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Topics - Brassmask

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181
3DHS / The Ghost of Archibald Cox
« on: January 17, 2007, 12:56:00 PM »
As you may or may not have heard, using yet another special power granted by the Patriot Act, the right's beloved Feuhrer has been quietly requesting the resignations (firing) of prosecutors across the country including those conducting investigations of corrupt officials.  They are also replacing them with more friendlier types.

Quote
What's the White House Doing to Prosecutors?
By Justin Rood - January 16, 2007, 1:50 PM
During a floor speech on the topic moments ago, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said the White House has told her it was replacing from five to 10 Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys with its own interim appointees.

We know of seven who have left during the last couple of months, many under unusual circumstances. Here is our list:

San Francisco - 1/16/07 - Kevin V. Ryan - unclear

Nevada - 1/15/07 - Daniel Bogden - pushed out


San Diego - 1/12/07 - Carole Lam - pushed out

New Mexico - 12/19/06 - David Igleslias - pushed out

Arizona - 12/19/06 - Paul K. Charlton - unclear


Seattle - 12/15/06 - John McKay - unclear; likely pushed out


Little Rock (Ark.) - 12/15/06 - Bud Cummins - pushed out

Feinstein said she also knew of seven, and listed those above. Curiously, she mentioned an eigthth -- from Texas. We haven't been able to identify that one.

There is an eighth recently-departed U.S. attorney we know of, which some readers have noted: Debra Wong Yang, the former U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, Calif. Yang was overseeing the investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA). She announced her resignation in October 2006, but to date there hasn't been evidence that her departure was forced.

More at http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/011958.php

182
3DHS / New Book by E H Hunt Fingers LBJ
« on: January 14, 2007, 10:35:10 PM »
January 14, 2007 -- E. HOWARD Hunt - the shadowy former CIA man who organized the Watergate break-in and was once eyed in the assassination of President Kennedy - bizarrely says that Lyndon Johnson could be seen as a prime suspect in the rubout.

Only the most far-out conspiracy theorists believe in scenarios like Hunt's. But in a new memoir, "American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate & Beyond," due out in April, Hunt, 88, writes: "Having Kennedy liquidated, thus elevating himself to the presidency without having to work for it himself, could have been a very tempting and logical move on Johnson's part.

"LBJ had the money and the connections to manipulate the scenario in Dallas and is on record as having convinced JFK to make the appearance in the first place. He further tried unsuccessfully to engineer the passengers of each vehicle, trying to get his good buddy, Gov. [John] Connolly, to ride with him instead of in JFK's car - where . . . he would have been out of danger."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01142007/gossip/pagesix/pagesix.htm

Of course, many here will poo-poo this but it really is a bombshell because it puts Hunt out in the open.  Either he's trying to throw people off the scent of LBJ (thereby possibly himself) or he's just flat out fingering LBJ.  While it is true that he doesn't just flat out say, "LBJ had JFK killed", his insinuations will send shockwaves through the assassination studiers community.

Of course, I will be reading this book to determine if there is any real truth to what he writes. 

Personally, as I've stated before, I believe LBJ played a major, if not 'the' major role in the JFK murder along with Nixon and other interested folk.

183
3DHS / Bush Library/SMU Say FU to Property Rights
« on: January 11, 2007, 11:43:05 AM »
Report of mysterious break-in on presidential library site

04:58 PM CST on Wednesday, January 10, 2007

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV


Also Online
 
• Residents refuse to move from presidential library site
Eviction, mystery and accusations are the latest events in the advance of the proposed Bush presidential library at SMU.

Today federal agents marched in this morning with eviction notices in hand.

The last two residents of the University Gardens condominiums got orders to leave this morning.

But not before a mysterious break-in last night.

Three days ago Gary Getton showed us some of his legal papers in his ongoing fight with SMU over eviction from the condo he rents.

Last night, he says his property was burglarized.

All that was stolen, he says, were his documents.

He's suspicious.

"We own a percentage of the condos and that's why we're staying and fighting pretty much," he said.

Today, Getton got a notice to evict the premises.

So did Gary Vodicka, who lives a few doors away and owns four of the condos at University Gardens.

Vodicka is suing SMU over the way it obtained the property.

Now, as the university tears down dwellings near the site, he points out that he owned his condos outright.

Although a court decision has allowed the evictions to continue, he feels he's had no say in a decision over his property.

"They've known for four or five years they've wanted to put the Bush library here. They knocked on my door and handed me this writ of possession saying they want possession of my home," he added.

Gary Vodicka has appealed his case.

But he points out that even if he wins his appeal, his condos will be the only building standing among a large field of rubble.

He says SMU has offered him $75 a square foot for his property and that isn't enough.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa070110_lj_harris.29258ef0.html#

184
3DHS / Regarding Gen. Casey and Troop Surges
« on: January 10, 2007, 06:06:53 PM »
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/02/casey-escalation/

Quote
...in an interview last Friday, Casey told reporters that he still has doubts about an President Bush’s troop escalation plan in Iraq. From today’s New York Times:

The longer we in the U.S. forces continue to bear the main burden of Iraq’s security, it lengthens the time that the government of Iraq has to take the hard decisions about reconciliation and dealing with the militias. And the other thing is that they can continue to blame us for all of Iraq’s problems, which are at base their problems. … It’s always been my view that a heavy and sustained American military presence was not going to solve the problems in Iraq over the long term.

Additionally, according to Casey’s spokesman, the general, as of Dec. 23, had “not recommended more troops be sent here.”


Just FYI.

185
3DHS / Troop Escalation
« on: January 10, 2007, 04:47:06 PM »
Just wanting to get an idea of what's in everyone's minds.

186
3DHS / Bizarre
« on: January 09, 2007, 01:56:39 PM »
http://www.brassmask.com/comment.php?comment.news.186

187
3DHS / Former Reaganite: Bush is like Hitler
« on: January 09, 2007, 11:52:09 AM »
I'm not familiar with him offhand but I'm assuming that Paul Craig Roberts must have "gone off the reservation years ago" or he might have not been a "real Republican" or was one of "Reagan's least favorite people" or some other detriment that makes his opinion "less than".


http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=10284

Bush is like Hitler. He blames defeats on his military commanders, not on his own insane policy. Like Hitler, he protects himself from reality with delusion. In his last hours, Hitler was ordering non-existent German armies to drive the Russians from Berlin.

By manipulating Bush and provoking a military crisis in which the US stands to lose its army in Iraq, the neoconservatives hope to revive the implementation of their plan for US conquest of the Middle East. They believe they can use fear, "honor," and the aversion of macho Americans to ignoble defeat to expand the conflict in response to military disaster. The neocons believe that the loss of an American army would be met with the electorate’s demand for revenge. The barriers to the draft would fall, as would the barriers to the use of nuclear weapons.

Neocon godfather Norman Podhoretz set out the plan for Middle East conquest several years ago in Commentary magazine. It is a plan for Muslim genocide. In place of physical extermination of Muslims, Podhoretz advocates their cultural destruction by deracination. Islam is to be torn out by the roots and reduced to a purely formal shell devoid of any real beliefs.


188
3DHS / Bush Senior Early CIA Ties Revealed
« on: January 08, 2007, 06:56:23 PM »

Quote
Bush Senior Early CIA Ties Revealed   
By Russ Baker and Jonathan Z. Larsen | The Real News Project

January 8, 2007

NEW YORK--Newly released internal CIA documents assert that former president George Herbert Walker Bush's oil company emerged from a 1950's collaboration with a covert CIA officer.

Bush has long denied allegations that he had connections to the intelligence community prior to 1976, when he became Central Intelligence Agency director under President Gerald Ford. At the time, he described his appointment as a 'real shocker.'

But the freshly uncovered memos contend that Bush maintained a close personal and business relationship for decades with a CIA staff employee who, according to those CIA documents, was instrumental in the establishment of Bush's oil venture, Zapata, in the early 1950s, and who would later accompany Bush to Vietnam as a “cleared and witting commercial asset” of the agency.


 
Read more...
http://realnews.org/rn/content/zapata.html

189
3DHS / My Mayor Is Out Of His Mind
« on: January 02, 2007, 11:36:18 PM »
My subject line is merely to get attention because I really want to maybe get some perspective from the other side of the aisle.

Yesterday, the mayor of Memphis, TN, Willie Herenton proposed the Memphis build a new football arena to replace the Liberty Bowl.  I've already decided he's out of his mind but if anyone has any reason to think he's wise in this decision, please point it out to me.

Quote
http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5877358&nav=menu59_2

Herenton pitches construction of new football stadium

Jan 1, 2007 09:27 PM

"Don't hate the playa, hate the game," said Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, describing a run-in with a citizen on the streets of his city.  The citizen was giving the Mayor advice about how to navigate a run of bad press.

Herenton shared the story with a crowd of friends and colleagues at his "State of the City" address, an event which usually garners a measurable amount of controversy in its own right.

It didn't do that today, but Herenton did announce a plan for the Fairgrounds that a lot of people did not see coming.

Mayor Herenton's prayer breakfast seemed part revival and part campaign kick-off.

"I don't care who knows. I love the Lord," said Herenton.

There was none of the flamboyance and some would say arrogance of past addresses, though Herenton did say he was called to the job of Mayor by God.

The Mayor also talked about the city being in pretty good shape financially.

The Mayor added, "this city is not a broke city. It's a fiscally sound city."

Here's what the Mayor laid out for Memphis in 2007.

Herenton says he will look for $50 million in additional funds to support housing improvements around the city and end urban blight.

His next budget will include money for crime fighting tools.

The Mayor spent most of his time talking about a new football stadium at the Fairgrounds.

The Mayor said he will request City Council support for a new 50-thousand seat football stadium that would replace the Liberty Bowl.

The Mayor told the crowd of city staffers and elected officials he believes the Mid-South Coliseum should be torn down.

He said it is a waste of money to fix up two old buildings, the Coliseum and the Liberty Bowl.

"We need a new stadium. We need a gateway, an improved entrance. We need to rid the community of an antiquated coliseum that costs money," said Herenton.

The Mayor says his proposed 50-thousand seat arena could be paid for in part with private funds using naming rights.

Council approval is needed to get the project going.

Several Council members weighed in on the Mayor's proposal.

"We can't afford it. We have a Pyramid that's empty. We have a coliseum that's empty. We haven't paid for the Pyramid yet. We have a FedEx Forum that still isn't paid for. We have crime out of control. We need to get our fiscal house in order before we start a huge project," said City Councilwoman, Carol Chumney.

"I think the idea of a new stadium would be fine. But, I want to listen to the plans and take if from there," said Memphis City Councilwoman, Barbara Swearengen Holt.

Holt and Chumney say they would have a problem tearing down the Coliseum.

Mayor Herenton plans to present a comprehensive plan with drawings and more details to the City Council in 45 days.

City funding for the Mid-South Coliseum ended yesterday.

Memphis City Council members are considering closing the coliseum or handing over operations to someone else.

The city loses roughly $300,000 to $400,000 dollars a year on the building.

There's no definite decision on what will happen to the building now that city funding has stopped.

Now, call me crazy but Memphis is exactly rolling in outdoor sports teams that use a ball shaped like a football.  There are a couple of Bowl games played here every year and I think the U of M uses the Liberty Bowl some.  So, I have no idea what he thinks we're going to do with such a thing.

We already have the Pyramid sitting empty, the Coliseum sitting empty and the Liberty Bowl sitting empty most of the year.  Isn't it insanity to propose a new arena when we don't use what we have? 

I listened to the local talk conservative radio program this evening and not one person said it was a good idea.  Herenton's trying to tell everyone that it would be paid for with private funds for the most part but we've heard that when they wanted to build both the Forum and the Pyramid! 

It really worries me that he's giving a speech and saying a god told him to be mayor and saying things like "don't hate the playa, hate the game" and comparing himself to somebody in the bible named Nehemiah who I've never heard of.

I gotta say, I'm rattled.

190
3DHS / Seriously, Ami, Plane, Why can't something go faster than the speed of light?
« on: December 29, 2006, 04:46:58 PM »
That just sounds like an arbitrary rigid assumption.

It just seems to me that since we know how fast it goes, if we figured out a power source or device that could propel us that there'd be no reason that we couldn't go faster than the speed of light.  It seems to me that it'd be dark around our conveyance but that's about it.  The lights on the conveyance wouldn't be affected by our going faster than light because it would be travelling along with us.

I know that we don't have that kind of power but why is it that light cannot be exceeded?

191
3DHS / Bush "Out-evils" LUCIFER!
« on: December 29, 2006, 11:43:27 AM »


DAMN!  Worse that Lucifer, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, etc PUT TOGETHER!!

Let me say it again!  DAMN!

192
3DHS / US Threat To Humanity
« on: December 29, 2006, 11:16:58 AM »
For years, the US has been the main contributor to global warming.  The poles are melting and we're the main contributor to the world going to hell in a handbasket.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_sc/canada_arctic_ice_break

I'm calling on the nations of the world to put sanctions on the US to bring our carbon dioxide production to the barest of minimums or risk pre-emptive military action against us.  The US has become a danger to all of humanity and it must DISARM and surrender its weapons of mass destruction or hopefully the nations of the world will disarm us by force.


193
3DHS / I Made The Papers Again
« on: December 28, 2006, 02:52:03 PM »
http://memphisflyer.com/memphis/Content?oid=oid%3A23072

This is our local indie but the political writer is basically THE political writer in Memphis.  It's not much of a mention but it meant a hell of a lot to me.

Excerpt...

Best New Political Force: The Blogosphere. Although operators of politically oriented Web logs came and went, there was a solid corps who were online all year, virtually 24/7, and managed to make a difference in what happened in politics and to politicians.

It is as difficult to list all the deserving here as it is for an Oscar winner on Academy Award night. But some are more equal than others: Former radio talk-show maverick Thaddeus Matthews became indispensable with his nonstop solid-gold news tips buried in a morass of conjecture, invective, and on-the-lip-of-libel accusations.

I've touted more than once the left-of-center sites that provided a beacon light generally and, in particular, helped Cohen's campaign along with independent opposition research, among other contributions. Their number grows constantly, but some of them are: River City Mud Bugle; LeftWing Cracker; The Flypaper Theory; Confessions of a West Tennessee Liberal; Freedonian; Polar Donkey; Memphis Blue; Daily Docket; Brassmask; Queer Notes, etc.

Conservative cheerleader Mike Hollihan's HalfBakered site flagged somewhat, but Mick Wright's Fishkite still operated; and John Farmer's Blue Dog Republican, and ... Oh heck, folks, it's a continuum.

194
3DHS / Words I Never Thought I'd Say: Angelina Jolie Is Exactly Right
« on: December 21, 2006, 12:07:30 AM »
I've always considered Jolie an extremely smokin' hottie but I've also usually thought of her as getting as close to being mentally handicapped without actually being declared that.  (I also always imagined her as having a really bad patchouli/BO smell to her and that's why she and Brad Pitt get on so well because you know he's just stinky.)  But I've also had that slightest bit of respect for her going to countries that don't generally have bathtubs or toilets in every living quarter.  Lord love her because I"m sure I could never make it.

Her parenting skills have always been in question for me because of the demands of her line of work and her generally bizarre antics and her highly dysfunctional family.  But now comes this from Ms. Jolie:
Quote
ANGELINA JOLIE insists adoptive parents are more fit to raise a child than biological parents, because their background and personality is thoroughly scrutinised to see if they're suitable for the challenge. The GIRL, INTERRUPTED actress was put through stringent tests before being granted permission to adopt MADDOX, five, and ZAHARA, one. But when she gave birth to baby girl SHILOH NOUVEL earlier this year (06), nobody investigated her suitability as a mother. She says, "It should be hard to be a parent period. I go through many things to adopt. "I'm finger-printed, I'm checked, I go through home studies. I have to prove I'm a decent citizen; a good human being. "That didn't happen to me when I gave birth, so it's interesting that there's no background check when you bring a child into your home in that way."

That is an aspect of adoption vs bearing children comparison that I've never really thought about.  People who want to adopt must PROVE they have the ability and are fit to take a child into their homes.  And two morons can bump monkeys and no one ever bothers to ask if they are fit?  Does that seem right?  I don't think so.  It's sounds hypocritical to me.

Now please don't misunderstand.  I don't mean for a second that adoptive parents shouldn't be investigated first and face a rigorous process.  Yes, they very much should.  And I would even go further and say that ALL people who seek to become parents should face an equally rigorous process.  For if we as a society will not allow someone to give an orphan a home without the owner of that home having met certain standards, how then can we allow someone to create new children with NO standards having been met?

Is this then a question of property rights?  If I build a car in my garage out of parts that I smelt the ore that I dug for myself, molded myself, painted it myself, oiled it myself, tuned it myself, before I can take my creation onto the streets of Memphis, I should go get a driver's license or risk ticketing.   And just because I have the wherewithal to build the car, that in no way implies that I can also drive the car.

By what reasoning does someone who can create a child have more ability to raise a child than someone who cannot create a child or doesn't want to create another child when there are millions starving the world over?  The answer is obvious.  None.

As always when we visit this subject, I will inject Keanu Reeves' line from Parenthood that says so much: 

Quote
You know, Miss Buckman, you need a license to buy a dog or drive a car. Hell, you need a license to catch a fish. But they´ll let any butt-reamin´ asshole be your father.

195
3DHS / LOL I Can't Stop Laughin'!! Bush...Earmarks...LOL, OMG!!!
« on: December 18, 2006, 03:54:43 PM »
He actually had the vulgar temerity to say that NOW!  NOW!!!?!?!?  pork is a problem!!

LOL  OMG, is this pathetic or what?  The Dems just said last week that they were to halt all earmarks in the coming session and now Bush can't even say that he thinks it should stop immediately.  He's going to lay out some reforms "soon"!  It's pathetic!!

This is just getting crazier by the day.  LOL  I"m still laughin'.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/18/bush-earmarks/

31,709 Earmarks Later, Bush Decides Pork Is A Problem

In 2006, Congress allocated a record $71.77 billion “to 15,832 special projects, more than double the $29.11 billion spent on 4,155 pork-barrel projects in 1994.” In 2005, Congress inserted 15,877 pork projects into spending bills. In his weekend radio address, President Bush called on Congress to reform this earmarking process:

  • ne of the best ways we can impose more discipline on federal spending is by addressing the problem of earmarks. … My administration will soon lay out a series of reforms that will help make earmarks more transparent, that will hold the members who propose earmarks more accountable, and that will help reduce the number of earmarks inserted into large spending bills.


Pork is a problem. But Bush should also address reform in his own administration. Bush’s earmarks are much tougher to find, often appearing “only in closely held supplements separate from the public budget books. … [A]s head of the executive branch, the president often doesn’t need earmarks: Once federal agencies get funding from Congress, his appointees are fairly free to steer sums to places, programs and vendors as the administration decides.” A few examples of Bush’s bacon:

– “While the Education Department’s budget would be cut, Mr. Bush propose[d] a 16% increase to $204 million for teaching sexual abstinence in high schools, a popular cause for social conservatives.”

– Rep. Anne Northup (R-KY), “a target of Democrats in this year’s midterm elections,” secured “a $3.5 million research grant for a local surgical team. The funds came not from congressional earmarks but from Pentagon accounts, according to the report.”

– Bush requested “$10 million for Preserve America grants for communities’ historic preservation efforts and $50 million for the Helping America’s Youth Initiative — also among programs championed by Mrs. Bush.”

Bush may say he’s against pork, but in his six years as President, Bush has never once vetoed any of Congress’s pork-laden spending bills.



LOL  Freaking Hilarious!!!

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