Ray McGovern: Real American Hero

You know there's a problem when a 27 year ex-CIA guy who used to give Bush Sr. his daily CIA breifings is using words like fascism to describe the executive power grab that has be going on in D.C. since the Bush administration came to power. Ray McGovern was the guy who called Rumsfeld a liar at a press conference when he asked why Rummy lied his way into Iraq, reciting a quote from Rumsfeld in which he says "We know where they [WMDs] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
Here's a link to the video clip, and when you hear Rummy say, "No, no, no, just hold on a minute, let him stay," thats Rumsfeld calling off the security guards who rushed McGovern as he asked his question, ready to haul him out of the room... Rummy must have realized who McGovern was and what would happen if he was hauled out of a press conference for questioning the Defense Secratary's quote... What ever happened to a "Free Press?" (by the way, we now rank 44th in the world in press freedom)
Here's a link to Ray McGovern's interview on the lovley Randi Rhode's show on Air America Radio. I highly suggest listening to this guy, he knows what he's talking about.

tagged as:

• air.america
• evil.gov't
• bush
• bush.administration
• iraq

Thank God For Nazi Germany?

On the way home from work I was listening (as I always do) to Randi Rhodes on Air America Radio and what she said really peaked my interest.
Everyone has been so afraid to compare Bush to a Nazi (even though his grandpappy was trading with the Germans in WWII, helping them build their war machine with American steel), let alone Hitler. But Randi finally gave me a connection. The Enabling Act of Germany, as stated by wikipedia:

The Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz in German) was passed by Germany's parliament (the Reichstag) on March 23, 1933. It was the second major step after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which the Nazis obtained dictatorial powers using largely legal means. The Act enabled Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his cabinet to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag.

hmmm... So Hitler said he was the law, Bush says he's "outside" the law, or at least 750 of them.

Click here to show/hide the rest of the story

Hitler cataloged everyone in his country, Bush wants the NSA to index every single call made in the USA, he wants an agency who is expressedly forbiden to spy on Americans to do this! This is just what Hitler did before he started locking people up, he found out who didn't like him. He indexed them, then he got rid of them and said they were the enemy.
Bush uses 9/11 to keep the whole country scared to death that we could be under attack at any moment, he told us we would hunt them down and make them pay, but why would they want to find him? He gives them an excuse to invade Iraq, raise gas prices and give the gas companies huge tax relief because of an unstable oil market (if it cost them more to get the oil, they would pass the cost on to the consumer, but they wouldn't be posting windfall profits!), ignore the law without anyone noticing, and gather information on anyone he wants, with nobody checking these powers he claims to have! They went too far by going into Iraq when we knew Osama was in Afganistan, and they are using the same false reasons to invade another country! The President is turning out to be exactly what I thought he was, a dictator.
The caller on Randi Rhodes was right, Thank God for Nazi Germany, if that wouldn't have happened we would have been tricked into it, just like Hitler tricked Germany into thinking Jews were their problem, just like Bush has tricked us into thinking Islam is our probllem.

tagged as:

• air.america
• Bush
• evil.gov't
• Bush.Administration
• big.brother
• data.mining
• wire.tapping
• dirty.politics
• Iraq
• Iran

Anti-Bush Shirts, Stickers & Etc.

So I found a Google AdSense link while looking through my gmail that actually intrigued me enough to click it, www.BeatBushGear.com

There were a lot of good ones but I think this is my favorite ------->

Hayden's NSA Collected Millions Of Domestic Phone Records

USA Today is reporting that the phone records (care of AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth) of tens of millions of Americans have been organized into what could be the world's largest database ever by the NSA under the direction of General Hayden (who was recently nominated to head the CIA... I thought the CIA was a civilian organization... I guess if Bush already knows he's down with shredding the Constitution, he's a good choice).
The article on USATODAY.com has a timeline in the sidebar with a lot of interesting info, it really puts the story in perspective and, for me, makes it impossible to argue that something sinister isn't going on behind the scenes. The FISA court is a secret court set up to allow the President to legally do all of this, without the public knowing, but it still checks the President and makes sure what he's doing is legal.
If they are unwilling to use a secret court which was set up to handle this exact situation, I have to assume there is a reason, and I think it means they don't want anyone to know why they are doing this, and I'm sure it's not because of the 'War on Terror' or the FISA courts would have no problem approving it.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if someone doesn't go down for this whole NSA domestic spying thing, I'm out of this country, WE'RE BEING TAKEN OVER BY FASCISTS FROM WITHIN!!
update - 2:23 pm - It makes me happy to see so much being writen about this issue. I was reading some other stories on this and found a quote from Bush's response in a Chicago Tribune blog post:

After September the 11th, I vowed to the American people that our government would do everything within the law to protect them against another terrorist attack. As part of this effort, I authorized the National Security Agency to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations.

Ok George, are you saying you didn't authorize them to intercept domestic calls? Or are you lying to us again?

Further Reading:
Reuters - Bush says authorized intelligence activities lawful (because you said it is? didn't Nixon use that one?)
ABC News GMA - Government Monitoring About 200 Million Americans' Calls
USA Today On Deadline

tagged as:

• Evil.Gov't
• Bush.Administration
• NSA
• wire.tapping
• Big.Brother

UK Says Existance Of Guantanamo is "Unacceptable"

UK's Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, has come out against the US's detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Tony Blair called it an "anomaly."
Goldsmith told the BBC in a recent article:

"The historic tradition of the United States as a beacon of freedom, liberty and of justice deserves the removal of this symbol."

I'd say, how can we have these people being held without trial or even being charged with a crime? In my mind this is no better then the Japanese internment camps during WWII, these are people being illegally detained, end of story.

tagged as:

• UK
• Bush.Administration
• War.On.Terror
• Guantanamo

Iran's President Calls Us Hypocrites

Reuters reports that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a letter to Bush, accuses the west of hypocrisy saying, "Big powers pretend (they) are concerned, but it's a big lie."
I can see why he would say that after the Bush administration failed to turn up any WMDs in Iraq or any program that could allow them to create these weapons. If you look at the beginning of the war, people knew we needed more troops, people knew our troops were ill-equipted, but we were tricked into think Saddam had these weapons and he intended to use them. We were also tricked into thinking Iraq had to do with 9/11 when we now know there was no connection.
Click here to show/hide the rest of the story

Here's a quote from the Reuters story:

"I'll tell you, they are not concerned with nuclear programs ... They are themselves engaged in nuclear activities and they are expanding day by day. They test new brands of weapons of mass destruction every day," Ahmadinejad told a news conference after meeting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The US is detonating 700 tons of explosives in the Nevada desert, why? Could it be because Bush wants to know if it's enough to take out a bunker? Is he 'doing the math' (obviously he's not, but you know, the scientists) to see how big of a nuke he needs? It's becoming more and more obvious that we are getting ready for another war and Bush doesn't care what you think, he doesn't listen to the polls, probably because it'd be to depressing.

tagged as:

• Iran
• Nuclear.War
• Bush

Colbert Speaks Truth to Power at the White House Correspondents Dinner

Colbert just tore Bush apart right to his face and you could tell "The Decider" was not happy. Bush isn't a big fan of "the truth," especially when it shows his gross incompetance, and he hates critisism even more.
Thankyoustephencolbert.org has video of the entire affair which aired on CSPAN and I must say, THANK YOU STEPHEN COLBERT!

tagged as:

• Bush

Fired CIA Officer Denies Being The Source Of The Secret CIA Prison Leak

You may have heard about this but for those that haven't, let's recap.
Former CIA Officer Mary O. McCarthy was fired for, according to the Washington Post article, leaking information about secret CIA-run prisons in Eastern Europe for suspected terrorists.

Now, Newsweek is reporting that it was a lie (except for the Kerry part).
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McCarthy, 61, a career CIA analyst who was working in the inspector general's office, was then told on Thursday that she was being fired. She was not escorted out of the CIA building, the source said. She also had been assured that the CIA would protect her privacy--just one day before her name became publicly known as the agency official who had been dismissed for leaking to the press, the source said. Ironically, McCarthy, who previously worked as chief intelligence official for the National Security Council during Bill Clinton's second term, was planning on retiring from the CIA soon to pursue a new career as a lawyer working on adoption and family cases.

So why did they lie? More importantly, if she's in trouble for leaking this information (info about ILLEGAL CIA PRISONS!), why aren't they disciplining the people responsible for not stopping 9-11 (since we now know they knew about it) or the people responsible for getting us into Iraq with stories about the smoking gun being a mushroom cloud? The message here seems to be, "Don't you dare tell anyone about the bad stuff we do, or we will smear the hell out of you like we did with Plame!"

tagged as:

• Evil.Gov't
• leaks
• dirty.politics
• back.stabbing
• CIA

Nuclear Bunker Busters "Big Mistake" Says UCS

The Union Of Concerned Scientists, a non-partisan non-profit organization of scientists , posted an animation on their website explaining exactly why Bush's plan to nuke Irans underground bunkers with "tactical" nukes is just plain stupid. But could we really expect any different from this president?
Clipped from thinkprogress.org

Presidential advisers believe that by putting pressure on Iran, Bush may be able to rehabilitate himself on national security, a core strength that has been compromised by a discouraging outlook in Iraq.

So, he thinks he can improve national security by starting a nuclear war, not to mention the fact that this will pit every Muslim country against us. Another great idea from "The Decider."

tagged as:

• Evil.Gov't
• Bush
• Iran
• Nuclear.War

StopGlobalWarming.org

Ok, everyone should go to stopglobalwarming.org and read up on global warming, and if you're convinced it's a problem join the virtual march. You'll get an email every once in a while with interesting stuff. Also, if you sign up you can get a bunch of easy things you can do to reduce your contribution to global carbon dioxide emissions, and calculate how much money and CO2 you save.

Proof That Nuking Iran Is Idiotic

clipped from The Times Online:

IRAN has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British and American targets if the nation’s nuclear sites are attacked. According to Iranian officials, 40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action.

Click here to show/hide the rest of the post

Bush is going to start World War III if somebody doesn't tie him up and gag him. It's not suprising what Iran is doing, given it's present situation. It's surrounded by hostility, they see the Americans setting their sights on Iran while telling them not to develope nuclear weapons. If I was the leader of Iran, I would be trying to build a nuke as fast as possible, because the way things are looking, there's a good chance of Iran being attacked soon (in fact, some say we're already there).

tagged as:

• Evil.Gov't
• Iran
• Terrorism
• Nuclear.War
• Bush
• WWIII

White House Press Secretary McClellan Resigns

More changes in the Bush administration, as if it would make a difference. Scott McClellan, White House spin doctor extraordinaire, announced his resignation which was accepted by Bush saying, "It's going to be hard to replace Scott."
Damn right it will be hard to replace him, who in their right mind would want his job? His job is to lie to press so George doesn't have to, he's like the whipping boy, taking all of Bush's beatings for him.

tagged as:

• Bush.Administration

Read The Whole Story Here

Retired Counter-Terrorism Expert Tells Us Why We Shouldn't Bomb Iran

Former Chair of the Counter-terrorism Security Group, Richard A. Clarke wrote an op-ed piece with Steven Simon for The New York Times about what would probably happen if we bombed Iran. (You have to register to view the story, but it's free and fast)
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We're seeing the same reasons we were given for going to Iraq (even though we should have been focused on Afganistan) being used to sell us on attacking Iran. I know the Iranian government is run by religious fanatics, but that doesn't mean we should nuke them. We need to find a diplomatic solution but we have no leverage with them. Though China and Russia do, since they are two of Irans best oil customers. We should use our leverage with China and Russia to get them to put pressure on Iran not to seek nuclear weapons. If we attack Iran I think it could be just the thing to get Iran and North Korea to team up and if that wasn't enough, if China was convinced to call in its' U.S. debt, our gov't would be bankrupt. I don't see how anyone in the Pentagon could think war with Iran is a good idea, unless you were the CEO of Haliburton like Dick Cheney(who btw, is getting a $1.9-million tax refund this year) was, then it 's like money in the bank.

tagged as:

• Evil.Govt
• Iran
• Nuclear.War