Tillman Death And The Web Of Lies

Oh, what a tangled web Bush weaves.

Honestly, this may have no direct connection to Bush, but Bush has created and supported a system of deceit and lies. This merely follows along with the narrative of mendacity for the most dishonest White House since Nixon:

Officer probe demanded in Tillman case

Anger in Congress over possibility of cover-up in death

(03-28) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Members of Congress from both parties, angered by findings of an Army investigation into the 2004 friendly fire death of football star and Army ranger Pat Tillman, called on Tuesday for hearings to explore if top officers covered up the circumstances of his death.

The quick congressional reaction followed the release Monday of a Pentagon probe into Tillman's death and its aftermath that showed repeated bungling during initial military investigations and a pattern of keeping his family in the dark about how the 27-year-old Bay Area native died April 22, 2004, in Afghanistan at the hands of fellow American soldiers.

"I am disgusted, and that's the word I would use, that officers would try to cover up the truth,'' said Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., a House Armed Services Committee member. "Anyone in a leadership position in the military who would cover up the truth should resign. I cannot imagine how the family would feel.''

Tillman was a true patriot, and he did not deserve this deceitful treatment by false patriots.

I do not care whether the Bush administration was directly involved in this or not because ultimately it was the Bush administration's policies of pathological lying, systematic propaganda, and covering-up the truth that set the stage for this and countless other scandals and disgraceful acts from the outing of a CIA operative to Abu Ghraib to Mark Foley to the political firings of US Attorneys.

I and many others have pointed out the many lies of the Bush administration many times, so I am not going to write another list right now. I think it is sufficient to mention that I would have a hard time coming up with a list of things that they have been right about or told the truth about.

Remember in 2000 when Bush said he was going to "clean up the White House". Well, when does he plan on starting that "clean up"? Because after spending all his time in office on making a mess out of... well, everything and bringing unprecedented digrace upon the White House (yes, even more disgrace than Monicagate), I imagine his "clean up" pledge is going to take a lot more time than he has left in his term. Or did he not mean for us to take "clean up the White House" figuratively?

The Civil War In Iraq

The civil war in Iraq continues despite Bush's surge escalation:

At least 45 dead after police officers go on killing spree in northern Iraqi town

BAGHDAD---- Off-duty Shiite policemen enraged by massive bombings in the northern town of Tal Afar went on a revenge spree against Sunni residents there on Wednesday, killing at least 45 men execution-style, police and hospital officials said.
The policemen began roaming the town's Sunni neighborhoods on foot early in the morning, shooting at Sunni residents and homes.

A senior hospital official in Tal Afar said at least 45 men between the ages of 15 and 60 were killed with a shot to the back of the head and four others were wounded. He spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

But Joe Lieberman still claims Iraq it is not in a civil war. My question is: Is Joe Lieberman a liar or unintelligent or both?

John McCain vs. John McCain

It was not too long ago that McCain seemed likely to be the next Republican presidential nominee. Now, it seems like he has lost his mind (from ThinkProgress.org):

Faced With Facts, McCain Denies His Own Straight Talk

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told CNN that that President Bush’s escalation in Iraq is going so well, “General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee.” On Monday, he told radio host Bill Bennett that there “are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today.”

This morning, during an interview with McCain, CNN’s John Roberts rebutted McCain’s assertions, stating, “I checked with General Petraeus’s people overnight and they said he never goes out in anything less than an up-armored humvee.” He added that a new report by retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey “said no Iraqi government official, coalition soldier, diplomat reporter could walk the streets of Baghdad without heavily armed protection.”

Faced with overwhelming evidence that he was wrong, McCain denied he’d ever said it: “Well, I’m not saying they could go without protection. The President goes around America with protection. So, certainly I didn’t say that.”

The MSM might criticize McCain by speculating that he might be too old to be president. However, I do not have a problem with his age. What I have a problem with is that McCain is (1) in denial about the reality in Iraq and (2) in denial about the reality of what he said ONE DAY EARLIER.

After Bush, the last thing this country needs is another reality-denying president. McCain is out of the race as far as I am concerned. I do not think that even Republicans will support another delusional (or deluding, depending on your outlook) candidate. I highly doubt that McCain will win the GOP's nomination.

Money Wasted In Iraq

I hate being right all the time:

Iraq Reconstruction Audit to Be Released

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. government must learn from its multi-million-dollar mistakes of poor contract oversight and bad planning in its Iraq reconstruction effort or risk repeating them there and elsewhere, investigators say.

The audit released Thursday by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the first to list in one place the series of mistakes, delays and missed opportunities in a four-year-old Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has cost taxpayers nearly $400 billion.

Characterizing the U.S. effort as chaotic and poorly managed, Bowen found the Bush administration's rebuilding effort riddled with problems - from a lack of strategy and unclear lines of authority to confusion and disarray between the Defense and State Departments.

I am not only angry because of this story. I am also angry because this is just another example of the countless ways we liberals were right but ignored regarding the war in Iraq.

Bush was WRONG about EVERYTHING. We were RIGHT about EVERYTHING. When are people going to, instead, start listening to us and stop listening Bush?

Universal Healthcare Saves $$$

This is what I have been trying to tell you:

Universal health plan could yield savings

WASHINGTON -- Expanding government health insurance coverage to all Americans could reduce healthcare spending by as much as $60.7 billion a year, according to a study by a nonpartisan research center.

The estimated savings would include a $33.9 billion cut in the cost of prescription drugs, the New York-based Commonwealth Fund said in a report yesterday . The organization evaluated proposals introduced in Congress in recent years, including some that would allow everyone to enroll in Medicare, the government health insurance program that now serves older Americans and the disabled.

Liberals and progressives have been saying this for years. When are the so-called conservatives going to start conserving money and join us in supporting a universal health care plan.

Japan Continues To Lie About Sex Slaves

Japan is really making me irate with this:

Japan Finds No Evidence of WWII Sex Slavery

The Japanese government has found no evidence that the military or the government forced women to work in World War II military brothels, the Cabinet said in a statement to a lawmaker Friday.

The declaration coincided with moves by conservative lawmakers to investigate the issue and soften a 1993 government apology for pressing thousands of woman to work as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers in Asia.

Seriously, why don't they just come out and say that World War II never happened? If they are going to deny one historical fact about WWII, then they might as well deny the whole thing.

Why don't they just deny the attack on Pearl Harbor or the rape and slaughter of the people of Nanking or Unit 731? Denying any one of those events would be just as ridiculous.

Where is Japan's sense of respect and decency? Where is their sense of honor? Japan's government is like a little child who lies to cover up something the child did that he knew was wrong when he did it and doesn't want anyone to know what he did. In doing that, they are making the horror of their crimes worse. If they had any decency, honor, or respect they would own up to their crimes, apologize, and try to make some restitution. Instead, they commit these disgraceful acts of denial.

Could you imagine if Germany's government denied the Holocaust or if the U.S. government denied the enslavement of Africans? There would be such enormous outrage and a strong uproar outside and inside their countries that such governments would be quickly replaced. Why isn't this happening in Japan?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must resign, and any members of Japan's government who supports the denial of Japan's history of sex slavery must also resign. Japan's citizens must demand their resignations if they want to restore their country's humanity.

I realize that there probably are not a lot of Japanese people who will read this, but I refuse to be silent when I see this sort of injustice. We are all on this planet together, so it is important that we work together to promote justice and equality. That is why we must speak out against things like genocide, racism, apartheid, terrorism, and war. We cannot be idle or silent when injustice occurs whether it is in Japan or Sudan or anywhere.

Soros Fights TB

Wow, Soros is helping to fight disease and poverty and using his wealth for good. You can really see why Bill O'Reilly thinks he is the spawn of Satan.[/snark]

Soros urges action against drug-resistant TB

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Health experts fear some of the success in managing Africa's HIV epidemic could be undone if donors ignore highly drug resistant tuberculosis, which is proving a serious threat to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

Hoping to set an example, billionaire philanthropist George Soros announced $3 million in seed funding for a pilot project in the tiny southern African kingdom of Lesotho to develop a centre of excellence to research and treat virulent TB strains.

Soros, founder of the Budapest-baed Open Society Institute, said his donation was a call for urgent action and to encourage donors to add funds to help mitigate a looming health crisis.

Another Gap In Theory Of Evolution Is Filled

The fundamentalist Christians hate when this happens:

Paleontologists Discover New Mammal From Mesozoic Era

Science Daily — An international team of American and Chinese paleontologists has discovered a new species of mammal that lived 125 million years ago during the Mesozoic Era, in what is now the Hebei Province in China.

The new mammal, documented in the March 15 issue of the journal Nature, provides first-hand evidence of early evolution of the mammalian middle ear--one of the most important features for all modern mammals. The discovery was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"This early mammalian ear from China is a rosetta-stone type of discovery which reinforces the idea that development of complex body parts can be explained by evolution, using exquisitely preserved fossils," said H. Richard Lane, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences, which co-funded the discovery with NSF's Division of Environmental Biology and its Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL) program.

[...]The researchers discovered that the skull of Yanoconodon revealed a middle ear structure that is an intermediate step between those of modern mammals and those of near relatives of mammals, also known as mammaliaforms.

Record Deficit For 5th Straight Year

Bush continues to talk about how well our economy is doing and live in his own fantasy world despite news like this:

Trade deficit reaches a record high for the fifth straight year

WASHINGTON - The deficit in the broadest measure of trade hit an all-time high in 2006 and for the first time the United States even ran a deficit on investment income.

The Commerce Department reported that the imbalance in the current account jumped by 8.2 percent to $856.7 billion, representing a record 6.5 percent of the total economy. It marked the fifth straight year the current account deficit set a record.

Investment flows turned negative by $7.3 billion from a surplus of $11.3 billion in 2005. It was the first time investment income has been negative on records going back to 1929. That means foreigners earned more on their U.S. holdings than Americans earned on their overseas investments.

While the U.S. has run deficits in its trade in goods every year since 1976, until last year it had still been able to record a surplus in investments.

Conrad Black On TrialWill He Pay George Will To Defend Him?

Conrad Black is in trouble:

Ex-Press Lord's Fraud Trial Set to Begin

Former media baron Conrad M. Black's racketeering and fraud trial to get under way with defense lawyers seeking jurors who won't turn sour over his Park Avenue condo, antique Rolls Royce and expense-account vacation on the Pacific island paradise of Bora Bora.

And who is he, you ask?

[...]Black, 62, may no longer be chairman and chief executive of the sprawling Hollinger International newspaper empire, but he still commands attention from reporters, scores of whom are in Chicago to cover the trial.

[...]Hollinger once owned the Chicago Sun-Times, the Toronto-based National Post, The Daily Telegraph of London and the Jerusalem Post, as well as hundreds of community newspapers. The Toronto, London and Jerusalem papers have been sold and the company name has been changed to Sun-Times Media Group.

Black is charged with selling off hundreds of community newspapers and pocketing millions of dollars in payments from the buyers in exchange for promises not to compete in the markets where the newspapers circulated.

[...]Black also is charged with tapping the Hollinger till to pay for a vacation on Bora Bora, use of the company plane and most of a $62,000 birthday party for his wife, conservative writer Barbara Amiel Black.

He is not only married to one conservative writer, but he has personally employed another:

George Will’s Ethics: None Of Our Business?

Media Beat (1/1/04)

By Norman Solomon

[...]Late December brought to light a pair of self-inflicted wounds to the famous columnist’s ethical pretensions. He broke an elementary rule of journalism — and then, when the New York Times called him on it, proclaimed the transgression to be no one’s business but his own.

It turns out that George Will was among a number of prominent individuals to receive $25,000 per day of conversation on a board of advisers for Hollinger International, a newspaper firm controlled by magnate Conrad Black. Although Will has often scorned the convenient forgetfulness of others, the Times reported that “Mr. Will could not recall how many meetings he attended.” But an aide confirmed the annual $25,000 fee.

Even for a wealthy commentator, that’s a hefty paycheck for one day of talk. But it didn’t stop Will from lavishing praise on Black in print — without a word about their financial tie.

Can't we take away Will's Pulitzer Prize or something for that? Why are news organizations continuing to pay him after such a breach of journalistic ethics?

What is it with conservatives and financial corruption? Do you have to be financially corrupt to be a successful wealthy conservative or are there just an enormous amount of coincidences?

Well, maybe Black will be punished for his unethical behavior even if Will is not.

Justice For 9/11?

So this happened:

Al-Qaida No. 3 Says He Planned 9/11

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed portrayed himself to a U.S. military tribunal as al-Qaida's most ambitious operational planner, taking responsibility for planning and supporting 31 terrorist attacks, topped by 9/11, according to an account of his confession.

[...]"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," Mohammed said in a statement read Saturday during a Combatant Status Review Tribunal at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mohammed's confession was read by a member of the U.S. military who is serving as his personal representative.

[...]The military barred reporters or other independent observers from the sessions for the 14 operatives and is limiting the information it provides about them, arguing that it wants to prevent the disclosure of sensitive information.

Legal experts have criticized the U.S. decision, and The Associated Press filed a letter of protest, arguing that it would be "an unconstitutional mistake to close the proceedings in their entirety."

I do not believe that anyone doubts that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is guilty of being a terrorist and guilty of planning and supporting terrorist acts that include 9/11. That is why the Bush administration's decision to try him in secret is all the more confusing.

There was no need to torture him and try him in secret without legal representation and without habeas corpus. They could have conducted a completely open, fair, and legal trial under the presumption of innocence and still have convicted him.

What good is "justice" if we commit injustice in seeking it? What good is it to fight terrorism if we intentionlly or unintentionally use terrorist tactics like torture, starting wars based on false premises, or killing innocent civilians in the process?

I think that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is an evil man and deserves to be punished for his crimes, but not at the price of our humanity. I try hard to be a good person based on my Christian beliefs and to not be a hypocrite. That is why I feel that this "confession" by Mohammed is a bittersweet event. Bush is not a good Christian and he is a hypocrite, and I have lost all trust in him and his administration to be morally upstanding in their prosecution of Mohammed or any "enemy combatant". To them the ends justify the means no matter how evil or unethical the means are.

How do we know this confession wasn't obtained through torture and coercion? The Bush administration has given us no reason to trust them; they have lied or been wrong about everything.

The "end" of Mohammed being punished for his crimes holds a far lesser value if the means to that end include evils like torture, secret trials, and unconstitutional behavior. If Bush and his administration were doing what is right, they would have no need to hide their works, but they know that what they are doing is wrong, and that is why they feel the need to hide what they are doing.

By the way, while we are on the topic of seeking justice, it has been FIVE AND A HALF YEARS since 9/11, and Osama bin Laden has not been captured.

NY Times Gives Platform To Global Warming Distorters

The "liberal" New York Times published a blatantly biased attack piece on Al Gore and his movie An Inconvenient Truth. RealClimate.org does the debunking (so that I can be lazy):

Broad Irony

The first rule when criticizing popular science presentations for inaccuracies should be to double check any 'facts' you use. It is rather ironic then that William Broad's latest piece on Al Gore plays just as loose with them as he accuses Gore of doing.

We criticized William Broad previously (Broadly Misleading) for a piece that misrepresented the scientific understanding of the factors that drive climate change over millions of years, systematically understating the scientifically-established role of greenhouse gases, and over-stating the role of natural factors including those as speculative as cosmic rays (see our recent discussion here). In this piece, Broad attempts to discredit Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" by exaggerating the legitimate, but minor, criticisms of his treatment of the science by experts on climate science, and presenting specious or unsubstantiated criticisms by a small number of the usual, well-known contrarians who wouldn't agree even if Gore read aloud from the latest IPCC report.

This RealClimate.org article is really good. Click the link. Read the whole article. Educate yourself. It is worth it.

If the NY Times were really liberal or had higher journalistic integrity they would not have printed Broad's right-wing propaganda. To recompense for this error, they should retract Broad's article and print the RealClimate.org article.

That probably won't happen, but that is why the real liberal media, the countless liberal and progressive blogs (like mine), are trying to restore truth and balance.

Truth has a liberal bias as Stephen Colbert would say. While he was being ironic, many on the Right have, whether ignoranly or deliberately, come to that absurd conclusion, and decades of the Right repeating "the liberal media" myth has turned that myth into a religion for right-wingers and an influential scare tactic to the traditional media. By incessantly claiming the traditional media has a liberal bias, the Right has managed to pull an already balanced media off to the right. Through that and other similar tactics, they have moved the entire political debate further to the right by deceitfully demanding that the Right is the Center, the Center is the Left, and the Left is crazy and outside the mainstream.

Such deceit has wrought heavy damage to our country to the point that there became a need for blogs like DailyKos, MyDD, TalkingPointsMemo, Firedoglake, ThinkProgress, CrooksAndLiars. They, in turn, inspired many, many smaller blogs like mine. Our numbers are growing, and as our cause grows we will acheive success in repairing the political damage to our country and, eventually, the environmental damage to our world.

Texas House Loves Cancer And STD

I am glad I don't live in Texas anymore:

TX House Votes to Override Vaccine Order

AUSTIN — The Texas House approved a bill Tuesday that would keep the human papillomavirus vaccine off the list of required shots for school attendance, tentatively circumventing Gov. Rick Perry's executive order.

The vaccine protects girls against strains of HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer.

The measure, approved 119-21, still needs final approval in the House and approval in the Senate. It's also possible that Perry will veto the legislation, but the 119 voters that approved the bill Tuesday are more than enough to override a veto.

It seems obvious to me from this decision that the Texas House does not care about the health and lives of Texas citizens.

Of course, I also think that Texas does not care about the health and lives of American citizens because they gave us George W. Bush, so perhaps I should not be surprised that the Texas House voted to help spread cancer and STD and voted against good health and saving lives.

Wake Up: Fox News Is Right-Wing Propaganda

If you do not know by now that the Fox "News" Channel is in fact a outlet for right-wing propaganda, then you must either be living under a rock or watching the Fox "News" Channel.

Their first trick is to deceive their audience into thinking that they are not a right-wing propaganda outlet. After that, they can say whatever they want, and their audience will believe them because the audience thinks the propaganda is news.

While those of us who are realists have been denouncing the FNC for their right-wing bias, slant, propaganda, and tactics, the FNC and its audience has denied our claims, the traditional media has ignored our claims, and the majority of the public are too busy with their own lives to care.

Well, with a recent push by liberal and progressive blogs and entities, we are finally starting to gain some traction:

Republican Propaganda Is Not News

Over the past three weeks or so, the progressive movement – bloggers, Moveon.org, grassroots activists, filmmakers – pressured the Nevada Democratic Party to drop Fox News as the host of a presidential debate in August. In pursuing this short campaign, we made two basic arguments that were eventually accepted by party leaders.

First, we argued that Fox News is not a news channel, but a propaganda outlet that regularly distorts, spins, and falsifies information. Second, Fox News is heavily influenced or even controlled by the Republican Party itself. As such, we believe that Fox News on the whole functions as a surrogate operation for the GOP. Treating Fox as a legitimate news channel extends the Republican Party’s ability to swift-boat and discredit our candidates. In other words, Fox News is a direct pipeline of misinformation from the GOP leadership into the traditional press.

Thankfully, Fox News immediately proved our point with a press release after the debate cancellation that made the following remarkable claim: "News organizations will want to think twice before getting involved in the Nevada Democratic caucus which appears to be controlled by radical, fringe, out-of-state interest groups, not the Nevada Democratic Party."

John Edwards had already decided not to participate in the debate before it was cancelled, and the FNC attacked him for doing so. Barack Obama had been attacked by them several times before he decided to freeze them out completely. These men have set bold and appropriate examples of how to deal with the FNC's unfair and unbalanced brand of "journalism".

More and more, as the examples pour in, liberal and progressive watchdog organizations (like Media Matters for America and News Hounds) and blogs are pointing out the FNC's flaws and blatant bias. Here are two recent posts from Crooks and Liars:

Crazy Fox Propaganda

Fair and Balanced Propaganda Pt.2The FNC are only part of the right-wing machine, but they are a large part. Sen. Clinton talked about another part of the machine recently:

Clinton: Right-Wing Conspiracy Is Back

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday described past Republican political malfeasance in New Hampshire as evidence of a ``vast, right-wing conspiracy.'' Clinton's barbed comments revived a term she coined for the partisan plotting during her husband's presidential tenure and echoed remarks she made last weekend in New Hampshire, which holds the nation's first primary.

[...]Clinton asserted on Tuesday that the conspiracy is alive and well, and cited as proof the Election Day 2002 case of phone jamming in New Hampshire, a case in which two Republican operatives pleaded guilty to criminal charges, and a third was convicted.

``To the New Hampshire Democratic Party's credit, they sued and the trail led all the way to the Republican National Committee,'' Clinton said.

``So if anybody tells you there is no vast, right-wing conspiracy, tell them that New Hampshire has proven it in court,'' she said.

The article's title is a bit misleading. The vast right-wing conspiracy never left, so it can't be "back".

The VWRC claim for which Sen. Clinton was ridiculed ten years ago was true then and it is true now. Whether the attacks come from

the well-documented efforts by conservative financier Richard Mellon Scaife to fund a network of anti-Clinton investigations.

, the FNC, or the dirty campaign tactics of Karl Rove, the VWRC is alive and well, and all Americans should work to ensure that our country is free from their lies, their deceit, and their propaganda.

Sen. Johnson Recovering

Here is some good news for a change. Sen. Johnson is still getting better and has issued a public statement:

Ailing Senator Issues Photos, Statement

The first public photos of Sen. Tim Johnson since his December brain hemorrhage show him looking pounds lighter and sitting in a wheelchair. According to a spokeswoman, he now has limited use of his right arm and leg.

[...]Johnson's office also issued his first public statement since the hemorrhage three months ago.

"I want to thank the people of South Dakota and all of our dear friends for their support and prayers," the statement read. "This has been an unexpected journey and there is a long road in front of me. I am determined and focused on my recovery, and I look forward to returning to the Senate on behalf of South Dakota."

It is good to hear that he is doing so well after such an ordeal, and I hope his health continues to improve.

Gonzales Aides Comedians

Gonzales helped out comedians everywhere by taking responsibility for the politically-motivated firing of eight U.S. Attorneys and then quickly claimed he wasn't responsible:

Gonzales refuses to resign over firing of U.S. prosecutors

WASHINGTON -- Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales refused to step down yesterday in a widening scandal over the politically motivated firing of eight federal prosecutors, which has already led to the resignation of his chief of staff.

"I believe in accountability," Mr. Gonzales said during a hastily called news conference here. "Like every CEO of a major organization, I am responsible for what happens at the Department of Justice. I acknowledge that mistakes were made here. I accept that responsibility."

Yet Mr. Gonzales immediately placed the blame for the controversial firings on his top aide, Kyle Sampson, who resigned on Monday.

If this latest Bush administration scandal was the only one Gonzales was involved with, then I could understand his decision to refuse to resign, but it is one of many:

He argued that Bush had the right to torture prisoners.

He argued that Bush could break the law.

He supported Bush's illegal spying on Americans without a warrant.

He claims that Bush can ignore laws passed by Congress.

He supports Bush at the expense of the rule of law.

He supports Bush at the expense of the Constitution.

He pushed for the unconstitutional suspension of habeas corpus.

Then there is this one: (from Discourse.net - h/t Crooks and Liars):

Alberto Gonzales's Role in the Plame Cover-Up

Everyone seems to have forgotten that then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales also presided over one of the more sordid aspects of the Plame scandal. When Gonzales first learned that the Justice Department had started an official investigation into the Plame leak, Gonzales waited twelve hours before putting the White House staff on notice that they had to preserve documents and electronic files. Which seemed than -- and seems now -- like an open invitation to "shredding and deleting," not to mention getting your story straight. In short, obstruction of justice.

And it's not as if Gonzales dithered trying to make up his mind what to do. He told White House Chief of Staff Andy Card about the investigation right away -- many hours before sending the official notification to preserve all evidence.

[...]Lest you think this is much ado about nothing, consider that when Patrick Fitzgerald came looking, key emails to or from the Vice President's office mysteriously could not be found in the White House computer system's archives.

Gonzales should resign or be impeached. Either way he should not be (nor ever have been) Attorney General of the United States of America.

Britain Fights Global Warming

Britain abolished slavery about thirty years before the U.S. Hopefully, it will not take us as long to follow their good example on taking action against global warming.

Britain sets toughest carbon targets to beat climate change

Britain is to enact the toughest laws on carbon emission in the world to reduce its impact on global warming, the Government announced yesterday.

The UK will be the first country to impose legally binding five-year limits on carbon emissions as ministers aim to set an example to the world on how to beat climate change.

[...]The five-year limits are part of a rolling fifteen-year programme designed to achieve a statutory target of at least 26 per cent reduction of carbon by 2020 and 60 per cent by 2050, compared with 1990 levels.

Halliburton Stops Pretending It's Patriotic

Halliburton, with the help of Dick Cheney, has done a great job of exploiting the U.S. and Iraq. Progressives and liberals have been speaking out against them for a long time with little or no results. Meanwhile, Halliburton continued to bilk American taxpayers, and now they are getting out while the getting's good and taking their war profits with them. And guess where they are going:

Halliburton moving headquarters to Dubai

Halliburton Co., the energy services giant and controversial defense contractor, said Sunday it is opening a new corporate headquarters in Dubai in the Middle East.

The change from Houston to the United Arab Emirates by the world's second largest oil-field services provider was announced by Chief Executive Dave Lesar at an energy conference in neighboring Bahrain.

[...]Halliburton has been dogged by criticism that it overbilled taxpayers in a multibillion contract to feed and house U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Last month, federal investigators alleged Halliburton was responsible for $2.7 billion of the $10 billion in contractor waste and overcharging in Iraq. The company has denied any wrongdoing.

The company's business dealings in Nigeria also are being investigated by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commissions. The company has said it is cooperating in the investigations.

The planned move surprised longtime critic Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He called for congressional hearings on the move, saying, "I want to understand the ramifications for U.S. taxpayers and national security."

Halliburton is probably leaving because the Democrats control Congress now, and they are worried about investigations into their shady business practices and war profiteering. Oh, and then there is the "patriotic" tax evasion:

One Washington corporate lobbyist said: "I think it ensures that there will be some interesting oversight hearings," since Democrats have been unhappy with Halliburton's no-bid contracts and what they believe is its poor performance.

The lobbyist, who requested anonymity so he would not jeopardize relationships with his clients, said the move raises several questions, among them how much did Halliburton receive in incentives to move to Dubai and what does it do to the company's tax structure.

"If there's a huge tax shift, then it's taking money from U.S. taxpayers while they're taking no-bid contracts," the lobbyist said.

Sure they'll take our money, but why should they have to pay taxes to the country that they have been profiting from?

Can you imagine the outrage if this company had been run by a Democrat instead of Cheney? Limbaugh and Hannity would be having a field day with this story, but because of the IOKIYAR (It's OK If You Are Republican) double-standard, they'll be hypocritically quiet about this.

This story is just one more sickening thing we on the left were right about, but nobody listens to us no matter how often our warnings turn out to be correct.

Here are some more links with more info on this topic if you are interested:

BREAKING - Halliburton moving headquarters to Dubai!

[...]For a company that gets such a significant portion of its income from the US government, this is quite a stunning move, to say the least. Unless it means that they expect that this revenue stream will end soon - or that there is so little oil left in the USA that this is no longer where business will be? Or that it is suddenly becoming safer to stay away from US law enforcement authorities?

The real reason Halliburton's moving to Dubai

In one of my first diaries on Dailykos, I wrote about how Halliburton was skirting the laws of the United States by having its "affiliate" in Dubai act as a "launderer" of business products and money so that it could sell illegal items to illegal countries[...]

Gingrich Admits To Hypocrisy, But Claims He Is Not A Hypocrite

Newt Gingrich admits that he did something extremely hypocritical:

Gingrich had affair during Clinton probe

WASHINGTON - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.

"The honest answer is yes," Gingrich, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, said in an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson to be aired Friday, according to a transcript provided to The Associated Press. "There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards."

You know what I am going to say about this, right?

What an incredible hypocrite!

However, that admission isn't even the most unbelievable aspect to this interview with pandering to the Religious Right:

Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity.

WHAT?! Is he insane?! How is what he did not the very definition of "hypocrisy"?

Gingrich goes on to really stretch this argument by then saying that we cannot accept perjury from our highest officials which is intended to imply that he is not a hypocrite because he went after Clinton for perjury, not infidelity.

Okay, first of all, Clinton would not have had any perjury charges against him if Gingrich had not been a hypocrite about Clinton's infidelity.

Secondly, while I agree with Gingrich the we should not accept perjury from our highest officials (like Scooter Libby), Clinton was found innocent of the perjury charge (as opposed to Scooter Libby).

Third, the perjury charge and the obstruction of justice charge that were brought against Clinton were the result of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy and a partisan House of Representatives that went after Clinton because he was a Democrat. He was a moderate who supported good ideas that conservatives pretend to support like fiscal responsiblity and bad issues that conservatives actually support like "free" trade agreements, but simply because he called himself a "Democrat", the VRWC waged a war against Clinton.

And what was the result of that war?

The worst president in our history George W. Bush

One of the most corrupt and secretive presidential administrations

Six years of the most corrupt and partisan Congress which was hopelessly subservient to the White House, Right-wing extremists, Christian conservative extremists, greedy corporations, but not to the public

9/11

The war in Iraq

The most divisive state our country has been in since the Civil War

Record debt and deficits

No-bid contracts for contractors that exploit Iraqis, our troops, and our country

The failed response to hurricane Katrina

The torture of prisonors in our custody (Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib)

The torture of prisonors we sent to other countries (extraordinary rendition)

The further ingorance and prolonging of global warming

Vice President Dick Cheney

The list goes on and on.

So thanks, Newt. Your hypocrisy has really served our country well.

DailyKos On The Libby Verdict

DailyKos is just kicking out the good points and killing the Right-wing talking points. I just wanted to highlight a few posts.

This post skips the easy kill (pointing out the Right's obvious hypocrisy on their standing on "the rule of law" when it comes to perjury charges for Clinton vs. perjury charges for Libby) and goes for a more nuanced approach:

A Pardon For Libby

But setting aside, for now, the blatant hypocrisy of these former defenders of "the rule of law," have any of them considered the implications of George Bush offering, and Scooter Libby accepting, a Presidential pardon? Because a pardon doesn't mean you didn't really commit a crime, and a pardon doesn't mean that the court made a mistake, a pardon is:

...an act of grace, proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of the laws, which exempts the individual, on whom it is bestowed, from the punishment the law inflicts for a crime he has committed...A pardon is a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance.

Let's repeat that, "for a crime he has committed."

If George Bush pardons Scooter Libby, then Libby is admitting that he did in fact lie and obstruct justice. Perhaps these pillars of the Fourth Estate can explain why that's okay with them.

Then, this one goes right after the hypocrisy, not by the Right-wing, but by the Washington Post:

When WaPo Cared about Lies

No, Mr. Hiatt, the damage done to our nation by a president who led it into an ill-conceived war based on a pack of lies has yet to be measured. Where is your righteous indignation for the deaths of 3,188 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis? And as for the end of the career of a covert CIA agent working on critical issues to our national security in the mideast, destroyed in a petty political payback scheme and the chief of staff to the Vice President lying about it under oath. Does that fit anywhere in your list of "affronts to the justice system"?

Finally, this post helps to point the traditional media towards what should be their next move on this issue:

Suggestions For The White House Press Corps

Until Scooter Libby is deloused and issued his prison stripes, it would be wrong to say anything that might expose him to further legal difficulties. After all, you don't want to screw with the guy who is taking a fall for you. And realizing that, I thought I would suggest a few possible lines of inquiry for the press corps that might be of interest to the American people:

When did the President know that Dick Cheney was behind the outing of Valerie Plame?

How often does the President selectively declassify material expressly to leak it to the press?

Who gave the order to Karl Rove to discuss Valerie Plame with reporters? The President or the Vice President?

Simple questions that in no way prejudice Scooter Libby's rights as he enters the next phase his of participation in the criminal justice system.

With posts like these, is it any wonder why so many people like me have turned away from the traditional media and turned to the new media online?