Document shows Bush guided CIA on detention - Americas - International Herald Tribune

If this isn't treason, I don't know what is. George Bush personally authorized torture techniques. Remember the reports that as young person, he tortured and killed frogs? First sign of a serial killer.

There is something wrong with the Bush family. Just look what Jeb has been up to:

Officials Clash Over Mentally Ill in Florida Jails

For years, circuit judges here have ordered state officials to obey Florida law and promptly transfer severely mentally ill inmates from jails to state hospitals. But with few hospital beds available, Gov. Jeb Bush’s administration began flouting those court orders in August.

Now, in a growing standoff between the government of Florida and its judges, the state is being threatened with steep daily fines if it does not comply. And at least one judge has raised the possibility that the secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families could go to jail for contempt of court.

“This type of arrogant activity cannot be tolerated in an orderly society,” Judge Crockett Farnell of Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court wrote in an Oct. 11 ruling.

Despite Billions Spent, Rebuilding Incomplete - washingtonpost.com

So, we lefties never talk about all the good things that America has done for Iraq. OK, let's do that. Today's WP has a look at exactly what our reconstruction dollars have done in Iraq. And that's just some of the trillion or so we'll spend on it. Well, we didn't really spend it. We charged it. Our kids will be paying the Iraq tax for decades. But, let's look at the good stuff.

"'We accomplished a significant amount of work. But it was just overwhelmed by the overlay of violence,' said Clifford G. Mumm, who has spent much of the past three years in Iraq managing projects for Bechtel Corp. 'It's hard to be very optimistic.'

U.S.-funded projects have long been a target for sabotage. Many of those that were spared remain unused by a population paralyzed by violence.

Yet those inside the reconstruction effort say security concerns were hardly the only problem. Poor planning and coordination by U.S. officials meant that even successful individual projects failed to do the job; for example, health-care centers were built at great cost but had no water and sewer service. Poor work-site management by contractors meant that some projects went awry. And now that the United States is handing over reconstruction efforts to Iraq, many involved with the process worry that the Iraqis don't have the training or the money to keep U.S.-built facilities running."

I know, commie bastards like me even try to ruin the good stuff for you. So, maybe you'd like to hear what an actual Iraqi has to say.

"What reconstruction?" Othman said in an interview last week. "Today we are drinking untreated water from a plant built decades ago that was never maintained. The electricity only visits us two hours a day. And now we are going backwards. We cook on the firewood we gather from the forests because of the gas shortage."

Well, there you have it. Our money has actually done the opposite of what GW Bush, the great leader and hero who was OH so much better than Gore or Kerry (people with actual experience in war), intended. Well, boys and girls, the road to hell is paved with GW Bush's good intentions. So is the road to Baghdad.

Despite Billions Spent, Rebuilding Incomplete - washingtonpost.com

So, we lefties never talk about all the good things that America has done for Iraq. OK, let's do that. Today's WP has a look at exactly what our reconstruction dollars have done in Iraq. And that's just some of the trillion or so we'll spend on it. Well, we didn't really spend it. We charged it. Our kids will be paying the Iraq tax for decades. But, let's look at the good stuff.

Despite Billions Spent, Rebuilding Incomplete - washingtonpost.com: "'We accomplished a significant amount of work. But it was just overwhelmed by the overlay of violence,' said Clifford G. Mumm, who has spent much of the past three years in Iraq managing projects for Bechtel Corp. 'It's hard to be very optimistic.'

U.S.-funded projects have long been a target for sabotage. Many of those that were spared remain unused by a population paralyzed by violence.

Yet those inside the reconstruction effort say security concerns were hardly the only problem. Poor planning and coordination by U.S. officials meant that even successful individual projects failed to do the job; for example, health-care centers were built at great cost but had no water and sewer service. Poor work-site management by contractors meant that some projects went awry. And now that the United States is handing over reconstruction efforts to Iraq, many involved with the process worry that the Iraqis don't have the training or the money to keep U.S.-built facilities running."

I know, commie bastards like me even try to ruin the good stuff for you. So, maybe you'd like to hear what an actual Iraqi has to say.

"What reconstruction?" Othman said in an interview last week. "Today we are drinking untreated water from a plant built decades ago that was never maintained. The electricity only visits us two hours a day. And now we are going backwards. We cook on the firewood we gather from the forests because of the gas shortage."

Well, there you have it. Our money has actually done the opposite of what GW Bush, the great leader and hero who was OH so much better than Gore or Kerry (people with actual experience in war), intended. Well, boys and girls, the road to hell is paved with GW Bush's good intentions. So is the road to Baghdad.

Another Argument with a Union Guy

Never ceases to amaze me how redneck union guys who claim to be independents or even Democrats are the first to take the side of the Rethugs. This is a recent exchange in my union news group. The righties have been pretty quiet, but after posting a link to get people to go freep an MSNBC poll about impeachment, I got this response to Bush treason:

So basically instead of making suggestions to MSNBC on how the newly elected Democrats could change policy and define their platform for the reshaping of American presense in the world— we get a vote on a political lynching. I guess it’s the Dems turn to do what the Reps did to Clinton when he was President and they had the power. Thus proving my point that their all alike.

Ugh. Yeah, they're all alike. Typical crap from a guy who not only watches, but enjoys, Bill O'Lielly. Here's my response:

Lynching? Or is it oversight? Is it justice? Let's see, a lynching was when KKK people tied black guys up to trees and went to town. Impeaching GW Bush for his numerous crimes would be JUSTICE.

The Democrats will pass legislation in the first hundred hours raising the minimum wage, implementing all the 9-11 commission recommendations, allowing the government to negotiate with drug companies for medicare, break the link between lobbyists and legislators (drain the swamp), cut the interest rate on student loans in half, and allow federal funding of stem-cell research, hopefully with a veto proof majority on the stem cells. After the first 100 hours, it's pass a pay as you go rule, so the
deficit gets under control, and allow the tax cuts for those over 250K per year to lapse (start rewarding work over wealth). That's the plan they've been pushing for over a year now. But you wouldn't know that. You've been too busy saying they don't have a plan to bother to listen to the plan.

So, no, they're not the same. And you know it.

Besides, Clinton lied about a blow job. Bush violated the 4th amendment with warrantless spying on American citizens, he lied to congress to get us into war (I can't think of a bigger crime, considering all the death, maiming, and destruction that's resulted), and he has allowed torture in direct violation of many laws and treaties. Not to mention all his "signing statements" where he says this law applies to everyone but me. All blatant violations of numerous laws that are a HELL OF A LOT WORSE THAN LYING ABOUT A BLOW JOB, at least to those of us whose heads are outside of the lower end of our digestive tract.

So, do you really think the two are anywhere near comparable, or are you just parroting the O'Liely line of crap again?

Quick Notes From Planet Earth

Hunter is his usual brilliant self lately.

"The notion among hardcore, far-right conservatives that this sweeping Democratic victory was a great victory for hardcore, far-right conservatives because the Democrats who won are really conservatives too. Not that there's the slightest bit of evidence of conservatism, for all but a handful of these people -- no, it's just that 'conservative' means whatever the hell hardcore far-right conservatives consider popular, at the moment. There's no actual tenets involved, mind you, which is a lucky thing, because the same conservatives just spent months declaring that these same Democrats were hopelessly, unimaginably liberal, and were going to make you marry your dog or something."

Rumsfeld: a costly legacy in lost lives - The Herald

Rumsfeld: a costly legacy in lost lives - The Herald:

"Detractors painted him as a reckless warmonger who botched the Iraq occupation planning, sent too few troops, failed to anticipate a bloody insurgency, put soldiers into combat without enough armour, damaged the all-volunteer military and sullied America's reputation by sanctioning detainee abuse."

VA-Sen: Voter suppression in Virginia

If conservatives have all the ideas, then why do they have to cheat? I can't wait to see some other Rethugs perp walked for these crimes. Of course, in the close races, some of these people would rather go to club fed than see the public vote for someone besides their guy. This is Bush Treason, Republican Treason, Karl Rove Treason: trying to force democracy on Iraq, while taking it away here.

Daily Kos: VA-Sen: Voter suppression in Virginia: "Widespread Calls, Allegedly from 'Webb Volunteers,' Telling Voters that their Polling Location has Changed.

A couple of examples:

a. Norman Cox has been registered to vote in the same location in Arlington since 1972. Someone from a 406 number (in Montana) called to tell him that his polling place has changed. [Note: The Webb Campaign is NOT making any such phone calls.] Cox said he believed that he was being mislead and the caller hung up.

b. Peter Baumann in Cape Charles, VA (North Hampton) got a similar call from a 'Webb volunteer' saying his polling location had changed. He said: No, I'm a poll worker and I know where I vote. The girl--who was calling from California--hung up."

State Department screened speakers for possible dissent

Bush-Cheney 1984: From the Big Surprise Department.

"WASHINGTON - An internal State Department review has found that U.S. officials screened the public statements and writings of private citizens for criticism of the Bush administration before deciding whether to select them for foreign speaking projects.

The screenings amounted to 'virtual censorship' in the State Department's selection of speakers, said a report by the department's Inspector General's Office. McClatchy Newspapers obtained a copy of the 22-page report, which was completed in September."

Bush Abandons US Soldier Behind Enemy Lines

Hey, all you conservatives, did you notice this yesterday? While Bush, McCain and the rest of the nut jobs were blathering on about Kerry's mangled sentence (as if Bush was one to try to talk), Bush abondoned an American soldier behind enemy lines:

Extra checkpoints were set up last week as U.S. troops launched an intensive search for a missing soldier, who has yet to be found.

Shortly after leaving Sadr city, U.S. troops dismantled other checkpoints in the downtown Karradah neighborhood where the soldier had been abducted, loading barbed wire coils onto their Stryker armored vehicles.

Conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan notes:

The U.S. military does not have a traditional of abandoning its own soldiers to foreign militias, or of taking orders from foreign governments. No commander-in-chief who actually walks the walk, rather than swaggering the swagger, would acquiesce to such a thing.... And where, by the way, is McCain on this? ... Silent recently on Iraq. But vocal - oh, how vocal - on Kerry.

Where is everyone on this? We have now abandoned a soldier because Bush wants to kiss Iraqi ass now. Shameful.