Witht he moderator's permission:

Check out this hilarious John McSame vid!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G9jA-FGGd8&feature=bz303

Obama asking us to pay off Hillary's campaign debt? Preposterous! Why don't we raise money for the retirement of the poor Bear Sterns executives while we're at it. Oh, wait...the Federal Reserve Bank already has that one covered. Alright, so while we're paying off Hillary's campaign debt we give our next three paychecks directly to Exxon Mobil. I hear they aren't doing so well lately. Welcome to the Insane States of Amurika.

Charles @ 3:

Obama asking us to pay off Hillary's campaign debt? Preposterous! Why don't we raise money for the retirement of the poor Bear Sterns executives while we're at it. Oh, wait...the Federal Reserve Bank already has that one covered. Alright, so while we're paying off Hillary's campaign debt we give our next three paychecks directly to Exxon Mobil. I hear they aren't doing so well lately. Welcome to the Insane States of Amurika.

If you donate money to Obama now, it will not go to pay Hillary's debt. His campaign is going to ask big donor's who have already maxed out the amount they can give to him, to give a max donation to her campaign now.

WSJ Calls Out Conservatives on their "Carnival of Fraud"
By THOMAS FRANK

Ya know its bad when the WSJ calls out the Republicans on fraud and waste in outsourcing and gov policy.

In the Bush era, the idea was pushed to a sort of extreme, with each of our great national initiatives – the Iraq occupation, Katrina reconstruction and the Department of Homeland Security – largely entrusted to private contractors. We now often read about federal employees quitting to work for private contractors to do the same job as before for twice the pay.

It is time for a new Grace Commission, this one examining the sordid history of privatization in all its details. President Barack Obama should launch it on day one.

plus the WSJ article is an endorsement of Obama. a bonus :)

ferrofluid (Obama 08) @ 7:

WSJ Calls Out Conservatives on their "Carnival of Fraud"
By THOMAS FRANK

Ya know its bad when the WSJ calls out the Republicans on fraud and waste in outsourcing and gov policy.

In the Bush era, the idea was pushed to a sort of extreme, with each of our great national initiatives – the Iraq occupation, Katrina reconstruction and the Department of Homeland Security – largely entrusted to private contractors. We now often read about federal employees quitting to work for private contractors to do the same job as before for twice the pay.

It is time for a new Grace Commission, this one examining the sordid history of privatization in all its details. President Barack Obama should launch it on day one.

Whoever wrote that article is probably looking for a new job as we speak. I'm sure Rupert has already hit the ceiling.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska.

The nation's highest court ruled that the punitive damages should be limited to an amount equal to the total relevant compensatory damages of $507.5 million.

Soaring oil prices have propelled Exxon Mobil to previously unforeseen levels of profitability in recent years, posting earnings of $40.6 billion in 2007.

It took the company just under two days to bring in $2.5 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2007.

Two days...

displaced @ 11:

ferrofluid (Obama 08) @ 7:

WSJ Calls Out Conservatives on their "Carnival of Fraud"
By THOMAS FRANK

Ya know its bad when the WSJ calls out the Republicans on fraud and waste in outsourcing and gov policy.

In the Bush era, the idea was pushed to a sort of extreme, with each of our great national initiatives – the Iraq occupation, Katrina reconstruction and the Department of Homeland Security – largely entrusted to private contractors. We now often read about federal employees quitting to work for private contractors to do the same job as before for twice the pay.

It is time for a new Grace Commission, this one examining the sordid history of privatization in all its details. President Barack Obama should launch it on day one.

Whoever wrote that article is probably looking for a new job as we speak. I'm sure Rupert has already hit the ceiling.

Rupert was / is a donor to HRC, so maybe... he might be concerned about HIS legacy, and esp the future of his rather large media empire in the US.

News Corp is ripe for 'baby belling' Rupert knows this.

Bush's Department Of Just Us?

pissed off patricia @ 5:

Charles @ 3:

Obama asking us to pay off Hillary's campaign debt? Preposterous! Why don't we raise money for the retirement of the poor Bear Sterns executives while we're at it. Oh, wait...the Federal Reserve Bank already has that one covered. Alright, so while we're paying off Hillary's campaign debt we give our next three paychecks directly to Exxon Mobil. I hear they aren't doing so well lately. Welcome to the Insane States of Amurika.

If you donate money to Obama now, it will not go to pay Hillary's debt. His campaign is going to ask big donor's who have already maxed out the amount they can give to him, to give a max donation to her campaign now.

which means that obama is not getting a donation from this guy

Successes in the Iraq War:

1. Got away with murder. Untold people murdered, maimed, and dislocated from their homes. Got away with the destruction of much of one of the oldest cities on planet earth, Bagdad.

2. Drove the price of oil through the roof. Only in the wildest dreams did the oil men think they were going to pull that off. I wonder if this was in Dick Cheney's energy policy meeting minutes we're all still waiting to be released. Along with the bail out of Enron.

3. Tested all of our neat new weapons. Battle tested and certified new weapons so congress can buy, buy, buy. Another $165 billion through the middle of next year. Yippeeeeee for the Congressional Industrial Military Complex. Keeping Amurika safe...from who we have no idea.

4. Set up permanent military bases all over Iraq so we can continue to "spread democracy." Be free like us or we're gonna murder your ass!

5. Made sure there were plenty of "terrorists" around to continue to murder. Nothing like invading a middle eastern country or two to get the locals Jihading their way to heaven. Thus ensuring the growth of the totalitarian state known as the USA.

6. Got away with false accusations and fabricated evidence that Saddam still had the WMD's that Rumsfeld sold him in the 80's. Got away with linking Saddam (from our payroll) to members of al Queda (from our payroll).

7. Our brilliant government has succeeded in eradicating our rights and ushering in total control of all commodities including humans. The next phase of this Mein Kampf will be to microchip, RFID, and biometrically identify each and every one of us in THEIR cashless one world society. As George Carlin pointed out...they aren't rights if THEY can take them away whenever THEY want. They're called PRIVILEGES.

I'm sure I left some out. Just go ahead and add to the list.

Senator Dodd last night

"But just as it would be absurd for me to declare the telecoms clearly guilty, it is equally absurd to close the case in Congress, without a decision. That is what immunity does. Throughout this debate, the telecoms’ advocates have needed to show not just that they’re right—but that they’re so right, and that we’re so far beyond the pale—that we can shut down the argument right here, today.

That is a burden they have clearly not met. And they cannot expect to meet it when a large majority of the senators who will make the decision have not even seen the secret documents that are supposed to prove the case for retroactive immunity.
Mr. President, my trust is in the courts, in the cases argued openly, in the judges who preside over them, and in the juries of American citizens who decide them. They should be our pride, not our embarrassment. They deserve to do their jobs.

As complex, as diverse, as relentless as the assault on the rule of law has been, our answer to it is a simple one. Far more than any president’s lawlessness, the American way of justice remains deeply rooted in our character.

That, no president can disturb. So I am full of hope, even on this dark day. I have faith that we can unite security and justice—because we have already done it.

My father, Senator Tom Dodd, was the number two American prosecutor at the famous Nuremberg trials. And I have never, never forgotten the example he set.

As Justice Robert Jackson said in his opening statement at Nuremberg: “That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury, stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.”

Mr. President, what is the tribute that Power owes to Reason?

That America stands for a transcendent idea.

The idea that laws should rule, not men.

The idea that the Constitution does not get suspended for vengeance.

The idea that this nation should never tailor its eternal principles to the conflict of the moment, because if we did, we would be walking in the footsteps of the enemies we despised.

The tribute that Power owes to Reason is due today. I know that we can find the strength to pay it. And if we can’t? We will all have to answer for it.

There’s a famous military recruiting poster that comes to mind. A man is sitting in an easy chair with his son and daughter on his lap, in some future after the war has ended. His daughter is asking him, “Daddy, what did you do in the war?” And his face is shocked and shamed, because he knows he did nothing.

My daughters, Grace and Christina, are six and three. They are growing up in a time of two great conflicts: one between our nation and its enemies, and another, between what is best and worst in our American soul. And someday soon, I know I am going to hear that question: “What did you do?” I want, more than anything else, to give the right answer.

That question is coming for every single one of us in this body. Every single one of us will be judged by a jury from whom there’s no hiding: our sons, our daughters, our grandchildren. Someday soon, they’ll read in their textbooks the story of a great nation, one that threw down tyrants and oppressors for two centuries; one that rid the world of Nazism and Soviet communism; one that proved that great strength can serve great virtue, that right can truly make might.

And then they will read how, in the early years of the 21st century, that nation lost its way.

We do not have the power to strike that chapter. No, Mr. President—we can’t go back.

We can’t un-destroy the CIA’s interrogation tapes. We can’t un-pass the Military Commissions Act. We can’t un-speak Alberto Gonzales’s disgraceful testimony. We can’t un-torture innocent people. And perhaps, sadly, shamefully, we cannot stop retroactive immunity. We can’t un-do anything that has been done in the last six years for the cause of lawlessness and fear.

We cannot blot out that chapter. But we can begin the next one, even today. Let its first words read: “Finally, in June 2008, the Senate said: ‘Enough.’”

I implore my colleagues to write it with me. I implore my colleagues to vote against retroactive immunity and vote against cloture tomorrow morning.

http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/4476

This is a fabulous idea by Christy Hardin Smith and Emptywheel at FDL for fourth of July parades.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/25/fisa-anyone-up-for-a-bit-of-action/

So, who is up for a little action?

I was brainstorming with Emptywheel about this a bit this morning, bouncing some ideas off her, and here's what we discussed:

-- Continued calls and FAXes and contacts with Senators about FISA. If they think we are just going to slink off without a fight, they can think again.

-- As you can see from the photo, I've revived the Kiss float. There's a reason: it was one of the most recognizable moments of political pushback in the 2006 election cycle -- and it's still hilarious, isn't it? What if folks showed up at 4th of July parades all over the country with floats of their own. Or banners. Or hand-outs talking about the constitution, the rule of law, and the need for citizen participation in government.

I'm thinking something on a theme that includes a picture of the Constitution with the words "Don't Shred On Me" (kind of a play on the Revolutionary War senitment -- or is that too obscure?) Anyway, I'm open to suggestion, but it's a start. We could work on wording, but I'd say playing to the "The Founders of this nation put their lives and their liberty on the line to ensure the freedom and rights of Americans were safeguarded by the rule of law. Why should we expect so much less from elected officials today? Tell your Representatives and your Senators to stand up for the rule of law." Or something to that effect -- because that's not nearly enough, but you see where I'm going with this.

SCALIA CITES FALSE INFORMATION IN HABEAS CORPUS DISSENT

To bolster his argument that the Guantanamo detainees should be denied the right to prove their innocence in federal courts, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his dissent in Boumediene v. Bush: "At least 30 of those prisoners hitherto released from Guantanamo have returned to the battlefield." It turns out that statement is false.

http://www.truthout.org/article/scalia-cites-false-information-habeas-co...