show is open - we are swamped

over at crooks and liars too...

i can't hear maron??

i can get one side of the convo or the other...but not both.

i feel i am refreshing obsessive/abusively

i shall cease now.

granny glasses and fez

moth-eaten green v-neck cardigan, yellow tie,pony tail, chest hair...no shirt.

This didn't work out at all this week Sam. I was really looking forward to hearing and seeing you both. Back to Stacy Taylor on KLSD. Until next time.....

25 minutes in

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, that in the time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality"

Wish Maron a Happy Birthday from The Blog! [the 27th]

And you're taking a break!

Welcome to America!

Under The LobsterScope

Iraqi Police surge dramatically reduces Baghdad violence

BAGHDAD — Violence in Baghdad has been cut in half, thanks to a massive influx of new Iraqi Police officers, a top U.S. military advisor said today.

“Along with the surge of U.S. forces is also the surge of Iraqi Police,” Brig. Gen. David Phillips told online journalists and “bloggers” during a conference call from Baghdad.

As deputy commanding general of the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, Phillips helped stand up the Baghdad Police Academy in January 2004. Thursday, he watched 744 brand new officers graduate from that academy.

“A community (in) which, in the past, we saw a significant al Qaeda presence now has concerned local citizens come forward (to join) the police forces,” Phillips said. “You saw a lot of pride in these new police officers as they graduated.”

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14200&...

CM

We know that Iraqis aren't joining the police because...well, because if they were, that would be an indicator that things aren't hopeless, and no less than Supreme General of All Time Harry Reid says the war in Iraq is lost...wonder why MNF-I bothers to put out this sort of stuff anymore? We've got MoveOn and Daily Kos...and while they are 10,000 miles away from the theater of operations, they have reliable sources which tell them that its all lost...they certainly know better than the troops on the ground

http://www.blogsforbush.com/

Both of you do. But Sam you are cutting off Marc and talking over him. Part of getting use to each other, I guess.

For everybody still out there, they are on a break right now and Sam is working with the tech people on the bandwidth issues. The site is getting slammed, which is sad for those that can't see/hear but great news for the future!

Republicans for Voldemort

to blog...and the encirclement begins...

N. Korea accuses U.S. of helping Israel develop nuclear weapons

North Korea accused the United States on Tuesday of actively providing nuclear weapons assistance to Israel while seeking to deprive other countries of the right to peaceful nuclear programs.

North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, meanwhile, denied accusations that his country had cooperated with Syria on a secret nuclear project.

"The United States is shutting its eyes to the nuclear programs of its allies while taking issue with the rights to nuclear activities of other countries for peaceful purposes," North Korea's communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

"As an illustration, the U.S. has long actively promoted and cooperated with the Israeli nuclear armament plan," the newspaper said. "They decided to provide assistance to Israel's nuclear development program. Then the U.S. dispatched nuclear experts to Israel and transferred highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient for nuclear weapons to them.

Fuckockta thing to work! I get music, Sam is frozen and I don't see Maron!!

We can get Nova M to pick up this show. Shelly would be making a great move if he did!

Under The LobsterScope

ethnic cleansing makes for wonderful peace. But if you think that's progress, then I suppose you liked Mr. Hitler, too. And how is that electricity, water, hospitals, and fuel working out for you in Baghdad? Better than ever after 5 years and billions of dollars. That's PPPProgress, folks!

Has anyone recorded it? I haven't gotten anything longer than a few frames.

"Republicans for Voldemort" LOL ... that just is funny... (giggle, snicker)
;)

Congress Set for Veto Fight on Child Health Care

Supporters of the legislation, which has broad bipartisan support, mobilized lobbyists — 400 from the American Cancer Society alone — and began advertising to win the votes needed to override a veto threatened by Mr. Bush. The president says the measure, which would renew and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, costs too much and would be “an incremental step toward the goal of government-run health care for every American.”

Federal health officials urged states to draft contingency plans in case tens of thousands of children lose coverage because of the impasse when the program expires Sept. 30. As one option, the officials said that states might consider shifting some children onto Medicaid.

Mr. Bush dispatched Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, to “work with states on ways to mitigate the damage that would result if Congress allows this program to lapse.”

Administration officials said they were concerned that the White House was being hurt by televised news reports that portrayed the fight as a struggle between Mr. Bush and poor children, rather than as a philosophical debate over the role of government in health care.

Pentagon and Petraeus’ casualty data ‘differ significantly.’ In a report today on the Pentagon’s methods for determining sectarian killings in Iraq, the Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung writes that “apparent contradictions are relatively easy to find in the flood of bar charts and trend lines the military produces.” For instance, the numbers in the Pentagon’s quarterly Iraq report released last week “differ significantly” from those presented to Congress by Gen. David Petraeus:

Civilian casualty numbers in the Pentagon’s latest quarterly report on Iraq last week, for example, differ significantly from those presented by the top commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, in his recent congressional testimony. Petraeus’s chart was limited to numbers of dead, while the Pentagon combined the numbers of dead and wounded — a figure that should be greater. Yet Petraeus’s numbers were higher than the Pentagon’s for the months preceding this year’s increase of U.S. troops to Iraq, and lower since U.S. operations escalated this summer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/24/AR200709...

TPM’s Spencer Ackerman has more here.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004279.php

I tried again!!! SUCCESS

did a Star Wars parody show Sunday night

The immense Imperial Warship chasing Princess Leia had a massive 'Bush/Cheney' bumper sticker on the ass end of it. I was hoping C&L got a freeze frame of it.

First had only maron...then only sam...
now bith...and it looks good.

Melina
www.RIPCoco.com

gotta go I'll prob leave it on but this kinda sucks sorry sam

Consumer confidence hits 2-year low: Conf Board

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer confidence fell unexpectedly sharply in September to its lowest in nearly two years on growing concerns about jobs and financial market turmoil, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The Conference Board said its index of consumer sentiment fell to 99.8 in September, the lowest since November 2005 and down from 105.6 in August. The median forecast of economists polled by Reuters was for a slip to 104.0.

"Weaker business conditions combined with a less favorable job market continue to cast a cloud over consumers and heighten their sense of uncertainty and concern," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's research center, adding: "Little economic improvement is expected, and with the holiday season around the corner, this is not welcome news."

The dollar extended losses versus the euro while U.S. stocks briefly extended losses and U.S. government bond prices held steady at higher levels after the data's release.

just getting maron, but still I'm loving it! Feels kind of weird listening to someone's one sided conversation. I don't care, I'm thrilled this is happening and the bugs will be worked out.

Thanks :) though I can't take credit for it. Someone created a bumper sticker with this phrase, which I have seen around. I thought it was amazing, and I try to use it whenever possible!

Republicans for Voldemort

I'm seeing the preview on MSNBC

This'll be fun...
new
Submitted by Nobody on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 11:50am.
Congress Set for Veto Fight on Child Health Care

Cool. I "bitch'd-slapped" my Senators FOR NOT VETOing ...
...and I saw many had same idea that I had or aka WE HAVE HAD ... E N O U G H !
YIPPIE! ;)

i could never get both halves of camera to work so i ended up bringing sam up in one window and marc up in another. does smack channel have serious technical problems?

Try refreshing the page again. That's what I had to do to get both sides.

In fact I refreshed til I got both sides.

The interesting thing to me was that these nuts are supposedly the largest voting base for the Republicans, but the "front runners," if you can call them that, didn't show to the Values Voters debate. What does that say?

with Tim Russert as moderator!

Little timmy gets to ask questions.

I saw that, the debate is tomorrow in NH

thanks, I keep trying. For a long time I thought the show hadn't really started and Sam just wasn't on yet. Also took forever to get this page up. I'm hoping it means this show is going to be crazy successful because so many of us are interested!

I have failed at every try this morning... only getting Marc's side, which is ok with me... but I do feel I'm missing a lot (no Sam). My fingers are crossed.

That would be a great name for the Sam and Marc Show!
m
Under The LobsterScope

That would be a great name for the Sam and Marc Show!
m
Under The LobsterScope

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said of the autoworkers strike: “Job security is one of our primary concerns. … We’re talking about investment and we’re talking about job creation” and preserving benefits, he said. Negotiators were to return Tuesday morning for their 22nd straight day of bargaining.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070925/ap_on_bi_ge/auto_talks_265

U.S. Severe poverty rate at highest in three decades

The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high as the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen.

“The world’s top leaders should meet every three months, starting next year, until a plan is drawn up to reduce emissions blamed for global warming, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said on Monday. ”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070924/pl_nm/climate_un_gore_dc

BiPolar's not bad. Keep it up guys, this is where you need to go.

I've done that...Thompson Center in downtown Chicago...funny

Sorry for the blogging-down earlier.

Bush: We Can’t Spend $22 Billion On America Because We Need $200 Billion For Iraq War

there has to be a better way.

Hi Sam....Hi Marc

Us stalkers are not easily deterred.
lol

One election at a time...

I see 91 guests not counting the users. This is like a Sunday Show.

His announcement last night on the Malloy show brought some people here too.

One election at a time...

Clinton would start weaning the ins co's off. Kucinich cuts them off cold.

One election at a time...

Have Sam in one browser window...Marc in another...audio mixes naturally...it works fine that way...

Police, Fire, Medicine... these are all Fundamental Services. Forget discussions of Socialism.

Under The LobsterScope

One election at a time...

$9.11

The Giuliani campaign is being forced to distance itself from the decision of a supporter to throw a fundraising party where supporters of the Republican candidate for president have been asked to donate $9.11.

I requested to KPOJ here in Portland a network 2-fer: Sammy/Mark for 4 hours. After all, Air America can't program 9-Noon and 8-11 pm, so whatheheck? Get Sheldon Drobny involved. I bet we could make it happen.

Love you guys!

Great show!
Under The LobsterScope

decide on the price?

One election at a time...

One election at a time...

Keep it up, Anons. Your hate only makes us stronger!

who isn't anything more than a picture and a 5 word soundbite?

I'm in! You should both blog or IM during though...in lieu of being able to take calls

From Prime to Subprime, America's Home-Mortgage Meltdown Has Just Begun

America’s unfolding mortgage-debt crisis did not emerge in a vacuum. When Alan Greenspan’s Federal Reserve pounded the federal funds rate down to 1%, in June of 2003, it is crucial to understand that such a low rate materialized due to the Fed’s aggressive creation of money and credit. In other words, America’s monetary central planner "knew" that massive inflation was needed to "rescue" the economy from the above-mentioned dot.com and telecom implosions. Housing was specifically targeted by the Federal Reserve to serve as "…a key channel of monetary policy transmission." With this colossal inflation of the money supply, I would argue that a hyperreality surfaced in the housing market – with corresponding bubbles emerging in consumer electronics and automobiles. During such episodes of heavy inflation, people tend to lose their sense of value including suspending any fear of debt.

I'm running Safari on Mac and it worked great. You guys looked great.

Fernando - I finally have instant messaging - now I just have to figure out how to use it. Im having issues with what do I do next. I put Sam's name on my buddy list......and Im like - okay what do I do next???? god I hate being illiterate with technology. IMac

finally, a Hilly spam that's easy on the eyes

Good show.

As a long time listener to Marc Maron, I gotta say that it's great to see and hear him during daylight hours. Air America screwed him over big time by first killing his first very successful show and then by shoving him into a time slot in Los Angeles that was destined to fail. I mean, how could they have expected him to maintain good ratings when his show was being preempted regularly by women's basketball? Good on ya Marc.

Go Edwards!

have to be piled before you call it a holocaust?

Iraq: A Bush Family Jihad?

The people of Iraq are being kept on their knees, their infrastructure unrepaired, they are tortured, disappeared at the hands of and because of the invasion. The blame lies squarely in Washington and Whitehall. Four million displaced and one and a quarter million dead, according to the recent poll, by resepected ORB and now a cholera epidemic. Have the 'liberators' flown in emergency and essential medicines and medical equipment to counter this,as they would if it were their troops, or their pals cowering in the Green Zone? Of course not.

Anon - I am running on the same. If I have questions would it be okay to come to you for help??? I'll have a lot.

Predicting the probable...While yer at it, start cobbling together yer Hillary/Obama ticket graphic you frazzled little tool.

According to the Internet Tubes there are 19 other sites on this server.
any chance Sam can upgrade? or switch?

One election at a time...

Thanks, Nobody, I had to post that graphic, tho'...awesum!

Now, THIS would make a great NYT full pager!

I didn't have any trouble this week seeing both cams. It helped that I hit refresh SEVERAL times before 11am .... to make sure both cams were on.

The only trouble I have with it is that there's such a delay between Marc and Sam's interaction. It's like one of them is on Pluto or something. But it's very watcheable. Hopefully it won't be expensive to watch when it's a pay-per-view. I don't mind them both getting paid. Maybe me and some of my comic friends will use it as a model and we can get paid, too.

- Jayson (progressive spirit)

I like this fornat
Submitted by toniD on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:26pm.
---------
fornat: the sometimes embarrassing results of circumcision.

Well, what I could see of it. Finally got BOTH cameras AND microphones at ~11:55 A.M. Really glad you ran long! Sam, Marc, I'd pay for this in a heartbeat, especially if I can have a download that is guaranteed to be complete (both cams, both mics)!

Sincerely,
personality_disorder

I am very happy that there seems to be more traffic than this system can comfortably handle - but I'm way bummed about not being able to stream/view easily - I only had Maron for much of the 'show' - couldn't post to the blog either = (

I'll always think of the Seder/Maron team as the 'Jew-y Jew Show'(even tho I know that'd never sell), a la Judy Gold = J

Greed is a component of what makes people not want to pay a couple hundred extra in taxes to make us all better off. But I find that most working class people I talk to can not stand the idea that someone may be getting by, without earning the money the same way they had to. You can not seem to get them to understand that some people have just had bad luck and may need a helping hand. They think that any body who is not making it, is just lazy, or made bad choices and therefore deserves their lot in life.

Also can't believe Sam replied on the air to something I IM'd him. =)

The Second Great Depression

“The US economy is in danger of a recession that will prove unusually long and severe. By any measure it is in far worse shape than in 2001-02 and the unraveling of the housing bubble is clearly at hand. It seems that the continuous buoyancy of the financial markets is again deluding many people about the gravity of the economic situation.”

I noticed this last time around, in running various newsgroups. Before the Iowa votes, even a month before, Freepers started jamming my newsgroups with anti-Kerry hate mail. I was like, why? We're not even talking about Kerry. We're for Dean, we're for Clark, we're for Edwards, we're for Kucinich. We're almost for anyone except Kerry and Lieberman... why all the Kerry haters? Turns out, this is the GOP's way of getting Dems to rally around someone THEY want to run against.

They're doing it with Hillary now. Rove and Bush have publically said that Hillary is the one, like it's a done deal. They know Hillary can be defeated easier than Edwards or even Obama. So they're rallying their energy around Hillary hoping to draw all of us in to supporting her. It's pretty shrewd. But it's happening.

- Jayson (progressive spirit)

That's what you get for trying to do two things at a time!

And I didn't know what that typo meant either so I just got educated with trivia I probably will never use.

if anyone got a clean audio of that.

From Around The Internet

Not Remotely Fair
new
Submitted by Crank Bait on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 11:43am.
can't get it
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 11:32am.
i have been clicking since 8:05...
-----------
Stop! My garage door is going up and down.

*******
LOL..Too funny Crank! :)

Unfortunatley,it sums up the Technical Weakness of the Sam & Mark show!
It's sad because we have 2 Very Funny,and Smart guys trying to give us a good show,but with the stops,pops,1 screen,no screen bullshit they are going to lose potential subscribers..
And,have a frustrated audience!
I mentioned last week about the stoping,and staring vid problems..It worst this week!

Here's Hoping!
Got my fingers crossed! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

We will get the video stream issue debugged - we are working it now. Typical complaints are that you have to refresh a few times to get both cams live, or occasionally one cam or the other drops off and you have to reload. This has been made worse by the slow loading of the SammyCam page itself, and the slowness of the blog. There are two separate issues: Blog performance and serving the streams.

As of about 11:52 EDT the blog performance should have suddenly increased by quite a bit - we have reconfigured and it should be loading and refreshing almost immediately now, even under heavy loads. We do not think that we have a hardware issue or that having the server handle other sites is affecting the performance at all - it was strictly a PEBKAS issue regarding configuration (that is, Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Screen - a/k/a dumbass sysadmin, doh, now less dumb)

As far as video stream latency and connection issues, we know about it, it seems to be at the big content delivery network we use to handle the large number of connections we expect - and we are jointly working to resolve it.

I would recommend to all of you that you check back in to watch the next SammyCast of Sam sitting in for Malloy - we should be running better next time than we were for this show.

Again, thanks for your support and patience. We hear you.

I *just* now remembered. The morning slipped away from me.

Hi MMRules - I finally have a password that works. Sam got right on it.

Play Decent! We have enough "stresses" in life ... to me you are just a "cat-ball", and I would advise you, do not attack here. ;
Boo

I didn't catch the beginning of the S&M show because of the overload.

I was just wondering if last nights Mulloy Audio was going to be available on Sam's site?

Submitted by MMRules on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:40pm.
---------
R: A remotely excited garage door

It's humor in the Luddite category. I throw one in now and then to maintain my technotard image with Liberal-at-Large.

From Incubus (the Tech guy for the Sammy Cam) just a few minutes ago...

I would recommend to all of you that you check back in to watch tonight's SammyCast of Sam sitting in for Malloy - we should be running better tonight than we were for this show.

A Blog With Music
Submitted by Alice on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:39pm.
From Around The Internet
********

Interesting..Just have to hang out there awhile to see how it all works..
Thank you! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Clear Channel Shareholders Approve Takeover Deal

Clear Channel Communication's merger adoption agreement was approved by shareholders at a special shareholder meeting on Tuesday morning (Sept. 25). Though still subject to regulatory approval, Clear Channel will be acquired by CC Media Holdings (co-led by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital) for $39.20 per share, or $19.5 billion.

Clear Channel Communications entered into a second amendment to its previously announced merger agreement with a private equity group co-led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. and Bain Capital Partners, LLC on May 18. Under the terms of the merger agreement, as amended, Clear Channel shareholders will receive $39.20 in cash for each share they own plus additional per share consideration, if any, if the closing of the merger occurs after Dec. 31, an increase from the previous cash consideration of $39.00 per share.

http://www.radioandrecords.com/RRWebSite/

Bain Capital got its start in 1984 with $37 million. Some of its early investments were in early stage companies, such as Staples.

The founders include three partners from Bain & Company: Mitt Romney, T. Coleman Andrews and Eric Kriss. In fact, Romney went on to become Governor of Massachusetts and is running for President of the United States.

Looking for Audio?
Submitted by KT4 on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:45pm.
I didn't catch the beginning of the S&M show because of the overload.

I was just wondering if last nights Mulloy Audio was going to be available on Sam's site?
*******
Oh fernando??Our IT Guy..Need more Sammy! Feed Us!! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

as Sam isn't filling in for Malloy tonight, is he?

(Just wanna make sure, 'cause, as zeek indicated, I was thinking he was just in for last night.)

[dr:] "If the Republican Party can be infiltrated 'n taken over by crazed militant fundamentalist-lovin' reactionary revolutionaries, I really don't see why the Democraptic Party can't experience the same kinda sea-change from w/in by actual liberals 'n progressives 'n such-like truck."

[me:] The right welcomed the crazy fundies and righty libertarians. They used them, catered to them. Funny how the real conservatives lost control. Kind of justice, in a way. But liberals and progressives are fought against by the corporate Democrats. Except for "lesser of two evils liberals and progressives," tha[t] aren't really liberal or progressive, and who will fall in line and elect anyone who calls themselves a Democrat.

*

[L@L:] You? "Cynical"? Nah, not normally. You're informed. And what you see & read & hear irritates & depresses you.

Just like me. Just like every other thinking person here.

But for the sake of your post above, I'll answer my opening questions, "No, really?"

Nobs nailed it. You should have ended it at: "But liberals and progressives are fought against by the corporat[ists]," editing (as you stated in your later comment), notwithstanding.

Would it be fair to contrast your statement, "'lesser of two evils liberals and progressives,' tha[t] aren't really liberal or progressive," with "a pox on all your houses"?

There ARE those that you describe, but they compose a small minority of self-described "liberals and progressives." You know this.

Rather than "cynical," I think a better word to describe your feelings would be "frustrated."

We all are, dada.

Submitted by Liberal-at-large on Mon, 09/24/2007 - 3:27pm.
---------

Ya, I know all the corporatists, left right and center work against the left. I was just comparing the way the Republicans treated the righty libertarians as opposed to how the Democrats treat the netroots.

But I don't know if the self-described liberals and progressives, the "go-along-to get-along" types are really such a small minority. One look at the Kos website tells me otherwise.

And it's true, we are all frustrated. But I'm not at the 'pox on all your houses' stage yet. If someone is on the same page as I am, I'll vote for them, Republican, Democrat or otherwise. I won't be voting for Hillary.

;) ... Cool Site (but so much to see, eek ...;)

You can not seem to get them to understand that some people have just had bad luck and may need a helping hand. They think that any body who is not making it, is just lazy, or made bad choices and therefore deserves their lot in life

This has been drummed and washed into the brain of unwashed masses by the rightwing reaganites, think tanks ideologues, media, conventional wisdom since the seventies and actually it may be a part of the american ethos of self made rugged individual the bootstraps etc

all a bunch of bull and eventually something will have to give but how much suffering has to go down before that threshold is reached

All this and more on the show tonight as Mike returns from San Diego. Many thanks to Sam Seder for last night’s program!

Hi MMRules - I finally have
Submitted by smcgee43 on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:44pm.
Hi MMRules - I finally have a password that works. Sam got right on it.

*******
Just kidding with the cool beans thing..I have a friend who luvs to say that..It cracks me up!
smcgee43 Good Deal! Glad it all worked out! :)
Are you IMac,or Anonymouse??

Welcome aboard with all us knuckleheads!!I mean that in a Good way,ofcourse! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

I think the Sam Cam from Monday night will be posted here tonight.

The Nova-M site said that Mulloy would be back tonight.

I edited my post. He will be on again soon though - keep checking in here.

;( I did not know you were here... How's the "buzz" ;)

Oh Great, Mormon Radio for all!! :(

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

night KT4. The resulting file was a real fast video of Lauren changing hats. It was really short too. No Sam content.

I recorded almost 30 minutes (the end of the show) today, that's all I was able to get. I hope someone got it.

put em in refugee camps...where thousands die...then start filling mass graves...Sound familiar?

Cholera Outbreak in Iraq Is Spreading

GENEVA (AP) -- An outbreak of cholera in Iraq has spread with new cases confirmed in Baghdad, Basra and for the first time the northern districts of Tikrit, Mosul and Dahuk, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

This takes to 2,116 the number of confirmed cases of cholera in Iraq, and 11 deaths from the disease, WHO said.

"It shows that people are moving, and when people are moving they are spreading cholera," said Claire-Lise Chaignat, a cholera expert at WHO.

Just hearing from a techie hereabouts is a miracle in itself.

Thanks for taking the time to keep us in the loop.

To echo your comment, the only really annoying thing this week was the delay (latency?) of the conversation between Sam & Mark. Maybe a comment in the Sammie Cam box saying one should refresh (F5) if both cams don't appear or voices are not synched-up?

And just one other thing, if I may (and if you take care of such things): Any way to correct the blog losing its page pointer (to page 2+) when posting? Having to manually get back to page 2+ after posting is a real PITA. And, can the multi-page links ALSO be put at the top of the page as well as the bottom?

Thanks, Incubus!

Homes post steepest price drop in 16 years

NEW YORK - The decline in U.S. home prices accelerated nationwide in July, posting the steepest drop in 16 years, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday.

Home prices have fallen by more every month since the beginning of the year. An index of 10 U.S. cities fell 4.5 percent in July from a year ago. That was the biggest drop since July 1991.

“The further deceleration in prices is still apparent across the majority of regions,” MacroMarkets LLC Chief Economist Robert Shiller said in a statement.

just tryin to get in the cam cue line,

no seegar so far.

I tried for an hour before I could just get a tiny fraction of the show.

Page loads here were like watching frozen molasses.

sStand by and thanx for the patience
Submitted by Incubus on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:41pm.
We will get the video stream issue debugged - we are working it now. Typical complaints are that you have to refresh a few times to get both cams live, or occasionally one cam or the other drops off and you have to reload. This has been made worse by the slow loading of the SammyCam page itself, and the slowness of the blog. There are two separate issues: Blog performance and serving the streams.

As of about 11:52 EDT the blog performance should have suddenly increased by quite a bit - we have reconfigured and it should be loading and refreshing almost immediately now, even under heavy loads. We do not think that we have a hardware issue or that having the server handle other sites is affecting the performance at all - it was strictly a PEBKAS issue regarding configuration (that is, Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Screen - a/k/a dumbass sysadmin, doh, now less dumb)

As far as video stream latency and connection issues, we know about it, it seems to be at the big content delivery network we use to handle the large number of connections we expect - and we are jointly working to resolve it.

I would recommend to all of you that you check back in to watch the next SammyCast of Sam sitting in for Malloy - we should be running better next time than we were for this show.

Again, thanks for your support and patience. We hear you.
*******

Stop! My garage door is going up and down.
Submitted by MMRules on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:40pm.
Not Remotely Fair
new
Submitted by Crank Bait on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 11:43am.
can't get it
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 11:32am.
i have been clicking since 8:05...
-----------
Stop! My garage door is going up and down.

*******
LOL..Too funny Crank! :)

Unfortunatley,it sums up the Technical Weakness of the Sam & Mark show!
It's sad because we have 2 Very Funny,and Smart guys trying to give us a good show,but with the stops,pops,1 screen,no screen bullshit they are going to lose potential subscribers..
And,have a frustrated audience!
I mentioned last week about the stoping,and staring vid problems..It worst this week!

Here's Hoping!
Got my fingers crossed! :)

*******
The Sammy Cam today,and like most of the shows, is like a Cam with Tourrett's Syndrome!!
Where did ya guys get your training at? Radio Shack??

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

upwards and onwards!

my bookshelves in the comp room here for shell.

http://www3.telus.net/Art-Adventures/Bookshelves/

Where is he? This is humorless.

word up!

had to wait for mike to show up with a digital flash camera to take em.

pix of my other bookshelves later.

"They're doing it with Hillary now. Rove and Bush have publically said that Hillary is the one, like it's a done deal. They know Hillary can be defeated easier than Edwards or even Obama. So they're rallying their energy around Hillary hoping to draw all of us in to supporting her. It's pretty shrewd. But it's happening.

- Jayson (progressive spirit)"

---

I think that's correct.

It's ridiculous that the presidential race is already in full swing, but here we are. I'd say the smartest thing to do would be for the left to pick between Obama and Edwards, the sooner the better, and stick with him. Otherwise, Hillary will be the one. This is from a purely strategic standpoint; I don't even know if I'll be voting at all. But I do find strategy games interesting.

the whole old country got shots for cholera!!

been busy as a B lately.

no blog time aside from reading all the posts

Lucille, I'm just still ticked at not being able to record the show. My bad SJ.

one of those few accidental moments of honesty from this man...Every president takes the office on a high and yet within a week their body language changes, their mood changes...They learn something in that week that changes them.

Bush quietly advising Hillary Clinton, top Democrats

President Bush is quietly providing back-channel advice to Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging her to modulate her rhetoric so she can effectively prosecute the war in Iraq if elected president.

In an interview for the new book “The Evangelical President,” White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said Bush has “been urging candidates: ‘Don’t get yourself too locked in where you stand right now. If you end up sitting where I sit, things could change dramatically.’ ”

In marital disputes, silence isn't golden

Study finds that wives who don't express themselves increase risk of illness.

Married women who keep silent during marital disputes have a greater chance of dying from heart disease and other conditions than women who speak their minds, new research shows.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-marriage24sep24,1,5822596.s...

Get a phone with a headset.

get cholera in there.

bad Crooks and Liars chose this event to introduce people to Sam and Marc's show. What I actually heard was great but the technical difficulties made it very very frustrating. Mostly I would hear some great lead up only for everything to freeze up and not come back for three or four minutes on a new topic.

Jim Earl

Link-Lawton Smalls :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Lawsuit: Scholar Kept From US Over Views

BOSTON (AP) -- A well-known South African scholar and political commentator is being kept out of the United States because he has been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq and the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the American Civil Liberties Union charged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, the ACLU said the U.S. government's decision to revoke the visa of Adam Habib last year has forced him to turn down invitations to speak to various political organizations, violating the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens who were prevented from hearing his views.

Habib, a Muslim, is currently deputy vice-chancellor of Research, Innovation and Advancement at the University of Johannesburg.

He said in an interview last year that he was held for several hours after he arrived in New York City in October to attend a series of meetings with organizations such as the World Bank. Habib said he was questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials about his political views and was asked whether he belonged to or supported any terrorist organizations.

just makin brekkers, catching a summer cold, doing some metalwork on mikes 442.

if you're too poor...We have standards ya know...

Supreme Court to Hear Voter ID Case

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether voter identification laws unfairly deter poor and minority Americans from voting, stepping into a contentious partisan issue in advance of the 2008 elections.

The justices will hear arguments early next year in a challenge to an Indiana law that requires voters to present photo ID before casting their ballots. The state has defended the law as a way to combat voter fraud.

The state Democratic party and civil rights groups complained that the law unfairly targets poor and minority voters, without any evidence that in-person voter fraud exists in Indiana.

Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona and Michigan, but struck down Missouri's. In June, the Georgia Supreme Court threw out a challenge to that state's voter ID law but sidestepped a decision on whether the requirement was constitutional.

O'Reilly told CNN that Harlem restaurant comments were "hatchet job by Media Matters"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200709250002

During the September 24 edition of CNN's Out in the Open, host Rick Sanchez and CNN contributor Roland Martin discussed Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's statement during the September 19 edition of his radio program -- which Media Matters for America documented -- that he was surprised there was "no difference" between Sylvia's restaurant in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan and other New York restaurants, even though Sylvia's is "run by blacks." Sanchez reported that during an "animated" phone conversation, O'Reilly denied any "racial intent" in his comments and described the story as "a hatchet job by Media Matters."

that hillary will be the candidate and then the president is being shoved at us like water thru a fire hose. but there is hope. cracks in the foundation are appearing:

- she was for moveon before she was against move on
- she was against the war (last week) before she was for the war (this week when she said she couldn't commit to bringing the troops home because she didn't know what hand she would be dealt with)
- she's not even the candidate and she is blaming her failed presidency on bush.
- she was for lobbyists before she was against them unless they were with somebody who was giving her money like the insurance industry.
- the list of contradictions goes on and on but the bottom line is she's sounding more and more like a weasely politician than a vision for the future.

i contend that she will peak too soon and then we will have a real presidential contest on ideas and not soundbites.

Putin shuffles Russian cabinet. Some ministers out, others keep their jobs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7012042.stm

in his story about GHWB's Kennebunkport pool boy. Funny in a tragic kind of way. Check it out:

http://cliffschecter.bravenewfilms.org/blog/13801-bush-41-s-pool-boy-if-...

Sorry to hear about your summer cold SJ. I hate those things. I had one six weeks ago. Is that model plane on the wall a flyer or just a looker? Its nice either way.

...all of the above posts, which you "reposted", especially: (by MMRules)
The Sammy Cam today,and like most of the shows, is like a Cam with Tourrett's Syndrome!!
Where did ya guys get your training at? Radio Shack??

(giggle, LOL, giggle) ;)

thank you for pointing that out...giggling on fox like a high school girl.....

Hackers break into Homeland Security computers. Department is in charge of computer security for the rest of the government.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/24/homelandsecurity.computers/index.html

MMRules - Sorry it took me awhile to get back to you - I am IMac.

White House upset over copy of Bush speech posted to U.N. website

Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson reports. The draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.

Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic spellings are used to help interpreters. Asked if the president has trouble pronouncing some country's names, Perino deemed it "an offensive question."

"There was an error made," Perino said, noting it was not a final draft.

Update at 12:46 p.m. ET: Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy says he has a copy of the speech that got the White House so worked up this morning. Here are some of the phonetic guides it included, according to the magazine's blog:

• Kyrgyzstan (KEYR-geez-stan)
• Mauritania (moor-EH-tain-ee-a)
• Harare (hah-RAR-ray)
• Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee)
• Sarkozy (sar-KO-zee)
• Caracas (kah-RAH-kus)

The Myth of AQI

Fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq is the last big argument for keeping U.S. troops in the country. But the military's estimation of the threat is alarmingly wrong.
By Andrew Tilghman

http://www2.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0710.tilghman.html

The evil Hashishin infiltrated the courts of kings from Spain to China. Sleeper cells dormant for 15, 20 years would get the signal and attack. No one is safe.

Same boogieman bullshit for a thousand years.

won the Pacific Northwest Regionals for Scale a few years back and is fully aerobatic. i fly control line mostly and not much radio control.

60th Street love the photo. I put that up in mybreak room @ where I work. Some of the Right Wingers there immediately took it down.

• Kyrgyzstan (KEYR-geez-stan)
• Mauritania (moor-EH-tain-ee-a)
• Harare (hah-RAR-ray)
• Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee)
• Sarkozy (sar-KO-zee)
• Caracas (kah-RAH-kus)
-------------------------
• President Bush (GOO-ber)

there is a popping speech by webb, just heads up!!

if the foo shits wear it or something like that.

Clinton may not go out of her way to offend the MoveOn types, on her TV rounds on Sunday she made it obvious that she’s not singing their tune.

On “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” Clinton could have vowed to vacate Iraq. Instead, she delivered hawkish mini-speeches that few Republicans would object to. She listed a series of threats and interests in the region and made it clear that she’d be willing to keep U.S. troops there to handle them.

The fact is, many Democratic politicians privately detest the netroots’ self-righteousness and bullying. They also know their party has a historic opportunity to pick up disaffected Republicans and moderates, so long as they don’t blow it by drifting into cuckoo land. They also know that a Democratic president is going to face challenges from Iran and elsewhere that are going to require hard-line, hawkish responses.

Finally, these Democrats understand their victory formula is not brain surgery. You have to be moderate on social issues, activist but not statist on domestic issues and hawkish on foreign policy. This time they’re not going to self-destructively deviate from that.

Is Hillary really taking advice from that MORON. Its a joke right????????

I sit near an avid control line flyer. Claims to have held the world title in it. I never knew that kind of thing existed. He's a really smart old fart.

Sept. 25, 2007 -- Bush threatens veto of S-CHIP funding increase to cover up massive Medicare/Medicaid fraud

Congressional sources have told WMR that President Bush's threatened veto of a Democratic congressional bill to increase funding for the S-CHIP -- State Children’s Health Insurance Program -- which provides federal funds for medical care for millions of uninsured children whose parents cannot afford skyrocketing medical insurance costs is due to massive fraud in Medicare/Medicaid carried out by the insurance and medical industry. In many cases, the corporate insurers and health care providers that have defrauded Medicare/Medicaid have given generously to Republican political campaigns.

The Bush administration, unwilling to prosecute insurance and medical providers for the Medicare/Medicaid fraud -- estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars -- is, instead, seeking to offset the fraud by cutting money for S-CHIP and other federal health programs.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Allowing Iran to acquire nuclear weapons could destabilize the world and lead to war, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the United Nations on Tuesday.
(Advertisement)

In his maiden speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Sarkozy said: "There will be no peace in the world if the international community falters in the face of nuclear arms proliferation."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070925/tpl-uk-un-assembly-france-19346ad...

Commissioner !!

**Take Action !!**
This Wednesday, September 26th, the Senate Rules committee will begin debate on the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to join the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as a permanent member of that six-person commission. The FEC is charged with oversight of all provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which governs all aspects of financing federal elections.

Regrettably, von Spakovsky has shown such blatant political bias and inappropriate behavior in his previous work at the Department of Justice that there is simply no way the Senate should confirm him.

Von Spakovsky's tenure at the Department of Justice was so bad that six former career professionals at DOJ have written a letter to Senate leaders opposing his nomination to the FEC. Just a few of their reasons for opposing von Spakovsky include:
Con't- and,Please sign the Petition!

Don't bitch about it tomorrow when it might be too late....Please sign Petition! Thanks!

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

I have always known that the MORON in chief was & still is an IDIOT.

"Ever respectful, Razsa kept his politics to himself and enjoyed the lemonade. It was the young girl who turned to him and held forth: "Just because we're related to them, doesn't mean we vote for them or believe in what they do.""

Some Bush cousins are friends of our family...There's not much love lost here either...

Sept. 25, 2007 -- Congressional committee inquired about CIA mail monitoring of Oswald

WMR has obtained a letter, dated June 7, 1976, from New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug to then-CIA Director George Bush asking him for files concerning the CIA's monitoring of Lee Harvey Oswald's mail to and from the USSR before and after Oswald renounced his U.S. citizenship in Moscow on October 31, 1959.

Abzug was the Chairwoman of the House Government Information and Individual Rights Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations. Abzug posed several questions about the CIA's 1953-1973 mail intercept program but was particularly interested in the agency's intercepts of Oswald's mail.

Abzug's questions were:

"Was Lee Harvey Oswald (or aliases) on any US-USSR mail intercept watchlist, or any other watchlist, either before or after he renounced his U.S. citizenship before consular officials at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, on October 31, 1959?

How many envelopes to or from Lee Harvey Oswald (or aliases) were photographed or copied, how many letters to or from Lee Harvey Oswald (or aliases) were photographed or copied, and what was the date of each interception?"

Abzug further requested "that copies of all envelopes and letters photographed or copied involving Lee Harvey Oswald (or aliases), as well as any memoranda, messages, index entries, documents and other records relating to mail intercept or mail cover operations involving Lee Harvey Oswald (or aliases), be promptly supplied to this Subcommittee."

CIA files also contained an August 1973 article in Penthouse titled "The Oswald-FBI Cover-UP," by George O'Toole. The article concerned the release on June 6, 1974 of a formerly Top Secret document from the National Archives. It was the minutes of a Warren Commission meeting held on January 27, 1964. Although the Warren Commission concluded Oswald was the lone assassin, the meeting on January 27 discussed a phone call to the Commission from Waggoner Carr, the Attorney General of Texas. Waggoner informed the Commission that Oswald was recruited by the FBI as an informant in September 1962 at a salary of $200 a month. Furthermore, Oswald was assigned FBI informer number S-179 and remained an informer until his arrest after President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas.

Carr told the Commission that his source on Oswald's status was Henry Wade, the District Attorney of Dallas. Wade also had some other startling information for the Commission: Oswald had also been a CIA informant and was assigned the number 11069 by the CIA. On January 27, 1964, the Commission's General Counsel, J. Lee Rankin, informed the Commission that the Secret Service provided him the same information about Oswald and the FBI the day before Waggoner's phone call to Rankin. One Commission member was not present on January 27 to hear the startling revelations: Gerald R. Ford. Ford appointed George H. W. Bush as CIA Director in 1976.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20070925_1

I'm glad you got an account. Really glad you are blogging too.

House speaker's intern attacked and beaten

WASHINGTON, 24 (UPI) -- Police in Washington are investigating an attack on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s intern that is believed to be a hate crime.

WTOP radio reported that the young man was attacked after leaving a nightclub early Sunday morning.

Police said the attacker used a derogatory term describing homosexuals before beating the man and sending him to the hospital, where he was treated and released.

"This has got to be a city where intolerance is not tolerated," said Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty of the attack. "You never want to think, especially in the nation's capital, that somebody could be targeted for a crime based on their sexual preference, their race, their age, anything."

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/09/24/house_speakers_intern_a...

Just signed it.

Webb: Lieberman And Kyl’s Hawkish Iran Amendment Is ‘Cheney’s Fondest Pipe Dream’

On the Senate floor today, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made an impassioned appeal to his fellow senators, declaring that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on Iran should be “withdrawn” because the “proposal is Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream.” Webb cautioned that the “cleverly-worded sense of the Congress” could be “interpreted” to “declare war” on Iran. He continued:

Those who regret their vote five years ago to authorize military action in Iraq should think hard before supporting this approach. Because, in my view, it has the same potential to do harm where many are seeking to do good.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/webb-kyl-lieb-iran/

Its good to have friends already on this site. Thanks for having me.

Has anyone seen the short movie "2 Men In Dallas"? Pretty interesting.

The rise of white racists and neo-Nazis over the Jena 6 case. These neo-confederates are totally enmeshed in the Bush administration.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-jena25_websep25,0,447...

so why would i want to watch his torturing speech at the UN?

Bush administration lobbied against fuel efficiency legislation in California. Another indication that the Bush regime is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the oil and auto industries.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070924/NEWS03/70924039...

MMRules - Sorry it took me
Submitted by smcgee43 on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 1:36pm.
MMRules - Sorry it took me awhile to get back to you - I am IMac.
-------
Like Fernando said,"Good to see ya up,and blogging"! :)
And,Have fun! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Germany breaks with US and France on Iran sanctions. Berlin cites hypcrisy of Bush and Sarkozy stands.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,507443,00.html

The Center Holds

"The fact is, many Democratic politicians privately detest the netroots’ self-righteousness and bullying."

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 1:49pm.

Puerile punditry from the bitter old intellectual elite.

The mainstream opinion makers are angry about their loss of influence to the blogosphere. ha ha.

Macedonia and Greece continue to argue over Macedonia's name. Disagreement spills into the United Nations.

http://www.mrt.com.mk/en//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3662...

Speaking of JFK & Oswald
Submitted by smcgee43 on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 1:58pm.
Has anyone seen the short movie "2 Men In Dallas"? Pretty interesting
*******

Now to the Conspiracy Page! Ohhhh

*******

O Goody ! Another JFK Assssination Nut ! :)
new
Submitted by MMRules on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 2:37pm.
I love this!
new
Submitted by smcgee43 on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 2:20pm.
"2 Men in Dallas" I saw on You Tube. Also if you google JFK Jr. murder you get some interesting sites & reads
*******
I'd post "2 Men in Dallas"here,but there's about 7,or 8 parts.
I wish YouTube could/would put everyting in 1 video!
O'well here's to hopng..

Feel free to add anything ya want here! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

thats whats up!!!

Yes it is good. It makes ya tink. I have never thought Oswald was the lone gunman anyways. I don't even think it was he who pulled the trigger.

Catharine. More and more, people I speak with talk about Iranians in ways that appear sub human to me. That is unacceptable. They are real people with an impressive culture that did a lot to introduce the west to what civilization is. I believe they are one of the reasons for having the tools to go into the renaissance even.

The media has done the perception of who those people are a huge injustice in my opinion.

can war be too far behind? i suppose its about time for an incubator story or maybe one where they are building weapons in a milk factory.

10/17?

The commander of US military forces in the Middle East does not believe current tensions with Iran will lead to war and urges for greater emphasis on dialogue and diplomacy.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070027057

Even Shuster has the Fuppers on today.

Consumers face record winter heating costs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumers are expected to pay record prices for heating oil, electricity and propane to warm their homes this winter, and low-income families will need government help to cover those bills, government energy officials said on Tuesday.

Heating fuel expenses this winter will be highest for heating oil, with the average family paying $1,834 for the season, up 28 percent or $402 from last year, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association.

The group expects propane costs to average $1,732, up 30 percent or $384. Consumers that rely on electricity for heat will pay $883 this winter, up 7 percent or $58.

Natural gas expenses will be the cheapest of the major heating fuels, averaging $881, up 5 percent or $50, the group said.

as in someone who actively eff's something up or is it more nuanced?

Sam last night? There was an interesting discussion about how we all said what a surprise, to do IRAN such a favor invading IRAQ. The guest said Cheney never expects the Iranian government to survive our attack.

That's really creepy, even just writing it.

and in other news, energy execs announced they will be taking home record breaking bonuses after personally toiling at digging new wells...

More Stuff That Can't be Happening in Iraq

Submitted by Anonymous[ly Skirt Gurl] on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 11:44am.

You gotta start takin' up da Mutt's ol' trick of not postin' the links to your stuff.

Kinda detracts from the purpose when the reader sees from whence the horseshit came, eh?

mnf-iraq.com -- The official neocon propaganda website for Multi-National Force-Iraq.

And,

blogsforbush.com

Methinks you should stick to posting mAnn Coultergiest's drivel here. At least THAT has entertainment value.

I know, I know...it's a buck a post, eh? Guy's gotta make a livin'.

Thanks for the pics, SJ!! I will study em... :)

Sorry, I coined my own word for f'd up freeper. Thus Fuppers!

SCOTUS To Hear Challenge To Voter ID Laws
By Eric Kleefeld - September 25, 2007, 11:51AM

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments next year arguing the constitutionality of Voter ID laws, which require voters to show a photo identification at the polls. Interestingly enough, the challenge that the court will now be hearing comes not from the South, where many of these laws have been enacted (and challenged), but from Indiana.

The Indiana Democratic Party is challenging the law, arguing that it has an intentionally disproportionate effect on minority voters, many of whom tend to be poor and lack photo identification, and who vote heavily Democratic.

The Supreme Court will hear the case some time early next year, and should issue a decision around June — just in time for the 2008 election.

How long does it take to build a fireplace???

16-20 man hours abouts.

np. deliciously redundant.

i saw that. some real forward looking independent thinking going on over there. one could almost say visionary.

From the awful examiner and Bill Sammon, the tool who lobbed bush the MoveOn softball at the presser last week. Check this out. Bill Sammon's books

Examiner is also in the middle of a huge 5 part article, each part 2 full page spreads, vilifying trial lawyers.

BTW, the Examiner is a free daily paper in SF and DC and has no relation to the old Hearst Monarch of the Dailies after it was sold.

i thought igloos held the heat in.

Bush urges U.N. to spread freedom By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 25, 11:09 AM ET

President Bush announced new sanctions Tuesday against the military dictatorship in Myanmar, accusing it of imposing "a 19-year reign of fear" that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship.

"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma," the president said in an address to the U.N. General Assembly. Now called Myanmar, the Asian country also is known as Burma.

Bush also urged other nations to support the struggle for democracy in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon.

"The people of Lebanon and Afghanistan and Iraq have asked for our help, and every civilized nation has a responsibility to stand with them," Bush said.

"Every civilized nation also has a responsibility to stand up for the people suffering under dictatorship," the president said. "In Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Iran, brutal regimes deny their people the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration" of the United Nations.

While the war in Iraq continues, Bush made scant mention of it. Similarly, he barely mentioned Iran, a nation the United States accuses of terrorism, pursuit of a nuclear weapon and assistance for insurgents who are killing U.S. troops in Iraq.

Instead, Bush focused his remarks elsewhere, challenging the U.N. to uphold its pledge to fight for freedom in lands of poverty and terror.

"The nations in this chamber have our differences, yet there are some areas where we can all agree," Bush said. "When innocent people are trapped in a life of murder and fear, the declaration is not being upheld. When millions of children starve to death or perish from a mosquito bite, we're not doing our duty in the world. When whole societies are cut off from the prosperity of the global economy, we're all worse off."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070925/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_36&printer=1;_yl...

Everywhere but here :(

Groovy Dancing Girl
Submitted by air-ono on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:01pm

Merry was indeed merry.

Google J.F.K. Jr. Murder if you want some good reading. Interesting sites about that as well.

White House prepares ‘phonetic guide’ for Bush.

As President Bush spoke to the United Nation’s General Assembly this morning, “a marked-up draft of the president’s speech popped up on the U.N.’s website” that included “phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino got annoyed when a reporter asked “if the president has trouble pronouncing some country’s names,” calling it an “offensive question” before saying, “it was taken down and there’s nothing more to say about it.” Blake Hounshell has some of the phonetic guides over at Foreign Policy:

• Kyrgyzstan [KEYR-geez-stan]
• Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a]
• Harare [hah-RAR-ray]
• Mugabe [moo-GAH-bee]
• Sarkozy [sar-KO-zee]
• Caracas [kah-RAH-kus]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/white-house-prepares-phonetic-guide-...

White House prepares ‘phonetic guide’ for Bush. As President Bush spoke to the United Nation’s General Assembly this morning, “a marked-up draft of the president’s speech popped up on the U.N.’s website” that included “phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino got annoyed when a reporter asked “if the president has trouble pronouncing some country’s names,” calling it an “offensive question” before saying, “it was taken down and there’s nothing more to say about it.” Blake Hounshell has some of the phonetic guides over at Foreign Policy:

• Kyrgyzstan [KEYR-geez-stan]
• Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a]
• Harare [hah-RAR-ray]
• Mugabe [moo-GAH-bee]
• Sarkozy [sar-KO-zee]
• Caracas [kah-RAH-kus]

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/6408

Webb: Lieberman And Kyl’s Hawkish Iran Amendment Is ‘Cheney’s Fondest Pipe Dream’
On the Senate floor today, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made an impassioned appeal to his fellow senators, declaring that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on Iran should be “withdrawn” because the “proposal is Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream.” Webb cautioned that the “cleverly-worded sense of the Congress” could be “interpreted” to “declare war” on Iran. He continued:

Those who regret their vote five years ago to authorize military action in Iraq should think hard before supporting this approach. Because, in my view, it has the same potential to do harm where many are seeking to do good.

“At best, it’s a deliberate attempt to divert attention from a failed diplomatic policy,” said Webb. “At worst, it could be read as a backdoor method of gaining Congressional validation for military action, without one hearing and without serious debate.” Watch it:

Webb said that amendment’s attempt to categorize the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp as “a foreign terrorist organization” would, for all practical purposes, “mandate” the military option against Iran. “It could be read as tantamount to a declaration of war. What do we do with terrorist organizations? If they are involved against us, we attack them.”

He also slammed the lack of debate and examination that was accompanying the amendment, saying “this is not the way to make foreign policy”:

We haven’t had one hearing on this. I’m on the Foreign Relations Committee, I’m on the Armed Services Committee. We are about to vote on something that may fundamentally change the way the United States views the Iranian military and we haven’t had one hearing. This is not the way to make foreign policy. It’s not the way to declare war.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/webb-kyl-lieb-iran/

Wanna laugh?

Lieberman-Kyl Amendment Seeks To Escalate Possibility Of Military Action Against Iran
Today, the Senate is expected to vote on an “extremely threatening” amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). The “sense of the Senate” amendment could “lead to a tit-for-tat escalation resulting in military confrontation between the US and Iran.”

The legislation accuses Iran of fighting “a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq” and threatens to “combat, contain and [stop]” Iran. The right wing has quickly latched onto the amendment, claiming it “unflinchingly…calls on America to win” against Iran.

Appearing on Fox News today, Kyl attempted to downplay the legislation’s implications, claiming “this is not intended to be an authorization of military force against Iran.” Watch it:

In reality, the amendment is a clear call for military action against alleged Iranian agents inside Iraq. From the text of the legislation:

(3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and [stop] the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies;

(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies.

As Jonathan Schwarz noted, the amendment is a “Sense of the Senate” resolution, “which means it has no legal force, but as the Congressional Research Service will tell you, ‘foreign governments pay close attention to [such resolutions] as evidence of shifts in U.S. foreign policy priorities.’”

Analysts are warning that “the growing US focus on confronting Iran in a proxy war inside Iraq risks triggering a direct conflict in the next few months.” Kyl said his legislation would “pass rather handily.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/kyl-iran-fox/

UPDATE: TPMtv today looks at how the Lieberman-Kyl amendment is similar to the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, which officially put the U.S. on record as supporting regime change in Iraq.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/054151.php

Finally got around to checking me public email...

Gotcha.

Anti-Bush Protesters Arrested Near UN

NEW YORK (AP) -- About a dozen anti-war protesters were arrested Tuesday morning during a peaceful demonstration of President Bush's speech before the U.N. General Assembly.

The arrestees were among about 400 protesters opposing the Bush Administration's war in Iraq, and its incarceration in Guantanamo Bay of more than 300 men on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. Many in the crowd wore orange jumpsuits in solidarity with the Guantanamo detainees.

The arrested demonstrators were taken into custody by police after kneeling on the sidewalk in an act of civil disobedience at the rally near the United Nations. One of them, 58-year-old Bill Ofenloch said they were trying to serve an "arrest warrant" on Bush for "high crimes against humanity."

Members of the anti-war group Code Pink performed a bit of street theater where a person wearing a Bush mask was arrested.

15 MMRules Says: Yooo Hooo!!

Marc & The Sammer !!
Ya gotta Love It!!

Now if they can Just get some IT guys that weren’t trained at Radio Shack it would be Awesome!!

AAR can Kiss My Irish Ass!!

MMRules..

Quote This Comment September 25th, 2007 at 11:49 AM - PDT

Bibimimi,and Fernando too.Oh my.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Working on a response to "they need work"...Having this conversation with a couple people at the moment...

Will probably be sending an email to you in the next couple days...

Author: Bush nominee helped mask FBI's pre-9/11 failures and kept al Qaeda's infiltration of US intelligence from view Peter Lance
Published: Tuesday September 25, 2007

This is the first of two op/ed exposes by Peter Lance, the best-selling author of Triple Cross, which will be released by HarperCollins in a new edition next month.

In the coverage of Michael B. Mukasey, President Bush's nominee to replace Alberto Gonzales, the line in his resume that has resonated the most with the media is his experience presiding over the 1995 terrorism trial of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.

The blind Sheikh, a top al Qaeda confederate who was cited in the infamous Crawford Texas PDB just weeks before 9/11, was convicted with nine others in the so-called "Day of Terror Plot" to blow up New York's bridges and tunnels, the U.N. and the FBI's New York office.

Citing the trial in a Sept. 20 New York Times piece that lionized the ex-judge, reporter Adam Liptak described how Mukasey, with "a few terse, stern and prescient remarks," sentenced the blind sheik to life in prison:

"Judge Mukasey said he feared the plot could have produced devastation on 'a scale unknown in this country since the Civil War' that would make the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which had left six people dead, 'almost insignificant by comparison.'"

Liptak was correct in citing the 1993 Twin Towers bombing in his story, but he failed to mention that the "Day of Terror" trial was really a desperate attempt by the FBI's New York office and prosecutors for the Southern District of New York (Mukasey's old office) to mop up after their failure to stop the blind Sheikh's "jihad army" prior to its first two attacks on U.S. soil: the murder of Rabbi Meier Kahane in 1990 and the Trade Center bombing on Feb. 26, 1993.

Worse, during the 1995 trial, Judge Mukasey helped bury the significance of Ali A, Mohamed, a shadowy figure who was working at the time for both Osama bin Laden and the FBI.

If Mohamed had been called to the stand and cross-examined in open court, defense lawyers could have ripped open the scandal of how the FBI failed to stop the first Trade Center attack. More important, they could have exposed the depth and breadth of al Qaeda's shocking plan to attack America, six years before 9/11.

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Author_Bush_nominee_helped_mask_FBIs_0925...

gotta go to work - blog ya all later.

Australia pushes further Web censorship

A bill introduced this week by Australia's Parliament would give the Australian federal police the power to control which sites can and cannot be viewed by Australian Web surfers.

Jesus Christ, Andrew Sullivan's prattling delusions know no fucking bounds.

Queen Hillary, Empress of Mesopotamia

Amazing how Bush Admin. apologists, supporters and soft-porn conservatives like Sullivan are falling over themselves to portray Clinton as the new Bush.

So, the inept strategy is now to play to the Liberal base and play Clinton up as too conservative and hawkish for us? Do they actually think, when it comes down to Nov. 08, we won't vote for whoever opposes the Republican ticket?

Yes, the Hillary Clinton presidency is going to cement Bush in history as having been right all along. She's going to plant a big bloody flag in the Middle East, make sweetheart deals with the Saudis, let a Republican crony-tastic infrastructure run amok, and work with Big Oil to rape the American public and squeeze out every last oil dollar from Iraq instead of moving us toward energy independence.

Leave it up to a bunch of white conservative males to think the first Democratic woman president is going to follow the lead of George Jr!

Kyrgyzstan [KEYR-geez-stan]
• Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a]
• Harare [hah-RAR-ray]
• Mugabe [moo-GAH-bee]
• Sarkozy [sar-KO-zee]
• Caracas [kah-RAH-kus

PBS: Weapons of US soldiers in Iraq 'plagued with problems'
David Edwards and Greg Wasserstrom
Published: Monday September 24, 2007

The M-16, the choice rifle of the United States Armed Forces, turns 50 years old this month and is still plagued by many of the same problems it had half a century ago, putting American troops in Iraq at a severe disadvantage when it comes to small arms combat, the PBS program Newshour reported tonight.

"That AK-74 outhits the M-16 by two to one on full automatic," said Jim Sullivan, referring to the Russian-made assault rifle, now in its third generation. "And the reason there were 100 million AK's made wasn't to equip the Russian army - it was to give [to] our Third World opponents. The United States can't win ground wars anymore."

The M-16 and its successor, the shorter M4, are known for their finickiness, jamming in even the most innocuous conditions. In combat, the unreliability of the rifle can be deadly.

Regarding his son currently serving in Iraq, Sullivan said, "He should have an AK."

The following video is from PBS's Newshour, broadcast on September 24.

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/PBS_Guns_of_US_Soldiers_in_0924.html

Congress Denounces Iranian President

By ANNE FLAHERTY – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress signaled its disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government and a call to designate his Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group.

The swift rebuke was a rare display of bipartisan cooperation in a Congress bitterly divided on the Iraq war. It reflected lawmakers' long-standing nervousness about Tehran's intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel — a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.

"Iran faces a choice between a very big carrot and a very sharp stick," said Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "It is my hope that they will take the carrot. But today, we are putting the stick in place."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVp6OcsznLJpeFv8SenE_EhxIpmg

Hey everyone! Violence is waaaaaay down today! Woohoo!

~-~-~

DeKalb man killed in suicide bombing in Iraq

Task Force Lightning Soldiers attacked, one killed

Two car bombs kill 6 people in eastern Baghdad

Head of Hawija City Council wounded by suicide bomber

Suicide bomber wounds police officer and 9 others in Mosul

Roadside bomb wounds 7 people in central Baghdad

Roadside bomb kills 2 people in Kirkuk, body found

Three Iraqis Killed in Suicide Car Bombing in Basra

Iraq car bombs kill nine after 28 die in mosque blast

3,800

9-2007: US 58 UK 2 Other 1 Total 61 Avg/Day 2.44 Days 25

Giuliani spokesperson calls event unfortunate; stronger response called for.

http://wizbangblog.com/content/2007/09/25/bad-idea-rudy.php

Al Qaeda's master spy

An ex-Egyptian Army intelligence officer, Mohamed succeeded in infiltrating the CIA in 1984, the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg from 1987-89 and the FBI itself -- where he served as an informant on the West Coast from 1992.

Known to his jihadi brothers as "Ali Amiriki," aka "Ali the American," Mohamed not only moved bin Laden and his entourage from Afghanistan to the Sudan in 1991 but he set up most of al Qaeda's training camps in Khartoum, trained Osama's personal bodyguard, and literally wrote the "manual on terror."

Mohamed actually slipped Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri -- bin Laden's number two -- into the US on a fund raising tour of US mosques in the early 1990s.

This feat of deception was roughly the equivalent of a German spy smuggling Heinrich Himmler, the head of Hitler's dreaded S.S., into America at the dawn of World War II to raise deutschmarks on a tour of German-American churches.

All of this is chronicled in my book Triple Cross, due out in an updated edition from HarperCollins next month. The book flings the door open on a closet in Judge Mukasey's past -- a dark little room where one enormous skeleton lives.

It's the story of how New York prosecutors Andrew McCarthy and Patrick Fitzgerald (later CIA leak Special Prosecutor) went out of their way to keep Ali Mohamed out of the "Day of Terror" trial.

Why would they do that? Because Mohamed had penetrated three of the Big Five intelligence agencies, and defense attorneys like Roger L. Stavis believe that once he was on the stand, under oath, the truth would have come out.

"In Ali Mohamed," says Stavis, "You have a man that's working for us and being paid by us at the same time as he's working for Osama bin Laden who is the greatest enemy that this country has had since 1941. We had him, and he played us... The last thing federal prosecutors wanted back in 1995 was to have that story exposed."

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Author_Bush_nominee_helped_mask_FBIs_0925...

congress is getting on my nerves...

Submitted by Lucille on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 3:23pm.

Congress Denounces Iranian President

By ANNE FLAHERTY – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress signaled its disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government and a call to designate his Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group.

Bush nominee helped mask FBI's pre-9/11 failures

Training the "jihad army"

At the time, the Feds were in possession of shocking evidence that Mohamed had trained two of the very members of the "jihad army" sitting in front of Judge Mukasey's bench: El Sayyid Nosair, the pill-popping Egyptian emigre who'd murdered Kahane four years earlier, and Clement Rodney Hampton-El, a U.S. Muslim and Afghan war veteran known as "Dr. Rashid."

Worse, as we'll see, the FBI had those two terrorists under surveillance from as early as 1989, when they'd also begun tracking additional Ali Mohamed trainees: Mahmoud Abouhalima, a six foot two inch red-headed Egyptian cab driver, Mohammed Salameh, a diminutive Palestinian, and Nidal Ayyad, a Kuwaiti Rutgers grad, all three of them later convicted in the WTC bombing.

So the potential for "blowback" and embarrassment to the Feds was enormous -- holding open the potential of derailing the "Day of Terror" prosecution itself.

And if those revelations weren't enough to inspire federal prosecutors to hide their "informant," Mohamed -- who'd been captured in 1993 by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police trying to smuggle an al Qaeda terrorist into the US -- was later released on the word of an FBI agent. Once set loose, he began to plan the devastating East African Embassy bombings executed in 1998.

After getting sprung from the Mounties on the word of Special Agent John Zent, Mohamed traveled to Kenya where he took the surveillance pictures of the US Embassy that Osama bin Laden personally approved in 1994, pinpointing the precise spot where a truck bomb would detonate four years later, killing 212.

Mohamed himself would later run the Kenyan bombing cell while he commuted back and forth to the US, all the while keeping in touch with New York prosecutors and FBI agents on both coasts.

In December, 1994, as he was setting up the Embassy bombing cell, Mohamed was summoned back to his home in Santa Clara, California for a meeting with Andy McCarthy and FBI agent Harlan Bell. The Feds had deemed him so important to the upcoming trial that he'd been named as an un-indicted co-conspirator along with bin Laden himself.

At the time, Roger L. Stavis, Nosair's attorney, was prepping a subpoena to compel Ali's testimony. "I wanted him," Stavis told me for Triple Cross, "and I tried everything to find him."

Jack Cloonan, the ex-FBI agent who later debriefed Mohamed after his 1998 arrest, noted that "If Ali would have been put on [the stand] at that point in time, [he] would have been viewed as an agent provocateur... Maybe there would have been an issue of entrapment raised. It wouldn't have helped the Government's case... That subpoena became "a huge, huge issue for Ali" as well.

Stavis was prepared to argue that the Feds had been winking at Mohamed for years as he trained the Sheikh's "army" to wreak havoc for the Jihad in New York City. But after McCarthy's Santa Clara sit down with him, Ali mysteriously went missing.

Later, Ibrahim El-Gabrowny, Nosair's cousin and a "Day of Terror" co-defendant, argued in an appeal that Ali had told him to his face that the Feds had urged him to duck the subpoena.

McCarthy denies this, but he stayed in touch with Mohamed after their Santa Clara meeting and Ali never showed up at trial.

Mukasey jokes about "the missing witness"

In the course of the proceedings, unable to produce the phantom spy, Stavis had shown a videotape of Ali shot at Fort Bragg, in which he was literally training top Green Beret officers.

While an active duty U.S. Army sergeant, Mohamed had been commuting on weekends up from North Carolina to New York, where he schooled Nosair, Hampton-El, Abouhalima, Salameh and Ayyad in small arms and automatic weapons training.

Before leaving Fort Bragg, Ali would rifle the files at the JFK Special Warfare Center, stealing intelligence to pass on to his al Qaeda "brothers" in New York, including top secret memos from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He would stay at Nosair's house in Cliffside Park, N.J., where FBI agents later recovered the highly secure documents the night of the Kahane murder.

One memo, which can be downloaded from my website, even contained the positions of all Special Forces and Navy SEAL units worldwide on Dec. 5, 1988 -- a nugget of intel that the Soviets would have paid a fortune for at the height of the Cold War.

As I noted in Triple Cross:

El Sayyid Nosair's attorney Roger Stavis was doing his best to keep Mohamed's presence alive in the "Day of Terror" case. On Sept. 1, 1995, an exasperated Stavis requested a "missing witness instruction [to the jury] with regard to Ali Mohamed."

He reminded Judge Michael B. Mukasey that "Mohamed, was the person who came from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, who was assigned to the United States Army Special Forces."

At that point the judge quipped, "Yes, we saw him on that splendid videotape." But Stavis countered, "When we attempted to find Ali Mohamed, we could not bring him in."

Yet Mohamed was in the country during much of the eight-month trial. According to an affidavit filed by the FBI after his 1998 arrest, Mohamed had two meetings with DIS investigators in August 1995 and one on November 8th. In each instance he was home in Santa Clara.
Under federal law, a trial judge has the discretion to give a missing witness instruction "if a party has it peculiarly within his power to produce witnesses whose testimony would elucidate the transaction."

If such a person does not appear and one of the parties -- the Feds in this case -- has some special ability to produce him, the law permits the jury to draw an inference, namely that the missing witness would have given testimony damaging to that party.

Ali Mohamed was an un-indicted co-conspirator. Judge Mukasey was aware of his infiltration of the US Army at Fort Bragg. Andy McCarthy had visited him in the presence of an FBI agent within months of the trial. So Stavis had every right to expect that jury charge.

Mukasey's response? "I don't think a missing witness charge on that gentleman is warranted and I am not going to give one."

By Oct. 1, 1995, the issue of Mohamed's absence in the trial was rendered moot. Characterized by the New York Times as "the biggest terrorism trial in US history," it ended with guilty verdicts for Sheikh Rahman and the nine remaining co-defendants. AUSAs McCarthy, Fitzgerald, and Robert Khuzami even succeeded in convicting El Sayyid Nosair for the murder of Meier Kahane.

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Author_Bush_nominee_helped_mask_FBIs_0925...

Why does it matter now that Judge Mukasey, touted by the New York Times for his prowess as an anti-terror judge, made light of Ali Mohamed's failure to show at the "Day of Terror" trial? Because if Ali had testified, lawyers like Stavis would have ripped the lid off the years of failure by the FBI to stop bin Laden's juggernaut.

Al Qaeda's capabilities, their bench strength and sheer resolve to strike again at New York might have been exposed years before 9/11, giving other agencies like CIA and DIA a chance to examine the intel being gathered by Bureau agents in this country.

At a minimum, Mohamed's exposure at trial would have blown his cover as a double agent and interdicted his supervision of the Embassy bombing cell. But Judge Mukasey, the man President Bush wants to run the Justice Department, didn't want to tip the jury to the significance of his absence.

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Author_Bush_nominee_helped_mask_FBIs_0925...

* Ahmadinejad Speaks at Columbia Amid Protests, Univ. President Excoriates Iran Leader from Podium *

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University on Monday, ahead of his address before the United Nations. Hundreds gathered to protest for and against the visit. Meanwhile, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger excoriated Ahmadinejad in his introductory remarks.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/25/142240

*

* The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States *

In a speech at Columbia University, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended Iran's right to nuclear power but denied Iran was seeking to build nuclear weapons. Ahmadinejad's appearance sparked widespread protests at Columbia. We speak with Trita Parsi, author of "Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran and the United States" and Baruch professor Ervand Abrahamian, co-author of "Targeting Iran."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/25/142247

Show mp3

This guy on the show today said if the US invaded Iran it would cause the Iranians to group up with Ahmadinejad and he would be able to rally anti US sentiment...then the people who are more liberal have less of a chance to win the elections which come up for them in two years...

.

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Government Moles in 'Terror' Bomb Plot Provided Bomb, Set up Training Camp

Everything about the case of the so-called Toronto 18 is shrouded in mystery. Evidence raised in court, either at bail hearings or the preliminary hearing, is covered by a publication ban. But this hasn't prevented the public from knowing allegations against 14 adults and four juveniles that are so bizarre as to be almost unbelievable.

Please have someone post a downloadable copy of the video or audio. I WILL beg...

DAN RATHER: TASED AND CONFUSED
Published September 24th, 2007 in Articles
The Still-Unreported Story of “Top Gun” George Bush

by Greg Palast

Monday September 24, 2007

New York- Newly unearthed records reveal that, in 2004, when Americans were in the midst of a brutal electoral battle over whether to reelect a president posing as a war hero, a commanding US reporter, Dan Rather, went AWOL.

Just three months before the election, Rather had a story that might have changed the outcome of that razor-close race. We now know that Dan cut a back-room deal to shut his mouth, grab his ankles, and let his network retract a story he knew to be absolutely true.

In September 2004 when Rather cowered, Bush was riding high in the polls. Now, with Bush’s approval ratings are below smallpox, Rather has come out of hiding to shoot at the lame duck. Thanks, Dan.

It began on September 8, 2004, when Rather, on CBS, ran a story that Daddy Bush Senior had, in 1968, put in the fix to get his baby George out of the Vietnam War and into the Texas Air National Guard. Little George then rode out the war defending Houston from Viet Cong attack.

The story is stone-cold solid. I know, because we ran it on BBC Television a year before CBS (see that broadcast here). BBC has never retracted a word of it.

But CBS caved. So did Dan.

That’s according to Rather’s written confession, his law suit, which is as much a shameful set of admissions as it is a legal complaint. In the suit filed Thursday, Rather tells us that Sumner Redstone, CEO of Viacom, owner of CBS, was “enraged that the [Air Guard] Broadcast had hurt CBS in the eyes of the Bush administration.” Viacom then set out to, “divert public attention from the accurate facts reported in the Broadcast concerning President Bush’s service (and lack thereof) in the TexANG during the Vietnam War; and enable CBS and Viacom to curry favor with the White House….”

Redstone roared and Dan, hearing his Dark Lord’s voice, admits he then “refrained from defending” the truths in the Broadcast. Dan shut his mouth, he confesses, in return for 30 pieces of Viacom silver: a promise that “his contract would be extended.”

http://www.gregpalast.com/dan-rather-tased-and-confused/

That's what I've been saying here.

~This guy on the show today said if the US invaded Iran it would cause the Iranians to group up with Ahmadinejad and he would be able to rally anti US sentiment...then the people who are more liberal have less of a chance to win the elections which come up for them in two years...~~

Iran has to change from the inside and it slowly is, but a war with Iran would end all that.

Alleged Iranian 'Front' Represented by Mukasey Law Firm

For more than 25 years, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement authorities say they have suspected the New York-based Alavi Foundation is a "front" for Iranian espionage and anti-American activities.

For more than 25 years, court records show the foundation has been publicly defended and represented by the New York law firm where attorney-general nominee Michael Mukasey is a partner: Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.

The foundation says the firm continues to represent it.

Mukasey personally handled at least one matter in court for the foundation.

That case, a real estate dispute, began in 1981 when reports first surfaced that the foundation, originally set up by the Shah, had been taken over by the new Ayatollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

White House Drops Choice for CIA Lawyer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House withdrew its nominee
to become the CIA's top lawyer on Tuesday after Democrats
raised concerns that the agency's interrogation techniques
may be illegal.

The president sent a letter to the Senate Intelligence
Committee informing it of the decision to withdraw the
nomination of John Rizzo to be the CIA's general counsel.
The panel had been expected to consider Rizzo's nomination
at a hearing Tuesday afternoon.

Rizzo, currently serving as the CIA's interim general counsel,
told a Senate panel in June that he did not object to a 2002
memo authorizing interrogation techniques that stop just
short of inflicting pain equal to that accompanying organ
failure or even death.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who led the opposition to Rizzo,
called him the wrong man for the job.

"So, the inept strategy is now to play to the Liberal base and play Clinton up as too conservative and hawkish for us?"

Submitted by 60th Street on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 3:08pm.

At first I considered that a possibility. But I'm more inclined to think the inept strategy is the one posted earlier: play Clinton up because she is the one they want to run against.

What is interesting is that it could be either one; the "repel strategy" or the "polarizing strategy."

I feel its more likely the latter, because the fact of the matter is, Hillary doesn't need any help to seem hawkish.

Despite Fed cuts, mortgage rates rise

The Federal Reserve’s recent bid to boost the economy by cutting interest rates has apparently backfired when it comes to mortgages. Mortgage rates are rising instead of falling, with Bankrate.com reporting average 30-year rates added 0.1 percentage points yesterday to hit 6.08 percent.

But while cutting the federal-funds rate directly impacts short-term borrowing like credit-card debt, it doesn’t automatically affect long-term loans like mortgages. Instead, banks generally base mortgage rates on 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yields, which have risen 0.23 percentage points in recent days.

McBride said Treasury yields have gone up because some bond investors fear the Fed cut short-term rates too much, risking inflation.

Inflation is bad news for mortgage investors because they agree to lend money at fixed rates for up to 30 years. So, unexpected inflation can ruin these investors’ returns. “Inflation is the worst enemy of investors that buy long-term (debts),” McBride said.

Who knew right! We are surrounded with morons in the electorate all the way up through Congress and the White House.

White House Drops Choice for CIA Lawyer

KO had it down packed last night!!!

Congress Denounces Iran's Ahmadinejad

Sep 25 12:08 PM US/Eastern
By ANNE FLAHERTY
Associated Press Writer

View larger image

Congress Votes 397-16 To Denounce Ahmadinejad

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress signaled its disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government and a call to designate his army a terrorist group.
The swift rebuke was a rare display of bipartisan cooperation in a Congress bitterly divided on the Iraq war. It reflected lawmakers' long-standing nervousness about Tehran's intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel—a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.

"Iran faces a choice between a very big carrot and a very sharp stick," said Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "It is my hope that they will take the carrot. But today, we are putting the stick in place."

The House passed, by a 397-16 vote, a proposal by Lantos, D-Calif., aimed at blocking foreign investment in Iran, in particular its lucrative energy sector. The bill would specifically bar the president from waiving U.S. sanctions.

Bush quietly advising Hillary Clinton, top Democrats

President Bush is said to be advising top Democrats for the upcoming 2008 elections, says Bill Sammon, the Chief White House Correspondent for The Examiner. Washington, D.C. (Map, News) - President Bush is quietly providing back-channel advice to Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging her to modulate her rhetoric so she can effectively prosecute the war in Iraq if elected president.

In an interview for the new book “The Evangelical President,” White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said Bush has “been urging candidates: ‘Don’t get yourself too locked in where you stand right now. If you end up sitting where I sit, things could change dramatically.’ ”

Bolten said Bush wants enough continuity in his Iraq policy that “even a Democratic president would be in a position to sustain a legitimate presence there.”

“Especially if it’s a Democrat,” the chief of staff told The Examiner in his West Wing office. “He wants to create the conditions where a Democrat not only will have the leeway, but the obligation to see it out.”

To that end, the president has been sending advice, mostly through aides, aimed at preventing an abrupt withdrawal from Iraq in the event of a Democratic victory in November 2008.

Voter Fraud Guru up for Vote Tomorrow
By Paul Kiel - September 25, 2007, 3:44PM

Finally, the time has come. The Senate Rules Committee will vote tomorrow on whether Hans von Spakovsky, the former Justice Department official who former employees say was key to the politicization of voting rights section, will get a term on the Federal Elections Commission. Von Spakovsky is also a veteran of Republican efforts to target voter fraud.

It's not immediately clear what will happen tomorrow. Howard Gantman, staff director for the committee, said that Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wants a vote on each nominee separately (as opposed to considering all four nominees, Democratic and Republican, in one vote) and that she continues to have serious concerns about Von Spakovsky. He also said that no deal had been struck.

Nearly stained my boxers.

bullshit

the neocons have played their cards right and like iraq before it have simply scared and cowered congress to do their bidding. if your deja vu meter isn't going off the scale then you haven't been paying attention.

House panel endorses Peru trade deal

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer 51 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - An uncontested committee vote Tuesday on the U.S.-Peru free trade agreement set the stage for that accord becoming the first to be approved by Congress since the Democrats assumed power in January.

The voice vote by the House Ways and Means Committee came after the Senate Finance Committee last Friday endorsed the draft implementing language of the agreement by 18-3. Under procedures for trade bills, the administration will now formally submit the language to Congress, which is expected to approve it sometime this fall.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070925/ap_on_go_co/us_peru

how can he scare congress...they wanted this all to happen man for fucks sake....they are all in it together....

bruce fein

Report: GOP "Broke," Expecting To Lose More House Seats
By Greg Sargent - September 25, 2007, 12:11PM
Last week we brought you word that GOP House leader John Boehner and NRCC chief Tom Cole were locked in a power struggle for control of the NRCC amid increasing signs that NRCC strategists are in denial about just how bad the 2008 map looks for them.

Now there's more. Top Republicans are conceding that the NRCC is all but broke and that another bloodletting is all but certain. As GOP Rep. Ray LaHood puts it with startling candor: “When you look at what’s going on in the House, the prospects for getting back on track are pretty dim at the moment."

Ouch.

Late Update: The latest numbers from the party committees tell the story:

"At the end of August, the National Republican Congressional Committee reported only $1.6 million cash on hand, with $4 million in debt. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, by comparison, had banked over $22 million, with only $3 million in debt."
In other words, the DCCC has around $19 million, while the NRCC is in the red.

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/09/report_gop_broke_expecting_to_lose...

you might be correct (i have trouble using the word right lately). it certainly provides an easy explanation for what would appear to be irrational or panicked behavior.

GODWINS LAW WARNING

do you suppose this is how germany felt when it was having its meltdown into nazism?

Iran faces a choice between a very big carrot and a very sharp stick...

Big Carrot?

Sharp Stick?

Unfeasible at this point. Unless Prez'nit Smirky the Rapture Monkey chooses to go Noo-cu-lar. Which the world would resoundingly condemn and counter. Game over.

It's a toothless rebuke. And Iran knows it. All they have to do is pick up a newspaper.

another morbid day for me!!! never ends....

Do something fun tonight to take your mind off the bad stuff.

However he did bring up things from the past that the US did to Iran.

When was the Shah installed in Iran and by whom?

19 LawtonSmalls Says: I can remember Maron once saying that if he and Seder were to do a radio show together it would just be one long “jew-off”

Quote This Comment September 25th, 2007 at 1:52 PM - PDT 20 MMRules Says: LawtonSmalls @ 19:

I can remember Maron once saying that if he and Seder were to do a radio show together it would just be one long “jew-off”

Too funny!!
Is that really you Planet Bush??
Hopefully you,and Jim Earl can write,and be on this new show..If it takes off.
Good Bless The Morning Seditionists Radio Gang !Miss ya all,bigtime!!
Hope your all doing well..Come Back,Come back!!We need The Funny!!

Quote This Comment September 25th, 2007 at 2:03 PM - PDT

Link

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Romney Spokesman: Blackwater Head Copher Black Is Staying On Our Campaign
By Eric Kleefeld - September 25, 2007, 4:18PM
Mitt Romney spokesman Kevin Madden appeared on MSNBC today and confirmed that Copher Black, head of Blackwater USA, will stay on as an advisor to the Romney campaign:

Blackwater USA, as you may know, is a controversial military contracting group that has been asked by the Iraqi government to leave the country due to alleged violence towards innocent civilians by their mercenaries.

"Copher Black is a renowned expert on counter-terrorism and intelligence issues. He is an advisor to this campaign — he advises the governor on a host of issues related to counter-terrorism and intelligence policy," Madden said. "All the details and all the incidents that have to do with Blackwater USA, I'm entirely unfamiliar with. I think those are questions that have to be answered outside the purview of a campaign, and instead by a private company."

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/09/romney_spokesman_blackwater_head_c...

Israel seeks exemption from atomic rules

AP NewsBreak: Israel Looks to U.S.-India Deal to Expand Ties to Nuclear Suppliers

GEORGE JAHN
AP News

Sep 25, 2007 15:08 EDT

Israel is looking to a U.S.-India nuclear deal to expand its own ties to suppliers, quietly lobbying for an exemption to non-proliferation rules so it can legally import atomic material, according to documents made available Tuesday to The Associated Press.

The move is sure to raise concerns among Arab nations already considering their neighbor the region's atomic arms threat. Israel has never publicly acknowledged having nuclear weapons but is generally considered to possess them.

The new push is reflected in papers Israel presented earlier this year to the "Nuclear Suppliers' Group" _ 45 nations that export nuclear fuel and technology under strict rules meant to lessen the dangers of proliferation and trafficking in materials that could be used for a weapons program.

The initiative appeared to be linked to a U.S.-India agreement that would effectively waive the group's rules by allowing the United States to supply India with nuclear fuel despite its refusal both to sign the nonproliferation treaty and allowing the IAEA to inspect all of its nuclear facilities.

Israeli officials began examining how their country could profit from that deal as early as last year, at one point proposing that the U.S. ask for an exemption from restrictions stipulating safeguards by the U.N. nuclear agency on all nuclear facilities, said a diplomat familiar with the issue. The U.S. rejected that request, he said, demanding anonymity for discussing restricted information.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/09/israel_seeks_exemption_from_at...

the British from Iran came around the depression. A few Shaws later is the one you are thinking about and I believe he was propped up by a CIA sponsored domestic group. Every way you look at it, I think all of those elements were being manipulated by what is now BP oil.

"which inept strategy is it?"
Submitted by dada on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 4:24pm.

Y'know, if you look at the MSNBC "Super Tuesday" today, you hear both of these toothless strategies coming from right wingers. They are saying that exact thing. Hillary is a raging warmonger and the administration wants to run against her. Pat Buchanan just said that is exactly what Rove wants and Rove said as much in his parting shots at Clinton on the Sunday shows.

I find a couple of things interesting and, honestly, a little too convenient. Obama keeps outraising Clinton by millions and her poll numbers don't budge.

That tells met that either they're in cahoots, or that Obama's fine with the probable outcome that if she wins the primary, he'll be on the '08 ticket and, of course, bring all that money (except the primary money) with him. The ticket alone will be unstoppable, but with all that cash and net roots and ethnic support, a tsunami.

I love that wild card scenario, because it really underscores how badly the Republicans have fucked themselves.

Bush Bombs at the United Nations »
By Larry Johnson on Sep 25, 2007 in Current Affairs | 7 Comments

Certainly not an earth shattering headline, but disturbing nonetheless. The lack of love between George Bush and the United Nations is an old “dog-bites-man” story. Having put haters like John Bolton at the helm of the U.S. delegation, Bush’s in your face “go fuck yourself” hostility to all things UN is no secret.

But today’s performance in New York set a new low even for the Bush Administration. Except for tepid applause when Bush was introduced and when he left the podium, no one clapped. Not even our allies. The world has caught on to the George Bush propaganda game and declines to show him a modicum of respect.

Bush’s efforts to wrap himself in the aura of AIDS prevention, feeding hungry children, rescuing refugees in Darfur, and restoring freedom in Myanmar fell flat. There was a time when the United States could stand proudly before countries like Cuba, Myanmar, Sudan, and Iran and lecture them on human rights and democracy. But in the wake of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, secret renditions and kidnappings of innocent Arab men, flaunting the UN Declarations on Human Rights, the creation of a million plus refugees in Iraq (and the deaths of hundreds of thousands), and the suspension of habeus corpus America has pissed away its credibility. Read the rest

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/09/25/bush-bombs-at-the-united-nations...

a rare display of bipartisan cooperation in a Congress bitterly
Submitted by dan on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 4:50pm.
bullshit
------they are all in it together
Submitted by dan on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 4:55pm.
-----------------------------------------------------------
and we thought we had a chance with the Dems ! HA!
eventually, hopefully sooner than later, we will have to rise against these evil powers--so far Edwards seems to be the only one who has actually said he will stand up to these super powers and take their power away TAKE THEIR POWER AWAY
he's the only one
Dems and repubs have been sold out to huge corp/pharm/petro interests we don't have much time left.

I guess you are correct then... :)

I'm going to have to start looking up Kucinich news...the rest of these people are sick in the head....

I should add that These two strategies are not mutually exclusive. It is entirely possible to repel some of us while polarizing the debate for the rest.

A short account of 1953 Coup
Operation code-name: TP-AJAX

Coup 53 of Iran is the CIA's (Central Intelligence Agency) first successful overthrow of a foreign government.

But a copy of the agency's secret history of the coup has surfaced, revealing the inner workings of a plot that set the stage for the Islamic revolution in 1979, and for a generation of anti-American hatred in one of the Middle East's most powerful countries. The document, which remains classified, discloses the pivotal role British intelligence officials played in initiating and planning the coup, and it shows that Washington and London shared an interest in maintaining the West's control over Iranian oil.

Dr. Donald N. Wilber,
a CIA spy, with the cover of
Persian architectural expert,
who planned the coup in Iran.
The secret history, written by the CIA's chief coup planner, says the operation's success was mostly a matter of chance. The document shows that the agency had almost complete contempt for the man it was empowering, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. And it recounts, for the first time, the agency's badly tried to seduce and force the shah into taking part in his own coup.

The operation, code-named TP-AJAX, was the blueprint for a succession of CIA plots to foment coups and destabilize governments during the cold war - including the agency's successful coup in Guatemala in 1954 and the disastrous Cuban intervention known as the Bay of Pigs in 1961. In more than one instance, such operations led to the same kind of long-term animosity toward the United States that occurred in Iran.

The history says agency officers orchestrating the Iran coup worked directly with royalist Iranian military officers, handpicked the prime minister's replacement, sent a stream of envoys to bolster the shah's courage, directed a campaign of bombings by Iranians posing as members of the Communist Party, and planted articles and editorial cartoons in newspapers.

But on the night set for Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq's overthrow, almost nothing went according to the meticulously drawn plans, the secret history says. In fact, CIA officials were poised to flee the country when several Iranian officers recruited by the agency, acting on their own, took command of a pro-shah demonstration in Tehran and seized the government.

Two days after the coup, the history discloses, agency officials funneled $5 million to Iran to help the government they had installed consolidate power.

Dr. Donald N. Wilber, an expert in Persian architecture, who as one of the leading planners believed that covert operatives had much to learn from history, wrote the secret history, along with operational assessments in March 1954.

In less expansive memoirs published in 1986, Dr. Wilber asserted that the Iran coup was different from later CIA efforts. Its American planners, he said, had stirred up considerable unrest in Iran, giving Iranians a clear choice between instability and supporting the shah. The move to oust the prime minister, he wrote, thus gained substantial popular support.

Dr. Wilber's memoirs were heavily censored by the agency, but he was allowed to refer to the existence of his secret history. "If this history had been read by the planners of the Bay of Pigs," he wrote, "there would have been no such operation."

"From time to time," he continued, "I gave talks on the operation to various groups within the agency, and, in hindsight, one might wonder why no one from the Cuban desk ever came or read the history."

The coup was a turning point in modern Iranian history and remains a persistent irritant in Tehran-Washington relations. It consolidated the power of the shah, who ruled with an iron hand for 26 more years in close contact with the United States. He was toppled by Iranian Revolution of 1979. Later that year, "Students of Imam Line" went to the American Embassy, took diplomats hostage and declared that they had unmasked a "nest of spies" who had been manipulating Iran for decades.

http://www.iranchamber.com/history/coup53/coup53p1.php

http://massmirror.com/25a2637657913393a40db38404af1b82.html

I think this is the entire album as one mp3

Economy sends off warning flares By PHILANA PATTERSON, AP Business Writer
52 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Crumbling consumer confidence and slumping home sales could prove to be a bad combination for retailers, and for the broader economy going into the holiday shopping season, if the labor market contracts further and chokes off spending, economic data showed Tuesday.

But markets took some heart from the warning signs, hoping that they would goad the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates more.

Worries about jobs and the economy flared in September, driving a key barometer of consumer sentiment to its lowest level in nearly two years, a private research group said.

The bad news was compounded by a report from the National Association of Realtors that sales of existing homes declined for a sixth straight month in August, pushing activity to the lowest point in five years. The Realtors showed a rise in median home prices, but a separate report done by S&P/Case-Shiller said home prices fell 3.9 percent in July in its 20-city index. Economists said that decline was probably a better reflection of where the market stands now.

The New York-based Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 99.8, an almost 6-point drop from the revised 105.6 in August. The reading was below the 104.5 that analysts had expected.

It marked its lowest level since a 98.3 reading in November 2005, when gas and oil prices soared after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070925/ap_on_bi_ge/economy_12

Quoteth:Jim Earl..

.

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Heya L@L
Submitted by dada on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:54pm

When you cite Kos as an example of our discussion's topic, I would note that there's a ton of centrists over there. Kos, in fact, courts 'em. And yes, some of them (graciously) refer to themselves as liberals & progressives (l&p's); overall, even there, a small minority. Though, in the current grand scheme of things, not mistakenly, I would add. The ideological goalposts have shifted so far to the right, that they ARE l&p's relative to that shift. Twenty-five years ago, those same folks would correctly have been labeled centrist dems & a number of present-day centrist Kossacks would have been correctly called conservative dems.

But I get your message, loud & clear.

And should Hillary win the dem nomination, and given that Gore is NOT running as an independent 3rd-party candidate, I will vote for her. I'm more a pragmatist than I am an ideologue. If I have a choice between decent-to-good (as opposed to perfect) vs. horrible, I'll choose the decent-to-good every time. And to those who point out that that's "the lesser of two evils," I'll point out to them who, exactly, is residing in the WH just now, and, just as exactly, how he came about getting there.

For lefties here in NY, we have the luxury of making a "protest" vote against Hillary with virtually no repercussions. (That's not to say that vote would go to a wingnut, either.) I simply point out to lefties in battleground states like Florida and Ohio, that the exercise of one's protest vote -- or not voting at all -- could result in another debacle like the 2000 election.

I'll conclude w/ a question: In your heart-of-hearts, would you truly prefer one of the puke candidates to be president...

...rather than Hillary? Because, my friend, as much as neither of us wants either of them, if Hil wins the dem nomination, one of those two will be your next president.

And if you haven't seen me write it before, I would, without reservation, welcome a conversion of this country's governance to a parliamentary system. (Psssst...I'd be a flaming Greenie.)

*tips hat*

A (pragmatic)Liberal-at-large

never...
never...
never...

I don't care who we end up with as long as I vote for who best represents me...

which I do not believe it does...in the total history of the us gov't presidents do not have much time...

that's what I was talking about. What that article doesn't tell you is how BP lobbied to make all of that reality. Visual political activities are always motivated by multinationals, and still are. This whole thing is a corporate war for the future value of other peoples resources.

This is not an America or Britain or French peoples movement. This is corporate manipulation. Look past the propaganda and it's pretty clear.

next president...

Thanks GBC..
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 25 Sep 2007 at 09:42:54 PM GMT is:

$8,995,038,321,314.73 !!

The estimated population of the United States is 303,084,286
so each citizen's share of this debt is $29,678.32.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.35 billion per day since September 29, 2006!
Concerned?

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Best of Both Inept Worlds

Submitted by 60th Street on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 5:13pm.

Hadn't seen this before my 5:21 post. The best of both inept worlds is right.

And that Obama Hillary is interesting. Something to keep an eye on.

That was something.

Randi: What do you need us to do?

Soldier: We need you to bring us home.

The soldier from Iraq on Randi calling Cheney and Bush war criminals? Wow.

Also, not one kind word for the supposed "support our troops" Republicans. Wow.

That was something.

Kittie, Brackish

L@L,Alice,GBC,dada

If they're waiting for the people...I'm not seeing that...

♪♪Hit me w/ your best shot♪♪

I'm enough of a pragmatist to realize that there's more than a few hereabouts who undoubtedly grind their teeth at me when I let loose w/ one those posts.

♪♪Fire away!♪♪ : )

Miles Davis Live Belgrade 1973
Submitted by Alice on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 5:28pm.

http://massmirror.com/25a2637657913393a40db38404af1b82.html

Wow. Good one.

Missing Billions in Iraq !

Once again, the best place to go for discussion of current events isn’t the mainstream media. Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman allows Naomi Klein to ask former Federal Reserve Chairman about his statement that the occupation in Iraq is all about the oil and those missing billions from Iraq.

The full interview is well worth your time and available on the Democracy Now! website.

Con't-Video

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Midnight Oil, Outbreak of Love, mp3

The world is crashing down on me tonight
The walls are closing in on me tonight
Cos I know this is the end of the beginning of the outbreak of love
The stars come falling down on me tonight
Sharks are coming up to feed
I believe its time to move
Divers coming up to breathe
But Im not in the mood
No Im not in the mood

!Blog from Myanmar about the silent revolution in Birma. The content speaks for itself, as do the photo's.

hey Alice,

just killing alittle time, did you catch Greenspan on Democracy Now & Naomi Klein, she was amazing, I missed seeing her & Amy Goodman last week at the NY society for ethical culture, I'm still kicking myself in the ass for that one, I remember when she sub'ed on the Majority Report, I still think her husband Avi is one of the luckiest guys on the planet...

I guess that makes me the other one.... :)
No hitting.. I swear...

Like Fernando said, we're all cool with opposing views.. (umm..mostly...)

How is goin', dude? You still up to your ass in college stuff?

Avi is Naomi's husband?

I was wondering the other day if Amy dated or was married..I'm still not sure...When I saw her that Summer in LA, she was with a guy, but I don't think it was romantic-like...didn't seem so to me anyway...

Speaking of time...lunch is over...bbl...

Submitted by Alice on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 6:09pm.

I've been posting articles about Myanmar & calling for the overthrow of the Burmese Junta as far back as I remember....I hope they succeed, fuck military rule!

I know you will. Little boats

yep Avi Lewis is Naomi's husband, I think he screened his
new doc about the worker movement in Argentina her in NYC
this weekend @ bluestocking books, missed that too, I'm really
slacking nowadays

yeah pretty much the same shit only now its
up to my ass in graduate stuff

love to stick around but duty calls,

later everyone,

:)

Yeah, yeah...so I have a fetish for girl bass players. Sue me! ; )

Bush’s $83,000 Lie About SCHIP
Today, the House is expected to vote on an extension of the State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which would provide health coverage to 10 million children. Despite broad bipartisan support and the urging of governors, President Bush has threatened to veto the bill by repeating false claims about the legislation.

One of most egregious canards being propogated by the White House about the SCHIP expansion is that it will provide health insurance for the wealthy. President Bush claimed at a press conference last week that Congress “made a decision to expand the eligibility up to $80,000. He repeated it in his Saturday radio address:

BUSH: Their proposal would result in taking a program meant to help poor children and turning it into one that covers children in some households with incomes of up to $83,000 a year. [9/22/07]

And the White House echoed the false talking point today in its official veto message to Congress:

[T]he current bill goes too far toward federalizing health care and turns a program meant to help low-income children into one that covers children in some households with incomes of up to $83,000 a year. If H.R. 976 were presented to the President in its current form, he would veto the bill.

However, no such proposal exists. The $83,000 figure comes from a request from New York to cover children in some slightly higher-income households because of the state’s high cost of living, but the final Congressional agreement put the poorest children “first in line” for benefits.

Center for American Progress health care analyst Jeanne Lambrew notes that the section 106 of the bill specifically ensures that there will not be any expansion of eligibility. “It overwhelming targets resources to low-income children and it discourages expansion to families with more moderate incomes by lowering the share the federal government will pay for such coverage.”

Angered by the White House’s false spin, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) fired back:

“The president’s understanding of our bill is wrong,” Grassley said, his voice rising with anger. “I urge him to reconsider his veto message based on a bill we might pass, not something someone on his staff told him wrongly is in my bill.”

Bush isn’t concerned about doling out tax cuts to the wealthy, but the mere false pretense of the well-off receiving health care is enough to make him veto benefits for 10 million children.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/83000-schip/

UPDATE: The Democratic Caucus offers a state-by-state breakdown of the impact of the SCHIP legislation.

http://democrats.senate.gov/chip/

Jaco

Three Veiws Of A Secret

Stuck In A Alley

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Tell Your Senators: Reject Von Spakovsky as Federal Elections...

Submitted by MMRules on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 6:00pm.

...Commissioner !!

Please sign the Petition!

...have a good evening all.

ciao~

Submitted by Liberal-at-large on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 5:36pm.

"The ideological goalposts have shifted so far to the right, that they ARE l&p's relative to that shift. Twenty-five years ago, those same folks would correctly have been labeled centrist dems & a number of present-day centrist Kossacks would have been correctly called conservative dems."

So what does that make real liberals and progressives?

---

"I simply point out to lefties in battleground states like Florida and Ohio, that the exercise of one's protest vote -- or not voting at all -- could result in another debacle like the 2000 election."

I'm of the opinion that it's the faliure of the politically active and the representatives they support to successfully convince and motivate enough of the public, that determines the outcomes of elections, not protest voters or protest non-votes. With 50% of the people not taking part in the process at all, placing the blame on a small group of people who vote their conscience seems a non-democratic thing to do.

I also have a difficult time calling people ideologues, who make what they feel are practical choices based on their experience, whatever those choices may be. It seems to me that pragmatists come in all stripes.

---

"In your heart-of-hearts, would you truly prefer one of the puke candidates to be president...

...rather than Hillary? Because, my friend, as much as neither of us wants either of them, if Hil wins the dem nomination, one of those two will be your next president."

You do make a good case, I must admit, L@L. Though for some reason I still can't find it in myself this time to put on the Democrat hat for Hillary.

But this why I think that if people want someone besides Hillary, it's important to organize behind either Obama or Edwards now, because every day that goes by with the race split between them is another day closer to president Hillary. Of course, my issues with Obama and Edwards are for another discussion at another time...

Besides all the conventional reasons I won't vote for Hillary, part of me is curious to see if things got worse, would it push those goalposts back on a leftward drift. Or maybe I'm just reckless. Maybe my nihilistic streak is showing. heh...

Great interview yes. And Naomi wasn't intimidated one bit by Greenspan. I was disappointed,however, that Naomi wasn't prepared to counter Greenspan's bottom line arguement that there is no viable alternative to capitalism.

That I'm thoroughly enjoying the stimulating conversation .

Always a pleasure blogging with you, L@L.

Connecting some historical dots on our AAR 'hero'...

KITTIE And Producer File New Claims In Suit Against ARTEMIS RECORDS

In May 2000, Danny Goldberg threatened the then 18-year-old singer of the band, Morgan Lander, stating that she would never get another cent out of him if the band did not go into the studio in September 2000 and produce another album. At this time the band was touring incessantly to promote its first album, released in January 2000.

If you hadn't already read it:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/25/161041/329

Very encouraging to see Kossacks still resisting DLC neolibs.

But HE doesn't fit the fetish part. *snark*

And neither does Stanley Clarke, who's one of my fav's.

YouTube 'em, if you're not familiar.

;)

Sarkozy implies: Letting Iran go nuclear could lead to war

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday the international standoff over Iran's nuclear program will only be resolved with a combination of "firmness and dialogue," and that appeasement may only lead to "war."

President of France Nicolas Sarkozy addresses the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, at the UN headquarters.
Photo: AP
Sarkozy, addressing the UN General Assembly for the first time since becoming president in May, said allowing Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons would be an "unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world."

Iran was entitled to nuclear power for civilian purposes, he said, "but if we allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, we would incur an unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world".

"Weakness and renunciation do not lead to peace. They lead to war," he declared.

Kittie sues Goldberg's Artemis Records 2003
Submitted by zeek on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 7:01pm.
Connecting some historical dots on our AAR 'hero'...

KITTIE And Producer File New Claims In Suit Against ARTEMIS RECORDS

In May 2000, Danny Goldberg threatened the then 18-year-old singer of the band, Morgan Lander, stating that she would never get another cent out of him if the band did not go into the studio in September 2000 and produce another album. At this time the band was touring incessantly to promote its first album, released in January 2000.
*******
He probably owes money to All The Morning Seditionist Crew,except M.Riely..He probably owes money to 3/4 of AAR! What a Sleazeball !
I didn't know he was a record producer..Now That Explains Alot Of Things!!

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Endorses Cindy:
In a recent interview with The Hill, Sheehan said she has been endorsed by actress Roseanne Barr, country crooner Willie Nelson and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

Sheehan added that White House hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) are also backing her.http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/25/4098

AAR and not Goldberg owed Maron et al money and the bankruptcy took care of that. That's not to say Goldberg along with numerous others were not responsible for them getting there. Hopefully, Goldberg was also one of those who ended up getting screwed but I doubt it. He walked away with a boatload of money when he left.

Here is a list of the AAR creditors from the filing

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1013062airamerica1.html