Left, Right & Everything In Between's topics - tribe.net

The New American Independent Party Nominates Frank McEnulty for President

Michael — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:04:55 GMT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The New American Independent Party Nominates Frank McEnulty for President

Newcomer will become NAIP’s first Presidential candidate

Philadelphia, PA -- March 12, 2008 – The New American Independent Party announced today that Frank McEnulty has won the inaugural New American Independent Party Presidential nomination. A strong majority of voters nominated Frank McEnulty during the month long Instant Runoff voting primary.

Frank McEnulty represents a relatively moderate approach to the campaign trail. Despite having no political experience, he is bringing a fresh perspective that NAIP believes will strike a chord with voters looking for a candidate that represents their views. "The more I talk to people, the more I find that they are just totally fed up with the two political parties, " he says. “What happened to the theory of the greater good? What happened to the theory of if it is good for America it will be good for everyone? It got sold to the highest bidder and it is time for people to do something about it.”

This morning, New American Independent Party founder and National Chairman Michael Thompson said, “We are proud to be represented by Frank McEnulty in our first presidential campaign. I look forward to the next 7+ months of campaigning. The American people are ready for a pragmatic problem solver and Frank McEnulty is just that. A 2008 ticket led by Frank McEnulty will allow us to build and grow the New American Independent Party, recruit local citizen candidates and register new voters.”

The New American Independent Party, a grassroots Independent political party is seeking sustainable solutions and a more self-reliant America. For more on the New American Independent Party please visit our website at http://www.newamericanindependent.com

Frank McEnulty plans on giving the vast majority of Americans - the moderate Americans - a voice in the 2008 Presidential election. Together with other moderate groups he is aiming to make a positive change in the politics of our great country. To learn more about Frank McEnulty, please visit http://www.frankforpresident.org

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posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

Frank McEnulty to Seek New American Independent Party Nomination

Michael — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:06:12 GMT

IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
info@newamericanindependent.com

Frank McEnulty to Seek New American Independent Party Nomination

Philadelphia, PA -- September 14, 2007 -- The New
American Independent Party is proud to announce
today that 2008 Independent Presidential Candidate
Frank McEnulty will be formally seeking the New
American Independent party nomination.

New American Independent Party Chairman Michael
Thompson stated, “We eagerly welcome Frank
McEnulty to the New American Independent Party
along with his pragmatic approach to the critical
issues facing America today.” Frank McEnulty issued
the following statement: “I look forward to working
with the New American Independent Party to give the
vast majority of Americans - the moderate Americans
- a voice in the 2008 Presidential election. Together
with other moderate groups we will make a positive
change in the politics of our great country!”

McEnulty joins a growing field of candidates vying for
the New American Independent Party nod. The New
American Independent Party is an alternative
grassroots political party seeking sustainable
solutions and a more self-reliant America.

Frank McEnulty for President
www.frankforpresident.org
Contact: frank@frankforpresident.org

New American Independent Party
www.newamericanindependent.com
Contact: info@newamericanindependent.com

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

Can 'We The People' Impeach?

Constitution Summer 2006 — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:54:57 GMT

PLEASE REPOST Can 'We The People' Impeach? Repost
Category: News and Politics

PLEASE REPOST

NEWS RELEASE
June 26, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

CONTACT: Abraham Kneisley, info@constitutionsummer.org, 510.816.0563

Berkeley Considers First Ballot Initiative to Call for Presidential Impeachment

BERKELEY, CA The Berkeley City Council will vote tomorrow on whether to include an initiative advocating the impeachment of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney on the Berkeley municipal ballot in November. If passed, the initiative will be the first of its kind and will allow Berkeley's 74,836 registered voters to decide if there is sufficient cause for the impeachment and removal of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Several resolutions calling for impeachment have passed in cities around the country, but a ballot initiative allowing voters to weigh in on the issue would be unique. Constitution Summer, a coalition of student activists from more than a dozen universities, believes that Congress' reluctance to investigate the merits of impeachment justifies taking the question to the people. True to the roots of the Free Speech Movement that still informs the culture of Berkeley, the group feels it is simply exercising its constitutional right to redress of grievances under the First Amendment.

Geoffrey King, a Democrat and President of Constitution Summer, sees impeachment as a non-partisan concern. According to King, it is not a question of whether the President should be impeached, but why he hasn't been. "President Bush has arrogated unto himself powers that in some cases went out of fashion in 1215, and in any event, in 1776. He has shown a wish and a willingness to corrupt our representative system of government by tracking the calls of and wiretapping Americans despite a federal statute that makes doing so a felony; by normalizing torture; and by revoking the right of Americans not to be disappeared and held indefinitely without charge or trial. These abuses fit perfectly with what the Framers intended the impeachment power to address. It is time to use it."

Saba Sahouria, a Republican and Treasurer of Constitution Summer, added, "The President says we must give up essential liberty to defeat al Qaeda, and yet, we are inexplicably embroiled in an unnecessary war that diverted CIA agents, Special Forces commandos, money, and ground troops from crushing the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan in order to invade Iraq, which had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and which had no operational links to al Qaeda. By invading Iraq, the President has undermined our long-term security. There is no other way to describe the President's actions but as a radical, extreme, and legally baseless power grab, because they make little sense in any other context."

The current proposed ballot initiative was introduced by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. Citing the High Crimes listed above, the ballot initiative calls on the City of Berkeley to petition all members of the United States House of Representatives and all members of the California State Legislature to bring articles of impeachment against the President and Vice President. State legislatures may send articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives via Rule 603 of Thomas Jefferson's Rules of Parliamentary Procedure.

Critics of the impeachment movement, such as Rush Limbaugh, have said that it would be a gift to Republicans to push for impeachment because it would drive the Republican base to the polls and affect the mid-term elections in November. Others have noted that the Republican base includes many people mindful of liberty under law, and that a level-headed and realistic campaign to impeach would drive independents, progressives, liberals and libertarians to cast their votes as well.

In any case, King is unapologetic. "Our country is in a constitutional crisis. The President and Vice President are making claims to power that would have terrible implications for the American ideal of liberty if left unchecked."

"They have tricked, threatened, and spied on all of us. They have tried to pit Americans against each other by politicizing security, all while making us less safe by invading Iraq."

"In doing these things, they have forced Americans to choose between loyalty to them and loyalty to the country. They do not understand the character of the American people. It is coming time to remind them."

PLEASE REPOST

Currently reading:
Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush
By Center for Constitutional Rights
Release date: By 01 March, 2006

Sign up at www.constitutionsummer.org
And add us to your friends list on tribe & myspace www.myspace.com/consum

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 2 replies

Show your Constitutional Pride 6/25 Volunteers NEEDED REPOST

Dismalqueen_is_in_LA — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 05:19:56 GMT

PLEASE REPOST
Constitution Summer is going to have a booth a this year's S.F. Pride celebration, Sunday June 25. Volunteers needed as early as 7 a.m. & as late as 8 p.m. Our primary focus will be fundraising and recruitment.

To volunteer, please sign up at www.constitutionsummer.org/
And email cheryl.aichele@constitutionsummer.org with "Constitutional Pride" in subject line. Please include name, day of event contact information (cell phone), and your availiblity for volunteering on Sunday.

Even if you can NOT volunteer, please visit us at S.F. Pride if you are going to be there. We can use all the support we can get...even if it's just a kind word.

The purpose of Constitution Summer is to present a moderated, legitimate, mainstream, nonpartisan case for the impeachment of President, George W. Bush, and Vice President, Richard B. Cheney, based on four key crimes.

Those crimes are:
1) Illegal, warrantless domestic spying in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Constitution;

2) The designation of United States citizens as "enemy combatants" who, by such designation, have been subject to indefinite detention without charge or trial;

3) The initiation of an illegal war of aggression based on fraudulent claims; and

4) The countenance of extraordinary rendition and torture.

It is the view of the members of Constitution Summer that each of these charges constitutes an impeachable offense, and that each has been substantiated to the extent that articles of impeachment can legitimately be brought.

The goal of this organization is to frame the November 2006 election as a referendum on the Constitution, focused on the abuses of executive authority of George W. Bush. It also seeks to mobilize activists to work to launch a Congressional investigation into grounds for impeachment for repeated abuses of the public trust.

This issue is culturally relevant, and builds and inspire a generation of activists, show popular support for a Congressional investigation, retake the media agenda all while working towards reestablishing oversight regardless of impeachment or removal from office.

We hope that the cultural dialog that will come from this endeavor will help rather than hurt our cause, and to in some way contribute, to a return of honest and open government respectful of our Constitution and its Bill of Rights.

Constitution Summer represents an emerging coalition of students for impeachment originating from Yale Law School, Stanford Law School, Columbia Law School, Georgetown Law School, Boalt Law School, George Washington University Law School, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, UCLA, the University of Michigan, and the University of Maryland.

PLEASE REPOST

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

Urgent!!! Please help

mentalfreedomne1 — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 04:41:57 GMT

Urgent!!! Please Help

I am posting this everywhere I possibly can, Please help us.
There are thousands of good people who could potentially lose their lives very soon.

Since the release of the information on the Sujiatun concentration camp in China, which is reported to do live organ harvesting on Falun Gong practicioners. More people have been stepping forward to reveal information. Recently, a veteran military doctor in the region of Shenyang said that the Sujiatun Concentration camp is just one of 36 such camps. Another camp in Jilin Province referred to as 672-S is said to hold over 120,000 people.

According to the Integrated Committee's announcement, transplant hospitals in China are now telling patients to "come in quickly" to get transplants. Patients are told that matching organs can be found at this time in as short as one or two days. The hospitals are also reported to say that, "it will be difficult after this batch of organs is used up."

We fear that there is going to be a mass execution to “hide the evidence” and get rid of witnesses. PLEASE HELP us, Falun Gong practitioners around the world are requesting an international investigation while there is still time.

This is the US petition, please sign it. It can save someone’s life.
http://www.fofg.org/act/act_petition.php?pid=1

you can also help by going here:
http://publicpetition.unvcc.com/UN/index.php
this is an easy, fill in the blank letter that with a click is automatically
sent to the senators and representatives of your choice
And it would also greatly help us if you would please pass this information on.

Thank you,
Joshua

You can learn more about this at:
The Epoch Times
http://www.theepochtimes.com/211,111,,1.html
Amnesty International
http://web.amnesty.org/report2004/chn-summary-eng
Falun Dafa Information Center
http://www.faluninfo.net/why/index.asp
or, you can ask me any questions you have by sending me a message.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

Gasoline, Natural Gas & Grain prices could skyrocket if RITA continues on current path!

Michael — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 20:36:09 GMT

If hurricane Rita stays on it's projected path towards the Houston-Galveston area and remains at least a category 3 hurricane by landfall our nation will experience skyrocketing gasoline & natural gas prices that could go well beyond the prices seen after Katrina hit landfall in the gulf. While Katrina slammed 9 oil refineries and dozens of oil platforms in the gulf, Rita is taking a path directly through 134 oil platforms and could hit an area containing 26 oil refineries. The houston-galveston area is home to our nation's largest oil refineries. Expect gas prices to skyrocket if the storm maintains it's strength and lands in the Houston-Galveston area. We could see nationwide gas prices average over $4.00 a gallon starting next week. Depending upon the damage the higher prices ($4gallon) may be temporary or could last a few weeks.

This week is the beginning of harvest season in the American midwest and any disruption or shortage in diesel could greatly impact farmers ability to harvest in time. If harvest season is disrupted American grain prices could also skyrocket, further squeezing Americans budgets. Hurricanes have difficulty maintaining category 4 and 5 status for long, so the storm could possible weaken before landfall.

Our failed politicians have done nothing to end our addiction of choice- oil. Our failed politicians have done nothing to further develop & implement renewable energy. Our failed politicans have done nothing to address global climate change.

Now is the time to stand up and fight!

www.newamericanindependent.com

tribes.tribe.net/NewAmericanIndependent

peace,
michael

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

Left, lefter and everything leftist

Theo — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 18:21:38 GMT

I've been reading the posts and topics in this tribe, and it seems that the name of this tribe is a bit misleading. Yet when I do find posts with a varying opinion, I notice that it is greeted with name calling and and a mob mentality. I'm not foolish enough to presume that the tone of this tribe will change, so perhaps all I can do for the time being is some understanding and self-awareness for all of us.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 3 replies

Keeping Families Together Act KFTA

zerocasualties — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 19:24:49 GMT

Hi Friends,
Between now and week commencing 13 June the sponsors of KFTA need each and every one of you to call both your Senators
(Feinstein & Boxer if you are in CA) and your Representatives office and ask them to sign on as original co-sponsors to this Bill.
It will cost you 3 local telephone calls and possibly
10 minutes of your time and for some a real emotional
push to tell your story and why its so important for
their support. One other call or email can be to your
family member in another State and ask them to do the
same & contact their Legislator.

So Monday morning schedule 10 minutes for those
persuasive calls.
Together we can make a Noise, together we can make a
racket, together we can make a crescendo and they will
have to hear us!!!
Lastly say out loud three times "Keeping Families
Together Act" its got to roll off your tongue as
easily as PPIA, Its our mission to keep educating
about this until its made into Law!:-)
Keep the faith.

Zero Casulaties

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

If you were gay....

Katelynn — Wed, 23 Jun 2004 04:10:15 GMT

Or if you are gay in actuality and if you were straight, who would you want to make out with? Mine is Uma Thurman. (I realize that is not political but with all of our banter, I thought it would be fun to get to know each other with friendly conversation.)

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 46 replies

Tits on the Spirit of Justice Statue to be uncovered?

Eric — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 20:26:52 GMT

Ashcroft steps down. Gonzales Steps in.

Gonzales Supports the detaining of terrorism suspects for extended periods without access to lawyers or the courts, and has created the legal argument by which the president stands that these people as well as anyone dubbed “terrorist suspect” do not have the right to the Geneva convention.

In a leaked (2002) memo to the esteemed President of our country, Gonzales (in his role as legal counsel) provides an “angle” or to use his own words very clearly stated a “loophole” around the Geneva Convention.

I'm just curious if stone boobs will be legal again.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 5 replies

Frontlines Progressive Slate & Voting Guide + Latest articles

Eleonor — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 00:09:09 GMT

Frontlines newspaper latest articles and Progressive Slate and Voting Guide

Click here to read and print the guide (Take it to the polls with you)
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/images/election2004issue/progressiveslate.pdf

Latest articles published online:

San Francisco, Nov. 2 Election: Last Minute Intelligence

By Sebastian Robles

• Bush struggling for second place in San Francisco

• Chronicle’s Phil Bronstein: “They [the Editorial Board] stuck it to Newsom for his betrayal.”

• James Calloway, an African American School Board candidate, has been abducted by flying saucers from outer space.

• Candidate Saucedo was forced to admit her staff made homophobic attacks against another gay candidate in District 9; Bustos and Saucedo boasting Ammiano, Lucrecia the only real opponent of incumbent

• Sandoval and McGoldrick winning by default?

• Proposition F sailing to victory?

• Propositions J and K in trouble, Newsom spends big on TV ads

• The fight in D5 is between two Greens, Haaland in third place

These are the latest analysis, poll results and rumors floating in politically-rich San Francisco:

Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

SF School Board race: Who framed Mark Sanchez?

The "Gang of Four" and Downtown's SFSOS ... That's who!
By Carlos Petroni

Tuesday night, the President of the BOE Dan Kelley proposed to censure Commissioner and teacher Mark Sanchez for conduct unbecoming of a BOE member. The bogus resolution stated that Sanchez had an altercation with a fellow Board member (Hiles) and publicly challenged the veracity of a report by a highly placed assistant of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman.

Heather Hiles has already spent $200,000 on her run for School Board. The money came from big Downtown businesses. Her list of contributors is a “Who’s Who” out of the most crooked world of high finance: people from PG&E, the GAP, big law firms, realtors and developers, Mayor Newsom and his coterie… This does not include over $100,000 in soft money spent so far on Hiles’ behalf by… the same people who contributed to her war chest, this time in the form of the right wing Downtown “issue-oriented” SFSOS.

Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

The Case for Leonard Peltier for President: Justice and Freedom

By Paul Burton

When California voters go to the polls on election day they will see a candidate listed for president whose name is vaguely familiar but unmentioned in any media coverage of the 2004 campaign. As the candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party, Leonard Peltier may be the first presidential candidate since Eugene Debs in 1920 to be locked in a jail cell while running for president.

Some will recall that Peltier has been serving a double-life sentence in federal prison since his conviction in 1976 for the murders of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in June of 1975.

Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

School Board race: On the Use of School Children as Pawns by Downtown's SFSOS and Big Businesses

by Eileen Left

The San Francisco Chronicle, the downtown right wing “think tank” SFSOS and SFUSD Superintendent Arlene Ackerman could not have done a more thorough job of debasing the debate over the future of public education in San Francisco.

The SFUSD is a district with a $600 million budget. City voters last November authorized a $295 million capital improvement bond, which can be bundled with state bond funds. It employs almost 7000 workers, 4000 of whom are teachers.

Four seats are up for election on November 2. Progressive incumbents Mark Sanchez and Eric Mar are seeking re-election. Faux liberal Jill Wynns is seeking her fourth term. Heather Hiles is Newsom’s appointee and a former employee of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

District 9 Supervisorial race: The Left on Gangs, Schools and Small Businesses, Interview with Lucrecia Bermudez

by Idelfonso Rodriguez

Question–Many times, voters and observers recognize that left wing candidates and political organizations have an overall correct set of policies, principles and ideas (opposition to war, defense of civil rights, workers’ rights, anti-racism, etc). In fact, you have been speaking on these issues quite eloquently, as well as about immigrant rights. Still, many people buy into the idea that leftists are incapable of translating them into concrete solutions for day to day issues. That is why, today I would like to ask you about gangs, crime, schools and small business.

Lucrecia Bermudez–That is precisely the bridge we crossed and continue to cross by building a new progressive left movement. We do not see a separation between day to day struggles and needs in our workplaces, communities and neighborhoods and the so called “big issues,” but rather a relationship in which they affect each other. In order to pay for the war in Iraq, Bush—and the Democrats in Congress—cut social services, reduced the money available to schools and hospitals, delayed taking care of our infrastructure such as roads and telecommunications …. It is a fact that imperial adventures, like the war in Iraq, bring about more hatred, the violation of the right to self determination of other nations and kill innocent civilians as well as GIs, but also have a very local, direct and negative impact on our lives as well…

Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

To Ammianoite Nancy Chárraga: Lucrecia's proposals are viable, Incumbent Ammiano is not

The debate Ammiano and his supporters don’t want to have

By Carlos Petroni

Nancy Charraga wrote a piece titled “Enough Ammiano Bashing, Lucrecia, Let's talk about Viable Solutions” published in the Sentinel. The piece was an attempt to answer Lucrecia’s blasting of the incumbent actions of bringing the paramilitary thugs known as the Guardian Angels to the Mission. The editor of Frontlines, Carlos Petroni, sent a version of this answer to the Sentinel’s publisher/editor Pat Murphy as a reply. Murphy rejected the piece. The Sentinel endorses Ammiano and Bustos for the District 9 supervisorial race and, apparently, like Ammiano, has no intention of engaging in an open debate. Readers can see Charraga’s piece at the San Francisco Sentinel.com UPDATE: Since the writing of this piece, Ammiano stated at a forum that the idea of the Guardian Angels “did not work out”

Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

Why and How Tom Ammiano Lost his Thunder... Again, and Again (*)

By Berta Hernández and Gregory Brown

Tom Ammiano, using a loophole in the District Elections law, is running for a fourth term—the law clearly indicates that any elected supervisor may serve two 4-year terms and Ammiano has already served 10 years on the Board of Supervisors (BOS). He is now pandering to Newsom in order to survive a race with strong opponents, including some who were his friends until recently. Many predict that years of sliding to the right is catching up with him and that November 2 will bury his political career.

Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

District 9 Supervisorial race: Renee Saucedo, Opportun-ist Knocks

By Berta Hernandez (*)

Renee Saucedo describes herself as a “respected community leader” who “has dedicated her work and life to working with people and communities that have been historically disenfranchised, underrepresented, and politically marginalized by society.” She has been portrayed in different, mainstream media outlets as a representative of the Latino and immigrant communities of District 9; she has recently in her electoral propaganda even called herself “la abogada del pueblo” (the people’s lawyer).

Her real history, however, points to an unsuccessful hunt for political opportunities by someone always on the lookout for the right issue and the right time and the story of a frustrated wanna-be-mainstream “community leader” who presumes to speak in the name of the “poor and the oppressed” in order to access political privileges. The story of a person capable of changing her positions and her principles to latch on to the most favorable trends.

Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

District 5 Supervisorial Race: Beneath the Rhetoric it's Machine vs. Greens. Why Vote for Ross Mirkarimi in District 5?

by Carlos Petroni

Ross Mirkarimi has few of Matt Gonzalez’ virtues and most of his defects. Right now he needs to appeal to the left if he wants to sprint ahead in the D5 race.

Unfortunately the anointed “frontrunner” is cautious to the point of paralyzing his proposals, is quasi-pandering to “moderates” and does not currently demonstrate the people skills possessed by the retiring incumbent. Matt Gonzalez only endorsed him after many hesitations and conflicts.
Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

District 5 Supervisorial Race: Why Robert Haaland is a Prisoner and a Tool of the Machine

by Carlos Petroni

Beneath Perceptions and Forms, are the Reality and Substance of a Machine at War

Months ago, at the press conference launching the campaign for Proposition F–extending to immigrant parents the right to vote in School Board elections–Robert Haaland approached me and said “I know that you can’t endorse me…”

“I don’t endorse Democrats—I answered—but many of us believe the final fight will be between you and Mirkarimi…” In that fight, we already have a side.

In another encounter, Haaland said that he, “always enjoys reading in Frontlines about myself…” He was referring to an article in which another writer lauded the fact that a transgender activist was a frontrunner for elective office, overcoming the obstacles of discrimination and dismissal.

Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

District 5 Supervisorial race: Brett Wheeler's Political Confessions

by Brett Wheeler
Candidate for Supervisor, District 5

It’s a great political irony that we can love politics so much while disdaining politicians. Those of us who love music wouldn’t think of denigrating musicians. But politicians, you might say, will say anything to get elected.

On the other hand, though, there are musicians who will play anything just to get heard, pandering to the suburban consumer. So that’s it: Politicians are the Yannis of politics.
Read more...

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

The Movies

Elizabeth — Thu, 21 Oct 2004 07:56:46 GMT

So, I have this wonderful coffeehouse that actually cares to introduce it's clientel to an alternative mode of thought... Tonight, at 7pm, patrons were shown the controversial movie "Out Foxed"... I was very happy to be a part of this. In the midwest, at least here, there are slim to no opportunities to share alternative, liberal ideologies... I love my coffeeshop and my friend Heidi for sharing...
http://www.pennylanecoffee.com/

Thanks,
E.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 6 replies

Arafat Collapses As Illness Worsens

MichaelKwiatkowski — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 01:59:12 GMT

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20041028/ap_on_re_mi_ea/arafat_s_health

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Yasser Arafat collapsed Wednesday night, was unconscious for about 10 minutes and remained in a "very difficult situation," Palestinian officials said. A team of Jordanian doctors was urgently summoned to treat the ailing Palestinian leader.

A Palestinian official in Arafat's office said the Palestinian leader had created a special committee of three senior officials, including Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, to run Palestinian affairs while Arafat was incapacitated.

However, other Palestinian officials, including his spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh, denied that such a committee had been formed.

Arafat was eating soup during a meeting with Qureia, his predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas, and another official between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. (2 p.m. or 3 p.m. EDT) when he vomited, according to a bodyguard who was in the compound at the time.

The 75-year-old Arafat was taken to the clinic inside the compound, where he collapsed and was unconscious for about 10 minutes, the guard said. His doctors were urgently summoned.

On news that Arafat's health was worsening, scores of top Palestinian officials descended on the sandbagged, partially demolished Ramallah compound where he has been confined for 2 1/2 years. The officials milled around the courtyard, waiting for news outside Arafat's three-story building that was bathed in spotlights.

Israeli security officials said Arafat's wife, Suha, who lives in France with their young daughter, was expected to arrive Thursday. The Jordanian doctors were also due Thursday.

An official in Arafat's office said the Palestinian leader had deputized Qureia, former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and Salim Zaanoun, head of the Palestinian National Council, to run the PLO and the Palestinian Authority while he is ill.

But when asked if Arafat had set up such a committee, Abu Rdeneh said: "Nothing like that."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, traveling in Michigan with President Bush, said U.S. officials were monitoring the situation.

Arafat has been known to be ill for two weeks, but reports about his ailment have varied widely.

Palestinian officials said he had the flu. Israeli officials speculated he might have stomach cancer, but two of his doctors said Wednesday a blood test and a biopsy of tissue from his digestive tract showed no evidence of cancer.

On Tuesday, a hospital official said Arafat was suffering from a large gallstone. The gallstone, while extremely painful, is not life-threatening and can be easily treated, the official told AP.

Arafat has shown symptoms of Parkinson's disease since the late 1990s.

As Arafat's condition worsened Wednesday, a senior Palestinian official told The Associated Press that a decision to move Arafat from his compound to a hospital would be made purely on medical grounds, without considering politics. Israel had said Monday it would allow Arafat to leave the compound for the hospital and return afterward, something the Israelis had refused to guarantee during Arafat's 2 1/2 year confinement to his Ramallah compound.

A senior official in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said the Palestinians had asked Israel to allow foreign doctors to come treat Arafat.

"The prime minister immediately instructed the security officials and others involved to facilitate the transfer and any medical equipment and facilities Arafat might need," the official said, adding that Israel would also allow Arafat to be transferred to any medical facility in the world.

Dr. Ashraf Kurdi, a Jordanian doctor who is heading the team due to arrive Thursday, told AP that he was urgently summoned to Arafat's compound but was given no details.

"I tried to get a medical report from them. I couldn't get anything," he said.

Arafat's health crisis has highlighted how unprepared the Palestinians are for their leader's death, making a chaotic transition period all but inevitable. Arafat refuses to groom a successor; rival security chiefs already have battled each other in the streets.

Qureia and Abbas have both been touted as possible political heirs to Arafat, though the Palestinian leader has bickered with both and blocked their attempts to limit his powers.

No leader of Arafat's stature and popularity is waiting in the wings, said Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi. "It's only natural to expect that there would be either a power struggle or there would be a loss of cohesion," she said.

Analysts said it could take years for a leader to emerge, hurting prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. However, Israel and the United States hold out hope that a post-Arafat Middle East will be more conducive to peace because of what they say is Arafat's blind eye to terror and opposition to reform.

Polls show the second most popular Palestinian after Arafat is Marwan Barghouti, a leader of Fatah (news - web sites)'s young guard. But Barghouti is serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison for involvement in deadly shooting attacks.

On paper, at least, a path of succession has been charted. The parliament speaker would replace Arafat as Palestinian Authority president for 60 days, until elections are held. However, current speaker Rauhi Fattouh is a bland backbencher uncertain to hold on during a turbulent transition period, and timely elections appear unlikely.

Arafat's other post, as PLO chief, would be filled, at least temporarily, by Abbas.

During Arafat's long confinement in the compound, doctors have equipped two rooms with medical equipment, including X-ray, ultrasound machines and emergency resuscitation gear.

In tests this week, Arafat was in his pajamas and wore a blue wool hat, instead of his trademark black-and-white checkered headscarf, an official on the medical team said.

The medical official said Arafat continues to sleep in a small room, which has only one window and is furnished with a bed and a closet, even though a new, sunnier room has been refurbished for him on another floor.

From his small window, Arafat looks out on rubble and heaps of cars flattened in previous Israeli raids.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

Parents only

Jean Luc — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 15:37:21 GMT

What would you choose over supporting your children?

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

Bush Wired during debate?

Jean Luc — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 15:51:17 GMT

www.salon.com/news/featur...04/10/08/bulge/index.html

You can get a free day pass by watching the sony commercial.

1. He has a black box visible through his jacket between his shoulderblades.

2. The photo came from Fox News' newsfeed

3. He often has a "listening expression" just before he's about to talk

Bush makes me less embarassed to talk about Clinton. If it's true, and he was actually receiving prompting from someone via radio, it would confirm that Bush is the single most pathetic president ever.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 1 reply

Cheney F***ed Himself

MichaelKwiatkowski — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 01:15:36 GMT

http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=272

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 2 replies

Foreign Born President?

Jean Luc — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 13:59:17 GMT

Thoughts?

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 3 replies

Great flyers from the AFL-CIO

jessica — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 00:06:00 GMT

http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/politics/candidate_comparison_pdf.cfm

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

Why conservatives shouldn't be allowed to have kids

Jean Luc — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 20:31:17 GMT

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40668

I especially liked their rules.

"1)Keep your objective in mind – subjection of their will, 2)Require quick obedience, and 3) Teach your children to obey without being told 'why.'"

Yes. Pro family and pro child . Yep.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 11 replies

Bush gets F from US Civil Rights commission

Jean Luc — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 17:28:21 GMT

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/archive/2004/10/05/eguillermo.DTL

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

Suicidal Kids? No Problem! says conservative....

Jean Luc — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 19:57:13 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/09/13/anti.depressants.ap/index.html

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/satel200409121424.asp

Anyone doubt that the "American Enterprise Institute" is anything more than another drug industry funded conservative shill group?

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 4 replies

Kerry Says Bush Broke His Word in Pursuing War on Iraq

jessica — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 17:46:16 GMT

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/politics/campaign/09kerry.html?pagewanted=2

Kerry Says Bush Broke His Word in Pursuing War on Iraq
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: September 9, 2004

INCINNATI, Sept. 8 - Standing where President Bush made his case for the use of force in Iraq 23 months ago, Senator John Kerry accused Mr. Bush on Wednesday of breaking his promise to go to war as a last resort and with a broad alliance, ignoring the advice of his generals and grossly underestimating the costs.

"I call this course a catastrophic choice that has cost us $200 billion because we went it alone,'' Mr. Kerry said. "And we've paid an even more unbearable price in young American lives and the risks our soldiers take."

After weeks of defending himself against Mr. Bush's charge that he has "flip-flopped" on Iraq, Mr. Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, went on the attack on two fronts. By pointedly recalling the president's pivotal Oct. 7, 2002, speech, two days before the Senate voted to authorize the use of force, he sought to hold Mr. Bush responsible for his dire warnings of Iraq's ability to attack the United States - warnings that Mr. Kerry has said were based on faulty or distorted intelligence.

And, with some polls now showing that more Americans trust Mr. Bush to handle the conflict in Iraq, Mr. Kerry sought to broaden the debate by tying the costs of war to missed opportunities in education, jobs, health care and other issues on which more voters, according to polls, trust Mr. Kerry.

"Two hundred billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford after-school programs for our children," Mr. Kerry said, echoing a television advertisement his campaign began running Wednesday. "Two hundred billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford health care for our veterans. Two hundred billion dollars for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford to keep the 100,000 police officers we put on the streets during the 1990's. We're here today to tell them: They're wrong."

"He doesn't believe that America can be strong in the world while we also make progress here at home," Mr. Kerry added later, of Mr. Bush. "That's a false choice, and I reject it."

Mr. Bush has tried to keep the upper hand in the debate on Iraq by citing Mr. Kerry's vote authorizing the use of force to tell his audiences that he and Mr. Kerry had agreed on the need to remove Saddam Hussein as president of Iraq.

Mr. Bush has also used Mr. Kerry's criticisms of the way the war has been waged and his vote against $87 billion for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan to charge that Mr. Kerry's stance toward the war changes with the polls.

Mr. Kerry's aides said the senator now intended to turn the debate away from his rationale for his votes, to a discussion of Mr. Bush's policy failures. In a memo to reporters, the Kerry campaign stated, "The reason Iraq is an issue in this campaign is NOT over the question of whether it was right to hold Saddam accountable. The reason it is an issue is because of the way George Bush went to war, making the wrong choices and weakening the United States here at home and overseas."

On Wednesday, in Cincinnati's restored Union Terminal, a site chosen to drive his point home, Mr. Kerry argued that Mr. Bush had obtained the authority to go to war on false intelligence, and then gone to war in a way that alienated allies and prolonged the Iraq insurgency.

Mr. Bush, nearly two years ago, said here that Iraq had a "massive stockpile" of biological weapons and was developing unmanned aerial vehicles to attack the United States, that its scientists were reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, and that it had trained members of Al Qaeda in bomb-making and chemical weapons. Little evidence has emerged to support the statements.

"Here in Cincinnati, from this hall, on that night, he spoke to the nation, and he promised, 'If we have to act, we will take every precaution that is possible,' " Mr. Kerry said, quoting the president. " 'We will plan carefully. We will act with the full power of the United States military. We will act with allies at our side and we will prevail.'

"But then, George W. Bush made the wrong choices," Mr. Kerry said. "He himself now admits he miscalculated in Iraq. But in truth, in truth, his miscalculation was ignoring the advice that he was given, including the very best advice of America's own military.

"When he didn't like what he was hearing, he even fired the Army chief of staff," Mr. Kerry said, an apparent reference to Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the former Army chief of staff. Referring to Mr. Bush, Mr. Kerry continued:"His miscalculation was going to war without taking every precaution, without giving the inspectors time. His miscalculation was going to war without planning carefully, and without the allies that we should have had at our side."

"As a result, America has paid nearly 90 percent of the bill in Iraq," Mr. Kerry said. "Contrast that with the Gulf War, where our allies paid 95 percent of the costs."

General Shinseki, who suggested during Senate testimony that it might take a force of several hundred thousand troops to pacify Iraq, had difficult relations with the Pentagon's civilian leadership and was pushed into retiring at the end of his four-year term in 2003.

As he has for a week now, Mr. Kerry said he "would've done almost everything differently from the president" in Iraq: given weapons inspectors more time, built a "genuine" coalition of allies, and ensured that soldiers had body armor.

A Bush campaign spokesman, Steve Schmidt, said that Mr. Kerry had "made the transformation from a candidate on both sides of Iraq to a candidate who is completely incoherent on Iraq."

"He said we are wasting money after previously saying we need to spend more," Mr. Schmidt said. "He said he will stand by our troops after voting against funding to support them. This week, he echoed Howard Dean saying it was the wrong war at the wrong time, but he voted for the war and said he would vote for it again. John Kerry has given 12 major speeches on Iraq, and the American people still have no idea where he stands."

Later, in Rochester, Minn., Mr. Kerry denied that he had used Dr. Dean's critique of Mr. Bush's handling of the war. "I don't think I borrowed anything; that's a phrase that I've used," Mr. Kerry told an interviewer from the Minneapolis NBC affiliate, KARE.

Jodi Wilgoren contributed reporting from Rochester, Minn., for this article.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 2 replies

Single Issue

Jean Luc — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 15:51:47 GMT

If you had to give a SINGLE issue that you would make your decisions on who to vote for, what would it be?

Let's assume we are all multifaceted individuals with a mosaic of special causes, but for the purpose of this thread, identify which is the most important.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 3 replies

Delay in major trouble!!!

MichaelKwiatkowski — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 00:14:10 GMT

Tom Delay is in big trouble over misuse of his PACs to abuse the powers of his office. They're talking about it on Air America Radio right now.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 4 replies

Conservative tribe employee calls me a pedophile, then threatens ME after I call him a homophobe

Jean Luc — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 15:48:42 GMT

September 14, 2004 - 08:15 AM
Paul's Example

"Further, the catholic church case is a perfect example of bias. Consider its coverage vs. the coverage of the boy scouts. The boy scouts disallow homosexual leaders for fear that it will lead to pedophilia. The church DOESN'T disallow and have a subculture (of gay priests) that prey on children. "

1. The boy scouts, a conservative organization, rejects ALL gay people as scout leaders because they fear that gays are child molesters by very design.

Never mind that most child sexual assault occurs m-f, it's the gay people who are to be feared, as ALL gay people are ALL pedophiles.

Slapped in the face with this argument, conservatives moved on to saying things like "well, we don't let male counselors in share a tent with young female scouts do we?"

Another flawed argument. There is not a single situation that exists in the boy scouts where ANY counselor, gay or not, is put into an explicitly sexual situation with any camper. To say that no gay man can sleep in a tent with young boys without jumping on them is just as laughable as the first argument.

2. While the vast majority of sexual abuse is m-f, the smaller percentage of m-m abuse also has something to teach relevant to the church scandals. The vast majority of m-m abuse involves males NOT classified as gay. Their other sexual relationships are exclusively with WOMEN. Many are married.

Leading any intelligent person, though not conservatives, to suspect that people who SUPRESS their natural sexual orientation are FAR more likely to be child molesters than someone who has an open and honest sexual orientation. Something completely lost in the conservative hatred of gay people.

3. The church DOESN'T disallow and have a subculture (of gay priests) that prey on children. "

By all means! Let's IGNORE the vast history of priests who abuse women and girls! There are indeed women who have come forth and claimed sexual assault by catholic priests. Stories of catholic priests raping women in south america are rampant. In some countries, catholic priests have even raped NUNS.

But, hush hush. If anyone admits that, it means conservatives can't blame gay people for the molestation issue.

I know you are completely unable to admit you are wrong Paul, but these are the facts. I've pointed out the glaring holes in your argument, holes you should have been aware of if you weren't so wedded to the conservative ideology and it's culture of hatred.
reply to this post

Paul
93
September 14, 2004 - 08:22 AM
Re: Paul's Example

Jean Luc - you once AGAIN completely miss the boat. I am TALKING ABOUT THE MEDIA.

I asked why that story was not written anywhere and what do you do - you attack me as promoting it as fact.

This is getting quite tiresome.

I am talking about the media...

the media...

guess what the media...

I asked why such as story didn't exist and you attack "my logic".

Wow.

Paul

reply to this post

Jean Luc "Ca...
158
September 14, 2004 - 08:29 AM
Re: Paul's Example

I'm sorry, did you not notice this was A NEW THREAD? One responding to your plea for me to point out the flaws in the conservative argument?

Is your reading comprehension always this poor?

reply to this post

Jean Luc "Ca...
158
September 14, 2004 - 08:32 AM
Re: Paul's Example

Furthermore, since you asked, the media has indeed covered incidences of abuse in the boy scouts. There have been less than a handful over how many years? In comparison, the catholic priests have abused HUNDREDS of children.

You're right Paul. It's just SO biased of the media to ignore bashing gay people and blaming them for the abuse of a handful of boy scounts by their mostly married scout leaders in favor of a GLOBAL scandal by the huge church that claims to only want to protect children by allowing their priests to rape children, and then move them to hide the scandal.

Talk about your BIAS!

Homophobia isn't pretty Paul. You should get some help.
reply to this post

Paul
93
September 14, 2004 - 08:38 AM new
Re: Paul's Example

Jean Luc you have been warned before and I will not tolerate this. Your implication that I am a homophobe is not only incorrect it is a violation of the terms of service.

Please remove this post and/or thread. Or issue an apology.

Paul

reply to this post

Paul
93
September 14, 2004 - 08:34 AM
Re: Paul's Example

Also - you don't realize how much you are actually making my point for me.

WHY DIDN'T we read these facts from your post in the articles about the priests?

Is it because going after the sensational story (which this post demonstrates is the exception even in reguard to sexual assault) is the agenda of the news?

Is it that the media would LIKE to do a sensational and negative article on the church because THEY DON'T LIKE THE CHURCH?

Which article would you personally rather write about (and I am asking Jean Luc personally)

(1) Teena Brandon
(2) Jesse Dirkhising

Which one?

Paul

reply to this post

Jean Luc "Ca...
158
September 14, 2004 - 08:41 AM new
Re: Paul's Example

"Also - you don't realize how much you are actually making my point for me. "

You can pretend that if it helps you cope.

"WHY DIDN'T we read these facts from your post in the articles about the priests?"

Because the media sticks to reporting FACTS. Not addressing the countless smears of the conservative ideology. Where applicable, they HAVE indeed mentioned that WOMEN are part of the sexual abuse lawsuits, and the Boston Globe was the one who reported some of the information on exactly WHO abuses children.

But the media is NOT in the business of chasing down every conservative lie and providing the refutation. If it did, then I would have to admit some bias. Since they don't, and they stick to reporting the news, I can feel confident in accepting the unbiased reporting of most news organizations, except Fox.

"Is it that the media would LIKE to do a sensational and negative article on the church because THEY DON'T LIKE THE CHURCH? "

So you're saying they SHOULDN'T have done the stories? Oh, wouldn't that be nice? Sweep it all under the rug to make the conservatives happy.

People in the media may or may not like the catholic church. It's irrelevant to doing their job. They cover every burp and fart from the pope and every right wing smear that comes out of his mouth without commentary.

"(1) Teena Brandon
(2) Jesse Dirkhising "

Which is more indicative of a wider problem? Jesse Dirkhising has been shamefully pranced around by conservatives pretending it proves bias. Guess what, the incidence of m-m abuse is STILL vastly lower than m-f. The media covered the story, and then went on to other things.

Conservatives would have prefered EXHAUSTIVE coverage of this ONE incident so they could lynch ALL gay people with it, the same way YOU are trying to.

Answer this if you're so unbiased. What happens more, anti gay violence or gay people raping children?

Hmm?

You won't answer, the same way you don't answer any of the other hard questions, and the same way you refuse to acknowledge the point of this thread, that there are INDEED more flaws in the arguments of conservatives, as illustrated above.
reply to this post

Paul
93
September 14, 2004 - 08:46 AM new
Re: Paul's Example

You don't think that individuals in the media own personal belief's color the stories that they perceive to have value?

Come on Jean Luc.

Paul

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 1 reply

the REAL "judicial activism"

Jean Luc — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 20:01:41 GMT

maybe criminals can get together and start recalling tough judges? Or companies can get judges who award big lawsuits against them thrown out?

http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/09/091304sfJudge.htm

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 3 replies

Documents Suggest Special Treatment For Bush In Guard

MichaelKwiatkowski — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 18:02:47 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/politics/09guard.html?8br

Documents Suggest Special Treatment for Bush in Guard
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
and RALPH BLUMENTHAL

Published: September 9, 2004

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard came under renewed scrutiny on Wednesday as newfound documents emerged from his squadron commander's file that suggested favorable treatment.

At the same time, a once powerful Texas Democrat came forward to say that he had "abused my position of power" by helping Mr. Bush and others join the Guard.

Democrats also worked to stoke the issue with a new advertisement by a Texas group that featured a former lieutenant colonel, Bob Mintz, who said he never saw Mr. Bush in the period he transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to the Alabama Air National Guard.

The documents, obtained by the "60 Minutes" program at CBS News from the personal files of the late Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, Mr. Bush's squadron commander in Texas, suggest that Lieutenant Bush did not meet his performance standards and received favorable treatment.

One document, a "memo to file" dated May 1972 , refers to a conversation between Colonel Killian and Lieutenant Bush when they "discussed options of how Bush can get out of coming to drill from now through November," because the lieutenant "may not have time."

The memo said the commander had worked to come up with options, "but I think he's also talking to someone upstairs."

Colonel Killian wrote in another report, dated Aug. 1, 1972, that he ordered Lieutenant Bush "suspended from flight status" because he failed to perform to standards of the Air Force and Texas Air National Guard and "failure to meet annual physical examination (flight) as ordered."

Colonel Killian also wrote in a memo that his superiors were forcing him to give Lieutenant Bush a favorable review, but that he refused.

"I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job," he wrote.

CBS, which reported on the memos on "The CBS Evening News" and "60 Minutes," declined to say how it obtained the documents.

Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, said in an interview with CBS, the full transcript of which the White House released on Wednesday night, that Mr. Bush had fulfilled his service and received an honorable discharge. Mr. Bartlett did not dispute the authenticity of the memos but said, "When you are talking about a memo to somebody's self - this is a memo to his own file - people are trying to read the mind of somebody who is no longer with us."

He called the release of the files politically motivated.

"Every time President Bush gets near another election, all the innuendo and rumors about President Bush's service in the National Guard come to the forefront," he said.

Separately, former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes of Texas voiced regret for what he said was helping the privileged escape service in Vietnam.

"I'm not particularly proud of what I did," said Mr. Barnes, who in the 1960's was speaker of the Texas House at 26 and lieutenant governor at 30. "While I understand why parents wanted to shield their sons from danger, I abused my position of power by helping only those who knew me or had access to me."

Mr. Barnes, 66, an adviser to Senator John Kerry's campaign and an influential lobbyist with offices in Austin and Washington, said in a interview with The New York Times that he had intervened to get Mr. Bush, as well as other well-connected young men, into the Guard in 1968. He made similar comments on "60 Minutes" on Wednesday.

Mr. Barnes maintained, as he has since 1999, that he had contacted his friend who headed the Texas Air National Guard, Brig. Gen. James Rose, not at the behest of anyone in the Bush family, but rather a Houston businessman, Sidney A. Adger, a friend of the Bushes who has died.

"Yes, I called Rose to get George Bush into the Guard, I've said that," Mr. Barnes said in his office last week in Austin. "I called Rose for other sons of prominent families, and I'm not proud of it now."

Anticipating his remarks, Republicans worked to discredit Mr. Barnes as a partisan Democrat and large contributor to Mr. Kerry. The events created a new round of scrutiny for Mr. Bush, after a month in which Mr. Kerry's Vietnam service dominated the campaign because of veterans with longstanding anger at how Mr. Kerry, who was a decorated veteran, came home and turned against the war. With advertisements, through a book and on talk shows, the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, leveled largely unsubstantiated accusations about Mr. Kerry's record and told how his antiwar statements had demoralized veterans.

Democrats were unabashed in turning the spotlight on Mr. Bush. Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic chairman, said in a conference call with reporters the party would keep Mr. Bush's record before the public.

The events unfolded a day after the Pentagon, prompted by a lawsuit filed by The Associated Press, released a series of records on Mr. Bush's service, even though the White House had said this year that it had released all the records.

Mr. Bartlett said that the documents "demonstrate that he served his country, he logged hundreds and hundreds of hours as a fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard."

Mr. Bartlett rejected the suggestion based on Colonel Killian's files that Mr. Bush did not meet the performance standards. He said Mr. Bush did not have a physical examination because he was not going to be flying planes anymore, because his unit no longer flew the planes that Mr. Bush was trained on.

"Every step of the way, President Bush was meeting his requirements, granted permission to meet his requirements," Mr. Bartlett said.

A new commercial, produced by a group of Democrats, Texans for Truth, is to begin on Monday in five swing states that have lost high numbers of soldiers in Iraq. It features a former lieutenant colonel in the Alabama Guard, Bob Mintz, who lives in Tennessee. He told a columnist for The New York Times, Nicholas D. Kristof, for a column published on Wednesday, that he was actively looking for Lieutenant Bush at the Alabama base in the 1970's, because he had heard that Lieutenant Bush was a fellow bachelor who might like to party with him and other pilots. In the spot, Mr. Mintz said neither he nor his friends ever saw Mr. Bush.

"It would be impossible to be unseen in a unit of that size," he says.

The unit had 20 to 30 pilots.

In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Mintz was pressed about his recollections and whether he might have missed seeing Mr. Bush, possibly because Mr. Bush was no longer flying at that point and was working in an office position. Mr. Mintz said repeatedly he never saw Lieutenant Bush.

Asked for friends' names who could vouch that they never saw Lieutenant Bush, Mr. Mintz declined, saying he did not have their permission to make their names public.

Glenn Smith, the main figure in Texans for Truth, said he wanted to make the spot because he was angry over the Swift Boat veterans.

Steve Schmidt of the Bush campaign said that Texans for Truth was linked to the Kerry campaign in potential violation of campaign finance laws, saying the group was "made possible by contributions" from Moveon.org, another advocacy group that opposes Mr. Bush.

Mr. Smith said that Moveon.org had financed another group that he had founded, Drivedemocracy.org, but that neither had given money to the Texans, though he said that Moveon.org had a link on its Web site to the Texans and sent e-mail messages to its Texas members urging them to give to the Texans.

Mr. Smith said the Texans raised more than $300,000 in 24 hours, with one contribution for $100,000 and most of the rest in $25 donations.

Adding to the picture of Mr. Bush's service, The Boston Globe reported on Wednesday that he fell short of meeting his military requirements and was not disciplined despite irregular attendance at required drills.

The paper said Mr. Bush signed documents in July 1973, before he left Houston for the Harvard Business School, promising to meet his training commitments or be punished by being called up to active duty.

Mr. Bartlett said on Wednesday that Mr. Bush was given permission to attend Harvard. He said that if there were any requirements Mr. Bush was not meeting, "the National Guard at the federal level, the state level and the local level, they all knew where he was."

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 0 replies

Ten Lies--& the FACTS Destroying Them--Told by Bush & Co.

MichaelKwiatkowski — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:39:40 GMT

LIE #1: "The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program ... Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons." –President Bush, Oct. 7, 2002, in Cincinnati.

FACT: This story, leaked to and breathlessly reported by Judith Miller in the New York Times, has turned out to be complete baloney. Department of Energy officials, who monitor nuclear plants, say the tubes could not be used for enriching uranium. One intelligence analyst, who was part of the tubes investigation, angrily told The New Republic: "You had senior American officials like Condoleezza Rice saying the only use of this aluminum really is uranium centrifuges. She said that on television. And that's just a lie."

LIE #2: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." –President Bush, Jan.28, 2003, in the State of the Union address.

FACT: This whopper was based on a document that the White House already knew to be a forgery thanks to the CIA. Sold to Italian intelligence by some hustler, the document carried the signature of an official who had been out of office for 10 years and referenced a constitution that was no longer in effect. The ex-ambassador who the CIA sent to check out the story is pissed: "They knew the Niger story was a flat-out lie," he told the New Republic, anonymously. "They [the White House] were unpersuasive about aluminum tubes and added this to make their case more strongly."

LIE #3: "We believe [Saddam] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." –Vice President Cheney on March 16, 2003 on "Meet the Press."

FACT: There was and is absolutely zero basis for this statement. CIA reports up through 2002 showed no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear weapons program.

LIE #4: "[The CIA possesses] solid reporting of senior-level contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda going back a decade." –CIA Director George Tenet in a written statement released Oct. 7, 2002 and echoed in that evening's speech by President Bush.

FACT: Intelligence agencies knew of tentative contacts between Saddam and al-Qaeda in the early '90s, but found no proof of a continuing relationship. In other words, by tweaking language, Tenet and Bush spun the intelligence 180 degrees to say exactly the opposite of what it suggested.

LIE #5: "We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases ... Alliance with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints." –President Bush, Oct. 7.

FACT: No evidence of this has ever been leaked or produced. Colin Powell told the U.N. this alleged training took place in a camp in northern Iraq. To his great embarrassment, the area he indicated was later revealed to be outside Iraq's control and patrolled by Allied war planes.

LIE #6: "We have also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We are concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] for missions targeting the United States." –President Bush, Oct. 7.

FACT: Said drones can't fly more than 300 miles, and Iraq is 6,000 miles from the U.S. coastline. Furthermore, Iraq's drone-building program wasn't much more advanced than your average model plane enthusiast. And isn't a "manned aerial vehicle" just a scary way to say "plane"?

LIE #7: "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established." –President Bush, Feb. 8, 2003, in a national radio address.

FACT: Despite a massive nationwide search by U.S. and British forces, there are no signs, traces or examples of chemical weapons being deployed in the field, or anywhere else during the war.

LIE #8: "Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is enough to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets." –Secretary of State Colin Powell, Feb. 5 2003, in remarks to the UN Security Council.

FACT: Putting aside the glaring fact that not one drop of this massive stockpile has been found, as previously reported on AlterNet the United States' own intelligence reports show that these stocks –if they existed –were well past their use-by date and therefore useless as weapon fodder.

LIE #9: "We know where [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat." –Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003, in statements to the press.

FACT: Needless to say, no such weapons were found, not to the east, west, south or north, somewhat or otherwise.

LIE #10: "Yes, we found a biological laboratory in Iraq which the UN prohibited." –President Bush in remarks in Poland, published internationally June 1, 2003.

FACT: This was reference to the discovery of two modified truck trailers that the CIA claimed were potential mobile biological weapons lab. But British and American experts –including the State Department's intelligence wing in a report released this week –have since declared this to be untrue. According to the British, and much to Prime Minister Tony Blair's embarrassment, the trailers are actually exactly what Iraq said they were; facilities to fill weather balloons, sold to them by the British themselves.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 2 replies

Stung!

MichaelKwiatkowski — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 16:33:08 GMT

Since the Shrub opened this can of worms wide after Michael Moore took a can opener to it:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/09/bush_guard_duty

Stung!
A swarm of new media stories on young George W. Bush's dereliction of duty pops his heroic-leadership bubble.

By Eric Boehlert

Sept. 9, 2004 | On Feb. 13, as controversy swirled around President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, the White House released more than 400 pages of documents on the press corps, proving, it claimed, that Bush had served honorably and fulfilled his commitment. The sudden rush of records, often redundant, jumbled and out of chronological order, generally left reporters baffled. From Bush's point of view, the document dump was a political success, as the controversy cooled and the paper trail ran dry.

In retrospect, it's doubtful that even White House aides understood all the information embedded in the records, specifically the payroll documents. It's also unlikely they realized how damaging the information could be when read in the proper context. Seven months later, the document dump is coming back to haunt the White House, thanks to researcher Paul Lukasiak, who has spent that time closely examining the paperwork, and more important, analyzing U.S. Statutory Law, Department of Defense regulations, and Air Force policies and procedures of the 1960s and 1970s. As a result, Lukasiak arrived at the overwhelming conclusion that not only did Bush walk away from his final two years of military obligation, coming dangerously close to desertion, but that he attempted to cover up his absenteeism through swindle and fraud.

Lukasiak's findings, detailed on his Web site the AWOL Project, have since been bolstered and augmented by independent research by the Boston Globe and the Associated Press. On Wednesday, CBS News reported what may be among the most damaging details yet: that Bush's squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian, complained he was being pressured by higher-ups to give Bush a favorable evaluation after he suspended him from flying for failure to take his annual physical exam. Titled "CYA," Killian's memo concluded, "I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job."

But for the last several months, Lukasiak has practically had the AWOL story to himself, as the mainstream media mostly seemed silenced by the big February document release, the daunting task of decoding military personnel records, and the repeated refrain from the Bush White House that the president was honorably discharged. Among the three most compelling conclusions reached by Lukasiak in his new, meticulous research, are:

Bush's request to transfer to an Alabama Guard unit in 1972, in order to work on the Senate campaign of a family friend, Lukasiak found, was not designed to be temporary, but rather was Bush's attempt to sever ties completely with the Texas Air National Guard and find a new, permanent unit in Alabama for which he was ineligible, where he wouldn't have to do any training during his final two years. His superiors in Texas essentially covered for Bush's getaway. However, the Air Reserve Personnel Center (ARPC) in Denver, Colo., which had final say, uncovered the attempted scam, put an end to it, and admonished Bush's superiors for endorsing Bush's bogus request. (The CBS News report shows that the locals were chafing at interference from "higher-ups" presumably connected to the powerful Bush family.) In the interim, Bush simply ignored his weekend duties for nearly six straight months, not bothering to show up at military units in either Alabama or Texas.

The White House has conceded that Bush missed some required weekend training drills, but insists Bush promptly made up those drills and earned enough annual credits for an honorable discharge. In fact, according to Lukasiak's research, based on the procedures in place at the time requiring that makeup dates be completed within 15 days before or 30 days after the date of the drill missed, between half and two-thirds of the points credited to Bush for substitute training were fraudulent. Some of the points credited to Bush were "earned" nine weeks beyond the date of the missed drill. According to Air Force policy, Bush could not have received permission for substitute training that far outside the accepted parameters. The evidence is also overwhelming that Bush failed to get authorization for substitute training in advance, suggesting the points were awarded by the Texas Air National Guard retroactively and without any supporting paperwork. The fraudulent points are key, because without them Bush would have fallen far short of meeting his annual obligation, which meant he should have been transferred to active duty for 24 months and made eligible for service in Vietnam.

On Oct. 1, 1973, Bush received an honorable discharge from the Texas Air National Guard in order to move to Boston and attend Harvard Business School, where he was still obligated to find a unit in Massachusetts to fulfill his remaining nine months of duty, or face being placed on active duty. Once again, Bush made no such effort. But the Air Force in Denver, acting retroactively, in effect overturned Bush's honorable discharge and placed him on "Inactive Status" effective Sept. 15, 1973. When Bush left Texas, his personnel file was sent to Denver for review. The ARPC quickly realized Bush had failed to take a required physical exam, his Texas superior could not account for his whereabouts covering nearly a 12-month period, and because of absenteeism Bush had failed to "satisfactorily participate" as a member of the Texas Air National Guard. Bush's "Inactive Status" meant his relationship with the Air Force (and the Guard) was severed and he was therefore eligible for the draft.

Soon afterward, large gaps began appearing in Bush's paper trail. Lukasiak concludes that only last-minute intervention, likely from Bush's local Houston draft board, saved him from active duty, as well as finally securing his honorable discharge, removing his "Inactive Status." Ironically, that means strings were pulled to get Bush out of the Guard in 1973, just as they were pulled to get him enrolled in 1968.

The AWOL Project's conclusions are bound to give Dan Bartlett concern. The White House director of communications has served as Bush's point person over the last five years regarding inquiries about National Guard service. Dating back to the 2000 campaign and right up to this day, Bartlett has routinely changed his stories regarding Bush's service depending on what information was available to the public. As more and more documents trickle out and it becomes increasingly obvious Bush received wildly favorable treatment during his Guard days while doing his best to skirt his duties, Bartlett is left trying to stake out explanations that haven't already been discredited. And those options are shrinking.

Bartlett's latest flip-flop surrounds Bush's failure to locate a new Guard unit and fulfill his duty while attending Harvard Business School. In 1999, Bartlett said Bush had reported for duty at a Massachusetts Guard unit as required. This week Bartlett conceded to the Boston Globe he must have "misspoke," because it's clear Bush made no effort whatsoever to serve out his term while living in Boston. That answer is reminiscent of Bartlett's response during the 2000 campaign when asked about Bush's failure to take a required military physical in 1972: "As he was not flying, there was no reason for him to take a flight physical exam." But that response is directly contradicted by the Air Force Specialty Code, which required a physical regardless of flight status.

On Wednesday, Bartlett told CBS News, in response to Jerry Killian's memos, "It's impossible to read the mind of a dead man." He then reverted to his usual refrain: "The official files tell the facts," Bartlett said. "And the facts are President Bush served. He served honorably. And that's why he was honorably discharged."

The shifting explanations and obfuscations coming from the White House are one reason why the Guard story remains dangerous for Bush. The controversy, after all, is not merely about how he received a million dollars' worth of free pilot training and then stiffed the government when it came time to pay it back in service. It's also about how, for the last decade, Bush and his advisors have done everything possible to distort, if not erase, the truth about Bush's service record in order to advance his political career.

The detailed research from Lukasiak, a Philadelphia caterer, deals strictly with the contents of Bush's military service documents, particularly those after April 1972, when Bush decided -- on his own -- to stop flying. But what's fascinating is that when recent news reports from Salon, the Associated Press, CBS and the Boston Globe are layered on top of the AWOL Project research, they fit together almost seamlessly, revealing a vivid portrait of Bush as a young man who evaded his military service.

Last week Salon reported that in late 1972 George H.W. Bush phoned a longtime Bush family confidant in Alabama, Jimmy Allison, to ask if there was room on the local campaign he was managing for Bush's troublesome son George, or "Georgie" as he was called. "The impression I had was that Georgie was raising a lot of hell in Houston, getting in trouble and embarrassing the family, and they just really wanted to get him out of Houston and under Jimmy's wing," Linda Allison, his widow, told Salon. "After about a month I asked Jimmy what was Georgie's job, because I couldn't figure it out. I never saw him do anything," said Allison. Asked if she'd ever seen Bush in a uniform, Allison said: "Good lord, no. I had no idea that the National Guard was involved in his life in any way."

This week a new advocacy group calling itself Texans for Truth announced that it will air a television commercial featuring a former Alabama National Guard pilot who insists he never saw Bush in 1972 at the small Guard unit at Dannelly Air National Guard base in Montgomery, where the president claims he served. The pilot, Bob Mintz, has told a consistent tale. In February, he told the Memphis Flyer newspaper: "There's no way we wouldn't have noticed a strange rooster in the henhouse, especially since we were looking for him." Mintz was referring to the news on the base that somebody from Texas with political influence was coming to train with the unit. "I was looking for him," Mintz said.

On Wednesday night, on CBS's "60 Minutes," in an interview with Dan Rather, former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes went public for the first time about how he pulled strings to get the young Bush a coveted slot, at the height of the Vietnam War, in the Texas Air National Guard. "I've thought about it an awful lot and you walk through the Vietnam memorial, particularly at night like I did a few months ago and, I tell you, ... reflecting back, I'm very sorry about it, but you know, it happened and it was because of my ambition, my youth and my lack of understanding. But it happened and it's not ... something I'm necessarily proud of."

CBS also reported on four documents from the personal files of Col. Jerry Killian, Bush's squadron commander. One memo ordered Bush to take "an annual physical examination" -- an order he refused. CBS reports: "On August 1, 1972, Col. Killian grounded Lt. Bush for failure to perform to U.S. Air Force/Texas Air National Guard standards and for failure to take his annual physical as ordered. A year after Lt. Bush's suspension from flying, Killian was asked to write another assessment. Killian's memo, titled 'CYA,' reads he is being pressured by higher-ups to give the young pilot a favorable yearly evaluation; to, in effect, sugarcoat his review. He refuses, saying, 'I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job.'"

This week, the A.P. reported that a thorough analysis of Bush's military documents indicates obvious gaps in his service along with equally gratuitous gaps in his paperwork. Specifically missing are: "A report from the Texas Air National Guard to Bush's local draft board certifying that Bush remained in good standing." "Records of a required investigation into why Bush lost flight status." "A written acknowledgment from Bush that he had received the orders grounding him." "Reports of formal counseling sessions Bush was required to have after missing more than three training sessions." "A signed statement from Bush acknowledging he could be called to active duty if he did not promptly transfer to another guard unit after leaving Texas."

In February of this year, Salon interviewed Bill Burkett, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Texas National Guard, who claims he observed aides to Bush going through his military file in 1997 to remove any embarrassing information, tossing documents in the trash, allegedly the types of documents that might help answer many of the unanswered questions surrounding Bush's Guard service. "Activities occurred in order to, in my opinion, inappropriately build a false image of the governor's military service," Burkett told Salon. Burkett first went public with his accusations in 1998 and has told the same story consistently for six years.

Also last February, Salon reported that Bush's mysterious decision in the spring of 1972 to stop flying and subsequently refuse to take a physical exam came at the same time the Air Force announced its Medical Service Drug Abuse Testing Program, which meant random drug testing for pilots, including Guardsmen.

Meanwhile, the White House has not been able to produce anything or anybody with any credibility to contradict the growing body of evidence that suggests Bush deliberately walked away from his duties and that Bush and his handlers continue to lie about his military service. Retired Lt. Col. John Calhoun was the one witness who was brought forward this year to back up Bush's story that he actually showed up in Alabama. He recalled seeing Bush at training sessions between "eight to ten times from May to October 1972." Yet not even Bush's own payroll records suggest he did drills in Alabama at the time Calhoun allegedly spotted him. (Amazingly, ABC News on Wednesday used Calhoun as a credible witness to bolster Bush's account, despite the fact that the dates Calhoun cites don't even match up with Bush's.)

There's also no paper trail to support Bush's claim that he completed any service after 1972. As Lukasiak notes, each substitute training Bush completed, and there were many, should have generated authorized AF Form 40a's: "All told, Bush performed 'substitute training' on at least 20 days. Thus there should be, at the very least, 20 AF Form 40a's with the name of the officer who authorized the training in advance, the name and signature of the officer who supervised the training, and Bush's own signature." But not one such form exists.

A similar absence of information surrounds Bush's dubious explanation of his attempted transfer to Alabama. The move should have generated a small mountain of paperwork. Under normal circumstances, 10 steps are required to transfer:

1) The Guardsman announces that he will need to relocate.

2) His personnel officer explains the relocation policies and procedures to him.

3) The Guardsman signs an acknowledgment that he has received the relocation counseling.

4) The personnel officer gives the Guardsman a certification of satisfactory participation, which he will need to get approval for a transfer.

5) The Guardsman locates an appropriate Ready Reserve position with a new unit, and submits a "Transfer Request Form" (Form 1288) and a new "Ready Reserve Service Agreement (Form 1644), along with the certification of satisfactory participation, to the "receiving unit."

6) The receiving unit "indorses" the request on the back of the Form 1288, and provides the Guardsman with certification that an appropriate position is available in that unit.

7) The Guardsman gives Form 1288, Form 1644, the certification of an appropriate position, and a letter of resignation to his current unit commander.

8) The unit commander indorses the request, and forwards it to the state adjutant general.

9) The adjutant general approves the request, and discharges the Guardsman from the Air National Guard to the Air Force Reserves.

10) The Air Force Reserves assigns the former Guardsman to his new unit.

In Bush's case, according to Lukasiak's research, "There is no statement of counseling, no certification of satisfactory performance, no certification of a suitable vacancy, no letter of resignation, no discharge papers, no discharge orders, and no reassignment orders."

There are also indications that Bush -- unwilling to fly, take a physical or report for duty -- was trying to mislead Guard officials with his transfer application. When asked for his permanent address, Bush listed the P.O. box for the Alabama campaign headquarters he worked for temporarily. When asked to note his Air Force Specialty Code, Bush wrote down 1125B, the designation for F-89 or F-94 pilots. At the time of his transfer request, both of these planes had been retired from service in all components of the Air Force, including the Guard and Reserves. Bush's accurate code was 1125D, designating an F-102 pilot. At the time, F-102 planes were still very much in use. It was an error Bush made more than once on the application. Lukasiak writes: "The odds of Bush being able to scam his way into a non-training unit [in Alabama] would be enhanced if his specific skill set was one which was no longer useful to the Air Force."

In May 1972, Bush was informed that the unit in Alabama he requested was clearly unsuitable for a pilot of his stature, yet he pressed on, and his Texas superiors endorsed the transfer request and submitted it. But the Denver headquarters caught the scam and rejected it. The Texas chief of military personnel sent a curt warning to Bush's unit about the clearly bogus request: "Attention is invited to basic communication."

Lukasiak's work has created a storm in the blogosphere. (He's also a Salon Table Talk member, and an active thread is devoted to research on Bush's National Guard service.) He makes no secret of his conviction that Bush used his family connections to evade the draft. The AWOL Project concludes: "Bush simply blew off his last two years of required service, and was able to get away with it because he came from a politically influential family. There is no other explanation for Bush's records. None."

Of course none of that stopped Bush from hyping his military service as he launched his political career. In 1978, during an unsuccessful run for Congress in west Texas, Bush produced campaign literature that claimed he had served "in the US Air Force and the Texas Air National Guard." In 1999, when asked by an AP reporter why Bush had claimed to have served specifically with the U.S. Air Force when he'd only been in the National Guard, Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes insisted the claim was accurate because when Bush attended flight school for the Air National Guard he was considered to be on active duty for the Air Force. That was plainly false, as the AP noted, citing Air Force policy, which stated Guardsmen are never considered to be members of the Air Force active duty.

Just four years after escaping his military obligations, Bush was already trying to rewrite his military record for political gain. Bush said he strongly supported the Vietnam War, obscuring how he spent several years, after securing a safe spot in the National Guard, evading his military obligation. Now President Bush orders Guardsmen and Reservists to shoulder an unprecedented load -- physically, financially and emotionally -- in the war in Iraq. As new information at last begins to emerge about what he really did, Bush and his aides are still at work covering up the record. His ultimate war is with the truth about his past.

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funny

Jean Luc — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 17:29:51 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/09/10/campaign.dating.reut/index.html

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Waste

Jean Luc — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 18:44:00 GMT

I was reading this just now, http://www.nationalreview.com/lopez/lopez200409090925.asp

Isn't it amazing that conservatives pretend that everyone should be *gasp* shocked that there is WASTE in government programs?

Furthermore, apparently conservatives operate under the misapprehension that it's only the programs and agencies that THEY disagree with who waste money. Are their conservatives articles about the waste in the military? Or about the abuse of vacation time under the Bush residency? How about the amount of money spent on defending the unconstitutional presentation of christianity in public schools?

Nope. Those things are ok.

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Illegal Acts

Jean Luc — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 14:49:11 GMT

One of the things I've noticed is that most people have no problems buying books written by people who've committed horrible crimes, or even about people who've committed horrible crimes.

Does anyone here do this? I'm not saying I've never bought a book from someone who might have committed a crime like this, but never knowingly.

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CNN Refuses to Air Log Cabin Republican Ad

jessica — Sat, 04 Sep 2004 03:34:37 GMT

It seems CNN has no problem airing the Swift Boat Veterans ads, but an ad by Log Cabin Republicans calling for more moderation in the Republican Party is deemed "too politcally radical" by CNN:

http://www.logcabin.org/logcabin/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=918066
http://www.logcabin.org/logcabin/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=925064
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-08-31-log-cabin-gop_x.htm

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 15 replies

FACT CHECKERS

jessica — Sat, 04 Sep 2004 05:28:28 GMT

http://www.factcheck.org/
http://mediamatters.org/
http://www.campaigndesk.com/

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 3 replies

SF Local Candidates & Propositions Endorsement Night

Eleonor — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 19:11:35 GMT

New Progressive Left Movement presents:
A Public Endorsement Forum for candidates and Local propositions.

Come to discuss the candidates for the Board of Supervisors and the School Board we are proposing for endorsement.

Public Discussion and Vote on (Bonds, Bonds, Bonds!)Proposition A (Housing); F -- Non-citizens Voting School Board Elections and Taxes: J (Sales Tax increase), K (Business Tax) and N -- the antiwar Declaration of Policy.

Speakers pro and con, candidates' presentations and Q&A period, panel to discuss propositions and more. "Cast your ballot" is also included as well as a presentation on RCV/IRV voting system.

5$ donation requested -- no one turned away for lack of funds.

Wednesday, September 8 -- 6 PM

Women's Building

3543 18th

Mission District

For more information (415) 452-9992

Organized by the New Progressive Left Movement, an alliance of greens, socialists, independents and community and labor activists.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 1 reply

Letter #4 - NPR

jessica — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 17:28:15 GMT

Feel free to send this to NPR and/or your local NPR station.

Letter:

ombudsman@npr.org
Dear Mr. Dvorkin, NPR Ombudsman,

Juan Williams is employed by Fox News, an organization with a clear conservative agenda, an agenda not in tune with journalistic principles or ethics. Fox News is often the conduit of Republican talking points, nothing else. Juan Williams’ reports on NPR also consist of nothing more than framing Republican talking points in a way that would seem to make them "fair and balanced." Republican talking points by definition are neither fair nor balanced.

When Juan Williams appears on various shows, including "Talk of the Nation," he is introduced as an employee of Fox News. Please begin to introduce him as a Fox News employee during Morning Edition as well. Listeners deserve to know.

Sincerely,

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How conservatives use language

jessica — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 19:23:50 GMT

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml

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The Republican National Convetion Summarized

jessica — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 05:26:03 GMT

Terrorists
Terrorists
Terrorists
9/11
9/11
9/11
Amen!

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 1 reply

NY Demonstration to RNC: "GOP, Bush, Ho Home!"

Eleonor — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 22:32:11 GMT

NY Demonstration to RNC: "GOP, Bush, Ho Home!"

NEW YORK (Frontlines with additional material from Reuters, AP, AFP) - The delegates to the Republican National Convention felt as if they were besieged by huge crowds of antiwar, pro-Kerry, Democrats, Nader supporters, Greens, including thousands of New Yorkers.

Demonstrators toting colorful banners and shouting "no more Bush" marched in Manhattan on Sunday the day before the Republican convention opens to decry the Iraq war and President Bush's economic policies.

The marchers, estimated by organizers to reach as many as 250,000, passed the Madison Square Garden convention site as Republicans and visitors arrived in the city for the four day gathering where Bush will be nominated for another four years in the White House.

Read more...
http://www.sf-frontlines.com

Read the latest issue of Frontlines at http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 1 reply

Too Many Bush vs Kerry Tribes!!!

MichaelKwiatkowski — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 12:24:07 GMT

Ever since Salil took over, about three or four alternate tribes have sprung up by members of the original who feel compelled to leave while a right-winger is in charge.

Now, I don't mind creating an alternate tribe; after all, this one was created when Seth was the moderator. But now I'm having trouble keeping track of all the Bush vs Kerry's out there! I am so confuuuuuuuused!

posted in Left, Right & Everything In Between - 2 replies