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POPSObama, Conyers epitomize Arrogance in Pants.
Thanks Joan for posting this...The Centrist thing of Obama's was inevitable, it seems, as he panders to the sheeple. WASHINGTON -- Former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove won't testify next week before a House committee investigating the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman, despite a threat of a contempt proceeding. Rove is exerting executive privilege and declined the invitation to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, his attorney Robert Luskin wrote to the House panel Tuesday. A lawsuit is pending in federal court in Washington over whether top White House officials can be compelled to testify before Congress, he wrote. The Judiciary Committee has been seeking Rove's testimony since April, and committee Chairman Rep. John Con- yers, D-Mich., said in a response letter sent Thursday that he was "disappointed" with Rove's decision. It seems Conyers has lost his balls somewhere...won't Impeach, when it's the only thing to stop Cheney/Bush, and
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POPSObscene Military Budget is much biger than Reported Legally see the article for the cuts behind the figures here: Now, imagine that, due to a little more Pentagon/Bush administration wizardry, even this black budget estimate is undoubtedly a low-ball figure. One reason is simple enough: The proposed $541 billion Pentagon 2009 budget doesn't even include money for actual wars. George W. Bush's wars are all paid for by "supplemental" bills like the $162 billion one Congress will soon pass -- so the Department of Defense's $34 billion black budget skips "war-related funding." This means that even the overall figure for that budget remains darker than we might imagine (as in "black hole"). The Pentagon not only produces stealth planes, it is, in budgetary terms, a stealth operation. If honestly accounted, the actual Pentagon yearly budget, including all the "military-related" funds salted away elsewhere, is probably now more than $1 trillion a year.
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POPSEndless Funding for Endless Wars On and on and on and on it goes....Why don't we just take the babies from their moms when they're born and be done with it...give 2/3 of all you earn to the Pentagon...
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POPSU.S. Intelligence Agencies Weigh Climate Change Impact on Global Political Stability Today, Wednesday the 25th, National Intelligence Council chairman Dr. Thomas Fingar and Energy Department intelligence chief Rolf Mowatt-Larsen will testify to Congress about the 58-page document, "The National Security Implications of Global Climate Change Through 2030," compiled by U.S. intelligence operatives. "Climate change is a threat multiplier in the world's most unstable regions," a source familiar with the document told the Wired blogs. "It's like a match to the tinder."
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POPSTime to end waste at the Pentagon These are complex problems that will require multifaceted solutions. A good way to start would be by slowing down the “revolving door” that allows high-level Pentagon bureaucrats and military officers to go to work for major defense contractors. The problems with the revolving door are twofold. First, officials looking forward to employment in the arms industry may favor certain companies in hopes of getting lucrative job offers after leaving government service. Second, once they have moved into the private sector, these former government employees can use their specialized knowledge and inside contacts to give an unfair advantage to their new employer. It's a shame that we have to put up with this crap every year and nothing changes except the scum make MORE $$$$
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POPSPresident Bush Urges Quick Passage of Wiretapping Bill I'm watchin' on CSPAN the debate on this bill in the House of Reps. Supporters of the House version say this will NOT give Telecoms immunity and make the 4th Amendment (right to privacy, search and siezure) virtually shredding another piece of the Constitution, like the Senate version., but if The Preznut supports it, I have my doubts.
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POPSState of Emergency: The US in the Final Six Months of the George W. Bush Administration Despite time constraints, there are clear signs that the president, the vice-president and their neocon collaborators are not finished. The constant saber-rattling toward Iran, with strong support from Israel, should send a chill down the spine of any peace-loving American. Military chiefs who oppose the president are “retired,” as observed most recently with the March dismissals of CENTCOM commander Admiral William Fallon and 6th Fleet commander Vice-Admiral John Stufflebeem. Public opinion counts for nothing. In a March 24 interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz, vice president Dick Cheney responded to a question about the war weariness of Americans with a languid “So?”
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POPSObscene Pentagon Budget disappearing down the Rabbit hole of corruption Money Problems The Pentagon has its work cut out for it. Keeping track of its more than half trillion dollar budget and the hundreds of billions more in war spending is no easy task. There is bound to be some slippage here and there. But the Pentagon’s Inspector General’s Office recently reported to Congress that the Pentagon is unable to account for nearly $15 billion earmarked for the Iraq reconstruction effort. In a May report to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Inspector General’s Office highlights $7.8 billion paid to contractors for everything from telephones to trucks without any support documentation—like a check for $5.6 million to an Iraqi contractor. For what? No one knows. Or the $32 million doled out to build a facility for the Iraqi military. Never built. Why not? No one knows. One reason that money just seems to disappear is that there are not enough people watching the books. While the Pentagon budget has soared in the past seven years,
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POPSMaine Jury Says It's Legal to Protest an Illegal War But just when I was feeling tempted to settle for the paltry encouragement in something as entirely meaningless as the demise of yet another administration enabler like Katz, who, for all his weasely ways, is finally only the dull instrument of his boss's heartlessness, a story came my way that gave me a moment of hope. But first, the bad news. The bad news is that this hopeful story -- one that illustrates a constructive and effective direct action for change -- was reported only in the Bangor Daily News. Period. The good news, which that paper reported on April 30, is that six peace activists were acquitted on charges of criminal trespass for failing to obey a police request that they abandon their sit-in outside U.S. Sen. Susan Collins' office in the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Maine. The defendants, Doug Rawlings, Henry Braun, Jimmy Freeman, Dud Hendrick, Rob Shetterly and Jonathan Kreps -- dubbed the Bangor Six -- were arrested in March 2007 for protesting Bu
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POPSThe Corporations - Killers of Democracy There is first of all world hunger and, on the same level of emergency, the phenomenon of global warming - both those enormous problems having to be seen as the disasters that must be dealt with in the most urgent way possible. And today, there is virtually no urgency displayed in the way those disasters are dealt with - or not dealt with. And yet, those two huge problems have to be solved if the world is going to continue in a shape even vaguely like the world as we know it. There is the planetary inequality which has caused the world hunger that finally seems to have attracted wide-spread attention. It is obviously not a recent phenomenon, but it has been enhanced by the rise in food prices, which have multiple causes - the use of food for biofuel, the rise in the price of oil for transport, the droughts in Australia and in Africa, the enormous sham of GMOs that were made out to be capable of saving the world from hunger, but instead are doing the opposite. And let's not forget
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POPSSalt Lakers confront Preznut Bush Anderson helped organize the rally and not only denounced the war in Iraq, but spoke out against further military action. "There is a substantial risk, especially with the complacent citizenry, the president will order an attack against Iran, having continued the case for another illegal, tragic war of aggression against a people who largely stood in sympathy and solidarity with us on 9/11," he said. Some high school students who are not old enough to vote were there, believing their voices can still make a difference. Rose Nelson told us, "No matter how old you are, you can still exercise your First Amendment right, and that's the right to protest, to assemble. We've got to say something because we can."
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POPSHouse Takes a Stand Against Pentagon Propaganda "This scandal should sound the wake-up call for newsrooms and newsreaders. At times of war, the American public needs more critical journalism and diversity of opinion, not less. The media needs to ask tough questions of government, and not simply amplify its propaganda. The failures of consolidated, corporate media are clearly at crisis proportions. "If ever there was a time for our elected officials to draw a line in the sand, this is it. We need to shut down any government program whose sole purpose is to mislead the public into supporting disastrous wars, policies and politicians. "We urge the Senate to pass the propaganda ban and send a strong message to the Pentagon and other government agencies that Congress wil
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POPSIf Cheney & Co. Had Really Plotted the 9/11 Attacks ... Matt Taibbi's hilarious re-enactment of the secret govt. conspiracy (that never happened) to conduct the attacks. Tools email EMAIL print PRINT 724 COMMENTS 51tvu53eefl.ss500 "The Great Derangement" by Matt Taibbi (Spiegel and Grau, 2008). Share and save this post: Digg iconDelicious iconReddit iconFark iconYahoo! iconNewsvine! iconFacebook iconNewsTrust icon Also in MediaCulture Martin Amis & Chris Hitchens: Vicious Racism Concealed by a British Accent John Dolan The Most Savage Shock Jock of Them All Rory O'Connor, Aaron Cutler If Congress Slaps Rove with Contempt, How Will His Bosses at Fox and Newsweek Deal with It? Eric Boehlert The Press Is Only Too Happy to Burnish McCain's Reputation Eric Boehlert Is Who Becomes the Next President All That Matters? Danny Schechter More stories by Matt Taibbi RSS icon MediaCulture RSS Feed RSS icon Main AlterNet RSS Feed Get AlterNet in your mailbox! Advertisement The following is an adapted e
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POPSWhat I Want to Ask Mary Tillman I want to ask her what she thinks of a president who, armed with the facts, would lie over Pat’s dead body. I want to know if she believes George W. Bush belongs in prison. But I also want to ask Mary Tillman about the person her son was, and the person her son was becoming: the Pat Tillman moving against the war in Iraq; the Pat Tillman who was a voracious reader, turning his attention to critics of empire like Noam Chomsky; the Pat Tillman whose journal and personal effects were burned and destroyed immediately following his death. This is a Pat Tillman who deserves to be heard.
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POPSLawmakers Seek Probe of ‘Media Generals’ ‘Not only must the inspector general now account for what it did and did not know about this state-sponsored propaganda effort, but they must also explain why, if they knew about the propaganda campaign, it was allowed to proceed,’ DeLauro said. ‘Additionally, we are calling for the inspector general to launch an investigation to ensure no detail surrounding this programme remains hidden,’ she added. The House members also want to know if the inspector general considers the programme to be illegal. Retired officers who acted as military analysts for major news outlets were given V.I.P. access to the Pentagon, with regular briefings by then-Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a sponsored trip to the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba. The operation was abruptly halted after it was reported by The New York Times. The paper’s massive probe revealed that some 75 retired military officers, prepped by the Pentagon, served as paid television commentators since the run-up to the
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