Headlines - Monday

Happy MLK Day, and Happy Last Full Day of the Bush Presidency. Let the pardons begin.

 

Speaking of pardons, Lisa Murkowski would like to see the former Alaska senator Ted Tubes Stevens pardoned, presumably on account of oldness. 

 

And what about the saddest sack of all, Scooter Libby? Indeed, no one in America has suffered more than Scooter Libby, who did not even have to go to jail after he was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice.

 

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"I have a dream" speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

 

If only MLK had made it to his 80th birthday today.

 

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Okay, tell me you didn't blubber like a baby watching that:

http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/01/perhaps-this-is-why-they-ruined-job.html

 

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A few days ago, the White House said it had spent $10 million and found over 14 million 'lost' emails after a federal judge ordered them to do so. Now they're saying they won't comply, because 'not all parts of the administration are held to the Federal Records Act.'

 

All in all, some 473 days of emails are missing from various Administration departments (during the lead-up to the war and outing of Valerie Wilson), according to a House Democrat who saw a White House presentation on the files.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/White_House_court_has_no_authority_0117.html

 

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Does this photo have to be on every web page on the internets?

 

 

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Ben and Jerry's has a new ice cream flavor for our new prez.

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As we near the end of the eight year BushCo debacle, I think Mark Twain sums things up nicely for us:

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it."

Echidne reminds us that Bush isn't the only one to blame:  http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html#4071194347866723517

And I would add that even though I did not vote for Bush or cheerlead the atrocities, I am to blame as well for standing by and doing nothing while they occurred. 

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Israeli firing phosphorous after ceasefire

Israel has shelled Gaza with white phosphorus after it called for a unilateral ceasefire, in an obvious violation of its own declaration. A Press TV correspondent on the ground in Gaza reported the event soon after the ceasefire the ceasefire was supposedly in effect. Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Tel Aviv will observe a 'unilateral ceasefire' at 2:00 a.m. local time (0000 GMT) after pounding Gaza non-stop for 22 consecutive days. However, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum responded that, Israel must stop all its aggression, completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip, lift the blockade, and open the border crossings.

Israeli rabbis to Olmert: It doesn't matter even if you kill million Palestinians

A report issued by the Saudi Al-Watan news paper revealed Saturday that Jewish rabbis in the Zionist entity have issued a religious edict allowing the killing of Palestinian women and children and exonerating every Jew doing such horrible thing. According to the paper, the rabbis opined that the Israeli massacres in Gaza Strip falls in line with Jewish teachings that consider such killing as "mass punishment to the enemies".

That was the death toll before the war even ended. That's a hell of a lot of dead women and children to have to explain.

Then there's the evidence of new weapons used, which severs the legs, leaving burns around the stump, small puncturs in the skin and internal bleeding. 

Remember that, when Israel starts presenting its case and dismisses horror after horror as "Hamas propaganda."

Meanwhile, as Palestinians are trying to put their shattered lives back together, this is what they're coming back to.

Let those images sear themselves into your mind, and don't forget that this is what happens when a country responds with disproportionate force to a supposed threat. America did it on a far greater scale than Israel, and for no reason. The war in Iraq and the war in Gaza are inextricably entwined.

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Perhaps this is why they ruined the job market: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/01/perhaps-this-is-why-they-ruined-job.html

 

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The government-funded targeting of the children of our servicemen and servicewomen by Christian religious organizations is an issue that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been gathering information on for some time now. The countless complaints and reports from members of our armed services that we receive about this completely unconstitutional practice include everything from Christian "public service announcements" being snuck into non-religious programming on the Armed Forces Network to the complete lack of youth programs that are not Christianity-based, leaving our non-Christian military parents with the dilemma of either turning their kids over to Christian evangelists or having to explain to them why they can't participate in all the fun and exciting activities, events, and trips with the other kids. http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/01/military_youth_ministry_stalks.php

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There goes Bush's last alleged achievement:

Taliban militants have banned female education in the northwest Pakistan valley of Swat, depriving more than 40,000 girls of schooling, officials said on Saturday.

"My daughters are sitting at home," said Mohammad Ayub, father of two girls whose school was blown up by militants in October. "Their future looks bleak because they will stay uneducated."

There has been fighting in the valley for more than a year, but residents say the military is losing control to militants who aim to impose a severe form of Islamic law.

Swat is just one front the militants have opened up as violence has spread across Northwest Frontier province from adjoining semi-autonomous tribal areas that border Afghanistan.

 

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Cheney's last interview with Diane Sawyer - SNL: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/snl-dick-cheney-final-interview

 

And in a skit that's not so funny, Gitmo "Going out of business" sale: http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/snl-torture-teh-funny

What does it say about this country that we can joke about torturing others with car batteries, jumper cables and waterboarding? Woo hoo, it's hilarious to offer german shepherds used to threaten and terrorize detainees on a "buy two, get the third for free" deal. Here's a knee slapper: let's violate the Geneva Conventions, but don't look back for accountability to those responsible, and hey, maybe we'll joke about it on the longest-running comedy program on American network television!

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Here's the prepared text of Obama's pre-inaugural remarks yesterday, and here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sAdjxOcm3Q&eurl=http://democrashield.com/

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No mention of the lies that led to war, torture, illegal wiretaps, or breaches of the Constitution 

After two years of doing nothing, Pelosi goes on Fox and says now she's open to investigating and prosecuting the Bushies for politicizing the Justice Department: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Pelosi_wants_investigation_of_Bush_officials_0118.html

 

She must not have collaborated on that one. 

 

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4,228 soldiers killed in Iraq; 640 in Afghanistan.

 

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For decades, the cost of security for inaugurations was never factored in, but this year the rules have changed. Bush's last inauguration minus security: $42 million; Obama's: $45 million.

 

That's why the right-wing site Newsmax.com confidently reported that Obama's swearing-in would cost "nearly four times what George Bush's inauguration cost four years ago."