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May 2007

2007.05.30

Violent crime increases for second straight year

Picphoto053007gun A top-FBI official leaked today that a report due for release next week will show violent crime increasing for the second straight year:

The surging crime rate, detailed in a new FBI report expected nextweek, counters Justice Department attempts to tamp down violence bysending more money to local police and studying U.S. cities for clueson how the increases began.

Asked if the report would show crime rates are still climbing, FBIAssistant Director John Miller said: "I think you can anticipate itwill." He would not say by how much.

This is analogous to a report released earlier in May, this time by the Justice Department, that blamed the spike in violent crime mostly on the easy access that offenders have to guns.

On the other hand, Many conservatives such as John Stossel believe gun control actually contributes to higher crime.

However, others might conclude that the Bush Administration's decision in 2003 to cut the COPS program is partly to blame.

A Day With Al

Al_gore

Al Gore is looking better to me everyday, and for that reason I decided todedicate a post to him...the country's pAL.

First lets take a look at Al's new book 'TheAssault on Reason'. The Guardian postedan edited extract from his book.

'A drive for global domination has put us in greater danger'- MoralBushgore authority, which is ourgreatest source of strength, has been recklessly put at risk by this willfulpresident

The pursuit of "dominance" in foreign policy led the Bushadministration to ignore the UN, to do serious damage to our most importantalliances, to violate international law, and to cultivate the hatred andcontempt of many in the rest of the world. The seductive appeal of exercisingunconstrained unilateral power led this president to interpret his powers underthe constitution in a way that brought to life the worst nightmare of thefounders. Any policy based on domination of the rest of the world not onlycreates enemies for the US and recruits for al-Qaida, but also undermines theinternational cooperation that is essential to defeating terrorists who wish toharm and intimidate America. Instead of "dominance", we should beseeking pre-eminence in a world where nations respect us and seek to follow ourleadership and adopt our values. Readon...

Time Online posted an excerptfrom 'The Assault on Reason'

Not long before our nation launched the invasion of Iraq, our longest-servingSenator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor and said:"This chamber is, for the most part, silent—ominously, dreadfully silent.There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the prosand cons of this particular war. There is nothing. We stand passively mute inthe United States Senate."

Why was the Senate silent?

In describing the empty chamber the way he did, Byrd invited a specificversion of the same general question millions of us have been asking: "Whydo reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the wayAmerica now makes important decisions?" The persistent and sustainedreliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of massive andwell-understood evidence to the contrary, seems to many Americans to havereached levels that were previously unimaginable. Readon...

Al_gore_gw_2We constantly hear the broken record words of Sean Hannity trying to get anyoneand everyone to side with him that "Gore is a hypocrite" regardingGlobal Warming.

Joseph Palermo wrote on DavidBrook's Assault on Al Gore.

In today's New York Times, right-wing columnist and perennialyakking head, David (Bobo-in-Paradise) Brooks, trashes Al Gore's newbook, The Assault on Reason. Brooks labels Gore "a radicaltechnological determinist" because the former Vice President draws upon thescholarly work of Marshal McLuhan, Neil Postman, and others to conclude that theprinting press, radio, and television have had an enormous impact on ourpolitics. "Gore's imperviousness to reality is not the most strikingfeature of the book," sniffs Brooks, "it's the chilliness andsterility of his worldview."

Toward the end of his mushy-headed indictment of Gore, Brooks snivels:"Utterly at a loss when asked to talk about virtue and justice, [Gore andothers] try to shift attention to technology and methods of communication. Theyimagine that by altering machines they can alter the fundamentals of behavior,or at least avoid the dark thickets of human nature."

It's funny that someone like Brooks, who calls himself a"conservative" and an "intellectual" would be so downrighthostile to The Assault on Reason. After all, aren't people like Brookssupposed to admire the framers of the Constitution and other people who havecontributed to defining our nation's creed?...Readon...

It really doesn't matter if you like Gore or not, butit is difficult to disagree with his points of view both politically and environmentally.What once turned me off from Gore was his articulate, intelligent and almost condescendingattitude, is now something I embrace. He stayed the course and proved to us thathe really does care about the people, the country and the earth.

Gore Says Bush is an Un-American , Heretic

Al Gore 'The Assault On Reason' ~ Countdown w/Obermann Part1

Al Gore 'The Assault On Reason' ~ Countdown w/Obermann Part2

Al Gore ~ Religion/Founding Fathers - Larry King 5/22/2007

                   
Al's Home PageAl's o8 Draft Campaign PageAl's Inconvenient      Truth Page Draft Gore Page

Dg_logo1This post isn't a "The Blue State Supports Gore", this was solelyto condense a wealth of information in a single post about Al.. I am an Obama o8kinda guy, but would love a Gore/Obama ticket, and would like Richardson onObamaGore's cabinet. If all goes well, perhaps an Obama 2012?

Bush wants U.S. troops to remain in Iraq like in Korea

Picphoto053007bush1 More than 50 years after the start of the Korean War, and U.S. troops still remain at the DMZ ready to be used.  This is how Bush sees the future of U.S. military policy in Iraq:

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush would like to see a U.S. role in Iraq ultimately similar to that in South Korea.

"The Korean model is one in which the United States provides a securitypresence, but you've had the development of a successful democracy inSouth Korea over a period of years, and, therefore, the United Statesis there as a force of stability," Snow told reporters.

Is the White House really serious -- or is this just yet an attempt to compare Bush's legacy to those of Truman and Eisenhower?

Even if Bush was serious, a few obvious worries come to mind:

  • The Middle East is not at all like the Korean Peninsula -- neither socially, economically nor geopolitically.
  • Where would the DMZ be in Iraq?  Baghdad?  Good luck with that!
  • U.S. troops in Iraq for the next 50 years?  Do we have the resources to fund that?

Strange coincidence behind Cheney's destruction of records

Picphoto053007cheney Vice President Dick Cheney asked the Secret Service last September to delete the records of which political figures visited his residence.  Cheney's lawyers cited the Presidential Records Act of 1978 as an excuse. 

This is all part of a court battle involving an advocacy group that says Cheney must turn over his logs because they are subject to the Freedom of Information Act:

The Justice Department filed the letter Friday in a lawsuit by aprivate group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington,seeking the identities of conservative religious leaders who visitedCheney at his official residence.

The ironic part about all this is the fact that an unidentified member of the Senate has placed a secret hold on a bipartisan bill specifically designed to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act.  Since Dick Cheney is the president of the Senate in addition to being Vice President, is it possible that he is the one secretly placing the hold on the bill?   That would be something!

Q: What Do You Call a Song Titled 'Let's Impeach The President'? A: A Good Start

I feel compelled to find and post the truth every time I hear Our GreatPresident open his mouth which has become synonymous with lying.Thanks again to "granny" for sending us the link for the video.

It didn't take the liberal bloggers and general long public to react and speak outagainst the dems for caving in on the funding bill. And it seems that theybetter grow a set quickly before we start shopping around. Think about this fora moment, you tell your spouse or significant other you are going shopping, butinstead go to a friends house...simple right? umm, NO!, you are confronted bythem and are told you lied. Maybe that's a simple minded analogy, but comparethat to The President of the United States lying on an ongoing basis, changingthe story and then his supporters actually lie further to support him. Wrong,just plain old everyday kindergartenly,  fundamentally, unacceptably wrong.

Well lets start this thing....

'Let's Impeach The President' Song by Neil Youg. Check out Neils page of Song Videos HERE.(check out the hompage)The Lyrics are HERE.

I do not like Andy Dick in just about everything I have ever seen himin...except this video

'Bush Idiot Speech'

Here is a huge list of anti-warsongs worth a peak. Listof Bush lies.

There is just so much more content which could be added to this post, but Ineed to move on from this "consumption" of me.

Fred Thompson running for president

Picphoto053007thompson Politico is reporting that Fred Thompson, former senator and current star on the show Law & Order, will run for president.  His presidential exploratory committee will be formed next week.  A formal announcement is tentatively scheduled for July 5th.  But almost immediately, he will start campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire:

Thompson's formal announcement is planned for Nashville. It'stentatively set for July 5, although it could come earlier. Organizerssay the red pickup truck that was a hallmark of Thompson's first Senate race will begin showing up in Iowa and New Hampshire as an emblem of what they consider his folksy, populist appeal.

A member of Thompson's inner circle, who insisted on anonymity becausehe is not a spokesman, said the campaign's message will be:  "Thepublic is increasingly cynical and disenchanted with government.  Theyneed to have a sense that competence will return to government, thatgovernment can do the things they care the most about. They want areason to continue Republican governance. We want Thompson to be seenas the adult with a firm hand on the tiller -- the safe option for theaverage primary voter."

The adult?  Is this the same adult that told Michael Moore to "think about" visiting a "mental institution?"  Or how about the adult that said MoveOn.org and Harry Reid had "extremist positions" on Iraq?  Not even George W. Bush was this rhetorically off-the-wall before he became president.

Four US soldier deaths per day in May

Picphoto053007bush With less than two days left until June, May has been the third deadliest month for U.S. soldiers since the war began.  Four troops died per day.  It was the worst since November of 2004, and the first time since the war began that at least one-hundred troops had died in two straight months.

Here are some of the other Iraq headlines this morning:

  • Five British soldiers were abducted by the Mahdi Army.
  • In Iraq, there are three-times as many British security contractors than troops.
  • Turkey is warning the U.S. never to violate their airspace again.  Last week, two F-16's briefly crossed into Turkish airspace along the Iraqi border.
  • One of the candidates running for Labour Party Deputy in Britain is advocating an immediate pullout of British troops from Iraq.
  • Australian Defense Forces are reporting that much of the bomb-making expertise for IED's and roadside bombs has been supplied by foreign countries.  IED's account for 70% of all coalition casualties.

Blue Radar

As I post each morning, here are some of the political stories thatmight not be worthy of their own posts, but are nonetheless newsworthy:

  • President Bush has chosen Robert Zoellick as the new head of the World Bank, replacing Paul Wolfowitz.
  • Bush's approval rating has hit 28% in the latest Harris Poll.
  • The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that women can not wait before filing sex discrimination lawsuits.  However, as Ginsburg read in her dissenting opinion, women usually do not know that they are victims of sexual discrimination until later on.  Forcing them to file a lawsuit early also increases the likelihood that the case would be "less-than-fully baked," as Ginsburg put it.
  • Frustrated by his party's likely political predicament in 2008, Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC) suggested that Paul Wolfowitz should be sent to Iraq: "I would like to suggest...that maybe we give Paul Wolfowitz a new joband send him over [to Iraq] as mayor, since the neocons got us in over there."  (Yes, and your party helped us get over there too!)
  • GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is pledging to donate all of his salary if he becomes president.  (This is one to write down, just in case he does win the presidency.)
  • Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa has endorsed Hillary Clinton.  (This is by far the most significant political victory for Hillary.)
  • The Democratic presidential candidates will debate in New Hampshire on Sunday at 7 PM ET.  It will last 2 hours.
  • A signed doodle by Barack Obama was sold on eBay for $2,075 over the weekend.
  • Iowa Democrats (ARG): Clinton - 31%, Edwards - 25%, Obama - 11%, Richardson - 8%.
  • New Hampshire Democrats (ARG): Clinton - 34%, Edwards - 18%, Obama - 15%, Richardson - 9%.
  • South Carolina Democrats (ARG): Clinton - 34%, Edwards - 30%, Obama - 18%.

If we left anything out, feel free to add any stories in the commentbox.

Blue Nightowl Clips

As we post in the middle of each night, here are some of the popularpolitical clips making their rounds on the blogosphere at this hour:

  1. Al Gore on Countdown.
  2. Brave New Films makes the case to impeach Gonzales.
  3. Presidential quotes about Vietnam & Iraq.
  4. Obama unveils health care plan.

More clips later today and tomorrow.

2007.05.29

It's final: Valerie Plame was 'covert' when outed

Picphoto052907plame In court today, as Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asked the judge to give Scooter Libby the maximum sentence, a document was made public for the first time that proves once and for all that Valerie Plame was a covert agent when outed:

An unclassified summary of outed CIA officer Valerie Plame's employmenthistory at the spy agency, disclosed for the first time today in acourt filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, indicates thatPlame was "covert" when her name became public in July 2003.

The nature of Plame's CIA employment never came up in Libby's perjury and obstruction of justice trial.

In 2004, President Bush promised to fire anyone in his Administration that was involved in the leak.  We know for a fact that Karl Rove was one of the two sources columnist Robert Novak used when he revealed Plame's identity.  Bush has yet to follow through and fire Rove.

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