Gates Distraught Over Iraqi Incompetence

After reading the entire article I'm starting to doubt weather or not this is the man for the job. There are two things going for him though, at least in my mind to date, and that is; He's willing to admit that things aren't going well in Iraq, and, he has already set in motion diplomacy with Syria. We'll see.

IF Robert Gates had any illusions about the scale of violence in Iraq, they were dispelled when he flew into Baghdad last summer.

Gates, who was named US defence secretary last week by President George W Bush, had gone to observe conditions at first hand as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the independent commission co-chaired by James Baker, the former secretary of state. It was a terrifying experience.

Source: New man at the Pentagon puts his hand on Baghdad exit door - Sunday Times - Times Online

Nancy Pelosi's tough new rules

 Shouldn't this have been the case all along?

Here are some of the new rules Pelosi wants:

No House member may accept any gift of any value from lobbyists, or any firm or association that hires lobbyists.

No free travel, which means an end to the corporate jet line every Friday at Reagan National Airport.

No free tickets to Redskins games; or no meals of any value, even at a McDonalds; no front-row seats at entertainment venues. No, no and no.

 

To reduce temptations to cheat, Pelosi's bill attacks the usefulness of members to richly endowed lobbyists.

House members will no longer be able to slip in special-interest projects on unrelated legislation. Such measures will no longer be allowed on a bill once negotiations between the Senate and House are complete.

Further, all bills will be made available to the public a full 24 hours before a final vote; presumably this gives watchdog groups a chance to flag any skullduggery.

Under the Pelosi rules, lobbyists will no longer be able to use the House gym (you'd be surprised how much gets negotiated in a sauna). Lobbyists will no longer be allowed onto the House floor or to use the cloakrooms just off the floor, preventing last-minute arm-twisting.

What's more, no member or staffer will be able to negotiate for employment in the public sector without disclosing such contacts to the House Ethics Committee, and within three days of such contact being made.

Finally, all of this will be audited and investigated by a new Office of Public Integrity, and that office reports, directly and only, to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Source: Washington File: Nancy Pelosi's tough new rules

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

Liberalism is the "True Conservatism"

 Found this by way of My Left Wing

Read it, and then read it again, and then again.

 In my mind, and the way I see it, this is the true reality of the American society.

Don't forget to follow the link.

 

Ever since the Bush regime began noticeably sputtering near the beginning of its second term, a growing chorus of conservative voices has grown increasingly distressed, and as it has seemed that Bush’s failures would come to tar an entire movement, the cry has increasingly gone forth that Bush is not a “true conservative.” There is a problem in that claim, of course: it was not Bush alone, but his entire Administration, and the Republican majority in Congress, and at times a majority of conservative court appointees as well who were jointly responsible for the increasingly disastrous direction that the country has taken. If Bush was not a “true conservative,” then neither, one would think, were any of the other major players in the conservative movement of the past 30-plus years.

Source: Patterns That Connect: Liberalism is the "True Conservatism"

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

The Rat (Not)Catchers of India

 Job Security?

Every major power in the world today has a spy agency. The Americans have the CIA, the Brits their MI6, and the Russians have the FSB (formerly the KGB). In the Indian capital city of New Delhi they have a Rat Surveillance Department (RSD). Unlike the others whose jobs involve tracking down the nasty "rats" who trade state secrets or crash airplanes into tall buildings, the RSD has a mission of a less sinister kind. It deals with a menace closer to the ground.

According to a recent report in the Hindustan Times (September 2005):

New Delhi's government has a rat-catching department that has not caught a single rodent in more than a decade… The Rat Surveillance Department employs 97 rat catchers, who each earns about 3,500 rupees (US$83) a month. But there are no records of any rodents having been caught in the past 10 years.

…Rats are not hard to find in New Delhi — they can be seen scurrying across public parks and streets and even in homes.

Source: The Rat Catchers of India - Mises Institute

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Animals

Wouldn't This Be Swweeeeet!

Another Wayne Madsen Report.....Juicy! Juicy! 

According to Washington insiders, there are moves afoot to dump Vice President Dick Cheney and replace him with either John McCain or Rudolph Giuliani prior to the 2008 presidential election. Whoever succeeds Cheney will be able to campaign for the presidency with the perks that come with being an incumbent Vice President.

Since the increasingly-besieged Cheney has signaled he has no intention of voluntarily stepping down, the strategy by the Bush camp may be to force him out by presenting evidence before Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that it was Cheney who was responsible for the compromise of CIA non-proliferation covert officer Valerie Plame Wilson and her Brewster Jennings & Associates cover firm.

Observers note the unusual professional relationship between Fitzgerald and Karl Rove's defense attorney Robert Luskin. Insiders believe that Fitzgerald may be proffered a carefully crafted deal by Luskin whereby Rove will testify to Cheney's primary role in the outing of Mrs. Wilson and her firm. The sealed indictment of Rove will then be retired permanently. If such a deal is worked out, Fitzgerald may then offer a deal to Lewis I. "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former Chief of Staff, to also testify against Cheney. With such double-barreled testimony, President Bush will then be compelled to ask Cheney for his resignation or face a very nasty and public indictment.

Source: Wayne Madsen Report - Home

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

Our Long National Nightmare Has Just Begun

 I'm trying not to be a pessimist.

A year of crisis commences.
As ugly secrets surface, Bushists will turn desperate. Democracy has failed their grand schemes; token resignations like Rumsfeld's come too little, too late. Only tyranny can save their skins. Will the beleaguered neocons led by Cheney and Bush, cornered like rats, unleash their brand-new police state on their political opponents? Or will they tough it out and suck up the fines and prison sentences to come? The next year or two could go either way.
The nightmare is not over.

Source: Our Long National Nightmare Has Just Begun - Signs of the Times - Fri, 10 Nov, 2006

 Technorati Tags: Politics - Conspiracy

Nothing To See Here

 Move along

Technorati Profile

Rep. Kucinich: America Needs Iraq War Hearings

 Excerpt:

KUCINICH: I think they’re going to have to answer for the direction that they took this country. I don’t think this election, in and of itself, ends the questions about those who led us into a war based on lies. As a matter of fact, the only hope they have is to do a reversal and lead the way out of Iraq. Because even at this moment a number of their top adherents are continuing to insist on an active U.S. presence in Iraq.

Even now there are people who were urging President Bush to go to war who are staying that wrongful course. And people have to be held accountable. You can’t lead this country into a war that has lost thousands of U.S. troops and perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, [and that has] cost the American taxpayers $400 billion—and maybe up to $2 trillion—and leave it with some kind of blithe apology. There has to be accountability. When the people elected Democrats, they also voted for accountability.

The American people are relying on us—not just to take a new direction, which I believe is out of Iraq, but they’re insisting on accountability for those who led us wrongly into Iraq.

Kucinich's 10 point plan - Here

Source: Truthdig - Interviews - Rep. Kucinich: America Needs Iraq War Hearings

Baby, It's Cold Outside

 Great tips on how to keep your home warm when you don't have a heater.

• Eat enough fat! This will keep your thyroid and metabolism functioning properly, and you'll stay much warmer.
• Fill a large pot with water and let it simmer. The rising steam will keep your house amazingly warm.
• Take a hot shower or bath and use oil or lotion on your skin when you get out. It's almost like putting on another thin layer of clothing.
• Leave the warm water in the bathtub. It's like having a 25-40 gallon hot water bottle in your house.
• Put on a hat. A lot of body heat is lost from our heads.
• Turn on the lights. Incandescent and halogen bulbs create light through heat and can significantly increase temperatures in a room.
• Use a candle heater. It doesn't create as much heat as a fireplace or real heater, but will create warmth very cheaply.
• Take advantage of solar energy; place a dark rug in sunny areas of your house during the day to absorb the sun's heat.
• If can afford it, leave other heat-producing appliances on, such as computers/monitors or strong lamps.

Source: How to Stay Warm at Home Without a Heater - WikiHow

Heal Thyself

 This may come in handy.

Home remedies and natural cures or medicines made at home from natural ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, herbs are catching a lot of attention due to its very nature of cure: simple, no side effects, no chemicals, inexpensive, plus the pleasure of being able to cure yourself!.

Source: Home Remedies and Natural Cures for Common Illnesses

Got Crushed Milk? Pressure Works Better than Pasteurization

 I HATE milk! But I like this.

Crushing milk at high pressures could help it last for seven weeks in the refrigerator without the unfavorable flavors associated with other long-lasting milks, researchers now report.

Conventionally, milk is pasteurized, or heated at high temperatures to kill harmful germs, at roughly 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds. While pasteurization kills most germs, it does not wipe out bacterial spores, the dormant versions of the germs, which are extremely resistant to any form of destruction. Bacterial spores and remaining germs eventually spoil conventionally pasteurized milk, which is why it typically has a shelf life of only about 20 days when refrigerated.

Source: LiveScience.com - Got Crushed Milk? Pressure Works Better than Pasteurization

Watching America

This Web Site should be required reading for every U.S. Citizen.

About www.Watching America.com

WatchingAmerica reflects global opinion about the United States, helping Americans and non-Americans alike understand what the world thinks of current issues that involve the U.S. This is done by providing news and views about the United States published in other countries.

It is not our purpose to find favorable or unfavorable content, but to reflect as accurately as possible how others perceive the richest and most powerful country in the world. We have no political agenda.

WatchingAmerica makes available in English articles written about the U.S. by foreigners, often for foreign audiences, and often in other languages. Since WatchingAmerica offers its own translations, regular users of our site will enjoy articles not available in English anywhere else. We are a unique window into world opinion.

In addition, by integrating the latest translation technology into the site, visitors are able to surf all of the content of foreign-language news outlets at the push of a button - in English.

The site is updated frequently.

We hope that the insights gained by reading various points of view will help to raise level of debate, open minds, and promote understanding among the people of the world.

If coverage of an issue, on a particular day, surprises or irritates, remember that we are reporting what is out there, and trying to show the fullest range of views. We don't endorse the content presented, or imply anything about the motivation behind or accuracy of the original sources. Watching America does not seek to influence opinion by selective presentation, but sometimes global opinion can be quite polarized. It may, therefore, fall outside the spectrum of debate in the United States or appear one-sided.

Watching America has no affiliation with, nor funding from, any organization or corporation. We intend to cover costs by running ads and receiving donations.

We invite you to change your homepage.


Watching America's Home Page

The Blotter

Imagine Rummy will be a prisoner in the U.S. forever avoiding extradition.


Though he is now the former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld is expected to be accused of war crimes in a lawsuit to be filed next week in Germany.

The Center for Constitutional Rights will file the suit on behalf of a group of Iraqi detainees as well as the so-called 20th hijacker, who is currently being held at Guantanamo Bay.

"The former secretary actually authorized a series of interrogation
techniques," said Michael Ratner, President of CCR. "They included the
use of dogs, stripping, hooding, stressed positions, chaining to the
floor, sexual humiliation and those types of activities."

Bush Admits He Lied About Rumsfeld For Political Purposes

 Could It Be?

REPORTER: Last week you told us Secretary Rumsfeld would be staying on. Why is the timing right now, and how much does it have to do with the election results?

BUSH: You and Hunt and Keil came into the Oval Office and asked me to question one week before the campaign. Basically, are you going to do something about Rumsfeld and the Vice President? The reason why is I did not want to make a major decision in the final days of the campaign. The only way to answer that question, and get it on to another question, was to give you that answer. The truth of the matter is as well, that is one reason I gave the answer. The other reason why is I had not had a chance to visit with Bob Gates yet. I had not had my final conversation with Don Rumsfeld yet at that point. I had been talking with Don Rumsfeld over a period of time about fresh perspectives. He likes to call it fresh eyes.

Source: Think Progress » VIDEO: Bush Admits He Lied About Rumsfeld For Political Purposes

Robert M. Gates - Defense Secretary

 Criminal!

In the end, although Gates's actions suggested an officer who was more interested in shielding his institution from criticism and in shifting the blame to the NSC than in finding out the truth, there was insufficient evidence to charge Gates with a criminal endeavor to obstruct congressional investigations into the Hasenfus shootdown.

Gates and Casey's November 1986 Testimony

The events leading up to the preparation of false testimony by Director Casey in November 1986 -- preparations that Gates nominally oversaw -- are set forth in a separate chapter of this Report. There was insufficient evidence that Gates committed a crime as he participated in the preparation of Casey's testimony, or that he was aware of critical facts indicating that some of the statements by Casey and others were false.

Conclusion

Independent Counsel found insufficient evidence to warrant charging Robert Gates with a crime for his role in the Iran/contra affair. Like those of many other Iran/contra figures, the statements of Gates often seemed scripted and less than candid. Nevertheless, given the complex nature of the activities and Gates's apparent lack of direct participation, a jury could find the evidence left a reasonable doubt that Gates either obstructed official inquiries or that his two demonstrably incorrect statements were deliberate lies.

Source: Walsh Iran / Contra Report - Chapter 16 Robert M. Gates

El Gato Mucho 'Factoids'

 

A cat cannot see directly under its nose. This is why the cat cannot seem to find tidbits on the floor.

You can tell a cat's mood by looking into its eyes. A frightened or excited cat will have large, round pupils. An angry cat will have narrow pupils. The pupil size is related as much to the cat's emotions as to the degree of light.

It is a common belief that cats are color blind. However, recent studies have shown that cats can see blue, green and red.

Source: Cat Facts

Woman Fatally Bitten by Snake in Church

 Mess with snakes...You gonna' git' bit!

LONDON, Ky. (AP) - A southeastern Kentucky woman was bitten by a snake during a church service and later died, a law enforcement officer said. Linda Long, 48, of London died Sunday at University of Kentucky Medical Center, said Brad Mitchell, a detective with the Laurel County Sheriff's Office.

Long died about four hours after the bite was reported, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Officials said Long attended East London Holiness Church. Neighbors of the church told the newspaper the church practices serpent handling.

Lt. Ed Sizemore of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office said friends went with Long to a local hospital Sunday afternoon, and she was taken to UK.

"She said she was bitten by a snake at her church," Sizemore said.

Source: My Way News - Woman Fatally Bitten by Snake in Church

How They Stole the Mid-Term Election

 Whatever the outcome of the 2006 midterm elections this article must be read!!!!!!

On January 1, 2006, while America slept off New Year's Eve hangovers, a new federal law crept out of the swamps that has devoured 1.9 million votes, overwhelmingly those of African-Americans and Hispanics. The vote-snatching statute is a cankerous codicil slipped into the 2002 Help America Vote Act -- strategically timed to go into effect in this mid-term year. It requires every state to reject new would-be voters whose identity can't be verified against a state verification database.

Source: Greg Palast: How They Stole the Mid-Term Election | BuzzFlash

109 Reasons To Dump The 109th Congress

 Worth bookmarking!

 

Source: Think Progress » 109 Reasons To Dump The 109th Congress

Saddam's Conviction: One War Criminal Down, Three to Go (Bush, Cheney and Blair)

 I'd like to see Rummy in there also.

 

Posted 5 November 2006

Regardless of whether the "fix" was in - both in its predetermined outcome or its timing (just two days before Americans go to the polls) -- justice prevailed today in, of all places, Iraq, when a court convicted Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity for the revenge killings of 148 people in the Shiite city of Dujail in 1982.

As reported by Hamza Hendawi of the Associated Press, "The trial brought Saddam and his co-defendants before their accusers in what was one of the most highly publicized and heavily reported trials of its kind since the Nuremberg tribunals for members of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and its slaughter of 6 million Jews in the World War II Holocaust."

Yet, few Americas probably know that Article 6 of the Nuremberg Tribunal's Charter listed "Crimes against Peace; namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging war of aggression" as its first and foremost crime. Count Two indicted the Nazis for actual crimes against peace. Count Three indicted them for "War Crimes," including the ill treatment of civilians and the mistreatment of prisoners of war (such as have occurred at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo in our recent past). "Crimes Against Humanity" was relegated to Count Four.

Thus, notwithstanding the justice meted out to Saddam today, Americans have at least two reasons to reflect while celebrating the outcome: (1) Saddam now has been convicted for crimes that occurred in 1982, just a year before Donald Rumsfeld, acting as an envoy for President Reagan, met and shook hands with him on December 20, 1983. Thus, Americans might ponder how it was that the Reagan administration found it suitable to offer military assistance to such an "evil" criminal.

(2) Much available evidence suggests that the Bush administration planned and prepared the initiation and waging of a war of aggression - the first and foremost crime spelled out in Article 6 of the Nuremberg Charter - while "fixing" the intelligence about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda's terrorists, in order to deceive both the American people and the U.S. Congress into supporting its illegal, immoral war.

Thus, if justice can be done in war-torn Iraq, it certainly must be done in the great United States of America (and perhaps in lapdog Tony Blair's Great Britain as well). But justice certainly won't be done, so long as Republicans remain in control of Congress.

Source: Walter C. Uhler.com--Saddam's Conviction: One War Criminal Down, Three to Go (Bush, Cheney and Blair)

The Scandal Sheet

 Page three is where it gets really bad.

After Bush was reelected, we pulled together a litany of Republican wrongdoing in our first installment of the Scandal Sheet -- a kind of worst-hits collection from Bush's first four-year tour. By no means did it cover everything, but it was plenty long and ugly. Perhaps we were overly optimistic and even a bit delusional, then, to think that Bush's narrow victory in November 2004 might leave him with a humbler, more sober view of his mandate. That we might see, at last, some letup from the blatant distortions of truth, the fear-mongering, the influence peddling, the incompetence and malfeasance -- the utter lack of accountability and remorse for how badly things had gone.

Source: The Scandal Sheet | Salon.com

Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

 Please be sure to sign the petition...Before it's to late!

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America. Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.

Source: Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

Could This Be The Solution For Voting?

I'm going to watch how this develops. Simple and elegant. 

Welcome to the new age of elections. Punchscan is an optical scan voting system invented by David Chaum that allows voters to take a piece of the ballot home with them as a receipt. This receipt does not allow voters to prove how they voted to others, but it does permit them to:

• Verify that they have properly indicated their votes to election officials (cast-as-intended).
• Verify with extremely high assurance that all votes were counted properly (counted-as-cast).

Be sure to watch the quick demo (link at bottom of their web site).

Source: Punchscan.org

Forgetful? Virus may be eating your brain

Posting this just incase I forget. 

Viruses that cause a range of ills from the common cold to polio may be able to infect the brain and cause steady damage, a team at the Mayo Clinician Minnesota reports.
"Our study suggests that virus-induced memory loss could accumulate over the lifetime of an individual and eventually lead to clinical cognitive memory deficits," says Dr Charles Howe, who reports the findings in the latest issue of the journal Neurobiology of Disease.

Source: News in Science - Forgetful? Virus may be eating your brain - 24/10/2006

Diversity's Oppressions: Why Iraq has proven to be so hard to pacify.

A short opinion piece that is worth the read...I think so anyway. 

Another concept whose bitter falsity has been painfully revealed in Iraq is "nation-building." People are not building blocks, however much some may flatter themselves that they can arrange their fellow human beings' lives the way you can arrange pieces on a chess board.

Source: OpinionJournal - Featured Article

1999 war games foresaw problems in Iraq.

What amazed me about this article was how accurate their conclusions were compared to the actual outcome of this invasion. 

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue.

In its "Desert Crossing" games, 70 military, diplomatic and intelligence officials assumed the high troop levels would be needed to keep order, seal borders and take care of other security needs.

The documents came to light Saturday through a Freedom of Information Act request by the George Washington University's National Security Archive, an independent research institute and library.

"The conventional wisdom is the U.S. mistake in Iraq was not enough troops," said Thomas Blanton, the archive's director. "But the Desert Crossing war game in 1999 suggests we would have ended up with a failed state even with 400,000 troops on the ground."

Source: 1999 war games foresaw problems in Iraq - Yahoo! News

Cheney: I Would ‘Probably Not’ Testify Before Congress, Even If Subpoenaed

At least not until the prison warden OK's the convict's transport.

If only I lived in a real Democracy....  What ARROGANCE!

This morning on ABC, George Stephanopoulos asked Vice President Cheney if he would testify before Congress if he was subpoenaed. Cheney said “probably not in the sense at that vice president and president and constitutional officers don’t appear before the Congress.”

Source: Think Progress » Cheney: I Would ‘Probably Not’ Testify Before Congress, Even If Subpoenaed