Monthly Archives: November 2007

Capitol Hill (A Song Parody)

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I felt like taking it personally this time. Enjoy “Capitol Hill”, a parody of Peter Gabriel’s “Salsbury Hill”. (You know the one. “My heart was going BOOM, BOOM, BOOM…” yeah. That one.) Zooey was kind enough to find a nice version where he sings it well. Thanks Zooey.

(To see the original post and comments, you can see it at my blog here.)
Capitol Hill
Original Words and Music “Solisbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel
New lyrics by Wayne A. Schneider ©2007

Climbing up on Capitol Hill
I could see I’d have a fight
Legislators standing still
Need to show ‘em what is right

Here is something I observed
Came up here to have my voice
No one seemed to have the nerve
Had to tell ‘em, “You have no choice”

They did not believe the information
Just have to trust in my persuasion
Iraq is going BOOM, BOOM, BOOM
I said, “Do what’s right
And bring the troops back home!”

To keep in line with my design
I couldn’t act like I was nuts
If I stood and moaned and whined
All their doors would soon be shut

So I went from face to face
Though I felt that in my gut
I could slow the dying’s pace
If the funding I should cut

I was seeing part of democracy
I looked right down at the debauchery
Iraq is going BOOM, BOOM, BOOM
I said, “Stop right now,
And bring the troops back home!”

When delusion spin her net
I wanna know how this could be
And liberty is no sure bet
I don’t think that I’ll stay free

Watch their empty rhetoric
They close their eyes and will not see
Why should I use etiquette?
I will show what I can be

Today I got placed in confinement
I told them what the words on my sign meant
Iraq’s still going BOOM, BOOM, BOOM
“Hey”, I said, “You can keep me here
Just bring the troops back home.”
(Yeah, back home)

Tasered Utah Motorist More Generous Than Most

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Here’s a follow up to a story posted by TripMaster Monkey recently, which I find rather amazing.  Most people would be a bit pissed off about having been tasered in front of his wife and children by a cocky over-the-top control freak cop, but this guy is asking people to have mercy on Trooper Gardner.

From Raw Story:

“I wish people would realize and think about this: Trooper Gardner is a real person, he’s got a real family. Real lives are being affected,” Jared Massey said earlier this week.

Trooper Jon Gardner of the Utah Highway Patrol subdued Massey with a Taser when the driver walked away and refused to sign a speeding ticket on Sept. 14.

Wow.  That’s really quite amazing…

WH Says It’s “Too Soon” to Discuss Subprime Loan Plan

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The subprime mortgage problem is spiraling out of control, but the White House has declined to discuss possible steps toward alleviating the problem, or possible plans to make deals with lenders to freeze the interest rates on some loans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Friday said it was “premature” to discuss possible new steps to address the mortgage crisis and declined to comment on reports that officials are working on a deal with lenders to freeze interest rates on some loans.

“It’s premature to talk about those discussions at this point,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters, when pressed on whether the administration is working on a new initiative regarding the mortgage market.

Stanzel said that administration officials “certainly have been working in close consultation with the private sector and with the industry to look at ways in which we can help people keep their homes.”  (Emphasis added)

Uh huh, the White House is in cahoots working with the “private sector” and with the “industry” for solutions.  Aren’t these the same entities making massive profit from subprime loans?

I won’t hold my breath…

Another Dem uses the “I” word..

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via: Raw Story

Sen. Joe Biden, the loquacious long-shot Democratic presidential candidate, warned President Bush Thursday that he would move for impeachment if the president unilaterally authorized a military strike against Iran.

“The President has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran and … if he does, as foreign relations committee chairman and former chairman of judiciary, I will move to impeach him,” Biden told a crowd of about 100 potential voters at a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

Biden said he is meeting with constitutional law experts and plans to send Bush a legal memo formally outlining his warning, according to Seacoast Online, which reported his comments.

The senior Delaware senator told the crowd that calls for Bush’s immediate impeachment were valid but may not have enough constitutional support to make them viable. He added that Bush wasn’t the only White House figure who deserves to be booted.

“If you’re going to impeach George Bush, you better impeach Cheney first,” Biden said, garnering applause from the crowd.

Read more…

As much as I want to see Bush and Cheney impeached, this sure sounds like election year rhetoric and grandstanding by Senator (candidate) Biden. If he were serious, why doesn’t he speak up in support Kucinich’s Resolution H.R. 333 (now H.R. 799)?

Breaking: Hostages taken at Clinton Campaign office

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The situation is as yet unclear, more later.

Here’s CNN

UPDATE: Second Hostage released. The man who has entered the Clinton campaign office, according to on of his hostages, with a bomb strapped to his body, has now released his second and last hostage.

UPDATE II:  A local Rochester, NH man has been arrested.  He is apparently known to the police, and he may have been upset with the mental health system in the U.S.   No hostages were injured.

The Effort to Change California Election Law, Through an Initiative, to Help the GOP

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Why Democrats Should Not Only Fight It, But Also Push For a National Popular Vote Plan
by John W. Dean
via: Common Dreams

Soon we will learn whether a few desperate but very well-funded Republicans have succeeded in collecting the necessary 434,000 valid signatures to go directly to California voters on a ballot initiative to change the election laws. If the initiative were to succeed, it could significantly help elect a GOP presidential candidate in 2008.

With a tone of considerable loathing, The American Conservative magazine – a very Republican magazine — describes this “California Schemin’” as a gimmick, arising out of a loser mentality, “to change California from a state that awards its electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis to one that hands them out proportionately.” Simply stated, the magazine notes, the goal of this effort is “to scrape up another 20 electoral votes” for the next Republican presidential candidate.

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Underfunded Schools Forced To Cut Past Tense From Language Programs

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via: The Onion

Faced with ongoing budget crises, underfunded schools nationwide are increasingly left with no option but to cut the past tense—a grammatical construction traditionally used to relate all actions, and states that have transpired at an earlier point in time—from their standard English and language arts programs.

A part of American school curricula for more than 200 years, the past tense was deemed by school administrators to be too expensive to keep in primary and secondary education.

“This was by no means an easy decision, but teaching our students how to conjugate verbs in a way that would allow them to describe events that have already occurred is a luxury that we can no longer afford,” Phoenix-area high-school principal Sam Pennock said. “With our current budget, the past tense must unfortunately become a thing of the past.”

Continue reading… (THIS IS SATIRE)

Clever…

Olbermann talks with Naomi Klein

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Naomi Klein is the author of the book “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism“. I am in the middle of this book right now. It is amazing.. She is very articulate and the interview with Keith Olbermann on Countdown last night is well worth the listen. Some of what she discusses about the steps taken in Iraq are also borne out in Rajiv Chandrasekaran‘s book “Imperial Life in the Emerald City“. She says a lot in a very short amount of time.

Who’s Crazy?

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Questions for the day.

Where’s the beef?

China has refused to recall the 70 million Turkey Terrorists they sent to the US to poison us.  President Bush has ordered an attack on Ankara as retaliation.

Who’s got the gold?

As I postulated a few days ago, scientists at Duke University have been messing with our genes.  They have discovered a “pot” of genes filled with real gold or fool’s gold.  We all know which pot DUHbya has been dipped into.

Where’s the fire?

This little video gives quite a picture of the evolution of the last fifty years.  It is a must see but may be new stuff for some of you young’uns.

What I did for love..

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The New York Daily News weighs in on the report from The Politico on Rudy Giuliani, and his NYC paid love trysts to Southampton, with the numbers:

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for his security detail’s travel expenses at the time he was spending weekends in the Hamptons conducting an extramarital affair with Judith Nathan, the Politico website reported Wednesday.

The website said it obtained documents showing that tens of thousands of dollars in travel costs were absorbed by such agencies as the Loft Board and a disabilities office.

At the time, the mayor’s office refused to explain the accounting to city auditors, saying the expenses were for ‘security,’ the article said.

The revelation hours before a Republican presidential debate could confront Giuliani with new questions on integrity and judgment, weeks after his former police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, was indicted.

Bills for hotel rooms, gas and other costs for his police detail during 11 visits to Southampton between 1999 and 2001, when Nathan had a condo there, were apparently concealed.

The bills were charged variously to city agencies that provide lawyers to poor defendants, aid the disabled or regulate loft apartments.

The expenses were discovered in 2001, at the end of Giuliani’s term, when a city auditor noticed $34,000 worth of travel expenses buried in the accounts of the New York City Loft Board.

Another $10,054 was billed to the Office for People With Disabilities, $29,757 to the Procurement Policy Board and about $400,000 to the Assigned Counsel Administrative Office.

Auditors were unable to verify that the expenses were for “legitimate or necessary purposes,” City Comptroller William Thompson wrote in a confidential 2002 letter to Mayor Bloomberg.

Giuliani’s affair with Nathan, now his third wife, became public in 2000 and he separated from second wife Donna Hanover.

Isn’t this illegal? At the very least, immoral? And Rudy is the leading CONSERVATIVE?
Here is Politio’s original article. Here is Politico’s follow-up article today after Giuliani responds.

UPDATE: Here is more today from The New York Times

UPDATE:  Josh Marshall of TPM weighs in with “The Irony of Shag” and “Shag Fund Spin“. Wow! Shagadellic baby!

Rudy’s Chronic Mendacity

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Nothing a shot of ‘real’ journalism can’t cure.. Or can it?

Today’s New York Times features an article on Rudy called “Citing Statistics, Giuliani Misses Time and Again” by Michael Cooper.

In almost every appearance as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination, Rudolph W. Giuliani cites a fusillade of statistics and facts to make his arguments about his successes in running New York City and the merits of his views.

Discussing his crime-fighting success as mayor, Mr. Giuliani told a television interviewer that New York was “the only city in America that has reduced crime every single year since 1994.” In New Hampshire this week, he told a public forum that when he became mayor in 1994, New York “had been averaging like 1,800, 1,900 murders for almost 30 years.” When a recent Republican debate turned to the question of fiscal responsibility, he boasted that “under me, spending went down by 7 percent.”

All of these statements are incomplete, exaggerated or just plain wrong. And while, to be sure, all candidates use misleading statistics from time to time, Mr. Giuliani has made statistics a central part of his candidacy as he campaigns on his record.

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Senator Biden draws an imaginary line in shifting sands…An Open Letter to Senator Biden

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Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) stated unequivocally that he will move to impeach President Bush if he bombs Iran without congressional approval. “The President has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran and if he does, as foreign relations committee chairman, I will move to impeach,” he said.

What, going to war against Iraq based on lies isn’t enough?

Invading Afghanistan instead of pursuing extradition isn’t enough?

Admitting secret renditions, a violation of international law, isn’t enough?

Holding a U.S. citizen for years without charges isn’t enough?

Torturing prisoners isn’t enough?

You, Senator Biden, have to draw an imaginary line in the sand? A line which, by the way, ignores the effect of the War Powers Act granting the President the authority to use military force any way He sees fit for up to 60 days without Congressional approval.

No, Senator Biden, I am not impressed with your grandstanding. There are enough reasons to impeach the president right now. You don’t need to add one more line, one more time. Support the Constitution NOW or shut-up about it.

(This has been cross-posted at TP)

This ‘n That

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Quote of interest (via BradBlog) – from Chuck Hagel:

Hagel, who considered running for the GOP presidential nomination as an antiwar candidate, told the foreign policy experts that he would give the Bush administration “the lowest grade of any I’ve known.”

“I have to say this is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I’ve ever seen or ever read about,” Hagel said, according to our colleague Robert Kaiser, who attended the speech. In case his audience didn’t get the point, Hagel also said: “They have failed the country.”

‘Why Tuesday’ Candidate Challenge. Hear answers from all the 2008 candidates themselves on the issues.

McCain Blames Rise of Hitler on Ron Paul’s ‘Isolationism’ at the Republican CNN/YouTube Debate (Geez.. Great response from Ron Paul):

Here is Juan Cole’s take on what happened in this embarrassing exchange.
Here was an interesting take from Salon on last night’s debate: The godawful GOP debate.

Keith Olbermann is releasing a new book! Its called “Truth and Consequences: Special Comments on the Bush Administration’s War on American Values”. It won’t be released until December 29,2007, but it is already racing up the charts!

Apparently Osama bin Laden has put out yet another tape.. This time he is accepting full responsibility 6 years after 9/11. (Better late than never..) I find this interesting, after I commented last month that to date, the FBI has not charged Bin Laden with the 9/11 attacks. According to the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorist” list, Usama Bin Laden is at the top, but nowhere does it say he is wanted for 9/11..

I found this gem today called “Is Bush Stupid? Well, duh..” (via: The Smirking Chimp). Gorn, here are a lot more quotes to choose from..

This Friday night Bill Moyers Journal profiles the politically powerful group Christians United for Israel (CUFI), whose leader, Pastor John Hagee, wants to bring millions of Christians together to support Israel. This should be interesting.. Remember Max Blumenthal’s video on this?

Photo by _gee_. Used with permission.

Subpoenas revisited (again..)

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I almost hate posting on this because this is getting so ridiculous.. But.. here it is…

via: CNN

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected White House claims of executive privilege and demanded Thursday that key White House aides testify in the case of the controversial firings of U.S. attorneys.

The committee’s investigation has found “significant and uncontroverted evidence that the president had no involvement in these firings,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said. Thus, the White House can’t claim executive privilege or immunity, which are meant to protect private communications between a president and White House aides, he ruled.

The committee has issued subpoenas for White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former political advisor Karl Rove, among others.

Hmmmm….. Wake me up when they actually follow through with something…. yawn…….. snore…………..

Giuliani flooded with bad press..

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Rudy can’t seem to get a break. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy..

First, the article by the Politico came out yesterday, right before the Republican CNN/YouTube Debate:

As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.

The documents, obtained by Politico under New York’s Freedom of Information Law, show that the mayoral costs had nothing to do with the functions of the little-known city offices that defrayed his tabs, including agencies responsible for regulating loft apartments, aiding the disabled and providing lawyers for indigent defendants.

At the time, the mayor’s office refused to explain the accounting to city auditors, citing “security.”

The Hamptons visits resulted in hotel, gas and other costs for Giuliani’s New York Police Department security detail.
Read on…

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