The governor then claimed that he had been impeached because the 114 members of the House who voted in favor of impeachment do not adhere to the "Golden Rule," which states "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Not to be confused with the Blagojevich-coined "F**kin' Golden Rule," which states that one should "do unto me what this f**kin thing's worth, and we're talkin' at least $250 K annual, or maybe a f**kin' cabinet post."
The governor also falsely asserted that he had been impeached for trying to provide aid to sufferers of breast and cervical cancer, and for trying to provide tax relief to citizens. He asked, "Is that an impeachable offense?" The answer, of course, is no, which is why these offenses were not included in the federal indictment against Blagojevich for attempting to receive monetary gain from a Senate appointment, as well as other instances of corruption. It is not clear whether the governor was genuinely curious if he could be impeached for a health-care proposal, or whether he was just speaking rhetorically.
The governor closed his press conference with the statement, "I wanna quote another British poet." Receiving no objection, the governor proceeded to do just that.
It is important to note that all of the above is absolutely true, if a bit snarky. We recommend that you watch this press conference as soon as possible, as Blago is fast proving to be the greatest living entertainer in America.
Four days before the election, Scott Wilson and Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post reported that the United States was actively interfering in the Palestinian election by spending $2 million in foreign aid money to increase the popularity of the Palestinian Authority.
As we all know, Hamas won the election, and the Bushies immediately began plotting to reverse the results - by backing Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, and touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza that left Hamas stronger than ever and in complete control of the Gaza Strip. See David Rose's exposé in the April issue of Vanity Fair.
David Wurmser, the avowed neoconservative, who resigned as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief Middle East adviser in July 2007, said, "There is a stunning disconnect between the president's call for Middle East democracy and this policy," he says. "It directly contradicts it."
Israel's reaction to the January 2006 election was a little different. In June, Israel simply arrested a significant portion of the Palestinian government. And then in August, they arrested the Palestinian Speaker of Parliament and launched a military incursion into the Gaza Strip. But it was not until ten months later, when Hamas kicked Fatah out of Gaza, that Israel began a blockade of the strip in earnest. Their goal was explicitly to undermine Hamas's ability to govern. See, what they did was to block food and supplies into Gaza, and hope Hamas' popularity would suffer because it 'couldn't deliver' to its people.
Let's recap:
1. In January 2006, President Bush ignored the concerns of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (under Fatah) and insisted on elections in the occupied territories.
2. In tandem with this policy, the Bush administration spent approximately $2 million dollars (administered through USAID) to bolster the Fatah Party in the elections.
3. When Hamas won the elections, Israel simply arrested members of the new government, while the US sponsored a guerrilla war against it.
4. When Hamas won the guerrilla war, Israel responded with a blockade of Gaza designed to provide the 'minimum amount of goods required to avert a hunger or health crisis.' The idea was to convince Gazans that Hamas was incapable of governance.
Now, these are all facts that help contextualize what is going on in Gaza today. The US and Israel have spent the last three years trying to figure out a way to recover from the elections of 2006, where the Palestinian people (in a relatively clean election) elected Hamas to represent them. Every step they've taken so far has been somewhere between ineffective and counterproductive. With time running out on the Bush administration, Israel has taken this little window during the transition to wage open war on the people of Gaza and to destroy all vestiges of government (including mosques, the education and justice ministries, a university, prisons, courts and police stations) in the Strip.
The United States imposed an unwanted election on the Palestinian government, attempted to dictate the outcome of that election (and failed), then supported a civil war against the new government (and lost), while the Israelis simply arrested members of that government, imposed a blockade on their people, and then sought to outright murder members of the ruling party. Finally, they invaded their territory and so far have killed nearly 800 civilians in an act of undisciplined and inexcusable violence.
At the same time, throughout all of this, the Israelis have continued to allow new settlements to be built in the West Bank. The response from Hamas has been to refuse to turn over a kidnapped soldier and to lob rockets at communities in Southern Israel.
If you think the world believes our propaganda about this conflict, you're dead wrong. And if you think our actions have not incited a new generation of people with a desire to get revenge, you're dead wrong, too.
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Welcome to George Bush's America, where the economy sucks so bad that people cannot afford to invest in improving their own education: http://calstate.edu/executive/communications/090109.shtml
Dumbing down our citizens, closing libraries and performing arts centers, laboratories, etc.....
Fits in nicely with #11 on the 14 Points of Fascism.
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What's the difference between a revolver and a taser?
No, this isn't a riddle. Bay Area Rapid Transit police officers can't tell the difference. Or at least that's the excuse they're using.
On New Year's Day there was a fight on a BART train in Oakland, CA. One of the people involved in the fight, Oscar Grant (unarmed), was forced to the ground by transit police officers. While he was lying face down, officer Johannes Mehserle drew his gun and shot him in the back, killing him. Here's a link to the video.
Mehserle quickly resigned, but as of this writing, hasn't been charged with a crime. And meanwhile Oakland is being torn apart by riots.
And in more cop news ...
Evidently in Alabama, local sheriffs are allotted a princely $1.75 a day with which to feed prisoners. Under the genius of Alabama law, a sheriff is permitted to pocket the money not spent on feeding the prisoners. Well, what could go wrong with that?
Sheriff Greg Bartlett pocketed $212,000 over three years from money budgeted to feed prisoners. And the prisoners were fed small quantities of unappetizing and unhealthy foods to the point where most experienced substantial weight loss.
Inmates brought suit in federal court and the presiding judge found Bartlett's behavior so repugnant that he ordered him jailed until he had developed a plan to properly feed the prisoners. In a startling display of the rehabilitative powers of incarceration, after only one night in jail Bartlett came up with the creative idea of not skimming any of the food money going forward, and the judge released him.
One is struck once again with the casual sadism that we seem to find appropriate in our criminal justice system. Hell next thing you know we'll be torturing people or shooting unarmed men lying on subway platforms.
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Max Blumenthal has a piece on "America's Pastor" Rick Warren's attempt to spread AIDS and demonize gays and lesbians in Africa.
Rick Warren is a truly evil man. Americans should be ashamed of him. It will be so awesome to see him give the invocation at Obama's inauguration.
"Psssst, Barack. Everyone has a special skill. Mine is killing Africans. Watch your back...."
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Factoring in discouraged workers and part timers looking for full time employment, the 7.2% unemployment rate is actually closer to 14.5%http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/job-losses-highest-level-1945
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Then, during the campaign:
"I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president."
Now:
Obama picks a defense contractor's lobbyist to be #2 at the Pentagon: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090109/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/obama_defense
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House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has introduced legislation setting up a National Commission on Presidential War Powers and Civil Liberties. The panel's goal is to "establish a Blue Ribbon Commission comprised of experts outside government service to investigate the broad range of policies of the Bush administration that were undertaken by the Bush administration under claims of unreviewable war powers." While he is unlikely to prosecute Bush officials for war crimes, President-elect Obama has hinted at support for such a commission.
Ken Starr blew $70 million investigating a BJ, and Conyers gets $3 million to investigate war crimes? Where is this money going? Congress already gets a salary, witnesses shouldn't be paid to testify, and if he picks people to lead this "blue ribbon" panel like the old cronies that led the 9/11 Commission whitewash, those old cronies have been profiting for years. How about some actual patriots just show up and investigate the crimes for free and let personal satisfaction be their payment?
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Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran's main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran's suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials. http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/11/america/11iran.php
But he approves of the slaughter in Gaza.
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An email from RNC chair Mike Duncan asks people to sign an electronic thank you card to George Bush, who, after all, "restored honor and integrity to the White House and protected America from another terrorist attack." A cash gift to the Republican Party would also be nice. The subject line of the email: "Grateful Gratitude to our President." As opposed to ungrateful gratitude, which would just be ungrateful.
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100 Things I Hate About You: http://whiskeyfire.typepad.com/whiskey_fire/2009/01/100-things-i-hate-about-you.html#more
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Maybe Israel could broadcast "information radio" (psychological operations) like we did for the people of Iraq, or drop leaflets. Oh wait...
Because it wasn't enough to herd more than 100 Palestinians into a building for their "safety" and then bomb the building (killing more than 30), the Israeli Air Force is now kindly dropping flyers on the Gaza Strip, warning the residents of a "new phase of attacks" in the war on terror war of terror.
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