Thursday, July 26, 2007

Michael Moore's SiCKO and H.R. 676

If you haven't already seen Michael Moore's SiCKO, run, don't walk, to a local movie theater that is showing it.

Michael Moore is also issuing a challenge for people to get active on moving our country towards universal health care coverage.

Part of the challenge includes getting a Republican to see the movie. One lucky Republican who sees the movie will win an opportunity to have Michael Moore do their laundry.

Another part of the challenge is to have everyone call their representative in Congress and urge them to co-sponsor H.R. 676, The United States National Health Insurance Act. More information on that is provided at Healthcare-Now.org.

Every other industrialized nation has universal health care coverage, and our country should have it too. Our country needs it. If we are to truly uphold the moral beliefs that we say we believe in, universal health care coverage should be a priority. It is a moral obligation, and a vast majority of the population wants it. It is up to us to demand that our government, which we control, fulfills its role to protect us and sustain equality by providing health care to everyone in this great country of ours.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Global Warming Makes North Pole Swim Possible

A new mark in the horror of global warming has come to pass:

19 mins, -1.8C: the first swim at the North Pole
Had it been just one degree further down the thermometer, not even the polar bears could have managed what Lewis Pugh achieved in the early hours of yesterday.

Mr Pugh, a maritime lawyer and environmental campaigner from London, swam a kilometre (.62 miles) at the Geographic North Pole to highlight the effects of global warming. At -1.8C (28.76F), it is believed to be the coldest water a human has ever swum in.

Clad only in his Speedo trunks, cap and goggles as required by the rules of the Channel Swimming Association – which also forbid any buoyancy aids, swimming caps that offer any thermal protection or trunks cut above crotch level – Mr Pugh spent just under 19 agonising minutes in the melted sea ice navigating a path in a crack between broken floes.

The feat would not have been possible ten years ago, when the water was entirely frozen over, even in summer.
Pugh is a smart guy. By learning to swim in such harsh conditions, he is really getting ready for the effects of global warming.

That sounds like a solution straight from the Bush administration. They would probably rather teach everyone how to swim than stop global warming because it would be cheaper in their minds.

In reality, it is cheaper to stop global warming than it is to deal with all the damage that it would cause, but, hey, Republicans only care about fiscal responsibility when it supports their politics.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Gonzales Lies Again

No shock or awe from this story, but still it is good to know the Bushies don't get away with all their lies:

Report: Gonzales Knew of FBI Violations
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; 2:37 AM


WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales received reports detailing legal or procedural violations by FBI agents in the months before he told senators that no such abuses had occurred, The Washington post reported Tuesday.

In April 2005, while seeking renewal of the broad powers granted law enforcement under the USA Patriot Act, Gonzales said, "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse" from the law enacted after the 9/11 terror attacks.

According to the Post, Gonzales had received a least half a dozen reports describing such violations in the three months before he made that statement. The newspaper obtained the internal FBI documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
We really need to impeach Gonzales.

Sen. Vitter (R-LA) On DC Madam's Phone List

We now pause for a moment in our coverage of the endless string of Bush administration crimes and horrors to bring you latest in Washington, D.C. sex scandals:

Senator's Number on 'Madam' Phone List

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; Page A03

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) apologized last night after his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," making him the first member of Congress to become ensnared in the high-profile case.

The statement containing Vitter's apology said his telephone number was included on phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates dating from before he ran for the Senate in 2004.
Vitter is another one of those conservatives who is against gay marriage rights.

From Wikipedia.org:
In June 2006, Vitter came out strongly in favor of amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same sex marriages. He said, "I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one ... I think this debate is very healthy, and it's winning a lot of hearts and minds. I think we're going to show real progress."
It is more important for this guy to do something evil like pushing an amendment that would be the first to limit freedom and discriminate against a minority group than solving problems that Americans actually care about like our occupation of Iraq, global warming, or our broken healthcare system. Could someone explain to me why the world is so insane that a guy like this gets elected to the U.S. Senate?!

He doesn't want gay people to have equal rights to the benefits of marriage, but he is free to enjoy those same benefits, which he so easily wants to deny to others, while he abuses his own marriage by committing adultery?

I think that marriage rights should be equally accessible to everyone, but if anyone deserves to be banned from marriage rights, it is adulterers like Sen. Vitter, not homosexuals.

Note To Self: Do Not Trust Bush On Nuclear Power

Bush keeps promoting nuclear power as "clean" energy, but while nuclear energy may not produce greenhouse gases, only a complete idiot would call it clean energy.

There is just no reason to trust someone on nuclear power when that person can't even pronouce "nuclear."

Monday, July 09, 2007

Bush Administration Is Soft On Terror

I don't know if this will be the final nail in the coffin of the lie that the Bush Administration is effective against terrorism, but this certainly is one of the nails:

U.S. Aborted Raid on Qaeda Chiefs in Pakistan in ’05
MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON, July 7 — A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas was aborted at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan, according to intelligence and military officials.

The target was a meeting of Qaeda leaders that intelligence officials thought included Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy and the man believed to run the terrorist group’s operations.

But the mission was called off after Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, rejected an 11th-hour appeal by Porter J. Goss, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, officials said. Members of a Navy Seals unit in parachute gear had already boarded C-130 cargo planes in Afghanistan when the mission was canceled, said a former senior intelligence official involved in the planning.

Mr. Rumsfeld decided that the operation, which had ballooned from a small number of military personnel and C.I.A. operatives to several hundred, was cumbersome and put too many American lives at risk, the current and former officials said. He was also concerned that it could cause a rift with Pakistan, an often reluctant ally that has barred the American military from operating in its tribal areas, the officials said.
We are approaching the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the Bush Administration continues to fail to capture the psychopaths who planned those attacks. This story is another example of their monumental incompetence.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

An Admission That We Are In Iraq For Oil

Finally, a conservative in government admits the real reason we are still in Iraq: oil.

Of course this conservative isn't from our government:

Australia 'has Iraq oil interest'
Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has admitted that securing oil supplies is a key factor behind the presence of Australian troops in Iraq.

He said maintaining "resource security" in the Middle East was a priority.

[...]In comments to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Mr Nelson admitted that the supply of oil had influenced Australia's strategic planning in the region.

"Obviously the Middle East itself, not only Iraq but the entire region, is an important supplier of energy, oil in particular, to the rest of the world," he said.

"Australians and all of us need to think what would happen if there were a premature withdrawal from Iraq.

"It's in our interests, our security interests, to make sure that we leave the Middle East, and leave Iraq in particular, in a position of sustainable security."
There you have it, folks: A conservative admits the truth about why we are in Iraq.

It is not because we want to spread freedom or democracy. It is because the greedy men in power want oil, and they have sacrificed the blood of the innocent for that oil.

Naturally, this admission wasn't from an American conservative (I'm not going to hold my breath for that to happen), and naturally, this is something we liberals have been saying throughout this tragic debacle.

We have the capability to ween ourselves off of oil and convert to a eco-friendly energy infrastructure, but evil men in power like Bush and Cheney would rather sacrifice the lives of Americans to keep us slaves to the oil industry. They are traitors to this country, and even if they spend the rest of their lives in prison (and they should), it wouldn't be enough of a punishment for all the evil they have wrought.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Bush Stabs Justice In The Back

Bush has absolutely ZERO credibility left now. He has, once again, proved to be a national disgrace and the worst president ever:

President commutes Libby's sentence
Calls 30-month term for ex-Cheney aide 'excessive'

By Mark Silva
Washington Bureau
Published July 3, 2007


KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine -- President Bush, calling the prison sentence for Lewis "Scooter" Libby "harsh" and "excessive," on Monday commuted the 30-month term that had been handed to the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney.

[...]Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice and lying to a federal grand jury in special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the leak of a CIA operative's identity. Libby had spoken with reporters about Valerie Plame, the CIA operative whose husband, Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence in the run-up to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Libby was convicted of making conflicting statements to the federal prosecutors and the grand jury investigating the leak.
I can only hope Bush lives long enough to regret this and every other horrific mistake of his failed presidency, but I doubt that, even if he lives a thousand years, Bush will ever understand the evil and damage he has caused our nation and our world. He lacks the mental capacity.