"That One" dismisses inpolite & rude comments from AZ Senator

I am penning this ahead of the one I was preparing;  as I just finished watching Presidential Debate II between US Senator Barack Obama, and US Senator John McCain.  To say I was angry is an understatement.  The Senator from Arizona dismissed his opponent with an off hand, over the shoulder, reference to "That One".  Why didn't he just call him "Boy" and complete the insult and dismissive tone in his voice.  That this former patriot, and hero could be so consumed in his blind ambition that he would display the kind of triumphalism last displayed in Northern Ireland against Irish Catholic Nationalist, as well as against native South African people of color by the Apartheid Regime is hateful.  What next, a crowd scene at his next townhall with white hooded and robed supporters.

To anyone who thinks that this type of dismissive and patronizing words and tone is not bigotry should ask one of the following:  a Northern Irish Catholic, a post Apartheid South African Black, a Jew from any number of communities, or a Hispanic American in the South West, or a Black American in many of our cities.  Hate speech is full of code words, shrugs, and innuendos; Senator John McCain and his running mate have got that form of speech and body language down pat!

Do not allow your better nature to be distracted by lies about Senator Obama and his beliefs.  He is a proud, patriotic, and religious American elected official who will lead our country out of its

 " dark ages " when he becomes our next President.

Haste makes waste on display in the congress this week

I listened this afternoon to the full debate over the expanded Rescue/Bail Out "Financial Markets Bill" on the floor of the United States Senate.  This bill is a pressured ponzi scheme that will repay speculators, contains too little for the working and middle class, and may make the foreign investors happy but not your fellow citizens.  

The eloquence of a Republican, Richard Shelby from Alabama; and Bernie Sanders, Independent from Vermont, spoke to the unsoundness of this hurried and now cobbled together package with an added $150 billion to the original $700 billion.  The few opposed have stood against the wind of pack mob action to pass this bill under the threat of fear, insufficient hearings, and a "chicken little" panic that the sky is falling!

When we review the votes on Monday that led to the defeat of the initial leadership legislation; you will find not only conservative Republicans, but also Blue Dog Democrats and Progressive Democrats were also opposed.  To name a few who voted No in the interests of the taxpayer:  Adam Schiff, D-CA; Dennis Kucinich, D-OH; Shiela Jackson Lee, D-TX;  Lynn Woolsey, D-CA; and Brad Sherman, D-CA.  I am proud of each of their votes and know that a more thoughtful and long term solution can be done without approving the now $850 billion boondoggle.

Senator Harry Reid has stated that this was the only way, I disagree.  I applaud Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, Washington Senator Maria Cantwell and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for their No votes among the few.   I sadly regret that the Senate passed this legislation this evening and I hope that a majority of the House will still cast votes to defeat this on the House floor on Thursday or Friday!

So is it George W. Little or George W. Hoover

The current incumbent of the White House spoke to the nation tonight and tried to sell us on a last imperial grab for power to grant his Secretary of Treasury unlimited control on an economic crisis that he helped start when he was an executive in the Financial trade on Wall Street.  As he spoke and urged us to empower his faulty administration to further destroy the nations' financial infrastructure; he sounded like George W. Little [the presidential equivalent of Chicken Little]

crying that the sky was falling.  He did neglect to accept blame for helping pull down the regulatory columns that held up that financial sky that is now falling.

Why would we allow this new Ponzi Scheme coming from the desk of this POTUS is beyond me.

We need to listen to the sound judgment that cries for deliberate, judicious and thoughtful reform and not a blank check.

When you listened to his dire warnings that might well cause an obvious further erosion based on his fear mongering; it may well be that he is really George W. Hoover [reminiscent of Herbert Hoover] who watched while the Great Depression unraveled the finances of this country.

We must not allow the lame duck residents of the Cabinet under this President rush us to a judgment that may will be a self fulfilling prophecy!  Time is needed to view protections that guarantee home owners, working families, and if we bail out anyone we gain shareholder status as Senator Obama has stated and we cash out any proceeds back to the US taxpayers.

So whatever George W.'s new nom de plume; let's not elect John McBush in November.

Sarah Palin and UN Speed Dating

In her first footprint on the sands of international relations; our Alaska Governor Sarah Palin exercised her one year old passport in a round of United Nations Speed dating.  Her one on ones with various National leaders not only highlighted her inexperience and lack of diplomatic sense, but also belittled her as the No. 2 on the McCain ticket.

Campbell Brown, of CNN, said it well when she had Free Palin signs as a background when she commented on the Press avoidance posture of the McCain campaign.  I can't call it the McCain-palin campaign as long as they patronize her and leave her unable to prove herself or fail on her own merits.

Dealing with others on the world stage is not a cliff notes exercise, nor a let's go out for coffee after New York UN speed dating!  

We need serious people, with a sense of the world including setting foot on foreign territory and speaking to the various citizens of the world.  Not looking across the Bering Strait and imagining the Murmansk Peninsula that cannot be seen beyond the curvature of the earth.  Honestly the world is not flat. 

 

Lovin' That Bad-Ass Bowen

I have a confession to make: I have a bit of a girl-crush on California Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Mind you, it's a purely innocent and respectful girl-crush, only slightly greater than my love for chunky peanut butter and dark, dark chocolate.

Nonetheless, a girl-crush it is.

How else to describe the feeling that swept over me last week when I read about her lawsuit against ES&S for selling uncertified electronic voting machines to California counties? Indeed, as I was on public transportation at the time, I was forced to suppress a happy squeal upon reading:

"ES&S ignored the law over and over and over again, and it got caught," Bowen said in a statement after filing suit against the company. "I am not going to stand on the sidelines and watch a voting system vendor come into the state, ignore the laws and make millions of dollars from California's taxpayers in the process."

It's enough to make a straight progressive girl all woozy from joy.

I was favorably impressed with Secretary Bowen from the moment I met her, back in her pre-SoS days of 2005, when she had been in the California Legislature for a number of years and your humble blogger was a wet-behind-the-ears activist of only three months, greener than a Granny Smith apple. Everything I've seen since has only cemented that initial favorable impression and I know that Secretary Bowen will continue to be very impressive.

Way to go, Secretary Bowen. And keep on gettin' down with your bad-ass self.

To Feinstein's Staffers: RESIGN!

Guest Blogger: Michael Jay

Letter to Trevor Daley, District Director for Senator Dianne Feinstein

Dear Trevor,

Thank you for meeting with us yesterday.

I was deeply disappointed to awake to the news that Senator Feinstein has chosen to again side against her constituents and instead enable the Bush administration, this time by voting to confirm another atrocious choice as the highest law officer of the land. Mukasey's tortured parsing of his position on waterboarding is widely seen as a maneuver to protect those who would otherwise be guilty of war crimes for having ordered the use of this procedure.

It makes sense that Bush would offer a nominee who would cover for him; what doesn't make sense is why the senior Senator of the country's largest left-leaning state would give cover to Bush.

Don't take my word for that: Even Keith Olbermann could find a cynical reason as to what his own Senator had to gain by dealing with Bush, but was at a loss about California's Feinstein; he said, "Sen. Schumer has seen it, reportedly, as some kind of puzzle piece in the New York political patronage system, and he has failed. What Sen. Feinstein has seen, to justify joining Schumer in rubber-stamping Mukasey, I cannot guess."

I can guess, for here, in California, Diane Feinstein's miserable record precedes this latest vote: Her votes to extend the Patriot Act and Bush's illegal circumvention of FISA, her support of Hayden to head the CIA (no surprise, in light of the aforementioned support for illegal wiretapping), her championing of bills and amendments on flag burning (I know that issue sure keeps my neighbors up at night), her atrocious giveaway to the vendors of electronic voting machines - oh, excuse me, I meant, her recent bill to revise HAVA, and her vote to censure MoveOn all make many wonder which Party our Senator belongs to.

Excuses about the possibility of Bush installing a much worse candidate, via a recess appointment, collapse in light of the courageous action by the many true Democrats on the panel, including Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold.

But there's a much deeper factor, isn't there? Senator Feinstein's current husband, Richard Blum, was a majority owner of the military contractors URS Corp. and Perini Corp. at the same time that the Senator supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars through her position on the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) That means that, from 2001 through 2005, every time Senator Feinstein directed an appropriation, citizen Feinstein had a little bit more money for some fine dining in San Francisco. Again, this isn't just my theory; as you know, enough heat was brought to bear on this gross conflict of interest that the Senator had to resign from MILCON.

As you noted yesterday, I've politely lobbied the Senator in semi-private meetings, and it doesn't take much to see that the problems of one constituent don't amount to a hill of beans in the crazy world of the military industrial complex. Whether for profit or because she can't remember which Party she's in (let alone remember her oath to protect and defend the Constitution), Senator Feinstein chooses to enable Bush's disastrous agenda. So, now I need to repeat the request that I made to you yesterday:

Resign.

As District Director, you are enabling one of the worst offenders among those who betray the Democratic Party and their country in this time of crisis. I submit to you that one man can have an impact; your resignation would be felt by the Senator, and noted around the nation. You said that citizen comments on Mukasey amounted to only a third of those concerning Judge Roberts, yet you also heard from several who reported that it was nearly impossible to phone the Senator's office. We are frozen out; you can send a message:

Resign.

You could regain employment with one of the true Democrats. Help us build an opposition Party, before America goes past the point of no return. Help reverse the ludicrous stance of the Party, which has disappointed and abandoned its constituency to the point that more Republicans now approve of Congress than Democrats- despite our majority rule of both houses.

Please stop enabling those false leaders who enable this assault on our Constitution, our country and the world. You'll be able to look yourself in the mirror in the morning. Resign.

Thank you for considering this.

Yours,

Michael Jay

Delegate, California State Democratic Party, 42nd Assembly District
Steering Committee, Progressive Democrats of America, Los Angeles
Coordinating Committee, SoCal Grassroots

PS - After our meeting yesterday, you saw me return to the building's lobby to criticize those guards who had lied to the police. Let me explain that, while Mimi Kennedy (National Board Chair of Progressive Democrats of America), myself and four others waited politely for you to come down from the Senator's office, the lobby guards barred others from entering. After just a few complaints from these others, the guards summoned the police, by lying that "people were, or were trying to, break down the doors." I learned of this (mis-)characterization from the police officers themselves, who, thankfully, explained that they are experienced enough to know that people often exaggerate or fabricate in order to procure police presence. Know that the guards lied, that we were mischaracterized, and that the Senator and her staff are being ill-served by her landlord's employees.

To the hundreds of others reading this message: Please call Senator Feinstein's offices, and tell her how you think a Democratic California Senator should vote.
D.C.: 202-224-3841
SF: 415-393-0707
LA: 310-914-7300

Representative Howard Berman: Don't Block Impeachment

Guest Blogger: Michael Jay

Letter to Representative Howard Berman:
If you won't oppose Bush, at least don't oppose those Democrats who will!

Dear Congressman Berman,

On Tuesday Congressman Dennis Kucinich will introduce a privileged resolution to impeach Vice President Cheney.

It is a virtual certainty that another member will move to table this resolution.

What will you do?

We have debated at length our differences on the occupation of Iraq, and the wisdom of impeachment. Actually, we have no differences of opinion on Iraq: you have publicly agreed with every one of my observations, including the conclusion that the war makes us less safe; you differ, inexplicably, in the action that you take.

For years now I have begged you to be part of an opposition Party, to aggressively address Bush's assault on our country's reputation and bedrock principles. In this regard I have also demanded that you obey your oath to protect and defend the Constitution, by holding the Bush administration responsible for its irrefutably illegal actions.

You have espoused the same excuses I've heard from so many: "Impeachment will take too long" (though the time remaining is still four times the time it took to impeach Clinton and Nixon). "We don't have the votes"- as if they had the votes before they began investigating Nixon, and uncovered the smoking guns that even the Republicans couldn't deny. "It will keep us from more important work" - as if the current Congress was some beehive of new initiatives and unprecedented bipartisan efficiency. In reality, because of the failure of you and others to oppose Bush, he vetoes everything, and we pass nothing. The only thing my Party has achieved is to have squandered the wishes of those Democrats who put you in the majority with a mandate to stop funding the war and stand up to Bush. Your self described "conservative" agenda and the Party leadership's brilliant strategy has achieved one other thing: it has plunged Congress' approval ratings to 11%- less than half that of Bush's. Remember that, the next time you think my progressive stance is bad for the Party.

Well, here's your chance. You don't have to go out on a limb and introduce a resolution. You don't have to join a caucus or co-sponsor anything, or stick your head up out of the foxhole. This one's simple: I'm asking you to do nothing. That is, when the motion is made to table Kucinich's resolution to impeach, please DO NOT vote to table.

Is that so much to ask? That you not side with the Republicans (again)? That you let this action take its course, and give us a chance to get America back on track? That you see which other Democrats might show a spine? Maybe we'll surprise ourselves.

With Senator Feinstein enabling yet another lying Bush appointee for Attorney General, I'm so deep in this upside down world that I'm now asking you to do nothing: Please don't cast another vote that makes us citizen Democrats sick to heart to be Democrats. Please don't generate another front page headline in the LA Daily News like the one that read, "Berman Sides with GOP." Please let this one vestige of Thomas Jefferson's process take root for. Bottom line: If you won't oppose Bush, at least don't oppose those Democrats who will. Please remember that you took an oath- one you have yet to respect. Here's your chance. I, and the several hundred people with whom I'll be sharing this message, will be watching.

Yours,

Michael Jay

Delegate, California State Democratic Party, 42nd Assembly District
Steering Committee, Progressive Democrats of America, Los Angeles
Coordinating Committee, SoCal Grassroots

PS - To those citizens reading this message: CALL CONGRESS (202-225-3121) and tell your Democratic Representative NOT to vote to table Kucinich's resolution of impeachment.

What Is Torture? Why Is the United States Government Willing To Practice It?

With all the controversy over the newest Attorney General nominee of this President, one has to ask the question: just what is torture and we will use the example of waterboarding.

Waterboarding is the horrendous method of interrogation that simulates drowing by dropping voctims strapped to a cruel albeit efficient version of our childhood teeter-totter and immersing them in water. This causes panic, can trigger cardiac incidents and drives victims to a near death experience.

Is this torture? President Bush's nominee Judge Mukasey says he doesn't know. But according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even the US Military it is.

While our hosting organization has not taken an official position on the President's nominee; I would urge you to investigate the issue and convey your position to our Senator Diane Feinstein, as she sits on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

Many of the organizations that many of us are in solidarity with have clearly stated their opposition to this nomination. We do not need a Alberto Gonzalez in sheep's clothing as the next Attorney General.

Why we protect our California Coastline

As a native Californian who was born, raised and grew up on the coast of California; I appreciate that we continue to strive to protect one of nature’s golden treasures, California’s coastline. Back in the Nixon administration, his Secretary of the Interior, Walter Hickle, who was a former governor of Alaska issued an order to not allow offshore oil drilling. He lost his cabinet position over that action.

A decade later we precincted and gathered signatures to qualify proposition 20, the California Coastal Initiative. This was done back when signature gatherers were not paid. We did all this when I was a college student. We created the California Coastal Commission which helped protect our coastline all these past years.

Lately the Liquid Natural Gas industry has taken two runs at getting approval for an LNG offshore terminal off of our coastline. They failed in Long Beach, and have been stopped at the Oxnard hearing of the State’s Land Commission. Now they are pushing for an offshore floating terminal in the Santa Monica Bay, or even taking over an unused former oil platform off of Santa Barbara.

We must strive to protect our pristine, natural coast to prevent any dangerous and environmentally tragic proposals such as an LNG terminal. This is a critical battle that we must win, we have to win every battle and the overall war. Let your elected officials, local, state, and federal know that you oppose any LNG terminal on our coastline.

Starting To Calm Down Just A Tiny Bit…

...some of the fires in Southern California, I mean.

Many of them are still ferociously blazing, unfortunately: the worst of them in San Diego County, for instance. But apparently the winds are finally starting to die down in L.A County, allowing the firefighters to start to get an upper hand.

Many have said this, but it's true: this is the worst fire season that I've ever seen. I've lived in Southern California since 1977 and many fire seasons have come and gone, but so many fires simultaneously springing up over such a wide area is unheard of in my recollection. When I first heard about how broad an expanse the various fires covered, my first thoughts were arson. It looks like that may be the case in several of the fires. These are the sorts of people who need to be strung up by their most sensitive body parts and left alive for a very long time.

No one I know has yet been affected, which is of the good, but I still feel for everyone who's been affected. If y'all want to help out and haven't done so yet, please do.
*************************
On a less positive (and far more cynical) note, while I'm happy that the folks in San Diego County who are being displaced have found shelter at Qualcomm - amongst other refuges - I am furious that this sort of coordination and level of help wasn't available to the folks profoundly affected by Katrina. Granted, part of it is that the head of FEMA in 2005 was an idiot who didn't have the first clue of how to organize a sock drawer, let alone such a vitally important federal emergency agency. The current FEMA chief comes from an emergency response background and shows signs of competence that is stunning for anyone appointed by Bush and Buddies.

However, that doesn't excuse the continuing lack of attention paid by the federal government to the fine folks in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. There's no reason why ALL the federal attention is going to the displaced in Southern California and none is being diverted to NO. Well, no good reason. The only other thing I come up with - besides FEMA being run by someone who knows a thing or two about fires - is that the areas hardest hit by the fires< are in northern San Diego County. And if'n ya know anything that area, you know that the residents are, for the most part, rich, white and Republican.

Cynical? Perhaps. But being "governed" by those currently in the Executive Branch has engendered a definite cynicism where none previously existed. Besides which, I, like many others, have seen how this administration caters to the wealthy and Republican. It's certainly not beyond the realm of probability. It would also explain why the only people really doing anything to help the Katrina-ravaged areas are those who live there. People who, for the most part, are not rich, are not Republicans, and are less white per capita than the population of NE San Diego.

Again, I am happy that the displaced have got quality shelter. But the federal government still needs to turn their attention back to the Gulf Coast.

We're ALL American citizens, Bush and Co. Don't you dare forget it again.

crossposted from just an ordinary goddess

The US Under Apartheid & the 2008 Election

a·part·heid

• An official policy of segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against select members of society.
  
• A policy or practice of separating or segregating groups.
  
• The condition of being separated from others; segregation.
  

One of the concerns I hear most frequently voiced by democrats is that during the next election the Democratic party will split between the idealist, activist, grassroots and the more pragmatic, pro-business, pro-moderation members. The Common Wisdom is that a precursor of this disaster was seen in 2000 when Nader sucked up enough votes to help George Bush win the election. The Common Wisdom is wrong. It wasn't a lack of votes that caused the problem. The folks who "won" the election were determined to do anything they had to do in order to be handed the White House without open riots. The worst you can say about the Nader folks was . . . they probably saw it coming. They'd stopped trusting either party.
In preparation for the 2000 election, the "the powers that be" in Florida commissioned a "voter purge" that pulled 50,000 voters off the rolls, most of whom were liberal democrats, most of whom were black. Many of those voters came to the polls to vote in the election, as they had for years, only to find that they had been disenfranchised.
And when that wasn't enough to win the election, the Republican's turned to the courts of Florida to stop a vote count, and subsequently to the Supreme Court, to have the Florida court's decision over turned.
In the 2004 election, voters in Ohio were disenfranchised in a wide variety of well documented ways.
Across the country we are now using polling stations that are easy to tamper with. It has been proven, over and over again, that the vote HAS been tampered with. That it will be tampered with again is a foregone conclusion. Why else wouldn't those machines have been replaced and discarded. There's certainly been enough outcry and enough legal challenges to have brought that about. If the Democratic or Republican party leadership wanted those machines gone, they'd be gone.
And all this is in addition to all the ways in which key members of both parties have been effectively determining who will be a candidate and what issues will be voted on for years. You'll note that the population of this nation never gets to vote on a national health care system, and that's been something with a more than 60% approval for decades. These same folks determine which laws will be enforced. There are laws on the books against war profiteering and Halliburton is alive and well. We have laws against lying to congress and giving money to political cronies and torture. Bush is still in office, our last Attorney General was allowed to resign.
All of which means that we live under an apartheid government which effectively disenfranchises most of the people most of the time. If you are a democrat and the votes of OTHER democrats aren't counted, YOU are disenfranchised because you cannot ever "win" an election even if you have "won" the election. In fact, when the votes of Democrats aren't counted, even Republicans are disenfranchised because the election wasn't legal, didn't create consensus, doesn't represent the will of _anyone_ except the folks who rigged the election and their collaborators.
Its hard to imagine why the "pragmatic" among us, especially those in the democratic party, can't see their way clear to demanding immediate and visible action on election protection from the party and every single elected official as a condition for receiving their vote in 2008.
Actually I'm afraid I do understand why so many Democrats who call themselves pragmatists won't make that demand. Its because they know it will be refused. They want to believe there is still hope, that some how by accepting these "flaws" we can move on to other business. They believe that widespread election fraud is some kind of snafu that will ultimately be worked out.
If that's true . . . its terrifying. Ending apartheid _starts_ with giving every citizen a right to vote, and ensuring that vote is counted. As folks in South Africa, activists who fought for the rights of blacks in the US South, and survivors of the Holocaust will tell you . . . appeasement leads to tyranny.

Friday Afternoon, September 28th - Bring Our Troops Home Billboard Unveiled

From SoCal Grassroots - San Gabriel Valley

This Friday afternoon, September 28th, on the corner of Foothill Blvd and Archibald Avenue in Rancho Cucamonga a new billboard will be unveiled. It will proudly announce to all who pass that we should bring our troops home.

This all began nearly a year ago when the newly founded Inland Valley Democratic Club, in the heart of Bush country started demonstrating against the war in Iraq. It has been a remarkable example of grassroots democracy. At first it was a small group of demonstrators made up of veterans of the war in Vietnam and others who had the courage to stand on that corner of a very busy thoroughfare to express their outrage and displeasure with the war in Iraq. They withstood a lot of unhappy motorists in the beginning months, but gradually things turned around. Instead of the verbal abuse they initially encountered that disagreement turned to support as time went on. It has been an amazing transformation to where they now get many of the cars and trucks that pass by to honk their horns in support.

This adventure in grassroots democracy will culminate this Friday with the unveiling of the sign announcing to the world that, "We support the troops bring them home." All of you are invited to join in the demonstration against the war in Iraq and support of our troops that begins at 4:00 PM.

Here's that info again:
Friday, September 28, 2007
4:00 pm - ???
Corner of Foothill Blvd and Archibald Ave
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730

Iowa & New Hampshire in a compressed Primary Season

In this front loaded primary season; the media would have you believe that the old rules still apply! This is the same media that is anointing the partisan leaders in the two party marathon for their respective nominations.

The fallacy is that when the primaries started moving up on the calendar and Super Duper Tuesday, February 5th, was filling up with California and New York the pundits said this was totally to the benefit of the Frontrunner/s! But, as the primaries and caucuses filled in the survivability of all the contenders changed. Every Democrat can stay through the California plus Tuesday elections. Delegates are selected in varying formulas; using the CA model any candidate that crosses the 15% threshhold will get delegates to Denver in the summer. The junior senator from New York is in it with a lot of cash until the end. The junior senator from Illinois can also afford to be in it through February. The next two candidates of Senator John Edwards and Governor Bill Richardson can both afford and have the grassroots operations that will guarantee a strong February showing. The two senior senators from Connecticut & Deleware can also stay in until February though they might be the first who drop out. Congressman Kucinich is in it for the message and will hold on with delegates to Denver! Lastly, the former senator from Alaska, I hope he returns home to run against Ted Stevens, will last for his message as well.

What does all this activity portend? In my humble opinion it portends the strongest possibility of a brokered or a small d democratic convention in Denver for the Democratic Party. There will be so many delegates attributed to the field of eight, that no one candidate will lock it up before the gavel is sounded on the first night!

The scenario under the classic rules was that you were bound as a delegate to the person you ran to represent, with the exception of uncommitted party leaders, until they released you. Under the DNC rules you are bound through the first ballot. If Senator Clinton is not the presumptive nominee or negotiates a first ballot victory; then the nominee can well be another. The band wagon delegates, the opportunist delegates in CA for example who ran after the primary, and those who are smarting under the bare knuckle bruising of the primary; they will look around the room and become the new majority for another nominee for 2008! You read it here and I will either be part of the vanguard for new politics, or "how could you have been so naive"?

Bush Transcript Proves He Intentionally Deceived US

I think this is the smoking gun. We had the Downing Street memos which indicated what this proves, but that was a "report" of a conversation had with the Bush Administration. It did not feature Bush's actual statements word for word. We now have a word for word transcript of statements made to Jose Maria Aznar of Spain, and Condoleeza Rice. He made these statements while he was telling the people of the US (and Congress) that all options were on the table with Iraq, and war would be a "last resort".

Saddam was willing to leave Iraq without war. Why, if regime change was the desired outcome, did we have to go to war with Iraq? Saddam could have walked away (could have been captured, imprisoned or assassinated despite assurances to the contrary). War was never necessary to oust him.

I suspect the truth is . . . the occupation of Iraq was always the objective.

And that is distrurbing. Becuase it indicates that this administration has gone to a great deal of trouble to "acquire" Iraq, and thus likely has no plans whatsoever to leave that nation, any more than it plans to remove all its troops from Germany or Japan.

Since this is SO CAL GRASSROOTS, I have every confidence you'll want to make up your own mind based on the evidence. Here's some documents to refer to.

Link to English story

Link to original transcript (in Spanish)

Best Liberal Laugh event -- with Stephanie Miller

Although Stephanie Miller's progressive talk show/comedy cavalcade is beamed every weekday morning right out of Burbank to stations nationwide, her SoCal fans seldom get the chance to see her right here, especially in a political setting--and with her WHOLE CREW. Now's your chance.

The Burbank Democratic Club-of which I am the founding past president- is presenting our “Best Liberal Laugh of the Year” award, the BLLOTY, to her whole show from 5-8 p.m. on Saturday Oct. 13.

The event includes dinner, dessert, plus the chance to mix, pose and hurl questions in Q&A style with not only Stephanie but also her on-air mates: executive producer Chris Lavoie and “voice deity” Jim Ward, plus associate producer Rebekah Baker (“on phones and drums.”) It's a rare chance to see all four together, in person, and enjoy some of the impromptu, unpredictable wit and barbs that make their rapid-fire show such a hoot.

Keynoter will be Elliott S! Maggin, the principal scribe for 15 years of "Superman comics" who's now running as the “Truth, Justice, and the American Way!” Dem in the CA-24 House race. I'll be serving as your humble emcee, and we'll also have the musical punchlines of Elton John and "What's My Line, Live on Stage" keyboardist Adam Chester.

For more information about the event, click here.

Seating is limited. Hope to see you there!

How Not to Get Microwaved At Future Protests & Riots (Really)

As Katrina indicated, this government is perfectly capable of abusing its own people just as it has abused the Iraqi people. And, isn't that a truism? What a nation does to people outside its borders eventually comes home. And it is not as if this nation is a stranger to domestic oppression. Native Americans and people of color are all to aware that being born in this country is no guarantee of civil rights.
So, I'm here to warn you. One day you may be at a protest and truck will drive up with a big flat rectangular screen. At first you may wonder if it is a television sattelite truck. If that screen is flat, it is not. Start moving _away_ from the truck. Its a "Microwave" weapon. Look up ACTIVE DENIAL SYSTEMS on Google. You'll find it described in great detail in the national media.
Active Denial Systems (or Directed Energy Weapons) are already being deployed in Iraq. "A Belgian doctor who braved the war in Iraq has, in his Baghdad Diary, provided an account of a possible first military antipersonnel use of DEW. The horrible account is given of a bus containing civilians that was fired upon on 1 April 2003 in A1 Sqifal, near Hilla, from an American checkpoint. According to reports from Dr. Saad El-Fadoui, a 52-year-old surgeon who studied in Scotland and who immediately went to the site of the incident from Hilla Hospital, "the bodies were all carbonized, terribly mutilated, torn into pieces". In and around the bus he saw heads, brains and intestines. According to witnesses no one had heard the sound of an explosion and no traces of shrapnel were found on the bodies..."
The manufacturers of the ADS system say say its a non-lethal weapon. It just boils the top layer of skin all over your body. And they'll tell you is not a "microwave" weapon. It's a millimeter wave weapon. The shorter the wave, the more the damage. I wonder . . . Could there be a dial (or a hack) that lets you set the length of the wave and the power behind it?
There's a hand held model of this weapon, so in addition to tasers we may soon have "Hand Held People Friers" in the hands of soldiers, policemen, INS agents, the FBI, etc.
Some folks say metal stops the rays. Skin boils, even skin under clothes . . . but clothes don't burn. In those old SCI Fi shows everyone's always wearing shiny metal clothes. Now you know why. Actually, I'm not entirely sure light-weight metal will stop the effect. You might need a suit of armor to face down these machines.
So if LA gets a big Earthquake, and the feds fail to respond with humanitarian aid (as they did with Katrina) and National Guard (oops, they're in Iraq, so maybe we'll get federal troops instead) are sent to quell the rioting caused by hunger, thirst and despair . . . I'm telling you. Stay away from the flat paneled trucks and the hand held people friers.
PS: There's a new hand held thermobaric weapon that is also being tested in Iraq. "This is a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon but with a new warhead. Described as NE - "Novel Explosive"- it is a thermobaric mixture which ignites the air, producing a shockwave of unparalleled destructive power, especially against buildings." http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001944.html
This really is a brave new world . . .

One More Major Reason to leave Iraq Now

Just when I was preparing to blog this week on another subject - what do I see on the mornings headlines? "Safety an issue without Blackwater". The article continues with the fact that trips outside the Green Zone are restricted or not happening; and that means the US support meetings cannot occur with the various Iraqi ministries. That really makes it simple. The State Department is stating that they cannot do the diplomatic mission in Iraq without the services of Blackwater mercenaries! Yes, let's not be timid; these private security personnel are mercenaries. They are being paid large salaries to kill without the color of authority; but we have forced the occupied government of Iraq to exempt them from any prosecution for their violence upon the people of Iraq.

What is simple - this - GET OUT OF IRAQ now. Governor Bill Richardson is correct. Evacuate the country in six months. It can be done. Muslim nations will supply a force of peacekeepers. The vacuum that we are warned about will not occur, and the nations in closest proximity along with nations that bow to Mecca six times daily will supply troops to assist in stabilizing Iraq.

What have we lost by leaving Iraq. Let's enumerate them. We lose the carnage of young men and women continuing this folly. We lose sweet heart deals with the Vice President's cronies. We lose the improper control of another nations oil. We start to regain our reputation in the eyes of the world community. This reformation to moral standing in the world will have to be accomplished by a Democrat in the White House!
Not any Democrat, but one who has the experience of world diplomacy, UN experience, congressional skills in dealing with the people's congress, and a record of accomplishment. Where do we find such a paragon of leadership. Right here in the neighboring state of New Mexico. Governor Bill Richardson would be the right person for the job at this time in history.

Have You No Shame

I was going to add to the din of "good riddance" at the soon to be departed Attorney General of the United States. What dissuaded me?
The President had the gall to go to New Orleans and add his simpering platitudes to the real mourning of the city and its citizens at the 2nd Anniversary of Katrina! This lame duck executive cares more about any city in Iraq then the entire Gulf Coast of this country. It isn't that one shouldn't have an expansive heart; it is the false note of this administration doing anything substantive for the devastated gulf coast and Crescent City. I will admit that my families roots are from New Orleans and a young Annie Gleeson came from Ireland in the hold of a Cotton Ship before she became what my French Cousins call "Shanty Irish". My mothers ashes rest below the caskets of one set of grandparents in St. Louis Cemetary # 2, the second oldest cemetary in New Orleans.

Back when Senator Joe McCarthy was conducting another witch hunt during the infamous Army-McCarthy hearings; the plaintiff's attorney asked the senator, "Have You No Shame" in response to a particular bit of verbal slander.

This morning the current occupant of the West Wing used the ceremony to again launch in on a litany of failed and dubious programs. He should just send down an armed car with disbursements for the people, release the Louisiana National Guard, authorize the Seabees to help rebuild the devastated infrastructure, and find someone competent to head up FEMA. President Bush, "Have You No Shame".

New Fly to Drop - Conny McCormack

First Rove, then Gonzales, now Conny McCormack - Registrar of Voters for Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States - has announced that she is retiring, effective the end of 2007.

Wow.

Long time readers of this humble blog remember that we here at SoCal Grassroots aren't exactly fans of L.A. County's RoV. We've written about her insistence that we just not worry our pretty little heads about proprietary software and that she just doesn't concern herself about the "statistical abnormalities" of Ohio's voting during the 2004 presidential election. I've seen her speak several times and she has always struck me as someone who is more concerned about making her job easier and getting her buddies at Diebold nice fat contracts than the accuracy of the vote.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, however. It seems that - much like Rove and Gonzales - she's planning on entering the private sector, concentrating on "shifting [her] energies and experience to election administration research and consulting both within the U.S. and worldwide."

I feel very sorry for those whom choose to hire her as a consultant.

My Oh My...

....this looks like a week for Schadenfreude Pie.

Not only has yet another anti-gay Republican legislator been caught with his hand in the "soliciting gay sex in a public restroom" cookie jar and dear ol' Al Gonzales resigned as US Attorney General, but last week even Republican creationists on the Texas State School Board voted against including intelligent design in science classes.

Schadenfreude Pie - dark, rich and delicious...