Category: Politics

Surprise. Making US Attournies Political Hit Men Will Be Used Against Them in Court

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These morons have added yet Another hurdle for prosecutors pursuing corruption in particular, and white collar crime (notice the wage and hour case?) in general.

I’m wondering if this wasn’t on some level intended. After all, protecting rich white guys is a Republican priority.

U.S. attorneys fallout seeps into courts

Defense lawyers in different cases are raising new questions about government prosecutors and potential political biases.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer
June 18, 2007

WASHINGTON — For months, the Justice Department and Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales have taken political heat for the purge of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Now the fallout is starting to hit the department in federal courtrooms around the country.

Defense lawyers in a growing number of cases are raising questions about the motives of government lawyers who have brought charges against their clients. In court papers, they are citing the furor over the U.S. attorney dismissals as evidence that their cases may have been infected by politics.

Justice officials say those concerns are unfounded and constitute desperate measures by desperate defendants. But the affair has given defendants and their lawyers some new energy, which is complicating life for the prosecutors.

Missouri lawyers have invoked the controversy in challenging last year’s indictment of a company owned by a prominent Democrat, on suspicion of violating federal wage and hour laws. The indictment, which came two months after the owner announced that she was running for political office, was obtained by a Republican U.S. attorney who also has been criticized because he charged workers for a left-leaning political group on the eve of the 2006 midterm election.

A lawyer in a child pornography case recently defended his client at a federal trial in Minnesota in part by questioning the motives of the Republican U.S. attorney, who has come under scrutiny in the congressional investigation into the prosecutor purge.

Lawyers for a former county official in Delaware who has been accused of corruption asked a judge in early May to allow them to subpoena the Justice Department and White House for documents to see whether political motives factored into charges being brought against the official. They cited the brewing controversy inside the Beltway.

“Those revelations dramatically reinforce the reasons to believe that considerations beyond mere law enforcement are behind this prosecution,” the lawyers wrote.

The defendant, a once up-and-coming Democrat, was being prosecuted by the U.S. attorney in Wilmington, a Republican appointee.

…

But Democrats say there is evidence that the dismissals were part of a Bush administration effort to affect investigations in public corruption and voting cases that would assist Republicans. The probe has also shown that politics may have played a role in the hiring of some career Justice employees, in possible violation of federal law.

The controversy has drained morale from U.S. attorney offices around the country. And now, legal experts and former Justice Department officials say, it is casting a shadow over the integrity of the department and its corps of career prosecutors in court.

There has long been a presumption that, because they represented the Justice Department, prosecutors had no political agenda and their word could be trusted. But some legal experts say the controversy threatens to undermine their credibility.

“It provides defendants an opportunity to make an argument that would not have been made two years ago,” said Daniel J. French, a former U.S. attorney in Albany, N.Y. “It has a tremendously corrosive effect.”

Defense lawyers in political corruption cases often argue to juries that the prosecution was motivated by politics, especially when the prosecutor happens to be of a different political party than the defendant.

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Nigeria: Gunmen occupy oil installation

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We are at or near peak oil, and even minor disturbances can cause major spikes in prices.

We are in for a bumpy ride.

Nigeria: Gunmen occupy oil installation

une 18, 2007: 09:18 AM EST

Jun. 18, 2007 (AFX International Focus) —

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – Unidentified gunmen have occupied an oil pipeline switching center in Nigeria and are preventing local workers and security forces from leaving, company officials said Monday.

Some two dozen Nigerian workers and soldiers are being held after the attack Sunday on a flowstation in southern Bayelsa state, Italian energy giant Eni Spa (NYSE:E) said in a statement. No injuries were reported, it said.

The company statement didn’t say if crude output had been curtailed and a spokesman in Nigeria had no information on the attack. Government officials weren’t immediately available for comment. Eni operates in Nigeria through its Agip subsidiary.

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What the Other Matthew Said

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I couldn’t agree more.

I can’t speak for Mr. Yglesias, but in my case, it’s always Matthew, not Matt. Matt is my step-brother.

Matthew Yglesias:

This is a somewhat delicate issue to raise, but the war in Iraq seems to have spawned a wholly abusive use of the term ‘terrorist.’ The battle came about because ‘Coalition aircraft were called in to strafe fighters who attacked Coalition troops in Amarah and Majjar al-Kabir, two Shiite cities in the Mayson province bordering Iran, the military said.’ Surely, though, people who use force against soldiers are paradigmatic examples of people who aren’t terrorists — with terrorism being defined by the use of force against civilians.

Ad Nags at it Again.

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Oh God! Ad Nags is at it again.

It seems to be endemic at the top of the Journalism food chain, like the NY Times, that any populism must be either political opportunism, or insanity.

They are over paid, and not generally threatened with outsourcing to India. We really need to change that. They are too fat and happy to cover the news honestly.

For John Edwards, he chooses opportunism, despite the fact that Edwards has been talking about this since before his LAST run for prez.

Asswipe.

Staking His Campaign on Iowa, Edwards Makes a Populist Pitch to the Left

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

TIPTON, Iowa, June 16 — Four years ago — facing what seemed to be a certain defeat in the Iowa Democratic caucuses — John Edwards recast his presidential campaign with weeks to go before the vote, unveiling an emotionally powerful speech about poverty that he delivered relentlessly across the state. Mr. Edwards came within a few thousand votes of victory. To this day, he tells associates he would have won with another week.

This year, Mr. Edwards has picked up where he left off in 2004. He visited 14 places in Iowa in the course of three days this weekend, an itinerary reflecting just how much he has settled on this state as the place where his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination will rise or fall.

Mr. Edwards’s latest trip here offered evidence of just how much he studied the lessons of his Iowa defeat last time, though he would prefer to view it as a near victory. It also suggests the extent to which the rhythms of Iowa Democratic politics have shaped Mr. Edwards’s decidedly different candidacy this time around.

This time, he is a candidate of the left in a state marked by a strong antiwar and liberal streak, filling a vacancy created as Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have campaigned from the center. Mr. Edwards has shown a new eagerness to draw contrasts with his opponents on issues like the war in Iraq and health care, in no small part motivated by his struggle not to get lost in a field of big names. And he has gone from the boyish, easygoing one-time senator from North Carolina to a candidate displaying an urgently engaging manner as likely to seize as to charm an audience, an approach that appears to be particularly effective in the close-quarter meetings that fill his days here.

Beyond that, Mr. Edwards is seeking to quell one line of criticism of him from 2004: that he was inexperienced and intellectually light. At every opportunity, he fairly leaps to offer a detailed response to a question, intended as much to provide a contrast to other candidates as to address any concerns about his own depth.

“Here’s what I think,” Mr. Edwards proclaimed repeatedly as he answered a welter of questions throughout the day, an introductory phrase that signaled a lengthy discussion on his opposition to the war in Iraq, his call for national health care or his view of terrorism.

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Ny Times Article on Teacher Merit Pay

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My comments will be in line.

Long Reviled, Merit Pay Gains Among Teachers

By SAM DILLON

MINNEAPOLIS — For years, the unionized teaching profession opposed few ideas more vehemently than merit pay, but those objections appear to be eroding as school districts in dozens of states experiment with plans that compensate teachers partly based on classroom performance.

…..

Minnesota’s $86 million teacher professionalization and merit pay initiative has spread to dozens of the state’s school districts, and it got a lift this month when teachers voted overwhelmingly to expand it in Minneapolis. A major reason it is prospering, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in an interview, is that union leaders helped develop and sell it to teachers.

“As a Republican governor, I could say, ‘Thou shalt do this,’ and the unions would say, ‘Thou shalt go jump in the lake,’ ” Mr. Pawlenty said. “But here they partnered with us.”

…

“It’s looking like there’s a critical mass,” Professor Odden said. The movement to experiment with teacher pay, he added, “is still not ubiquitous, but it’s developing momentum.”

Some plans still run into strong opposition from teachers and their unions, as in Texas and Florida this year, where skeptical teachers rejected proposals from school districts. An incentive-pay proposal by Chancellor Joel I. Klein of the New York City public schools has stalled, with city officials and the teachers’ union blaming each other.

….

Merit pay, or compensating teachers for classroom performance rather than their years on the job and coursework completed, found some support in the 1980s among policy makers and school administrators, who saw it as a way to encourage good teachers to work harder and to weed out the bad ones. But teachers saw it as a gimmick used by principals to reward cronies based on favoritism.

And this is the crux of the matter. Teacher’s unions are so strident and aggressive because principals have no adult supervision.

I have experienced this with my own children, where a principal, either directly, or through coddling one fo their toadies, have cost the district with NO negative consequences.

The Department of Education is encouraging schools and districts to try merit pay. [Last week it awarded 18 new federal grants, building on 16 others distributed last November. That makes a total of $80 million that the Bush administration has given to schools and districts in 19 states that have incentive pay plans.] ……

This action has NOTHING to do with education, and EVERYTHING to do with politics.

Simply put, there is no Bush admin policy apparatus. Everything is political gain, and this is an attempt to weaken teacher’s unions.

The positions of the two national teachers’ unions diverge on merit pay. The National Education Association, the larger of the two, has adopted a resolution that labels merit pay, or any other pay system based on an evaluation of teachers’ performance, as “inappropriate.”

The American Federation of Teachers says it opposes plans that allow administrators alone to decide which teachers get extra money or that pay individual teachers based solely on how students perform on standardized test scores, which they consider unreliable. But it encourages efforts to raise teaching quality and has endorsed arrangements that reward teams of teachers whose students show outstanding achievement growth.

This is beacuse the NEA has delusions of grandeur, and see their labor union as secondary to their status as a “professional organization”.

Left tempers Sarkozy’s poll win – CNN.com

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We’ve just found out what his mandate was. It was that he not be his opponent.

Left tempers Sarkozy’s poll win – CNN.com

PARIS, France (Reuters) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy won a solid parliamentary majority for political and economic reforms on Monday but voters soured the right’s celebrations by not giving a forecast landslide and rejecting a top minister.

Final official results gave 52-year-old Sarkozy a power base of 345 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, well below the crushing 470-seat majority predicted in some pre-poll estimates. Votes appeared to have been lost over a sales tax rise.

Despite the setbacks, Sarkozy has the legislative muscle to press ahead with reforms designed to make France’s economy more competitive by loosing rigid labor laws, trimming fat from the public service, cutting taxes and restoring full employment.

He has vowed to shake up the euro zone’s second-largest economy and boost annual growth. The economy grew 2.1 percent in 2006 against an average 2.7 percent in the euro zone. Unemployment is estimated to be at least 8.3 percent.

It should be noted that the EU nations have more accurate reporting of both GDP and unemployment, so this is rather close to US numbers.

Sarkozy, who had been set to complete his government line-up by naming some junior ministers, faced an unexpected reshuffle after his government number two Alain Juppe lost in his Bordeaux stamping ground and promptly announced he would quit.

Sunday’s elections left Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and its allies with fewer than the 359 seats they had enjoyed in the outgoing legislature, while the Socialists and their allies increased their haul to 207 from 149.

The French voters just told Sarkosy, “Not so fast”. The fact that one of his junior ministers lost is interesting too, though I’m not versed in French politics.

The Pirate Bay to launch YouTube-style video streaming site

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Good. Now I can make fun of the Thai King.

Seriously though. Pirate bay needs to get some lobbiests, because they need to make it clear to Swedish MPs that the current Swedish law is to the advantage of Sweden, no matter what the US threatens.

The Pirate Bay to launch YouTube-style video streaming site

Ends all the speculation and formally announces the “latest and greatest” project from the world’s most famous BitTorrent tracker site.

Previously I speculated that the “it’s coming” project was the Playble music subscription site that would offer users the option of paying whatever monthly subscription fee that they could afford with fees going directly yo the artists themselves.

Well, Brokep ends all the speculation this morning and announces that they’re going to create a new “video streaming site.” much like YouTube but without the censorship.

He writes:

Oh, and the surprise that’s coming… it’s still not what people think it is… it’s been speculations on it being Playble.com or the video somewhat secret video site.

But, as a treat I can tell you – YES – we’re going to do a video streaming site. It’s true. It’s in the works being done right now and as usual we put a bit of Pirate Bay mentality behind every project we do.

In a chat I had with Brokep this morning on good ol’ fashioned iRC, he was kind enough to answer a few questions about the site and what it will all be about.

He confirmed where the site will be — http://thevideobay.org/, and furthered that they had performed a test stream on Eurovision a while back, and that it held up with “no problem whatsoever.”

….

The site plays content police, and with this new project from The Pirate Bay, users will now take up that role and make for some much needed freedom, especially in light of YouTube kowtowing to countries like Thailand who objected to videos mocking their King which were subsequently removed.

US Arming Sunni Insurgents In Iraq

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What is going on here is desparation as the situation collapses faster than the World Trade Centers did on September 11, 2001.

Gen. Petraeus concerned about US arming insurgents

06/17/2007 @ 11:34 am
Filed by David Edwards and Josh Catone

On Fox News Sunday General David H. Petraeus expressed concern about the new US plan to arm Iraqi Sunnis who promise only to fight al Qaeda.

“How do you know, or do you worry, that they are going to end up using those weapons to either attack US forces or to fight their civil war against the Shiites?” asked host Chris Wallace.

“Those are legitimate concerns,” replied Petraeus, but said that the US was taking precautions to prevent that from happening.

The Iraqi government has strongly objected to to the US strategy of arming Sunni insurgents. In a Newsweek interview published Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blasted that strategy, saying that it “will create new militias.”

….

BTW, the reason that al-Maliki objects is because it’s HIS militias, particularly those in Iraqi security forces uniforms, and not al Sadr’s that are engaging in most of the ethnic cleansing, and he is afraid that this will become more difficult because of arming the Sunnis.

Impeach Albu Gonzalez, Impeach Him Now

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Impeach Dick Cheney Tomorrow.

Impeach George Bush the very next day.

His response to his politicization of the Justice department is MORE politics.

POINTING THE WAY FOR PROSECUTORS
Under fire, not in retreat

Gonzales’ plan for attorney reviews would further politicize process

By Andrew Zajac, a national correspondent based in the Tribune’s Washington Bureau
Published June 17, 2007

Atty Gen. Alberto Gonzales so far has survived a political crisis over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, a rare potential vote of no-confidence in the Senate and numerous calls for his resignation.

His response? Gonzales recently proposed tightening the leash on the men and women who prosecute federal crimes across the nation.”

Gonzales described what he delicately calls “a more vigorous and a little bit more formal process” for annually evaluating prosecutors. What that means, as he explained it, is hauling in every U.S. attorney for a meeting to hear, among other things, politicians’ beefs against the prosecutor.

If that should happen, expect the fair-mindedness and independence Americans still count on from their Justice Department to slip.

In testimony to Congress and comments at the National Press Club, Gonzales framed the meetings as a way of improving communications. But it also looks a lot like a way to remind recalcitrant U.S. attorneys what the home team expects.

On Friday, a spokesman for Gonzales insisted in a written statement that the attorney general has no intention of holding one-on-ones with every U.S. attorney.

“The view of the overwhelming majority of U.S. attorneys is that they do not want a new, formalized review process — including one that might involve annual one-on-one meetings between each U.S. attorney and the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General. We have listened and agree with these views,” the spokesman said.

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A 22 Year Old INTERN is Given Personal data on 64,000 People???? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot????

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This is un-dirtyword-believable.

Data on 64,000 Ohio state workers stolen

By MATT REED, Associated Press Writer Sat Jun 16, 7:15 PM ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A 22-year-old intern was given the responsibility of safeguarding the personal information of thousands of state employees, a security procedure that ended up backfiring.

The names andSocial Security numbers of all 64,000 Ohio state employees were stolen last weekend from a state agency intern who left a backup data storage device in his car, Gov. Ted Strickland said.

El Paso Times – Gen. Pace says he declined to voluntarily retire

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I don’t translate military speak with any great facility, but I think that the good general just called Gates and Bush C**ksuckers.

I dunno, maybe he’s calling Harry Reid a c**ksucker, but given that he’s quoting what the Bush admin said to him, and doing so in a way that makes them look weak, I’m going with him dissing Gates and Bush.

Gen. Pace says he declined to voluntarily retire

By Robert Burns / AP Military Writer
El Paso Times

WASHINGTON – In his first public comments on the Bush administration’s surprise decision to replace him as chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace disclosed that he had turned down an offer to voluntarily retire rather than be forced out.

To quit in wartime, he said, would be letting down the troops.

Pace, responding to a question from the audience after he spoke at the Joint Forces Staff College on Thursday, said he first heard that his expected nomination for a second two-year term was in jeopardy in mid-May. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on June 8 announced Pace was being replaced.

“One thing that was discussed was whether or not I should just voluntarily retire and take the issue off the table,” Pace said, according to a transcript released Friday by his office at the Pentagon.

“I said I could not do that for one very fundamental reason,” which is that no soldier or Marine in Iraq should “think _ ever _ that his chairman, whoever that person is, could have stayed in the battle and voluntarily walked off the battlefield.

“That is unacceptable as a leadership thing, in my mind,” he added.

Pace, whose current term ends Oct. 1, said he intended to remain on the job as President George W. Bush’s main military adviser until then. Navy Adm. Michael Mullen has been announced as Bush’s choice to succeed Pace, who is the first Marine ever to hold the military’s top post.

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Episcopal panel rejects Anglican demand | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

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I ordinarily don’t comment on the inner workings of churches, after all, I’m not Christian, but the politics here are more general.

Specifically, there has been an effort, spearheaded by non Episcopals right wing Evangelicals in the US and by Nigerian flaming bigot Bishop Peter Akinola.

The US Church provides much of the money for the world wide Anglican communion, and a schism would do far more damage to the worldwide communion than to the US one.

Episcopal panel rejects Anglican demand

By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

NEW YORK — A key Episcopal panel defied conservatives Thursday, saying that Episcopal leaders should not cede authority to overseas Anglicans who want the church to halt its march toward full acceptance of gays.

The Episcopal Executive Council said that Anglican leaders, called primates, cannot make decisions for the American denomination, which is the Anglican body in the United States.

“We question the authority of the primates to impose deadlines and demands upon any of the churches of the Anglican Communion,” the council said in a statement, after a meeting in Parsippany, N.J.

The worldwide Anglican Communion has moved toward the brink of splitting apart since the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in 2003.

In February, Anglican leaders demanded that Episcopalians allow a panel — that would include Anglican conservatives from other countries — to oversee conservative Episcopal parishes in the U.S. Episcopalians also were given until Sept. 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples.

The Executive Council did not speak directly to the other demands in its statement Thursday, but said it has struggled “to embrace people who have historically been marginalized.”

“Today this struggle has come to include the place of gay and lesbian people and their vocations in the life of the church,” the council wrote.

The document approved by the 38-member panel of clergy and lay people is not the final word from the U.S. church. Episcopal bishops will give the denomination’s official response during a meeting Sept. 20-25 in New Orleans. The prelates strongly indicated at a March gathering that although they wanted to stay in the communion, they considered the demands unacceptable.

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Things That Make You Say Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

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Once again, Hamas shows that it understands governance in a way that Fatah cannot.

Governance requires a near monopoly on violence, and Fatah just wants a near-monopoly on graft.

Hamas calls for Johnston’s release | Israel and the Middle East

Stephen Brook and agencies
Friday June 15, 2007

The Islamist movement Hamas today demanded the release of kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston after seizing control of Gaza from rival Palestinian group Fatah.

Hamas, which has fought violent battles against Fatah for control of Gaza in the past few days, said at a press conference today that those holding Johnston should release him immediately.

“We will not allow his continued detention. We warn against not releasing him,” a Hamas spokesman, Abu Obeid, demanded.

Johnston, 45, was kidnapped in Gaza City more than three months ago.

Since then, nothing had been heard of him until two weeks ago, when a video of the BBC reporter was posted on the internet by a group claiming to be holding him, the Army of Islam.

In the June 1 video, Johnston said his captors were treating him well and that he was in good health – although it is still not known when the clip was filmed.

More Bush Law Breaking

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I miss Richard Nixon.

I can’t believe I said that, but I miss Nixon’s competence and relative honesty.

I can’t believe I just said that.

Stop the world, I want to get off.

Dem Claims Meddling in Waiver Request

By ERICA WERNER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 12, 2007; 9:04 PM

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department acknowledged Tuesday encouraging members of Congress to weigh in with the EPA on California’s request to implement global warming controls on automakers.

California officials criticized the intervention by one executive branch agency with another as improper and possibly illegal, but a Transportation Department attorney said it wasn’t.

The Environmental Protection Agency is accepting comments through Friday on whether to grant California a waiver to put in place a state law that would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from cars and 18 percent from sport utility vehicles beginning in 2009.

….

Waxman wrote that the call “raises serious concerns” as an improper or possibly illegal use of federal resources, and at the very least “suggests the presence of an improper hidden agenda.” He asked for records of any other contacts and said he wanted to depose Shahmoradi.

California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez called the Transportation Department’s intervention “a whispering campaign by administration officials to try and derail one of the most important tools out there to fight global warming.”

The EPA has not indicated when, or if, it will grant the waiver.

Edwards to Detail Health Care Plan – New York Times

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A good start, and a substantive proposal.

Not what I would favor, as I favor a UK/Canadian style National Health Service, but it’s an OK start, and good on the details.

Edwards to Detail Health Care Plan – New York Times

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 14, 2007

Filed at 11:56 a.m. ET

DETROIT (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards wants to reduce the cost of U.S. health care by removing patents for breakthrough drugs …

Considering the fact that the Federal Government funds something like 80% of all Pharma research (need cite, this is memory), this is a good thing.

Also, this is a direct challenge to the idea of intellectual product (IP)law, such as copyright and patents, as being property law. It isn’t.

Instead, IP Law is Public Interest Law. It says so in the constitution, in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution. Congress is empowered “to promote the Progress of Science and
useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

This is not the money in your wallet, or your home. This is an exclusive license for use, more akin to a liquor license than property.

and requiring health insurance companies to spend at least 85 percent of their premiums on patient care.

I don’t like my premiums paying for multimillion dollar bonuses for already rich executives. I like the fact that it’s paying for generally uninformative TV ad blitzes even less.

Good Court Decision on Eminent Domain

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I was appalled by the actions taken in Kelo v. City of New London, but not the court decision.

The idea of taking someone’s home, and giving it to a real estate developer is a POLITICAL calculus, and not a judicial one.

If you look at the case, the right wingers on the court sided against the “taking”, and they did so with an ulterior motive.

They were looking to make it a wedge for the “Fair Use” crazies, who want to be reimbursed for not putting a toxic waste dump on their land.

This decision is far more narrow, and simply says that fallow land is not blighted land under the NJ constitution.

Ruling limits use of eminent domain

Thursday, June 14, 2007

By SCOTT FALLON
STAFF WRITER

New Jersey towns will have a harder time seizing private property for redevelopment after the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that targeted property must be blighted and not merely underused.

The ruling will have far-reaching effects, state officials said, and could aid property owners fighting eminent domain in Lodi, North Arlington and Passaic.

The 42-page unanimous decision said that town officials cannot seize homes and businesses simply because they believe those properties can be put to better use.

“The court is giving notice that municipalities no longer have unfettered access to private property,” said Harvey Pearlman, a lawyer who represents a Passaic homeowner whose house was condemned by the city without his knowledge.

The court wrestled with what constitutes blight in deciding a case from Gloucester County, where the town of Paulsboro sought to condemn a 63-acre tract made up mostly of wetlands.

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China Blasts US for Stupid Comment.

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Someone needs to tell the Bush admin that this kind of false macho bullsh$# does not fly in the real world.

Better yet, someone should show them.

Oh…I forgot. Muqtada al Sadr already has

China says U.S. remarks on its military irresponsible

Reuters
Thursday, June 14, 2007; 5:31 AM

BEIJING (Reuters) – China denounced U.S. comments on its defense spending as “irresponsible” on Thursday and defended its military budget, saying it was open and transparent.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang also called on the United States to stop selling weapons to Taiwan, the self-ruled island China considers its own, and to refrain from “sending any wrong signals to Taiwan secessionist forces.”

“China sticks to the role of peaceful development,” Qin told a news conference.

“On the military expenditure of China, we are transparent and open. The U.S. official’s remarks disregard the facts and spread the China threat theory,” Qin said.

On Wednesday, Richard Lawless, the U.S. deputy undersecretary for defense for Asia, was reported to have accused China of concealing its spending on its weapons programs.

“What we see is a deliberate effort on the part of China’s leaders to mask the nature of Chinese military capabilities,” Lawless told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.

…

2 Committees Subpoena Ex-Officials on Dismissals – New York Times

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Phony offer.

2 Committees Subpoena Ex-Officials on Dismissals

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: June 14, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 13 — The Senate and House Judiciary Committees issued subpoenas on Wednesday to Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, and Sara M. Taylor, the former political director, ratcheting up the pressure on the White House to cooperate with the Congressional inquiry into last year’s firings of federal prosecutors.

The White House has rejected previous Congressional requests to interview presidential aides, offering to let them be interviewed in private if no transcript is kept.

The judiciary panels, acting two days after Republicans blocked an effort to hold a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, also sought White House documents about its involvement in the dismissals and efforts to respond to Congressional inquiries into whether as many as nine United States attorneys were removed for political reasons.

A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said in a statement that “committees can easily obtain the facts they want without this confrontational approach by simply accepting our offer.” The committees’ Democratic leaders “are more interested in creating media drama than getting the facts,” Mr. Fratto said.

…

The offer is no transcript, in secret, and not sworn in.

This means:

  • No Ability to Investigate Conflicting Testimony

  • No Ability To Document Lies

  • No Ability to Prosecute Lies

  • No Public Disclosure of Illegality

Translation, “I’m gonna make you squeal like a pig.”

It’s Gonna be, I Believe — The Bigots Lose the Pennant!!!!! The Bigots Lose the Pennant!!!!! The Bigots Lose the Pennant!!!!!

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The Bigots Lose the pennant!!!!!
The Bigots Lose the pennant!!!!!
The Bigots Lose the pennant!!!!!

Legislators vote to defeat same-sex marriage ban

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff

A proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was defeated today by a joint session of the Legislature by a vote of 45 to 151, eliminating any chance of getting it on the ballot in November 2008. The measure needed at least 50 votes to advance.

The vote came after House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, Senate President Therese Murray, and Governor Deval Patrick conferred this morning and concluded that they have the votes to kill the proposal. Cheers echoed in the State House when the vote was tallied.

“In Massachusetts today, the freedom to marry is secure,” Patrick told reporters after the results were official.

The three leaders – along with gay rights activists – spent the last several days intensely lobbying a dozen or more state representatives and state senators who had previously supported the amendment but signaled that they were open to changing their positions.

Because fewer than 50 of the state’s 200 lawmakers supported the amendment, it will not appear on the 2008 ballot, giving gay marriage advocates a major victory in their battle with social conservatives to keep same-sex marriage legal in Massachusetts.

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North Korean Money Released

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This problem was not created by the DPRK. It was created by the Bush administration, which DAYS after having a preliminary agreement, froze North Korean assets.

My guess is that some of Dick Cheney’s protégés made the call to freeze these assets.

They have been sabotaging negotiations for years.

Hopes rise for end to North Korea impasse

TOKYO – The transfer of blacklisted North Korean assets from a Macau bank was set to begin Thursday, a report said, raising hopes of resolving the drawn-out dispute which has held up a nuclear disarmament deal.

Japan’s Kyodo News agency, quoting unnamed authorities in the Chinese territory, said procedures to transfer the funds out of the Banco Delta Asia were scheduled to begin Thursday.

The communist North, which sparked international outrage when it tested an atom bomb for the first time last year, agreed in February to shut down its nuclear reactor in return for badly needed fuel aid and diplomatic benefits.

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