Virginia Metze : Reading List for Monday and Tuesday, April 18 and 19, 2005

[Guest guest]

" Virginia Metze " <vmetze

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 22:53:33 -0500

 

 

Reading List for Monday and Tuesday, April 18 and 19, 2005

 

 

 

 

The silent scream of numbers

The 2004 election was stolen — will someone please tell the media?

By ROBERT C. KOEHLER

Tribune Media Services

 

As they slowly hack democracy to death, we're as alone — we citizens —

as we've ever been, protected only by the dust-covered clichés of the

nation's founding: " Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. "

 

It's time to blow off the dust and start paying the price.

 

The media are not on our side. The politicians are not on our side.

It's just us, connecting the dots, fitting the fragments together,

crunching the numbers, wanting to know why there were so many

irregularities in the last election and why these glitches and dirty

tricks and wacko numbers had not just an anti-Kerry but a racist

tinge. This is not about partisan politics. It's more like: " Oh no,

this can't be true. " [...] Read the rest at:

http://commonwonders.com/archives/col290.htm

 

Beyond Belief - Bush May Ease 'Downer Cattle' Ban

From Patricia Doyle, PhD

rense.com Reuters 4-19-5

 

(Reuters) -- The Bush administration said on Friday it may allow some

injured cattle to be slaughtered for human food, easing a regulation

that the Agriculture Department (USDA) adopted 15 months ago after the

nation's 1st case of mad cow disease.

 

Consumer groups said they oppose any changes in regulations aimed at

keeping the deadly disease out of the food supply. The USDA prohibited

all so-called downer cattle -- those too sick or injured to walk --

from being slaughtered for human food, soon after a Washington State

dairy cow was diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in

December 2003. The ban was part of a package of tighter USDA

regulations to prevent mad cow disease, whose symptoms can include an

inability to walk. [...] Read more at:

http://rense.com/general64/ease.htm

 

 

This is a very old article (2002) that was unearthed and passed around.

Venice Terrorist Flight School Linked To CIA

Firm has 'green light' from local DEA by Daniel Hopsicker

February 25--Venice, Florida

(originally published at The Mad Cow Morning News)

 

New evidence linking the owner of the Venice Florida flight school

which trained Mohamed Atta to the Central Intelligence Agency surfaced

earlier this month.

 

The new evidence adds to existing indications that Mohamed Atta and

his terrorist cadre's flight training in this country was part of a

so-far unacknowledged U.S. government intelligence operation which had

ultimately tragic consequences for thousands of civilians on September

11th.

 

Far from merely being negligent or asleep at the switch—the thrust so

far of allegations expected to be aired at joint Senate and House

Select Committee hearings next month—the accumulating evidence

suggests the CIA was not just aware of the thousands of Arab student

pilots who began pouring into this country several years ago to attend

flight training, but was running the operation, for still-unexplained

reasons. [...] Read the rest at:

http://scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0202/S00132.htm

 

 

Texas may have put innocent man to death, panel told

Nobody would listen, lawyer, expert say

By Steve Mills

Tribune staff reporter

Published April 20, 2005

 

AUSTIN, Texas -- With Texas' criminal justice system the subject of

intense scrutiny for a crime lab scandal and a series of wrongful

convictions, a state Senate committee heard testimony Tuesday about

the possibility that Texas had experienced the ultimate criminal

justice nightmare: the execution of an innocent person.

 

Fourteen months after Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in the

nation's busiest death chamber, a renowned arson expert and

Willingham's lawyer told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that

they believed Willingham might have been innocent but found nobody

willing to listen to their claim in the days before the execution in

February 2004. [...] Read the rest about justice in Bush's home

state, where he was governor in the Chicago Tribune:

http://tinyurl.com/758a2

 

 

Psst ... Justice Scalia ... You Know, You're an Activist Judge, Too

EDITORIAL OBSERVER

 

By ADAM COHEN

Published: April 19, 2005

The New York Times Editorials/Op-Ed

 

Not since the 1960's, when federal judges in the South were threatened

by cross burnings and firebombs, have judges been so besieged. Senator

John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, set off a furor when he said judges

could be inviting physical attacks with controversial decisions. And

last week the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, called for an

investigation of the federal judges in the Terri Schiavo case, saying

ominously: " We set up the courts. We can unset the courts. "

 

Conservatives claim that they are rising up against " activist judges, "

who decide cases based on their personal beliefs rather than the law.

They frequently point to Justice Antonin Scalia as a model of honest,

" strict constructionist " judging. And Justice Scalia has eagerly

embraced the hero's role. Last month, after the Supreme Court struck

down the death penalty for those under 18, he lashed out at his

colleagues for using the idea of a " living Constitution " that evolves

over time to hand down political decisions - something he says he

would never do.

 

The idea that liberal judges are advocates and partisans while judges

like Justice Scalia are not is being touted everywhere these days, and

it is pure myth. Justice Scalia has been more than willing to ignore

the Constitution's plain language, and he has a knack for coming out

on the conservative side in cases with an ideological bent. The

conservative partisans leading the war on activist judges are just as

inconsistent: they like judicial activism just fine when it advances

their own agendas. [...] Read more about this frightening attack on

the constitution through intimidation of judges at the New York Times:

http://tinyurl.com/b2gzh

 

 

First Baker-Carter Hearing

 

Right-wing pundit John Fund offers racially-charged testimony

Blogged by JC on 04.18.05 @ 05:18 PM ET

 

The first meeting of the Baker-Carter election commission was

disappointing and, at times, outrageous and tainted with

racially-charged innuendo. Let me make absolutely clear that I greatly

admire former President Jimmy Carter and believe he was insightful and

on-target throughout the hearing. However, given the incredible lack

of balance and profound lack of good faith demonstrated by some of

Carter's fellow commissioners and many of the witnesses at this

hearing, at times he seemed to be a very lonely voice of sanity.

[...] Read the rest on

http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000063.htm or on dailykos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/18/172326/897

Check out this new website about the 2004 Presidential election:

http://bushcheated04.com/

 

 

 

FAIR: Washington Post Sweeps Away Lott's Racist Record

Action Alert (4/18/05)

Mississippi Republican Senator Trent Lott's efforts to rehabilitate

his public image were given a valuable boost by the Washington Post,

which ran an uncritical profile in its April 14 edition.

 

Lott lost his position as Senate Majority Leader after comments he

made at a December 2002 party for retiring Senator Strom Thurmond were

made public. Lott saluted his home state's support for Thurmond's 1948

run for the White House on a Dixiecrat platform staunchly supporting

segregation and opposing anti-lynching legislation:

 

" I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for

president, we voted for him. We're proud of him. And if the rest of

the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these

problems over all these years, either. " Read rest at:

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2494

 

 

Bush's Gas Attack

By Dan Froomkin

Special to washingtonpost.com

Monday, April 18, 2005; 12:40 PM

 

Stung by a dramatic fall in his approval ratings at least partially

due to public distress over rising gas prices, President Bush used his

weekly radio address on Saturday to announce a new " first order of

business " : Getting Congress to pass his controversial and long-stalled

energy bill.

 

" American families and small businesses across the country are feeling

the pinch from rising gas prices, " he said.

 

" In the coming days and weeks I'll talk more about what we need to do

in Washington to make sure America has an energy policy that reflects

the demands of a new century. "

 

But what has one got to do with the other?

 

The president, famous for his implied linkages (remember Saddam and

September 11?) certainly appears to be suggesting that passage of the

energy bill would lower gas prices. [...] Read more at the Washington

Post web site: http://tinyurl.com/9txpy

 

 

White House: Democrats smear U.N. nominee

 

Bolton in trouble after some Republicans raise concerns

MSNBC News Services

Updated: 2:49 p.m. ET April 20, 2005

 

WASHINGTON - The White House accused Senate Democrats on Wednesday of

trumping up " unsubstantiated accusations " against John Bolton in a bid

to derail his nomination to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

In a setback to President Bush, Republicans on the Senate Foreign

Relations Committee Tuesday were forced to delay a vote on the

nomination to examine new allegations against Bolton of abusive

conduct. [...] Read the rest at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7552333

 

 

 

Judges don't see 'frivolous' problem

By Rocky Scott

 

DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

Posted on Tue, Apr. 19, 2005

 

About 85 percent of federal judges think " frivolous lawsuits " are, at

best, a minor problem in the U.S. court system and are being

adequately dealt with by existing rules, according to a Federal

Judicial Center study.

 

" Only 7 percent (of the judges surveyed) indicated that the problem

(of frivolous lawsuits) is now larger " than when they were first

appointed to the bench, reported the survey, which was released last

week in Washington, D.C.

 

John Rabiej, chief of the rules-committee support office of the

Administrative Office of the U.S. Court System, said Monday the

findings indicated such lawsuits were not perceived as a problem by

federal judges. [...] Read the rest at the Tallahassee Democrat:

http://tinyurl.com/8y9xe The War On Judges

 

BATTLE OF THE BENCH: The rhetoric is heated. The political will is

strong. Inside the right's campaign to rein in judicial clout.

By Debra Rosenberg

Newsweek

 

April 25 issue - It was meant as an olive branch in a time of

escalating hostilities. For months, members of Congress had been

railing against federal judges, lambasting their decisions and vying

to limit their power. So Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

embarked on a quiet campaign to quell the tensions. Several months ago

O'Connor invited a handful of House Republicans to a private lunch at

the court. In a small dining room outside her chambers, the group

discussed judicial philosophy over sandwiches and a salad sprinkled

with walnuts. " It was just the two branches of government reaching

out, trying to keep the lines of communication open, " says Rep. Steve

Chabot of Ohio, who's been highly critical of judges like O'Connor who

he believes stray from a strict reading of the Constitution. Another

critic on the Judiciary Committee, Iowa Rep. Steve King, returned for

his second visit. Last year he dined alone with O'Connor after a

private tour of the court. Because the justice could not talk about

any specific cases—or even controversial issues that might come before

her—the conversation had its limits. " We didn't quite get to the meat

of our discussion, " King admits. " But it opened the dialogue. " [...]

Read the rest at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7529447/site/newsweek/

 

 

 

Country's Violence Catches Up to U.S. Crusader in Iraq

 

By Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

8:18 PM PDT, April 17, 2005

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq — She hugged and laughed her way through war zones with

an effervescence belying her seriousness of purpose.

 

No pass to get through a checkpoint? She leaned across her Iraqi

driver to show the stern American guard the shock of blond hair

beneath her flowing black robes.

" Please, please, please, please, please, " she said, and then, " Where

are you from? "

She waved aside tough-looking guards from all corners of the world,

never looking back to see if they had raised an AK-47 in her

direction. In her one-woman mission to make the United States take

responsibility for the innocent victims of its wars, 28-year-old Marla

Ruzicka bubbled with a passion that seemed to lift her beyond danger.

[...] Read more about her and her death at http://tinyurl.com/7ceo7

 

 

A Radical in the White House

By BOB HERBERT

OP-ED COLUMNIST

The New York TImes

Published: April 18, 2005

 

Last week - April 12, to be exact - was the 60th anniversary of the

death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. " I have a terrific headache, " he

said, before collapsing at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Ga.

He died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage on the 83rd day of his fourth

term as president. His hold on the nation was such that most

Americans, stunned by the announcement of his death that spring

afternoon, reacted as though they had lost a close relative.

 

That more wasn't made of this anniversary is not just a matter of

time; it's a measure of the distance the U.S. has traveled from the

egalitarian ideals championed by F.D.R. His goal was " to make a

country in which no one is left out. " That kind of thinking has long

since been consigned to the political dumpster. We're now in the age

of Bush, Cheney and DeLay, small men committed to the concentration of

big bucks in the hands of the fortunate few. [...] Read more at:

http://tinyurl.com/calrq

 

 

 

One of the online activists who always digs up a lot of good stuff

found this article called Public Opinion Watch, which has a lot of

good information about polls in articles by Ruy Teixeira that appeared

in Center for American Progress. Read the one from April 13 at:

http://tinyurl.com/a9jpy There are other good ones, for example this

one from April 20, 2004. http://tinyurl.com/7e9ke (They are

probably all good, but those are the only two I checked out.)

 

 

The brilliant Paul Krugman does it again:

A Whiff of Stagflation

By PAUL KRUGMAN

OP-ED COLUMNIST

New York Times

Published: April 18, 2005

 

In the 1970's soaring prices of oil and other commodities led to

stagflation - a combination of high inflation and high unemployment,

which left no good policy options. If the Fed cut interest rates to

create jobs, it risked causing an inflationary spiral; if it raised

interest rates to bring inflation down, it would further increase

unemployment.

 

Can it happen again?

 

Last week fears of a return to stagflation sent stock prices to a

five-month low. What few seem to have noticed, however, is that a mild

form of stagflation - rising inflation in an economy still well short

of full employment - has already arrived. [...] Read the whole

column at The New York Times web site: http://tinyurl.com/cr33j

 

 

 

Public Money Funds Social Security Polls

 

By SHARON THEIMER

The Associated Press

Sunday, April 17, 2005; 10:19 PM

Washington Post

 

WASHINGTON - While politicians debated saving Social Security, its

federal overseer spent $2 million to poll the public. The Clinton

administration wanted to know if people thought the program saved

older Americans from poverty. The Bush administration refocused

questions on its private investment plan. Taxpayers covered the cost

of the polling, according to government documents obtained by The

Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.

 

The Social Security Administration first hired the Gallup Organization

in 1998, when Bill Clinton was in office. The survey changed markedly

in 2003, when George W. Bush began his re-election campaign. [...]

Read it all at http://tinyurl.com/9jl5a

 

 

Iraq's Catch-22

Robert Dreyfuss

April 19, 2005

TomPaine.com

 

Robert Dreyfuss is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va., who

specializes in politics and national security issues. He is a

contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother

Jones, a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and a

frequent contributor to Rolling Stone.

 

As Shiite Islamists and Kurdish warlords cobble together the latest

interim Iraqi government, the regime of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari

and President Jalal Talabani is facing the ultimate Catch-22. And it's

one that poses an almost impossible problem for Bush administration

officials looking for an exit strategy for Iraq.

 

The Catch-22 is this: To gain legitimacy in the eyes of Iraq's

population, and to avoid being seen as puppets, the new government has

to distance itself from the U.S. occupation forces. Doing so, however,

is impossible, since the newly elected regime wouldn't last a week

without the protection of U.S. forces. So they are stuck in a fatal

embrace. " Nobody wants to be in the picture frame, " says David

Phillips, a former U.S. adviser on Iraq policy and author of Losing

Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco . " Being seen with

Americans is a political liability for Iraqi politicians. " [...] Read

the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/9zfg6

 

 

 

Bolton Often Blocked Information, Officials Say

 

Iran, IAEA Matters Were Allegedly Kept From Rice, Powell

 

By Dafna Linzer

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, April 18, 2005; Page A04

 

John R. Bolton -- who is seeking confirmation as the next U.S.

ambassador to the United Nations -- often blocked then-Secretary of

State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza

Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran,

according to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton.

 

In some cases, career officials found back channels to Powell or his

deputy, Richard L. Armitage, who encouraged assistant secretaries to

bring information directly to him. In other cases, the information was

delayed for weeks or simply did not get through. The officials, who

would discuss the incidents only on the condition of anonymity because

some continue to deal with Bolton on other issues, cited a dozen

examples of memos or information that Bolton refused to forward during

his four years as undersecretary of state for arms control and

international security. [...] Read more at the Washington Post web

site: http://tinyurl.com/dgwr8

U.S. appeals court refuses to rehear CIA leak case

Tue Apr 19, 2005 11:03 AM ET

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court refused on Tuesday to

rehear a case in which it had ruled that two journalists must disclose

conversations with their confidential sources to a grand jury

investigating a leak that exposed the identity of a covert CIA operative.

 

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington said it voted against

rehearing the case before the whole court.

 

A three-judge panel in February upheld a lower court ruling that found

New York Times investigative reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine

reporter Matthew Cooper in contempt for refusing to testify. [...]

Read the rest at Reuters news site: http://tinyurl.com/8wtp2

 

 

 

Maybe she should try out her skills by telling this to Bush, first...

 

Rice to Press Putin Over Grip on Power

Tue Apr 19, 5:29 PM ET

Reuters

 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to keep his pledge not to run

for a third successive term and will ask him to stem erosion of

Russia's democracy.

 

Rice, on her first visit to Moscow as the top U.S. diplomat, made some

of the sharpest U.S. criticism to date of the Kremlin's record on

democracy on the eve of her talks with Russia's leader.

 

But the former Soviet specialist's complaints that the Kremlin has

tightened its grip on power and the media could go largely unheard

among Russians. [...] Read it all at: http://tinyurl.com/9rvxt

 

 

Senator Clinton Piles Up a Fund-Raising Lead for 2006

By Raymond Hernandez

The New York Times

Posted April 19 2005

 

Washington, April 18 - Even as Republicans struggle to find a

candidate to challenge Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York next

year, she has embarked on a furious fund-raising drive that appears to

have left her with a larger reserve of cash than any other senator

seeking re-election.

 

Her campaign reported on Monday that she had amassed nearly $4 million

in contributions in the first three months of this year, meaning that

she will close the first quarter with $8.7 million in the bank.

Mrs. Clinton's advisers are reluctant to say what the senator's

fund-raising goal is for the 2006 re-election campaign. But she raised

and spent roughly $30 million in 2000, when she won Daniel Patrick

Moynihan's old seat in the most expensive Senate race in New York

history, according to campaign finance disclosure records. [...]

Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/d4eo9

 

 

Feeling sorry for DeLay?

CNN has a bunch of articles " starring " him. On

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/13/delay.apology/index.html or

http://tinyurl.com/4pfor you will find a headline story " DeLay

apologizes for comment about judges " and a number of related stories.

 

 

Have fun. I can't stand to see that kingly look for a while.

Rush Limbaugh just keeps putting out idiocies

On Some Sad Laps, No Heads Bob

Posted by James Wolcott

04.15.05 11:18AM

 

This morning on Air America, Jerry Springer ran the tape of Rush

Limbaugh's bizarre outburst against Al Gore's upcoming cable news

venture for " yoof " (as they say in British papers), mocking its

mission to represent the viewpoints of young people by claiming that

the only thing kids cared about today was blowjobs, which were rampant

in the nation's high schools today thanks to Al's good friend Bill

Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Maybe it should be called " The BJ

Network, " Rush railed, since blowjobs were now the only thing

occupying the empty minds of MTV audiences--all those teenage Monicas

out there hooking up with teenage Bubbas. [...]

 

I would note that Fast Times at Ridgemont High was released in 1982,

predating the Clinton administration by a decade, thus undercutting

Rush's already dubious thesis. Read the rest of the article at

jameswolcott.com: http://tinyurl.com/87gp8 This is my idea of what

politics is all about ... Polling is often a waste of time and money;

do you WANT to be thought of as someone who moves the way the wind blows?

 

 

 

Life of the Party

Brian Schweitzer, the blue governor of the red state of Montana, may

just have the answer to the Democrats' woes.

 

Editor's note: Salon introduces the first installment of " Life of the

Party, " a series of discussions with policymakers, candidates,

pollsters, analysts, big thinkers, bloggers -- you name it -- about

the present and future of the Democratic Party. We hope you'll find

the series provocative. Send suggestions for future " Life of the

Party " subjects to lotp.

 

 

By Tim Grieve

 

April 19, 2005 | HELENA, Mont. -- The future is wearing a turquoise

bolo tie wrapped around the open collar of a blue-and-white-striped

button-down dress shirt. And if that doesn't sound quite right, then

you haven't considered the mismatched gray suit coat or the blue jeans

and boots down below. Meet Brian Schweitzer, the soil sciences major

who grew up to be the governor of Montana -- and may be the next best

hope of the Democratic Party.

 

On Nov. 2, George W. Bush beat John Kerry in Montana by 20 percentage

points. On the same day, Montana voters overwhelmingly approved a

constitutional amendment banning gay marriage -- and elected as their

governor a populist, pro-choice Democrat. Are Montana voters as

schizophrenic as the governor's fashion sense, or is Brian Schweitzer

just that good? [...] Read the rest in Salon (on a Day's pass if you

don't have a subscription):

http://www.salon.com/news/lotp/2005/04/19/montana_governor/ or

http://tinyurl.com/8j35t

 

 

My favorite Republican (turned Independent) will not run next year.

This is a loss for the country and a loss for the Democrats in their

fight against the NeoConservatives. See, for example,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7573112/

 

 

Winner of the Democracy for America's Texas billboard candidate was

this slogan: Corporations spent millions to send Tom DeLay golfing,

and all you got was this billboard.

 

Post Turtle

 

While suturing a laceration on the hand of a 90-year-old man, the

doctor asked his patient how he thought George W. Bush was doing as

President.

 

The old man said, " Ya know, Bush is a post turtle. "

 

Not knowing what the old man meant, the doctor asked him what a " post

turtle " was.

 

He said, " Did you ever drive down a country road and come across a

fence post with a turtle balanced on top? You know he didn't get there

by himself, he doesn't belong there, he can't get anything done while

he's up there, and you just want to help the poor thing down. That's a

post turtle. " [Author Unknown]

 

 

Why it is slow to do this reading list: As I check out the headlines

on various newspapers, every now and then I get sidetracked. (Well,

actually rather frequently.) For example, looking at my Miami Herald

headlines, I see this: " Man arrested after shooting his car. "

Naturally I had to read it. If you are interested it is at:

http://tinyurl.com/d8kxn

 

 

Soldiers' 'Wish Lists' Of Detainee Tactics Cited

 

By Josh White

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 19, 2005; Page A16

 

Army intelligence officials in Iraq developed and circulated " wish

lists " of harsh interrogation techniques they hoped to use on

detainees in August 2003, including tactics such as low-voltage

electrocution, blows with phone books and using dogs and snakes --

suggestions that some soldiers believed spawned abuse and illegal

interrogations. [...] Read the rest at the Washington Post:

http://tinyurl.com/8t7b9

 

 

 

From an election fraud expert, more grist for the mill:

Diebold Misled State Voting Officials

http://www.epic.org/foia_notes/note3.html

 

There will never be a charge for this reading list and I won't ask for

contributions.

 

It may be freely distributed as long as it is sent out in its entirety

with this statement attached and no charge is made. Of course you are

free to use the URLs in your own posts, etc.

 

© Virginia Metze

 

If you got this from a friend and want to be on the list, send your

email address to vmetze

[Guest guest]

from Califpacific

" Virginia Metze " <vmetze

by R. C. Koehler

 

The 2004 election was stolen - will someone please tell the media?

 

_______

You don't have to tell them. They already know; in fact, they had a great

deal to do with making it happen.

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