Let's Bring Francine on Home to Victory!

On a related note, McCain pulls out of Bilbray fundraiser over differences in Immigration policy.

Bravo, Kung Fu Monkey.

If you fail to even make that tiny effort -- hold the Bastards accountable -- to insure the troops the material, planning and care they need, then no matter what you say, what you write, or how many flags you wave, you are not supporting the troops. I am sure the pfc. with no body armor, no armored Hummer, on his third of who knows how many tours while his family goes quietly bankrupt appreciates your "support for his mission." But the other shit matters more. You are not holding our representatives accountable for their failures. You are not living up to your responsibility. You have broken the covenant. With this relationship broken, the soldiers are no longer your proxies, they are your instruments. You are treating them as tools. You may not feel that way, that characterization may fill you with rage, but how else to characterize such one-sided relationship?

Nevada blast plan implodes.

Postponed is good. Cancelled is better, but small victories are good too.

California Women Vote is an EMILY'S List project and they are supporting Francine Busby's run for Congress in CA 50. They're looking for volunteers for their Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaign this week.

If you're willing and able or want more information, please visit - http://www.californiawomenvote.org/

Election day is just a week away....

For more information on Francine Busby and her campaign:

Another CodePink aerial image; this one was taken on May 14 at the Mother's Day vigil.

It's Congressional Corruption Season! Looks like Jefferson got caught on tape. That's generally not a good thing for the defense team.

That sucks.

I stumbled upon this Quote du Jour on the ABC News site while reading the above article.

Hastert said he expects "to seek a means to restore the delicate balance of power among the branches of government that the founders intended" after consulting other House leaders and weighing the long-term consequences of the search.

ahem.

Theologians debunk 'Da Vinci Code' dogma

Hoo! Talk about your sexy headlines! "Theologians debunk 'Da Vinci Code' movie script" just doesn't have the same pizzazz.

Also from Alternet, One Step Closer to a Police State.

I have some mixed feelings about having the National Guard at the border, but overall it's a bad idea. It's one more little step in the wrong direction.

Bush Orders Guard to Protect Approval Rating.

So Hayden says if wiretapping had been allowed, they could have stopped 9/11. Uh huh. Alternet has a good article about why this is misleading, at best.

Duke Cunningham uncooperative. Gee, there's big a shock.

From the SDCPJ news...

Dick Cheney will be in town on Tuesday, May 23, to support Brian
Bilbray at the Sheraton San Diego -Hotel and Marina, 1380 Harbor Island Drive, San
Diego, CA 92101

Event doors open at 10:15 am; come protest outside the hotel; some
people will be there at 9:30 a.m. Please bring your signs of protest!

Public parking is limited on Harbor Island; come early. Paid parking is
available at the airport, you can then walk across Harbor Drive
directly to Harbor Island Drive.

Bilbray is running against Francine Busby, and the Republicans seem to REALLY want to keep Cunningham's old seat. They've spent about 2.5 million to support Bilbray, and are pulling out the stops in their nasty, lying campaign advertisement budget. Cheney is here to support Bilbray who has spent most of his career talking about how moderate he is.

... right.

Anyway, I was pleased to hear yesterday that Francine won the poll that Barbara Boxer's PAC ran and she's now getting additional financial support. Good for her. She's ahead in the polls too!

Good stuff by Glenn Greenwald about those angry liberals.

Like me, I suppose.

I've added Greenwald's blog Unclaimed Territory, to the blog roll. There's some interesting reading for you there.

I sure would like to see how these National Security Letters are being utilized. I have a bad feeling about that practice. (this is known as an understatement.)

from last November's Washington Post:

A national security letter cannot be used to authorize eavesdropping or to read the contents of e-mail. But it does permit investigators to trace revealing paths through the private affairs of a modern digital citizen. The records it yields describe where a person makes and spends money, with whom he lives and lived before, how much he gambles, what he buys online, what he pawns and borrows, where he travels, how he invests, what he searches for and reads on the Web, and who telephones or e-mails him at home and at work.

FBI Said to Seek Phone Records of Reporters

Holy crow. That's just wrong on so many levels.

ABC News Blotter:

The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is increasingly seeking reporters' phone records in leak investigations.

"It used to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush administration," said a senior federal official.

The acknowledgement followed our blotter item that ABC News reporters had been warned by a federal source that the government knew who we were calling.

The official said our blotter item was wrong to suggest that ABC News phone calls were being "tracked."

"Think of it more as backtracking," said a senior federal official.

Quote du jour:

George Orwell intended his novel “1984” to be a work of fiction, perhaps a warning, certainly a commentary, on the perilous clouds he saw forming in the world of the late 1940s. Memo to the Bush administration, “1984” was not a how-to manual.

Keith Oberman, May 11th, 2006

Condoleezza Rice at Boston College? I quit.

Wiki the president. What a good idea. People for the American Way has set up a site using Wikipedia technology where you can acquire and share information about the mis-deeds of the evil-doers George Bush and Co.

Post facts with credible backing documentation, my friends. It's not a blog or an op-ed page, and the goal is credible, documented information.

Great. Looks like Porter Goss is moving out so Michael Hayden can move in. Somehow, that doesn't make me feel better.

from CNN:

Hayden, 61, is the principal deputy to Negroponte and former director of the super-secret National Security Agency.

Now we'll have the guy who oversaw the warrantly wiretapping in the top job at the CIA. I guess the potential silver lining will be more public discussion and media attention directed at the program. He'll have to justify it to the Senate again.

Over the past blah de blah years, one of the things that The Right has done is to demonize the bureaucracy and public employees. They've done a really good job of it. Ask anyone, no matter their policial leanings, and there's a good chance they'll recite the Republican party line about corrupt and incompetant bureaucrats. This is no accident.

Think back to your history class, my friends. Remember the Progressives of the early 1900s? I bet you do. One of their greatest reforms was the civil service system. Before that, cronyism and patronage was the accepted rule of the day. Talk about your corrupt incompetants! Any politican could appoint anyone they wanted to positions of power within the government. Family, friends, and contributors got high ranking jobs, and of course since they were so pleased that their good buddy/daddy gave them a job, they would do whatever it was that they wanted done. Is that necessarily in the best interests of the American people? Not hardly. Is that a good way to ensure fairness and equality among the citizenry? Nope.

Along come the progressive reformers, and they were successful in convincing the good people of the United States that the bureaucracy should be professional and independent from the politicians. What a concept! What is one of the earmarks of a corrupt government today? The executive branch directly runs the bureaucracy (as well as the military and the courts). Power becomes consolidated. Is this sounding familiar yet?

As The Radical Right has amassed and consolidated their power over the last few decades they've routinely attacked public employees. They've weakened their unions, undermined their authority and derided their professionalism. This was because they were in their way. Hello? The system was DESIGNED to get in their way. Democracy is supposed to move slower than the politicans want it to move. It's one of the things that keeps us free. No one can jump in a change things overnight.

It's like a three legged stool. If you lose a leg, and you'll tip over. There's politicians, bureaucrats and special interests. You have to have all three for the system to work as intended. We're ALL part of some "special interest" group, ya know? (Another demonized word! I'll save that for another day.)

So what I'm leading up to with all this blathering is that the demoralization and attacks on the federal bureaucracy has led us to a point where The Right has been able to consolidate their power to include the bureaucracy. Old timers and professionals have been forced or driven out, and they've put their hand picked cronies into positions of power within the bureacracy.

That's why we're going to be seeing (imo) more scandals popping out all over that link federal agencies and bureaucrats to the politicians who love them. The civil service wall has been badly breeched, and since everyone has bought the story that bureaucrats are evil, no one cared while it was happening. I hope someone who's got a bigger voice than me mentions this little factoid one of these days.

Well, I'd quite talking about the Duke Cunningham stuff here since I felt it was being discussed plenty elsewhere, but I can't help myself now. It's gonna get bigger, and I can't help but wonder who all is involved. Looks like a link between it and the top level of the CIA though, eh? The number three guy at the CIA (Foggo) is best buddies with Cunningham's "#1 co-conspirator" Brent Wilkes, and a frequest guest and host of the Watergate "poker parties". See! I always told you there was a karmic link between these jokers and Richard Nixon! The fact that we can see in the form of the Watergate Hotel about knocked me off my chair though. I'd laugh if I weren't crying.

Candidate Mobilizes for Marcy Winograd During California Democratic State Party Convention

Intresting stuff, eh? Kudos to Jeeni for standing up for her principles, and supporting other progressive candidates. Woohoo!