Yes, we are. That's all it is. We have come thru a long, sometimes bitter, sometimes scary, sometimes exhilarating 16 month campaign. Ease up a little. If you checked in every hour during the primary season (like me), it's time to slack off, a lot. Twice a day is enough, it's summer, it'll keep. Really.
We'll all be better off if we do.
A little perspective please.
And maybe a little prayer if you're so inclined:
BAGHDAD, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Six U.S. soldiers were killed in a house rigged with explosives on Wednesday in Diyala province, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched a major operation against al Qaeda, the U.S. military said.
It was one of the highest daily death tolls for U.S. troops in Iraq for months. The military said four U.S. soldiers were also wounded in the explosion.
Earlier on Wednesday, the military reported the deaths of three other soldiers the day before in northern Salahuddin province, another target area of the new offensive against al Qaeda that was launched on Tuesday.
This change thing, isn't it all really about vision? This year a lot of people are close to perishing. There's a recession; the world is totally screwed up; the war goes on; thousands are still displaced after Katrina; jobs are disappearing. That doesn't even count the souls who have never had a job to lose or a house to be evacuated from.
I've spent several months trying analyze why Hillary Clinton leaves me cold. Let me explain that I SHOULD relate to her. I'm younger, but I'm a female, a lawyer, a mother, a Democrat, an Illinoisan, and I love Bill Clinton. We have a lot in common, right?
That said, I have problems with the campaign and the candidate.
These are the main issues:
OK, I admit it, I did watch some of the movie. It was terrible. Not terrible as in 'terrible for us'. Terrible as in confusing, blurry, poor sound quality, failed attempts at quick cut-aways and wretched dialogue. Blair Witch on speed with some Arabic thrown in.
If this cost $40 million, about $38 mil went into someones pocket.
I'm not exaggerating how dreadful it was.
I had to stop watching after about 90 minutes. I think that has to be at least 30 minutes more than an average viewer. I called around to friends and family, most of whom did not know how riled up about the show I was, but who did know there was some controversy. They were incredulous that something this low-rent could have been aired on a network.
The cut-aways were an obvious attempt to imitate 24, but remember, 24 deals with a very short time period. Trying to jump most of a decade and from continent to continent in fast time didn't work. Whatever message they were trying to send was lost in the poor quality of the production. It is a flop,
I love the polls showing us up, American voters waking up, and the GOP being handed their hats. But I haven't heard a peep about get out the vote efforts. We KNOW the GOP is very good a this aspect of grass roots motivaion, providing rides to the polls, revving up the church congregations, and they are going to be working extra hard at it this year 'cuz it's all they've got.
So, has anyone heard anything on this from our side?
Perhaps I am just growing forgetful, but I don't remember anything like this media saturation when the plot to blow up the airliners over the Pacific was discovered and quashed. I vaguely remember hearing something about a New Years celebration in the Northwest being cancelled because of a West Coast plot that was foiled. And everyone said "oh wow' and went about their business.
Of course, we had a government then that didn't thrive on terror, it fought it, outsmarted the terrorists and prevented bad things from happening. We had a media establishment that preferred to cover blue dresses than terror plots. And an opposition party that accused Clinton of wagging the dog when he tried to stop Osama.
What has happened to us?
There aren't a lot of heroes on the current radar screen, Here are ten in no particular order, except for Teddy, who's #1 for his consistency and guts.
Ted Kennedy
Keith Obermann
James Risen
James Risen's source
James Comey
Pat Fitzgerald
Dick Durbin
Harry Reid
The NYT (but only for their graphic today, and for finally breaking the Risen story. It's not anywhere near as brave as Katharine Graham's Post was, but its all we've got).
For what it's worth, here's my mull. There's no way that this was done for security reasons. First of all, we don't have enough translators to translate all of these communications. For heavens sake, we don't have enough to translate the legally obtained intercepts.
Secondly, obtaining a warrant from the special, secret court takes less than a day. The NSA can also obtain a warrant after the intercepting has begun, in exigent circumstances. So, any vaguely legitimate reason is easy to make legal by obtaining a warrant. Without a warrant, anything obtained is inadmissable in a prosecution.
This leads to my thought that this surveillance was not related to the prosecution of the war on terrah. I'm old enough to remember Nixon, and the advice of Deep Throat to follow the money.
My hunch is that this was being used to spy on Democratic contributors. Hastert's goofy remarks about Soros are a tip-off, but my gut feeling is that this is the direction the spying went.
Am I missing something here? Why are the Dems who voted for the war with Iraq (or authorized the use of force, as they so quaintly parse it) so stubbornly refusing to admit it was the worst error they ever made?
They are doing themselves no favors by trying to stand up for something that they now know was wrong.
Last night McCain claimed to have had an epiphany about the FIRST Iraq war.
He announced he had changed his mind about the ending of that war and that he now thinks that we should have gone to Baghdad and removed Saddam then.
I was surprised by this remark. Matthews followed up, asking exactly when McCain changed his mind. McCain claimed that it was several years ago.
link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8404912/#storyContinued
Do you think its a dig at Bush 41 because he's spending too much time with the Clintons?
If he really changed his mind several years ago, wouldn't he have mentioned it before last night?
I've had a theory for the last few months that the right wing of the GOP actually wants to end the court system. Delay's recent statements about abolishment and supervision of the courts by the congress have bolstered my theory, but I also thought--Delay's probably just going nuts--nobody else wants to do this.
Todays LA Times, however, has a story about the Focus on the Family and other theocons demanding the very things Delay was spouting, and it was caught on tape at their convention a couple weeks ago. Here's the link:
Yes, I know that sounds a little far out, but think about it. It's a very simple argument:
Legislators pass laws.
Police or sheriffs enforce the law.
I you break the law, you pay the punishment.
No need to bring in a judge or jury to screw things up.
Any questions?
Hey--we must have won the war on terrah. There's nothing to report!
Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report
By Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.
Several U.S. officials defended the abrupt decision, saying the methodology the National Counterterrorism Center used to generate statistics for the report may have been faulty, such as the inclusion of incidents that may not have been terrorism.
Last year, the number of incidents in 2003 was undercounted, forcing a revision of the report, "Patterns of Global Terrorism."
.
US Sen. Leahy says asbestos bill proposal close
Tue Apr 12, 2005 02:51 PM ET
WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - Vermont Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy said on Tuesday he believed he and Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter would soon be able to introduce a bill to create a national fund for compensating asbestos victims.
"I am convinced that he and I will be able to introduce a bill soon," Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters. "I think that we are very, very close to a bill that Senator Specter and I will both support ... The question will be the number of people from both our parties who will be able to join us in the legislation."
First the Dems in the Senate caved on class actions. Then bankruptcy. Now asbestos litigation. So now the Democratic Party can claim to be enablers of corporate welfare at the expense of the sick and poor.
What the hell is wrong with these Senators?
"Group started by DeLay targeted prospective donors' interests
A political committee started by Tom DeLay routinely asked for donations by identifying legislative actions the prospective givers wanted.
Memos show that the Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee asked, for example, what companies would be interested in tort reform with asbestos problems."
But why are the DEMS going along with his agenda NOW?
(From tomorrows FT)
"Hopes of asbestos compensation deal rise
Prospects for the creation of a $140bn asbestos compensation fund appeared to improve yesterday after a key US Senate DEMOCRAT indicated the plan might have attained BIPARTISAN support in the Senate judiciary committee.
Arlen Specter, the committee's Republican chairman and the main force behind the bill, said he expected to introduce legislation within the next few days.
I just watched Herry Reid's statement on the Senate floor about the GOP's hit plan. Harry directed it straight to where it came from,,,the WH.
Harry so far hasn't gotten diverted or made to chase his tail by the republi-thugs, and I hope he stays this way. Somehow, he's such an antithesis of slick that I don't know that the full Rove is gonna work.
CNN just announced he's having dinner at the WH tonight. IMO he should only talk to Laura.
Does anybody know where we can get some give em hell, Harry bumper stickers? I want to show my support of my new hero.
This is just off the wire. But don't get excited.
Under the GOP sponsored "Fairness in Asbestos Act", which will be brought to the floor soon, companies like WR Grace won't have to face a civil jury. That's because the Fairness in Asbestos Act takes away injured people's right to sue asbestos companies. Completely, and forever.
W.R. Grace, Seven Executives Charged With Asbestos Conspiracy
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- W.R. Grace & Co. and seven current and former executives were charged by the U.S. with conspiring to release asbestos at a mine near Libby, Montana, endangering the lives of workers, residents and schoolchildren who used contaminated sports equipment.
The Columbia, Maryland-based company, forced into bankruptcy because of asbestos claims, was accused in a federal indictment of scheming to release the deadly product and engaging in a cover-up to hide its activities. The defendants conspired ``to increase profits and avoid liability by misleading the government,'' falsely asserting the Libby mine posed no risk to public health, the indictment said.
Tomorrow's NYT gives more details on Bush SS plan. I copied some, but read the whole thing. This plan is NUTS :
"Now these details of the memorandum from the Social Security actuary, Stephen C. Goss, to Charles P. Blahous, the main White House staff expert on the program, are circulating among policy experts:
Mr. Goss said a "shadow account" would be calculated based on how much the retiree's investment account would have been worth if it had all been invested in bonds with an average yield of three percentage points above inflation.
Those who had low wages in their working years would be required to put at least part of the money in their accounts into lifetime annuities, instruments that make a guaranteed monthly payment for life but then expire and cannot be left to heirs.
Retirees who were more affluent could invest or spend their accounts as they wished.
But the guaranteed monthly payments from the government would be determined as if the tax money they had paid to the government were reduced by the amount in the hypothetical shadow account.
