Politics, Everyday, All day... morning, noon and night....

[littleflower]

no mention of blagojevich's party affiliation? i'm so surprised ...

but then, i guess that tells many of us what it is ...

[DVD Burner]

I dont see what difference it makes if he's a dem, repub, indi or whatever.
He's a Governor and he broke the law.

It would be nice if they carried the same actions over to Bush.

[joel the ornery]

It would be nice if they carried the same actions over to Bush.

keep dreaming.

[Dr. Pyro]

So, how many of you are going to not go to work tomorrow by calling in gay? "Hello boss? Yeah, it's me. I'm too queer to come into work today." Somehow I think I'm not taking tomorrow off.

[wedeliver]

So, how many of you are going to not go to work tomorrow by calling in gay? "Hello boss? Yeah, it's me. I'm too queer to come into work today." Somehow I think I'm not taking tomorrow off.

(I'm trying to be friendly now..but I can't help myself, I must know the answer)

sooo lets me see if I understand. You wear a 'FLAMING" red 'WIG' but you don't want people to think you are gay??

ok

I mean,, I mean..,, I mean.. look at your avatar... kissable???

[Boijoy]

It's not the hair so much as the assless chaps.

[DVD Burner]

[DVD Burner]

Senator Larry Craig loses airport bathroom misconduct appeal

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/ ... ct-appeal/

By Jimmy Orr | 12.09.08

Politics is about winners and losers. This year has been especially bad for politics as an occupation.

An Alaska senator was convicted for accepting gifts. A couple of Boston city councilors were caught allegedly taking bribes. The governor of Illinois was arrested allegedly for trying to profit from high office.

No withdrawal

And then there was today’s decision by a Minnesota appeals court not to allow U.S. Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) to withdraw his guilty plea to a charge of disorderly conduct at an airport restroom.

The latter case, of course, was huge news a year and a half ago and provided Jay Leno and David Letterman endless amounts of material — but pretty much ended the career of the Idaho senator, who leaves office at the end of his term in January.

Guilty

Craig initially pleaded guilty to the charge after being arrested by an undercover police officer for solicitation.

Although Craig didn’t verbally solicit an officer, he inappropriately tapped his foot and made hand signals which are apparently code for solicitation.

Not Guilty

After the case became public, Craig changed his mind and asked that his guilty plea (which he was allowed to mail to the court) be withdrawn. But the District Court judge wasn’t buying it and denied the request.

So Craig appealed claiming that the Minnesota law violated his freedom of expression.

To which the court replied today, “…foot-tapping and the movement of his foot toward the undercover officer’s stall are considered speech, they would be intrusive speech directed at a captive audience and the government may prohibit them.â€

[Oldguy]

President George W. Bush said his belief that God created the world is not incompatible with scientific proof of evolution.


US President George W. Bush
Photo: AP

Slideshow: Pictures of the week In an interview with ABC television's "Nightline" on Monday, the president also said he probably is not a literalist when reading the Bible although an individual can learn a great deal from it, including the New Testament teaching that God sent his only son.

Asked about creation and evolution, Bush said, "I think you can have both. I think evolution can _ you're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president. But it's, I think that God created the earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution."

He added, "I happen to believe that evolution doesn't fully explain the mystery of life."

Interviewer Cynthia McFadden asked Bush if the Bible was literally true.

"You know. Probably not. ... No, I'm not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it, but I do think that the New Testament for example is ... has got ... You know, the important lesson is 'God sent a son,"' Bush said.



"It is hard for me to justify or prove the mystery of the Almighty in my life," he said. "All I can just tell you is that I got back into religion and I quit drinking shortly thereafter and I asked for help. ... I was a one-step program guy."

The president also said that he prays to the same God as those with different religious beliefs.

"I do believe there is an almighty that is broad and big enough and loving enough that can encompass a lot of people," Bush said.

When asked whether he thought he would have become president had it not been for his faith, Bush said: "I don't know; it's hard to tell. I do know that I would have been _ I'm pretty confident I would have been a pretty selfish person."

Bush said he is often asked whether he thinks he was chosen by God to be president.

"I just, I can't go there," he said. "I'm not that confident in knowing, you know, the Almighty, to be able to say, Yeah, God wanted me of all the other people."

He also said the decision to go to war in Iraq was not connected to his religious believes.

"I did it based upon the need to protect the American people from harm," Bush said.

"You can't look at the decision to go into Iraq apart from, you know, what happened on Sept. 11. It was not a religious decision," he said. "I don't view this as a war of religion. I view this as a war of good, decent people of all faiths against people who murder innocent people to achieve a political objective."

He said he felt like God was with him as he made big decisions, but that the decisions were his.

"George W. Bush has to make these decisions."

[DVD Burner]

Ummmm, wait, uh, yeah....


I did say politics and religion is for suckers right?

[ygmir]

Ummmm, wait, uh, yeah....


I did say politics and religion is for suckers right?

geeze.......I thought you said you made a religion out of sucking politicians.........

or, am I confusing you with Monica?...........

[DVD Burner]

[ygmir]

no, wait........

[DVD Burner]

Barack Obama
Obama Marks Human Rights Day


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-tr ... s_day.html


President-elect Barack Obama marked international Human Rights Day today by issuing a statement reaffirming America's commitment to the Geneva Conventions. The statement follows:

The United States was founded on the idea that all people are endowed with inalienable rights, and that principle has allowed us to work to perfect our union at home while standing as a beacon of hope to the world. Today, that principle is embodied in agreements Americans helped forge -- the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, and treaties against torture and genocide -- and it unites us with people from every country and culture.

When the United States stands up for human rights, by example at home and by effort abroad, we align ourselves with men and women around the world who struggle for the right to speak their minds, to choose their leaders, and to be treated with dignity and respect. We also strengthen our security and well being, because the abuse of human rights can feed many of the global dangers that we confront -- from armed conflict and humanitarian crises, to corruption and the spread of ideologies that promote hatred and violence.

So on this Human Rights Day, let us rededicate ourselves to the advancement of human rights and freedoms for all, and pledge always to live by the ideals we promote to the world.

[DVD Burner]

Still dont see what this is gonna do about Bush.

[ygmir]

Still dont see what this is gonna do about Bush.

I didn't think you liked bush (see my last post)...........

[wedeliver]

Still dont see what this is gonna do about Bush.

I didn't think you liked bush (see my last post)...........

We have given you the answer both here and on playa.. if you don't like

BUSH




SHAVE!!

shave the pussy, no more bush..

[DVD Burner]

Yall mis-understood.

I was speaking of greenery.

[DVD Burner]

[youtube][/youtube]

[DVD Burner]

Rumsfeld blamed in detainee abuse scandals


Chip Somodevilla / EPA

http://www.latimes.com/news/printeditio ... 8752.story


A bipartisan Senate report released today concludes that decisions made by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were a "direct cause" of widespread detainee abuses at Guantanamo Bay.
A bipartisan Senate report calls decisions made by the former Defense secretary a 'direct cause' of inhumane treatment of prisoners of war. Other Bush officials also are faulted.
By Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes
December 12, 2008
Reporting from Washington -- A bipartisan Senate report released Thursday concludes that decisions made by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were a "direct cause" of widespread detainee abuses, and that other Bush administration officials were to blame for creating a legal and moral climate that contributed to inhumane treatment.

The report, endorsed by Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is the most forceful denunciation to date of the role that Rumsfeld and other top officials played in the prisoner abuse scandals of the last five years.
The document also challenges assertions by senior Bush administration officials that the most egregious cases of prisoner mistreatment were isolated incidents of appalling conduct by U.S. troops.

"The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 was not simply the result of a few soldiers acting on their own," the report says.

Instead, the document says, a series of high-level decisions in the Bush administration "conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees in U.S. military custody."

The document aims its harshest criticism at Rumsfeld's decision in December 2002 to authorize the use of aggressive interrogation techniques at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Although the order was rescinded six weeks later, the report describes it as "a direct cause for detainee abuse" at Guantanamo Bay, and concludes that it "influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniques, including military working dogs, forced nudity and stress positions, in Afghanistan and Iraq."

The report also criticizes President Bush, although less harshly. In particular, it cites a presidential memorandum signed Feb. 7, 2002, that denied detainees captured in Afghanistan the protections of the Geneva Conventions, which ban abusive treatment of prisoners of war.

Bush's decision to bypass an international law that had been observed by American troops for decades sent a message that "impacted the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody," the report says.

That message was bolstered by a series of memos from the Justice Department, the report says, that "distorted the meaning and intent of anti-torture laws" and "rationalized the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody."

The Senate report represents the culmination of an 18-month investigation by the committee's staff. It is the latest, and in many respects the most comprehensive, in a series of government investigations started after photographs surfaced in April 2004 of prisoners at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq being stripped of their clothes, piled in pyramids and strapped to what appeared to be electrical wires.

Those abuses "cannot be chalked up to the actions of 'a few bad apples,' " said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, referring to a line used by former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz in an attempt to downplay the scandal.

Levin said it was "both unconscionable and false" for Rumsfeld and others to blame troops and escape accountability. Even so, the report does not call for further investigation or punishment.

The findings were approved last month by the 17 committee members in attendance, indicating the report had the support of at least four of the panel's Republicans. Committee officials did not identify which senators on the 25- person panel were not present for the vote.

Among the panel's members are several GOP senators who have criticized the administration's conduct on detainee matters, including John McCain of Arizona, John W. Warner of Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Levin said the committee had reviewed thousands of documents and conducted interviews with more than 70 people, and received written responses from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The investigation did not focus on the CIA's treatment of detainees, or the agency's operation of a network of secret prisons.

But the inquiry turned up new information showing that the Defense Department had consulted with the CIA on interrogation matters, and that White House officials had reviewed CIA methods earlier and in more detail than previously acknowledged.

Most of the findings had been disclosed in the panel's interim reports or in other investigations. But the report released Thursday traces the origins of aggressive interrogation techniques to U.S. military survival training programs. It follows the use of coercive methods as they migrated from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, then to Iraq and Abu Ghraib.

The techniques -- based on practices detailed in military courses on survival, evasion, resistance and escape, known as SERE -- included stress positions, the removal of clothing and the exploitation of phobias, including fear of dogs.

One month after Rumsfeld issued his order approving such methods at Guantanamo, they were part of a presentation witnessed by Army Capt. Carolyn Wood at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, the report says. Wood has been criticized by human rights groups for her role in U.S. interrogation techniques, and was singled out in one investigation as failing to properly oversee interrogators.

The committee said the Afghanistan techniques eventually became standard procedure for all U.S. forces in Iraq. And by summer 2003, Wood, then serving in Iraq, proposed that the practices become the interrogation policy at Abu Ghraib.

After Wood proposed extending the use of the techniques and pressure mounted to acquire intelligence about the insurgency, the top commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, authorized interrogators on Sept. 14, 2003, to use stress positions, "sleep management" and dogs when questioning detainees.

A month later, he rescinded permission to use the techniques.

"The new policy, however, contained ambiguities with respect to certain techniques, such as the use of dogs in interrogations, and led to confusion about which techniques were permitted," the Senate report says.

Miller and Barnes are writers in our Washington bureau.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[DVD Burner]

Oh yeah, I know what I forgot to post.



So uuummmm, yeah, like this is something new or something I haven't said a bunch of times in this thread before.

[DVD Burner]

BlackBerry: $20, McCain-Palin's Contacts: Priceless

By Andi Wang, 8:49 PM on Fri Dec 12 2008

http://gizmodo.com/5109038/blackberry-2 ... -priceless


In order to get back some of the money spent on the McCain-Palin campaign, items from the campaign were sold today at a yard sale, including a $20 BlackBerry, fully loaded with confidential information.

When reporters from Fox 5 stopped by the McCain-Palin headquarters today, they were excited to find BlackBerry phones being sold for $20 each. Because the phones came with dead batteries and no chargers, it was only after the reporters had returned to their office and had charged the phones when they realized what $20 actually bought them.

Hundreds of e-mails from early September through early November, and more than 50 phone numbers—including private cell phone numbers belonging to politicians, campaign leaders and journalists—had been left on one of the BlackBerry phones. Whoops! Not to worry though—after the McCain-Palin campaign had been notified, they assured everyone that procedures were being carried out to fix the situation.

[DVD Burner]

These guys still have some of the dumbest shit still happening.

Must be tough being that stupid. Then again, they are smart enough to sucker the dumbest people on the planet so..........

[Oldguy]

(12-14) 12:47 PST BAGHDAD, (AP) --

On an Iraq trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President George W. Bush on Sunday hailed progress in the war that defines his presidency and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at him during a news conference.

"This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" shouted the protester in Arabic, later identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.

Bush ducked both shoes as they whizzed past his head and landed with a thud against the wall behind him.

"It was a size 10," Bush joked later.

The U.S. president visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to his successor, Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence in a nation still riven by ethnic strife and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

"The war is not over," Bush said, adding that "it is decisively on it's way to being won."

In many ways, the unannounced trip was a victory lap without a clear victory. Nearly 150,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq fighting a war that is intensely disliked across the globe. More than 4,209 members of the U.S. military have died in the conflict, which has cost U.S. taxpayers $576 billion since it began five years and nine months ago.

Polls show most Americans believe the U.S. erred in invading Iraq in 2003. Bush ordered the nation into war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq while citing intelligence claiming the Mideast nation harbored weapons of mass destruction. The weapons were never found, the intelligence was discredited, Bush's credibility with U.S. voters plummeted and Saddam was captured and executed.

"There is still more work to be done," Bush said after his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

It was at that point the journalist stood up and threw a shoe from about 20 feet away. Bush ducked, and it narrowly missed his head. The second shoe came quickly, and Bush ducked again while several Iraqis grabbed the man and dragged him to the floor.

In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt. Iraqis whacked a statue of Saddam with their shoes after U.S. marines toppled it to the ground following the 2003 invasion.

White House press secretary Dana Perino suffered an eye injury in the news conference melee. Bush brushed off the incident, comparing it to political protests at home.

"So what if I guy threw his shoe at me?" he said.

Al-Maliki, who spoke before the incident, praised postwar progress: "Today, Iraq is moving forward in every field."

After the news conference, the president took a 15-minute helicopter ride through dark skies over Baghdad to Camp Victory. Telling hundreds of troops he was "heading into retirement," Bush blamed Saddam for the 2003 invasion and said, "America is safer and more secure" than it was before the war.

For Bush, the war is the issue around which both he and the country defined his two terms in office. He saw the invasion and continuing fight as a necessary action to protect Americans and fight terrorism. Though his decision won support at first, the public now has largely decided that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq.

Air Force One, the president's distinctive powder blue-and-white jetliner, landed at Baghdad International Airport in the afternoon local time after a secretive Saturday night departure from Washington. In a sign of security gains in this war zone, Bush received a formal arrival ceremony — a flourish absent in his three earlier trips.

Bush soon began a rapid-fire series of meetings with top Iraqi leaders.

He met first with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the country's two vice presidents, Tariq al-Hashemi and Adel Abdul-Mahdi, at the ornate, marble-floored Salam Palace along the shores of the Tigris River.

Later, Bush's motorcade pulled out the heavily fortified Green Zone and crossed over the Tigris so he could meet al-Maliki at the prime minister's palace. A huge orange moon hung low over the horizon as Bush's was ferried quickly through the city.

The two leaders signed ceremonial copy of the security agreement.

The Bush administration and even White House critics credit last year's military buildup with the security gains in Iraq. Last month, attacks fell to the lowest monthly level since the war began in 2003.

Still, it's unclear what will happen when the U.S. troops leave. While violence has slowed in Iraq, attacks continue, especially in the north. At least 55 people were killed Thursday in a suicide bombing in a restaurant near Kirkuk.

It was Bush's last trip to the war zone before Obama takes office Jan. 20. Obama won an election largely viewed as a referendum on Bush, who has endured low approval ratings because of the war and more recently, the U.S. recession.

Obama, a Democrat, has promised he will bring all U.S. combat troops back home from Iraq a little over a year into his term, as long as commanders agree a withdrawal would not endanger American personnel or Iraq's security. Obama has said the drawdown in Iraq would allow him to shift troops and bolster the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.

The new U.S.-Iraqi security pact, calls for all American troops to be withdrawn by the end of 2011, in two stages. The first stage begins next year, when U.S. troops pull back from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by the end of June. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Saturday that even after that summer deadline, some U.S. troops will remain in Iraqi cities.

Journalists and staff who made the 10 1/2-hour trip to Iraq with the president agreed to tell almost no one about the plans, and the White House released false schedules detailing activities planned for Bush in Washington on Sunday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mercury_712/14/2008 6:52:44 AM

The village idiot, G. Bush , returned to Iraq? This is the equivalent of an arsonist returning to watch the firefighters put out the house fire that he just started. To this day, Bush refuses to admit that he has done anything wrong. Tell that to the families of the over 4,000 dead Americans he caused and to the troops living with missing arms, legs, brains, etc. He has the guts to go smirking around Iraq like some conquering hero. His Pentagon has been proven to have lied over and over about their incompetence. Don't even get me started on the truly evil Dick Cheney. Mercifully, these two war criminals will be regulated to playing with their train sets after the inaugaration.

drobertfoster12/14/2008 6:56:29 AM

Great, I wonder how much that little going away party cost us taxpayers?

wlt_reader12/14/2008 7:00:43 AM

Yeah, great! Bush and other American dignitaries have to "slip" in and out of Iraq like petty thieves, whereas Iran's president Ahmadinejad prances in, in most circles, as a celebrated guest! Yeah, good job George! And what about Osama BinLadin? He's singing God's praises you were in charge when he spread his mayhem on this fine Country. God Bless our Troops in BOTH Iraq and Afghanistan!

[can't sit still]

Quick, get your rocks before they run out,,,,,,, in the birthplace of democracy;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/de ... ty-comment

[Simon of the Playa]

i watched the soon to be infamous "shoe throwing" incident and if you look closely, you can see Bush smile, after the near miss, and i might add, very quick response from a rather limber president, and then almost as in a game, wait and anticipate the next shoe with a certain athletic glee.


i suddenly have a shred of respect for him.

[DVD Burner]

I noticed that too.

[Ugly Dougly]

i watched the soon to be infamous "shoe throwing" incident and if you look closely, you can see Bush smile, after the near miss, and i might add, very quick response from a rather limber president, and then almost as in a game, wait and anticipate the next shoe with a certain athletic glee.


i suddenly have a shred of respect for him.

I thought it was a monkey-like grimace of fear.

[DVD Burner]

Click the pic to guess who this is.

[DVD Burner]

Missouri case invokes cyber-bullying law


A woman is accused of harassing a 17-year-old by text message.
Associated Press
December 21, 2008

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 1215.story

Reporting from St. Louis -- A 21-year-old woman accused of sending a vulgar text message to a 17-year-old girl is one of the first cases brought under a Missouri law against cyber-bullying that was inspired by the suicide of a teenage girl.

The 2006 death of 13-year-old Megan Meier after she received cruel Internet messages prompted state lawmakers to update the harassment law this year so that it covers bullying and stalking through electronic media, such as e-mails and text messages.

In one of the new cases, Nicole Williams is accused of using electronic communications to harass a teenager in a dispute over a boy. Williams is scheduled for arraignment on one count of harassment on Jan. 8.

She allegedly sent a text message to a 17-year-old she had not met because she heard the girl had a physical encounter with her boyfriend. The two had just been talking, police said.

The 17-year-old received voice messages with lewd and threatening comments, including some that called her "pork and beans" and threatened rape.

Williams told police others sent those messages from her phone, according to a probable cause statement.