Edwards brings campaign launch tour to Des Moines
“That morality begins with Iraq, and it would be an enormous mistake to begin with the McCain doctrine,...It needs to be made clear that our troops are not going to stay in Iraq, and the best way to make that clear is to actually start leaving.”

I told you muncie is messed up place to be from. Do you believe me now?
New CBS reality series `Armed & Famous' paying suspects to show their faces on air

Get to work everyone!
Impeach Bush NOW!

US: Immigrants May Be Held Indefinitely
By MATT APUZZO
Forbes

Immigrants arrested in the United States may be held indefinitely on suspicion of terrorism and may not challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts, the Bush administration said Monday, opening a new legal front in the fight over the rights of detainees.

In court documents filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., the Justice Department said a new anti-terrorism law being used to hold detainees in Guantanamo Bay also applies to foreigners captured and held in the United States.

Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, was arrested in 2001 while studying in the United States. He has been labeled an "enemy combatant," a designation that, under a law signed last month, strips foreigners of the right to challenge their detention in federal courts.

That law is being used to argue the Guantanamo Bay cases, but Al-Marri represents the first detainee inside the United States to come under the new law. Aliens normally have the right to contest their imprisonment, such as when they are arrested on immigration violations or for other crimes.

"It's pretty stunning that any alien living in the United States can be denied this right," said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney for Al-Marri. "It means any non-citizen, and there are millions of them, can be whisked off at night and be put in detention."

The new law says that enemy combatants will be tried before military commissions, not a civilian judge or jury, and establishes different rules of evidence in the cases. It also prohibits detainees from challenging their detention in civilian court.

In a separate court filing in Washington on Monday, the Justice Department defended that law as constitutional and necessary.

Government attorneys said foreign fighters arrested as part of an overseas military action have no constitutional rights and are being afforded more legal rights than ever.

In its short filing in the Al-Marri case, however, the Justice Department doesn't mention that Al-Marri is being held at a military prison in South Carolina - a fact that his attorneys say affords him the same rights as anyone else being held in the United States.

The Justice Department noted only that the new law applies to all enemy combatants "regardless of the location of the detention."

The Bush administration maintains that al-Marri is an al-Qaida sleeper agent. The Defense Department ordered a review of Al-Marri's status as an enemy combatant be conducted if, as requested, the case is thrown out of court

Rev. Haggard was former Delaware County resident

This guy is from my town. Well, they call it Yorktown, but it's really just another neighborhood of Muncie where I'm from.
Oh- ever wonder why I'm such a bitter fuck?
Part of it was growing up the town featured in the "Middletown" series from PBS.
That was the series that claimed to expose life in Muncie from a supposed very clinical view.
What it seemed to do from my point of view, was give the the rightwing, self-righteous crowd from around here a chance to decry and bad mouth anyone who didn't attend their church.
Turns out this guys father was featured in the series as founder of a big evangelical group.
The problem came when the series aired ( the year before I started high school) it featured a total hatchet job on MY HIGH SCHOOL, supposedly exposing what horrible sinners we were. The amount of heat was so instant and so heavy after the series that being a kid in the following years was so hellish, so put under a goddamned microscope that it can't be described. During those years, it was how white, rich and clean cut you could look- how quickly you could become an "Alex Keaton" and start praising the Lord as well. Trouble is, almost everyone I knew who were the "very clean cut" young men and women turned out to be the biggest coke dealers/coke sluts, closeted gay or lesbians or in many cases even true "uncle pervy" types who jack-off in parking lots and in front of the co-ed dorms.

The pressure cooker environment created by this fucker and his dead dad is a place that nobody should ever have to live under. But I grew up there. I suppose I did the best with what I had. I did end up a bitter and outspoken critic of what's wrong. But due in no small part to the traditional and REAL christian upbringing that my parents gave me, at least I didn't end up like THEM.

Now, more than 3 1/2 years later, someone else is asserting that the war is about oil -- President Bush.

No new news here, but thanks G.W.- since this oil and it's use as a "tool" or a "weapon" now rests in your hands. If we say it, we're traitors. But if you say it, it must be true. Every once in a while the truth slips out! Even from you.

Conservatives Challenge Iraq Policy

From the "fairs fair" department:

Since I'm a left wing wacko, not a polite democrat, I've been waiting to say this to someone for awhile. (sorry abut the yelling.)

"YOU FUCKING TRAITORS! DON'T YOU KNOW YOU'RE GIVING COMFORT TO THE ENEMY??!!
DON'T YOU KNOW YOU'RE SENDING THE WRONG MESSAGE?
IMAGINE HOW SHITTY YOU'RE MAKING THE OUR BRAVE SOLDIERS FEEL BY ATTACKING THEM AND THEIR CAUSE!
NOW THAT YOU'VE DECIDED THAT THE WAR IS A BAD IDEA, SOMEONE NEEDS TO TREAT YOU LIKE YOU TREATED US! FUCK YOU, YOU UN-AMERICAN BASTARDS!"

Ok, thanx. I don't really mean it personally. When the war started, most of us knew it was a bad idea, but the few in power made sure the war happened.
We just couldn't debate it. It had to be a "football game style" shouting match- and the more reasoned and rational the argument against the war, the more likely you were to be called a traitor. Fairs fair.

In Kansas, 9 former Republicans run as Democrats

"it doesn't really matter, since we're a defacto "one-party system" anyway. As long as POWER is the only party; compromise, representation, equality, justice and accountability (justice and accountability or someone other than the poor and middle class I might add) are gone and will never return. In the end, Republicans and Democrats behave as one party anyway."

A Letter To Bartcop-

Recently I made the foolish move of expressing my opinion about Madonna to online pundit Bartcop.


It's pretty useless to take this any further, but in my reply email I'm just going to send him the third paragraph below. If it still doesn't make sense to him then, I think it's a lost cause. It's like he thinks I'm either for Madonna or against her, and if I'm against her, I must be defending the media. Whatever!
I've put the whole letter below, just so my ranting and raving will offend both my readers!
--------------------------------------------------------------



Bart-
Ouch. I made it into my own shame page.


I suppose I'll never sway you from your defending Madonna's right to steal a guys baby, `just because he happens to be dirt poor. Wow, did I say that?
Such heavy handed rhetoric seems appropriate, since with no futher evidence than I have, you've concluded that I somehow support the media in it's quest to "steal the baby's future" or whatever.
The conduct of the media in America is mostly un-acceptable. Period. I'd never imply otherwise.

I was only pointing out that Madonna is a person of questionable ethics in the first place and to believe her "chapter and verse" only on faith is a little hard for me, since she self-admittedly "slept her way to the top" (good for her!). I, for one, think her and her Guy are under no more scrutiny than if anyone else did a similar stunt.

We have laws to keep adoption safe. It’s never as easy as, "who can give the child a better or richer life". Real, legal adoption takes time. Not because the government wants to put adoptive parents through hell, but because the reasons some people have for adoption are less than wholesome. You can’t just give kids away based on the adoptive parents ability to pay for them. You also can’t be sure that wealth will benefit children in the way we want it to. No one can doubt Madonnas ability to pay the childs way, but has anyone from any childcare system evaluated Madonnas reasons for doing this, or is it just a case of stardom opens doors that are closed to everyone else? ( my friend in child protective services would be so proud of me for remembering all this.)

If Madonna wanted to please me? She would have adopted a "real orphan" missing both parents from somewhere like New Orleans. Then any "future" that gets "stolen" from some kid would at least be an American kid. In fact, I see Madonna as the essence of the "too hip" person that you try to paint the "Oprah Haters" out to be. She's globe trotting, new money, who can't bestow herself fast enough on some poor country in order to drum up whatever hype she's after, or save the world. Then she runs as fast as she can to said Oprah to say smirky things like "I knew people would cynical, but Oh- my-". Oh Please!

If we're all so down on the monkey boy for always smirking (and we are), check out Madonna on Oprah. What a fucking smirk. ( I'm just calling it as I see it BTW.)
If Madonna wants to impress me? Take a stand on the Iraq war, not some obviously poverty stricken country. It would be so much easier to help the entire country, and all the kids there, if someone like Madonna put her clout behind an anti-war message, in order to oust the current regime here at home. But since the Dixie Chicks have already proven that it costs real dollars to take a stand here at home, Madonna must go around the world the make her stand (or to save a child I might add !).

No Bart- if it looks, smells, walks, and talks like a cheap stunt, it probably is. If your blind hatred of the media stops you from seeing that, I'm sorry.

BESIDES- if it's your way: Madonna goes adopts a kid with big stars in her eyes, but fails to check out the details (like he has a Father!)- Then we’ve just proven she's an idiot.My way: at least I'm giving her credit for being smart enough to know what she's doing, and to use it in a mult-level media attack to get her point across, help a kid, sell herself, and get what she wants in the process (an adopted baby). The media steps and fetches for Madonna and always has. To think that the media is now treating her any way other than the way she wants to be treated, seems a little naive. After all- rather than stay at home raising baby, she's out on the talk show circuit telling everyone how great she is. POOR MADONNA! (Pity party here)

Still your friend,
the grand wazoo

"Kerry told a group of California students on Monday that those unable to navigate the country's education system "get stuck in Iraq."
Proving that once again the Kerry (D- Skull and Bones) can always be counted on to throw a "sacrifice play" to help his Skull and Bones brothers win.
How else could a democrat make every other democrat look bad, except by saying something "off-color" about our brave soldiers. This will give MSNBC/Fox News something to talk about besides how shitty the polls look for the republicans. Thanks John.
In F9/11, I'm pretty sure that was Kerry LAUGHING about the fact that the appointment of Bush could not be stopped without help of the senate, during a session where every senator had a chance to save Amerika, but instead gave it to the great murder monkey. Those folks were begging the senate to help. They all laughed and gave us what we now have today. Damn John Kerry to hell.

"Police Chief Francisco Ortiz said the accident remained under investigation, but officers did not feel it was necessary to test Walker for drugs or alcohol.... He was appointed to the court in 1989 by President George H.W. Bush, who is a cousin of the judge."
BUT if someone with the name "Kennedy" gets pulled over, look out!

N. Korea Air Sample Has No Radioactivity

National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's office said in a statement that air samples collected on Wednesday showed evidence of radioactivity. That verified North Korea's claims.

Once again, the government and the media demand to have it both ways.
That way, both sides can argue and argue about what even happened, let alone what to do, or what should or should not be done about it. Did someone order a surpise?......

Military Leader Rips the War
"...How shameful that the gravest of all foreign policy issues has been left to a soldier speaking out of turn...."
I can't explain this article any better that it does it's self.
When will the citizens of the world start listening to each other, instead of what the box with a picture in your living room says? The reality of the world we live in stands in such stark contrast to the world catered to and depicted on television.

U.S. weighs first treason charges in over 50 years

[So, apparently, revealing the identity of a CIA operative is okay, converting to a disapproved religion is not...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A California-born convert to Islam could become the first American accused of treason since World War Two after he appeared in al Qaeda videos, sources familiar with the man's case said on Wednesday.

They said U.S. prosecutors were strongly considering bringing the charges, which carry a maximum punishment of death, against Adam Gadahn, 28, who is believed to be overseas and is not in U.S. custody.

The charges could come as early as Wednesday.

The U.S. Justice Department last brought treason charges, during the World War Two era, the sources said.

Gadahn, who is also known on the videos as Azzam the American, has been involved in a propaganda campaign of the Islamic militant group, the sources said. Some of the videos have threatened attacks against the United States.

He converted to Islam from a Judeo-Christian family when he was 17 and a few years later moved to Pakistan. He previously was known as Adam Pearlman and grew up on a goat ranch outside Los Angeles.

The FBI has sought to question him since May 2004.

Besides treason, prosecutors have prepared other criminal charges against Gadahn, the sources said. They declined to give specific details.

You don't need to be a left wing wacko to see and understand this!- (but you can't be a ditto head)
" Gasoline Price Manipulation by...guess who?"

Iggy's tour rider. Very funny!
" I can relate a lot, as a sound engineer, to this very funny link."

Woodward: Kissinger Advising Bush
Sep 29, 1:41 PM (ET)

(AP) Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward appears on CNN's "Larry King Live," Monday,...
Full Image

NEW YORK (AP) - Henry Kissinger has been advising President Bush and Vice President Cheney about Iraq, telling them that "victory is the only meaningful exit strategy," author and journalist Bob Woodward said.

The Washington Post editor's third book on the Bush administration, "State of Denial," comes out next week.

In an interview airing Sunday night on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes," Woodward said that U.S. troops and their allies are being attacked, on average, every 15 minutes.

"The truth is that the assessment by intelligence experts is that next year, 2007, is going to get worse and, in public, you have the president and you have the Pentagon saying, 'Oh, no, things are going to get better.'"

He said Kissinger, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, has been telling Bush and Cheney that "in Iraq, he declared very simply, 'Victory is the only meaningful exit strategy.'"

"This is so fascinating. Kissinger's fighting the Vietnam War again because, in his view, the problem in Vietnam was we lost our will."

Woodward's 537-page book describes the administration as beset by infighting, according to The New York Times, which obtained an advance copy and reported on its contents Friday.

The 537-page book is based on interviews with administration leaders, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. However, sources are not always named, and neither the president nor Vice President Dick Cheney agreed to interviews, the book says, according to the Times.

Asked about the book, the White House on Thursday night dismissed it, telling The Associated Press it didn't contain anything new. During a briefing Friday at a NATO meeting in Slovenia, Rumsfeld declined comment on the book, saying he hadn't read it.

Buy Your Traveling Papers, Americka!
"...Advanced enrollment for the National Registered Traveler Program began Thursday. "It's like going through easy pass on the freeway," said Reggie Baumgardner, the airport's security manager.
...Passengers in the program will still have to go through the screening process, but they won't be subject to random searches. Other benefits, like not having to take off items of clothing during screening, are under currently under consideration by the Transportation Security Administration."
So for $80 you can bypass the random searches, and humiliation? That would be a bargain except I'm so old, I remember when there was a constitution that gave me those rights for free.

Foreign companies buying U.S. roads, bridges that taxpayers built
"sure, a one-time payment will fix all of Amerika's problems forever- right?
I'm pretty sure the only way we got our fathers and grandfathers generation to go along with a "toll road" in the first place, was that the general idea should be to charge a toll until the road was paid for. Then it would revert to a regular road.
Who knew most of their children or grand children would grow up so stupid, that they don't understand the meaning of your country not owning it's own roads? And would never remember, or care, how to hold it's government to the original deal in the first place.
The political machine can always count on the total, binding ignorance of the masses...Is there anywhere in the world that doesn't' hate me because of where I'm from? Can I get in my car right now and drive there before we cannibalize our entire country from within? "

I'll Drink To That!
"...Al Gore. I’m not much into polar bears, but this heat wave has me thinking the man might be on to something.

My fellow Republicans, it is time, as Madison said in Federalist 76, to “Hand over the tiller of governance, that others may fuck things up for a change.”

(Or was it Federalist 78?)..."

This article from Chris Hayes explains what in general I've been feeling and writing about for a long time now.
I don't know what's worse- the rights exploitation of power, or the left's total ignorance of what to do with power.
We had Clinton and prosperity for 8 years, yet all some will still talk about is his cock.
Amerika has a sick fetish for scandal, and the treatment of Clinton proved it. Left and Right both sat spellbound in front of the television as we destroyed ourselves during those years.
It's wrong to tear down Bush, he is still our (lousy) president. It was wrong to tear down Clinton.
You don't have to believe in God to understand that such counterproductive behavior will eventually destroy yourself. We reap our own rewards, and our country must now eat the sour fruit we've grown for ourselves.
Will we ever learn the simple lesson that no matter how you spin it, 2 or more "wrongs" can never make a "right"?

ABC Airs 9/11 Series Despite Criticism
(At least ABC didn't make it a reality show.)
For the ten millionth time, it's Blame Clinton.
Who would want to make, let alone watch a "dramatization" of what happened on 9/11?
The wounds and repercussions of 9/11 are still too fresh and open to be exposed to this kind of "entertainment", for anyone with any taste or decency on either side of the political row.
At least ABC didn't make it a reality show. There could have been contestants competing for a chance to fly a computer simulated airplane into simulated building, and then the contestants could have sat around and tried to convince one another that each had the bigger deathwish for God, and that they, not the other contestants should have the seat on the simulated plane.
Just when I think that television can't sink any lower, there is goes- further down the drain...

Nice idea. But everything will always be Clintons fault. Everything.This too.
"..."This has to be announced on their watch, using their voice," he said. "There's a great urgency about this: we only have two months left to educate all Americans about how the Bush deficits are literally destroying America's credit."

Hell Has Frozen Over- An Apology From A Bush Voter

"...In 2000, I was a McCain guy. I wasn't sure about the Texas Governor. He had name recognition and a lot of money behind him, but other than that? What? Still, I was sick of all the Clinton shenanigans and the thought of President Gore was… unthinkable. So, GWB became my guy.

For the first few months he was just flubbing along like most new Presidents, no great shakes, but no disasters either. He cut taxes and I like tax cuts..."

Jeezus- this guy makes me sick. What was so unthinkable about four more years of peace and prosperity under Al Gore?
And I've never been SO FUCKING SICK of anything as I am of hearing about TAX CUTS! You got what you wanted, no new taxes. Now see what that means? Higher everything else.
You republicans understand the cost of things, but you never seem to understand the value of anything.
And just so you know motherfucker, the system is NOT BROKEN!
It's simple old human evil and corruption that's to blame. If you take away the evil men and women at the command, the "broken" system will start working again. Broken system my ass.

Better Be careful, The Last Time We Made Fun of Someone This Much, His Ass Got Elected President.

I'm all for political satire, especially if it's funny. But the whole "take one verbal misstep and make or ruin a carrier out of it" is bullshit. Have fun folks, sure. But remember when Al Gore "invented the internet"? While he never said it that way, by the time folks we're done with it- he had indeed invented the internet and it's now a common joke.
My point is, it sucks when "they" do it to "us"- and it still sucks almost as much when we do it to them. And no, I'm not defending Senator George Allen. He's probably a real fucktard. But I suppose my questions would be- Has he said anything stupid since? Does he have a record of saying stupid shit ( not like macaca, like stupid political shit like the rest of the GOP), do we need to give him all this free publicity?
It's not that funny when they do it, how is it that funny when we do it? Besides, it's lazy.
Lazy politics, lazy satire.
We have our country and the world devastated by the GOP and it's policies, as proof that we are right, not them. Are we sure this is the "ball we want to run with"?

Winning isn't the main thing, it's the only thing.

"...That's when your masks fell off — you and your neighbors and your friends. More than half the country, in fact, and more of you all the time, souring on the war and the people who've been running it.

You may have tried to pass yourself off as good, loyal Americans — Democrats, Republicans (yes, even Republicans have been raising questions lately), independents. But that's when you showed the world who you really are, Mr. and Mrs. Appeaser of Fascists.

The nerve of you!

You think it might have been a good idea to send enough troops to do the job? And enough of the right kinds of equipment to keep those troops safe?

You're a defeatist..."
-------------------------------

A few years ago I was the only person writing such rants on the internet. The `net back then was filled with folks glorifiying GW and his war, or soft-sell critics who pointed out what a mistake it was going to be.
I've had a few screwed-over former republicans in private admit to me that the main problem with our country is the president. When questioned further they confessed that the main part of the last election (in that republican's opinion) was less about agreeing with GW, and more about simply shutting up democrats. Yes, in a candid moment, a republican admitted what we all know already; They just couldn't stand to see the democrats win! So at ANY cost to the country, and at any cost of life, even though they know they've cost America it's credibility and standing, they proceed with this war. And it's business as usual. You fuckers.

A note to all republicans:
OK, you got what you wanted. A war without end. Keep up the winning streak.

from ThePatriotNews.Com
"...They state their case in stark either/or rhetoric -- "Choose life over death," for example. They raise money for transportation, bail and lawyers. But I have not heard of a single preacher asking for money to offer direct financial assistance to these mothers in raising an unplanned, and perhaps unwanted child. Nor have I heard of a campaign to guarantee decent adoptive homes for these children. Christians are eternal critics, but seldom offer practical solutions."
Doc!

21st Century Amerika:
You've still got the constitutional right to free speech and protection from search and siezure. But no constitutional right to fly. ALL your rights seem to end at the airport gates. Gladly given up by most sheeple, I'm afraid.

Note to Republicans:
Once more for the record,
You don't have to give up God.
Just give up your fucked up, hate-mongering, double-standard filled, smear the other side, pundits never telling the truth, red-white-and-blue leave our troops to sweat and die in the field, we cried for the war but now we feel like suckers, style Politics. Religion is fine.
Oh yeah, don't decide to have collective amnesia about the fact that you self-rightously screwed over the previous president for a blow job, but continue to try and explain away every flaw and mistake that the current president has.
Isn't admitting that your wrong, always the next step in "recovery"?

"LBJ Night Before JFK Assassination: "Those SOB's Will Never Embarrass Me Again"

..."the night before the Kennedy assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson met with Dallas tycoons, FBI moguls and organized crime kingpins - emerging from the conference to tell his mistress Madeleine Duncan Brown that "those SOB's" would never embarrass him again. It's a jaw-dropping deposition and it's the biggest JFK smoking gun there is - despite the fact that it has received little media attention."

File this under- "stuff that most leftwingwackos already know"
But it's good that with our troops dying and our country nearly dead we still have time to rehash these chestnuts. Face it, the coup has already happened. And they got away with it.

Bush and Saddam Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremberg Prosecutor
Aaron Glantz
OneWorld US
25 August 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 25 (OneWorld) - A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferenccz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting "aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"Nuremberg declared that aggressive war is the supreme international crime," the 87-year-old Ferenccz told OneWorld from his home in New York. He said the United Nations charter, which was written after the carnage of World War II, contains a provision that no nation can use armed force without the permission of the UN Security Council.

Ferenccz said that after Nuremberg the international community realized that every war results in violations by both sides, meaning the primary objective should be preventing any war from occurring in the first place.

He said the atrocities of the Iraq war--from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of dozens of civilians by U.S. forces in Haditha to the high number of civilian casualties caused by insurgent car bombs--were highly predictable at the start of the war.

"Every war will lead to attacks on civilians," he said. "Crimes against humanity, destruction beyond the needs of military necessity, rape of civilians, plunder--that always happens in wartime. So my answer personally, after working for 60 years on this problem and [as someone] who hates to see all these young people get killed no matter what their nationality, is that you've got to stop using warfare as a means of settling your disputes."

Ferenccz believes the most important development toward that end would be the effective implementation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is located in the Hague, Netherlands.

The court was established in 2002 and has been ratified by more than 100 countries. It is currently being used to adjudicate cases stemming from conflict in Darfur, Sudan and civil wars in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

But on May 6, 2002--less than a year before the invasion of Iraq--the Bush administration withdrew the United States' signature on the treaty and began pressuring other countries to approve bilateral agreements requiring them not to surrender U.S. nationals to the ICC.

Three months later, George W. Bush signed a new law prohibiting any U.S. cooperation with the International Criminal Court. The law went so far as to include a provision authorizing the president to "use all means necessary and appropriate," including a military invasion of the Netherlands, to free U.S. personnel detained or imprisoned by the ICC.

That's too bad, according to Ferenccz. If the United States showed more of an interest in building an international justice system, they could have put Saddam Hussein on trial for his 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

"The United Nations authorized the first Gulf War and authorized all nations to take whatever steps necessary to keep peace in the area," he said. "They could have stretched that a bit by seizing the person for causing the harm. Of course, they didn't do that and ever since then I've been bemoaning the fact that we didn't have an International Criminal Court at that time."

http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/138319/1/