Month: January 2007

Bush Illegally Gives Himself Power to Open Your Mail

Jon Ponder

First, he admitted to listening to phone calls illegally. Now this:

“Despite the president’s statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people’s mail without a warrant.”
— Rep. Henry Waxman (D-West Hollywood), Chair of Oversight committee

President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans’ mail without a judge’s warrant, the New York Daily News has learned.

The president asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a “signing statement” that declared his right to open people’s mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

Bush’s move came during the winter congressional recess and a year after his secret domestic electronic eavesdropping program was first revealed. It caught Capitol Hill by surprise.

“Despite the president’s statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people’s mail without a warrant,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who co-sponsored the bill.

Experts said the new powers could be easily abused and used to vacuum up large amounts of mail.

Pat the Predictor Has Been Talking to God Again

Buck Banks

Obnoxious prognosticator: Pat Robertson and God were chewing the fat the other day, you know, jaw-jacking, and God told Pat that terrorists are going to attack the United States in 2007, causing a “mass killing.” But “I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” Robertson told the audience of The 700 Club, his television platform for launching his nutty announcements on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

The Associated Press looked at some of Pat’s other God-given predictions and outrageous statements from the past:

Robertson suggested in January 2006 that God punished then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians.

The broadcaster predicted in January 2004 that President Bush would easily win re-election.

Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

In 2005, Robertson predicted that Bush would have victory after victory in his second term. He said Social Security reform proposals would be approved and Bush would nominate conservative judges to federal courts.

Lawmakers confirmed Bush’s 2005 nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. But the president’s Social Security initiative was stalled.

In May, Robertson said God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami were to crash into America’s coastline in 2006.

Even though the U.S. was not hit with a tsunami, Robertson on Tuesday cited last spring’s heavy rains and flooding in New England as partly fulfilling the prediction.

And don’t forget Pat’s call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Regarding the accuracy of his prophecy, Robertson said, “I have a relatively good track record. Sometimes I miss.”

Gee, Pat, I thought God was making the predictions and just telling you about them. Are you insinuating that God is not infallible? Or do you need to have your hearing checked?

First Muslim U.S. Rep Will Take Oath On Thomas Jefferson’s Koran

Jon Ponder

This ought to shut up Rep. Virgil Goode, the bigot from the Virginia mountains:

Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, found himself under attack last month when he announced he’d take his oath of office on the Koran — especially from Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, who called it a threat to American values.

Yet the holy book at tomorrow’s ceremony has an unassailably all-American provenance. We’ve learned that the new congressman — in a savvy bit of political symbolism — will hold the personal copy once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Pick Up the Phone, Give Us a Call

Buck Banks

Dial tone: The merger of our two all-time least favorite media companies — Bell South and AT&T — has created what is likely to be the all-time worst media company, but has also created the world’s largest politcal action committee donor to federal elections, according the Congressional Quarterly.

The combined contributions to federal candidates totals $2,740,883 for the 2005-2006 election cycle through 11/27/06. The total may go higher when activity is reported for the 11/28-12/31 period.

The combination of the two corporation’s federal PAC giving totals $3,911,758. This includes the $2,740,883 to federal candidates; an additional $784,125 being given in the same period to leadership PACs; $260,000 more given to national party committees, and $126,750 more to other party committees.

With these two PACs becoming affiliated they will share a common contribution limit to specific candidates. This may affect the future amount contributed.

Here’s CQ’s ranking of top corporate PAC givers. Trish, please note that United Parcel Service gave more than twice as much to Republicans as it did to Dems. But then, so did FedEx.

We Brought Democracy to Iraq, But Apparently Not Freedom of the Press

Buck Banks

Senseless censorship: In the wake of Saddam Hussein’s execution, the Western media have been collectively wringing their hands over how to handle coverage of the ex-tyrant and U.S. political toy’s execution, funeral and burial. “Do broadcast the grainy cell phone video of Hussein’s last living moments?” “Do we show his dead body?” “Do we cover the sparsely attended funeral?”

But the execs at privately owned TV station al-Charkiya in Baghdad don’t have to worry about such questions because the Iraqi puppet government shut them down for inciting sectarian violence by broadcasting scenes of Hussein’s funeral:

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the closure of the Baghdad studios of privately owned satellite TV al-Charkiya, which was accused of “inciting sectarian violence” for showing footage of Iraqis mourning the death of former president Saddam Hussein.

The announcement of his execution and the broadcast of footage of his hanging produced sharply different reactions in the Iraqi media. Some, particularly state-owned publications, celebrated the death of the “tyrant”, while others lamented his death.

“We are very concerned by the attitude of the Nuri al-Maliki government which is imposing more and more restrictions on the press,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “The authorities should show more restraint so that pluralism of news and information remains a reality in Iraq.”

The interior ministry decided on 1st January 2007 to shut down the offices of the al-Charkiya, in the capital’s Yarmuq neighbourhood for “incitement to sectarian violence” and “to hatred”. The same day the channel had showed film of several demonstrations opposed to the execution of Saddam Hussein, in Bagdad, Tikrit (province in which the president was born) and in the Jordanian capital, Amman, where his daughter, Raghad Hussein, lives. Elsewhere, presenters on public al-Iraqiya condemned “Iraqi and Arab TV channels showing sympathy for the tyrant Saddam Hussein”. Al-Charkiya is still broadcasting from its studios in Dubai and Amman.

The Iraqi authorities already ordered the closure, on 5 November 2006, of TV stations al-Zaura and Salah-Eddin for showing footage of demonstrators brandishing pictures of the former president and protesting at his death sentence. Both stations were accused of inciting sectarian violence and have still not been allowed to resume broadcasting.

Seems you can impose democracy on a reluctant Muslim populace, but you can’t teach them a thing about freedom.

Bush Theocrats Censor Grand Canyon Geology, Insist It Was Formed by Noah’s Flood

Jon Ponder

From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER):

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by [PEER].

PEER says the new director of the National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, has been stalling requests to remove a book that presents the Creationist version of the formation of the Grand Canyon titled, “Grand Canyon: A Different View,” by Tom Vail. The group also says that the park’s interpretive rangers are forbidden from providing the age of the canyon based on its geology.

In August 2003, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block the sale at park bookstores of [Vail’s book]. NPS Headquarters, however, intervened and overruled Alston. To quiet the resulting furor, NPS Chief of Communications David Barna told reporters and members of Congress that there would be a high-level policy review of the issue.

According to a recent NPS response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by PEER, no such review was ever requested, let alone conducted or completed.

Bush appointees in the NPS defend selling the book by saying that bookstores are like libraries and should present a variety of different views. PEER says that “both law and park policies make it clear that the park bookstores are more like schoolrooms rather than libraries. As such, materials are only to reflect the highest quality science and are supposed to closely support approved interpretive themes.” PEER has obtained records showing that during 2003, park officials rejected 22 books and other products for the park’s bookstore and approved only one new sale item — the book presenting the creationist version of the canyon’s origins.

Olbermann: Bush’s Escalation in Iraq Will Needlessly Sacrifice American Troops

Jon Ponder

NBC’s Pentagon reporter confirmed that the president’s new strategy, called “surge and accelerate,” entails sending additional troops to Iraq for “political purposes.”

Last night on MSNBC’s “Countdown,” Keith Olbermann reported that Pres. Bush will announce next week that he is sending 20,000 additional troops to Iraq. According to NBC and the BBC, the president will try to sell the escalation as a “sacrifice” by the American people in order to achieve stability in the Middle East.

The real reason for the escalation, of course, is to try to create sufficient stability in the region so that Bush can declare “victory” in Iraq before he leaves office.

In an editorial later in the show, Olbermann expressed outrage at the president’s intent to require the sacrifice of additional American troops in order to salvage what is left of his own legacy:

[…]

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

The type of character produced by wealth lies on the surface for all to see. Wealthy men are insolent and arrogant; their possession of wealth affects their understanding; they feel as if they had every good thing that exists; wealth becomes a standard of value for everything else, and therefore they imagine there is nothing they cannot buy. They are luxurious and ostentatious … ostentatious and vulgar.

In a word, the type of character produced by wealth is that of a fool.

— Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), Greek philosopher