Rumsfeld facing war crimes case in Germany

Tue 30 November, 2004 05:33

BERLIN (Reuters) - Lawyers acting for a U.S. advocacy group will today file war crimes charges in Germany against senior U.S. administration officials for their alleged role in torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
[ full article ]

From Deutsche Welle: Rumsfeld Sued for Alleged War Crimes

From al Jazeera: Group to charge US with war crimes

With a lapdog Congress, perhaps international pressure is the only avenue of redress for our grievances.

More evidence of the new fascist state

The Republicans are coming out in the open with their real agenda; The destruction of American Democracy.

Analysis
Hastert's new House order

By Charles Babington
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — In scuttling major intelligence legislation that he, the president and most lawmakers supported, House Speaker Dennis Hastert last week enunciated a policy in which Congress will vote on bills only if most House Republicans back them, regardless of how many Democrats favor them.

Hastert's position, which is drawing fire from Democrats and some outside groups, is the latest step in a decade-long process of limiting Democrats' influence and running the House virtually as a one-party institution. Republicans earlier barred House Democrats from helping draft major bills such as the 2003 Medicare revision and this year's intelligence package. Hastert, R-Ill., now says such bills will reach the House floor, after negotiations with the Senate, only if "the majority of the majority" supports them. . . .
[ full article ]

Don't just take my word for it. Read the signs of Fascism and give it some thought.

Fascism Anyone?
Laurence W. Britt
from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 23, Number 2.
http://secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm

...the fascist or protofascist model...
...fourteen common threads...

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
5. Rampant sexism.
6. A controlled mass media.
7. Obsession with national security.
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.
9. Power of corporations protected.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
14. Fraudulent elections.

Unfit to govern

The Istook amendment wasn't a mistake. It's the new Republican way... The new proto-fascist congress, where Representatives and Senators are just window-dressing for the 'Leadership'. Amendments inserted into bills in the middle of the night (by person or persons unknown). In both houses, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, the 'rank and file' won't be allow to participate... because it's not democracy anymore. The snooping into Americans finances (Istook) amendment may be removed from law, but a stealth anti-choice amendment won't... It too was slipped into the spending bill without proper legislative process and consensus.

House to Return to Quell Tax Controversy
Killing Expansion of Hill Access to IRS Returns Dec. 6 Frees Spending Bill
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 24, 2004; Page A07

House Republican leaders were forced yesterday to summon lawmakers back into session next month to quell an uproar over a belatedly discovered provision in a huge spending bill that would have given Appropriations Committee chairmen access to Americans' tax returns. . . . .

Doubts remained yesterday over exactly how the controversial tax-return provision -- which allows Appropriations Committee chairmen or their "agents" access to Internal Revenue Service facilities or "any tax returns or return information contained therein" -- got into the omnibus spending bill late last week. House Republicans blamed committee staff aides and the IRS.

Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the IRS, denied any role. Yesterday Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who had referred to the proposal as the "Istook amendment" Saturday, issued a statement expressing regret for "any confusion my earlier remarks may have created."
[ full article ]

November 22, 2004
Congress Passes "Back-Door" Abortion
Gag Rule
An anti-abortion provision with potentially widespread impact will remain intact as part of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill for 2005, in spite of efforts by pro-choice Senators to block the measure. President Bush is expected to sign the omnibus spending bill.

On Friday, nine female Senators, including Olympia Snowe (R-ME), sent a letter to chair of the Appropriations Committee Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), requesting that the language of the clause be changed and protesting the fact that the Federal Refusal Clause had not been discussed in committee, nor had it been put to a vote on the Senate floor. According to the women Senators, the clause, sponsored by Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL), would “allow a broad range of health-care companies refuse to comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations pertaining to abortion services. Should this provision become law, federal, state, or local governments may no longer require any institutional or individual health-care provider to provide, pay for, or refer abortion services. This will mean that medical providers in hospitals and clinics across the country will likely be victims of demonstrations and intimidation as this provisions allows that they be forbidden from providing abortion care to women who need it, and also to deny women referrals to another provider. . . .
[ full article ]

Borrow and Spend

I hope all you clowns that voted Republican are real happy with an Eight Trillion Dollar debt!

Nov 17, 11:14 PM EST
Senate OKs $800B Debt Limit Hike
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer

...The mostly party line, 52-44 vote was expected to be followed by House passage Thursday. Enactment would raise the government's borrowing limit to $8.18 trillion - $2.23 trillion higher than when Bush became president in 2001, and more than eight times the debt President Reagan faced when he took office in 1981. ...

... "This can be called a birth tax, a birth tax that is dumped on the back of every American child unwillingly," said Kerry, who voted against the borrowing increase. ...
[ full article ]

Making it up as they go.

Isn't this sweet!
The Republicans -[the Moral Values people]- are changing the rules to shield Tom DeLay -[Political Thug extraordinaire]-.

House GOP May Change Leadership Rules
By Charles Babington Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 16, 2004;

House Republicans were contemplating changing their rules in order to allow members indicted by state prosecutors to remain in a leadership post, a move designed to benefit Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in case he is charged by a Texas grand jury that has indicted three of his political associates, GOP leaders said today. ...

Combine this with Republicans -[the Moral Values people]- plans to change Senate rules on filibusters to ram through Judicial nominees and Their complete disrespect for Democracy is crystal clear.

It's BAD...REALLY BAD!

This 'so called' shake up in the C.I.A. is a disaster in the making. They're bringing in political hacks to fill important positions... the same kind of political hacks that Bremer took to Iraq with him [and look how well that's turned out]. These MoFo's are applying a political litmus test to civil servants and squeezing out competent people who don't meet their criteria of loyalty to this pResident and his party.
CIA departures concern Congress

CIA Chief Seeks to Reassure Employees
E-Mail Sent After 2 Officials Resign

By Dana Priest and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 16, 2004; Page A01

...Goss has said he believes the CIA's clandestine service is dysfunctional and needs changes. His critics say the director, a former CIA case officer and Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, is purging the agency of career officers whom he incorrectly perceives as critical of Bush administration policies.

In addition, Goss has over the last month put in charge several former Hill staff members who are not well regarded by senior officials because they lack managerial and operational experience, and are believed to have treated career officers disrespectfully.

This is not the first time a new director's personnel changes have put the agency in turmoil, but the criticism of the Goss team's actions is the first to raise questions of partisanship. ....

This seems to be happening in other parts of the government too. Apparently these Republicans are planning to leave a very insidious legacy of political operatives within the civil service.

It's bad enough that they're politicizing the civil service... but, what do you call people who'd make that politicizing a priority above wiping out al Qaida.

Do you feel a DRAFT?

During the campaign, Bush insisted he had no plans to restart the draft. Was that just another LIE? Did God tell Georgie-boy to lie?

Saturday, October 30, 2004
Potomac Watch: Administration's own actions fuel rumors of draft
By ERIC ROSENBERG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indignantly scoffs and scolds about the relentless rumors that the Bush administration is planning to reinstate the military draft.

"This plot is so secret that it doesn't exist," Rumsfeld wrote this week in the desert News of Salt Lake City. "To my knowledge, in the time I have served as secretary of defense, the idea of reinstating the draft has never been debated, endorsed, discussed, theorized, pondered or even whispered by anyone in the Bush administration."

In a radio interview earlier this month, Rumsfeld denounced the rumors as "a mischievous political effort that's being made to frighten young men and women."

This may come as a shock to the Pentagon chief, but most of the rumors have arisen from actions within the Bush administration, which has studied how to expand draft registration to include women, target some civilian work specialties for special attention by the draft and extend the required draft registration age from 25 years old to 34 years. .... [ full article ]

Here's what's been done to gear up for the draft.

The Selective Service System, the Bush Administration, and the Pentagon have been quietly moving to fill draft board vacancies nationwide in order to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. In preparation several million dollars have been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget. The SSS Administration must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. The Pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide. An unpopular election year topic, military experts and influential members of Congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld’s prediction of a “long, hard slog” in Iraq and Afghanistan (and a permanent state of war on “terrorism”) proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft. ... (more)
SOURCE: Project Censored

Torture-Guy for Attorney General?

What a Horrible Idea!

What can they be thinking over at
the Christian Science Monitor?

A more moderate voice as AG
By Peter Grier Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – One of the most important things to remember about Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales is obvious: He's not John Ashcroft.
A moderate conservative with a mild demeanor, White House counsel Gonzales - unlike Ashcroft - isn't a polarizing figure in Washington. He'll draw some tough questions from Senate Democrats, but he's likely to be easily confirmed. ....

Gonzales wrote a draft memo on the treatment of prisoners that called some of the Geneva Convention provisions on prisoner treatment "quaint." His office also played a role in the formulation of a 2002 Justice Department memo that concluded torture of suspected terrorists might be legal under some circumstances. ... [ The Christian Science Monitor ]

Safer? Not likely!

Slowly but surely, the truth is leaking out.
Bush and Co. have other priorities.
Protecting America and defeating al Qaeda sure aren't at the top of their list!

CIA Officer Criticizes Agency's Handling of Bin Laden
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 9, 2004; Page A28

One of the most senior intelligence officers in the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit said yesterday that fewer experienced officers are assigned to defeating the al Qaeda leader and his followers now than there were on Sept. 11, 2001. ....
[ full article ]

Mandate My Ass! Part II

If you accept the election results as legitimate and not the result of vote fraud; Bush got 51% of the popular vote and 53% of the electoral vote.
Fifty-one per cent is a majority, not a mandate!

PRESIDENTIAL RESULTS (270 Electoral Votes Needed to Win)

.	Electoral Votes	Popular Votes	% Popular Votes
Bush (R)	286	58,978,616	51
Kerry (D)	252	55,384,497	48

---

Here's a little historical perspective on the make up of the House of Rep's. Notice that in the 107th Congress Republicans held 50.8% of the seats. Now it looks like they may have push their majority to 53%.
Far from a mandate to rewrite the laws of the land!

76th Congress (1939-1941)
Total Membership: 435 Representatives, 2 Delegates, 2 Resident Commissioners
Party Divisions: 262 Democrats, 169 Republicans, 2 Progressives, 1 American-Labor, 1 Farmer-Labor

88th Congress (1963-1965)
Total Membership: 435 Representatives, 1 Resident Commissioner
Party Divisions: 259 Democrats, 176 Republicans

97th Congress (1981-1983)
Total Membership: 435 Representatives, 4 Delegates, 1 Resident Commissioner
Party Divisions: 242 Democrats, 192 Republicans, 1 Independent

107th Congress (2001-2003)
Total Membership: 435 Representatives, 4 Delegates, 1 Resident Commissioner
Party Divisions: 221 Republicans, 212 Democrats, 2 Independents

global warming is here, but don't tell anybody

What kind of people are in power here in the United States?
Climate change brought about by human activity is increasing.
The evidence is solid.
And the Bush Administration wants everybody to keep quiet about it.

U.S. tries to block support for policies on global warming
By Juliet Eilperin
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has been working for months to keep an upcoming eight-nation report from endorsing broad policies aimed at curbing global warming, according to domestic and foreign participants.

The group working on the report has concluded Arctic latitudes face historic increases in temperature, glacial melting and abrupt weather changes. State Department representatives have argued that the group lacks evidence to prepare detailed policy proposals.

Several participants in the negotiations, all of whom requested anonymity for fear of derailing the Nov. 24 report, said officials from the eight nations and six indigenous tribes involved in the effort had ample science on which to draft policy. .... [ full article ]

Mandate My Ass!

Another stolen election and Bush is preparing to ram through legislation that only a tiny minority want. That's right, a tiny minority... Corporate crooks and religious fanatics.

Confident Bush Outlines Ambitious Plan for 2nd Term
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
Published: November 5, 2004
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 - A confident President Bush vowed on Thursday to move quickly and vigorously to enact the ambitious agenda he set out during the campaign, saying, "The people made it clear what they wanted."

..... [ full article ]

The European Reaction