Tax Cuts

Labels: Bush, Humor, Obama, Taxes

posted by Stash @ 10:28 AM

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Pelosi or the CIA ... Who is lying?

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi said the CIA "misled congress". The CIA said, "The CIA doesn't mislead congress".

"The CIA doesn't mislead congress" is interestingly different than "The CIA didn't mislead congress". While it may certainly be the policy of the CIA to not mislead or lie to congress, it is not improbable that the CIA Director under the direction of the "already proven liars in the Bush/Cheney" White House did mislead congress.

Time for Congress to investigate.

Labels: Bush, Cheney, CIA, Pelosi, Republicans

posted by Stash @ 11:24 AM

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Ohio Secretary of State confirms 2004 election could have been stolen

Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

The Free Press

Ohio's Secretary of State announced this morning that a $1.9 million official study shows that "critical security failures" are embedded throughout the voting systems in the state that decided the 2004 election. Those failures, she says, "could impact the integrity of elections in the Buckeye State." They have rendered Ohio's vote counts "vulnerable" to manipulation and theft by "fairly simple techniques."

Indeed, she says, "the tools needed to compromise an accurate vote count could be as simple as tampering with the paper audit trail connector or using a magnet and a personal digital assistant."

In other words, Ohio's top election official has finally confirmed that the 2004 election could have been easily stolen.

Brunner's stunning findings apply to electronic voting machines used in 58 of Ohio's 88 counties, in addition to scanning devices and central tabulators used on paper ballots in much of the rest of the state.

Brunner is calling for widespread changes to the way Ohio casts and counts its ballots. Her announcement follows moves by California Secretary of State Deborah Bowen to disqualify electronic voting machines in the nation's biggest state.

In tandem, these two reports add a critical state-based dimension to the growing mountain of evidence that the US electoral system is rife with insecurities. Reports from the Brennan Center, the Carter-Baker Commission, the Government Accountability Office, the Conyers Committee Task Force Report, Princeton University and others have offered differing perspectives that add up to the same conclusion.

Coming in the state that decided the 2004 election for George W. Bush, Brunner's confirmation of the electoral system's vulnerabilities adds huge new weight to the charge that the Buckeye State's vote count was stolen.

In a series of investigative reports dating to well before the 2004 election, the Columbus Free Press and Freepress.org have documented several dozen different means used by the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign to steal the official 2004 vote count.

The final official tally for Bush---less than 119,000 votes out of 5.4 million cast---varied by 6.7% from exit poll results, which showed a Kerry victory. Exit polls in 2004 were designed to have a margin of error of about 1%.

In various polling stations in Democrat-rich inner city precincts in Youngstown and Columbus, voters who pushed touch screens for Kerry saw Bush's name light up. A wide range of discrepancies on both electronic and paper balloting systems leaned almost uniformly toward the Bush camp. Voting procedures regularly broke down in inner city and campus areas known to be heavily Democratic.

In direct violation of standing federal election law, 56 of Ohio's 88 counties have since destroyed all or part of their 2004 election data. The materials were additionally protected by a federal court injunction in the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville federal civil rights lawsuit (in which we are attorney and plaintiff). To date, no state or federal prosecutions have resulted from this wholesale destruction of presidential election records, including 1.6 million ballots, cast and uncast, needed for definitive auditing procedures. However, two Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) election officials have been convicted of felony manipulation of an official recount. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the state's largest newspaper, recently editorialized that there is "no evidence" the 2004 election was stolen, but omitted mention of the destruction of the electoral records by more than half the counties in the state. The Plain-Dealer and other mainstream media have consistently ignored findings by the Free Press and others indicating widespread manipulation and theft of the kind Brunner has now confirmed was eminently do-able within the Ohio system.

Brunner says "the results underscore the need for a fundamental change in the structure of Ohio's election system to ensure ballot and voting system security while still making voting convenient and accessible to all Ohio voters." Among other things, she advocates replacing touch-screen machines with optical-scan units that include a paper balloting system.

The study was managed by the Battelle Corporation, and conducted by Columbus-based MicroSolved Inc., SysTest Labs of Denver along with a consortium of academic subcontractors. It was reviewed by a dozen county officials, and included scrutiny of voting systems produced by Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Hart Intercivic and Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold).

Brunner is the Democratic successor to Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell, who administered the 2004 election as Secretary of State while also serving as state co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign. The report comes as part of her pledge to guarantee a fair and reliable vote count in the upcoming 2008 presidential election.

Under Blackwell, Ohio spent some $100 million installing electronic voting machines as part of the Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress in the wake of the scandals surrounding the 2000 election. Former Ohio Congressman Bob Ney, HAVA's principle author, now resides in a federal prison, in part for illegalities surrounding his dealings with voting machine companies.

Blackwell, who was defeated in a 2006 race for the Ohio governorship, outsourced web hosting responsibilities for the 2004 vote count to a programming firm that also programmed the web site for the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. Blackwell's chosen host site for the state's vote count was in the basement of the Old Pioneer Bank Building in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the servers for the Republican National Committee, and the Bush White House, were also located.

Brunner has now recommended that all Ohio's voting be done on optical scan ballots, with reliance on central tabulation. Voters with disabilities could use AutoMark touchscreen machines with built in audio systems that allow the marking of ballots with little or no additional assistance.

"It's a testament to our state's boards of elections officials that elections on the new (federally) mandated voting systems have gone as smoothly as they have in light of these findings," Brunner said.

Conversely, it is also a testament to the ease with which the 2004 election was stolen by election officials who had clear conflicts of interest aimed at keeping George W. Bush in the White House.

Labels: Bush, Election 2004, Ohio

posted by Stash @ 1:10 AM

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In Defense of Our Country

Labels: America, Bush, Randy Newman

posted by Stash @ 2:37 PM

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Last Snow of the Year!

... and on Christmas Day!


Stash's 1983 Chevy. Gotta luv it!

Labels: Bush, Christmas, Snow

posted by Stash @ 2:27 PM

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Scott McClellan: "I passed along false information"

George W. Bush:

Labels: Bush, Cheney, Karl Rove, Plamegate, Scooter Libby, Scott McClellan

posted by bleeding blue @ 4:33 PM

2 Comments

Bush does it his way, again!

When he cut restrictions to pollutors, he called the action "Clear Skies".

When he enacted impossible mandates on schools and refused to fund those mandates, he called it "No Child Left Behind".

President Bush appointed Pesticide Exec to head EPA.

We'll never forget Brownie, the infamous Bush-appointed head of FEMA whose claim to fame was running a few dog shows.

So it comes as no surprise that the President, trained by Rove, would do the exact opposite of what is needed when it comes to womens health care:

Contraception Foe Named to Contraception Post

Laura Meckler - Washington Post

The Department of Health and Human Services appointed Susan Orr — who has spoken out against contraception — to a post responsible for U.S. contraception programs.

Orr, who will be acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, has been directing child welfare programs in another branch of HHS. Prior to joining the Bush administration, Orr was senior director for marriage and family at the Family Research Council, a conservative group that favors abstinence-only education and opposes federal money for contraception.

In 2001, she was quoted in the Washington Post favoring a Bush administration plan to drop a requirement that health insurance plans for federal employees cover a broad range of birth control.

“We’re quite pleased because fertility is not a disease,” she said at the time. “It’s not a medical necessity that you have it.”

Reached by email, Orr referred questions to the Office of Public Affairs, which said she was simply supporting President Bush’s policy. “As she said then, the policy allows freedom of conscience and freedom of choice. Practically speaking, workers should be able to choose what kind of coverage matters to them,” said a statement from HHS spokesman Kevin Schweers.
“She wouldn’t have accepted the job of running the Office of Population Affairs if she couldn’t support the Administration’s positions. This Administration has worked to ensure grantees provide safe and effective products and services.”

A coalition of family planning providers called attention to Orr’s appointment and denounced it. “We are appalled,” Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, said in a statement. “While her resume suggests a commitment to child welfare and children, her professional credentials fail to demonstrate a commitment to comprehensive family planning services for all men and women in need.”

The administration’s last pick for that office drew similar fire. Eric Keroack was criticized by family planning advocates who objected to his earlier work as medical director of a Christian pregnancy counseling organization that opposed distribution of contraceptives. He resigned in March to deal with an allegation by the Massachusetts Medicaid program against his private practice.

In an email announcing the Orr appointment, Anand K. Parekh, the acting deputy assistant secretary for health, touted her work with HHS over the last several years.

“She has been responsible for working with State and local agencies to develop programs that focus on preventing the abuse of children in troubled families, protecting children from abuse, and finding permanent placements for those who cannot safely return to their homes,” he wrote.
The position does not require Senate confirmation, and HHS still may choose someone else to hold the permanent job as Orr is only being appointed in an acting capacity.

Link

Labels: Bush, DHHS, EPA, FEMA, Planned Parenthood, Susan Orr

posted by Stash @ 7:08 AM

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It’s the Oil

by Jim Holt London Review of Books

Iraq is ‘unwinnable’, a ‘quagmire’, a ‘fiasco’: so goes the received opinion. But there is good reason to think that, from the Bush-Cheney perspective, it is none of these things. Indeed, the US may be ‘stuck’ precisely where Bush et al want it to be, which is why there is no ‘exit strategy’.

Iraq has 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves. That is more than five times the total in the United States. And, because of its long isolation, it is the least explored of the world’s oil-rich nations. A mere two thousand wells have been drilled across the entire country; in Texas alone there are a million. It has been estimated, by the Council on Foreign Relations, that Iraq may have a further 220 billion barrels of undiscovered oil; another study puts the figure at 300 billion. If these estimates are anywhere close to the mark, US forces are now sitting on one quarter of the world’s oil resources. The value of Iraqi oil, largely light crude with low production costs, would be of the order of $30 trillion at today’s prices. For purposes of comparison, the projected total cost of the US invasion/occupation is around $1 trillion.

Who will get Iraq’s oil? One of the Bush administration’s ‘benchmarks’ for the Iraqi government is the passage of a law to distribute oil revenues. The draft law that the US has written for the Iraqi congress would cede nearly all the oil to Western companies. The Iraq National Oil Company would retain control of 17 of Iraq’s 80 existing oilfields, leaving the rest – including all yet to be discovered oil – under foreign corporate control for 30 years. ‘The foreign companies would not have to invest their earnings in the Iraqi economy,’ the analyst Antonia Juhasz wrote in the New York Times in March, after the draft law was leaked. ‘They could even ride out Iraq’s current “instability” by signing contracts now, while the Iraqi government is at its weakest, and then wait at least two years before even setting foot in the country.’ As negotiations over the oil law stalled in September, the provincial government in Kurdistan simply signed a separate deal with the Dallas-based Hunt Oil Company, headed by a close political ally of President Bush.

More...

Labels: Bush, Cheney, Iraq War, Oil

posted by Stash @ 2:10 PM

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Words of a President

On September 24, 2007 two Presidents of two different nations made these comments:

1. "You've isolated your nation. You've taken a nation of proud and honorable people and made your country the pariah of the world."


2. "What religion, please tell me, tells you as a follower of that religion to occupy another country and kill its people? ... You just can't wear your religion on your sleeve or just go to church. You should be truthfully religious."

3. "I think your ideas are weird, your religion is bat-shit, and you talk funny."

Who said which one?




Comment #1 was said by President Bush but it sure sounds like a description of President Bush.

Comment #2 was said by Iranian President Ahmadinejad about President Bush supposedly being "a very religious man".

Comment #3 was silently thought by both Presidents (but President Bush's lips moved!).

Labels: 60 Minutes, Ahmadinejad, Bush, Iran, Iraq

posted by Stash @ 12:17 PM

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How to create an Angry American

Obnoxious rat bastards getting away with murder.

Labels: Bush, Cheney, Iraq War, YouTube

posted by Stash @ 10:33 AM

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WTF?

OK, it's true that we can't see the entire exchange. However, I see one guy in a suit make the signal to "cut him off" and I hear John Kerry say, "Let me answer some of his questions."

Then we see the student grabbed and an attempt to escort him out. He yells, "Why are you arresting me?" and "What did I do?"

Those are both questions we couldn't answer. Can you?

Watch:



Update: Kerry Statement

Labels: Bush, John Kerry, taser

posted by Stash @ 10:19 PM

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Why the White House wants to write the Petraeus Report

The Washington Post will probably be branded as traitors and not supporting our troops for giving us an advance look at the Patraeus Report... BEFORE the White House propoganda ministers get hold of it.

What our military would write:

Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress., according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday. comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq.

After some "editing only for space", what the White House will release:

Iraq has failed to meet three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a positive assessment by the White House which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq.

Labels: Bush, Iraq, Petraeus

posted by Stash @ 9:15 AM

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Feeble Democrats give Bush anything he wants.

Just one day after the Democratic Senate embarrassed itself by extending George W. Bush Domestic Spying Program, the House rolls over for him, too.


A loyal member of the Democratic Party would have to start wondering by now... just what was the point of winning the elections, again?

Weren't we going to be able to stand up to this miserable failure now that we controlled the House and the Senate?

Labels: Bush, Democrats, Domestic Spying, House, Senate

posted by Stash @ 9:10 PM

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British Bush Ad

Stash must have been preoccupied when this first came out.

Labels: British, Bush, YouTube

posted by Stash @ 10:34 PM

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Scooter Libby is not off the hook yet.

Let's not forget the Wilson's ongoing civil suit against Libby, Vice President Cheney, and presidential advisor Karl Rove and 10 unnamed defendants. Melanie Sloan of the the watch-dog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) serves as legal counsel for the couple.

From the lawsuit:

On April 26, 1999, at the dedication of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) facility named for him, former President George H. W. Bush said: "We need more protection for the methods we use to gather intelligence and more protection for our sources, particularly our human sources, people that are risking their lives for their country....I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors." George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States, Remarks at the Dedication Ceremony for the George Bush Center for Intelligence (Apr. 26, 1999).

You should have told that to your kid, Poppy!

Here is the complete text of the lawsuit. (4M PDF)
So folks, buck up. The fun ain't over yet. Could there be further chances of perjury charges? Don't know, I ain't a lawyer. This will be interesting regardless.

If you desire to help, check out http://www.wilsonsupport.org/.

Labels: Bush, Cheney, Plamegate, Scooter Libby

posted by bleeding blue @ 10:19 AM

3 Comments

Olbermann

'nuff said.

Update: The link works now.

Labels: Bush, Cheney, Impeach, Olbermann

posted by Stash @ 9:03 PM

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We shouldn't be surprised.... but, we are.

Bush brings further disgrace to his Administration by commuting Scooter's sentence and thumbing his nose at the rule of law.

CNN

Melanie Sloan, legal counsel to Joe and Valerie Wilson
“First, President Bush said any person who leaked would no longer work in his administration. Nonetheless, Scooter Libby didn’t leave office until he was indicted and Karl Rove works in the White House even today. More recently, the vice president ignored an executive order protecting classified information, claiming he isn’t really part of the executive branch. Clearly, this is anadministration that believes leaking classified information for political ends is justified and that the law is what applies to other people.”

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and presidential candidate
“This decision to commute the sentence of a man who compromised our national security cements the legacy of an Administration characterized by a politics of cynicism and division, one that has consistently placed itself and its ideology above the law. This is exactly the kind of politics we must change so we can begin restoring the American people’s faith in a government that puts the country’s progress ahead of the bitter partisanship of recent years.”

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York
“As Independence Day nears, we are reminded that one of the principles our forefathers fought for was equal justice under the law. This commutation completely tramples on that principle.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada
“The President’s decision to commute Mr. Libby’s sentence is disgraceful. Libby’s conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq War. Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone. Judge Walton correctly determined that Libby deserved to be imprisoned for lying about a matter ofnational security. The Constitution gives President Bush the power to commute sentences, but history will judge him harshly for using that power to benefit his own Vice President’s Chief of Staff who was convicted of such a serious violation of law.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California
“The President’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence does not serve justice, condones criminal conduct, and is a betrayal of trust of the American people. The President said he would hold accountable anyone involved in the Valerie Plame leak case. By his action today, the President shows his word is not to be believed. He has abandoned all sense of fairness when it comes to justice, he has failed to uphold the rule of law, and he has failed to hold his Administration accountable.”

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, presidential candidate
“Last week Vice President Cheney asserted that he was beyond the reach of the law. Today, President Bush demonstrated the lengths he would go to, ensuring that even aides to Dick Cheney are beyond the judgment of the law. It is time for the American people to be heard — I call for all Americans to flood the White House with phone calls tomorrow expressing their outrage over this blatant disregard for the rule of law.”

Former Sen. John Edwards, presidential candidate
“Only a president clinically incapable of understanding that mistakes have consequences could take the action he did today. President Bush has just sent exactly the wrong signal to the country and the world. In George Bush’s America, it is apparently okay to misuse intelligence for political gain, mislead prosecutors and lie to the FBI. George Bush and his cronies think they are above the law and the rest of us live with the consequences. The cause of equal justice in America took a serious blow today.”

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, presidential candidate
“It’s a sad day when the President commutes the sentence of a public official who deliberately and blatantly betrayed the public trust and obstructed an important federal investigation,” said Governor Richardson. “This administration clearly believes its officials are above the law, from ignoring FISA laws when eavesdropping on US citizens, to the abuse of classified material, to ignoring the Geneva Conventions and international law with secret prisons and torturing prisoners.

There is a reason we have laws and why we expect our Presidents to obey them. Institutions have a collective wisdom greater than that of any one individual. The arrogance of this administration’s disdain for the law and its belief it operates with impunity are breathtaking.

Will the President also commute the sentences of others who obstructed justice and lied to grand juries, or only those who act to protect President Bush and Vice President Cheney?”

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, presidential candidate
“Today’s decision is yet another example that this Administration simply considers itself above the law. This case arose from the Administration’s politicization of national security intelligence and its efforts to punish those who spoke out against its policies. Four years into the Iraq war, Americans are still living with the consequences of this White House’s efforts to quell dissent. This commutation sends the clear signal that in this Administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice.”

Stash, The Northwest, resident muck thrower
WTF?!?! Everyone expected a pardon near the end of the term. But, this? Now? The goddam ink isn't dry on the judges decision.

Labels: Bush, Hillary, Obama, Plamegate, Scooter Libby

posted by Stash @ 10:04 PM

2 Comments

Bush Is Getting Stuck Everywhere

First he is stuck in his Iraq Quagmire, then in the waters of Maine. Notice how he's offering as much assistance here as with everything else in which he's involved.


President George W. Bush watches as fishing guide Billy Bush tries to pull up the stuck anchor during a fishing trip Sunday, July 1, 2007 in Kennebunkport, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Labels: Bush, Kennebunkport, quagmire

posted by Stash @ 7:00 PM

0 Comments