I may need one of these later..
Alan Greenspan today warns of worst crisis since 1945.
JP Morgan buys out Bear Stearns for $2 a share. More on the bailout. More from the CarpetBaggerReport. Oil hits $111/barrel..
Crooks & Liars has video from Bill Moyers Journal: Going after the whistleblower.
It’s infuriating that the Bush administration has gone so far around the Constitution without any accountability from those who are charged with oversight, yet the few journalists and whistleblowers that have tried to shine a light on the actions of the Bush administration are fighting to not go to jail. Case in point: James Risen, the reporter who broke the warrantless wiretapping story and who is now fighting to not go to jail after being subpoenaed to reveal his sources. Rick Karr looks at how the Bush administration has consistently sought to squelch journalists and whistleblowers like Risen, Sibel Edmonds, and even Talking Points Memo.
Cheney is in Iraq to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Cheney says “It’s good to be back in Iraq“.. (Yeah, well why don’t you stay there..)
AfterDowningStreet posts a lengthy article from The New York Times on Cheney’s mission: Cheney in Iraq to Lubricate Oil Theft.
According to a pool report of comments made by a senior administration official who was flying with Mr. Cheney, the vice president plans, among other things, to push Iraqi officials to pass petroleum legislation that would help bring international oil companies to Iraq.
The official described it as being about Iraqi leaders “figuring out how they really begin to exploit” the country’s resources, according to the pool report.
Senator and GOP presidential candidate John McCain is also in Iraq. Seems a little early (and presumptuous) to be passing the reigns of power don’t you think? Photo op? Back room deals? Vowing continuity?:
Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain vowed in meetings with Iraq’s prime minister Monday that the U.S. would maintain a long-term military presence in Iraq until al-Qaida is defeated there.
Who knows.. McCain is also meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki before he heads to Israel, France, and Britain. McCain’s not alone. He is accompanied by Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham. Explosions rocked the capitol of Baghdad, but Cheney hailed “phenomenal changes”! More on Cheney and McCain in Iraq from TalkingPointsMemo.
Patrick Cockburn writes on the state of Iraq (or more to the point, the non-state) after five years of occupation at Common Dreams. His article is called “How to Destroy a Country in Five Years“. Fitting.
ThinkProgress looks at: Five Years Later, Iraqis Still Lack Basic Services, Believe Surge Has Made Security Situation Worse
President Bush is ignoring most requests of the FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act). (Can he do that..?)
More on Iraq Veterans Against the War: ‘Winter Soldier 2008′at Crooks and Liars.
From BradBlog, Warren County, OH’s, 2004 Election Night Lockdown Finally Investigated by Media:
With more than 3,000 counties in the United States of America, only heavily Republican Warren County, Ohio — one of the last to report election results in the Buckeye State that night — took action on Election Night 2004 to lock out members of the public and the media from their tabulation room.
From Alternet, Bush Diplomacy: Predator Planes Are Conducting Assassinations by Air
Attacks all over the planet by U.S. Predator planes suggest Bush thinks he has the “right” to kill civilians.
Brent Budowsky writes: Hillary’s Plan to Elect McCain and a Right-Wing Supreme Court. This makes a lot of sense to me. I can’t believe this is happening..
Well, that’s about as much depressing news as I can stand for one day. Its getting to the point of surreal..
Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
16 Comments
March 17, 2008 at 11:07 am
Great post as alway’s nwmuse, maybe it would be better to say very informative, sorry…I agree, all to depressing…..Oh well, as an old song say’s “Monday’s never were any good any way”…Can’t remember the song name….Another line,,Wed. I get better just for spite…..Hurry up Wed.
Got an email from Nader, he listed his percentage point’s along with Mcnutty’s and Hillery…..No mention of Obama’s at all…I found it odd….Not planning to vote for him but subscribe to his email’s so I can see how dreadful thing’s are going. I for one will be glad when the world as we knew it is fixed……..Blessings all
March 17, 2008 at 11:10 am
Please forgive me, I forgot to mention I rely enjoy your header photo’s as well as your post’s..Today’s look’s like a place I would like to be…Blessings
March 17, 2008 at 12:55 pm
“Alan Greenspan today warns of worst crisis since 1945.” March 2008
http://www.slowplay.com/archives/2005/03/15/greenspan-tax-cuts.php
“Greenspan stands by his support for Bush 2001 tax cuts”
F*** you, Alan. Thanks for nothing.
March 17, 2008 at 12:58 pm
“JP Morgan buys out Bear Stearns for $2 a share”
Poof! Gone in a flash, $140 billion of paper money – worth next to nothing overnight.
Keep watching that dollar…..
March 17, 2008 at 1:15 pm
GREAT post! Thank you!
I’d like to add:
How many times has Bush, Cheney, or anyone in a position of authority in the US gone into Iraq with any fanfare? Have they made anything other than a “surprise” visit? Why is the press not questioning that (amongst the thousands of other things that they should be doing as supposed journalists)? Especially after Ahmadinejad went there with not just great fanfare but to welcoming cheers. Makes one wonder if they might not be too well received as liberators, eh?
The game of labeling (mostly black) voters as criminals having felony convictions remains strong in Florida. It took the cameras of Greg Palast’s investigative piece on the real voter fraud going on in this country, in this instance caging, for one man to finally be allowed to vote. He had been turned away in 2004 as being a convicted felon. Unfortunately, or fortunately for him, he was no such thing. After being turned away in 2004, he elected to vote early in 2008, to ensure that his vote would be heard. He was again turned away – as he had been in 2004 – for having a criminal record. The next day, Greg Palast and his cameras followed the man to the city hall (or wherever it was that early votes were cast) so he could again attempt to vote. Apparently, cameras are able to magically make convictions disappear.
Another little nifty trick that the GOP is doing in FL is offering democrats an opportunity to sign their names to supposedly a “referendum” (petition, if you will) type of issue, in this case it was medical marijuana. What they were really signing was a registration form stating that they were a republican. It consisted of a real registration form with an overlay of the issue they were supposedly signing. On the FL registration forms, there are only two places where the person has to use their own handwriting, and guess which two areas of this “referendum” they had to sign? The rest was conveniently filled in by some GOP operative. It was discovered by the head of the board of elections when it was brought to his attention by someone who knew him and realized what had happened. When he pulled her voter registration form, viola, she was now a republican.
The GOP bought mailing lists of targeted people to whom they sent certified letters. Those letters had to be signed in person, if they were not, they were returned to the sender as the person not being there, and those people were then told that they were not valid voters but given provisional ballots (which, apparently, are thrown out and never seen or heard from again).
Greg is saying that the DoJ is now doing this in 15 states.
Many of those people being caged are military. How greater irony is there than to cage a military person’s right to vote.
Oh, and speaking of right to vote, guess what? There is none. When the whole Bush v. Gore thing was going down, the justices (ok, not ALL, but I digress) said that the Constitution does not give people the right to vote.
Bring in the Voting Rights Act which we now need to ensure that each of us does indeed have the right to vote.
The entire article can be found here
And let’s not forget that state elections are ruled over by the likes of Katherine Harris, many of those Secretaries of State are high ups in the GOP political machine, are major fundraisers and/or political operatives. Just as the US Attorneys “serve at the pleasure of the president” – and we have seen how that works – the Secretaries of each state supposedly serve their state, but in many a case, if they are a republican, they serve their party first and foremost.
We have much to overcome in 2008 above and beyond our party being decimated by infighting and dirty politics. Greg Palast shows us just a few.
March 17, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Good post. And Terry, I came to say the same thing. He is part of the problem. He should shut his yap and he and his trophy wife should slump off into obscurity.
March 17, 2008 at 2:37 pm
If that’s a bar, I’ll have a quadruple.
March 17, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Meanwhile Chimpy fiddles on…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/mar/17/useconomy.creditcrunch2
Chimpy, since you ran, how many businesses into the ground? Why did anyone expect anything else of your tenure of USA Inc.?
Watch for the short sell coming this year – it’s a well-known Bush family trait
March 17, 2008 at 2:52 pm
It’s a bar RUC but Zooey fired all the bartenders. I’m docking her pay for sure.
March 17, 2008 at 2:54 pm
JP Morgan Chase, that’s where my money is invested. Or should I say was invested.
March 17, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Never trust a JP.
March 17, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Hey Muse….. here’s a story you missed:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/17/tibet.china1
Three or four months to go to the Olympics? Berlin 1936, Moscow 1980 and now Beijing 2008?
March 17, 2008 at 3:08 pm
And to think those lads who did their salute in 1968 were coming in for a hard time again on the one-eyed propaganda box again recently… nothing about this stuff, eh?
March 17, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I”ll remember that, and warn the single ladies around here.
March 17, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Hey is that a wedge of cheese? Wouldn’t that be redundant? ducking, ducking, running to hide
March 17, 2008 at 3:34 pm
That is it, Shayne, next Avatar, just to rub it in.
Comments are closed.