PRAWN

Philadelphia Regional Anti-War Network
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PRAWN
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Marlene Santoyo's Political Allies Newsletter



Brief history of PRAWN
PA Laws Relevant to Protests

How to keep in touch with local media
Mibbet Chat Widget
or
Pidgin download
(Multi- platform, no-cost)

Monique's cards - inspiring messages!
Set 1
Set 2 (More of this series after the Inaugural)
Calendars

PhillyIMC Calendar

Delaware Valley Progressive Calendar  sign-up

Cool YouTube! Prosecute, prosecute!

Hilarious YouTube!
CCR advocates prosecution of Bush officials


IVAW's Open letter to President-Elect Obama


Support Community Media at the Lava Zone


PRAWN Flyer (PDF) Updated 20Feb2010

Philadelphians for Impeachment or Indictment of Bush and Cheney
To:  City Councilmembers of Philadelphia
From: World Can't Wait
Event
Flyers:

 
Congressional Updates-showing the latest actions in Congress.
Congressional contacts 
Next meeting:  TBD 6:30pm
30th St Station (Eating area across from where Post Office used to be)


Contacting  us:
Sign up for our RiseUp unmoderated discussion/events list serve.  It also has archives sokk you can also check up on discussions.  Non-members can post to this list, but those posts will be moderated.
Or sign up for our Yahoo events-only list serve.   This is also unmoderated, so we depend on discretion being used when posting.
Webmaster & miscellaneous questions.

Our view of the current war in Iraq: 
  1. The Iraqi Government has requested that US troops leave their country.  The Iraqi Government refuses to define shooting at American troops as a "terrorist" action.  Meaning: it's open season on Americans!
  2. Even hard-core Neocons like David Frum (Came up with the term "Axis of Evil" to describe Iraq, Iran & North Korea) realizes that the war is lost and that the US can, at best, return to square one and restore what was lost.
  3. Far from having a national "all-for-one, one-for-all" feeling, the American political leadership is on the attack against domestic political opponents
  4. As the truth about the war trickles out from the front lines, the US all-volunteer military is getting fewer and fewer recruits with even strong supporters of the war refusing to serve.  The general public is also rapidly losing enthusiasm.
  5. US allies aren't providing much help either.
  6. Iraqi have suffered an estimated 655,000 deaths as a direct result of the US invasion. Living standards for Iraqis have dropped sharply from what they were in February 2003
  7. Meanwhile, Big Oil is attempting to lock in highly favorable contracts on the development of new Iraqi fields that would have the effect of robbing the Iraqi public of billions.
  8. The military resistance in Iraq is 95% Iraqi and is a force that's costing America more casualties every month.
  9. The war in Iraq has made the US less secure as jihadists from all over the Mideast have used Iraq as a training ground.
  10. The idea of spreading democracy to a foreign country through an invasion and a military occupation has proven to be sheer wishful thinking.
  . 
It's time to withdraw.  The war was a crime against humanity to begin with and the alternative is to go through what happened in Vietnam in 1975, a panicked helicopter exodus from the rooftops.

PRAWN's mission is to:
  • Network groups, organizations, and individuals to stop the repression caused by "never ending wars" at home and abroad, by the US corporate military state
  • Support organizations having common ground
  • Educate and activate the general public


Local Resource Organizations

National Organizations



Marlene Santoyo's Political Allies Newsletter

12 Jul 10
6 Jul 10
5 May 10
21 Apr 10
14 Apr 10
30 Mar 10
27 Mar 10
11 Mar 10
19 Jan 10
10 Jan 10
30 Nov 09
13 Oct 09
3 Oct 09
17 Sep 09
6 Aug 09
7 Jul 09
10 Jun 09
31 May 09
13 May 09
29 Apr 09
9 Mar 09
28 Feb 09
14 Jan 09
6 Jan 09
26 Oct 08
16 Sep 08
15 Aug 08
31 Jul 08
13 Jul 08
20 Apr 08
23 Mar 08
15 Mar 08
6 Mar 08
28 Feb 08
18 Jan 08
9 Jan 08
17 Dec 07
15 Nov 07
5 Sep 07
30 Aug 07
15 Aug 07
2 Aug 07
24 Jun 07
24 Apr 07
20 Apr 07
15 Apr 07
12 Apr 07
21 Mar 07
16 Mar 07
21 Feb 07
16 Jan 07
8 Jan 07
28 Dec 06
13 Dec 06
8 Dec 06
28 Nov 06
17 Nov 06
10 Nov 06
24 Oct 06
13 Oct 06
7 Oct 06
29 Sep 06
19 Sep 06
13 Sep 06
23 Aug 06
11 Aug 06
1 Aug 06
26 Jul 06
7 Jul 06
2 Jul 06
20 Jun 06
6 Jun 06
1 Jun 06
23 May 06
13 May 06
2 May 06
27 Apr 06
12 Apt 06
22 Mar 06
23 Feb 06
15 Feb 06
2 Feb 06
26 Jan 06
11 Jan 06
5 Jan 06
29 Dec 05
22 Dec 05
15 Dec 05
8 Dec 05


"Political Allies Newsletter" email listserve which is sent out a few times a month. There are actions you may want to support & local, national & international articles, most of which are not printed in the Phila Inquirer or NY Times. Topic titles are listed. You may read any portion, file away for another time or delete any or all.

To subscribe, if in the Philadelphia area: send a blank message to this address.  

To subscribe If OUTSIDE the Philadelphia area then send a blank message to this address.





Webspace provided by 1&1 Internet
Webmaster: Rich Gardner

Upcoming Events



Upcoming actions
Mid-March, 2011, nationally coordinated teach-ins to mark the eighth year of the Iraq War and to prepare for bi-coastal spring demonstrations the following month.

April 9, 2011,
Bi-coastal mass spring mobilizations in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles on April 9, 2011. These will be accompanied by distinct and separate non-violent direct actions on the same day.

Local activist meeting to coordinate opposition to wars across city



The countdown has begun! In mid-September we will travel to Gaza with hundreds of vehicles from across the world. In the next few weeks we will launch our registration website. Please join our mailing list now and we will contact you as soon as registrations open.

Viva Palestina website

Contribute to Viva Palestina






WikiLeaks - The Afghan War Diary


This is an extraordinary secret compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports describe the majority of lethal military actions involving the United States military. They include the number of persons internally stated to be killed, wounded, or detained during each action, together with the precise geographical location of each event, and the military units involved and major weapon systems used.



June 2010

Speaker Pelosi explains meaning of chart. A look at various predictions. Republican arguments demonstrate that they don't have a clue as to what they're talking about. Paul Krugman says the stimulus isn't big enough. The current economy is now doing exactly what was predicted many months back. Krugman warns (Oct) "It ain't over yet." Whew! (Nov) Looks to be finally bottoming out. Very interesting view as to how the housng crisis began. Woo hoo!!! Looks like good news at last!

employment graph

Bit of an improvent followed by another dip.

The word in early August: "Things are worsening more slowly"


shares of deficit
Source: Yglesia.thinkprogress


Other 9/11

BBC discusses CHILE: THE OTHER 9/11

On the morning of Tuesday 11 September 1973, two jets launched a deadly attack on the Presidential Palace of La Moneda in the heart of Santiago, Chile. A military coup led by Augusto Pinochet ousted the presidency of Salvador Allende, the world's first democratically-elected Marxist head of state.

Also, someone queried "Riverbend" of Baghdad Burning:

"Someone asked me whether it was true that the 'Iraqi people were dancing in the streets of Baghdad' when the World Trade Center fell. Of course it's not true. I was watching the tv screen in disbelief- looking at the reactions of the horrified people. I wasn't dancing because the terrified faces on the screen, could have been the same faces in front of the Amiriyah shelter on February 13… it's strange how horror obliterates ethnic differences- all faces look the same when they are witnessing the death of loved ones."


Study of Iraqi demographics 

five years after the US invasion

Juan Cole comments (near end of post)


The "burn rate" for the money the US is spending per month in Iraq was nearly $5 billion a month in 2003 and has steadily grown to where, in 2007, it had reached about $11 billion per month. According to Barack Obama during a presidential debate, the price has dropped to $10 billion a month.


Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) did a study of the Iraq War (60 page PDF), concluding that it is a “major debacle,” a “classic case of failure,” and a conflict that may not be winnable."  Update:  Contains lots of points of agreement with Bush Administration (i.e., that Saddam Hussein attempted to assassinate the elder George Bush, among many others) but these can be seen as tactical agreements, made so that other points have more credibility (i.e., "This is not a DFH screed!").



Quickly, Carefully & Generously - A Responsible Plan for Withdrawing from Iraq - a Committee headed by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)

Executive Summary (6 pages) PDF

Full version (34 pages) PDF

Question: How to withdraw American troops from Iraq without sustaining needless casualties?

top 1% share of income
Remind me again, just why did the Depression occur?

400 richest Americans’ incomes doubled under Bush



Database of 935 Bush Administration lies that preceded the Iraq War

List of 161 signing statements issued by Bush
Signing statements, which were mostly used in the past to commend legislaton, to clear up outstanding questions and to supply interpretations of what provisions meant, were used by Bush as a uniquely round-about and deceptive way for him to challenge legislation after Congress had fulfilled its role. There was no way for Congress to challenge a signing statemet other than by passing all-new legislation.

coverage of iraq war

Not many people are even aware of death toll.

The Senate Intelligence Committee Phase II report (PDF)
Part I
Part II
on the lies that the Bush Administration told the American People in order to drag us into the Iraq War.

casualties climbing back up

Post-"Surge," casualties in Iraq start climbing back up
Icasualties "Casualty Trends" shows that US military fatalities reached an average of 30 per week in Jun 07, declined to around 5 a week by Jan 08, but have remained consistent at around 8 per week since then.
Update: Apr 08 is the deadliest month on record since Sep 07.


Supreme Court dominance
To mention another issue, consider conservatives (red) vs liberals (blue) and how Republicans would like to shift that balance even further.


YouTube video produced by local Gold Star family

Boston IndyMedia story


wishful thinking
Seems the plans made for the Iraq War fall into the category of what we call "wishful thinking."  The idea here was that the occupation force in Iraq was going to fall to 5000 by December 2006.  Oops! 

Cool Protest Idea!!
Obtain toy plastic soldier, add a label "Bring me home!",
leave in bookstores, libraries, coffee shops, etc.
and
The Freeway Blogger strikes again!


Media Tank says FCC is considering
reviewing rules for media ownership

This may pave the way for further concentration of the already-overconcentrated media

Media Tank and other Philadelphia groups ran a public hearing with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps here in Philadelphia on January 18th, 2007. Archive of presentation.
PhillyIMC story

Status of Public Access TV

Philadelphia is about America's only major city without public access TV.  This means that noncommercial groups can't get airtime to explain their point of view on any issue.  They must depend on commercial media to do that and we have seen with the United Church of Christ ads how willing they are to do that
Thanks to the Adelphia company no longer being a player (PDF on Adelphia's sale of its assets.) in the cable TV business, Time-Warner and Comcast are now divvying up its assets.  Adelphia used to own a substantial chunk of Philly's cable TV market and those assets are now slated for Comcast, which currently owns the other three-quarters of the city.   Comcast has been legally obligated to provide free access to community groups since 1983 and the reason it has not done so is the subject of a long-running feud between the cable giant and the city.  PCAC opposes allowing Comcast to swallow up that last portion "until Comcast make a public commitment to fully fund public access."  The Philadelphia Grassroots Cable Coalition also points out that "Cable rates have risen more than three times the rate of inflation, with rate hikes in Philadelphia of 5% or more annually." 
PCAC has a series of action recommendations
PGCC has a series of links to other groups.

Also important news on low-power Community FM radio!

Update!!!! August 2009 - MIND TV conducts training sessions August 18, August 25, Septenber 1, September 16 & October 1.

Recommended anti-war and progressive films

Noteworthy Books


In front of the Recruiting Office at Broad & Cherry Streets last Friday of each month from 5:00pm to 6:00pm.  September 07

The Northwest Peace Coalition has been holding weekly candlelight vigils at 7:30 pm each Wednesday at the intersection of Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike (near Borders Books) in Chestnut Hill.

Northwest Peace and Justice Movement and the Unitarian Society of Germantown will begin on December 8 to hold a peace vigil every Wednesday at 5:00 pm, outside the Unitarian Society, 6511 Lincoln Drive (just north of Wayne

DelCo Drinkng Liberally meets at John Harvard's Brew House, 1001 Baltimore Pike #1B (Springfield Square South) (map) monthly starting February 5th 6:30pm-8:30pm
Archive of Action Items


Oh, and just how DO Iraqis feel about the "liberation" of their country?

from Angry Arab
From The Angry Arab News Service


Gay Pride Parade
Philadelphia's second annual Gay Pride Parade


Gaza protest

Protest against assault on ship that was attempting to break the seige in Gaza.


three primaries

Witness For Peace retreat in MD

may day
May Day celebration in Elmwood Park. Also, a buddy from PAW does a Facebook photo page.

7th anniversary protest
Protest upon 7th anniversary of start of Iraq War.


Oct 17th 09
Protest on Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan wars. Also on extensive list of other subjects. Joe Piette's photos.

PRAWN Party
PRAWN Party 15Aug09


memorial
Remembering the life of Dr George Tiller

band
Health Care rally in support of HR 676, the Single Payer option


t-shirts

Young woman passes in front of t-shirts set up to commemorate 300-plus victims of gun violence in the Philadelphia area. The members of Heeding God's Call were on trial nearby.

protest at AEC

Protest at the Army Experience Center, a US Government experiment in hi-tech recruiting.

teaching

Witness For Peace retreat 3-5 April 2009. We discussed ways to energize and expand the peace movement along with local actions we could take.


Sixth Anniversary of the start of the Iraq War
Pictures from demonstration at City Hall
Oh, and if you ever hear anybody talking about the "honeymoon" between Obama and the press corps ever ending? There never was any such thing.

arrest bush march
Cover of Nation Magazine, video of pre-inauguration "Arrest Bush" protest, video of inauguration (Final scene includes new President walking by) and photos from the Boston Globe.

17Jan09
To remind our new president that we're still here and still active


Israel-Gaza war Jan 09
Israel attacks Gaza hours after above rally/march completed.

Photo-essay. Cynthia McKinney's boat attacked outside Gaza.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution piece on attack. Update on McKinney. How the residents of Sderot (An Israeli town bordering Gaza and the target for Hamas' missile attacks) feel about the invasion of Gaza and visuals as to what the "Qassams" (missiles) look like.

And just how do Americans feel about the election of 
Barack Obama as our 44th President?

File is a PPT slideshow, which can be viewed with either 
Microsoft Office Powerpoint no-cost viewer or
with Open Office no-cost office suite.


Rally at City Hall

Philly Against War stages a rally at City Hall

victory?
Did we gain a victory? Did the Armed Forces Recruiting Station move away because we were protesting in front of it once a month? Hey, ya never know!

4000th death
Photos from demonstration observing 4,000th US serviceperson's death in Iraq. YouTube of Celeste Zappala interview. Brandywine Peace Community describes the event. Activists are proposing Iraq Town hall meetings in response.

IVAW Winter Soldier event

IVAW Winter Soldier event, A 25-mile march from the Constitution Center to Valley Forge.
Photos of beginning of march Lots more photos
Video of march     part II London Times story on march
Video of IVAW "Ruck March" MainLineTimes piece



Sestak
March on Congressman Joe Sestak's office


Human Chain Event

Human Chain Event - took place in coordination with 10 other American cities all on the same day.  Other demonstrations.

Sep 29 protest

29 Sep protest blog





NW Greens collect articles on ANSWER's 15 Sep march in Wash DC


Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan visits Philly as part of her campaign to push the Democrats harder to end the war.
group of us

NIM conducts 18th annual assembly - awards two DVVFA/PRAWN members 

Parade for Peace - Chestnut Hill/Mt Airy/Germantown
Concerned both violence here at home and violence abroad in Iraq
Photos by Hal Sawyer
PhillyIMC article
Photos & story by Sandy
Monique's photos of vigil in West Philly
addressing the crowd


March in Washington DC 27 Jan 07
Video from PhillyIMC



Link to PhillyIMC article (Which has links to lots of pieces)
UFPJ banner

Active duty soldiers deliver Appeal for Redress

Appeal for Redress

"Last Friday" Protest  Photos covering March & April 07
Story by Del Val Vets and by PRAWN

Celeste Zappala & family

The Granny Peace Brigade - a related group to PRAWN
Granny Peace Brigade

Yet another Tombstones display! 
looking out over the tombstones
Celeste Zappala with Iraq War vets behind her
Celeste Zappala

We decided to start up yet another regular monthly protest!  Sept07
Broad & Cherry
City Hall in background

We were concerned that we might have a sparse demonstration in August.  Code Pink saved us by showing up at our monthly rally near Senator Specter's home!!

code pink people
others side

Declaration of Peace rally in Philly
Declaration of Peace

two prawn members

One of the Grannies for Peace outside the recruiting station on June 28th.
granny for peace

Combination of pictures from Rich and Monique
during march in NYC on 29 April 06

Cindy Sheean & others

long line

Easter Peace Event
Easter1

Easter2

Protest - Break the Silence
Break the Silence

marching on City Hall

on the steps

Observing third anniversary of beginning of Iraq War by picketing near Senator Specter's home.


no end to them!

Cindy Sheehan, Monique Frugier, Bill Perry

Cindy Sheehan, Monique Frugier, Bill Perry

Winter Solstice Event near Senator Specter's house
Photos by Monique

The essential question
The main, serious, essential question

long-time PRAWN members

Bush comes to speak in Philadelphia
protest at Bush speech
These pictures by Monique
 
Gold Star Mother Celeste Zappala
Celeste again


Info, articles, etc.


Yeesh, what a stupid complaint! The National Review Online doesn't permit comments. The only way to register feedback is to send an email or to send out a twitter. So what is the NRO complaining about? NY Times' columnist Paul Krugman's comments policy! 
Update: Blogger takes exception to having his haircut being compared to that of old teen idol David Cassidy. The blogger at Sadly, No! answers:

But you, dude, you picked that haircut. Voluntarily. You marched straight into some suburban Hair Cuttery of your own free will and accord
and said “Make me look like this” while pointing to the cover of an ancient issue of Tiger Beat. (emphases in original)

No, the blogger didn't have anything to say on the comments hypocrisy.

Deficits aren't an urgent problem, they can be eliminated as we saw with the Clinton presidency.  What happens with the opposite problem? What happens when government doesn't spend enough? The results are not pretty, they aren't pretty at all.  What about the specific targets that the cat food commission wants to set? The commission wants to limit government expenditures to 21% of GDP. That's a completely insane idea.

rasm-frasm $%#@&!!! Supplemental war bill of
$59 billion passes 308 to 114. Democrats needed Republicans to pass it as there weren't enough D's to pass it on their own.  Total authorized expenditures for the Iraq & Afghanistan wars now exceeds $1 trillion.

A writer for The American Spectator puts out an embarrassingly stupid claim that Shirley Sherrod spoke of a man who was lynched and that she was incorrect to do so. Lynching, acording to the writer, involves a rope and a mob.  Bobby Hall was beaten to death (i.e., no rope) by three assailants (i.e., no mob). Numerous historians agree that neither a rope nor a mob is necessary for a lynching to occur. Blogger concludes that writer is trying to twist story around into attack on Sherrod. Writer defends himself against colleague writing in same blog.

Wikileaks releases archive of 91,370 formerly secret after-action reports from Afghanistan, giving Americans and the rest of the world a detailed, close-up look into the conduct of the war in Afghanistan.

The Guardian references changes to the Rules of Engagement under Gen McChrystal leading to some changes in how civilian casualties were treated though the only actual change them mention is a “new “information requirement” to record each ‘credible allegation of Isaf [the occupying forces] … causing non-combatant injury/death’.”

The case of the-then USDA employee Shirley Sherrod and her character-assassination-by- edited-video by right-wing blogger/filmmaker Andrew Breitbart was a very quick summing-up/preview of scandals both past and yet-to-be. Very importantly, many bloggers, both on the right and the left, could tell right away "Doesn't it sound like Sherrod was building to a 'but' before the clip cut out?" Having watched the clip myself before I had heard anything about it, I agree that it was pretty obvious that the clip was  incomplete. For both the NAACP and the Obama Administration to go flying off the handle and to denounce her and fire her before all the facts were known, and especially as they both knew that Breitbart was behind the video is just flat-out shameful. The NAACP distinguished itself by quickly investigating and reversing itself, the Obama Administration dragged its feet for a bit before doing the right thing.

James K. Galbraith on the cat food commission. Great stuff! Well worth reading the whole thing!

Stick a fork in it, it's done. Abigail Thernstrom is hardly a liberal on voting issues, but even she agrees that the New Black Panther Party and their antics during the 2008 election aren't worth all of the durm and strang that Fox News has applied to the complete non-story (Fox has featured the non-story 95 times as of July 16th). Fox News person Megyn Kelly defends paying so much attention to the non-story on the grounds of "fidelity to the law," but this concern of hers was something that suddenly appeared on January 20th, 2009. It was nowhere in evidence concerning Bush's warrantless surveillance or on the Bush/Cheney torture policies. So naturally, the WaPo Ombudsman is now convinced that his paper needs to start covering the story!

The FinReg bill that just passed is a good thing, but is very, very heavily dependent on the specific regulations that get passed to flesh it out and make it all work. The success of the bill will also depend very heavily on whether Elizabeth Warren gets to run the just-created agency or whether the job goes to some Wall St. crony. 

Karl Rove speaks about the October 2002 AUMF vote that more or less served as the declaration of war for the Iraq War:

All these Democrats had said, like Mr. Bush did, that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD.

True. Problem is, the Senators and Congressmen were depending on the CIA's National Intelligence Estimate of 2002, which did not include George Tenet's briefing of September 18th, which stated that there were no WMDs in Iraq.  Bush & Co. knew full well that the reasons given for the war were false long before the war began.

Is the BP well finally sealed? Signs are looking good that it is, but more testing needs to be done.

The complete and utter and absolutely shameless hypocrisy of the Cat Food Commission and other deficit scolds is highlighted by the shenanigans over the Estate Tax. Senators want to keep the heirs of millionaires and billionaires from having to inherit less than they believe they deserve. Natcherly, that means less tax money to put up against the "awful" deficit.

Right-wing complaints about the Obama Administration's responses to the BP oil spill being incompetent mostly draw a "Yeah, yeah, yeah, show me some evidence why don'cha?" but the evidence that the administration is colluding with BP to keep data under lock and key is very, very disturbing. There's already evidence that BP, with administration approval, has kept reporters from beaches. Update: Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) has requested data from BP about the leak and is still waiting for it.

Sarah Palin's popularity as a political figure remains vastly overstated. She sells well on magazine covers and sells books well, but her online presence via Facebook, Twitter, etc., remains much more theoretical than real. What absolutely amazes, though, is how much attention she gets from certain quarters. She did a Facebook message responding to allegations of the Tea Party being racist. CNN reprinted her message wholesale without bothering to, y'know, report on the allegations, as in presenting evidence, putting her statements in context, stuff like that. 

"Bush & Cheney should have been indicted for torture." Okay, cool, in complete agreement of course.
This was on Fox News!!! This was Fox News' legal analyst and former New Jersey district judge Andrew Napolitano being interviewed by Ralph Nader.
Update: Someone pointd out that Napolitano said that Obama should be "in the dock" alongside Bush. I've got no problems with that, as long as Bush is in the dock.

Hope! Hope! Hope! The catfood commission just might be dead!!!! Please God, let that be true!

Uh. Mah. Gawd! Mitt Romney delivers a painfully stupid lecture on the new START Treay. Seriously, he talks about ICBMs lauched from airplanes!

Whoa! David Broder makes some sense here! I'd give him about a C+ for this, better than what he usually gets.

Who knew Glenn Beck and Lindsay Lohan would have something in common?

By giving liberal Keynesian economists a solid target to shoot at, David Brooks does them a favor.

So ya think it's nice that hybrid cars are so quiet? Wel, it seems advocates for the blind aren't so thrilled as blind people use audible cues to tell them when it's safe to step off the curb. Hybrids are twice as likely to hit pedestrians as regular cars are.

Seems the folks who protested against Israel and in favor of the Gaza Flotilla were in large part in agreemen with America at large.  Americans in general agree that Israel was wrong to attack the flotilla.

Speaker Pelosi passes a sort-of budget resolution in the House that fails to specify just where budget cuts will be made. That job will be delegated to the catfood commission! This stands to be a remarkably self-defeating policy that will hurt Democrats vastly more than Republicans. Further details.

Interesting new look for Wonder Woman.. Fox News denounces it as unpatriotic.

Former President G.W. Bush now ranked in the bottom five presidents of all time.

June

Excellent piece on torture by Philadelphia's own Will Bunch. What a horribly shameful history since 2004, when Bush & Cheney admitted to America they were doing it! The true shame of the matter has been that the press corps has made torture sound like something that rational, civilized people can discuss and disagree upon, as though there were something that was non- controversial, or something that was not absolutely shameful about it.

Whoah dude!!! Can we say "conflict of interest?!?!?!" The judge who ruled against the six-month moratorium on drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico has MAJOR financial conflicts of interests that REQUIRED him to recuse himself!  Exxon oil rigs were losing a half a million dollars a day during the moratorium and the judge was heavily invested in Exxon.

Y'know, progressives during the past decade have been responsible for many very significant innovations in politics and have racked up significant political victories. So why does the WaPo feel the need to assign three political reporters to cover the conservative political movement and none for progressives?!?!?

Repubicans just couldn't care less about anyone who makes less than a quarter of a million a year. Anyone who's not rich is an untermenschen.

Very sad story of a good journalist taken down because of an anonymously leaked email that the journalist had every reason to believe would remain confidential. What really bothers me about the case is that the charge made against the journalist was that he "was no longer objective enough to cover his beat." Since when is private, emotional objectivity a requirement for journalism?!?!? If one writes in a fair manner without obviously twisting the story to fit ones' political views, isn't that all that matters? Why does one have to be an emotional virgin or eunuch to boot?

Glenn Beck is trying to "reclaim" the Civil Rights Movement for conservatives. Problem: Conservatives and right-wingers can't "reclaim" a movement they were never a part of. They can "hijack" it, but to say they're "reclaiming" it is ridiculous.

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) "is the same politician who has said that if you didn’t come to Washington to solve tough problems, you should go home." Funny that he's now saying that

I’m not going to it in the middle of an oil spill when the political environment doesn’t favor what I want.

In other words, he's not in Washington to do anything that's tough, no, no, no, he's there to do what he wants.

Ooh!!! BP aware of cracks in well before explosion. Double-plus-ungood!!!

Very haunting and bitter photo comparisons between Jews and Palestinians.

Dispute with local right-wingers over Thomas Sowell & Franklin D. Roosevelt. Unfortunately, Sowell's piece is VERY popular, despite the fact that it's wrong.

The Catfood Commission is coming to town! Let's protest it!

Oops!  Representative Joe Barton (R-TX) apologized today, to BP (!) for the US Government making BP pay into a $20 billion escrow account, which will then be used to pay claims. Right-wing bloggers defended Barton's apology, but the Republican leadership tossed Barton under the bus. Barton apologized. Did his apology mean anything? Ha, ha, no.

President Obama gives a "profoundly underwhelming" speech in response to the BP oil spill disaster. 

Support for the Affordable Care Act hits 45% in favor, 42% against.

The Maher Arar case is now over. The Supreme Court has refused to review it, thereby allowing all precedents set to stand. The US is now free to abduct foreign citizens on a whim (or shoddy evidence, same difference), send them off to be tortured, perhaps murdered and will do nothing to apologize to, or to compensate, the victim.

Is Glenn Beck's novel, The Overton Window, informed by his on-air conspiracy theories? Yes. Is the book of any literary value? Er, well, um, no.

What Digby says:

Any deficit scold who doesn't put reducing health care costs at the very top of the agenda is just a demagogic crank doing the dirty work for the aristocratic overlords.

The Barney Frank commission is getting quite serious. They're recommending almost $1 trillion in cuts to the Pentagon budget. Problem is, the deficit scolds appear to think that cuts in Defense are out of the question.

Visual commentaries on Afghanistan's apparent abundance in mineral wealth.

The boarding and killing of several persons on the MV Marmara by Israel will be investigated by... Israel!

We now have a Representative asking that Islamic Sharia law not be referenced by our courts. Which is kind of amusing as Sharia law is very compatible with what right-wingers in America would like to see applied here in the US.

Hah! That didn't take long! Blanche Lincoln beat Bill Halter for the Democratic nomination for Senator for Arkansas on the 8th. Here it is the 12th and already, the Chamber of Commerce has made it clear that they aren't going to spend any more money on Lincoln. Why should they? They've got a real Republican running against her! Why settle for a pseudo- Republican when the real thing is available?

The "catfood commission" wants to take away your Social Security benefits. There are many better ways to bring the economy back to health.
Update: Very good news! President Obama is requesting $50 billion in more stimulus funding.

Success!!!! The Army Experience Center is closing down! It was found to be a bad idea, but peace groups certainly played a part in making it unattractive.

Excellent piece from the WaPo on how business is not politics and how business success doesn't automatically translate into political success.

I thought every stupid thing to say about President Obama's use of the word "ass" had been said, but...

Mr. Obama should be ashamed of himself.... Mr. Obama occupies a sacred and noble position entrusted by the American people.

Whu-u-u-uh?!?!? The Presidency is "sacred"? Since when? Republicans have been saying awful things about Obama since well before he occupied the office and they've refused to pass his legislation. Obviously, the word "sacred" has a very highly selective meaning here.

Biggest disappointment of Super Tuesday primaries is the survival of Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) as the Democratic nominee to keep her seat. The NY Times certainly helped with a well-timed, pig-ignorant hit piece on her more progressive opponent, Bill Halter. Will she get any support from the big-money boyz who supported her in the primary? Nah, they'll switch all their money over to a real Republican. Will the unions support her? Please, not after some unnamed (Rahm Emanuel, probably) "senior White House official" just danced all over their graves. Good news? Actually, there is some. Lincoln's amendment on derivatives is highly likely to survive.

Sarah Palin offers some advice to President Obama on how to deal with oil company executives. She suggests that Obama should have had more face time with the BP CEO Tony Hayward. Of course, it's far from clear how this would have affected anything as certainly, Palin is correct to say "you must verify what the oil companies claim" [emphasis in original], but I think Obama is even more correct to say that "when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he's gonna say all the right things to me." It's kinda like G.W. Bush saying that when he spoke with the Russian President Vladimir Putin "I looked the man in the eye. ...I was able to get a sense of his soul." Well, that "sense" didn't prove to be of any value when it came to South Ossetia, did it? 
Something I've long suspected. Independent voters just aren't that meaningful. A very large proportion are "leaners" who prefer one party over the other. Truly independent voters who make up their minds after studying the issues make up only around 10% of voters and usually don't vote in primaries, so appealing to independents is pretty much a complete waste of time.

Helen Thomas has retired from newspapers (She's 89).

Thomas told a rabbi at a White House event last week that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Germany and Poland.

"I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians," Thomas said in a statement on her Web site. "They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."


Glenn Beck reacts to charges that he has been quoting approvingly from the works of a Jew-hating Nazi sympathizer who refers to "The savage Mohammedan call of the muezzin" (Call to prayer) also felt that African-Americans were being exploited and fooled into opposing white capitalists. Oh, and races intermixing was a communist plot. Beck is astonished, astonished I tell you, that people think he agrees with this hateful author that he's been quoting approvingly and whose book he has been promoting.

The MV Rachel Corrie has been seized and the passengers detained. Unlike with the MV Marmara, there are no reports of casualties. Earlier Israel seemed okay with the idea of allowing the Rachel Corrie to proceed after an international team had inspected their cargo, but now

Israel refused this offer of a check on cargo by the UN and instead shadowed the boat for hours, jamming all communications until moving in to seize the ship.

It's perfectly fine to hold the President up to some standards, but the sky-high "standards" that Obama is being hld to are approaching the absolutely ridiculous. Desperate to find something [comma] anything to criticize Obama for, a reporter

Matthew Dowd complained on ABC recently that he expected Obama not to "politicize things." In this case, "things" is in reference to "elections."

The really sad part is that, in order to make the Sestak "scandal" stick (Obama got Bill Clinton to offer Sestak an unpaid advisory position if he would drop out of the primary against Sen. Specter), TV commenters are reduced to flat-out lying about the law

Glenn Beck is convinced that progressives "co-opted" the Civil Rights Movement. Um, no. Progressives invented the Civil Rights Movement. It arose directly out of progressive values. Conservatives? Read the enclosed piece from Former Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson, a Mormon and a right-winger. If his language seems familiar, it's because that's how Beck and his buddies speak today.

Simple answers to simple questions. VP Biden says:

"[The Israelis have] said, 'Here you go. You're in the Mediterranean. This ship -- if you divert slightly north you can unload it and we'll get the stuff into Gaza.' So what's the big deal here?"

The big deal is that:

A U.N. official said last week that the formal economy in Gaza has “collapsed,” and 60 percent of households there were short on food. The Guardian notes that according to UN statistics, “around 70% of Gazans live on less than $1 a day, 75% rely on food aid and 60% have no daily access to water.”

In other words, supplies are not being delivered!!! There are plenty of supplies waiting outside the borders of Gaza, but Israel is preventing their delivery.
Update: Response to a letter in the Inky.

Blogger goes on TV and disputes traditional media framing of the assault on the Freedom Flotilla ship as being "Hey, they were all terrorists anyway, what's the big deal?"
Right wing blames Obama for the Freedom Flotilla's existence.

Statistical breakdown of detainees at Gitmo. "Many" were legitimately imprisoned. 55% were "low level fighters" i.e., goat-herders.

Governor of Lousiana Bobby Jindal (R) has mightily impressed members of the traditional media press corps

Constantly jumping in and out of National Guard helicopters and drawing up plans for additional “burrito levees” and “boudin bags”...

Yep, that's our Bobby, being all energetic and active. But then they say he's shown that he's "mastered the details of the issue." Has he? Wel-l-l-l, as a US Representative, Jindal strongly supported "open[ing] 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and natural gas drilling," so I'm not sure I'd give him any props for his highly convenient, new-found environmentalism.

May

The deficit scolds are making their malign influence felt.

As of this morning (May 30th), the cost of our war in Afghanistan hit the $1 Trillion mark.

Speaker Pelosi blames Bush Administration officials who were "burrowed" into Federal agencies, after McCani lost the 2008 election, for the BP oil disaster. This was a serious concern back during November of that year.

Uuurgh!!! The Sestak job-offer "scandal" appears to be off and running. BTW, Digby makes the prediction that Liz Cheney will run for office.

Another right wing talking point on BP and Obama is that Obama got more campaign cash from BP than anyone else. True, but that cash amounted to 0.0002% of Obama's campaign cash (Less than $100,000 out of nearly $400 million).

Naw-w-w-w, really? Sex & The City 2 is culturally tone-deaf and offensive to Muslimes?!?! Never woulda think it!

A commenter in the Inky declares that:

Unlike the situation with Katrina, the [BP] oil spill occurred in Federal waters, and the Federal Gov't was not directed by law to defer to local responders.
Fortunately, it appears that the "scandal" of the White House having offered Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) a job in order to keep him from challenging Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) is fast losing steam. That would be a very good thing as there's nothing the press corps likes better than a scandal involvinga Democrat!

Very interesting juxtaposition of a scare-mongering headline from the camp of the deficit scolds with a cartoon showing us the very real and serious reason why the headlne is BS.

Problem with saying the government should have acted quickly to take over the emergency response to the BP spill, there's not a whole lot of evidence that the Minerals Management Service was ready and  equipped to do much better. Granted:

The department's acting inspector general, Mary L. Kendall, emphasized that all of the misconduct occurred before the Obama administration took office in January 2009. The Interior Department's efforts to clean up the MMS have been ongoing, and the agency's ethics code was overhauled soon after the transition between administrations.

But with the news "that MMS was still issuing new permits despite the supposed moratorium," I dunno about that.

Sarah Palin is convincd that Susan B. Anthony was an antiabortionist. Was she? Not at all clear as Anthony never specifically addressed the issue.

Anthony spent no time on the politics of abortion. It was of no interest to her, despite living in a society (and a family) where women aborted unwanted pregnancies.

The List's mission statement proclaims, "Although [Anthony] is known for helping women win the right to vote, it is often untold in history that she and most early feminists were strongly pro-life." There's a good reason it's "untold:" historians and good journalists rely on evidence. Of which there is none. [emphasis added]

Update: Jessica Valenti tells us that Sarah Palin's "feminism" is completely fake.

Very large portion of oil spilled by BP into Gulf of Mexico could very likely remain several hundred feet below the surface for decades. Live feed of oil gusher finally set up. BP refused to test the well before disaster.

Extremely sad that the NY Times would go with a plainly partisan, obviously incomplete hit piece of a story. The concepts of "Due Diligence" and the priority of avoiding "Dereliction of Duty" don't appear to be working concepts anymore.

Problem with Rand Paul's (Republican Senatorial candidate from Ketucky) evident feeling that for businesses to observe the law, specifically the 1964 Civil Rights Act is just a terribly unfair burden. Rachel Maddow asked: "Do you think a private business has the right to put up a 'Blacks Not Serverd Sign?'" to which Paul hemmed and hawwed and filibustered and danced around the question. Paul is very clearly uncomfortable denouncing those who oppose the Act. The essential problem appears to be that Paul doesn't approve of violence but thinks private businesses should be able to control who, for instance, sits at their lunch counters, but doesn't seem to realize that it was the refusal of African-Americans to be excluded from such basic dignities and the refusal of whites to allow them their dignity that led to the violence. Major problem is that Paul confuses speech with the action of denying services, i.e., being able to sit at a lunch counter. Paul now supports the Civil Rights Act, but still not clear that he has addressed or even understands the above question.

So what does a person have to carry with him/her in Arizona in order to be presumed a legal US citizen? A driver's license will work, but only if it's from Arizona. If it's from another state, you're outta luck and presumed to be an illegal.

Latest on BP oil well blow-out. Absolute effin' calamity!!!

Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit and Sarah Palin have both had it with the "lamestream media" and it's "lies" and "distortions," etc. Problem: Neither one is remotely qualified to make prononcements on what constitutes good journalism.

The rumor that Elena Kagan is gay is firmly debunked by a close friend of hers who knew her back in college and the friend says Kagan's sexual interests were definitely hetero. The media presents a picture of people who have been wildly irresponsible, people who ran with the rumor that Kagan was gay, knowing full well that there was no evidence to back it up and that the White House had explicitly denied it. These people seem so desperate to gin up a scandal, to create a buzz, it'd be quite sad. Problem is, they're doing it on an important subject. A Supreme Court Justice of Kagan's age and health can expect to be on the Court from 30 to 40 years. Good round-up on dispute between blogger/lawyer Glenn Greenwald and Professor of Law and friend of Kagan Lawrence Lessig. BTW, of the 111 Supeme Court Justices, at least 38 did not have any prior judicial exprience. So the idea that judicial experience is a necessity is nonsense.

Elena Kagan nominated for Supreme Court Justice to replace Justice Stevens. Considerably less than thrilled by the choice. She's a

...blank slate, institution-loyal, seemingly principle-free careerist who spent the last 15 months as the Obama administration's lawyer vigorously defending every one of his assertions of extremely broad executive authority.

Very happy to see that the whole ridiculous "Obama Administration's reaction to the BP oil spill is just like Bush Administration's reaction to Hurricane Katrina" is dying a long-overdue and well-deserved death. There are plenty of real and serious criticisms for us to make about the current president without making up a bunch of stupid crap.

June 26th, America Speaks will feature national meetings designed to engage in pushback against the deficit scolds.

Round-up of news on the BP oil spill. Firedoglake has a page dedicated to the problem.

Daily Beast had a good piece on the White House Correspondents Dinner (President Obama did an apparently awesomely kewl comedy sketch), but wow! Politico did 84 separate stories on it?!?!?!

Doesn't strike me as a controversial statement:

...if we emerge from the spill of the Deepwater Horizon with anything less than a permanent moratorium on expanded offshore oil drilling, and climate change energy policies moving forward without this drilling built in, than Obama will have permanently discredited himself with the environment, and, further, as a guardian of the public interest.

Fellow activist from Philly Against War writes on catastrophe in Gulf.

The people in charge of the Federal Reserve have proven to be completely and utterly incapable of doing their jobs. The Fed needs to be audited, NOW!!!!!

Hmm, seems to be a real energetic effort underway to whitewash the Bush legacy.

Uh, no. You can't revoke the citizenship of the children of undocumented immigrants when they're born in the US. They're referred to as "anchor babies" and their citizenship is entirely legal.

It's good to keep in mind, with the massive and continuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, that the darling of the right wing, Sarah Palin, made one of her most memorable sayings during the 2008 campaign and it was "Drill, baby, drill!"

Major League Baseball Players Association decides that as they have many Hispanic players who don't want to be looking over their shoulders in Arizona, that they just don't need to play baseball there.

White House puts itself on the wrong side of the "Audit the Fed" Amendment.  
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