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Re: Miers on possible Bush conspiracy charges...

Thanks for the interesting speculation on Miers on the Supreme Court and analysis of the Plame case, and President G W Bush's likely collusion in it.  

I have a quibble with the statement about Joe Wilson's New York Times Op-Ed piece.  Far from "...expos(ing) as utter nonsense the Bush claim that Saddam Hussein was shopping for uranium in Africa", Wilson's Op-Ed stated Saddam sought uranium from Niger, but that he was likely to have been unsuccessful.  More importantly, Wilson cited President Bush's avoidance of the likelihood of Hussein's failure to buy yellowcake, while also pointing out the forgery of the documents on which his words in the State of the Union relied, a fact Joe Wilson couldn't have known when he made the trip to Niger, since it wasn't known then.  Whatever Wilson's Op-Ed stated, this was the essence of his report to the CIA.  Bush used the document's assertions in his State of the Union speech  making his case for the Iraq attack by ignoring the results of Hussein's quest for yellowcake (uranium).

Dissent isn’t taken lightly down under

Historian Michael Foley said during times of war pacifists often get mugged. As a non-violent activist working to end the war in Iraq and the corporate war profiteering that comes with it, September 2005 has been the most surreal time of my life and I definitely feel like I got mugged by Australian Attorney General Phillip Ruddock and the Australian government.

After three lovely months of traveling through Australia and meeting people, one Wednesday afternoon during the second week of September I was called by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, or ASIO, and asked to come in for an interview. I asked if I was required to do so and the woman at the other end of the phone said “No, you are not obliged too.” I then asked if this would affect the remaining two weeks of my time in Australia and she said she couldn’t say. I should have listened with closer attention to that non-answer.

Banging at the gates of empire -- Washington, DC; September 24-26

I joined a contingent of 12 people from Oregon who went to Washington last week to demonstrate against the Iraq War, and I want to share my experiences with the public because I believe they offer learning opportunities and inspiration to the burgeoning movement to take back our country from the extremists who have taken over our government.

The weekend offered chances to be part of both protest and resistance actions, and we availed ourselves fully of the events. There were many highlights, but perhaps the greatest for me was the honor of being arrested with 45 others at the Pentagon for blocking the entrance as the Pentagon employees were coming in to work at 7 am Monday morning. We also took part in the big march through the center of the nation’s capital with 300,000 others on Saturday; the Code Pink action at Walter Reed Army Hospital on Friday night; the civil disobedience trainings on Sunday; filming of the civil disobedience arrests at the White House on Monday afternoon; and performing our protest music in front of the White House for Hawaii Public TV. We met some truly amazing people, gave our all, and came home with a feeling of hope that the tide is

Re: Did Bush administration attack peace movement with military grade biological bacteria?

thank you for making this a big deal, because it really IS, and people just do not seem to be getting it.

"The Free Press calls for an independent investigation" and truly *independent*! yes! thank you!

please let us know what to do how to help make that happen.

you always come though. i love you guys' courage and integrity!

please keep on your vital work!

with deepest admiration, always!!
metta

Bunker Time: Harriet Miers

AUSTIN, Texas -- Uh-oh. Now we are in trouble. Doesn't take much to read the tea leaves on the Harriet Miers nomination. First, it's Bunker Time at the White House. Miers' chief qualification for this job is loyalty to George W. Bush and the team. What the nomination means in larger terms for both law and society is the fifth vote on the court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Aside from that bothersome little matter, the Miers appointment is like that of John Roberts -- could've been worse. Not as bad as Edith Jones, not as bad as Priscilla Owen -- and you should see some of our boy judges from Texas.

Miers, like Bush himself, is classic Texas conservative Establishment, with the addition of Christian fundamentalism. What I mean by fundamentalist is one who believes in both biblical inerrancy and salvation by faith alone.

The big picture

AUSTIN, Texas -- Sometimes it helps to draw back from what's going on, to see if any patterns emerge from the chaos of daily events. In the news biz, attempts to see the Big Picture are known as thumbsuckers and regarded with appropriate contempt.

On the famous other hand, it's also sometimes the only way to see the much bigger stories that seep and creep all around us without anyone ever calling a press conference, or issuing talking points, or having gong-show debate over them.

Everybody and his dog in the political commentating trade now agrees the Bush administration is experiencing hard times -- the going is getting tough, and Bush is getting testy. Bush always gets testy under stress. This is not news.

Why the nomination of Harriet has to be looked at below the radar

You have heard of CAFTA. This is CYAF. Cover Your A** Fast. Bush has nominated someone in his lame duck soon to be scandalized second term whom he thinks will Cover his tail if all his misdeeds regarding torture, unlawful detention, violation of international law and Geneva Conventions, election fraud, and other heinous high crimes comes home to roost in a big constitutional way before the Supreme Court. Half the country hopes like hell it will.

I don't think that the Supreme Court nominee should be someone who is so little qualified and mainly only qualified for her CYAF features and women's intuition.

I don't find that the women is objectionable because she is a woman attorney -- a (cry me a river) hard luck story (as if thousands of others of us didn't have to deal with an ill parent and the financial pressures of a law school education) and a "first" - in a series of breakthroughs for women in ONE CITY in Texas. One City. Dallas. I applaud her for it. However, The greater the victim the better the Supreme Court Justice does not make.

Bill Bennett’s comments emerge from an ideology that is classic white supremacy, Rev. Jesse Jackson says

CHICAGO – The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., Founder and President of the RainbowPUSH Coalition, issued the following statement in response to the inflammatory comments about African Americans made by nationally-syndicated talk show host William Bennett, who was the former Secretary of Education under President Ronald Regan:

Bill Bennett’s statement was a morally degenerate statement that had genocide as its logical conclusion. His statement comes from a philosophy that blacks are a problem. It is an ideology of white supremacy. This is classic supremacy, white Neanderthal supremacy.

The tragedy of Bennett’s comment is that he still influences public policy. He was grappling with a possible solution that was very offensive. Like so many right-wingers, he has been a wolf in sheep’s clothing for a long time. His comments remind us of the derogatory statements made by others: Trent Lott, wishing Strom Thurmond had been president; and Mrs. (Barbara) Bush, saying the evacuees lying on the floor of the Houston Astrodome were better off than they were in New Orleans. These are cultural statements, and they remind all us of the deeply rooted compulsion of racism.”

untitled

Bill Clinton lied about his whore,
which was his blasphemy and sin.
George Bush lied on the need for war,
defends it still with Karl Rove’s spin.
Which liar, I ask, has hurt us more,
weighing  the Iraq mess we’re in?

Will Harriet Miers vote to overturn Bush’s conspiracy conviction?

An angry groundswell has risen against the appointment of George W. Bush’s personal attorney to the US Supreme Court.

One key question must be asked: as a Justice, would she soon be asked to rule on a conspiracy conviction against her present boss?

In light of the new indictments against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the question may not be so far fetched.

DeLay was originally indicted on charges of violating campaign finance law. His lawyers have quickly raised serious technical challenges.

But now two additional charges have been filed by a second grand jury. Conspiracy is involved, taking things to a whole other level, including the possibility of jail time.

The prospect of “The Hammer” duck-walking in orange polyester to a Texas prison cell may warm progressive hearts everywhere. But there’s a much deeper message here about the case of Valerie Plame.

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