A Conversation with Ismail Haniyeh - The New Hamas Prime Minister

Since Hamas won control of parliament in the recent Palestinian elections, policymakers in Washington and Jerusalem have been faced with a dilemma: how to deal with a democratically elected government that is also on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. Last week, Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth interviewed Hamas's new prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, by phone in his home in the refugee camp where he lives with his wife and 12 children in Gaza.

OK, this is the last one for today. I don't want to overload you or anything :p I haven't even gone past the first page on this one anyway.

I just put this one up as a reminder that we didn't get the puppet government we wanted. I mean how far do we have to go? Why not just wipe out the rest of the Iraqi's and put United States citizens in? That country has been as fair as it possibly could be. They let us call them liars, occupy their land, kill thousands of innocent people, force our own little interem government on them and they've even let us make conditions if they're to be delt with.
I'm surprised they haven't authorized Haniyeh to use force to get rid of the American insurgents.

Port Deal - Boxing a slow bush's Ears from the Left AND Right

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, an outspoken liberal Democrat from New York, two weeks ago began publicly denouncing a deal to let a Middle Eastern firm take over terminal operations at six U.S. seaports. From the other end of the political spectrum, even more outspoken conservative radio host Michael Savage was doing the same -- and recruiting Republican lawmakers to his cause.

It was on Feb. 13 that the Dubai Ports World deal -- after simmering unnoticed for months in the federal bureaucracy and the transportation trade press -- started to boil, as a result of Savage's blustery on-air alarms and an event by Schumer at the New York harbor with families who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001.

It was not until Feb. 16 that Bush was informed by aides of the controversy -- and that his own administration had approved the port deal a month earlier. It was not until five days after that, on Feb. 21, that Bush spoke up in support of the port deal. By then, dozens of prominent lawmakers in both parties had joined Savage and Schumer in questioning the president's commitment to national security.

You can read the whole article here. It is analyzing the port deal and how bush reacted slowly and some might say inappropriately when the uprising began.
So he was tardy in responding to us getting attacked on 9/11, he was tardy on Katrina and he was tardy with our security in the port deal. He used to own the Texas Rangers right? Has he ever heard of three strikes?

Then again maybe we should let him go with two since he was nowhere near tardy when he said "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. He might be a good 10 or 15 years early for all we know.

Five Words: The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

I wanted to get a transcript of the "State of the Black Union 2006: Economic Empowerment" so I could get the words of Minister Farrakhan. I see I will have to purchase the DVD from C-Span :p I searched for a news article that might give you a glimpse into the words of Farrakhan but I could only find watered down, misdirecting, out-of-context versions of the event here, here and here.

These versions of the event aside, Farrakhan's words are of major importance. I'm going to make an attempt to paraphrase it, We have attempted to work "inside the box" with this country. We have played by the rules of this country. We have also been burned by this country while playing by the rules.

Harry Belafonte was at this event and the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan recalled a moment Belafonte had with Reverend Martin Luther King, a few weeks before his assassination, in which Mr. Belafonte had asked why King looked so "melancholy". King answered that he feared he was integrating his people into a burning house.

His fear was not unjustified. This house has been burning for 400 years. We can tell it is still burning because, as Barbara Jordan had said, we want "an America as good as its promise", but America's promise is worth very little.

America made promises to Native American’s and the only promise they kept was taking their land. They promised African-American’s 40 acre’s and a mule and they never gave us our land. They promised us the vote and yet they still held a million voters back in Florida in 2000 because former felons who have already repaid their debt to society are not allowed to vote. So this has been the land of unfulfilled promises.

An oppressed people have never been freed by their oppressors. The oppressed can only free themselves by reforming the system that oppresses them, or by destroying that system. We have already tried to reform the system and the system has failed us. The only choice we have is to remove this president, remove this government and replace it with something that works.

So that is as best as I can take from memory. I only give my rendition about 60 or 70% Mine is missing the religious overtone also. But I'm sure you understand what he's saying. The media will be afraid to say what's going on. Some will say it was a bush bashing rally, some will say it was an attempt for economic justice and some will say it was a black symposium.

It's more than that though.

It's a call to justice.
It's a call for movement
It's an enlightenment of what the leadership in this country is thinking
and doing
It's a call to tell others about what's going on
It's a call to uproot a tyrant

Then there is more than I can think of at the moment that I am sure others got out of it. Like Smiley said. You didn't get that even if you think you got it. It might be days, weeks and even months until some people understand what's was said.

Old School - '02-'03 - Bush for Oil, Cheney for Everything Else

Now this is just a little bit of easy reading for a friend of mine (you know who you are). The question came up, and I paraphrase, Why would we attack Iraq and leave all these other countries that had their hand in 9/11 alone? It has become so cliché to say "He did it for the oil". It rolls off my tongue so easily I forget what it means sometimes.

The pipeline through Afghanistan.

Halliburton dips it’s hands in Iraq uncontested. (You may want a little bit more time to absorb this one)

So that’s just a taste. This day's for you LD

Ha Ha Ha Ha. Are the enemies the Arabs or the Old White People

Funny. The bush administration has forgotten who the enemies are.

Nepotism At It's Finest

Look what Atrios found,

Washington - The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House.

One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose agency heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port.

Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.

The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration.

The article goes on to say "The ties raised more concerns about the decision to give port control to a company owned by a nation linked to the 9/11 hijackers." [link added by me for emphasis]

So cronyism comes into play. The bush administration is more concerned with lining their pockets than with the security of our nation.

Abu Ghraib Images: II

While you wait to see Whittington's face (if that's ever going to happen) here's the second installment of pictures from Abu Ghraib: "Homicide, Torture and Sexual Humiliation"

Coming to Theaters

Dead, But Stable

Only nurses, doctors and hospitals should be allowed to use the term stable. Politicians and reporters abuse of the word "stable" in describing someone's conditions allows for deceptive reporting. A person can nearly be dead and still be "stable". Sharon has been in a coma for 38 days but at least he is stable. Dick Cheney sent Harry Whittington to the intensive care unit but Whittington was stable. Heck, Terri Shiavo had a liquefied cerebral cortex but she was still stable.

Politicians and reporters should be required to give a mandatory description of the injured condition ranging from excellent (only needed a band-aid) to critical (life hangs in the balance). Maybe the republicans need a color coded system. They seem to understand color.

Our state can't possibly make sense to half the country.

Our state can't possibly make sense to half the country.

Why does a president need extraordinary wartime powers when we are not in wartime? If this is a war why have we not made a declaration? Why have we gotten "Authorized use of force" instead of war? This is not palatable. We are not fighting a threat. If Iraq is such a threat why are we not at full scale war? Why are we not being supported by a league of nations (the coalition is/was/and forever will be a joke)

I don't have the energy. I don't know what common sense is anymore.

If terrorists are such a threat to our country why are we still eating butter? Why are 30,000 people being laid off at Ford instead of being kicked into high gear in order to build more military supplies? Why are people walking around without being taxed feeling like there is nothing going wrong? Can't you just taste something is wrong. Why am I able to type this down without any worries? Where is the draft? I don't even see people riding around with flags any more. Is it possible that 9/11 was a fluke?

Maybe we aren't destined to not be attacked ever. Maybe, just maybe, 1775, 1812, 1865, 1917, 1941...maybe the Cold War and Vietnam, Maybe something is going to happen to us. We are not invincible. We do not live in a bubble. We are part of the world. if we are struck every 40 years it is not because we are not focusing on the "terrorists". It is because as a citizen of the world we must interact with others. Sometimes others will be mad at us. I don't know one person who is friends with everybody. Someone will be mad at you because you're friends with everybody. But in this country's case we're just jerks.

It is completely understandable that 9/11 occurred. I'm not going to belittle any of the people's lives or anything but get over it. You can do everything you can possibly do outside of putting tags on ever citizen and non citizen in the U.S. (and I mean tagging their brain so you can press a button and off us) and there is still the possibility of getting hit. Put that on top of our mentality to put others down in order to stay ahead and you will always have an enemy. Iran is going to hate us for stopping their nuclear energy program. Russia already warned us about messing with Iran and China has got it's hands in Iran's pockets (much like they have their hands in the rest of the worlds pockets). You can't account for all this. it's a complex system that can lead to trouble whether or not you soft step everything. If it wasn't 9/11/2001 it may have been 2/26/2015.

Impeach bush. he broke the law.
This is the "Authorized use of force on Iraq" not the "War on Iraq"
Gonzales is one weak puppet.

Maybe FISA doesn't need changing. Maybe Bush should just not break laws.

FISA never stopped anyone from stopping 9/11. There are many out there that would have you believe 9/11 is the fault of FISA. This is absolutely not the case. The real matter is a bunch of dumbells hired around a dumbell organization ran by a dumbell at the top didn't know how to go about doing their job.

Just like Iraq has nothing to do with....had nothing to do with Al Quaeda, just like Iran isn't building nukes, just like Iraq couldn't have attacked us if their lives depended on it, FISA statutes in no way shape or form interfered with gathering intelligence that could have stopped 9/11.


If anyone says FISA is responsible for 9/11 they are lying. Now, watch this drive

By the Way. Bush broke the law.

President Bush broke the law. Thousands of Americans have been eavesdropped on by the President without warrents and nearly all of them have been dismissed as potential suspects. That means there are thousands of people out there who have been secretly wire-tapped and they will have no idea what was taken by the government. As Senator Leahy asked "what is done" with this information? Are they going to throw it away? Are thousands of Americans now part of this new White House archive?

Come to think of it, what's to stop another Watergate from occurring right now? Speedy Gonzales is allowing the Executive Branch to go on without any checks or balances. We currently have the police policing the police. NSA officials who work under the president will watch their own organization and report to the president. What is it called when the governed are not governed. Are we under a tyranny or an anarchy right now? I think Mr. bush is being tyrannical. Yes, bush is causing a tyrannical problem right now.

You know, the bush crew is saying they cannot get everything done that needs to be done to stop another 9/11 from occurring under current FISA statutes. But no one is saying those statutes are static. The senate had a virtual 100 percent agreement on passing the Patriot act. Why would President Bush and his lawyers be afraid to go to Congress and fix the statutes? Is it possible that they have something to hide? When I have something to hide I generally try to step around the people who I'm hiding something from. Does that make sense?

The justice department did reject the bush administration's notion that they should be able to do NSA surveillance under "a reasonable basis" isntead of "probable cause" as standard of the Fourth Amendment. Perhaps bush Co. realizes some of the "Terrorist Surveillance" (oh screw that, it's unwarranted surveillance, the country is breaking the law and tapping your phones without a court order) did not come up to par with the court's idea of what is necessary to have a warrant issued.

Personally I think we should get democrats for '06 so we can uncover what's going on. If we can have the House back for one session let it be when we can find out what illegal procedures Bush and his cronies are doing.

I have finally found out what to call the American-Iraq Conflict

During Speedy Gonzalez's NSA questioning, (that involved a lot of question dodging and boiling it down to either we thought "we were doing it right" or "if we had done it the other way you might have squealed on our program") a Republican senator had implied that we declared war on Iraq. Gonzales was quick to rebut at the end of this senator's question that we had not declared war on Iraq. We had just given an authorization to use force on them.

OK. From now on it's called the "Authorization of force against Iraq" or the "Authorized use of force on Iraq". Let's get away from this whole "WAR" thing because I'm tired of hearing the chickenhawks say "in time of war", in "war of this widespread yada yada fuck you America such and such".

"Authorized use of force against Iraq" - you heard it here first.

Gonzales Aid's President in Illegal Surveillance

If you've been following CSPAN you're aware of Alberto Gonzales' smug interpretation of the law.

And while I was going to analyze everything Gonzales said wrong I saw this bomb at CrooksandLiars. I thought I watched the NSA questioning at least twice but apparently this slipped my mind.

Gonzalez is practically kicking us in the face and secretly laughing at us ( I say secretly because he is sort of holding the grin back).

Yes it is sick that the other side will sit there and pretend like everything is fine and dandy when you have scum puddles like this pushing the limits of their sick game and toying with the people of this country.

But once again I say it was damn funny. I cannot stop watching it. Yes they have us hypnotized I sat there listening when it was live. I heard it yet I did not hear it. Only now so many hours later do I realize I have been made a fool of. Kind of sad but they say so much shit it just flows through your brain.