This Administration Wins Olympic Gold!

Rep. Dennis Kucinich:







Submitted by Chip on Wed, 2008-08-27 03:50. Text of Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH-10) Speech Today at the Democratic National Convention: It’s Election Day 2008. We Democrats are giving America a wake-up call. Wake up, America. In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neo-con artists seized the economy and have added 4 trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the national debt. We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil and twice what we paid for health care. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions. Trillions of dollars for an unnecessary war paid with borrowed money. Tens of billions of dollars in cash and weapons disappeared into thin air, at the cost of the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis, while all the president’s oilmen are maneuvering to grab Iraq’s oil. Borrowed money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. No money to rebuild bridges in America. Money to start a hot war with Iran. Now we have another cold war with Russia, while the American economy has become a game of Russian roulette. If there was an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, this administration would take the gold. World records for violations of national and international laws. They want another four-year term to continue to alienate our allies, spend our children’s inheritance and hollow out our economy. We can’t afford another Republican administration. Wake up, America. The insurance companies took over health care. Wake up, America. The pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing. Wake up, America. The speculators took over Wall Street. Wake up, America. They want to take your Social Security. Wake up, America. Multinational corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs lost. Wake up, America. We went into Iraq for oil. The oil companies want more. War against Iran will mean $10-a-gallon gasoline. The oil administration wants to drill more, into your wallet. Wake up, America. Weapons contractors want more. An Iran war will cost 5 to 10 trillion dollars. This administration can tap our phones. They can’t tap our creative spirit. They can open our mail. They can’t open economic opportunities. They can track our every move. They lost track of the economy while the cost of food, gasoline and electricity skyrockets. They skillfully played our post-9/11 fears and allowed the few to profit at the expense of the many. Every day we get the color orange, while the oil companies, the insurance companies, the speculators, the war contractors get the color green. Wake up, America. This is not a call for you to take a new direction from right to left. This is call for you to go from down to up. Up with the rights of workers. Up with wages. Up with fair trade. Up with creating millions of good paying jobs, rebuilding our bridges, ports and water systems. Up with creating millions of sustainable energy jobs to lower the cost of energy, lower carbon emissions and protect the environment. Up with health care for all. Up with education for all. Up with home ownership. Up with guaranteed retirement benefits. Up with peace. Up with prosperity. Up with the Democratic Party. Up with Obama-Biden. Wake up, America. Wake up, America. Wake up, America.

A REAL Hero

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) died Wednesday at the age of 58, becoming the seventh member of the House to die in office since January 2007. A Huron Hospital spokeswoman said Tubbs Jones had suffered an aneurysm that caused her to lose consciousness while driving her car near Cleveland Tuesday night. Her doctor said that the aneurysm was in an inaccessible part of her brain, and that she had “limited” brain function in the hours before her death. The daughter of an airport skycap, Tubbs Jones was the first black woman to represent Ohio in the House. Since 2007, she was chairwoman of the House ethics committee and a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Tubbs Jones is the third African-American woman, all Democrats, to die during the 110th Congress, which began in January, 2007. The late Rep. Julia Carson died last Dec. 5, and Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald died on April 22, 2007. Both were from California.


She poured her heart and soul into her job," said U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. "She worked so hard and gave everything she could. I'm devastated. Wherever we'd go, we'd speak of each other as brother and sister.
It's an incalculable loss."

where's Condi?

I don't believe Condoleezza Rice can actually play piano. Everything else she's ever touched has been a fraud and a catastrophe, why should her alleged musical abilities be any different? Think about it. Think about any event she's been even remotely involved in since you first heard her name. An endless string of threats and blundering and arrogant bluffs turned squalid pigf--ks.
It's not that she can't do her job;
she can't do anything.







I think when she plays the piano catches fire and the audience dies.

(ok gag me...with a cello!)

So yeah, sure, Condoleezza Rice for Vice President.
Time's a wastin'.

But there's one other thing that we're always told to keep in mind when we consider Condoleezza -- I mean, besides her wondrous ability to play an instrument:
Whatever happens, It's not her fault.

Sure, she ignored the warnings about bin Laden, and she was shoe shopping during Katrina, and she can't find her ass with her hands on Lebanon, or North Korea, or Pakistan. It's not her fault because those aren't her area.

Her field of expertise is the Soviet Union. Ask anyone at the Hoover Institute. She's just brilliant on the Soviet Union.

She's written books on the Soviets, a dissertation even! She speaks Russian. She has impeccable credentials -- for a top slot in the FORD administration.

So it's not fair to get down on her for her inability to handle Zimbabwe or Iran or Venezuela; George W. Bush needed her at his side in case Brezhnev came back.

And she was a woman and a minority, too! Which would have been really something, in about 1975. But, considering the Berlin Wall had fallen in 1989, making a Sovietologist National Security Advisor was like putting Pocahontas in charge of NASA.

During Dr. Rice's tenure, we've had a devastating terrorist attack and two wars. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians went nowhere, and Pakistan sold everybody the bomb. In 2000, there was serious talk about making Bill Clinton Secretary General of the United Nations. In 2008, Mexico and England are the only places Air Force One can land without dropping flares.

But it wasn't her fault. She was standing watch on the Danube.

She's been trained since birth to handle Russia. If a strongman ever took over there she'd box him in faster than you could say "détente." And if that strongman ever even thought about invading somewhere? She'd know about it, and she'd slap him down faster than you could say "containment."

Or maybe not.

GEORGIA ROUTED AS PEACE BID FAILS
- Headline, Wall Street Journal 08/12/08

So where's Condi, while the French broker a peace treaty?

Has anyone checked the shoe stores?

- Chris Kelly from HuffPo

UPDATE:

Gunman Kills Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman




Do we suppose Tee shirts and bumper stickers like this,
sold by a "compassionate conservative"
website are helping??

According to CNN:

The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party died Wednesday, hours after a shooting at the party's headquarters, police said.

Chairman Bill Gwatney died at 3:59 Wednesday afternoon after a gunman entered his Little Rock office and shot him several times in the upper body, Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said.

Authorities confirmed the news shortly after former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton released a statement expressing their condolences.

"We are deeply saddened by the news that Bill Gwatney has passed away," the former governor and first lady of Arkansas said. "His leadership and commitment to Arkansas and this country have always inspired us and those who had the opportunity to know him."

The shooting suspect, a white male, also died Wednesday afternoon after a police chase ended in gunfire, Hastings said.

Authorities are working to confirm his identity, but Hastings said there was no indication that he was a former employee. He said police were investigating for possible motives, as well as why the suspect went into the Arkansas Baptist State Convention brandishing a gun.

The suspect walked into the downtown headquarters, near the state Capitol building, before noon.

The gunman said he was interested in volunteering, said Sam Higginbotham, a 17-year-old volunteer at the headquarters, The Associated Press reported.

"That was obviously a lie," Higginbotham said, the AP reported.

He said the man pushed his way past an employee to reach Gwatney's office, according to the AP.

A woman in a nearby business told CNN affiliate KTHV that Gwatney's assistant came in and asked her to call police.

"I thought maybe someone had gotten hit by a car," said Sarah Lee, who works at a florist's shop. "She was just shaking really bad." But then the woman said that Gwatney had been shot and that three shots had been fired, Lee said.

"She said she was waiting on the gentleman. He wanted to see the chairman. She tried to give him Democratic Party stuff," Lee told KTHV. "Evidently, he walked on around her and went in the office and started shooting."

A vehicle description was provided to police, Hastings said, and officers found it. A chase involving Little Rock police, Arkansas State Police and the Grant County Sheriff's Office ended about 20 miles south of Little Rock, where the suspect was shot and taken into custody, he said.

Police said the suspect drove into a ditch and around a set of spike strips in an attempt to evade police.

Authorities from Grant County said they used a "precision mobilization technique" to hit the vehicle from behind and ram it into another unit.

The man then got out of his vehicle and began shooting at officers, who returned fire.

In Sheridan, Arkansas, where the chase ended, a crowd gathered near the suspect's blue pickup as police cordoned off the area with yellow crime-scene tape. What appeared to be bullet holes could be seen in the truck's windshield.

Before the pursuit, Hastings said, witnesses reported that the suspect entered a nearby Arkansas Baptist State Convention after the shooting and pointed a gun at an employee.

R.I.P. Isaac Hayes

Who's the cat that won't cop out
When there's danger all about?

- we can dig it !
















so sad to lose two of these guys at once - watch your back, Sam!

Illegal Search & Dog-icide - what gives??

Cops Who Raided Mayor Didn’t Have a No-Knock Warrant

August 6th,2008 by Radley Balko at The Agitator » Police Militarization

It now appears that the entire raid on Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo may have been illegal. Last week, police stormed Calvo’s home without knocking, shot and killed his two black labs, and questioned him and his mother-in-law at gunpoint over a delivered package of marijuana that police now concede may have been intended for someone else.

The Washington Post reports that the police didn’t even bother to get a no-knock warrant, which means the tactics they used were illegal:

A Prince George’s police spokesman said last week that a Sheriff’s Office SWAT team and county police narcotics officers were operating under such a [no-knock] warrant when they broke down the door of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo, shooting and killing his black Labrador retrievers.

But a review of the warrant indicates that police neither sought nor received permission from Circuit Court Judge Albert W. Northrup to enter without knocking. Northrup found probable cause to suspect that drugs might be in the house and granted police a standard search warrant.

"There’s nothing in the four corners of the warrant saying anything about the Calvos being a threat to law enforcement," said Calvo’s attorney, Timothy Maloney. "This was a lawless act by law enforcement."

Mary “McFate”: malignant mole

Gun Violence Prevention Groups Shocked at Years of Deceit By Mary “McFate,” Who Acted As NRA’s Mole

(We are pleased to post the following press release from States United to Prevent Gun Violence).

Gun Activist Served as Lobbyist for States United to Prevent Gun Violence

Contact: Barbara Hohlt, Executive Director, 646-594-8956
Thom Mannard, President, 847-997-3020

NEW YORK

Aug. 1st, 2008: Members of States United to Prevent Gun Violence were profoundly disturbed to learn of the malicious duplicity of a longtime gun violence prevention activist.

An investigative article published online on the Mother Jones web site reported that Mary McFate, the legislative director for States United to Prevent Gun Violence, was in actuality a mole for the gun lobby.

Information received by reporters for the online journal revealed that the person known as Mary McFate is also Mary Lou Sapone, a "research consultant" who was hired by the NRA. Sapone has a long history of infiltrating animal rights and environmental activist groups as well.

"Mary's long history of working with gun violence prevention groups, her knowledge of the issues, and her willingness to work as a volunteer lobbyist in Congress made her appear to be a good choice for States United's legislative director," stated the organization's Executive Director, Barbara Hohlt. "Unlike the NRA, which obviously has plenty of money to spend paying spies for years at a time, States United relies heavily on dedicated volunteers to accomplish the work of the organization."

McFate had earned a position of trust among members of the gun violence prevention community, many of whom are survivors or family of victims of gun violence. Many expressed shock and outrage at the news. Toby Hoover, Executive Director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, has worked in the area of gun violence prevention since the shooting death of her husband many years ago during a robbery. "It is beyond my comprehension how someone could have listened to my story and expressed desire to help prevent others from having to experience the agony I went through, all the time collecting money as a gun lobby spy," said Hoover.

States United to Prevent Gun Violence is a nonprofit association of independent state-wide gun violence prevention organizations. The purpose of States United is to provide a mechanism for its members to share best practices, programs and legislative ideas in order to work effectively to prevent gun deaths and injuries.

SOURCE States United to Prevent Gun Violence