Cheney was key in clearing CIA interrogation tactics

Repost from an earlier date:

Cheney was key in clearing CIA interrogation tactics

From the LA Times

The vice president says that the use of waterboarding was appropriate and that the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should stay open until 'the end of the war on terror.'

By Greg Miller

December 16, 2008

Reporting from Washington -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he was directly involved in approving severe interrogation methods used by the CIA, and that the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should remain open indefinitely.

Cheney's remarks on Guantanamo appear to put him at odds with President Bush, who has expressed a desire to close the prison, although the decision is expected to be left to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Cheney's comments also mark the first time that he has acknowledged playing a central role in clearing the CIA's use of an array of controversial interrogation tactics, including a simulated drowning method known as waterboarding.

"I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared," Cheney said in an interview with ABC News.

Asked whether he still believes it was appropriate to use the waterboarding method on terrorism suspects, Cheney said: "I do."

His comments come on the heels of disclosures by a Senate committee showing that high-level officials in the Bush administration were intimately involved in reviewing and approving interrogation methods that have since been explicitly outlawed and that have been condemned internationally as torture.

Soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, Cheney said, the CIA "in effect came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do. And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it."

Waterboarding involves strapping a prisoner to a tilted surface, covering his face with a towel and dousing it to simulate the sensation of drowning.

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden has said that the agency used the technique on three Al Qaeda suspects in 2002 and 2003. But the practice was discontinued when lawyers from the Department of Justice and other agencies began backing away from their opinions endorsing its legality.

Cheney has long defended the technique. But he has not previously disclosed his role in pushing to give the CIA such authority.

Cheney's office is regarded as the most hawkish presence in the Bush administration, pushing the White House toward aggressive stances on the invasion of Iraq and the wiretapping of U.S. citizens.

Asked when the Guantanamo Bay prison would be shut down, Cheney said, "I think that that would come with the end of the war on terror." He went on to say that "nobody can specify" when that might occur, and likened the use of the detention facility to the imprisonment of Germans during World War II.

"We've always exercised the right to capture the enemy and hold them till the end of the conflict," Cheney said.

The administration's legal case for holding detainees indefinitely has been eroded by a series of court rulings. Obama has pledged to close the facility, which still holds 250 prisoners.

Cheney's remarks are the latest in a series of interviews granted by Bush and senior officials defending their decisions as they prepare to leave office. Bush recently said his main regret was that U.S. spy agencies had been so mistaken about Iraq's alleged weapons programs. Cheney and the Bush administration have been accused of "cherry-picking" intelligence to support going to war with Iraq.

Cheney said that those mistakes didn't matter, and that the U.S. invasion was justified by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's ability to reestablish destructive weapons programs. The vice president brushed off a series of findings questioning that view, including a 2006 Senate report concluding that Hussein lacked a "coherent effort" to develop nuclear weapons and had only a "limited capability" for chemical weapons.

"This was a bad actor and the country's better off, the world's better off, with Saddam gone, and I think we made the right decision in spite of the fact that the original [intelligence] was off in some of its major judgments," he said.

Hope and Progress for President Obama

This is OUR day...the day of HOPE for PROGRESS toward the future. We must remember that it can't be done with just hope, and with just depending on our president. We have to help, we have to work for that progress too.

We must start to learn how to live differently. We need to teach our children what the meaning of sacrifice and sharing is. We have allowed ourselves to become lazy, and forgotten the lessons of our parents and grandparents.

I am guilty of it. I did for my daughter, much more than my parents did for me, because I thought I was giving her things that were withheld from me. Now, as I have gotten older, and hopefully wiser, I see that I was really wrong. Oh, I didn't always just give her things...I couldn't. But, there were lots of times I did without so she could have toys she really didn't need.

I see things like that happening now. I hear some of the talking heads saying they see people lining up to buy $400 phones, $800 teevees and things like this so we can't be in a recession. Are they really serious?? I sometimes wonder if they are on the same planet I am on.

Yes, some people are spending money. It is probably money they have saved for a long time, or it could be they have put it on their credit cards. But this too will come back in the end.

We each need to look at our lives, think about our priorities and get them straight. We have been through 8 years of the worst kind of misery I can imagine. We have had a president that didn't care about our families, didn't care about our country really. He didn't care about much of anything except how he looked to his self, and evidently he liked what he saw when he had his picture painted, I thought it looked silly. Where is Dorian Gray when you need him??

We are ready to begin anew...this is an awakening for us all. So as we start a new administration, as we bring in a new president, lets start anew with purpose. With HOPE for the future, for PROGRESS of our Country and our lives.

Honoring Martin Luther King

On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King delivered the "I have a Dream" speech. Finally part of the dream is about to be realized. Every year we have made progress toward reaching the end of that dream. I don't believe we have yet reached total equality. We have come a long way, yet there are those who still would keep the African American down.

We take the time today to honor Dr. King on this his birthday. I am posting the video of his speech here, and on the page you can click through to here is the text and pictures of the march to the Lincoln Memorial, and other links to pages that will give you more information. It is worth a few minutes to look at it and see the wisdom this man had.

There are still those who scoff, still those who mock him, still those who use racial epithets, that's why I say his dream is not fully realized. We still have a ways to go.

In the election we saw something of that, in the numbers of people who wouldn't or didn't admit they were voting for PE Obama and then went to the voting booths and voted for him. Not because they were racist, but because they were afraid to admit they were voting for a black man for fear of someone they knew making fun of them.

So, yes we have a ways to go.

This is Ann Telnaes Cartoon from the Washington Post this morning. It is one of her best ever. It fits right in with today. It is worth looking at. It brought tears to my eyes.

Here is the link to American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, I Have A Dream

Here is a link to the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" which was written April 16, 1963. It was thought by some of his followers that he had lost his mind when they got this. Later they realized how profound his words really were.

Here is the video:


I in no way mean to take away from this day of celebration, but to honor it by adding this wonderful video by Dave Stewart. This is his revision which he did to bring in PE Obama as the partial fulfilling of Dr. King's dream. Enjoy this musical tribute to Dr. King and the historic inauguration of PE Obama.

Beyonce sings America the Beautiful

This was the finale today at the Lincoln Memorial. Beautifully done. Can't say any more than that. Words will not do it justice.

PE Obama addresses the crowd at Lincoln Memorial

WOW!!! That's all I can say. Estimates of around 800,000 people there. I believe it. They were stretched from the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the Washington Monument. Almost solid from some of the shots. It was awesome looking at it.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

American Recovery and Reinvestment Program

The plan for the new stimulus package, American Recovery and Reinvestment Program, has been released and you can check out the entire package here.

One of the things I found very interesting was this part about the EPA:

Environmental Cleanup
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Superfund Hazardous Waste Cleanup: $800 million to clean up hazardous and toxic waste sites that threaten health and the environment. EPA has 1,255 sites on its National Priority List, selected based on a hazard ranking system. There are many Superfund sites ready for construction, but not funded due to budget shortfalls and over 600 sites with ongoing construction that could be accelerated.
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Leaking Underground Storage Tanks: $200 million for enforcement and cleanup of petroleum leaks from underground storage tanks at approximately 1,600 additional sites. There are an estimated 116,000 sites with the potential to contaminate important water supplies.
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Nuclear Waste Cleanup: $500 million for nuclear waste cleanup at sites contaminated as a result of the nation’s past nuclear activities. Accelerating the completion of projects will reduce long-term costs.
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Closed Military Bases: $300 million for cleanup activities at closed military installations allowing local communities to redevelop these properties for productive use. The Department estimates that there is a $3.5 billion environmental cleanup backlog at bases closed during previous BRAC rounds.
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NOAA Habitat Restoration: $400 million for ready-to-go habitat restoration projects.
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Brownfields: $100 million for competitive grants for evaluation and cleanup of former industrial and commercial sites - turning them from problem properties to productive community use. Last year EPA was only able to fund 37% of Brownfields applications.

Hopefully this will start us on some of the cleanup needed in these messes we have around the country left over from the Bush years.

Here is what I referred to earlier about the COBRA benefits:

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$39 billion to support those who lose their jobs by helping them to pay the cost of keeping their employer provided healthcare under COBRA and providing short-term options to be covered by Medicaid.

And this is very important I think...it has been neglected so very long. We need our roads and bridges rebuilt.

Highway Infrastructure: $30 billion for highway and bridge construction projects. It is estimated that states have over 5,100 projects totaling over $64 billion that could be awarded within 180 days. These projects create jobs in the short term while saving commuters time and money in the long term. In 2006, the Department of Transportation estimated $8.5 billion was needed to maintain current systems and $61.4 billion was needed to improve highways and bridges.

Something that is near and dear to my heart and should be very important to all of us. We need to make sure this is done and this is probably just a drop in the bucket to what is really needed.

Veterans Administration Facilities
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Veterans Medical Facilities: $950 million for veterans’ medical facilities. The Department has identified a $5 billion backlog in needed repairs, including energy efficiency projects, at its 153 medical facilities.
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Veterans Cemeteries: $50 million to put people to work making monument and memorial repairs at cemeteries for American heroes.

One of the things Bush was supposed to have done and ignored as he "kept us safe after 9-11" was to secure our ports and borders. Well he neglected to do so. The 9-11 commission instructed him this needed to be done. Yet, he still never did it. Well, it is now going to be done.

Border Ports of Entry: $1.15 billion to construct GSA and Customs and Border Patrol land ports of entry to improve border security, make trade and travel easier and reduce wait times, and to procure non-intrusive inspection technology at sea ports of entry, which is used to scan cargo containers to reduce the risk that containers can be used to smuggle weapons of mass destruction.

Again, this is looking good. The total is big...yes it is. But we as a country are in big trouble. We know that. We, got into a mess, thanks to Bush & Co., Iraq, cutting taxes to the wealthy and spending money on things we shouldn't have. Things were out of control for 8 years.

PE Obama has a great team behind him and he has a good group supporting him. He also has bipartisan support across the country. He is taking office as the most popular president ever.

Again, you can read the entire report here, it is a pdf file. There is much, much more. For education, health care, housing, National Treasure repair and for the Arts.

Check it out. I am sure your favorite thing is there too. If not, write or call your congress person and express your opinion. Now is the time. As long as it isn't something silly, and is something that really needs to be taken care of and is worthwhile, it should be at least looked at.

Remember, PE Obama is OUR President. We elected him, and he wants and needs our opinions and our feedback. That's the only way he knows what is going on.

So, read it, share it and then let me know what you think. I think it is great and it should help get our country going again. And that's what we need, to get our Country going again, to make us strong, safe and secure, something I never felt before, but I am starting to with President Obama.

Health Care Promise in Stimulus Package..

President Obama is trying to deliver another of his promises, even if only partial. At least it is a step in the right direction. Part of the stimulus package, about 39 Billion it is estimated, will go to help unemployed people who are without health insurance.

A transition aide said: "Obama supports the protection of health insurance through COBRA and Medicaid in a time-limited way." Taken together, the insurance for children and laid-off workers signifies an effort by Democrats to create momentum for the more difficult work of broad health reforms that they and the Obama administration plan to undertake soon.

This is wonderful. It is a step in the right direction toward getting health care for all of us.

The Medicaid proposal would give assistance through 2010 and would break with significant features of the program created as part of the Great Society of the 1960s. Medicaid always has been a shared financial responsibility of the U.S. government and the states. But under the proposal, federal money would pay for all benefits and administrative costs for unemployed people who joined. In addition, the expansion would be the largest step ever taken beyond Medicaid's original purpose of insuring people who are poor or disabled. There is precedent in recent years for opening Medicaid in times of crisis -- for some New York residents after 9/11 and for people who fled communities ravaged by Hurricane Katrina -- but not on the scale envisioned now.

This would be great. Most states have cut Medicaid funding, it seems. I know it was cut here in Missouri under our Republican Governor and his co-horts in the Republican led congress. They decided since they needed to cut spending somewhere why not to the poor and disabled who only depend on the health care.

Another part of the subsidy would provide assistance for people who want to keep the insurance they had at their job. This plan would help them pay their insurance premiums under what is known now as COBRA.

House leaders said the COBRA proposal would subsidize for one year 65 percent of the price of premiums for private insurance that laid-off workers bought. According to legislative sources, that level of help could ultimately change, depending on feedback from congressional budget analysts.

For the past two decades, COBRA has guaranteed that certain laid-off workers may, if they pay for it, continue the insurance they used to get through work -- usually for 18 months. But the government has never helped them afford it, and coverage is expensive. Under COBRA, employers may charge former workers 100 percent of the insurance cost -- an average of about $12,000 a year for a family -- plus a small surcharge.

Research has shown that a small fraction of people eligible for COBRA buy it. A study released last week by Families USA, a liberal consumer health lobby, said COBRA is "an economic impossibility" for most people, because its typical costs would use up nearly 84 percent of the average unemployment benefits.

The twin ideas, preliminarily estimated to cost $39 billion through the end of next year, would represent sharp departures in two long-standing programs and already are sparking debate along the ideological continuum on Capitol Hill and beyond. In Congress, several key Democratic House members and senators have endorsed the broad contours, while a few Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have signaled that they are wary. Debate, however, will not solidify until lawmakers learn more precisely how much the proposals would cost and how many people they might help.

Among outside health policy specialists, conservatives are critical of expanding an entitlement and are predicting that states would have a hard time shutting the spigot of help once the federal money stopped. Liberals are predicting that, even with the large federal investment, coverage could remain unaffordable for too many people.

The ideas' boldness reflects a precipitous rise in the uninsured. Recent estimates suggest that worsening unemployment, which reached 7.2 percent last month, translates into a loss of health coverage for an additional 2.6 million people. That increase, on top of the estimated 45 million uninsured, is exacerbating a persistent problem in the U.S. health-care system: too many people who lack access to proper care.

We need to get this passed as part of the stimulus package. This would be a great step forward and would show people what could be done. The biggest stumbling block as shown above is going to be the Republicans. So if you have a Republican Senator or Congressman in your state or district you need to write or call them and let them know you support this.

Even if you don't need this, think about it... someone else might. We need to think about the bigger picture here. We need to think about others and what our neighbors need.

Reference: Washington Post

Pres. Elect Obama...for the last time

For the last time, our President ELECT addresses us. Next time he will just be the President. I have thought of him that way for a long time. I have tried to be respectful of the office of the president while the other one was there, but oh wow.. now that we have a shiny new one...it is hard. So here he is...the President Elect..for the last time...

PE Obama to issue Executive Orders to fix Bushes Screw Ups

It has been reported by Politico and by Crooks & Liars that PE Obama is going to be signing Executive Orders after the Inauguration to start undoing some of the things the Bush administration has done to our country.

These include torture of terror suspects, closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and other controversial security policies.

According to Sen. Russ Feingold, (D,WI) he’s been informed that President Obama will support his proposed legislation to make public some opinions from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which issued some of the Bush Administration's most sweeping claims of executive power. Obama also has promised to limit President Bush's practice of using "signing statements" to amend legislation.

From Politico:

"Every day we get indications that they're serious about reversing the abuses of the Constitution," Feingold, a harsh Bush critic, told Politico. Feingold said he thinks Obama is likely to issue executive orders rapidly reversing Bush policies, and others have indicate that those will likely cover the interrogation and detention of terror suspects, and keeping the records of past presidents secret.

"I don't know in what order or how fast" Obama’s executive orders could come, he said. "It'll be important that a couple of them be done immediately, and I think they will be, to show there's a strong break from the current policy."

Chris Lu, executive director of Obama’s transition team, told supporters in a conference call earlier this month that Obama’s aides have “started developing executive orders that the pres elect is considering –not only ones the President-elect will sign after January 20, but also ones we will want to repeal."

Obama aides didn't respond to requests for more detail, but the president-elect campaigned against what he called Bush’s abuse of executive authority.

"I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president, I actually respect the Constitution," Obama told an audience at a campaign fundraiser in 2007.

In “Change for America,” a book by the Center for American Progress Action Fund that was designed as a blueprint for Obama’s presidency, Yale Law School dean Harold Hongju Koh outlined "a package of executive orders, proposed legislation, agency shakeups, and concrete foreign policy actions” the new president should embrace, including “four key executive orders” requiring the closing of Guantanamo Bay and ending the torture of detainees

This just reinforces my faith that PE Obama is planning on doing the right thing and putting this country back on the right track. He will restore out standing in the world and allow us to hold our heads up high again. There has been dissent by some on the left saying they thought he was not going to keep his promises to do some of these things and I have been telling them to just be patient. PE Obama couldn't just come out and say everything he plans to do from day one.

We just need to stand back and wait and see what happens. As long as we hold his feet to the fire and support him, yet hold him accountable when he doesn't keep his promises AFTER HE GETS IN OFFICE we will be fine.

But lets get him in office first.

Repost of The Citizens Petition

The Citizens Petition: Special Prosecutor for Bush War Crimes
[Please go to Democrats.com and sign the petition!]

With the recent admissions by Vice President Cheney and the release of the Senate Armed Services Committee Report on detainee treatment, what we have known in the blogosphere for years has now....finally....made it into the mainstream. The Bush Administration planned, developed and carried out an organized torture program stretching from Gitmo to Iraq, Afghanistan and secret prisons around the world.

Despite their protestations and attempts to cover themselves with highly questionable legal opinions, this was and is a War Crime. Their politicization and corruption of the Department of Justice has stymied any investigation and left all efforts at accountability and justice to the new Obama Administrations DOJ, and specifically to AG Designate Holder.

Now, even the New York Times is....again, finally...calling for a Special Prosecutor to investigate these crimes.

However, as we also know well in the Blogosphere, this is far more than an issue of crime, punishment and justice as it should be. It is a political issue. A 'hot potato' political issue considering that any and all attempts at investigation and prosecution will undoubtedly (and erroneously) be described by the Republicans, the Right Wing press and pundits, and even some (complicit?) Democrats as a 'partisan witch hunt' and as 'criminalizing politics.' in other words, there are huge political costs at stake here. It would be much, much easier to 'move on' or 'not play the blame game' or point fingers to the past.'

The Obama Administration will face incredible pressure to sweep these War Crimes under the rug of history. We in the Blogosphere need to provide the counter-pressure. We do that by making our voices heard, and one way to do that is by each and everyone of us, the thousands if not millions of blog readers, adding our names to a petition. The petition will ultimately be submitted to AG Holder, as well as to Change.gov. However it can make a great impact on the 'public conversation' just by being everywhere in the Blogosphere as well.


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To that end, Docudharma and Democrats.com have teamed up to create, host, and distribute the following petition. The petition calls for Attorney General Designate Holder to, immediately upon being confirmed, appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all officials of the Bush Administration for Torture and War Crimes.

The petition:

Dear Attorney General Designate Holder,


We the undersigned citizens of the United States hereby formally petition you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in War Crimes.

These crimes are being euphemistically referred to as "abusive interrogation techniques" by such respected figures as Senator John McCain. These are euphemisms for torture. Torture is a War Crime. Waterboarding is a War Crime. The CIA has admitted waterboarding detainees. Recently, Vice President Cheney has brazenly admitted authorizing the program that lead to waterboarding, other forms of torture too numerous to list, and ultimately, the deaths by homicide of detainees.

As Major General Antonio Taguba, the Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison has stated:

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

The Washington Post recently summarized the Senate Armed Services Committee Report on detainee treatment thusly:

A bipartisan panel of senators has concluded that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and that their decisions led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere.

We the undersigned citizens demand a full and thorough investigation immediately upon your taking office. This investigation should be pursued no matter where it may lead and no matter what the political implications may be. To this end, we remind you that you work not on behalf of or for the President or the Congress, but for the People of the United States of America and for Justice itself.

The United States is a representative democracy. The actions of our government officials are done in the name of its citizens. War Crimes have been committed in our name. Torture has been done in our name. The only way to clear our name of War Crimes is to repudiate them through the aggressive prosecution of each and every person involved to the full extent of the law through the appointment of a Special Prosecutor.

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We are urging everyone in the Blogosphere and beyond to get involved in this project...not just to sign the petition, but also to write diaries and blog posts in support of the effort. And also to display the linked badge (created by Edger) in your posts or on your sites. The easy to embed code for posting the badge can be found here.


Please feel free to contact us at admin@docudharma.com for more information or any technical assistance you may need.

If you wish to post this essay, or just the petition, on any site or your own blog, please mail us at admin@docudharma.com and we will send you the entire essay, complete with HTML code, to post wherever you wish. Please feel free to edit, within the parameters of keeping the original spirit and intent. We enthusiastically give full permission for such use!

[And of course......Please go to Democrats.com and sign the petition!]

Confirmation Week for the New Administration

These next three days are important for the incoming administration. We have upcoming hearings for confirmation. Here is a schedule so far.

-- Tuesday, Jan. 13, 10:00 am ET: Education: Arne Duncan (HELP Committee)
-- Tuesday, Jan. 13: Energy Secretary: Steven Chu (Energy and Natural Resources Committee)
-- Tuesday, Jan. 13, 10 am ET: HUD: Shaun Donovan (Banking Committee)
-- Tuesday, Jan. 13, 9:30 am ET: State: Sen. Hillary Clinton (Foreign Relations Committee)
-- Wednesday, Jan. 14: Veteran Affairs: Gen. Eric Shinseki (Veterans' Affairs Committee)
-- Thursday, Jan. 15: Interior: Sen. Ken Salazar (Energy and Natural Resources Committee)
-- Thursday, Jan. 15: Attorney General: Eric Holder (Judiciary Committee)
-- Thursday, Jan. 15: Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano (Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee) (tentative)
-- Thursday, Jan. 15, 9:30 am: UN Ambassador: Susan Rice (Foreign Relations)

I am not sure which CSPAN channels they will be on...I am sure they will be on some of them. The ones Thursday will be the one for fireworks I am sure.

Eric Holder is the one the Repubs have promised to make an example out of.

This from the same group who gave us Ashcroft, Gonzales, John Yoo, and several others. These being the ones who told the Bush Administration it was ok to torture, ok to listen in on unsuspecting citizens, including our military calling home to their families thinking it was private.

From all accounts he will be approved, but will be given a thorough grilling due to the Marc Rich pardon. He has admitted this was a mistake on his part. Yet that isn't enough, they want to humiliate him instead.

So, watch it and see how he does. Our hopes are on him, he will in all likelyhood be the one to prosecute Bush & Co. if it comes to that. It's about time to bring up the petition again. That will be my next post. But watch these if you can. Support them, write about them, do what you can to help make this work out for the best.

Remember, the only way we can make this work is if we all work together. Something we seem to have forgotten the last few years...and something our new president reminds us all of... his words from 2004 just as pertinent today:

....snip....

A belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief - I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper - that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one.Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

......snip.......

I'm not talking about blind optimism here - the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. The audacity of hope!In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation; the belief in things not seen; the belief that there are better days ahead. I believe we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity. I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair. I believe that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.

Bloggers under attack, and fighting back

There are some funny things going on today... Stories popping up and emails going around. For the funny story, you have to check out this blog called The Political Carnival. They have a story on John Ziegler that will just make you laugh. After his little song and dance about Sarah Palin this week... it is worth the read. He is such a goof ball.

Then another blog I read a lot Celtic Diva got a strange email. Now you have to understand first of all. Linda, the Diva herself, lives in Alaska and has for several years. That's how I started reading her blog, was when Sarah Palin was introduced to us and I went to "the Google" to check her out and I found some wonderful places, to get good information about her. Linda was also the DNCC blogger for the State of Alaska. Which is quite the honor. So you need to go to check out the answer to the email. I took out the name and address..

The email goes like this:

Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 6:50:54 AM
Subject: Blog
You are one nasty and mean spirited person for continuing to perpetuate outright lies regarding the integrity of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Do yourself a favor (as well as your readers) and do your own research on Gov Palin and report the fact to us. If it is so important for you to blaspheme her, spend the money and fly to Alaska and obtain the facts. Best wishes for 2009. Rick

Now as you can see, he tells her to go to Alaska and check out the facts and then report back to her. So, he didn't read her site, just found it and realized she had posted something on Palin and attacked her by email.

And to say she is "blaspheming" Palin. By telling the truth. Besides, how do you do that. The definition of blaspheme is "to speak irreverently or profanely of or to (God or sacred things)." UM, Sarah Palin is not God...and she is NOT sacred. Geeze people get a life...will you.

Like I said, strange. Then, after the Palin interview with Ziegler I decided I would check out his site. So I went to John Ziegler's site which doesn't say anything about Sarah Palin... the name is How Obama got elected... (see my post from yesterday)...lol Because that's what he is claiming. That was the biggest part of the portion of the tape he released, the media is terrible, they were mean to Palin, they treated her terrible and everyone nicely and that's why Obama got elected.

Ziegler also has another video out. It's called Blocking The Path To 9/11 and it's about how the Clinton's were the cause of 9/11. Well, them and Kieth Olbermann. It is about how it was all a plot so Hillary could get elected president. Well, since that didn't happen, he had to figure out something else. So, the media who covered up everything in 9/11 for the Clinton's, especially ABC, elected Barack Obama president.

John Ziegler, is quite something, he also got into quite a shouting match with Nate Silver of 538.com about his poll from around election day. Nate called it a push poll
and I tend to agree with Nate. It was very biased. But of course John doesn't see it that way. I tried to answer the questions but the way it was worded was almost impossible to even answer. You couldn't answer some of the questions because the right answer was not there. So, how were you supposed to take his poll fairly?

Someone commented on my post from yesterday, what happened in 2000 and in 2004 that George W. Bush got elected, since the liberal elite media is so evil, but no one has ever been able to answer that for me either. I did ask about the figures that were quoted in my last post, the 97% of teachers and such. He admitted he made those up. I had figured as much, but I wanted him to admit it. That's mostly what I find. When you push some of these people who like to quote these so called facts, they can't give you a source, it is all made up.

We need to be vigilent, for people like these, wing nuts or whatever you want to call them. Sarah Palin is a force to be reckoned with. I firmly believe she is planning a run in 2012. I think her plans right now are to finish out her term in 2010 and then start her campaign for president. John Ziegler is signed on. He has already started with this interview/movie her did of her.

Rick, the author of the email to Celtic Diva has signed on, and all the members of Team Sarah have signed on. They number in the thousands and are growing every day. As we have seen, she is not afraid to lie to get what she wants, and she doesn't care who she hurts along the way.

TVA Screws up at Kingston Plant George Bush Legacy Lives On

I was reading the paper this morning, (yes, I still read the paper, I am one of those funny people who still likes the feel of paper in my hands) anyway, as I was reading I noticed an article in there about the Coal Ash Spill in Eastern Tennessee. According to this article the chief executive of the TVA, acknowledged Thursday the plant's containment ponds leaked two other times in the last five years but had not been repaired correctly.

Let me repeat that, THEY HAD LEAKED TWO TIMES BEFORE AND BEEN REPAIRED, BUT NOT CORRECTLY!!!!!!! WTH DOES THAT MEAN!!!!!!!!

And this guy is still in his job?? His name is Tom Kilgore, and he told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that they had found that dikes holding toxic coal ask mixed with water at the Kingston Plant in Tennessee had allowed NOTICEABLE seepage in 2003 and 2005.

The TVA choose cheap patches instead of a more extensive repair which they think may have contributed to the catastrophic failure of Dec. 22. Well, DUH. You know, you put a patch on something it is always weak there, and the more pressure you put on it eventually it will give way...especially if you do it with inferior products or in an inferior manner. Just makes sense doesn't it. Why is that so hard to figure out?

It isn't clear that the breach is due to the earlier cheap fixes because they can't clearly link the two failures, but Kilgore said obviously it doesn't look good. Again, I say … DUH!!!!!!

This flood of toxic ash and water destroyed three homes, damaged several dozen properties but luckily there have been no deaths. However, the long term effects of this will not be known for years. How many more of these are there??

Sen. Barbara Boxer, (D, CA) Chairwoman of the EPW Committee passed around a jar of the nasty sludge from the spill in Tennessee and said she was partly to blame for this mess. She has not been on top of the TVA in the last two years as she should have been.

Yes, she should have been. But then so should who ever was before her. If there were two other breaks in this dam before, and no one has done anything about it there should be an investigation of that. Why have these things just been left to slide?

As, PE Obama has stated over and over, our infrastructure is crumbling. This is an example of just that.

How many other of these dikes and bridges would have had to fail before George Bush would have noticed and done something about it? This is something that has happened before. Remember St Paul? The I-35 Bridge that fell into the Mississippi River? Another example of our crumbling infrastructure. Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the levees to hold the flood waters and getting the people to safety, another example.

These are things that should have been addressed. Instead, our president for 10 more days decided we had to go to work in Iraq. He wants to rewrite his legacy now.

Just think, if he had not gone to Iraq, but done his job right here, fixed the crumbling infrastructure, been on the ball and paid attention when they warned him about Katrina being a monster, he would go out in style, instead of going out in shame. Now, he has to duck shoes, duck people, hide his face, wave at no one to look good when he comes outside the White House, and pick and choose where he goes. Then try to re-write history so he looks good riding off into the sunset January 20th because no one will cares that he is leaving. Well, I guess we do care... We will be so happy, we are celebrating in record numbers.

Happy Days Are Here Again!!!!!!!!!

Weekly Radio/You Tube Address from PE Obama

It's Saturday...here is our shiny new president elect...telling us the truth, giving us the scoop..keeping us in the loop. Gosh he just makes me feel good listening to him. Even with the bad news this week about the jobs. He just makes me feel full of, dare I say...HOPE..encouragement..At least he comes and talks to us..We don't have to wonder where he is...Hey, how cool is it that only just over a week...it won't be President-Elect any more.. He will be THE REAL PRESIDENT....WOOO HOOOO!!!!

He references a report in his address this morning... I am adding a link to it. It is called The Job Impact of American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.

Here is our President:

The Media Got Barack Obama Elected

We didn't need to vote. We didn't need to make phone calls, knock on doors. Donate money. Volunteer our time, post signs, drive others to the polls, none of that stuff. It wasn't our hard work that helped elect our president. It was the media.

I have heard this from Morning Joke Scarborough, (as one blogger I read puts it, he who has never explained the dead woman found in his office) and I even heard it from my daughter the other day. Her statement was, “All the media wanted him elected.” This was because someone, I don't remember who was criticizing him for not speaking out about the Israeli/Gaza conflict.

Yesterday, on another blog I read, there was a post by a contributor who stated and I quote”
I know you all want to turn a blind eye to these things...but Hollywood has a liberal bias in everything it puts out there. I can name maybe a handful of pro-Republican, pro-Military, pro-conservative movies/TV shows out there...95% of the rest of them have a liberal bias. And don't get me started on what kids are "learning" in classrooms around the country with 97% of Teachers being registered as Democrats and college professors in a liberal world all their own.”
Now, I am not sure where he got his figures. I have never seen anything like the 97% of teachers being registered as Democrats...or that 95% of movies and TV shows are liberal biased. But that was his story. Of course he is a conservative. So, from his viewpoint maybe it is.

And now, another viewpoint...the north country heard from. Sarah Palin is talking again. The big bad media, the irresponsible bloggers, everyone but Sarah. So, again it is the media. If she thinks the media was so bad during the campaign in 2008, what will she do during her run in 2012? Because folks, get ready, she is gearing up for her run.

Now, polls are showing that she won't make it if she tries to pick off the senator in 2010, and there is some speculation that she might NOT get re-elected for governor. So, maybe she is practicing now, then in 2010 just starting her campaign for president. Because this interview is obviously a gear up for her run.

But, did the media elect Barack Obama?? I sure thought it was my vote and yours and the other 69,456,895 people who voted for him. And the 365 electoral votes he got. That's who I thought elected him. But maybe we were wrong.

Ret. Adm. Dennis C. Blair has been selected as National Intelligence Dir.

Dennis Cutler Blair (born 1947) is the John M. Shalikashvili Chair in National Security Studies at The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) [1] and the General of the Army Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership at Dickinson College [2] and the U.S. Army War College [3]. He is the immediate past President of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a U.S. Government think-tank in the Washington D.C. area focused on national security. Reuters has announced that Blair will be the Director of National Intelligence in the Obama administration.[4]

Blair was born in Kittery, Maine in 1946, and was a 6th generation naval officer. He attended St. Andrew's School (1964) and, as a classmate of Oliver North and James H. Webb, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968. Following his graduation from the Naval Academy, he started his career with an assignment aboard the guided missile destroyer, USS Tattnall, followed by a Rhodes Scholarship, majoring in Russian studies at Oxford University, during the same time future president Bill Clinton studied there. He served as a White House Fellow from 1975 to 1976 with Wesley Clark and Marshall Carter, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.

His last job in the military was Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Pacific Command, the highest ranking officer over all U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Previously, he was Director of the Joint Staff in the Office of the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff and served in budget and policy positions on several major Navy staffs, and the National Security Council staff. He was also the first Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support. He retired from the United States Navy in 2002.

Leon Panetta to head CIA

According to MSNBC Leon Panetta to be named as CIA Director. Here is a little Bio of Leon Panetta.

Leon Edward Panetta (born June 28, 1938) is Democratic politician and scholar from California's Central Coast. He served as White House Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton, and before that was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1976 to 1993. He is the founder and director of the Panetta Institute, serves as Distinguished Scholar to the Chancellor of the California State University system and is a professor at Santa Clara University teaching public policy.

In 1956 he entered Santa Clara University, and in 1960 he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He also received a Juris Doctor in 1963 from the Santa Clara University Law School, and soon after began practicing law.

In 1964 he joined the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant. There he received the Army Commendation Medal, and was discharged in 1966 as a Captain.

Panetta switched to the Democratic Party in 1971, as he felt the Republican Party was moving away from the center and was working against civil rights legislation. In 1976 he was elected to Congress to represent California's 16th congressional district (the 17th district after the 1990 census), and was reelected for nine terms.

During his time in Congress, his work concentrated mostly on budget issues, civil rights, education, health, and environmental issues, particularly preventing oil drilling off the California coast. He wrote the Hunger Prevention Act (Public Law 100-435) of 1988 and the Fair Employment Practices Resolution. He was a major factor in establishing the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

His positions included:

Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Budget
Chairman of the Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing, Consumer Relations, and Nutrition
Chairman of the Administration Committee's Subcommittee on Personnel and Police
Chairman of the Task Force on Domestic Hunger created by the U.S. House Select Committee on Hunger
Vice Chairman of the Caucus of Vietnam-Era Veterans in Congress
Member of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies.

In 2006 he was part of the Iraq Study Group aka the Baker Commission.

Although he has never actually worked in the "spook" business I can't help but think this will be a good fit. He is a very smart man. He has principles, which is a very good thing and he will be dedicated to the President and to the country. He will not allow the atrocities which have gone on in the last 8 years. That is the main thing I think. I firmly believe that.

Tim Kaine, Gov. of VA ...next DNC Chairman.

From MSNBC Political News... First Read

NBC News has confirmed that President-elect Obama has tapped Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to head up the Democratic National Committee.

Note that it was always expected that current chairman Howard Dean's term would end after the 2008 presidential election. Obama, as the incoming president, gets to select the DNC chairman.

How cool is that... I think Tim Kaine is a great guy... I was really hoping for a place in the cabinet for him. But I think he wanted to finish out his term as Governor of Virginia. He is young and has a great future a head of him. Watch this guy...he may just be a president in the making.

First Casualty of the new Administration...Gov. Bill Richardson

This just in from MSNBC......

Richardson to withdraw as Commerce secretary
The New Mexico governor cites pending investigation of business dealings
NBC News
updated 12:14 p.m. CT, Sun., Jan. 4, 2009
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state.

"Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact," he said Sunday in a report by NBC News. "But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process."

He said he plans to continue in his role as governor. "I appreciate the confidence President-elect Obama has shown in me, and value our friendship and working partnership. I told him that I am eager to serve in the future in any way he deems useful. And like all Americans, I pray for his success and the success of our beloved country."

Obama said Sunday he accepted Richardson's decision to withdraw with 'deep regret.'

"Governor Richardson is an outstanding public servant and would have brought to the job of Commerce Secretary and our economic team great insights accumulated through an extraordinary career in federal and state office," Obama said.

Weekly Radio/You Tube Address from PE Obama

I haven't posted these before. Not sure why. Just haven't done so, but from now on I think I will start doing it. They always make me feel so good, about myself, our country, our new president, our future. We have a long way to go. It's not going to be easy. But if we all work together, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, even those who have no party or don't want to say, or don't vote, if we ALL, pull together to support one another, we will make it.

Right now, according to the polls, he has 76% of the people behind him. That's pretty good. That's more than ever before, except in times of tragedy. Well, to some of us this is a time of tragedy. Our financial system is in turmoil, people are out of work, losing their homes, some are not sure where their next meal is coming from.

So far, my immediate family is ok. We have money, we have roofs over our heads, we have food. We may not have a lot, but we are surviving. But, I know there are a lot of people out there that are not as lucky as we are. I count my blessings every day. As should we all.

So, lets pull together, reach out a hand and help your neighbor, even if you don't know them, get to know them. Let's work together and make our country strong again.



To add to this I think we have to remember the words from his speech to the DNC in 2004. This is only a part of that speech...these words towards the end when he said:

And he knows it's not enough for just some of us to prosper. For alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga.

A belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper -- that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one.

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

I think this is as much and maybe more true now than it was then. We need to come together now as one people, to be the UNITED States of America. To work together to heal and help all of us prosper, to rebuild our economy, our jobs, our country, our honor, our status in the world.

So, today...reach out..stretch your hand to someone...anyone...will you???