Friday, May 25, 2007
Leaving Orlando
Time to catch my flight. Looks like I might get back in time to go to the music on 4th street this evening. Just haning out at the airport right now. Doing some websurfing and drinking Starbucks. Happy days!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Still in Orlando
Yes, I'm still here. I'm back in Winston late Friday. I did attend a baseball game in Tampa this past weekend. They have a very nice facility there and I had a great time. The drive was only about an hour and a half and highway the entire way.
I just bought Al Gore's new book today, "The Assault on Reason". I hope to have it read by the time I get back. I saw him last night on Larry King (no, I don't usually watch Larry. I had it on as background noise). I really wish he would run for President.
I just bought Al Gore's new book today, "The Assault on Reason". I hope to have it read by the time I get back. I saw him last night on Larry King (no, I don't usually watch Larry. I had it on as background noise). I really wish he would run for President.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Orlando
Yeah, I'm out of town until the 25th. It's been very sunny and warm down here in Orlando, Florida. I am looking forward to getting back, though.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
All in One Day
Republicans. How ANYONE can admit to being one is beyond me. All this has happened in 24 short hours-
On the House floor, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) argued that the United States needs to immediately authorize funds for the war in Iraq. “Congress needs to quit talking about supporting the troops and put money where our mouths seem to be,” said Poe.
To make his case, he quoted “successful Confederate general” Nathan Bedford Forrest, but left out the fact that Forrest was also one of the original Grand Wizards of the Ku Klux Klan.
Transcript:
POE: Mr. Speaker, does anybody realize there’s a war going out there in the desert sands of Iraq and the rough mountains of Afghanistan? Apparently not or Congress would be taking care of our troops. Mr. Speaker, the troops will be out of funds to carry the fight to the enemy by the end of June. So where’s the money? Spending money is what Congress does. Why hasn’t this body provided the funds for our troops and equipment and more personnel?
This is an emergency. Delay will put our troops at risk. We should authorize the funds now. Send equipment now. And if needed send more troops. The American people expect our military to do their duty. Well the American people expect us to do ours as well. Congress needs to quit talking about supporting the troops and put money where our mouths seem to be. Nathan Bedford Forrest, successful Confederate general, said it best about winning and victory and the means to do so. He said, “Git thar fustest with the mostest.”
Poe’s spokeswoman tried to justify the reference to Forrest, stating, that it “was used in an historical context comparing the request to Congress for support of the Confederate troops to the request that is being made today by our Generals in Iraq.” (Roll Call adds that it’s actually a misquote of Forrest as well.)
So remember, it’s perfectly fine to quote KKK Grand Wizards to make your argument, as long as it’s in a “historical context.”
Next-
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday the World Bank could continue to be effective with embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in charge.
"We believe that the World Bank can continue to be an effective development institution with Paul Wolfowitz as president," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Wolfowitz is embroiled in a scandal over a salary agreement for his companion, who also works at the World Bank. Board sources said on Monday a World Bank panel had found his handling of the promotion and pay increase for his companion represented a conflict of interest and broke rules.
The panel has made no recommendation on how he should be reprimanded, the sources said. Wolfowitz, the former U.S. deputy defense secretary and a key architect of the Iraq war, has been given several days to respond to the findings.
The White House said it continued to support Wolfowitz, but spokesman Tony Snow would not comment further.
"This is a World Bank matter and I refer you back to them," he said.
Typical. Leave it to the Bush Crime Family to reward those who do wrong. Next-
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congressional investigators are looking into new allegations a top official at the Justice Department illegally hired career lawyers based on their political affiliations.
Investigators are focusing on Bradley Schlozman, a former top official in the department's Civil Rights Division, who recently returned to Washington after serving as interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Justice Department denies violating federal law, saying an applicant's political affiliation "is not a criterion solicited or considered in the hiring process."
The claims have surfaced amid the congressional investigation of the firings of federal prosecutors in eight cities in 2006 -- allegedly for political rather than professional reasons.
But Ty Clevenger, a former Justice Department employee, said Schlozman ordered him to remove information identifying him as a Republican from his paperwork when he applied for a job. And Richard Ugelow, a former Justice lawyer, said the department has been hiring "people who have certain political persuasion and only a certain political persuasion" in recent years.
"That's not healthy for enforcement of the nation's civil rights laws," said Ugelow, who now teaches law at Washington's American University.
Rep. Linda Sanchez, the head of the House Judiciary subcommittee investigating the dismissals, said Congress wants to examine the hiring practices at the Justice Department and the civil rights division in particular.
"If there is one department that should be above political consideration for hiring and firing, that is the Department of Justice," said Sanchez, D-California.
Congress and the Justice Department's internal watchdog agency are also looking into allegations that Monica Goodling, a former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, sought out fellow Republicans for Justice Department jobs. Goodling resigned over the U.S. attorneys flap and invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than answer questions from Congress. (Full story)
Sanchez: We are highly disturbed by emerging information
"We are highly disturbed by the emerging information, because it seems to repeat this pattern going on at the [Department of Justice] where people are chosen for their positions not for their experience and qualifications, but rather whether or not they match a certain political ideology," Sanchez said.
Among those raising concerns is Joseph Rich, a 36-year veteran of the department, who left in 2005 after serving as head of the Civil Rights Division's section that deals with voting rights.
"The whole hiring process had been changed to put the decision-making in political appointees' hands, and it was clear it was being politicized in that manner," Rich told CNN.
In a written statement Monday, the Justice Department said the Civil Rights Division "has always considered and continues to consider attorneys from a wide variety of educational backgrounds, prior legal experiences, non-legal experiences, and demonstrated personal qualities applicable to the job."
"The suggestion that one can measure a person's commitment to civil rights based merely upon their affiliation or their lack of affiliation with a particular legal or civil rights group could be seen as discriminatory itself," the statement said.
It said the Civil Rights division has brought more cases in the past six years, including 18 lawsuits by the voting section in 2006 -- which it said was double the annual average over the past 30 years. And it said prosecutors had a conviction rate of 98 percent in criminal voting cases -- "the highest such figure in the history of the Criminal Section."
Rich now works for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, a nonprofit organization that held a March forum on what it called the politicization of the Justice Department. He said he never saw Schlozman make decisions based on partisan factors -- but he said hiring was increasingly concentrated in the hands of political appointees.
And he said political appointees at Justice overruled career lawyers' recommendations on controversial issues such as whether to approve a voter ID law in Georgia and the legality of 2002 redistricting efforts in Texas and Mississippi.
"There wasn't any formal statement that we were doing this to help the Republican Party, but certainly all of the circumstances behind the reviews indicated that," Rich said.
Critics of the administration have also questioned Schlozman's decision as U.S. attorney in western Missouri to bring vote-fraud cases against members of the antipoverty group ACORN before November's congressional election. The Justice Department said its cases are brought "on evidence, not politics."
But leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday asked Schlozman to answer questions about his handling of voter-fraud cases, including a lawsuit he pursued after his predecessor refused to support it. The committee's chairman, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, and ranking Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said the case was dismissed by a federal judge who found "no evidence" to support it.
"We believe the committee would benefit from hearing directly from you in order to gain a better understanding of the role voter fraud may have played in the administration's decisions to retain or remove certain U.S. attorneys," they wrote.
There is a new Mafia and it is the Bush Administration......
On the House floor, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) argued that the United States needs to immediately authorize funds for the war in Iraq. “Congress needs to quit talking about supporting the troops and put money where our mouths seem to be,” said Poe.
To make his case, he quoted “successful Confederate general” Nathan Bedford Forrest, but left out the fact that Forrest was also one of the original Grand Wizards of the Ku Klux Klan.
Transcript:
POE: Mr. Speaker, does anybody realize there’s a war going out there in the desert sands of Iraq and the rough mountains of Afghanistan? Apparently not or Congress would be taking care of our troops. Mr. Speaker, the troops will be out of funds to carry the fight to the enemy by the end of June. So where’s the money? Spending money is what Congress does. Why hasn’t this body provided the funds for our troops and equipment and more personnel?
This is an emergency. Delay will put our troops at risk. We should authorize the funds now. Send equipment now. And if needed send more troops. The American people expect our military to do their duty. Well the American people expect us to do ours as well. Congress needs to quit talking about supporting the troops and put money where our mouths seem to be. Nathan Bedford Forrest, successful Confederate general, said it best about winning and victory and the means to do so. He said, “Git thar fustest with the mostest.”
Poe’s spokeswoman tried to justify the reference to Forrest, stating, that it “was used in an historical context comparing the request to Congress for support of the Confederate troops to the request that is being made today by our Generals in Iraq.” (Roll Call adds that it’s actually a misquote of Forrest as well.)
So remember, it’s perfectly fine to quote KKK Grand Wizards to make your argument, as long as it’s in a “historical context.”
Next-
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday the World Bank could continue to be effective with embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in charge.
"We believe that the World Bank can continue to be an effective development institution with Paul Wolfowitz as president," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Wolfowitz is embroiled in a scandal over a salary agreement for his companion, who also works at the World Bank. Board sources said on Monday a World Bank panel had found his handling of the promotion and pay increase for his companion represented a conflict of interest and broke rules.
The panel has made no recommendation on how he should be reprimanded, the sources said. Wolfowitz, the former U.S. deputy defense secretary and a key architect of the Iraq war, has been given several days to respond to the findings.
The White House said it continued to support Wolfowitz, but spokesman Tony Snow would not comment further.
"This is a World Bank matter and I refer you back to them," he said.
Typical. Leave it to the Bush Crime Family to reward those who do wrong. Next-
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congressional investigators are looking into new allegations a top official at the Justice Department illegally hired career lawyers based on their political affiliations.
Investigators are focusing on Bradley Schlozman, a former top official in the department's Civil Rights Division, who recently returned to Washington after serving as interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Justice Department denies violating federal law, saying an applicant's political affiliation "is not a criterion solicited or considered in the hiring process."
The claims have surfaced amid the congressional investigation of the firings of federal prosecutors in eight cities in 2006 -- allegedly for political rather than professional reasons.
But Ty Clevenger, a former Justice Department employee, said Schlozman ordered him to remove information identifying him as a Republican from his paperwork when he applied for a job. And Richard Ugelow, a former Justice lawyer, said the department has been hiring "people who have certain political persuasion and only a certain political persuasion" in recent years.
"That's not healthy for enforcement of the nation's civil rights laws," said Ugelow, who now teaches law at Washington's American University.
Rep. Linda Sanchez, the head of the House Judiciary subcommittee investigating the dismissals, said Congress wants to examine the hiring practices at the Justice Department and the civil rights division in particular.
"If there is one department that should be above political consideration for hiring and firing, that is the Department of Justice," said Sanchez, D-California.
Congress and the Justice Department's internal watchdog agency are also looking into allegations that Monica Goodling, a former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, sought out fellow Republicans for Justice Department jobs. Goodling resigned over the U.S. attorneys flap and invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than answer questions from Congress. (Full story)
Sanchez: We are highly disturbed by emerging information
"We are highly disturbed by the emerging information, because it seems to repeat this pattern going on at the [Department of Justice] where people are chosen for their positions not for their experience and qualifications, but rather whether or not they match a certain political ideology," Sanchez said.
Among those raising concerns is Joseph Rich, a 36-year veteran of the department, who left in 2005 after serving as head of the Civil Rights Division's section that deals with voting rights.
"The whole hiring process had been changed to put the decision-making in political appointees' hands, and it was clear it was being politicized in that manner," Rich told CNN.
In a written statement Monday, the Justice Department said the Civil Rights Division "has always considered and continues to consider attorneys from a wide variety of educational backgrounds, prior legal experiences, non-legal experiences, and demonstrated personal qualities applicable to the job."
"The suggestion that one can measure a person's commitment to civil rights based merely upon their affiliation or their lack of affiliation with a particular legal or civil rights group could be seen as discriminatory itself," the statement said.
It said the Civil Rights division has brought more cases in the past six years, including 18 lawsuits by the voting section in 2006 -- which it said was double the annual average over the past 30 years. And it said prosecutors had a conviction rate of 98 percent in criminal voting cases -- "the highest such figure in the history of the Criminal Section."
Rich now works for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, a nonprofit organization that held a March forum on what it called the politicization of the Justice Department. He said he never saw Schlozman make decisions based on partisan factors -- but he said hiring was increasingly concentrated in the hands of political appointees.
And he said political appointees at Justice overruled career lawyers' recommendations on controversial issues such as whether to approve a voter ID law in Georgia and the legality of 2002 redistricting efforts in Texas and Mississippi.
"There wasn't any formal statement that we were doing this to help the Republican Party, but certainly all of the circumstances behind the reviews indicated that," Rich said.
Critics of the administration have also questioned Schlozman's decision as U.S. attorney in western Missouri to bring vote-fraud cases against members of the antipoverty group ACORN before November's congressional election. The Justice Department said its cases are brought "on evidence, not politics."
But leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday asked Schlozman to answer questions about his handling of voter-fraud cases, including a lawsuit he pursued after his predecessor refused to support it. The committee's chairman, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, and ranking Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said the case was dismissed by a federal judge who found "no evidence" to support it.
"We believe the committee would benefit from hearing directly from you in order to gain a better understanding of the role voter fraud may have played in the administration's decisions to retain or remove certain U.S. attorneys," they wrote.
There is a new Mafia and it is the Bush Administration......
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Elephants becoming Extinct?
By Marcus Mabry
Newsweek
Updated: 10:31 a.m. ET May 5, 2007
May 5, 2007 - It’s hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every ’08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.’s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979. This remarkably low rating seems to be casting a dark shadow over the GOP’s chances for victory in ’08. The NEWSWEEK Poll finds each of the leading Democratic contenders beating the Republican frontrunners in head-to-head matchups.
A majority of Americans believe Bush is not politically courageous: 55 percent vs. 40 percent. And nearly two out of three Americans (62 percent) believe his recent actions in Iraq show he is “stubborn and unwilling to admit his mistakes,” compared to 30 percent who say Bush’s actions demonstrate that he is “willing to take political risks to do what’s right.”
All of the candidates can perhaps take some solace in Americans’ dissatisfaction with the way things are going in the United States at this time (only 25 percent are satisfied; 71 percent dissatisfied). American dissatisfaction ratings last hit 71 in the NEWSWEEK poll in May 2006, at the height of the scandal over secret government wiretapping inside the United States. The last time that even half of our survey respondents were happy with the direction of the country was in April 2003, shortly after the start of the Iraq war. With that many unhappy Americans, the nation should have a strong appetite for new leaders and new ideas.
The way I see it, if Bush has his way and the war keeps chugging along till 08, I expect to see Republicans SLAUGHTERED at the polls.
Newsweek
Updated: 10:31 a.m. ET May 5, 2007
May 5, 2007 - It’s hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every ’08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.’s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979. This remarkably low rating seems to be casting a dark shadow over the GOP’s chances for victory in ’08. The NEWSWEEK Poll finds each of the leading Democratic contenders beating the Republican frontrunners in head-to-head matchups.
A majority of Americans believe Bush is not politically courageous: 55 percent vs. 40 percent. And nearly two out of three Americans (62 percent) believe his recent actions in Iraq show he is “stubborn and unwilling to admit his mistakes,” compared to 30 percent who say Bush’s actions demonstrate that he is “willing to take political risks to do what’s right.”
All of the candidates can perhaps take some solace in Americans’ dissatisfaction with the way things are going in the United States at this time (only 25 percent are satisfied; 71 percent dissatisfied). American dissatisfaction ratings last hit 71 in the NEWSWEEK poll in May 2006, at the height of the scandal over secret government wiretapping inside the United States. The last time that even half of our survey respondents were happy with the direction of the country was in April 2003, shortly after the start of the Iraq war. With that many unhappy Americans, the nation should have a strong appetite for new leaders and new ideas.
The way I see it, if Bush has his way and the war keeps chugging along till 08, I expect to see Republicans SLAUGHTERED at the polls.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
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