Kraven Moorehead

we must start by adding the ugly facts up.
In the Sunday Globe today, the front page was about the possible closing of the Globe within the next 30 days, ironically there was an ad insert for you to subscribe to the Globe for 26 weeks at 1/2 price.
There was also a story about the revenues lost by the Red Sox because of the downturn in the economy.
Washington St. in Boston THE Shopping District looks like a ghost town.

We still have a banking crisis, a housing crisis, an auto crisis, energy crisis. 8.5% Unemployment and rising, the slumping dollar ,
rising gun sales , tent cities, health care cost, States unable to meet budgets, Mexican drug wars IN the Southwestern United States etc.
Yet, you have clowns like Jim Kramer and the comics at CNBC peddling the Wall St. word and praising the end of the "recession"suckering in more people.

we have 2 wars, one holding steady and one growing at a cost of billions each and every day
We are trillions of dollars in debt
We owe China more than a trillion
We are up the creek without a paddle no matter how it is spun and no matter who is spinning it.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

St.Patrick's Day has come and gone.
Once again the Irish have proven to be the best

Every year Irish jokes flow like the beer and yet you never hear them whine or complain that someone is making fun of them
like I always say
They are the only group I can think of that can still laugh at a JOKE

The Irish don't get pissed because they know it is just a JOKE unlike every other group
which is why I say Irish woman are dolls with the temperment of a Saint
Irishmen......not so much

Except for the French, there are no french jokes.........unless someone changed it from some other nation of origin
and swedes of course but that's just because nobody knows where or what a swede is any way

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

some months ago, I called for the impeachment of the president.
I still do.

it was reported today that this stupid conflict he created is costing us almost 2 bil. a week.
That is our social security he spending and everyone is quite.
he has lied, he has murdered and now congress is giving him permission to torture.
It's time to take the country back from this crazy idiot before he breaks the bank and gets more Americans killed!
There is no good coming from this and anyone who thinks there is, is just as whacked as he is.
We should and must take care of our own and let the dust fly were it may.
Time to protect our borders and ports and keep american jobs in America.
In Massachusetts we have a gubenatorial candidate who wants to give licenses to illegal aliens and there are people who think that's a good idea. He also wants to let illegals pay the same tuition rate as people who actually live in this state legally...if you live in N.H. tough luck, you pay out of state tuition rates We are surrounded by Morons
and idiots.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Maureen Dowd:

Scott McClellan told the White House press corps that Katharine Armstrong, a
lobbyist with government ties who owns the Texas ranch (and whose mother,
Anne, was on the Halliburton board that hired Mr. Cheney as C.E.O.),
"pointed out that the protocol was not followed by Mr. Whittington when it
came to notifying the others that he was there."

As the story of the weekend's bizarre hunting accident is wrenched out of
the White House, the picture isn't pretty: With American soldiers dying in
Iraq, Five-Deferment Dick "I Had Other Priorities in the 60's Than Military
Service" Cheney gets his macho kicks gunning down little birds and the
occasional old man while W. rides his bike, blissfully oblivious to any
collateral damage. Shouldn't these guys work on weekends until we figure out
how to fix Iraq, New Orleans, Medicare and gas prices?

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From internet posting today on Insight Magazine's sitea;

Issue Date: February 6-12, 2006, Posted On: 2/6/2006

Rove counting heads on the Senate Judiciary Committee
The White House has been twisting arms to ensure that no Republican member votes against President Bush in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation of the administration's unauthorized wiretapping.

Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November.

"It's hardball all the way," a senior GOP congressional aide said.
The sources said the administration has been alarmed over the damage that could result from the Senate hearings, which began on Monday, Feb. 6. They said the defection of even a handful of Republican committee members could result in a determination that the president violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Such a determination could lead to impeachment proceedings.

Over the last few weeks, Mr. Rove has been calling in virtually every Republican on the Senate committee as well as the leadership in Congress. The sources said Mr. Rove's message has been that a vote against Mr. Bush would destroy GOP prospects in congressional elections.

"He's [Rove] lining them up one by one," another congressional source said.
Mr. Rove is leading the White House campaign to help the GOP in November’s congressional elections. The sources said the White House has offered to help loyalists with money and free publicity, such as appearances and photo-ops with the president.

Those deemed disloyal to Mr. Rove would appear on his blacklist. The sources said dozens of GOP members in the House and Senate are on that list.

So far, only a handful of GOP senators have questioned Mr. Rove's tactics.
Some have raised doubts about Mr. Rove's strategy of painting the Democrats, who have opposed unwarranted surveillance, as being dismissive of the threat posed by al Qaeda terrorists.

"Well, I didn't like what Mr. Rove said, because it frames terrorism and the issue of terrorism and everything that goes with it, whether it's the renewal of the Patriot Act or the NSA wiretapping, in a political context," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska Republican.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article only reinforces my belief that George Bush and his administration are a greater threat to American Democracy than Osama and his crew. Bush took a country united after 9/11 and overfloowing with international goodwill and has turned us into an internally polarized and internationally mistrusted and disrespected nation. Now he's claiming unprecedented executive authority under an ever expanding cloak of secrecy. Humbug.

On a slightly lighter note, isn't it interesting that President Bush having his picture taken with Abramoff doesn't mean he's a friend -- and yet the fact that John Kerry happened to appear in a news photo in the same frame as Jane Fonda makes him a traitor.

Bush vows to assert presidential power
US spying, storm disputes included
By Jim VandeHei, Washington Post | January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON -- President Bush set limits yesterday on White House cooperation in three political disputes, saying he is determined to assert presidential prerogatives on matters from domestic eavesdropping to congressional inquiries into Hurricane Katrina.

In a midmorning news conference, Bush told reporters he is skeptical of a proposed law imposing new oversight on his use of the National Security Agency to listen in on electronic communications. He also said that he will block White House aides from testifying about the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina, and that he will not release official White House photos of himself with former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Facing repeated questions, Bush distanced himself from Abramoff, who is at the center of the biggest political corruption and bribery scandal in a generation. Bush said he does not recall having his picture taken with Abramoff or ever meeting him. Abramoff was a member of the exclusive club of Bush's $100,000 fund-raisers known as Pioneers.

''Having my picture taken with someone doesn't mean that I'm a friend with him or know him very well," Bush told reporters.

According to three people who reviewed half a dozen photos of the men, Bush is pictured at official gatherings and fund-raisers with Abramoff and his children. He also attended a White House meeting with some of Abramoff's clients, including tribal leaders and the then-speaker of the House for the Northern Mariana Islands, the sources said. Abramoff has pictures from the event, they said. ''If [prosecutors] believe something was done inappropriately in the White House, they'll come and look and they're welcome to do so," Bush said. The White House has also refused to detail meetings between Abramoff and top White House aides.

The president was similarly adamant about not allowing top aides to testify about Hurricane Katrina. Bush, who has moved on several fronts over the past five years to strengthen the power of the presidency, said it would be damaging to him and future presidents if aides feared providing candid advice.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, a staunch supporter of Bush on foreign policy, has accused the White House of undermining the probe by refusing to detail the role of White House officials. ''If people give me advice and they're forced to disclose that advice, it means the next time an issue comes up I might not be able to get unvarnished advice from my advisers," Bush said. ''And that's just the way it works."

On the issue of NSA eavesdropping on overseas communications to or from US citizens, Bush said he is concerned about Congress writing a new spying law because it could force the government to provide details and clues about a top-secret program used to hunt down terrorists.

''There's no doubt in my mind it is legal," Bush said. Democrats have accused Bush of breaking the law by authorizing the spying program without approval from Congress or the courts. The debate is expected to dominate hearings, scheduled to begin Feb. 6, on the highly classified NSA program.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bush vows to assert presidential power
US spying, storm disputes included
By Jim VandeHei, Washington Post | January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON -- President Bush set limits yesterday on White House cooperation in three political disputes, saying he is determined to assert presidential prerogatives on matters from domestic eavesdropping to congressional inquiries into Hurricane Katrina.

In a midmorning news conference, Bush told reporters he is skeptical of a proposed law imposing new oversight on his use of the National Security Agency to listen in on electronic communications. He also said that he will block White House aides from testifying about the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina, and that he will not release official White House photos of himself with former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Facing repeated questions, Bush distanced himself from Abramoff, who is at the center of the biggest political corruption and bribery scandal in a generation. Bush said he does not recall having his picture taken with Abramoff or ever meeting him. Abramoff was a member of the exclusive club of Bush's $100,000 fund-raisers known as Pioneers.

''Having my picture taken with someone doesn't mean that I'm a friend with him or know him very well," Bush told reporters.

According to three people who reviewed half a dozen photos of the men, Bush is pictured at official gatherings and fund-raisers with Abramoff and his children. He also attended a White House meeting with some of Abramoff's clients, including tribal leaders and the then-speaker of the House for the Northern Mariana Islands, the sources said. Abramoff has pictures from the event, they said. ''If [prosecutors] believe something was done inappropriately in the White House, they'll come and look and they're welcome to do so," Bush said. The White House has also refused to detail meetings between Abramoff and top White House aides.

The president was similarly adamant about not allowing top aides to testify about Hurricane Katrina. Bush, who has moved on several fronts over the past five years to strengthen the power of the presidency, said it would be damaging to him and future presidents if aides feared providing candid advice.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, a staunch supporter of Bush on foreign policy, has accused the White House of undermining the probe by refusing to detail the role of White House officials. ''If people give me advice and they're forced to disclose that advice, it means the next time an issue comes up I might not be able to get unvarnished advice from my advisers," Bush said. ''And that's just the way it works."

On the issue of NSA eavesdropping on overseas communications to or from US citizens, Bush said he is concerned about Congress writing a new spying law because it could force the government to provide details and clues about a top-secret program used to hunt down terrorists.

''There's no doubt in my mind it is legal," Bush said. Democrats have accused Bush of breaking the law by authorizing the spying program without approval from Congress or the courts. The debate is expected to dominate hearings, scheduled to begin Feb. 6, on the highly classified NSA program.

''But it's important for people to understand that this program is so sensitive and so important that if information gets out to how we run it or how we operate it, it'll help the enemy," he said. ''Why tell the enemy what we're doing?"

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The U.S. Senate is the most obvious player in the game of obtaining power and keeping it. In that regard, Senators are shameless as they continue to do the bidding of economically powerful groups involved in "public-private partnerships" or economic interests that have no allegiance to the United States of America.

A case in point: the recent push by the U.S. Senate for more economic visas for foreign workers. The demand by economic interests, corporations, particularly Bill Gates, comes at the expense of American-born workers, scientists, engineers and thousands in other professions, skilled and unskilled.

The U.S. Senate is about to allow an increase in the infamous H-1B and attendant L-1 visa "plan," which is called the Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005 (S. 1932). Leading the latest attempt to do an injustice to the American worker, taxpayer and citizenry is that paragon of moderation, Senator Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

Thanks to Arlen and the other bandits and buccaneers in the U.S. Senate, particularly the Judiciary Committee, megabillionaire and leftist Bill Gates, along with a phalanx of corporate supremacists, are building empires on the backs of Americans and the American nation-state.

This effort is supported by our government and the political class as they bow to the demands to increase H-1B and L-1 visas to accommodate universities, hospitals, technology companies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which say there is a shortage of qualified workers – a shortage that exists only in the minds of profit-hungry and cost-cutting megacorporations or thoughtless groups like the Chamber of Commerce. As one former government worker stated, "The U.S. Chamber of Commerce represents Chinese business interests better than any group I know. "

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lying and Dying Redux
By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real
Posted on November 1, 2005, Printed on November 1, 2005

There's only one story that's important today, and it's not President Bush's latest pick for the Supreme Court. It's this one:

Washington -- The National Security Agency has kept secret since 2001 a finding by an agency historian that NSA officers deliberately distorted critical intelligence during the Tonkin Gulf episode that helped precipitate the Vietnam War, according to two people familiar with the historian's work…The research by Robert Hanyok, the NSA historian, was detailed four years ago in an in-house article that remains classified, in part because agency officials feared its release might prompt uncomfortable comparisons with the flawed intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq, according to an intelligence official familiar with some internal discussions of the matter. (Full Story)

Unfortunately, it took over 40 years to learn about this pertinent little fact. But only because Lyndon Johnson didn't have a Joe Wilson shooting off his mouth. So the evidence -- that the Vietnam War began on a lie -- stayed buried. Did Johnson know the alleged North Vietnamese attack on two of our destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf was pure fiction? Sure he did. In a candid moment, Johnson told then under-secretary of state George W. Ball, "Hell, those dumb, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish!"

"Rather than come clean about their mistake, they helped launch the United States into a bloody war that would last for 10 years," said Matthew M. Aid, an independent expert on the events leading up to the Vietnam War.

Did George W. Bush know the Niger documents were fakes? I don't know. But Dick Cheney sure as hell did, which is why he sent Scooter Libby out to smear Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie. Wilson was exposing the Bush administration's Tonkin Gulf lie -- that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger.

So here we are again, fighting an undeclared war thousands of miles from home. Another generation of American kids are dying and being maimed for life because someone in high office lied and then covered it up -- or, in this case, tried to cover it up.

Individuals in both administrations lied to begin a war, and then were comfortable with keeping their mouths shut about it while other people's kids died. Whether you are for this administration or against it, ask yourself: what kind of people do something like that?

I lived through the Johnson administration, and that first war - barely. Over 60,000 of my generation didn't. A lot of us suspected at the time that the war had been cooked up, but couldn't prove it. There was a draft back then, so we had little choice in the matter anyway. A lot of guys -- like me -- who opposed the war still ended up in the military, unless you had the right connections.

Forty years later, all America has to show for that war is a slab of polished black granite on the Mall in DC. All the families who lost loves ones in Vietnam have left is a name chiseled there to show they ever existed -- all for a lie.

Here we are again with a foreign war raging, kids and parents dying, again for a lie.
Considering it was way back in the 1960s when the NSA reports were doctored and then hidden, I don't find it surprising that they got away with it. Those were different times. Whistle blowers within government were a rarity.

When Nixon shouldered the war from Johnson he was determined not to let the lie destroy him as it had his predessor. He got elected by promising he had "a secret plan to end the war," which was of course another lie. That's why Nixon pulled out all the stops in to destroy former Pentagon analyst, Daniel EIlsberg when he leaked the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg did not have a wife working for the CIA, but he was seeing a shrink. So the Nixon gang broke into his shrink's office and stole his file, hoping they could prove he was crazy.

That was a long time ago. And the Tonkin Gulf lie was about to be revealed to the American people back in 2001, but it wasn't. Not because it would discredit America's credibility in Vietnam -- history has already taken care of that. No, it had to be kept secret because it was the Bush administration's playbook for justifying war on Iraq. The last thing frothing-at-the-mouth Neocons needed in 2001 was to have a near-identical intelligence cooking operation 41 years ago come to light. Most citizens assume their government lies to them. Seldom, though, do we get hard proof like that.

After being fed the fictional Tonkin Gulf attack reports, Congress dutifully passed a resolution giving President Johnson the right "to use force if necessary" in Vietnam. Sound familiar? No formal declaration of war as required by the US Constitution. Instead, a chickenshit resolution relieving individual members of Congress from the most important decision they were elected to make -- to take the nation to war.

Forty years later, Congress again ducked and covered, hiding from their constitutional obligation and passing a near identical resolution, giving President Bush the right to use "force if necessary" in Iraq. The first time Congress pulled that stunt, they got all those kids of my generation killed, not to mention a million or more Vietnamese. One would think a blood stain of that magnitude would have current members of Congress seeing the ghosts of members of the "Vietnam War Congress" wailing and prowling the halls, like hundreds of mournful Lady Macbeths. But no, they did it again.

In both Vietnam and Iraq, once the shooting started, all the responsible ones could do was bury their lies as deeply as possible. What else could they do once the dogs of war had been released? People were dying, first by the dozens, then by the hundreds, and then the thousands and tens of thousands. The higher the price in human life rose, the more important it became that the lie that caused those deaths remain hidden.

Which is precisely why Scooter Libby and Karl Rove were so awfully busy in June and July of 2003. And why they were willing to go so far as to threaten national security, not to mention Valerie Wilson's life.

After all, what else could they do? Joe Wilson wasn't seeing a shrink.
Stephen Pizzo is the author of numerous books, including "Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans," which was nominated for a Pulitzer.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is your private property
in jeopardy?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: October 29, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

In the United States of America, where private property was considered to be sacred by the Founders and where the right to private property is guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment, your private property is not in jeopardy – unless: 1) your property lies within a municipality, 2) your property lies within a county, or 3) your property lies within federal land.

There was a time when local elected officials created building and zoning ordinances to ensure that structures met minimum safety standards and to separate residential from commercial properties. These ordinances had to be acceptable to the people governed by them, or the local elected officials would be replaced by new officials more responsive to the will of the governed.

This fundamental principle of freedom gives meaning to the idea that government is empowered by the consent of the governed.

In recent years, this principle has been replaced by a new idea, advanced by the President's Council on Sustainable Development. Goal number 8, of the PCSD, says:

"We need a new collaborative decision process that leads to better decisions; more rapid change; and more sensible use of human, natural and financial resources in achieving our goals."

This new decision process empowers professionals to make the policy decisions that govern how people must live and empowers bureaucracies to implement and enforce these policies.

During the sustainable-development epidemic of the 1990s, the federal government provided millions of dollars in grants to the American Planning Association to develop a master plan that would bring all communities into compliance with the PCSD's vision of sustainable development.

The 1,500-page plan is called Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook: Model Statutes for Planning and the Management of Change.

Prodded by state-level planning professionals and enticed by the promise of federal funding for implementation, state governments rushed to enact state comprehensive planning laws fashioned by the American Planning Association. Invariably, these state laws require counties to develop local comprehensive land-use plans that conform to the regulations set forth in the APA's master plan.

Municipal and county governments, dependent upon state and federal government funding, have no choice but to comply with the dictates of the state's comprehensive planning laws. Consequently, it no longer matters what the people who are governed want; they must comply with the regulations designed and decided by the professionals, and implemented and enforced by government bureaucrats.

These regulations may be so detailed as to dictate the varieties of plants that may be used for landscaping, the color of paint used inside and outside structures, the size and color of business signs, and require that materials used for construction be certified as "environmentally friendly" regardless of the cost.

One of the more onerous concepts introduced in the master plan is the idea of "Amortization of Non-Conforming Uses." This scheme allows structures that do not meet the new regulations to continue in use for a specified period of time. If the structures are not brought into compliance by the deadline, the owner loses his right to the property, which could be taken by government, without compensation.

No private property within any municipality or county is safe from this new vision of sustainable development.

People who have a property interest in federal land are in even greater jeopardy. Ranchers who have invested thousands of dollars and years of sweat-equity in fences and watering systems are seeing their grazing allotments reduced to the point of economic non-viability. Loggers are now prohibited from harvesting timber on vast stretches of the national forest. Miners and drillers who pay for leases and invest millions in equipment are denied the right to extract natural resources from federal land. People whose families have invested in summer cabins on federal land are discovering that their permits are not being renewed, and the cabins are being confiscated or destroyed. Off-road vehicle enthusiasts are finding it increasingly difficult to use federal land. Even sightseers and bird watchers have discovered that new signs are spawning all across federal lands that read: "Area Beyond This Sign Closed – All Public Entry Prohibited."

Ownership of private property means that the exclusive right to use the property belongs to the owner. Restrictions on the use of private property, imposed by any authority other than by elected officials accountable to the people who are governed is usurpation of a fundamental principle of freedom.

This "new collaborative decision process" called sustainable development effectively extinguishes the rights of property owners, as well as the idea that government is empowered by the consent of the governed.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 01:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

George W. Bush and the G-Word

By Al Kamen

Friday, October 14, 2005; Page A17

The reemergence of the controversy that President Bush allegedly told Palestinian leaders that God told him to invade Afghanistan and then Iraq is not the only time that his comments regarding God have sparked confusion.

In July 2004, he stopped to campaign with some Amish folks at Lapp Electric Service in Smoketown, Pa. Just as the meeting ended, Bush, according to Mennonite Weekly Review columnist Jack Brubaker, told the group: "I trust God speaks through me. Without that I couldn't do my job." This also produced White House denials that Bush used those words.

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Loop Fans will recall that the Palestinian kerfuffle began in June 2003, when an Israeli paper reported that former Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas said Bush told the Palestinian leaders: "God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam Hussein, which I did."

The White House declined to clarify, but the Israeli reporter at the time read what he said were the Palestinians' minutes of the meeting to an Arabic-speaking colleague here. Our colleague's translation was different: "God inspired me to hit al Qaeda, and so I hit it. And I had the inspiration to hit Saddam, and so I hit him."

Substantially different, we felt. Moreover, this is Abbas's account in Arabic of what Bush said in English, written down by a note-taker in Arabic and then put back into English.

The newest uproar was sparked by a BBC documentary airing this week in which Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath says Bush said during that meeting that he was "driven with a mission from God."

"President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq. . . . And I did." This sounds much like the original Haaretz version. Bush then allegedly said God had now told him to "go get the Palestinians their state."

This time there is a response: "We checked contemporaneous notes from the meeting with President Abbas and did not find a single reference to God," a senior administration official told us. "The closest thing we could find that the president said is: 'My government and I personally are committed to the vision of a Palestinian state.' "

Back in 2004, a White House spokesman told Mennonite Weekly columnist Brubaker that Bush "likely talked about his own faith," as he often does, but did not say God speaks through him.

Brubaker, in a follow-up column, said he checked with his source, an Amish reporter, who rechecked with attendees and had gotten different wording from several of them. "But Bush has said similar things on other occasions," Brubaker noted, citing B ob Woodward's "Plan of Attack," where Bush says he's "surely not going to justify the war based on God . . . Nevertheless . . . I pray I be as good a messenger of his will as possible."

" 'Messenger of his will [or] God speaks through me,' " Brubaker wrote. "The difference seems rather fine."

The question is, how is it that Bush so confuses groups as diverse as the Palestinians and the Amish? Is it the Andover-Texas accent?

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tom Oliphant on boston.com today and the following NYT Editorial.

October 7, 2005
President Bush's Major Speech: Doing the 9/11 Time Warp Again
Yesterday, the same day New Yorkers were warned there was a "specific threat" of a bombing on their subways, President Bush delivered what the White House promoted as a major address on terrorism. It seemed, on the surface, like a perfect topic for the moment. But his talk was not about the nation's current challenges. He delivered a reprise of his Sept. 11 rhetoric that suggested an avoidance of today's reality that seemed downright frightening.

The period right after 9/11, for all its pain, was the high point of the Bush presidency. Four years ago, we hung on every word when Mr. Bush denounced Al Qaeda and made the emotional - but, as it turned out, empty - vow to track down Osama bin Laden. Yesterday, it seemed as if the president was still trying to live in 2001. It was eerie to hear him urge Americans to take terrorism seriously. There wasn't any reason to worry about that even before subway riders were being told about the threat of a terrorist attack on their commute home.

He seemed to be reading from a very old and familiar script as he revealed that terrorists recruit "disillusioned young men and women," some of whom build weapons based on information available on the Internet. He shared his conviction that "it is cowardice that seeks to kill children and the elderly with car bombs." He said his team was "reforming our intelligence agency" and reorganizing government for "a broad and coordinated homeland defense."

Americans have seen the Department of Homeland Security in action for several years now, under two directors. The first, a former governor with whom the president had a good personal relationship, was an inept bureaucratic and political player who had a strange obsession with color-coded states of emergency. The current one was at the helm during the Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster in New Orleans, when that agency was overseen by an unqualified political appointee.

The administration is still trying to recover politically from Katrina. The hurricane was not just a bad stretch that could be cured by a promise of federal aid and a demonstration of presidential concern. The hurricane showed that despite four years of spinning, America is still unprepared for a catastrophe. It raised major questions about the caliber of people with whom Mr. Bush surrounds himself.

Ever since the terrorist attacks, the main thing Americans have wanted from Washington is a sense of safety. That takes more than hyperalertness to suicide bombing threats, important as that is. No matter what the terrorists are up to, it is not possible to feel safe if the federal government does not appear to know what it is doing on so many different levels.

Yesterday was an ideal moment for Mr. Bush to demonstrate that he was really in control of his administration. He could have taken any one of a number of pressing worries and demonstrated that he was on the job, re-examining the problems, working on answers. For instance, he could have addressed the crisis facing the overstretched military due to the endless demands made by Iraq on both the Army and the beleaguered National Guard.

The speech came one day after the White House threatened to veto a bill onto which the Senate added a ban on the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against prisoners of the American government. This president could not find the spine to veto a bloated transportation bill that included wildly wasteful projects like the now-famous "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska. What kind of priorities does that suggest? If we ever needed the president to demonstrate that he has a working understanding of exactly where he wants to take this country, we need it now.

The president's inability to grow beyond his big moment in 2001 is unnerving. But the fact that his handlers continue to encourage him to milk 9/11 is infuriating. For most of us, the memories are fresh and painful. We mourn the people who died on Sept. 11, as we mourn Daniel Pearl and other Americans, not to mention innocents from other countries, who were murdered by terrorists. The administration's penchant for using them as political cover is offensive. It threatens to turn our wounds, and our current fears, into cynical and desperate spin.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, New Rule: No more gift registries. You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. [laughter] Picking up the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting. [laughter] [applause]

New Rule: Don't drag kids into adult fights. Everybody knows you don't exploit children as pawns during a strike. You exploit children as pawns during a divorce! [laughter] Let's limit kids to their one true airline responsibility: kicking the back of my seat. [laughter] [applause]

New Rule: The term, “CPT,” which stands for Colored People's Time, based on the belief that blacks are often late, must now be renamed “FGT,” for “Federal Government Time.” [laughter] [applause] And when people like Mike Brown walk in anywhere, even five minutes late, everyone must roll their eyes and mumble, “FGT.” [laughter] [applause]

New Rule, and this one is long overdue: No more bathroom attendants. [applause] After I zip up, some guy is offering me a towel and a mint like I just had sex with George Michael. [laughter] [applause] I can't even tell if he's supposed to be there, or just some freak with a fetish. [laughter] I don't want to be on

And finally, New Rule: America must recall the president. [applause] [cheers] That's – that's what this country needs. A good, old-fashioned, California-style recall election! [applause] [cheers] Complete with Gary Coleman, porno actresses and action film stars. [laughter] And just like Schwarzenegger's predecessor here in California, George Bush is now so unpopular, he must defend his jog against…Russell Crowe. [laughter] Because at this point, I want a leader who will throw a phone at somebody. [laughter] [applause] In fact, let's have only phone throwers. Naomi Campbell can be the vice-president! [laughter]

Now, I kid, but seriously, Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you anymore. [laughter] There's no more money to spend. You used up all of that. [laughter] You can't start another war because you also used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. [laughter] [applause]

Yeah, listen to your mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit card's maxed out, and no one is speaking to you: mission accomplished! [laughter] Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. [laughter] [applause] Like you did with your military service. And the oil company. And the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or spaceman?! [laughter] [applause]

Now, I know what you're saying. You're saying that there's so many other things that you, as president, could involve yourself in…Please don't. [laughter] I know, I know, there's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela, and eliminating the sales tax on yachts. [laughter] Turning the space program over to the church. [laughter] [applause] And Social Security to Fannie Mae. [laughter] Giving embryos the vote. [laughter] [applause] But, sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. [laughter] You've performed so poorly I'm surprised you haven't given yourself a medal. [laughter] You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. [laughter]

Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire metropolis to rising water and snakes. [laughter]

On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Trade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans…Maybe you're just not lucky! [laughter] [applause] [cheers]

I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. [laughter] So, yes, God does speak to you, and what he's saying is, “Take a hint.”

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Report says CIA powers broadened
March 6, 2005

The Bush administration secretly gave the CIA broad powers to transfer terrorism suspects to foreign countries for interrogation, The New York Times reports today. Under the policy, the agency does not require case-by-case approval from the White House or the State Department, the Times said, citing a directive signed by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Human rights groups have said such transfers sidestep safeguards against torture.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Report says CIA powers broadened
March 6, 2005

The Bush administration secretly gave the CIA broad powers to transfer terrorism suspects to foreign countries for interrogation, The New York Times reports today. Under the policy, the agency does not require case-by-case approval from the White House or the State Department, the Times said, citing a directive signed by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Human rights groups have said such transfers sidestep safeguards against torture.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Report says CIA powers broadened
March 6, 2005

The Bush administration secretly gave the CIA broad powers to transfer terrorism suspects to foreign countries for interrogation, The New York Times reports today. Under the policy, the agency does not require case-by-case approval from the White House or the State Department, the Times said, citing a directive signed by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Human rights groups have said such transfers sidestep safeguards against torture.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday feb 13th
Sister Lucia Died
Sister Lucia was the little girl who the Catholic Church said did in fact speak to the Virgin Mary 5 times. A Miracle!
( our Lady of Fatima)
The Pope looked up to her, he visited her three times since 1981
An official living Saint
The flags of Portugal are flying at half mast
The country has suspended political campaigns for a week
The Nation of Portugal is in mourning
I turned on TV this morning
all they spoke about was Mikey jackson jury selection
GIVE ME A FRIGGIN BREAK!

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday feb 13th
Sister Lucia Died
Sister Lucia was the little girl who the Catholic Church said did in fact speak to the Virgin Mary 5 times. A Miracle!
( our Lady of Fatima)
The Pope looked up to her, he visited her three times since 1981
An official living Saint
The flags of Portugal are flying at half mast
The country has suspended political campaigns for a week
The Nation of Portugal is in mourning
I turned on TV this morning
all they spoke about was Mikey jackson jury selection
GIVE ME A FRIGGIN BREAK!

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday feb 13th
Sister Lucia Died
Sister Lucia was the little girl who the Catholic Church said did in fact speak to the Virgin Mary 5 times. A Miracle!
( our Lady of Fatima)
The Pope looked up to her, he visited her three times since 1981
An official living Saint
The flags of Portugal are flying at half mast
The country has suspended political campaigns for a week
The Nation of Portugal is in mourning
I turned on TV this morning
all they spoke about was Mikey jackson jury selection
GIVE ME A FRIGGIN BREAK!

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bush credits Karl Rove with putting him in the Whitehouse. And, he's
correct.

How did he do it? Easy. Sell to emotion (fear - of terrorists, gays,
whatever; exploit religion, use character assassination on your opponent,
etc.) - never tell the truth, never admit a mistake, promise the world but
never say how it will be paid for; run every word through focus groups (by
the way, Social Security "crisis" is now out - it's "major problems" now -
it didn't poll well. Neither did "privatization," it's now "individual
accounts").

Bush is the first President in the history of the United States to be an
anti-enlightenment President, preferring religion over reason.

We will shortly meet our goal of instituting in Iraq the same form of
government we have here - a Theocracy.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bush credits Karl Rove with putting him in the Whitehouse. And, he's
correct.

How did he do it? Easy. Sell to emotion (fear - of terrorists, gays,
whatever; exploit religion, use character assassination on your opponent,
etc.) - never tell the truth, never admit a mistake, promise the world but
never say how it will be paid for; run every word through focus groups (by
the way, Social Security "crisis" is now out - it's "major problems" now -
it didn't poll well. Neither did "privatization," it's now "individual
accounts").

Bush is the first President in the history of the United States to be an
anti-enlightenment President, preferring religion over reason.

We will shortly meet our goal of instituting in Iraq the same form of
government we have here - a Theocracy.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bush credits Karl Rove with putting him in the Whitehouse. And, he's
correct.

How did he do it? Easy. Sell to emotion (fear - of terrorists, gays,
whatever; exploit religion, use character assassination on your opponent,
etc.) - never tell the truth, never admit a mistake, promise the world but
never say how it will be paid for; run every word through focus groups (by
the way, Social Security "crisis" is now out - it's "major problems" now -
it didn't poll well. Neither did "privatization," it's now "individual
accounts").

Bush is the first President in the history of the United States to be an
anti-enlightenment President, preferring religion over reason.

We will shortly meet our goal of instituting in Iraq the same form of
government we have here - a Theocracy.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GLOBE EDITORIAL
Unfit as attorney general
January 18, 2005

TWO MEMOS on the US treatment of detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq stand in the way of Alberto Gonzales becoming the next attorney general of the United States. At his confirmation hearing earlier this month, he neither disavowed the memos nor showed an understanding of how their denial of international protections to detainess could lead to the many cases of prisoner abuse reported by both the FBI and the International Red Cross. The Senate should reject his nomination.

In his testimony, Gonzales made frequent reference to the much-photographed instances of prisoner humiliation and abuse at Abu Ghraib, as though the naked-body pyramid and other abuses that Specialist Charles Graner was justifiably convicted of Friday were the worst of what has occurred. But the FBI and Red Cross reports as well as the military's own investigations of killings of prisoners make clear that some interrogators and guards crossed the line into torture or homicide. It is disingenuous of Gonzales not to acknowledge the link between permissive torture policies from Washington and acts of abuse that occurred not just at Abu Ghraib but in Afghanistan and Guantanamo as well.

In 2002 as White House counsel, Gonzales wrote a memo in which he called provisions of the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners of war "obsolete" and "quaint" and said the United States could operate as though the conventions did not apply to the Afghan war. Indeed, some of the fighters captured during the 2001 war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan might not have deserved the status of POWs.

But the Geneva Conventions -- and American law -- make clear that any battlefield detainee has that status until a "competent tribunal" puts him in the less protected category of "enemy combatant." As US Judge James Robertson noted in a ruling last November, the Geneva Conventions do not give any individual, including the president, the authority to say who deserves POW status. The White House counsel certainly lacks that authority.

The second memo that has damaged the US reputation worldwide was written in 2002 by a Justice Department official as a guide to interrogation techniques. The memo, which Gonzales discussed with administration officials, said a president has the power to authorize torture despite a 1994 US law banning it. At the confirmation hearing, Gonzales declined chances to repudiate that view.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks thrust the United States into a new kind of conflict in which useful intelligence from detainees is crucial. But Gonzales has been at the center of administration policy-making that set aside tried and true US and international rules governing the collection of this information. His blindness to the consequences of those policies makes him a poor choice for chief law enforcement officer of the nation.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GLOBE EDITORIAL
Unfit as attorney general
January 18, 2005

TWO MEMOS on the US treatment of detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq stand in the way of Alberto Gonzales becoming the next attorney general of the United States. At his confirmation hearing earlier this month, he neither disavowed the memos nor showed an understanding of how their denial of international protections to detainess could lead to the many cases of prisoner abuse reported by both the FBI and the International Red Cross. The Senate should reject his nomination.

In his testimony, Gonzales made frequent reference to the much-photographed instances of prisoner humiliation and abuse at Abu Ghraib, as though the naked-body pyramid and other abuses that Specialist Charles Graner was justifiably convicted of Friday were the worst of what has occurred. But the FBI and Red Cross reports as well as the military's own investigations of killings of prisoners make clear that some interrogators and guards crossed the line into torture or homicide. It is disingenuous of Gonzales not to acknowledge the link between permissive torture policies from Washington and acts of abuse that occurred not just at Abu Ghraib but in Afghanistan and Guantanamo as well.

In 2002 as White House counsel, Gonzales wrote a memo in which he called provisions of the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners of war "obsolete" and "quaint" and said the United States could operate as though the conventions did not apply to the Afghan war. Indeed, some of the fighters captured during the 2001 war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan might not have deserved the status of POWs.

But the Geneva Conventions -- and American law -- make clear that any battlefield detainee has that status until a "competent tribunal" puts him in the less protected category of "enemy combatant." As US Judge James Robertson noted in a ruling last November, the Geneva Conventions do not give any individual, including the president, the authority to say who deserves POW status. The White House counsel certainly lacks that authority.

The second memo that has damaged the US reputation worldwide was written in 2002 by a Justice Department official as a guide to interrogation techniques. The memo, which Gonzales discussed with administration officials, said a president has the power to authorize torture despite a 1994 US law banning it. At the confirmation hearing, Gonzales declined chances to repudiate that view.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks thrust the United States into a new kind of conflict in which useful intelligence from detainees is crucial. But Gonzales has been at the center of administration policy-making that set aside tried and true US and international rules governing the collection of this information. His blindness to the consequences of those policies makes him a poor choice for chief law enforcement officer of the nation.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GLOBE EDITORIAL
Unfit as attorney general
January 18, 2005

TWO MEMOS on the US treatment of detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq stand in the way of Alberto Gonzales becoming the next attorney general of the United States. At his confirmation hearing earlier this month, he neither disavowed the memos nor showed an understanding of how their denial of international protections to detainess could lead to the many cases of prisoner abuse reported by both the FBI and the International Red Cross. The Senate should reject his nomination.

In his testimony, Gonzales made frequent reference to the much-photographed instances of prisoner humiliation and abuse at Abu Ghraib, as though the naked-body pyramid and other abuses that Specialist Charles Graner was justifiably convicted of Friday were the worst of what has occurred. But the FBI and Red Cross reports as well as the military's own investigations of killings of prisoners make clear that some interrogators and guards crossed the line into torture or homicide. It is disingenuous of Gonzales not to acknowledge the link between permissive torture policies from Washington and acts of abuse that occurred not just at Abu Ghraib but in Afghanistan and Guantanamo as well.

In 2002 as White House counsel, Gonzales wrote a memo in which he called provisions of the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners of war "obsolete" and "quaint" and said the United States could operate as though the conventions did not apply to the Afghan war. Indeed, some of the fighters captured during the 2001 war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan might not have deserved the status of POWs.

But the Geneva Conventions -- and American law -- make clear that any battlefield detainee has that status until a "competent tribunal" puts him in the less protected category of "enemy combatant." As US Judge James Robertson noted in a ruling last November, the Geneva Conventions do not give any individual, including the president, the authority to say who deserves POW status. The White House counsel certainly lacks that authority.

The second memo that has damaged the US reputation worldwide was written in 2002 by a Justice Department official as a guide to interrogation techniques. The memo, which Gonzales discussed with administration officials, said a president has the power to authorize torture despite a 1994 US law banning it. At the confirmation hearing, Gonzales declined chances to repudiate that view.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks thrust the United States into a new kind of conflict in which useful intelligence from detainees is crucial. But Gonzales has been at the center of administration policy-making that set aside tried and true US and international rules governing the collection of this information. His blindness to the consequences of those policies makes him a poor choice for chief law enforcement officer of the nation.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)