Stealing Ohio

AlterNet: Home

In Violation of Federal Law, Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election Records Are Destroyed or Missing

Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet

In 56 of Ohio's 88 counties, ballots and election records from 2004 have been "accidentally" destroyed, despite a federal order to preserve them -- it was crucial evidence which would have revealed whether the election was stolen.

War Made Easy, the movie

I think we need to consider showing this movie.

War Made Easy - Narrated by Sean Penn

This Week on the Daily Show

MONDAY 7/30 -- Alastair Campbell -- former UK Press Secretary, author of "The Blair Years"

TUESDAY 7/31 -- Lewis Gordon Pugh -- swimmer, environmentalist

WEDNESDAY 7/32 -- Jed Babbin -- author, "In the Words of Our Enemies"

THURSDAY 7/33 -- Matt Damon -- actor, "The Bourne Ultimatum"

This Week on the Colbert Report

MONDAY 7/30 -- Evan Osnos -- The Chicago Tribune

TUESDAY 7/31 -- Kathleen Kennedy Townsend -- author, "Failing America's Faithful"

WEDNESDAY 8/1 -- Michael Beschloss -- author, "Presidential Courage"

THURSDAY 8/2 -- Michael J. Behe -- author, "The Edge of Evolution"

More late night reading finds...

The Whitehouse Coup
The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.BBC radio report here Be patient at the start of the report there is an unrelated story, but it's short.

Dangers of a Cornered Bush

By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity & Dr. Justin Frank
July 27, 2007

Editor’s Note: As the nation and the world face 18 more months of George W. Bush’s presidency, a chilling prospect is that Bush – confronted with more defeats and reversals – might just “lose it” and undertake even more reckless military adventures.

I highly suggest reading this article. It's very interesting, and definitely food for thought. read it here

Martial Law Threat is Real

I have thought about this possibility for years. Now an article has put my fears into words, and it's well worth reading. Even now, the Bush administration can disappear anyone they want, and have done. Then another thought comes to mind, why is it that the Senate and House are not in any hurry to impeach? Do they want to leave these executive powers open for the next President?

Check out the excerpts from David Lindorf's article found on Buzzflash.

From the looks of things, the Bush/Cheney regime has been working assiduously to pave the way for a declaration of military rule, such that at this point it really lacks only the pretext to trigger a suspension of Constitutional government. They have done this with the active support of Democrats in Congress, though most of the heavy lifting was done by the last, Republican-led Congress.

The first step, or course, was the first Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in September 2001, which the president has subsequently used to claim -- improperly, but so what -- that the whole world, including the U.S., is a battlefield in a so-called "War" on Terror, and that he has extra-Constitutional unitary executive powers to ignore laws passed by Congress.

The 2001 AUMF was followed by the PATRIOT Act, passed in October 2001, which undermined much of the Bill of Rights. Around the same time, the president began a campaign of massive spying on Americans by the National Security Agency, conducted without any warrants or other judicial review. It was and remains a program clearly aimed at American dissidents and at the Administration's political opponents...

The other thing we saw early on was the establishment of an underground government within a government, though the activation, following 9-11, of the so-called "Continuity of Government" protocol...

It was also during the first year following 9-11 that the Bush/Cheney regime began its programs of arrest and detention without charge -- mostly of resident aliens, but also of American citizens --

Meanwhile, last October Bush and Cheney, with the help of a compliant Congress, put in place some key elements needed for a military putsch. There was the overturning of the venerable Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which barred the use of active duty military inside the United States for police-type functions, and the revision of the Insurrection Act, so as to empower the president to take control of National Guard units in the 50 states, even over the objections of the governors...

Put this together with the wholly secret construction now under way -- courtesy of a $385 million grant by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc -- of detention camps reportedly capable of confining as many as 400,000 people, and a recent report that the Pentagon has a document, dated June 1, 2007, classified Top Secret, which declares there to be a developing "insurgency" within the U.S, and which lays out a whole martial law counterinsurgency campaign against legal dissent, and you have all the ingredients for a military takeover of the United States.

Bruce Fein isn't an alarmist. He says he doesn't see martial law coming tomorrow. But he is also realistic. He says, "This is all sitting around like a loaded gun waiting to go off. I think the risk of martial law is trivial right now, but the minute there is a terrorist attack, then it is real. And it stays with us after Bush and Cheney are gone, because terrorism stays with us forever."

Fein argues that the only real defense against the looming disaster of a martial law declaration would be for Congress to vote for a resolution determining that there is no "War" on terror. "But they are such cowards they will never do that," he says.

That leaves us with the military.

If ordered to turn their guns and bayonets on their fellow Americans, would our "heroes" in uniform follow their consciences, and their oaths to "uphold and defend" the Constitution of the United States? Or would they follow the orders of their Commander in Chief?

full article

Is the Bush administration guilty of war crimes?

Well, a couple of folks think the answer is yes. Who are they? Retired Gen. P.X. Kelley, who served as commandant of the Marine Corps from 1983 to 1987, and Robert F. Turner is co-founder of the University of Virginia's Center for National Security Law and a former chair of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security.

In their article in the Washington Post on Thursday, July 26, 2007, they outline their reasons why, portions of which are excerpted below. It is about time that we realize where the administration is taking our nation, and it down to road to hell.

But we cannot in good conscience defend a decision that we believe has compromised our national honor and that may well promote the commission of war crimes by Americans and place at risk the welfare of captured American military forces for generations to come.

The Supreme Court held in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld last summer that all detainees captured in the war on terrorism are protected by Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prescribes minimum standards of treatment for all persons who are no longer taking an active part in an armed conflict not of an international character. It provides that "in all circumstances" detainees are to be "treated humanely."

Last Friday, the White House issued an executive order attempting to "interpret" Common Article 3 with respect to a controversial CIA interrogation program. The order declares that the CIA program "fully complies with the obligations of the United States under Common Article 3," provided that its interrogation techniques do not violate existing federal statutes (prohibiting such things as torture, mutilation or maiming) and do not constitute "willful and outrageous acts of personal abuse done for the purpose of humiliating or degrading the individual in a manner so serious that any reasonable person, considering the circumstances, would deem the acts to be beyond the bounds of human decency."

It is firmly established in international law that treaties are to be interpreted in "good faith" in accordance with the ordinary meaning of their words and in light of their purpose. It is clear to us that the language in the executive order cannot even arguably be reconciled with America's clear duty under Common Article 3 to treat all detainees humanely and to avoid any acts of violence against their person.

To date in the war on terrorism, including the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and all U.S. military personnel killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq, America's losses total about 2 percent of the forces we lost in World War II and less than 7 percent of those killed in Vietnam. Yet we did not find it necessary to compromise our honor or abandon our commitment to the rule of law to defeat Nazi Germany or imperial Japan, or to resist communist aggression in Indochina. On the contrary, in Vietnam -- where we both proudly served twice -- America voluntarily extended the protections of the full Geneva Convention on prisoners of war to Viet Cong guerrillas who, like al-Qaeda, did not even arguably qualify for such protections. full article

Rapture Ready: The Christians United for Israel Tour

This is creepy. However, my favorite part is when Hagee says that Moses read Deuteronomy! Listen to the beliefs in the "end times" and it is amazing how brainwashed these people are.

The world's funniest description of a colonoscopy

Voter cagng on PBS's NOW

PBS Now, great show with Greg Palast interviewed by David Brancaccio.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/330/video.html

Chickenhawk Republicans

Max Blumenthal films at a Rethuglican convention (college students).

Take a Republican to See "Sicko"

The "Take a Republican to See 'SiCKO'" Contest!
Can you imagine someone from the government coming to your home to help you with the laundry?
Well, they do it in France and if you enter the contest this weekend you will have the chance to win the same treatment for a Republican friend of yours from Michael Moore himself!
GRAND PRIZE:
A randomly chosen Republican (submitted by one of you) will be selected to have Michael Moore come to their home and personally wash their laundry!
1. Take a Republican to see 'SiCKO' this weekend (Friday, July 27th – Sunday, July 29th)
2. Mail in your ticket stub along with the entry form (PDF) to:
Take a Republican to 'SiCKO' Contest888C 8th AvenueSuite 443New York, NY 10019

This Week on the Daily Show

MONDAY 7/23 -- Neil deGrasse Tyson -- host of NOVA "ScienceNOW"

TUESDAY 7/24 -- Robert Pallitto -- author, "Presidential Secrecy and the Law"

WEDNESDAY 7/25 -- Rob Gifford -- author, "China Road"

THURSDAY 7/26 -- Robert Dallek -- author, "Nixon & Kissinger"

This Week on the Colbert Report

MONDAY 7/23 -- Simon Schama -- host, "The Power of Art"

TUESDAY 7/24 -- Anthony Romero -- author, "In Defense of Our America"

WEDNESDAY 7/25 -- Charles Kaiser -- author, "The Gay Metropolis"

THURSDAY 7/26 -- Robert Shrum -- author, "No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner"

White House News

Executive Order:Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq

Read it and weep.

"something's in the works"...

On Thursday, the Thom Hartmann Show featured Reagan's former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, an opponent of Bush and the war in Iraq. Roberts believes that unless Bush and Cheney are impeached, another 'security failure' such as 9/11 will be allowed to happen or even be staged by the administration. "Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."

Scary stuff! Maybe we should take it seriously.

Plame Case Thrown Out

As you've surely heard by now, Valerie Plame's civil suit against several Bush administration people has been thrown out. I think it takes someone with a very unlegal mind such as myself to register the righteous indignation appropriate.

The simple facts of the case slay me. It's proven that CIA covert operative Valerie Plame's name was leaked to various columnists, clearly in an attempt to shut up her husband Joe Wilson, who had published an article revealing that part of the rationale for going to war with Iraq was baseless. Ms. Plame's work, while secret, revolved around nuclear proliferation issues--she pursued information on who was seeking and/or looking to sell nuclear weapons illicitly.

Review: members of the administration revealed the name of a secret agent working to keep us all safe...for brazenly political reasons.

Does it get any more cynical than that? Does it get any more un-patriotic than that? Does it get more unfair than that?

I can't imagine working in the CIA now, knowing that

1. If the administration doesn't like what your work reveals, they can do whatever they like to discredit you.

2. That your legal remedy to reclaim a 20-year career is unlikely.

3. That our media will cover it purely as a legal case, without any real attempt at making Bush or administration officials explain their actions.

I understand that the administration's best legal teams have constructed as watertight a case as possible, insulating those who were at the top of this effort from feeling the consequences of what they'd done...but I keep getting back to the difference between the legal steam roller which consumed $60,000,000 in its efforts to down a President (resulting only in perjury over a private sexual matter)...and this half-hearted year-or-so failed effort over outing a secret agent by people from the Vice President's office.

This decidedly un-legal mind gets the sense that not only was justice not done, but that justice, and Americans as a whole, were mocked.

The Power of Nightmares

If you have not seen this, please find time to do so. We showed part of it awhile ago, at our home. Here is the rest.

Generation Chickenhawk

Huffington Post blogger Max Blumenthal reports first on his visit to Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery where the Iraq vets are interred. Then he talks with avidly pro-war College Republicans and hears their reasons for not 'fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here'. Their excuses sound very much like those of the collection of chickenhawks who fill the Bush administration.

Live blogging from the Senate all nighter

Some snippets of what I have found-----


9:32 PM: For the past few hours, Democratic Senators have taken the floor to call for an up-or-down vote on the Levin-Reed Iraq redeployment bill. Providing political cover for the Bush administration, one Republican Senator after another has stood and voiced objection to moving forward on the legislation. Some examples:

SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (R-TX): I object.

PRESIDING OFFICER: Is there objection?

HUTCHISON: I object.

[…]

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA): Mr. President, I object.

PRESIDING OFFICER: Is there objection?

WARNER: Yup.

Watch the obstructionism in action:



9:41 PM: Americans Against Escalation In Iraq, MoveOn.org, and others are holding a candlelight vigil and rally right now across the street from the Capitol:


A report from the rally:

Shortly after 9pm, Senate leadership took the stage. Reid spoke first, followed by Speaker Pelosi. She asked the crowd, “Are we united in speaking out against Republican obstructionism?” The crowd responded with a roar!

Pelosi was followed by Sen. Durbin — then Rep. John Lewis and then Schumer, then Pat Murphy, then Patty Murray — who led the crowd in a “Wake up” call chant.

From the Senate, we have in attendance the following: Reid, Reed, Durbin, Levin, Schumer, Pelosi, Leahy, Klobuchar, McCaskill, Murray, Akaka, Casey, Lautenberg, and Harkin.

During the middle of the program, the House emptied out and flooded the rally.

Senate all nighter

Currently Sen. Lieberman is speaking. Most of it is total B.S. He did say one thing that made sense, that the votes for the Iraq war have been strictly along party lines, which was a sure sign how dysfunctional the Senate is. Otherwise, it he had nothing to say except, more troops, more surge, etc.
It has been interesting to watch. Sen. Mikulski was eloquent and pointed out all the issues regarding how many times the Dems have tried to add the checks and balances to their roles as Senators, and their attempts to be watchdogs, and how they have been hamstrung by the Rethuglicans. Sen. Mary Landrieu was also eloquent.
Suffice it to say, it's boring TV worh watching. Sadly, most of the seats in the Senate are empty. Sen. Reid should get the Sgt. at Arms to bring everyone to the Senate for this debate. Somebody loan him some balls!

This Week on the Daily Show

NEW EPISODES!

TUESDAY 7/17 -- Christopher Walken -- actor, "Hairspray"

WEDNESDAY 7/18 -- Matt Groening -- creator of "The Simpsons" and "The Simpsons Movie"

THURSDAY 7/19 -- Adam Sandler -- actor, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry"

This Week on the Colbert Report

NEW EPISODES!

TUESDAY 7/17 -- Mark W. Moffett -- National Geographic photographer

WEDNESDAY 7/18 -- John Mellencamp -- musician

THURSDAY 7/19 -- Michael Moore -- director, "Sicko"; & Frank Sulloway, author, "Born To Rebel"

Impeach!

I tried to add this direct from Youtube without success, so here it is now. Bill Moyers on Impeachment. It is very well done and I hope you get time to watch. IMHO, it is high time the Bush administration, all of them (Bush, Cheney, Rice) get what they deserve for stomping on our constitution.

Glen Peterson has passed on

Long time Boerne Democrat Glen Peterson left us early on the morning of July 15th after a long illness.

Glen was a big man, in every respect of the word. He had one of those huge, old-school sounding voices that seemed to come from a deep, cavernous place. That voice was so deep and resonated so broadly, that I expect he was incapable of whispering.

My most vivid memory of Glen was spending a very long 12+ hour day with him at the precinct 10 polling station out at the Welfare schoolhouse. I'd been around him for years, but it wasn't 'til talking with him so much that day that I found out he was originally from my home town of San Angelo.

Glen brought to that quaint old schoolhouse a laptop computer that played DVD's, and when it was slow--it was slow a lot that day--he played old black-n-white westerns on that computer. Talk about a guy who straddled a couple of eras...

Democrats are on the rise here now, but there was a time when we were nearly an endangered species. Even in those darkest days, Glen was proud of his left-leaning politics. His rear bumpers were festooned with silver-haired legislature stickers, as well as whoever was currently scheduled to lose the Gubenatorial race for the Democrats. He was never shy or in the least retiring, even in a time when many around here proclaimed their Democrat-ness only in the voting booth. He always lent the corner of his property on Ranger Creek Road for Democratic political signs, never ever apologizing for his politics.

You're welcome to post in response your thoughts and wishes to his wife LaVerne.

This is what Kay Bailey Hutchison thinks!

I wrote my senator a letter begging her to do something about Gonzales. Guess what? Clinton did it too! Sheesh...

Dear (Madmomma):

Thank you for contacting me regarding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the dismissal of eight U.S. Attorneys in 2006. I welcome your thoughts and comments on this issue.

On December 7, 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice dismissed eight of the 93 U.S. Attorneys serving at that time. These federal prosecutors are political appointees, confirmed by the Senate, and serve at the behest of the president. There has been much discussion about the process and reasons behind these dismissals, but ultimately the decision is one of the president and his administration. Former President Bill Clinton demonstrated this decision-making power when he fired all 93 Attorneys in 1993. President Bush has expressed his confidence in Alberto Gonzales' abilities, and continues to support his service as Attorney General.

I appreciate hearing from you and hope you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you.


Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison

Jeffersonian Logic

I found this great little quote on DailyKos, from Thomas Jefferson. It's well worth the reading!

We've Got the Terrible Twos!

But that's not so bad. Okay, so we're still quick to anger. We're kinda obstinate and demanding. But at least we're potty-trained!

The Kendallian blog is now two & 1/2 years old. Since February of 2005 we've been crankin' out the thoughts of hill country liberals and Democrats. The core group of posters has dwindled slightly...and progressive grannie has stepped up to write when madmomma, Jackie or I haven't felt like it (thanks). But there has been fresh content here for probably 8 of every 10 days for most of the last thousand of them. Every now and then we're even quite good.

One of our big objectives is to bring that wonderful Bush family back from Washington a little early. Why wait 'til his term runs out? Let's see if we can get him to come back to Texas earlier than scheduled!

So thanks for reading. Thanks for passing on the url to new readers. And thanks for sending ideas our way.

BarackObama.com | Write New Post

BarackObama.com | Write New Post

I just posted this on my Obama blog.

Hold Miers and Taylor in inherent contempt, now!

Bush Orders Miers Not to Testify

LAURIE KELLMAN | July 11, 2007 11:03 PM EST |

Compare other versions »
WASHINGTON — President Bush ordered former counsel Harriet Miers to defy a congressional summons, even as a second former aide told a Senate panel Wednesday she knew of no involvement by Bush in the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors. Contempt citations against both women were a possibility.

House Democrats threatened to cite Miers if she refused to appear as subpoenaed for a Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday. The White House said she was immune from the subpoena and Bush had directed her not to appear, according to Miers' lawyer. Democrats said her immunity ended when she left her White House job.

Across the Capitol, meanwhile, former White House political director Sara Taylor found out what Miers may already have known: It's almost impossible to answer some committee questions but not others without breaching either the subpoena or Bush's claim of executive privilege.
------------------------------snip

Hold them in Inherent contempt, which means.......


Under this process, the procedure for holding a person in contempt involves only the chamber concerned. Following a contempt citation, the person cited for contempt is arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms for the House or Senate, brought to the floor of the chamber, held to answer charges by the presiding officer, and then subject to punishment that the House may dictate (usually imprisonment for punishment reasons, imprisonment for coercive effect, or release from the contempt citation.)

-------------snip

It means they will be tried in the House or Senate, outside of the jurisdiction of the Justice Department, which likely would not try the case as they are Bush appointees. It is the only way it can be done. Now, do the Dems have the balls to do it? I certainly hope so.

The Bush administration fails the troops again

Pentagon criticized for armor contracts
By RICHARD LARDNERandANNE FLAHERTYWed Jul 11, 7:10 PM ET
The Defense Department put U.S. troops in Iraq at risk by awarding contracts for badly needed armored vehicles to companies that failed to deliver them on time, according to a review by the Pentagon's inspector general.

The June 27 report, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, examined 15 contracts worth $2.2 billion awarded since 2000 to Force Protection Inc. and Armor Holdings Inc.

The contracts were issued without the normal competition for government work because the military determined these companies were the only ones capable of supplying the vehicles fast enough to meet the demands of deployed troops.

Yet the inspector general's report concluded otherwise.

Overall, Force Protection of Ladson, S.C., received 11 contracts from the Army and Marine Corps worth $417 million for a variety of vehicles, including its Buffalo and Cougar mine-resistant trucks.

Force Protection failed to meet all delivery schedules, according to the report, and acquisition officials knew there were other manufacturers that might have supplied some of the vehicles in a more timely fashion. The report does not provide the names of those possible alternative sources

Lady Bird Johnson Has Died

Read the story here.

In case you missed it yesterday

Michael Moore and Wolf Blitzer



And tonight (Tues 7/10) Michael Moore and Sanjay Gupta will duke it out on Larry King.

This is freaking hilarious!

Click here to see a very well done piece of comedy. Thanks, Jackie, for sending it my way.

This Week on the Daily Show

REPEAT EPISODES:

MONDAY 7/9 -- Claire Danes -- actress, "Evening"

TUESDAY 7/10 -- Michael Moore -- director, "Sicko"

WEDNESDAY 7/11 -- Bruce Willis -- actor, "Live Free or Die Hard"

THURSDAY 7/12 -- Steve Vogel -- author, The Pentagon

This Week on the Colbert Report

REPEAT EPISODES:

MONDAY 7/9 -- Vincent Bugliosi -- author, "Reclaiming History"

TUESDAY 7/10 -- Doug Bailey -- founder, Unity '08

WEDNESDAY 7/11 -- David France -- author, New York Magazine article "The Science of Gaydar"

THURSDAY 7/12 -- Daniel Gilbert -- author, "Stumbling on Happiness"

The Whole Nation--and World--Has Cheney Fatigue

Click here to learn more about how the poor little Republican congressmen are growing weary of the monster THEY created!

pink bubbles for a wedding

pink bubbles
Originally uploaded by skystone461

It was a hot, steamy Sat. but, it was 07/07/07, an auspcious day for a wedding.
So, the "bubble girls" set out to impersonate flower girls for the wedding. All that was required were matching outfits, bubble guns, and moxy!
At the appointed hour, they moved out, shooting bubbles, and laughing.
Soon they arrived in their appointed location, followed by the remainder of the bridal party. It was a piece of cake!
The rain held off, but lurking in the San Antonio Botanic Gardens were lovely slippery areas of grass and mud, which they promptly got into and soon were splotched in mud, but they were still smiling. Their mission was accomplished!

Why we need national healthcare

As an RN with a husband who is a Respiratory Therapist, we support national health care. We have seen and will continue to see the heartbreaking problems that occur to those who have health insurance, that blocks access to care, and the results of what happens when access to care is denied to those without insurance. This is a middle class issue. It's not just about the poor. Can you afford to pay the deductibles should you have a major illness? Likely not. Please watch the movie, and then email your representatives, write a letter to the editor, do SOMETHING!

"SiCKO Brings to Life the RN's Everyday Experience"

-Michael Moore

Michael Moore’s latest film, “Sicko” brings to cinematic life and details in unsparing and vivid imagery the everyday experience of all nurses as they care and advocate for their patients in the confines of a health care industry that long ago abandoned its caring mission in favor of the pursuit of profit at any cost. Nurses experience first hand the pain and terror of every patient and their families as they are forced to confront a callous and uncaring health care industry when at their most frail and vulnerable, and the inevitable personal tragedies when they can't receive needed care due to escalating costs and the ‘care containment’ damage endemic to the industry’s medicine-by-spreadsheet credo. It is nurses, of course, who are there to bear witness to these horrendous moments every day of every shift in every hospital across the U.S., and who are often the last and best hope for these patients and families.

it's official, 40 days and 40 nights of rain

Now that we are so soggy, we need something to bring smiles to our faces.
Here it is:

Hold Cheney in "Inherent Contempt"

Inherent contempt

Under this process, the procedure for holding a person in contempt involves only the chamber concerned. Following a contempt citation, the person cited for contempt is arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms for the House or Senate, brought to the floor of the chamber, held to answer charges by the presiding officer, and then subject to punishment that the House may dictate (usually imprisonment for punishment reasons, imprisonment for coercive effect, or release from the contempt citation.)

Statutory proceedings

Following a contempt citation, the presiding officer of the chamber is instructed to refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia[2]; according to the law it is the "duty" of the U.S. Attorney to refer the matter to a grand jury for action.

The criminal offense of "contempt of Congress" sets the penalty at not less than one month nor more than twelve months in jail and a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000. Those penalties are enforced upon conviction, even if the Congress which initiated the contempt citation has expired.

The statutory procedure has generally been used by Congress since 1935. While the law pronounces the "duty" of the U.S. Attorney is to impanel a grand jury for its action on the matter, dispute exists over whether the Congress can properly compel the U.S. Attorney to take this action, as the U.S. Attorney is a member of the Executive Branch who ultimately reports to the President. (The Courts have been reluctant to decide this question, claiming it is a "political question" for resolution by the elected branches of government.)


Go here and make your voice heard.


P.S. You can add your own message to the petition if you want to. Please look up "INHERENT CONTEMPT" and urge Congress to consider using it instead of Contempt of Congress.
Inherent Contempt is LEGAL, the SCOTUS has upheld it as a Judicial, Congressional right. It by-passes the US Attorney's office...aka...Alberto Gonzales.

Keith Olbermann on Libby

IMPEACH! NOW !

San Antonio Obama Kickoff

That's my poster in the background (SA (heart) Obama).

Excerpt from Truthout

Despite these serious crimes, Libby will spend less time in prison than Paris Hilton, Martha Stewart and Susan MacDougal. The same Republicans who championed the impeachment of Bill Clinton now celebrate Libby's liberation from the consequences of the very same acts they accused Clinton of committing.

Beyond Bush's two-faced blather about potential pardons are details and possibilities of vast complexity.

By commuting the prison sentence, Bush left Libby's 5th Amendment rights intact. Thus, any Congressional committee or prosecutor wishing to call him to testify will have to immunize him from any potential legal repercussions arising from his testimony. If Bush chooses to fully pardon Libby, those 5th Amendment protections will go right out the window.

Libby has repeatedly stated his intention to go on with the appeals process so he can clear his name. If he does this and an appeal is granted, Patrick Fitzgerald will suddenly be back in business, because a granted appeal opens the way for a whole new trial. Libby, if granted this appeal, may well be tried and convicted all over again.

Appeals are commonly granted only if a mistake was made during the initial trial, a difficult standard to meet, which is why most appeals are not granted. Should Libby's team decide to base their appeal on the spurious claim that Patrick Fitzgerald was not properly authorized to prosecute the case to begin with, however, the playing field would be changed dramatically because Fitzgerald would no longer be in a position to retry the case. If the appeals court grants an appeal based on this argument, one would be forced to wonder if that court acted in collusion with the administration.

Hovering above all this is one all-encompassing question: did George W. Bush commit a dead-bang impeachable offense by commuting Libby's sentence?

We all know this, but....

We knew Bush would pardon Scooter, but that still didn't prevent the shock and outrage I felt when he commuted the sentence today. What a bunch of criminals! I also get mad at the pundits who'll say this issue is too difficult to understand by the American public. How hard is it to understand that our President just majorly mitigated what the justice system had meted out. Arrgh.

A Texan's review of the movie "Sicko"

Sicko Spurs Audiences Into Action
By Josh Tyler: 2007-07-01 17:15:27

Long time readers of this site no doubt know that I live in Texas. As everyone knows there's no more conservative state in the Union than here. And I don't just live in Texas; I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Dallas isn't some pocket of hippy-dippy behavior. This isn't Austin. Dallas is the sort of place where guys in cowboy hats still drive around in giant SUV's with "W" stickers on the back windshield, global warming and Iraq be damned. It's probably the only spot left in America where you stand a good chance of getting the crap kicked out of you for badmouthing the president.

So when I went to see Sicko for a second time this afternoon, I wasn't sure what to expect from the audience. I wasn't watching it downtown, where the city's few elitist liberals congregate and drink expensive lattes. I went to a random mall in the mid-cities, where folks were likely to be just folks. As I sat down, right behind me entered an obligatory, cowboy hat wearing redneck in his 50s. He announced his presence by shouting across the theater in a thick Texas drawl to his already seated wife "you owe me fer seein this!"

Sicko started; the stereotypical Texas guy sat down behind me and never stopped talking. He talked through the entire movie. and I listened. The first ten to twenty minutes of the film he spent badmouthing Moore to his wife and snorting in disgust whenever MM went into one of his trademark monologues. But as the movie wore on his protestations became quieter, less enthusiastic. Somewhere along the way, maybe at the half way point, right before my ears, Sicko changed this man's mind. By the forty-five minute mark, he, along with the rest of the audience were breaking into spontaneous applause. He stopped pooh-poohing the movie and started shouting out "hell yeah!" at the screen. It was as if the whole world had been flipped upside down. This is Texas, where people support the president and voting democratic is something only done by the terrorists. Michael Moore should be public enemy number one.

By the time the movie was over, public enemy number one had become George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy all rolled together. When the credits rolled the audience filed out and into the bathrooms. At the urinals, my redneck friend couldn't stop talking about the film, and I kept listening. He struck up a conversation with a random black man in his 40s standing next to him, and soon everyone was peeing and talking about just how fucked everything is.

I kept my distance, as we all finished and exited at the same time. Outside the restroom doors. the theater was in chaos. The entire Sicko audience had somehow formed an impromptu town hall meeting in front of the ladies room. I've never seen anything like it. This is Texas goddammit, not France or some liberal college campus. But here these people were, complete strangers from every walk of life talking excitedly about the movie. It was as if they simply couldn't go home without doing something drastic about what they'd just seen. My redneck compadre and his new friend found their wives at the center of the group, while I lingered in the background waiting for my spouse to emerge.

The talk gradually centered around a core of 10 or 12 strangers in a cluster while the rest of us stood around them listening intently to this thing that seemed to be happening out of nowhere. The black gentleman engaged by my redneck in the restroom shouted for everyone's attention. The conversation stopped instantly as all eyes in this group of 30 or 40 people were now on him. "If we just see this and do nothing about it," he said, "then what's the point? Something has to change." There was silence, then the redneck's wife started calling for email addresses. Suddenly everyone was scribbling down everyone else's email, promising to get together and do something. though no one seemed to know quite what. It was as if I'd just stepped into the world's most bizarre protest rally, except instead of hippies the group was comprised of men and women of every age, skin color, income, and walk of life coming together on something that had shaken them deeply, and to the co
In all my thirty years on this earth, I have never ever seen any movie have this kind of unifying effect on people. It was like I was standing there, at the birth of a new political movement. Even after 9/11, there was never a reaction like this, at least not in Texas. If Sicko truly has this sort of power, then Michael Moore has done something beyond amazing. If it can change people, affect people like this in the conservative hotbed of Texas, then Sicko isn't just a great movie, seeing it may be one of the most important things you do all year.

Progressivegrannie's comment.....You will laugh, cry and cheer. It's a great movie and not to be missed!

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So Does Google

Google trashes "Sicko" to sell ads to insurance and pharmaceutical companies.