declared Zarqawi dead on Thursday, they
pointed to a foreigner as the man they thought likely to take his place.

Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a U.S. military spokesman, identified the
man as Abu al-Masri, an Egyptian and a veteran of the Afghan conflicts. Masri
appeared to have come to Iraq in 2002, probably helped found the first Baghdad
cell of al-Qaeda in Iraq and was involved in bombmaking, Caldwell told reporters
at a Baghdad news conference.

The latest excuse for why things aren't going so well in Iraq.


Haditha might just be the tip of the iceberg.

BAGHDAD, Jun 6 (IPS) - An Iraqi doctor who was in Haditha during a deadly
U.S. raid last year says there are many more stories like that in Haditha that
are yet untold.

"There are many, many, many cases like Haditha that are still undercover
and need to be highlighted in Iraq," Dr. Salam Ishmael, projects manager with
the organisation Doctors for Iraq, and former chief of the junior doctors in
Baghdad's Medical City Hospital told IPS.

Something's sure not going right over there, because U.S. payoffs for civilian deaths is really going up.

A chilling report from the Boston Globe on Thursday reveals that the amount of
cash the U.S. military has paid to families of Iraqi civilians killed or badly
injured operations involving American troops "skyrocketed from just under $5
million in 2004 to almost $20 million last year, according to Pentagon financial
data." The payments can range from several hundred dollars for a severed limb to
a standard of $2500 for loss of life.

Another self-rightgeous conservative blowhard busted. Ann Coulter whose latest book is titled, Godless: The Church of Liberalism.

Not long ago, I went to church with Coulter--Redeemer Presbyterian, an
evangelical congregation in Manhattan. The actor Ron Silver had also tagged
along--Coulter brings lots of people to church, including, at one time, an ex
who is Muslim. Pastor Timothy Keller spoke of the importance of allowing one's
heart to be "melted by the sense of God's grace because of what he did on the
cross for you."

When contacted by Raw Story, however, Redeemer Presbyterian's Communications and Media Director Cregan Cooke could not confirm that Coulter had ever
attended services at the church.

Death Tax Dead, al-Zarqawi, Iraq's New Ministers, Hagee No Talkee, NATO, Daddy Bush, Fun With the Religious Right, Warbirds Fly High, MSM and PBS .

The Senate has done the right thing by not voting to repeal the extate tax. This is a major victory for most of us, our kids and our grandkids.

However, it's a resounding defeat for 18 of the most avaricious families in America. Together they have pumped into a campaign to abolish the estate tax more than $500 million.

I think that this is the first time since Bush became President that Congress has made an attempt at fiscal responsibility that didn't adversely effect the lower and working classes.

If Congress had put half the effort to take care of the country as a whole, as they have in taking care of Big Business, the rich and the religious right, we'd all be a lot better off.

Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation has a simple and accurate decription of the estate tax.

This is simply not a tax on death. If anything, it is a tax on Paris Hilton.
And let's
not fall for the argument that Paris will be the victim of "double-taxation"
either. First of all, everyone pays taxes any number of times as money cycles
through the economy. Workers pay income, payroll and sales tax. The truth is
that more than half of the value of large estates consists of unrealized capital
gains that would never be taxed without the estate tax.

After many White House reports of his death, it's looks like we've finally, really got Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Long portrayed as the biggest boogy man in Iraq, does anyone really think that his death will lessen the violence in Iraq? Oh, there's a hand up in the back.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush and his military chiefs said Thursday that
killing terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi struck a severe blow to al-Qaida
and opens a new opportunity for the fledging democracy in Iraq.

"This violent man will never murder again," Bush said in the Rose Garden as
he announced the U.S. airstrike on the militant whom Osama bin Laden had dubbed
the "emir," or prince, of al-Qaida in Iraq.

No comments yet from Osama bin Laden.

Iraq has a complete government for the first time in six months. They were able to stop feuding among themselves long enough to name the three top security ministers. Who could have foreseen that security would be an issue in Iraq?

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's parliament on Thursday approved three new key
ministers, including a Sunni Arab to head the defense ministry, as violence left
at least 19 people dead and 40 wounded, according to police.

The three, including ministers for national security and interior, were
sworn in after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the death of al-Qaida in
Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Marine Corps Commandant Michael Hagee gave a briefing, but wouldn't say anything.

There seemed to be a substantial risk that Marine Corps Commandant Michael Hagee
would, at the beginning of his Pentagon press briefing yesterday, start crooning
about the halls of Montezuma and the shores of Tripoli.

He was giving the first briefing by a top Pentagon official since fresh
allegations surfaced three weeks ago about Marines killing two dozen Iraqi
civilians in Haditha. But, unable or unwilling to provide information about that
dark episode, he chose to talk "about what it is to be a Marine."

NATO is going to ramp up it's mission in Afghanistan in reponse to increased Taliban activity. And I bet you thought we were the only ones in Afghanistan. It's bound to be better than "stay the course."

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- NATO defense ministers expressed confidence Thursday that
their beefed-up mission in Afghanistan can stem the surge in violence by
supporters of the deposed Taliban
regime.
NATO is increasing its force in Afghanistan from 9,700 to 16,000, with an
expansion into the volatile southern region of the country due to be completed
by late July. The alliance hopes to take on eastern Afghanistan by November,
completing its expansion across the country and increasing its total numbers to
21,000.

Daddy Bush has been working to get rid of Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. He even found a retired four star general to replace him. But Daddy forgot that he raised an idiot.

When seven retired generals who had been commanders in Iraq demanded
Rumsfeld's resignation in April, the younger Bush leapt to his defense. "I'm
the decider and I decide what's best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to
remain," he said. His endorsement of Rumsfeld was a rebuke not only to the
generals but also to his father.

The Religious Right didn't get their gay marriage ban amendment, but they still have clout. Macy's removed a window display because some whiners don't understand what living in a free country is all about.

But the store yanked the mannequins from the window after MassResistance, the
conservative group formerly named Article 8 Alliance which has also campaigned
against sex education and gay-themed books in public schools, complained the
display was offensive

.

Now the Religious Right has something to do when they're not trying to run everyone else's lives. A new video game.

When you have nothing but abstinence to look forward to, I guess knocking off a bunch of infidels relieves the pressure.

What's the game actually about? How do you play? I believe the pro-choice, pro-religion Talk to Action blog describes it best:

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to
remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the
dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military
weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City.
You are on a mission -- both a religious mission and a military mission -- to
convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who
advocates the separation of church and state -- especially moderate, mainstream
Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who
resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice.

Don't know about you, but this scares the hell out of me. Course, I live right in the big middle of 'em.

What are all the liars that took us into the Iraq mess doing now? They seem to be doing all right.

President Bush has not fired any of the architects of the Iraq war. In fact, a
review of the key planners of the conflict reveals that they have been rewarded
– not blamed – for their incompetence.

OK, which is it? Is the media liberal or are they just lapdogs of the right? Jamison Foser knows.

But if you're angry about this, you should be far more angry that for years, the
media has employed a double-standard in covering progressives and conservatives.
You constantly hear about the Clintons' personal lives on television; you read
about it in the newspaper. John McCain doesn't get the same treatment; nor does
George Bush or Rudy Giuliani. Intrusive, irrelevant tabloid-style coverage of
candidates is wrong. Intrusive, irrelevant tabloid-style coverage of some
candidates, while others are afforded an appropriate zone of privacy is even
worse. And it can't go on.

And the GOP is up to it's old tricks, once again trying to do away with PBS.

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans yesterday revived their efforts to slash
funding for public broadcasting, as a key committee approved a $115 million
reduction in the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that could
force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs.

On a party-line vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees
health and education funding approved the cut to the budget for the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting, which distributes money to the Public Broadcasting
Service and National Public Radio. It would reduce the corporation's budget by
23 percent next year, to $380 million, in a cut that Republicans said was
necessary to rein in government spending.

And this from the folks that just tried to give billionaires a trillion dollar tax break.

John R. Bolton Needs a Chillpill, Constitution Saved, Secret Prisons, Tuna Warning, Founding Fathers and Stephen Colbert.

I had a big post ready to go this morning, my Blogger froze just before I was able to publish and I lost the whole thing. Sorry 'bout that.

Anyway, when I ran across this article about this worthless, piece of neocon crap reaming out the UN for telling the truth, I'd found the perfect vehicle to vent my frustration.

If you're not familiar with John R. Bolton, he is currently our ambassador to the UN, of which he once said, "if the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." A typical conservative, he sucks up to the powerful and he's a buttwipe to his subordinates. Like I said a worthless, neocon piece of crap. Here's his bio.

Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown made some statements in a speech, all true, that sent the emotionally challenged Bolton into one of his famous childish trantrums. Like his boss, he's petulant when he doesn't get his way.

This is what got our UN Ambassador's panties in a wad,

In his speech to a group of foreign policy experts, Malloch Brown said that
the "prevailing practice of seeking to use the U.N. almost by stealth as a
diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is
simply not sustainable. You will lose the U.N. one way or another."

Malloch Brown voiced frustration that the United Nations receives
little gratitude, although it frequently advances U.S. policies from the Middle
East to Africa, where it is currently organizing a U.N. peacekeeping operation
in Sudan.

He said the United Nations' role is "in effect a secret in Middle America,
even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the
world."

Malloch Brown said the United States has not done enough to highlight
the United Nations' contributions, citing its role in managing 18 U.S.-backed
peacekeeping operations.

"That is not well known or understood, because much of the public
discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its
loudest detractors, such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News," he said at the event
sponsored by the Center for American Progress and the Century Foundation. "To
acknowledge an America reliant on international institutions is not perceived to
be good politics at home."

But, Malloch Brown said, "a moment of truth is coming. Because even as
the world's challenges are growing, the U.N.'s ability to respond is being
weakened without U.S. leadership."

Bolton responded with,

Ambassador John R. Bolton called on Secretary General Kofi Annan to
"repudiate" the speech given by his top aide, Deputy Secretary General Mark
Malloch Brown, or live with "adverse" consequences.

"Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I
fear, will be the United Nations," Bolton told reporters. "My hope is he looks
at the potential adverse effects that these intemperate remarks would have on
the organization and repudiate it."

Bolton called Malloch Brown's speech a "very, very grave mistake," the
worst by a U.N. official that he had seen in more than 15 years. He said the
address, given in New York on Tuesday, represented a "condescending and
patronizing" attack against the American people.

John Bolton, just another big, Republican pussy whose ass can't back up his mouth.


Not unlike the Senate Republicans who lost theirs today in a sound defeat of their attempt to turn our Constitution into a document of discrimination. Talk about suck ups.

The Senate, as expected, defeated a proposed constitutional amendment banning
same-sex marriage today in a procedural vote that fell far short of the number
required to amend the Constitution.

But like Dana Milbank of the WaPo says, it's the thought that counts. It seems the proponents of the ban didn't give it enough thought. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), is the perfect example.

Likewise, Allard held a news conference Monday at which the speakers said
they wanted to reduce the "epidemic level of fatherlessness in America."

"How would outlawing gay marriage encourage heterosexual fathers to
stick around?" was the first question.

Allard skirted the question by saying that "laws send a message to our
children."

The moderator, Matt Daniels of the Alliance for Marriage, tried to find
a question on another subject. But when reporters continued to press Allard on
the link between same-sex marriage and deadbeat dads, Daniels blurted out: "All
right, you know what? We're going to call this press conference to a
close."

All good little fascist leaders like to keep secrets from from the people. Our little leader's secrets are starting to come out.

BERLIN, June 7 -- A European investigator concluded Wednesday that there
are "serious indications" that the CIA operated secret prisons for senior
al-Qaeda figures in Poland and Romania as part of a clandestine "spider's web"
to catch, transfer and hold terrorism suspects around the world.

Dick Marty, a Swiss lawyer working on behalf of the Council of Europe,
the continent's official human rights organization, said at least seven other
European nations colluded with the CIA to capture and secretly detain terrorism
suspects, including several who were ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.

Bush proudly proclaims his anti-abortion stance, and in his little pea brain there is no conflict with the fact that he doesn't want pregnant women to know about the mercury levels in tuna. The tuna industry thanks him.

Officials at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, said
they decided to recommend a tuna-free diet for pregnant women based on a Tribune investigative series on mercury in fish and the latest testing by the Food and
Drug Administration.

The FDA and the tuna industry questioned the new advice for pregnant women,
saying their own reviews of government tests show there is no reason to doubt
the safety of canned tuna. FDA officials said they don't plan to warn the public
that some cans of light tuna contain high amounts of mercury because the average
level of mercury in canned light tuna remains low.

Historian Gordon Wood answers questions about our Founding Fathers. Getting to know these guys will make you realize what a bunch of weak sisters we have running the country.

Invoking the Founding Fathers is not just a pastime of history majors; it's an
American obsession. Which is why there's still such a brisk trade in
re-examining the founders' lives. In his latest book, Revolutionary Characters:
What Made the Founders Different, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon Wood
explains how this elite fraternity destroyed any chance of others duplicating
their achievements by making American society more democratic.

And Stephen Colbert goes to college. He gave the commencement address at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Here's the transcript. Much better than McCain or Condi.

Iraq, Haditha, War Photographers, Hookers on the Hill, Pandering Unleashed, Someone Thinks Bush is Smart and Love Republilcan Style.

OK, we've reached the point in Iraq that something has to be done.

The long hemorrage of our service personnel and our country's wealth is one option, it's what we're doing now. The War President calls it "Staying the course, we are making progress." People with adaquate mental acuity, call it dumb. It's obvious that more of the same is not the answer.

The second option is the "All Out" approach. We blanket the country with troops, declare martial law and kill anyone and everyone that puts a toe out of line. Of course, with this approach we would have to install a dictator with his own private army to keep the country under control. This option would have the benefit of insuring an Iraqi leader that is friendly to the U.S. It's a method we have used extensively in Central and South America. This option has many drawbacks, not least are, that we will be seen as even more of a rogue superpower by the world community and the majority of the American people wouldn't stand for it.

The third option would be to turn the mess we've made over to the UN and let them get in some peacekeepers that know the language and understand the Iraqi people. We would have to pay for this UN peacekeeping force, but since we wouldn't be subsidizing Halliburton, it'll seem like a bargain. The benefits would be that our military could rest and regroup and we could start working on our dismal world image. The main drawback would be having to listen to all the whining from the right.

The last option is "Declare victory and leave." It has it's own benefits and drawbacks, but they're obvious.

If you have any other ideas, I'd be glad to hear 'em.

Even now as I sit here safely at my computer, Iraq is in turmoil. Only a mile away from the one area in Baghdad that we can say is almost secure, gunmen kidnapped 56 people right out in the open.

BAGHDAD, June 5 -- "Turn back," a friend told Haji Abu Shamaa as he walked
Monday morning toward his money-changing shop in the Karkh neighborhood of
central Baghdad, a mile north of the heavily guarded Green Zone. "The Interior Ministry police are rounding up people."

But Shamaa walked on, right into a
swift, coordinated operation unfolding within sight of Iraq's Ministry of
Justice. Gunmen in police uniforms and ski masks had cordoned off the street and
were swiftly shoving captives, four or five at a time, into a dozen waiting
pickup trucks. Fifteen minutes later, the trucks were gone, and so were 56
people.

The Iraqi Prime Minister is pledging to put a stop to the internal strife in that country, but I think he has about as much influence in Iraq as I do.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged Tuesday to push
ahead with efforts to curb rampant sectarian and militia violence after a series
of brazen attacks, including the kidnappings of 50 people in broad daylight in Baghdad.

Police found nine severed heads in fruit boxes in a village northeast of the
capital, which followed a similar grisly discovery there on Saturday.

War photographers are getting the shots that the media, in this country, won't use. But they will become the history of out little misadventure in Iraq.

Again and again throughout this war, amateur photographs have exposed the flaws
of the military's carefully constructed image of discipline. Photographs made
Abu Ghraib a symbol of shame throughout the world. And photographs and video
images are again undermining the military's cherished reputation for calm under
fire and heroic self-restraint.

Newsweek is asking the obvious question, "Did some Marines snap?", but it's still a good article about Haditha. We have Bush, Rumsfeld and some suck-up generals that deserve credit for this.

It is not clear exactly what happened in Haditha on the morning of Nov. 19. One
Marine and 24 Iraqis died, that much is certain. Local survivors say Americans
on a rampage massacred their neighbors in cold blood. The videotaped eyewitness
accounts provided to NEWSWEEK and other news organizations are horrifying, hard
to believe in their sordidness and brutality. The Marines at first said 15
civilians, along with Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20, had been killed by an IED,
and that the rest died in a shoot-out with insurgents. But the official story
changed, in part because of a Time magazine exposé in March. Now, according to
congressmen who have been briefed by the Pentagon, the military is investigating
Kilo Company for possible war crimes. Investigators have seen grisly photographs
and are pursuing allegations of a cover-up. Ominously, there are also reports of
atrocities in other places, committed by young soldiers who cracked under the
pressure of a war fought on a battlefield with no front lines, no easy way to
tell civilians from insurgents, and no end in sight.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it would seem that our part-time Congresspersons are making out OK as full-time prostitutes. $50 million in free trips. That's good benefits for someone who just rubberstamps whatever Crawford, TX' village idiot wants.

Over 5 1/2 years, Republican and Democratic lawmakers accepted nearly $50
million in trips, often to resorts and exclusive locales, from corporations and
groups seeking legislative favors, according to the most comprehensive study to
date on the subject of congressional travel.

From January 2000 through June 2005, House and Senate members and their
aides were away from Washington for more than 81,000 days -- a combined 222
years -- on at least 23,000 trips, according to the report, issued yesterday by
the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity. About 2,300 of the trips cost
$5,000 or more, at least 500 cost $10,000 or more, and 16 cost $25,000 or more.

And what do we get out of the pampered people that are supposed to be representing us? Not much, unless you're in the top one per cent of the richest in the country or you're a homophobic religio-crazy that wants to write discrimination into the Constitution.

Republican voters, are you paying attention?

Because this week's Senate agenda is all about you, with debates scheduled
on same-sex marriage and a permanent repeal of the estate tax.

Over at USNews I just saw what must be the two stupidest statements of the year, by Michael Barone.

Bush Knows His History

We're lucky we had then, and have now, a president who takes bold action and
braves vitriolic criticism to defend our civilization against those who would
destroy it.

I guess being a suck-up pays.

And if that's not enough humor for one day, from Pensito Review,

The Real Threat to Marriage: Top 10 GOP Adulterers

Iraq, Gay Marriage, Estate Tax, Global Warming, Idiots Get Together and Real Morning News.

What are we going to do about Iraq? Before President Bush lied us into an ill-advised invasion, Iraq was a relatively stable, secular country. Albeit, led by a somewhat mad dictator.

Now more than three years after Bush's war to destroy imaginary WMDs/liberate Iraqis/bring regime change/democratize the Mid-East or any of the 27 reasons the Administration has given, Iraq is crumbling in on it self.

50 people have been abducted from a bus stop, 11 students and nine others, all Shiite, were taken from vehicles and murdered on the side of the road, anyone who thinks that we have some kind of control in Iraq is just not paying attention.

Some of the violence that took place this last Sunday:

-Gunmen in a car opened fire on a minibus carrying telecommunications workers to
an area near the Shiite slum of Sadr City, killing four and wounding two.
-Police found 16 bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad and four in the city of
Tikrit, north of the capital.
-Gunmen in Tikrit killed three police officers
and wounded two others at a checkpoint.
-Gunmen broke into the home of an
Iraqi army soldier, killing him, his two brothers and father and wounding his
mother.
-Two gunmen on a motorcycle killed Muntaha Ali and her husband Helmi
Yaseen in Basra, believed to be employees of a U.S. government agency.

T.E. Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia", said of British involvement in Iraq in 1920, "in a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour". Lawrence also said, and it's still applicable today,

"To make war upon rebellion was messy and slow," in Lawrence's memorable phrase,
"like eating soup with a knife." His own estimate after the war was that the
Turks would have needed 600,000 men to pacify the Hejaz. Today in Iraq, a
similar-sized area, there are fewer than 200,000 coalition troops. Soon there
will be even fewer. It seems Lawrence's central message, that guerrillas are
almost impossible to defeat, is finally beginning to sink in

.

Like My Lai, Haditha and Ishaqi are becoming household names. The latest is accusations that Marines executed a 52 year old, disabled man in Hamdaniyah.

According to accounts given by Hashim's neighbors and members of his family, and
apparently supported by photographs, the Marines went to Hashim's home, took the
52-year-old disabled Iraqi outside and shot him four times in the face. The
assault rifle and shovel next to his body had been planted by the Marines, who
had borrowed them from a villager, family members and other residents said.

Now we have a wife of one of the Haditha Marines that says that they were falling apart after Falluja. If what she says is true, it means that we pushed these men well beyond their limit.

The marine unit involved in the killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha last
November had suffered a "total breakdown" in discipline and had drug and alcohol
problems, according to the wife of one of the battalion's staff sergeants.

The new Iraqi government is pissed with American conduct in Iraq and even the Brits are letting us know, in the nicest possible way, to get a grip.

Adnan al-Kazimi, an aide to prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, said the government
would also demand an apology from the United States and compensation for the
victims in several cases, including the alleged massacre in the town of Haditha
last year.

The escalation in tensions comes as sources at the Foreign Office confirmed
that the British Government is also urging the Americans to co-operate fully
with comprehensive investigations into the deaths at both Ishaqi and Haditha.

"Stay the course" and White House propaganda won't solve the problems that Iraq is now facing. Gutless Democrats keeping their mouths shut won't help either.

Meanwhile the President is busy protecting the American people from what he perceives as bigger threats than Iraq, gay marriage and an estate tax on the top quarter of the top one per cent of the wealthiest people in the country.

"Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife
to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the
stability of society," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Government, by
recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all."

It used to be that a majority of Americans approved abolition of the estate
tax. Perhaps they feared they or their business friends would be hit by the
federal tax should their parents die. But this year, estates of $2 million for a
single person ($4 million for a couple) can be passed along tax-free. Only 0.27
percent of estates - those of megamillionaires and billionaires - will face the estate
tax.

Bush is also working hard to convince us that global warming is just a liberal pipe dream.

Some of America's leading climate scientists claim to Panorama that they have
been censored and gagged by the administration.

One of them believes the publication of his report, which catalogues the
unprecedented rate of ice melt in the Arctic, was delayed as Americans prepared
to vote in 2004.

The scientists claim that when Bush came to power in 2000 his administration
selected advice which argued that global warming was not a result of human
activities and that the phenomenon could be natural.

The truly ignorant assed had a convention in Dallas. You can replace ignorant assed with Republicans, if you'd prefer.

It would appear that they really, really want to do away with our Constitution and replace it with some nut preacher with a Bible.

A peek inside this meeting of America haters, also known as the Republican Convention.

SAN ANTONIO, Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell offered a greeting to delegates to the
Republican convention. "It's great to be back in the holy land," the Fort Worth
native said to the cheers of the party faithful.For the 4,500 delegates at last
week's biennial gathering, it was both an expression of conservative philosophy
and religious faith, a melding of church and state.

At Saturday morning's prayer meeting, party leader Tina Benkiser assured
them that God was watching over the two-day confab.

"He is the chairman of this party," she said against a backdrop of flags and
a GOP seal with its red, white and blue logo.

The party platform, adopted Saturday, declares "America is a Christian
nation" and affirms that "God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom."

"We pledge to exert our influence toward a return to the original intent of
the First Amendment and dispel the myth of the separation of church and state,"
it says.

Myth? My shiny red baboon ass.

And finally some good news. Real news in the morning, brought to you by the BBC.

Instead of the usual fluff that's become the bread and butter of such U.S.
network programs as The Today Show
and Good Morning America as well as Fox and Friends, World News Today will
deliver news of serious global import by drawing on the network's vast
resources, including three times the number of reporters stationed around the
world as
CNN.

"We really feel there's actually a huge vacuum for us to fill in terms
of global, responsible, impartial reporting," Jeremy Hillman, a BBC World editor
and its outgoing New York bureau chief, told Reuters. "I don't think we expected
to be up there beating Fox and, you know, the main networks, but what we want is
a good, sizable loyal
audience."
The newscast will air on the BBC World News channel as well as the net's
flagship entertainment channel, BBC America.

Right On! BBC

Ishaqi, Haditha, Upset Iraqis, Condi, Details Coming, Bush Has A Secret and Provo, UT.

The military investigation says we did everything right in Ishaqi.

But I think after the embarrassment of having no investigation of Haditha, the military wanted to appear to be on top of things.

And I'd bet that this investigation was more a matter of expedience than an effort to really find out what happened.

NEW YORK The U.S military said Saturday it had found no wrongdoing in the
March 15 raid on a home in Ishaqi that left nine Iraqi civilians dead. But, as
with the apparent massacre in Haditha, will a military "coverup" in this case
come undone? E&P coverage from back in March, and other evidence, suggest
that the official story may soon unravel.

The Iraqi police charge that American forces executed the civilians,
including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old baby. The BBC has been airing
video of the dead civilians, mainly children, who appeared to be shot, possibly
at close range. Photographs taken just after the raid for the Associated Press
and Agence France-Presse, and reports at the time by Reuters and Knight Ridder,
also appear to back up the charge of an atrocity.

The Iraqis certainly don't agree with the military findings.

BAGHDAD, June 3 -- The Iraqi government and residents of a village where
U.S. soldiers killed as many as a dozen civilians in March took a skeptical view
Saturday of an American investigation that ruled in the troops' favor, saying
they wanted a new probe of the incident.

An aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraq would pursue its
own probe into the incident in Ishaqi, a village north of Baghdad, and would
seek an apology if the U.S. soldiers were proved guilty. "We ought to do our own
investigation into this and reach the fact of what happened," Adnan Ali
al-Kadhimi said in a telephone interview Saturday. "Our own conclusion may not
be the same as theirs."

The WaPo is giving Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice credit for the Bush Administration's agreeing to talks with Iran. I think that they had simply ran out of options and didn't really have any other choice.

At the end of March, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Europe and
had unusual, one-on-one conversations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. She also
attended a meeting in Berlin on Iran at which the Russian and Chinese
representatives denounced the idea of sanctions to halt Tehran's drive toward a
nuclear weapon.

Rice returned to Washington with a sobering message: The international
effort to derail Iran's programs was falling apart. Her conclusion spurred a
secret discussion among Rice, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and national
security adviser Stephen J. Hadley: Should the United States finally agree to
join the Europeans at the negotiations with Iran?

Iran said that they were going to publish the details of the plan to moniter and contain their nuclear program.

The Iranian president said, ""We will record the talks and we will publish them at the appropriate time, so our people will be informed about the details." If Bush said things like that, he might be above 30%.

TEHRAN, June 3 -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that Iran
would publish details of the package of incentives and possible penalties
prepared by the United States and five other major powers aimed at halting
Iran's nuclear program.

In a speech in which he warned Iran's critics against "threats and
intimidation," Ahmadinejad seemed to sweep aside a request by U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan to keep the process confidential. Western diplomats had said
they were trying to avoid the appearance of threatening Iran by keeping the
terms of the package as private as possible, especially the specific penalties
Iran might face if it continues to enrich uranium.

While the President of Iran is saying he wants the people to know, our President Bush don't want us to know anything.

WASHINGTON, June 3 — Facing a wave of litigation challenging its
eavesdropping at home and its handling of terror suspects abroad, the Bush
administration is increasingly turning to a legal tactic that swiftly torpedoes
most lawsuits: the state secrets privilege.

In recent weeks alone, officials have used the privilege to win the
dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a German man who was abducted and held in
Afghanistan for five months and to ask the courts to throw out three legal
challenges to the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance
program.

The good news for Bush is that most of the folks in Provo, Utah, just love him.

"When I watch him, I see a man with his heart in the right place," said
Delia Randall, a 22-year-old mother from Provo, the hub of a county that gave
Senator John
Kerry just 11 percent of the presidential vote in 2004. "I like George Bush
because he is God fearing, and that's how a lot of people in this area
feel."

These voters are among the committed Bush supporters who are standing
proudly by him as he tries to reverse the poll numbers that are sliding even in
Utah, hang on to Republican control of Congress, revive his agenda and stabilize
Iraq.

"We don't talk politics because everyone is so one-sided," said Sarah
Rueckert, a mother of three and a Mormon who just moved back to Utah after 10
years of living in places like Chicago, Portland and San Francisco. "They're all
pro-Bush."