The Red Meat Con

THE RED MEAT CON
Friday, November 2, 2007Posted by Jim Hightower

Fast-fingered con artists used to dupe people with the old shell game at county fairs and carnivals – but the con has now gone corporate… and moved inside the offices of government regulators.
Agribusiness powers are currently playing a shell game with the “fresh” meat sold in stores across the country. One clear sign of freshness that we consumers rely on is the meat’s red color, right? Well, no more. The industry has come up with a fast-fingered deception that keeps the meat red not just for a few days – but for months! The meat can go bad, but you won’t know it, because a little spritz of carbon monoxide and other gases inside the plastic-wrapped package prevents the tell-tale browning that’s a sign of spoilage.
In 2004, federal food regulators properly expressed alarm that this gassing trick was a consumer deception that could mask dangerous meat. But industry lobbyists quickly moved in and, only one month later, the regulators reversed themselves, okaying the perpetually-red meat for sale. Our so-called watchdogs did not conduct any studies, instead relying on industry data – nor did they bother notifying us consumers that the redness of meat should no longer be trusted.
At last, the Democratic congress is now moving to require that this color-altered meat be labeled as such, so we consumers can make up our own minds whether we want it. Once again, though, industry lobbyists are on the prowl, claiming that such labels would be “alarmist” and “unfair.”
Why unfair? Because, they say with a con man’s sly grin, the regulators have okayed the gassing process, so consumers have no need to be informed! Thus the shell game comes full circle – industry colors our meat to deceive us, writes the regulation to allow the deception, then cites the regulation as reason to keep deceiving us.
To help stop this con, call Consumer Federation of America at 202-797-8551
“When you buy red meat, looks can be deceiving,” USA Today, October 1, 2007
“Packaging produces benefits,” USA Today, October 1, 2007

Classic Gonzo - Push Out Anyone Capable Of Any Rational Thought

Bush Whitehouse Blocked Waterboarding Critic

A senior Justice Department official, charged with reworking the administration's legal position on torture in 2004 became so concerned about the controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding that he decided to experience it firsthand, sources told ABC News.

Daniel Levin, then acting assistant attorney general, went to a military base near Washington and underwent the procedure to inform his analysis of different interrogation techniques.

After the experience, Levin told White House officials that even though he knew he wouldn't die, he found the experience terrifying and thought that it clearly simulated drowning.

Levin, who refused to comment for this story, concluded waterboarding could be illegal torture unless performed in a highly limited way and with close supervision. And, sources told ABC News, he believed the Bush Administration had failed to offer clear guidelines for its use.

……

But Levin never finished a second memo imposing tighter controls on the specific interrogation techniques. Sources said he was forced out of the Justice Department when Gonzales became attorney general.

They have an official actually ballsy enough to go find out what this is really all about, they do not like what he learned so they dump him……..Levin was clearly too good for this crowd, unfortunately almost all Daniel Levins of this country have been pushed out our current government and replaced with political hacks who have no moral fiber.

 

Ok Now We're Going Down The Rabbit Hole w/ Crazy King George

Bush vetoes $23-billion water bill

President Bush delivered his threatened veto of a $23-billion water bill Friday, but Congress is virtually certain to reverse it in the first override of a Bush veto.

And Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress are moving closer to a federal budget showdown that could result in more vetoes.

The House and Senate are expected to move swiftly next week to override Bush's veto of a bill loaded with water-related projects sought by members of both parties, from shoring up California's levees to protecting the Gulf Coast from hurricanes.

On Capitol Hill, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said, "I am 100% confident that we can override this veto."

When David “I am not a Whoremonger” Vitter is leading the charge to override King George’s veto, I now believe we have entered an alternate reality.

This idiot does not veto anything for 6 and half years(other then stem cell research), no matter how pork barrel loaded it is for his Republic party lackeys, and now he finds “Fiscal discipline”.

What must be going on in King Georges brain;

Oh my let’s start with Children without health insurance, yeah that’s it, that will show ‘em I am serious, then we’ll veto that nasty water bill that passed with veto proof bipartisan majorities, yeah that’s right ,that will show ’em who’s relevant……………

Ok maybe this is all a plan by Karl “Bush’s Brian” Rove; have all of George’s long time advisors leave town early, then have him start doing really stupid stuff, like veto the water bill, then the Republic Party Congressmen / Congresswomen can vote for overrides and now distance themselves from Crazy King George.

Klondike Kops @ TSA

TSA thwarts its own undercover security test

The Transportation Security Administration touts its programs to ensure security by using undercover operatives to test its airport screeners. In one instance, however, the agency thwarted such a test by alerting screeners across the country that it was under way, even providing descriptions of the undercover agents.

The government routinely runs covert tests at airports to ensure that security measures in place are sufficient to stop a terrorist from bringing something dangerous onto an airplane. Alerting screeners when the undercover officer is coming through and what the person looks like would defeat the purpose.

But that’s exactly what happened on April 28, 2006, according to an e-mail from a top TSA official who oversees security operations

These guys are unbelievable……it’s painfully funny the degree of incompetence that surrounds everything they do.

Vitter May Get To Share Gory Details

D.C. Madam Seeks to Subpoena Senator

WASHINGTON - Alleged D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey wants to force Sen. David Vitter to tell a judge about his experiences with her escort service.

Palfrey has filed court documents seeking to subpoena the Louisiana senator to testify in an upcoming hearing.

As first reported on WTOP, an escort named Paula Neble claims Vitter, R-La., was a customer.

Palfrey is suing Neble, saying she violated a contract by accepting money for sex.

The Republic Party has got to be so excited about the prospect of Vitter being put under oath, just in time for election season next year

The Right Wing Hate Machine in Full Meltdown Mode

Early in the week I welcomed John Cole “Home”, it appears that John leaving the Right Wing fold has driven a few of them over the edge, there posting John’s employers information, his home address and personal and work emails online, and seem to think there is nothing wrong with that……..doh!

Here’s what I here them saying;

“Just a little message to anyone who messes with the Right Wing Smear Machine, you abandon us, you attack us or even dare to disagree with us, you will find us crawling through your bushes.”

 

Firedoglake has more!!

Industries paid for top regulators' travel

Heads of product safety agency took trips from manufacturers, lobbyists

Washington Post

The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others they regulate, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. Some of the trips were sponsoredHeads of product safety agency took trips from manufacturers, lobbyists

by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards.

The records document nearly 30 trips since 2002 by the agency's acting chairman, Nancy Nord, and the previous chairman, Hal Stratton, that were paid for in full or in part by trade associations or manufacturers of products ranging from space heaters to disinfectants. The airfares, hotels and meals totaled nearly $60,000, and the destinations included China, Spain, San Francisco, New Orleans and a golf resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Notable among the trips -- commonly described by officials as "gift travel" -- was an 11-day visit to China and Hong Kong in 2004 by Stratton, then chairman. The $11,000 trip was paid for by the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory, an industry group based in an office suite in Bethesda whose only laboratories are in Asia.

The scary thing is I first read this on my RSS feed and I just sorta nodded and moved on, no big deal, business as usual for the Bushies. That we just see this stuff day after day to the point we just don’t even take notice anymore is just so indicative of how low this group has taken us.

Trick Question About 9/12 Stumps Giuliani

Rudy Sputters at Town Hall Meeting

GOP presidential frontrunner Rudolph Giuliani stumbled badly at a town hall meeting in Iowa last night when an audience member baffled him with a trick question about 9/12.

Mr. Giuliani, who has made references to 9/11 the foundation of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, was “like a deer in the headlights” when the surprise question about 9/12 came his way, observers said.

The former New York mayor had been cruising through the town hall meeting up to that point, answering a wide range of questions about immigration, the economy, and global warming, all by referring to 9/11.

But the tone of the event changed abruptly when one audience member, Tracy Klujian of Cedar Rapids, asked the GOP frontrunner, “Can you name one thing that happened on September 12?”

Mr. Giuliani seemed taken aback by the question, clearing his throat and drinking from a glass of water as if to buy time before responding.

“That’s a good question,” Mr. Giuliani said. “September 12 happened one day after September 11 -- and we must never forget the lessons of September 11.”

Mr. Giuliani’s aides later said that their candidate had expertly parried a difficult question, but also offered excuses for Mr. Giuliani’s apparent failure to refer to any other date besides September 11.

“The man has a lot of dates to keep track of,” one aide told reporters. “For one thing, he’s had three different wedding anniversaries.”

Elsewhere, President Bush eulogized Washoe, the chimp who had a 250-word vocabulary, issuing this official statement: “Me miss Washoe. Me sad Washoe dead.”

Admit it, for a moment you thought it was real…..Andy Borowitz is a riot……………..I just wish the rss feed worked, I subscribed again this morning, let’s see if it works this time……thanks to the moderate voice for pointing this out today.

The Everglades Were A Priority When George Needed The Florida Vote

The rescue of the Florida Everglades, the largest and most expensive environmental restoration project on the planet, is faltering.

Seven years into what was supposed to be a four-decade, $8 billion effort to reverse generations of destruction, federal financing has slowed to a trickle. Projects are already years behind schedule. Thousands of acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat continue to disappear, paved by developers or blasted by rock miners to feed the hungry construction industry.

The idea that the federal government could summon the will and money to restore the subtle, sodden grandeur of the so-called River of Grass is disappearing, too.

Supporters say the effort would get sorely needed momentum from a long-delayed federal bill authorizing $23 billion in water infrastructure projects, including almost $2 billion for the Everglades.

But President Bush is expected to veto the bill, possibly on Friday. And even if Congress overrides the veto, which is likely, grave uncertainties will remain.

The product of a striking bipartisan agreement just before the 2000 presidential election, the plan aims to restore the gentle, shallow flow of water from Lake Okeechobee, in south-central Florida, into the Everglades, a vast subtropical marshland at the state’s southern tip..........

Moreover, earlier this year, the Department of the Interior asked the United Nations to remove Everglades National Park from its list of endangered World Heritage sites.

But now George decides to show fiscal restraint, how about a few billion from the Iraq war to save the Glades!

President Living In Glass House Throwing Stones --- Doh!

President Bush took another opportunity to bash the Democrat- controlled Congress today

Mr. Bush spent much of his time criticizing senators for not yet approving his nominee for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey. A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination is set for Tuesday.

“In a time of war, it is vital for the president to have a full national security team in place, and a key member of that team is the attorney general,” he said. “Yet the Senate Judiciary Committee has been holding up his nomination.”

He also accused them of stalling their votes on other matters of national intelligence and military funding.

“This is no time for Congress to weaken the Department of Justice by denying it a strong and effective leader,” he said. “It’s no time for Congress to weaken our ability to gather vital intelligence from captured terrorists. It’s no time for Congress to weaken our ability to intercept information from terrorists about potential attacks on the United States of America. And this is no time for Congress to hold back vital funding for our troops as they fight Al Qaida terrorists and radicals in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, responded that “President Bush is now just making things up” by putting the blame on his party for the lack of bipartisan cooperation.

“Our own intelligence has documented that it’s Bush Republican policies that have made us less safe and left Osama Bin Laden on the loose to rebuild Al Qaeda,” Mr. Dean said in a statement.

“Democrats have made it clear time and again that we are willing to work with President Bush, and we will do everything possible to capture and kill the terrorists,” he said. “Unfortunately President Bush is more concerned with his legacy and catering to the right-wing than working with Democrats to address the challenges America faces.”

Never mind that the reason the Justice Department needs strong leadership is that your Lackey “Al” hosed it up in the first place then had to run for the hills during the August news slow down. And we are at war Why? Because lied us into it; you lied about why, you lied about how much, you lied about how long and you failed to plan for the peace, but rather tried to outsource it to your and Dick's corporate buddies.

Will Rudy Finally Have To Be Accountable for Something? Anything?

Huffingtonpost:

Calls for an investigation were first proposed by filmmaker Robert Greenwald who has documented Giuliani's handling of 9/11 in a series of shorts for Brave New Films. In The Real Rudy: Radios, Greenwald documents how radios used by the FDNY on 9/11 were the same ones that malfunctioned during the 1993 attack on the Twin Towers. When - eight years later - Giuliani finally purchased new communications equipment for $14 million from Motorola, it was never field-tested. A week later, the equipment was recalled after a firefighter's mayday went un-heard. Giuliani reissued the old batch of radios. And on 9/11 when a police helicopter warned that the North Tower could collapse, more than 120 firefighters remained inside.

"To know that we had failing radios in 1993 and did virtually nothing until September 11 is shocking to say the least," said Gioia. "To watch this documentary and see the important questions that were asked and seemingly unanswered and ignored for so many years, it's disturbing."

When will the MSM actually start to ask Rudy some real questions and demand real answers……not just a noun, a verb and 9/11

We Are Not A Bunch of Happy Campers

Call us the Unhappy States of America.

One year before Election Day 2008, most Americans are dismayed by the country's direction, pessimistic about the Iraq war and anxious about the economy. Two of three disapprove of the job President Bush is doing. Nearly a year after Democrats took control of Congress, three of four Americans say it isn't achieving much, either.

And They're Kicking Our A** Over There?

This is just too funny, no wonder we can’t get them trained enough to actual secure their own country….thanks to Balloon-Juice for pointing it out;

Welcome Home John!!

Because Home is where the heart and soul are!!!

I think John will be just one of many over the next 12 months to see the light:

Long story short, I got up there to register as an independent, said “F**k it,” and now I am a Democrat. I certainly don’t agree with all their positions, but they are not bat-shit crazy like the GOP. That has to count for something. Additionally, I no longer have to read posts by the 24% crowd calling me a “true conservative” with quotes o’sarcasm (you know who they are). Not any more, bitches. I repudiate you, your party, and whatever the f**k it is you are currently pretending is “conservatism.” It isn’t.

Can the Neocons make up their minds

The neocons are saying Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is another Hitler. I thought Saddam Hussein was another Hitler? Can't Ahmadinejad be another Mussolini?


Will Durst

NASA Caves To The Pressure - Will Let Us Have The Data We Paid For

From MSNBC:

NASA boss promises to reveal safety poll results - Administrator feared data would upset travelers, hurt airline profits

Abandoning its secrecy claims, NASA promised Congress on Wednesday it will reveal results of an unprecedented federal aviation survey which found that aircraft near collisions, runway interference and other safety problems occur far more often than previously recognized.

FEMA Lawyers More Worried About "the clock" Then Families' Health

Heard this on NPR on the way home today;

Since the spring of 2006, the Sierra Club documented complaints about formaldehyde levels in trailers. Last year, the EPA tested 96 unoccupied units for formaldehyde and had the CDC evaluate the results.

But none of the information came out until a federal hearing was conducted by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last July. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) the committee chairman, grilled FEMA Director David Paulison.

"Did you test any other occupied trailers?" Waxman asked Paulison.

"We did not test occupied trailers," Paulson replied. "We went along with the advice that we received from EPA and CDC that if we ventilated the trailers that would reduce the formaldehyde issue."

Waxman pressed on, asking Paulison if FEMA tested to see whether ventilating the trailers in fact reduced formaldehyde levels. Paulison said that it did reduce levels in the empty trailers.

But Waxman interrupted the response, repeating that FEMA tests were conducted only on empty trailers with blowing fans, open windows and constant air conditioning.

Waxman asked Paulison again, "What about where people were living?"

Memos from FEMA's attorneys and senior staff show the agency blocked the testing of occupied trailers.

"Once you get results … the clock is running on our duty to respond to them," according to the memos.

In the FEMA testing of closed-up trailers, formaldehyde levels averaged 1.04 parts per million. That's significantly higher than maximum workplace levels recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and three times higher than OSHA's recommendation for exposure during an 8-hour work day. Residents in this case are exposed to the conditions 24-hours a day.

So block the testing, then we have no "duty"? How warped is that….never mind that people are getting sick!

Joe Tells It Like It Is

Crooks and Liars has the Video

Biden: “…And the irony is, Rudy Giuliani, probably the most under qualified person since George Bush to seek the presidency, is here - talking about any of the people here. Rudy Giuliani. I mean think about it, Rudy Giuliani, there’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun and a verb and 9/11 and I mean, there’s nothing else. There’s nothing else.”

Rudy is a cocky little shit with absolutely no qualifications to be President, who runs around like Chicken Little squawking 9/11, 9/11, in between stuff he just makes up and declares as facts.

This Is Terribly Wrong

This shows just how far down the path of fascism we have traveled, A meat packing plant sells tainted meat, then when people get sick and die the plant sues the Church for serving the tainted meat and damaging the plants reputation and hurting business. The fact that they believe they would have a case is very telling about how they view our so called legal system.

The Government knows for sure where the taint comes from but in order to protect the business refuses to release the information.

Meat plant sues Longville church over E. coli outbreak

A woman died after eating at Longville, Minn., church in 2006.

In a twist on the typical food safety lawsuit, a meat plant is suing a church after a deadly E. coli outbreak, pinning blame for the contagion on the church kitchen.

The Nebraska Beef Ltd. slaughterhouse alleged to be the source of ground beef that killed one and sickened 17 in Longville, Minn., last year has sued Salem Lutheran Church.

The lawsuit alleges that volunteer cooks at the church's monthly potluck were negligent as they prepared meatballs out of ground beef purchased at a local grocery store.

"If you went to eat at McDonald's and they didn't process the food right, why would you be less mad if you went to a church smorgasbord," said Gary J. Gordon, the Minneapolis lawyer representing the Omaha slaughterhouse. "Everybody that's providing food to the public has to adhere to a certain standard of reasonable care.”……………………..

A federal inspector at the Nebraska Beef plant found E. coli O157:H7 bacteria and took a genetic fingerprint of it, sending that information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which maintains a database of all E. coli samples, according to Marler.

State health officials, meanwhile, took genetic samples of the E. coli found in Minnesota victims and sent those to the CDC as well, leading to a match with the Nebraska plant, according to Marler.

"The reality is they cannot hide from the genetic fingerprint that was found at their plant," said Marler. He said he plans to subpoena the USDA to release the genetic fingerprint tying Nebraska Beef to the Longville outbreak.

State epidemiologist Kirk Smith said he also believes that Nebraska Beef was the source, wondering why they would file a lawsuit blaming the church if they weren't.

****Update: The Marler Blog has more details

Paul We Miss You

Paul, you and Sheila are missed. You tried to tell us what was coming.

Republic-Rats Leaving The Sinking Ship

For Retiring Republicans, Several Explanations

Deborah Pryce said she was fed up with ugly politics and being separated from her 5-year-old daughter. David L. Hobson is reaching the end of his time at the top of a powerful subcommittee. Ralph Regula will turn 83 in December, and he said he wanted to pass on his political wisdom to students and drive the flashy Thunderbird he had just bought.

None of these senior Republicans from Ohio, all of whom have announced plans not to seek another term in the House next year, cite their reduced status in the minority as a major factor in deciding to join the exodus of their party members from Congress. Nor do they mention the bleak prospect that running for re-election could mean spending millions of dollars and toughing out a difficult campaign, only to lose anyway.

 

The Man Just Does Not Get It - No Wait, He Gets It, He's Just A Fascist Lackey

Mukasey Unsure About Legality of Waterboarding

In an effort to quell growing doubts in the Senate about his nomination as attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey on Tuesday declared that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques “seem over the line or, on a personal basis, repugnant to me” and promised to review the legality of all such techniques if confirmed.

But Mr. Mukasey told Senate Democrats he could not offer an opinion on whether waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is illegal torture because he has not been briefed on the details of the classified technique and does not want to suggest that Central Intelligence Agency officers who have used such techniques may be in “personal legal jeopardy.”

They're Messing WithThe Boss - The Bastards

Bruce: Magic Refused Radio Play

Bruce Springsteen should be very happy. He has the No. 1 album, a possible Grammy for Best Album of the Year for "Magic," an album full of singles and a sold-out concert tour.

Alas, there’s a hitch: Radio will not play "Magic." In fact, sources tell me that Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from "Magic." But it’s OK to play old Springsteen tracks such as "Dancing in the Dark," "Born to Run" and "Born in the USA."

Just no new songs by Springsteen, even though it’s likely many radio listeners already own the album and would like to hear it mixed in with the junk offered on radio.

Now they went and did it…Clear Channel pissed me off enough I had to link to one of the few rational thought found on FixedNews.com

Clear Channel is also hanging John Fogerty. Annie Lennox and others out to dry

It’s not just Springsteen. There is no sign at major radio stations of new albums by John Fogerty or Annie Lennox, either. The same stations that should be playing Santana’s new singles with Chad Kroeger or Tina Turner are avoiding them, too.

Like Springsteen, these "older" artists have been relegated to something called Triple A format stations — i.e. either college radio or small artsy stations such as WFUV in the Bronx, N.Y., which are immune from the Clear Channel virus of pre-programming and where the number of plays per song is a fraction of what it is on commercial radio.

That’s Why I listen to NPR on the way to and from the office and get my real Rock on my Ipod

Theocracy Now!

Max Blumenthal| has a great video called Theocracy Now!

Watch it on the Huffington Post:

On October 20 and 21st, I attended the Value Voters Summit, a massive gathering hosted by the Colorado-based Christian right mega-ministry, Focus on the Family, and its Washington lobbying arm, the Family Research Council. With the pro-choice Rudy Giuliani leading in the race for the Republican nomination and the threat of another Clinton presidency looming, the stakes for the Christian right were high.
At the Summit, I witnessed all of the major Republican presidential candidates compete for the affection of so-called value voters. Rudy Giuliani, the current frontrunner, sought to assuage movement leaders' concerns about his multiple marriages, pro-choice politics, and penchant for cross-dressing. Mitt Romney pledged to fight for a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, hoping his newfound conservatism would somehow lessen evangelical resentment of his Mormon faith.

I Told You We Are Just Trading Facists At The Helm of DOJ

I almost missed this well written editorial in the NY Times last week by Jed Rubenfeld, Thanks to The Daily KOS for pointing it out:

AT his confirmation hearings last week, Michael B. Mukasey, President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, was asked whether the president is required to obey federal statutes. Judge Mukasey replied, “That would have to depend on whether what goes outside the statute nonetheless lies within the authority of the president to defend the country.”…….

It is true that a president may in rare cases disregard a federal statute — but only when Congress has acted outside its authority by passing a statute that is unconstitutional. (Who gets the last word on whether a statute is unconstitutional is something Americans have long debated and probably will always debate.)

But that is not what Judge Mukasey said. What he said, and what many members of the current administration have claimed, would radically transform this accepted point of law into a completely different and un-American concept of executive power.

According to Judge Mukasey’s statement, as well as other parts of his testimony, the president’s authority “to defend the nation” trumps his obligation to obey the law. Take the federal statute governing military commissions in Guantánamo Bay. No one, including the president’s lawyers, argues that this statute is unconstitutional. The only question is whether the president is required to obey it even if in his judgment the statute is not the best way “to defend the nation.”

If he is not, we no longer live under the government the founders established.

Under the American Constitution, federal statutes, not executive decisions in the name of national security, are “the supreme law of the land.” It’s that simple. So long as a statute is constitutional, it is binding on everyone, including the president.

The president has no supreme, exclusive or trumping authority to “defend the nation.” In fact, the Constitution uses the words “provide for the common defense” in its list of the powers of Congress, not those of the president.

I told you all before, this guy was just as bad as “Al”

They Just Keep Piling Sh*t Higher

The AP reports we have let the Blackwater thugs off the hook;    

The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, The Associated Press has learned.

As a result, it will likely be months before the United States can — if ever — bring criminal charges in the case that has infuriated the Iraqi government.

"Once you give immunity, you can't take it away," said a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

Does this Administration have no soul?

 

The Stress is getting to them....

Glenn Greenwald has a really bizarre email thread with a Full Bird Colonel that is just plain weird/

This is a really long read, but worth it,

 

Everyone can decide for themselves if that sounds more like an apolitical, professional military officer or an overwrought right-wing blogger throwing around all sorts of angry, politically charged invective. Whatever else is true, it is rather odd that this was the sort of rhetoric Col. Boylan chose to invoke in service of his apparent goal of proving that there is nothing politicized about the U.S. military in Iraq.

 

 

Come on John, show us you mean what you say!

On ”This Week” Stephanopoulos challenged McCain on waterboarding and the AG nominee;

McCain begins with a statement that clearly would preclude him from voting for Mukasey,

“Anybody who does not know if waterboarding is torture or not has no experience in the conduct warfare and national security.”

Then he obfuscates;

Stephanopoulos : “You obviously feel strongly about this. Will Mr. Mukasey have to say clearly that waterboarding is torture to get your vote for attorney general?”

McCain: “ I can’t be that absolute. But I want to know his answer. I want to know his answer. Obviously, you judge a candidate for office or nominee for office on the entire record. But this is a very important issue to me.”

John if you really are the straight shooter you claim to be this is a no-brainer.

It's All About Controlling The Information Flow

How Putin Giuliani tried to control his NYC legacy:

Shortly before Rudy Giuliani left the New York mayor's office in 2001, close associates worked out an unprecedented and controversial deal to transfer his mayoral papers from City Hall to a private, tax-exempt foundation, the Rudolph W. Giuliani Center for Urban Affairs.

Billed as a leadership think tank, the center served as a conduit for Giuliani to copy and archive 2,100 boxes of documents from his time as mayor before returning the originals to the city.

That record, which includes the months after the Sept. 11 attacks when he was anointed as "America's mayor," serves as the foundation of Giuliani's presidential campaign today. Because he moved his papers through a private organization led by his political supporters, however, the integrity of that record has been called into question.

It followed a pattern of tight control over information that the often combative Giuliani practiced as mayor, a pattern that included more than 100 legal challenges from one New York newspaper alone.

While no evidence has surfaced that the record was compromised, the city of New York nonetheless changed its laws to prevent another mayor from doing what Giuliani did. A coalition of archivists, historians and other city officials also raised questions about whether the documents would be sanitized, but the Giuliani Center was allowed to finish archiving the records.

Anyone who thinks it is safe to put this man in charge of anything, let alone our Government, is nuts!