Dot Calm Welcomes You
to this Very Special
Election Protection
Omnibus Issue
of Dot Calm's
Page of Truth & Sedition

Please sit back and take all the time you need to read this very special issue of my blog. You owe it to yourself to have as much information as possible as you prepare to do your civic duty and vote. You also need to know who may try to interfere with your vote and why.

Those of you who know and hopefully love me know that I am too non-confrontational to try to influence people directly, so let me just say this:

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VOTE OBAMA!!!!!

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*****
Back by Popular Demand Yet Again

There's a burning question perched on the lips of everyone who follows this blog: "Who keeps demanding that I re-post this picture of monkey-face stumbling down drunk at the Olympics with Laura trying to make a quick get-away?"


Hm...

...must

...be

...me!

Whoda thunkit?

*****
Warren Buffet lambastes U.S. tax code:
he pays less in taxes than his secretary!

The article states that "Mr. Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article1996735.ece

Like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet believes that the current tax system is unfair: these men believe that rich people should pay their fair share of taxes. Tax money from the rich does not detract from what those families need to survive, and it is used to fund important aspects of the common good like infrastructure, education, social safety nets, and defense.

The huge gap between Mr. Buffet's tax rate and his secretary's is due to George W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich, which Mr. McCain will expand upon greatly if he takes the White House.

Ask yourself: are you really better off financially now than you were before Mr. Bush took office? I'm not, and despite raises in salary, my younger daughter's family is not. Our families have noticed that Mr. Bush's tax cuts for the rich have cost us dearly, especially in increased state and local taxes as our home state scrambles to make up for funding we no longer get from the federal government (e.g., to pay for unfunded mandates like Bush's failed "no child left behind" program). I live on a fixed income, and I have been feeling the pinch. My younger daughter's family is getting fleeced by the alternative minimum tax as well as skyrocketing state taxes. I hate to think how less fortunate Americans are even surviving.

What if the answer is they're not?

*****
The REAL McCain Suppressed Info on Fellow Vietnam POWs Left Behind

Editor's note: according to this jaw-dropping report, there may be as many as 1,200 POWs still left in Laos!

Report: McCain Suppressed Info on Fellow Vietnam POWs Left Behind

We speak to Pulitzer-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg about how the “war hero” candidate Sen. John McCain buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam. Writing for The Nation magazine, Schanberg reveals that McCain “worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn’t return home.”

The cover-up continues to this day!

Please go to the website to listen/watch/read the entire article:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/23/report_mccain_suppressed_info_on_fellow

*****
Don't forget the REAL Sarah Palin!

First there was Troopergate. Then there were questions raised about Mrs. Palin charging Alaskan taxpayers for the travel costs for the First Dude and the Palinettes. Now there are questions surrounding the exorbitant clothing/grooming/accessories allowance used by the Palin family to array themselves more finely than the lilies of the field for the campaign, amounting to over $150,000:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/
uselection2008/sarahpalin/3242189/Republicans
-spent-more-than-150000-on-Sarah-Palins-clothes.html

Has Sarah Palin become too much of a burden for McCain and the Republicans?

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jvEg
8fGgTFO57Y1JOGWMX9W-5YRA

Forgive me for being blunt, but, when I read stories like these, I can't help thinking that the Palin family, which has plenty of its own money, is on the take for every penny they can get.

*****
Dot Calm brings you
a word from CodePink
and the real reason for this emergency, onmibus post:
PROTECT YOUR VOTE!!!

Four years ago, Americans were swindled by a stolen election that allowed Bush to lead us deeper into disastrous war. Nearly half of the six million American voters living abroad never received their ballots. Registrations were shredded. Faulty voting equipment destroyed about one million ballots--roughly one for every 100 cast.

We have less than two weeks left before this historic election, an enormous opportunity to push to end the war in Iraq and prevent future wars, and we must be prepared to ACT in case it's determined by fraud, not the will of the people. The polls may be looking positive for peace voters, but we can't let ourselves get complacent, and we certainly cannot let history repeat itself!

CODEPINK is part of a national effort called No More Stolen Elections. This group has been monitoring conditions and pressing for more voting machines and election staff in key precincts where past problems have occurred. On election night, we will have a group of experts pronounce their views on the fairness of the elections. If there is significant fraud, we will mobilize, nationwide, starting November 5.

Sign up here to pledge

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/
424/t/6967/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1702

to take action, starting November 5, if there is a stolen election. We will be mobilizing in communities across the country, as well as in key states where fraud occurred and in Washington, D.C.

For more information about the coalition see NoMoreStolenElections.org; to learn more about voter protection see 866ourvote.org; and click here to get a free copy of Steal Back Your Vote, an investigative comic book voter guide!

This time, let's make sure we're ready. This time, let's make sure we act swiftly and decisively. This time, there's too much at stake. Together, let's pledge "No More Stolen Elections!"

With determination,
Dana, Deidra, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Jean, Jodie, Liz, Lori, Medea, Nancy, and Rae

P.S. Thank you again to everyone who banded together to help save Jocelyne Voltaire's home from imminent foreclosure. We are moved beyond belief at your generosity. Click here to view a report of the story on CNN. We are currently expanding our efforts to help other single mothers facing foreclosure. To find out more and help fund the campaign, visit HealMainStreet.org.

*****
Think I'm being a hysterical conspiracy theorist
about stolen elections?
Read this and THINK AGAIN!

Block the Vote

Will the GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. & GREG PALAST
Posted Oct 20, 2008 11:10 AM

These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort to deter fraudulent voting. For Maez, the shock was especially acute: He is the supervisor of elections in Las Vegas.

Maez was not alone in being denied his right to vote. On Super Tuesday, one in nine Democrats who tried to cast ballots in New Mexico found their names missing from the registration lists. The numbers were even higher in precincts like Las Vegas, where nearly 20 percent of the county's voters were absent from the rolls. With their status in limbo, the voters were forced to cast "provisional" ballots, which can be reviewed and discarded by election officials without explanation. On Super Tuesday, more than half of all provisional ballots cast were thrown out statewide.

This November, what happened to Maez will happen to hundreds of thousands of voters across the country. In state after state, Republican operatives — the party's elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics — are wielding new federal legislation to systematically disenfranchise Democrats. If this year's race is as close as the past two elections, the GOP's nationwide campaign could be large enough to determine the presidency in November. "I don't think the Democrats get it," says John Boyd, a voting-rights attorney in Albuquerque who has taken on the Republican Party for impeding access to the ballot. "All these new rules and games are turning voting into an obstacle course that could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states."

Suppressing the vote has long been a cornerstone of the GOP's electoral strategy. Shortly before the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, Paul Weyrich — a principal architect of today's Republican Party — scolded evangelicals who believed in democracy. "Many of our Christians have what I call the 'goo goo' syndrome — good government," said Weyrich, who co-founded Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell. "They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. . . . As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

Today, Weyrich's vision has become a national reality. Since 2003, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, at least 2.7 million new voters have had their applications to register rejected. In addition, at least 1.6 million votes were never counted in the 2004 election — and the commission's own data suggests that the real number could be twice as high. To purge registration rolls and discard ballots, partisan election officials used a wide range of pretexts, from "unreadability" to changes in a voter's signature. And this year, thanks to new provisions of the Help America Vote Act, the number of discounted votes could surge even higher.

Passed in 2002, HAVA was hailed by leaders in both parties as a reform designed to avoid a repeat of the 2000 debacle in Florida that threw the presidential election to the U.S. Supreme Court. The measure set standards for voting systems, created an independent commission to oversee elections, and ordered states to provide provisional ballots to voters whose eligibility is challenged at the polls.

But from the start, HAVA was corrupted by the involvement of Republican superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, who worked to cram the bill with favors for his clients. (Both Abramoff and a primary author of HAVA, former Rep. Bob Ney, were imprisoned for their role in the conspiracy.) In practice, many of the "reforms" created by HAVA have actually made it harder for citizens to cast a ballot and have their vote counted. In case after case, Republican election officials at the local and state level have used the rules to give GOP candidates an edge on Election Day by creating new barriers to registration, purging legitimate names from voter rolls, challenging voters at the polls and discarding valid ballots.

To justify this battery of new voting impediments, Republicans cite an alleged upsurge in voting fraud. Indeed, the U.S.-attorney scandal that resulted in the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales began when the White House fired federal prosecutors who resisted political pressure to drum up nonexistent cases of voting fraud against Democrats. "They wanted some splashy pre-election indictments that would scare these alleged hordes of illegal voters away," says David Iglesias, a U.S. attorney for New Mexico who was fired in December 2006. "We took over 100 complaints and investigated for almost two years — but I didn't find one prosecutable case of voter fraud in the entire state of New Mexico."

There's a reason Iglesias couldn't find any evidence of fraud: Individual voters almost never try to cast illegal ballots. The Bush administration's main point person on "ballot protection" has been Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department attorney who has advised states on how to use HAVA to erect more barriers to voting. Appointed to the Federal Election Commission by Bush, von Spakovsky has suggested that voter rolls may be stuffed with 5 million illegal aliens. In fact, studies have repeatedly shown that voter fraud is extremely rare. According to a recent analysis by Lorraine Minnite, an expert on voting crime at Barnard College, federal courts found only 24 voters guilty of fraud from 2002 to 2005, out of hundreds of millions of votes cast. "The claim of widespread voter fraud," Minnite says, "is itself a fraud."

Allegations of voter fraud are only the latest rationale the GOP has used to disenfranchise voters — especially blacks, Hispanics and others who traditionally support Democrats. "The Republicans have a long history of erecting barriers to discourage Americans from voting," says Donna Brazile, chair of the Voting Rights Institute for the Democratic National Committee. "Now they're trying to spook Americans with the ghost of voter fraud. It's very effective — but it's ironic that the only way they maintain power is by using fear to deprive Americans of their constitutional right to vote." The recently enacted barriers thrown up to deter voters include

1. Obstructing Voter-Registration Drives

Since 2004, the Bush administration and more than a dozen states have taken steps to impede voter registration. Among the worst offenders is Florida, where the Republican-dominated legislature created hefty fines — up to $5,000 per violation — for groups that fail to meet deadlines for turning in voter-application forms. Facing potentially huge penalties for trivial administrative errors, the League of Women Voters abandoned its voter-registration drives in Florida. A court order eventually forced the legislature to reduce the maximum penalty to $1,000. But even so, said former League president Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti, the reduced fines "create an unfair tax on democracy." The state has also failed to uphold a federal law requiring that low-income voters be offered an opportunity to register when they apply for food stamps or other public assistance. As a result, the annual number of such registrations has plummeted from more than 120,000 in the Clinton years to barely 10,000 today.

2. Demanding "Perfect Matches"

Under the Help America Vote Act, some states now reject first-time registrants whose data does not correspond to information in other government databases. Spurred by HAVA, almost every state must now attempt to make some kind of match — and four states, including the swing states of Iowa and Florida, require what is known as a "perfect match." Under this rigid framework, new registrants can lose the right to vote if the information on their voter-registration forms — Social Security number, street address and precisely spelled name, right down to a hyphen — fails to exactly match data listed in other government records.

There are many legitimate reasons, of course, why a voter's information might vary. Indeed, a recent study by the Brennan Center for Justice found that as many as 20 percent of discrepancies between voter records and driver's licenses in New York City are simply typing mistakes made by government clerks when they transcribe data. But under the new rules, those mistakes are costing citizens the right to vote. In California, a Republican secretary of state blocked 43 percent of all new voters in Los Angeles from registering in early 2006 — many because of the state's failure to produce a tight match. In Florida, GOP officials created "match" rules that rejected more than 15,000 new registrants in 2006 and 2007 — nearly three-fourths of them Hispanic and black voters. Given the big registration drives this year, the number could be five times higher by November.

3. Purging Legitimate Voters From the Rolls

The Help America Vote Act doesn't just disenfranchise new registrants; it also targets veteran voters. In the past, bipartisan county election boards maintained voter records. But HAVA requires that records be centralized, computerized and maintained by secretaries of state — partisan officials — who are empowered to purge the rolls of any voter they deem ineligible. Ironically, the new rules imitate the centralized system in Florida — the same corrupt operation that inspired passage of HAVA in the first place. Prior to the 2000 election, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and her predecessor, both Republicans, tried to purge 57,000 voters, most of them African-Americans, because their names resembled those of persons convicted of a crime. The state eventually acknowledged that the purges were improper — two years after the election.

Rather than end Florida-style purges, however, HAVA has nationalized them. Maez, the elections supervisor in New Mexico, says he was the victim of faulty list management by a private contractor hired by the state. Hector Balderas, the state auditor, was also purged from the voter list. The nation's youngest elected Hispanic official, Balderas hails from Mora County, one of the poorest in the state, which had the highest rate of voters forced to cast provisional ballots. "As a strategic consideration," he notes, "there are those that benefit from chaos" at the ballot box.

All told, states reported scrubbing at least 10 million voters from their rolls on questionable grounds between 2004 and 2006. Colorado holds the record: Donetta Davidson, the Republican secretary of state, and her GOP successor oversaw the elimination of nearly one of every six of their state's voters. Bush has since appointed Davidson to the Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency created by HAVA, which provides guidance to the states on "list maintenance" methods.

4. Requiring Unnecessary Voter ID's

Even if voters run the gauntlet of the new registration laws, they can still be blocked at the polling station. In an incident last May, an election official in Indiana denied ballots to 10 nuns seeking to vote in the Democratic primary because their driver's licenses or passports had expired. Even though Indiana has never recorded a single case of voter-ID fraud, it is one of two dozen states that have enacted stringent new voter-ID statutes.

On its face, the requirement to show a government-issued ID doesn't seem unreasonable. "I want to cash a check to pay for my groceries, I've got to show a little bit of ID," Karl Rove told the Republican National Lawyers Association in 2006. But many Americans lack easy access to official identification. According to a recent study for the Election Law Journal, young people, senior citizens and minorities — groups that traditionally vote Democratic — often have no driver's licenses or state ID cards. According to the study, one in 10 likely white voters do not possess the necessary identification. For African-Americans, the number lacking such ID is twice as high.

5. Rejecting "Spoiled" Ballots

Even intrepid voters who manage to cast a ballot may still find their vote discounted. In 2004, election officials discarded at least 1 million votes nationwide after classifying them as "spoiled" because blank spaces, stray marks or tears made them indecipherable to voting machines. The losses hit hardest among minorities in low-income precincts, who are often forced to vote on antiquated machines. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, in its investigation of the 2000 returns from Florida, found that African-Americans were nearly 10 times more likely than whites to have their ballots rejected, a ratio that holds nationwide.

Proponents of HAVA claimed the law would correct the spoilage problem by promoting computerized balloting. Yet touch-screen systems have proved highly unreliable — especially in minority and low-income precincts. A statistical analysis of New Mexico ballots by a voting-rights group called VotersUnite found that Hispanics who voted by computer in 2004 were nearly five times more likely to have their votes unrecorded than those who used paper ballots. In a close election, such small discrepancies can make a big difference: In 2004, the number of spoiled ballots in New Mexico — 19,000 — was three times George Bush's margin of victory.

6. Challenging "Provisional" Ballots

In 2004, an estimated 3 million voters who showed up at the polls were refused regular ballots because their registration was challenged on a technicality. Instead, these voters were handed "provisional" ballots, a fail-safe measure mandated by HAVA to enable officials to review disputed votes. But for many officials, resolving disputes means tossing ballots in the trash. In 2004, a third of all provisional ballots — as many as 1 million votes — were simply thrown away at the discretion of election officials.

Many voters are given provisional ballots under an insidious tactic known as "vote caging," which uses targeted mailings to disenfranchise black voters whose addresses have changed. In 2004, despite a federal consent order forbidding Republicans from engaging in the practice, the GOP sent out tens of thousands of letters to "confirm" the addresses of voters in minority precincts. If a letter was returned for any reason — because the voter was away at school or serving in the military — the GOP challenged the voter for giving a false address. One caging operation was exposed when an RNC official mistakenly sent the list to a parody site called GeorgeWBush.org — instead of to the official campaign site GeorgeWBush.com.

In the century following the Civil War, millions of black Americans in the Deep South lost their constitutional right to vote, thanks to literacy tests, poll taxes and other Jim Crow restrictions imposed by white officials. Add up all the modern-day barriers to voting erected since the 2004 election — the new registrations thrown out, the existing registrations scrubbed, the spoiled ballots, the provisional ballots that were never counted — and what you have is millions of voters, more than enough to swing the presidential election, quietly being detached from the electorate by subterfuge.

"Jim Crow was laid to rest, but his cousins were not," says Donna Brazile. "We got rid of poll taxes and literacy tests but now have a second generation of schemes to deny our citizens their franchise." Come November, the most crucial demographic may prove to be Americans who have been denied the right to vote. If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat John McCain at the polls — they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering.

Contributing editor Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of the nation's leading voting-rights advocates. His article "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" [RS 1002] sparked widespread scrutiny of vote tampering. Greg Palast, who broke the story on Florida's illegal voter purges in the 2000 election, is the author of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." For more information, visit No Voter Left Behind and Steal Back Your Vote.

*****
GOP Endgame: Vote Suppression

Facing the political failure of the McCain-Palin ticket, official GOP strategy has shifted from futile attempts to win the popular vote by demonizing Barack Obama to a reversion to American voting standards of the 18th and 19th centuries. The GOP campaign is a blatant attempt to effect a surgical manipulation of the Electoral College that will overturn the popular vote.

The shrill Repubican witch-hunt to demonize ACORN signaled the launch of their insidious endgame strategy. The current charges against ACORN are frivolous distractions from what is a massive and threatening GOP campaign to distort the popular vote in key battleground states to provide camouflage for claiming some sort of "victory" over Barack Obama and Joe Biden on the 5th of November in the Electoral College.

Today, the GOP endgame consists almost entirely of voter suppression operations now mushrooming in battleground states where eligible voters will face challenges by burly and brusque Republican operatives who are charged with the task of targeting, scrutinizing and nit-picking votes by: African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, Native Americans, women, young voters, and the poor.

Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr., and Greg Palast detail GOP voter suppression tactics in their paper, "Block the Vote," published in the current edition of Rolling Stone. Rachel Maddow interviewed RFK, Jr. about Republican attempts to restrict voting.

Perhaps, the most insidious of all the GOP vote suppression operations was revealed in court documents in Michigan where Republican officials admitted to the use of foreclosure lists as their primary instruments for challenging voters.

That wily Republican operatives would systematically target voters whose homes have been foreclosed is a blatant return to the voting rights of the 18th century when male land-owners were the only eligible voters.

Universal white male suffrage did not arrive in the United States until the election of 1828.

Some token black males were permitted to vote after the Civil War, and some token Native American males were permitted to vote from 1906.

After a campaign lasting 72 years, the issue of women's suffrage finally reached the US Congress in 1919 when President Wilson advocated it as a "war measure."

Suffrage for women passed by a large majority in the House of Representatives, but it was defeated in the Senate even after Wilson's announcement of the act's importance for national security.

In 1920, women's suffrage became law when Tennessee became the final state required for the NIneteenth Amendment that granted women the right to vote.

In 1924, universal suffrage was finally extended to adult Native Americans.

Even though African-Americans were granted the right to vote, their votes were suppressed by discriminatory voting practices that did not become illegal until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The voting age was lowered to 18 by the 26th Amendment that was sponsored by Senator Birch Bayh who was a prominent leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the late sixties Bayh proposed an amendment to abolish the Electoral College as elitist, anachronistic and undemocratic. Bayh's bill passed the House by a vote of 339 to 70. Then President Richard Nixon endorsed Bayh's historic bill, and it was poised to pass handily in the Senate.

But in the autumn of 1969, Southern segregationists teamed with states' rights advocates to filibuster the Bayh bill to abolish the Electoral College that precipitated its demise in the Senate.

Even though there have been scandalous elections in 2000 and 2004 involving the overt manipulation of the Electoral College by local and state election officials and the Supreme Court, there has been virtually no serious discussion of amending the constitution to abolish the archaic and elitist institution underscoring the regression of the progressive movement in the USA since the 1960s.

Current Republican attempts to suppress the votes of US citizens in the presidential election of 2008 seem like a deja vu to the days of Jim Crow, Segregation, Slavery and the 19th century when white males suppressed the votes of all racial minorities and women. But the GOP plan to invoke foreclosure lists at the polls to drive away voters whose homes have been foreclosed is actually a return to the standards of the 18th century when the nascent USA was little more than a landed aristocracy adorned with the ideological trappings of a constitution and its wistful promise of democracy that is unfulfilled to this very day.

Two years ago, the USA was ranked below 16 more advanced democracies mostly located in Western Europe, but the Republican-engineered deterioration of voting standards this year could presage a further decline in America's international status as a role model worthy of global emulation.

While there has been virtually no discussion of the dilapidated status of American voting rights in the current presidential campaign, voting rights and electoral procedures remain huge obstacles to American credibility as a legitimate democracy.

Former President Jimmy Carter is America's leading champion of voting rights. In 2000 and 2004, Carter participated with the late President Gerald Ford and James Baker in attempts to correct some of the most egregious shortcomings in America's archaic voting practices that still include secret tabulation of ballots, a fundamental ritual of democracy that is frequently outsourced to independent contractors in private enterprise.

To date, neither of America's other former presidents, George H. W. Bush nor Bill Clinton, have expressed any official interest in the shambolic and declining status of American democracy.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Greg Palast have published a guide in the form of a comic book to target younger voters titled, Steal back your vote. From the latest reports, it is now clear that the Congressional leadership of the 'Democratic' Party has not been capable of thwarting GOP vote suppression in the current election cycle eight years after the trauma of Florida and four years after the trauma of Ohio.

One of the brightest hopes for the Obama-Biden ticket is that many people will read and act on the advice in RFK, Jr., and Palast have in their guide to protect their legitimate voting rights. Failing that, America is headed toward another election that will see millions of ballots discarded on pseudo-technicalities.

*****
Vote Suppression: The Real Justice Department Scandal

4/19/07, 1:48 pm EST

McClatchy Washington Bureau:

On virtually every significant decision affecting election balloting since 2001, the [DOJ’s Civil Rights Devision’s] Voting Rights Section has come down on the side of Republicans, notably in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Washington and other states where recent elections have been decided by narrow margins.Joseph Rich, who left his job as chief of the section in 2005, said these events formed an unmistakable pattern.

“As more information becomes available about the administration’s priority on combating alleged, but not well substantiated, voter fraud, the more apparent it is that its actions concerning voter ID laws are part of a partisan strategy to suppress the votes of poor and minority citizens,” he said.

Tim Dickinson

*****
Dot Calm's got some not-so-calm musings
...in free-verse!

did you hear allen greenspan say
he MADE A MISTAKE!
MADE A MISTAKE?
MADE A MISTAKE?!??
mark my words...
that will go down as the biggest
under-statement of ALL TIME!

I'M GLAD HE'S UGLY!

i'm so mad i could bite the head off a puppy!!!

i'm sooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... :/

OBAMA AND MC CAIN RUNNING NECK-AND-NECK
IN SOME POLLS?

tell me which ones...i'll go on a rampage!
oh wait! i can't do that! i'm fuckin' crippled!

this horrible monkey posing as prez of this messed up
country...he and his cohorts have done just about all
we can take without throwing us into complete ruin...
him and that "rust"-hearted (heartless?) old man...

neiman marcus is where the palin has
ornated herself...gotta love them pubs!
they spare nothing when it comes time
to scroo us over...

and listen to this: mc cain and palin have
no chemistry between them when they are 2gether...
gee, u think?

sen. dick durbin (D-IL) is feeling good about
o'bama being elected...not so fast, dickie boy...can
you say stolen election? i knew you could... :(

this broad thinks she's in charge of the united
states senate, if elected!! oh, my bleeding gums!

and this mcsame bastard wanted to privatize
social security...remember that????

about a minute after monkey-face was elected,
he went after social security...salivating...
slurp..slurp...
he's too stupid to hide his greed...and he
tried to say: see? nothing here but iou's...
the fuck couldn't have been any wronger...
SOCIAL SECURITY was the only program
that had any money in it!
notice i say HAD...
i'm sure the fux have cleaned that fund
out, too...

oh, for a simple blow job...

*****
George Soros on Bill Moyers

I just watched a Bill Moyers program on PBS; it aired last Friday. In it, George Soros explained just what has happened to our economy and why...it isn't really complicated at all...for the past 8 years, there has been no one at the helm...consequently, our economy, meaning the banks and their lending policies, have been like a small snow ball that starts at the top of the hill and keeps adding snow (debt) as it rolls down, til it finally gets to the bottom and smashes into a million pieces...

Have a nice day. :\

*****
A few words from AlterNet
Editor's note: I promise, it's all good!

Justice Department Targets ACORN But Ignores GOP Voter Suppression
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/104201/
By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
On the eve of the 2008 election, the Department leaks a FBI probe of ACORN but remains silent on widespread voter intimidation tactics.

How Big Oil's Lobbyists Contributed to Big Finance's Crash
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/104133/
By Antonia Juhasz, AlterNet
Working Americans are reeling from the "unintended consequences" of their relentless war against regulation.

Palin Tells Dobson That 'Prayer Warriors' Should Ask God to Intervene in U.S. Election for GOP
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/104166/
By Blue Texan, Firedoglake
Does this mean that Sarah Palin believes that, without God's intervention, the McCain-Palin ticket will lose? Woo hoo!

*****
Letters from The Scallion to Michelle Bachmann and the McCain-Palin campaign

My younger daughter, who is the webmeister of this blog and whose political nom de plume is "The Scallion," is apparently infuriated by Ms. Bachmann's and Mrs. Palin's innuendos that anyone who doesn't think like them is anti-American. She decided to define exactly what anti-Americanism means for these two women in the hopes that they might become a little more educated and a little less ignorant and bigoted. "My definitions of anti-Americanism sure won't be what they're expecting," my daughter told me, "and I hope they choke on what I wrote!" Since the letters are very similar, I am only reproducing the letter to Mrs. Palin below. I understand that my daughter plans to rework/resend it to every Republican who is making making similar hateful, toxic, divisive comments. Like my daughter herself, the letter is very left-handed:

---
I keep hearing on the radio of Mrs. Palin's concerns regarding the REAL America, the REAL Virginia, and anti/un-Americanism -- and I could keep silent no longer. What a wonderful idea to weed out anti-Americanism and un-Americanism in our government and, hopefully, also our corporations and other institutions! We are decades overdue to eliminate the anti-American and un-American practices of racism, sexism (especially misogyny), classism, genderism, religious intolerance, and fascism -- especially Christofascism -- from the institutions that govern, teach, and heal us. It is long past time for us to dismantle the anti-American and un-American practices of imperialism, torture, domestic terrorism (e.g., TIA, repeal of habeas corpus, the Katrina response, and CCMRFs), and state terrorism (i.e., Bush doctrine pre-emptive war). You must be dying to prosecute George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who are clearly the most anti-American and un-American people on the planet. Why else would they be treating our Constitution like toilet paper? Why else would they behave as if they were above the law? Why else would Mr. Bush have demanded the Wall Street bail-out, which is the largest transfer in history of wealth from poor to rich, when the benefits to our economy were dubious at best? Why else would Bush/Cheney have lied us into an illegal, pre-emptive war complete with torturing and disappearing innocent civilians? Why else would they have created -- in clear violation of the Constitution -- the most invasive, surveillance-intensive society that America has ever seen?

How exciting to envision an America where we are all truly perceived and treated as equal and where our elected officials honor our history, our founding fathers' intent, and our rule of law. This is an idea whose time has surely come! Best of luck fighting that good fight -- we are all behind you 100%!
---

Damn, that kid is smart -- even if I do say so myself, and even if I am her mother. Does that doctorate in electrical engineering show or what?

*****
Is Laura Divorcing King George IV after the Election?

Editor's note: please read this article. It includes even more embarrassing pictures and stories from the Olympics than the one above, including Bush slapping the backside of one of the female Olympic volleyball players (NB: she doesn't look too pleased at being so disrespected). How "presidential" is that?! Bill Clinton, Obama, or any Democrat would have been pilloried for pulling half the stunts that Dumbo does all day every day. Luckily for Bush, the "liberal" media chalk up his "antics" to "boyish" hi-jinx.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/112

Another note from the Editor: speaking of the "liberal" media, can you imagine how they would have tarred and feathered Obama if it had been one of his daughters that was pregnant out of wedlock? His entire family would have been denounced as immoral and godless plus probably quite a few other choice adjectives. The hypocrisy and double standards that the Republicans and their corporate media apply are staggering...and maddening. I wish their pants would spontaneously burst into flames every time they spewed such bull paddies.

Still more from the Editor: I searched Buzzflash for the Irish ballad "There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama"...since I have an Irish surname, I've been using "O'Bama" for several months now and was delighted that others finally caught up with me...but, alas, I couldn't find it. Instead, on today's headlines, I saw that Sarah Palin's family has a larger clothing allowance than most Americans receive in four years of salary. The photo showed one of the little girl Palins carrying a Louis Vuitton handbag costing $650. The bag is nearly as large as she is. She can camp out inside the bag if it starts to rain or snow.

Sheesh!

*****
Holy sheet!
I can't believe it:
the KKK is still alive and kickin'
...with intent to kill

Editor's note: the McCain-Palin campaign seems to be spawning increasing hate speech and potential violence against Americans of color, as evidenced by the letter below from Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Our trial against the Klan in November promises to be one of the greatest security challenges we've ever faced. As soon as we filed the lawsuit, the threats started rolling in, including a web post stating "I say we should blow up their building."

We've recently learned that one of the Klan leaders we're facing in our upcoming trial is suspected by an undercover FBI informant of being involved in a plot to kill me.

Ron Edwards, Imperial Klans of America (IKA) leader, is a hardened veteran of the white supremacist movement with connections throughout the violent world of neo-Nazis and skinheads. When I took his deposition, he showed up carrying a concealed pistol. The words "F*** SPLC" were tattooed on his shaven head.

I hope you will send a special gift today to help with the security measures we're taking to protect our staff at the upcoming trial against the IKA.

Over the past 25 years, more than 30 individuals have been convicted of crimes in connection with plots to kill me or in some way harm the Center or its staff.

As a Center supporter, you know our work fighting hate groups always carries a substantial risk that we live with every day. You also know that we will never back down from the hatemongers who want to stop us.

But I must tell you that I'm especially concerned about the security challenges we're tackling right now. I do not personally fear those who would kill me, but I can't stand the thought that any of our staff might be harmed. That's why I've asked our security chief to take whatever steps are necessary to adequately protect SPLC staff.

With your generous gift, we will continue to stand up to these hate-filled terrorists.

I hope for the day that my family and my Center colleagues will no longer have to fear being attacked. But in the meantime, with passionate people like you behind us, we will stand firm in the face of threats and intimidation and continue our work for justice and fairness.

Thank you for your support,
Morris Dees

*****
From the Progress Report

A Conservative Assault On The Workforce

Half of all workers would join a union if they could. But as the director of the Center for American Progress's American Worker Project, David Madland, writes, "Existing laws make joining a union a Herculean task that few are able to undertake." Indeed, just 8 percent of workers in private industry are union members today, down from just over 30 percent after World War II. The decline in union membership paralleled with a decline in real wages, retirement benefits, and quality of health care. To ensure that workers who wish to organize are able to do so, the House passed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) in March 2007 with bipartisan support. In the Senate, however, a group of 48 conservatives successfully blocked the measure with a filibuster threat three months later. As the next Congress approaches, conservatives have renewed their campaign against the EFCA. Across the nation, right-wing pundits and politicians are using hyperbolic language to mischaracterize the legislation and paint the EFCA's supporters as anti-worker and anti-business.

AN ASSAULT ON THE WORK FORCE: In Feburary 2007, Vice President Cheney, characterized the EFCA as an "attempt to short-circuit the rights of workers." Since then, conservative rhetoric has grown more shrill. On MSNBC yesterday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said, "I can't think of a more insidious bill in my time in the United States Senate." He falsely claimed that the EFCA would "do away with secret ballot elections in union elections." The anti-worker Employee Freedom Action Committee is running ads claiming, "Union bosses have new scheme that makes it easier for them to harass and intimidate workers into paying costly union dues." The right-wing Labor Relations Institute, Inc. is selling "EFCA Toolkits" that explain how to "inoculate every employee and every new hire against unionization." Both Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) characterized the EFCA as "un-American," while Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) said that under the EFCA, "unions would be able to browbeat workers" into organizing. Conservative outlets like the Weekly Standard and the National Review are painting the EFCA's supporters as anti-business, claiming that unionization lowers productivity and suggesting the EFCA would hinder employers' ability to compete in the marketplace. Steven J. Law, general counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, explained conservatives' fears, saying, "In 2007, it was almost an artificial exercise that no one figured would pass. ... Now all of a sudden there is a realization that there may be a president in the White House who would sign it."

THE TRUTH ABOUT EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE: Despite conservatives' claims to the contrary, the EFCA preserves the secret ballot election process established by the National Labor Relations Board. The law simply guarantees that workers also have the option to form a union through a "card-check" system in which a union would be recognized if a majority of workers signed a petition testifying to their desire to organize. Under current law, workers can only form a union via the card-check system if their employer agrees to allow it. Otherwise, the employer can insist on a union secret ballot election. Unfortunately, as Madland notes, "Employers legally can force workers to attend anti-union meetings, including 'one-on-one conversations' with supervisors" and "workers often are pressured by employers to reveal their private preferences for the union." "This takes the 'secret' out of the 'secret ballot,'" Madland writes. Even more disturbing is that in "25 percent of organizing campaigns, private-sector employers illegally fire workers because they want to form a union" and "even after workers successfully form a union, in one-third of the instances, employers do not negotiate a contract." The EFCA would strengthen penalties for such labor law violations and prevent employers from delaying first-contract negotiations. While conservatives suggest that the EFCA card-check system is "anti-business," "in a recent survey of employers who had used majority sign-up agreements, a majority reported that the agreements resulted in improved relations with the union, enabling management to achieve other bargaining or business goals."

THE UNION DIFFERENCE: The importance of unions to the American worker cannot be understated. Union workers earn 30 percent higher wages than nonunion workers. For women and people of color, union membership improves wages even more. As union membership has declined, so too have real wages. Meanwhile, top business executives earned "344 times the salary of the average American worker in 2007." As Madland explained in the Washington Post, income inequality "is now at the level it was in the 1920s, when unionization rates were also below 10 percent." Furthermore, when health care costs continue to rise, "workers in unions...are 63 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance" than nonunion workers. Union workers' health insurance coverage is "far more comprehensive than that of nonunion workers" and "[u]nion workers pay 18 percent less in health care deductibles and a smaller share of costs for family coverage." Finally, when union workers retire, they are more likely to have "a guaranteed, defined benefit pension." 72 percent of union workers have such retirement benefits, "compared to only 15% of nonunion workers." "Throughout our history, when unions are strong, wages go up, health care coverage improves and pensions are strengthened," notes Change to Win.
UNDER THE RADAR

RADICAL RIGHT -- BACHMANN CLAIMS SHE WAS TRICKED INTO SAYING 'ANTI-AMERICAN' COMMENT: Last Friday on MSNBC's Hardball, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) said that she is "very concerned" that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) may have "anti-American views" and called for the media to conduct a "penetrating exposé" into alleged anti-American views of members of Congress. But speaking with a local Minnesota newspaper this week, Bachmann portrayed herself as the victim of a clever plot by Hardball host Chris Matthews. He "laid a trap, and I walked into it," Bachmann proclaimed. Yesterday, Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) defended Bachmann, echoing her excuse that Matthews "tried to trick her into that question, over and over for the entire interview. Unfortunately, her last comment, she fell for the trap." Yet, Bachmann appeared on two right-wing radio shows this week launching similar rhetoric. On Tuesday, Bachmann reiterated her claim about Obama, saying his "views are against America" and just yesterday she rhetorically asked of Obama's policy proposals, "Are they for America or will they be against traditional American ideals and values?" Bachmann claimed that media scrutiny of her "anti-American" comments was a coordinated effort "to get my scalp on a platter."

ETHICS -- FEMA BLAMES RESIDENTS FOR HIGH FORMALDEHYDE LEVELS IN TRAILERS: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) this week "questioned a CBS affiliate TV station's findings of high formaldehyde levels in agency-issued trailers and said the lifestyles and habits of the flood victims living in the trailers may be to blame." After CBS affiliate KGAN-TV "contracted with a chemical testing company to test 20 trailers in Cedar Rapids," it aired a report showing that "all 20 trailers exceeded FEMA's standard for the preservative, which can cause breathing problems and is classified as a carcinogen." FEMA challenged the station's findings during a conference call. "It's not unusual that the levels in a mobile home will rise and fall as different variables are introduced into that," said FEMA Assistant Administrator David Garratt, adding that cooking, smoking and storing dry-cleaning products can elevate levels of formaldehyde. This is not an isolated incident, however. Following Hurricane Katrina, the Sierra Club found that FEMA trailers had "formaldehyde concentrations as high as 0.34 parts per million -- a level nearly equal to what a professional embalmer would be exposed to on the job."

ECONOMY -- CLINTON CREATED 23 MILLION JOBS WHILE BUSH CREATED 4.8 MILLION: The Wall Street Journal reports today that the "number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits climbed back up toward the half-million mark last week, a government report showed, suggesting severe weakness in labor markets." Unemployment is now at 6.1 percent. Nevertheless, conservatives continue to claim that "tax and spend" liberal policies will lead to job loss. But the Wonk Room notes that President Bush, whose economic agenda consisted almost entirely of massive tax cuts heavily skewed to the wealthy, oversaw sluggish job growth, creating only 4.8 million jobs over the course of his entire presidency. In contrast, in the first months of his administration, President Clinton proposed a budget that raised income tax rates slightly on the very rich and included "new 'investment' spending for education, job training, social services, health, science and technology and community and regional development." The proposed budget lay the groundwork for a balanced budget and for the stunning economic growth that created 23 million jobs over the course of his presidency. At the time, the Washington Post reported that conservatives "blasted [the Clinton plan] as more of their old 'tax and spend' policies."

THINK FAST

"Experts fault Bush's mortgage strategy," Roll Call reports. The president's push to "loosen mortgage loan qualification standards for first-time homebuyers" helped cause the current financial crisis. President Bush's efforts to increase homeownership became the core of the "ownership society" he promoted during his 2004 re-election bid.

The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics said yesterday, "The campaign to elect a new president and members of Congress is on pace to hit an unprecedented $5.3 billion." However, "[t]he cost of the presidential race alone -- a record $2.4 billion -- is less than the $2.6 billion Coca-Cola spent on advertising in 2006."

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) on Wednesday urged President Bush to block all federal funds to ACORN until federal investigations are completed. "It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law," Boehner wrote.

"I could have seen the subprime problem coming earlier," Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson admitted in a New York Times interview, "but I'm not saying I would have done anything differently."

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan will testify before the House Oversight Committee today on the causes of the current financial crisis. He will likely face questions on why he "opposed attempts to impose tighter controls on complex financial contracts known as derivatives, which are largely unregulated and which some see as a contributing factor in the current problems."

According to the Department of Labor, "[t]he number of U.S. workers laid off in September climbed to the highest level since the days following Hurricane Katrina in 2005." "The last time employers cut work forces en masse at this rate was September 2001."

*****
O'Bama: an Irish ballad

I had to go to Youtube to find "There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama"...the resolution isn't as good as the sing-along pub video that Buzzflash had, and the new, extra verses are missing, but don't let that stop you from turning up your speakers and getting ready to smile!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eKZryEAzUg

*****
Lest We Forget:
9/11 as the Bush administration's "new Pearl Harbor" per PNAC

There are still so many unanswered questions about 9/11 that we as a nation must continue to demand an impartial, independent, expert investigation into what really happened. Below, I reprint what I previously published on this blog regarding what professional pilots had to say about how incredibly difficult it is to crash ultra-fast-moving jet planes into skyscrapers. Apparently, the piloting equivalent is harder than threading a needle -- even for experienced pilots. My daughter the engineer spoke with a 25+ year veteran professional pilot who said he'd have to practice upward of 20 times and still wasn't sure he'd be able to do it. Quite a feat for some camel jockey who had just enough experience to take off but not land, eh? Architects and structural engineers have comparable concerns regarding the collapses of the attacked buildings in NYC and the damage to the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. As we prepare to vote, we owe it to ourselves to remember the path we've spiraled down from democracy to a fascist surveillance state where the Constitution -- our rule of law -- is considered obsolete by those who govern us. They are above the law because they are the law. God help America!

Pilots and Aviation Professionals
Question the 9/11 Commission Report

Many pilots and aviation professionals have expressed significant criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report. Several even allege government complicity in the terrible acts of 9/11. This article is a collection of their public statements. There are statements by more than 50 pilots and aviation professionals that contradict or are critical of the 9/11 Commission Report. Their collective voices give credibility to the claim that the 9/11 Commission Report is tragically flawed.

These individuals cannot be simply dismissed as irresponsible believers in some 9/11 conspiracy theory. Their sincere concern, backed by their professional responsibility for air traffic safety, demonstrate that criticism of the Commission Report is not inherently irresponsible or illogical, and that, in fact, it can be just the opposite.

Pilots for 9/11 Truth Association Statement: "Pilots for 9/11 Truth is an organization of aviation professionals and pilots throughout the globe that have gathered together for one purpose. We are committed to seeking the truth surrounding the events of the 11th of September 2001. Our main focus concentrates on the four flights, maneuvers performed, and the reported pilots. We do not offer theory or point blame. However, we are focused on determining the truth of that fateful day since the United States Government doesn't seem to be very forthcoming with answers."

Veterans For Truth Association Statement: "Our mission, simply put, is to save the United States of America and to defend it from all enemies, foreign and domestic. To that end, we seek to restore true values, integrity, honesty, and leadership in government at the local, state and national level. We are opposed to tyranny and corruption. We seek to move this Nation from a state of perpetual warfare to a state of prolonged peace and prosperity.

In pursuit of our mission we have initially chosen to present evidence exposing the deception and lies that many in the military/intelligence/industrial/media establishment have been telling Americans and the world since September 11, 2001 concerning the events of that tragic day. Our mission includes seeking, discovering, and presenting evidence revealing the truth about the events of 9/11."
http://www.v911t.org

Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice Association Statement: "Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice is a non partisan organization consisting of independent researchers and activists engaged in uncovering the true nature of the September 11, 2001 attacks."

Scientific Panel Investigating Nine Eleven Association Statement: "We have found solid scientific grounds on which to question the interpretation put upon the events of September 11, 2001, by the Office of the President of the United States of America and subsequently propagated by the major media of western nations."

Petition requesting a reinvestigation of 9/11, signed by more than 170 Architects and Engineers: "On behalf of the people of the United States of America, the undersigned Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth and affiliates hereby petition for, and demand, a truly independent investigation with subpoena power in order to uncover the full truth surrounding the events of 9/11/01 specifically the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers and Building 7. We believe that there is sufficient doubt about the official story and therefore that the 9/11 investigation must be re opened and must include a full inquiry into the possible use of explosives that may have been the actual cause behind the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers and WTC Building 7."
http://www.ae911truth.org/joinus.php

Petition of Solidarity to the Attorney General of New York for a new independent grand jury investigation of 9/11 11/19/04: "We the undersigned (a) think that there is ample evidence and probable cause to believe that many grave and still unresolved crimes were committed by US officials prior to, during and after the events of 9/11 and (b) observe that most of these apparent crimes, including but not limited to abetment of mass murder, criminal negligence, insider trading, and obstruction of justice fall well within the jurisdiction of New York's top law enforcement officials."
http://www.justicefor911.org

Editor's note: for more information on the impact at the Pentagon, see General Stubblebine, Colonel Nelson, Commander Muga, Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. Latas, Major Rokke, Capt. Davis, Barbara Honegger, April Gallop, Colonel Bunel, and Steve DeChiaro. Google each name.

Editor's note: WTC Building 7 was 610 feet tall and 47 stories. It would have been the tallest building in 33 states. It was not hit by an airplane. However, no mention of its collapse appears in the 9/11 Commission's "full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks." And five and a half years after 9/11, the Federal government has yet to publish its promised final report that explains the cause of its collapse.

Rob Balsamo--Co-founder, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

Commercial airline pilot. 4,000+ total hours flown.

"In May 2006, I was watching Glenn Beck’s show on CNN. The Department of Defense had just released the infamous "5 frames" of stop action video of the pentagon attack. Beck showed the frames and commented, "You can see a 757 in 10 seconds flat! Either that or a naked Michael Moore heading for the buffet! This should put all those conspiracy theories to rest.” While watching it, I'm thinking to myself, "I can’t see any 757.” And I'm asking myself, “Are there still unresolved questions regarding 9/11?"

Mike Chambers--Co-founder, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

In an audio interview: "I just recently quote, unquote woke up back in May 2006 due to a video that I saw on mainstream media telling me that I could see a 757 in ten seconds flat going across the Pentagon lawn. And from there I did my research, and here I am now with Pilotsfor911Truth.org. When I started my research, I said to myself, I am going to do everything in my power to figure out and back up the official story, the government's story the government fairy tale, I now call it so I can have faith and believe in my government. We have gotten to the point where I haven't been able to find anything to confirm the government's story.

Now, we received the flight data information through the NTSB back in August 2006. The files that we originally received from the NTSB show the aircraft too high to have hit the light poles. They can see that on Pilotsfor911Truth.org Full Analysis. And of course in our film Pandora's Black Box Chapter 2.

The flight data recorder raw file that we have just decoded is still showing too high for the Pentagon. It shows the radar altimeter at 273 feet. That means 273 feet above the ground. OK? The Pentagon only gets up to 77 feet."

Glen Stanish--Co-founder, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

Commercial airline pilot for American Airlines, ATA, TWA, and Continental. 15,000+ total hours flown. Aircraft flown: Boeing 737, McDonnell Douglas MD 80.

-- Essay: Where is the Wreckage of UAL 93, 2/15/06. "I most certainly and honestly believe, that sometime in the near future, it will become common knowledge that the events of 9/11 were an "inside job" designed, engineered, and committed by a very large and "in control" rogue element within our United States federal government, used as a false cause, a pretext, a lie, to invade two natural resource rich foreign countries, to further pursue and expand an empire, to change the borders of the Middle East countries, and as part of the war on terror, or more appropriately, the war on freedom, was used to frighten the American people so they would allow the infringement of their civil liberties and constitutional rights, to allow for closer monitoring and further oppression."

-- Letter to the Air Line Pilots Association 10/3/06: "I have been a proud member of the Air Line Pilots Association for almost 16 years ... Throughout my piloting career, I have tried to uphold the published ALPA Canons of professional airmanship, safety and comfort of passengers and crew.

My initial reaction to September the 11th was that it was as advertised; that these aircraft had been hijacked; that it was a big terrorist operation; that we were attacked by Muslim extremists. I kind of just believed the initial story. I was in a state of shock.

As reports came out through the news and some alternative news services that I had been subscribing to, there were some things that were reported by credible people at these accident sites that did not agree with my professional training and my background."

All the recorded sources, all the different photographic evidence that was produced by CNN and ABC, they all show this pod. It's there. You can see it with your own eyes. And in my professional opinion, there was a pod attached to the bottom of that aircraft. And therefore it was not United Airlines Flight 175.

John Lear--Member, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

Retired commercial airline pilot with over 19,000+ total hour flown in over 100 different types of planes for 10 different airlines in 60 different countries around the world. Flew for over 40 years. Holds every certificate ever offered by the FAA and has 23 different FAA type ratings. Held 17 world records including speed around the world in a Lear Jet Model 24, set in 1966. He was presented with the PATCO award for outstanding airmanship in 1968, and the Symons Wave memorial. Flight experience includes Boeing 707 and 727, McDonnell Douglas DC 8, Lockheed L 1011, and many others. Son of Bill Lear, founder of Lear Jet Corp.

-- Audio interview with Rob Balsamo 3/9/07 regarding the Flight Data Recorder information for Flight 77, which allegedly hit the Pentagon, released by the NTSB

John Lear: There are a lot of things in that tape that turned up. If you're a pilot, you say, "Hey, wait a minute. That's bull****. That could never happen in a million years."

Rob Balsamo: What did you think about 9/11 after you saw it?

John Lear: Well, you know, five minutes after it happened, I knew that it was a scam. No Boeing 757 ever crashed into the Pentagon. No Boeing 757 ever crashed at Shanksville. And no Arab hijacker, ever in a million years, ever flew into the World Trade Center. And if you got 30 minutes I'll tell you exactly why he couldn't do it the first time. Now, I'd have trouble doing it the first time. Maybe if I had a couple tries to line up a few buildings, I could have done it. But certainly not the first time and certainly not at 500 or 600 miles an hour.

Rob Balsamo: Yeah, as a matter of fact, one of our members, he was a 737 Check Airman. He was in the sim at the time on September 11, and right after it happened, they tried to duplicate it in the simulator and they said they couldn't do it. They were trying to hit the Towers and they couldn't do it.

John Lear: People ask, you know, why do I think that 9/11 was a scam. They say, "Why would the government do that?" And I said, there's three basic reasons. Number 1, they wanted to take away all our liberties and they had to pose a threat to do that. Number 2, they wanted a reason to go into Afghanistan. Then the third thing was we had to have a pretext for going into Iraq.

Capt. Russ Wittenberg--Member, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

U.S. Air Force and retired commercial pilot. Flew for Pan Am and United Airlines for 35 years. Aircraft flown: Boeing 707, 720, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, and 777. 30,000+ total hours flown. Had previously flown the actual two United Airlines aircraft that were hijacked on 9/11 (Flight 93, which impacted in Pennsylvania, and Flight 175, the second plane to hit the WTC). Former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot with over 100 combat missions.

-- Video interview 9/11 Ripple Effect 8/07: "I flew the two actual aircraft which were involved in 9/11. Flight number 175 and Flight 93: the 757 that allegedly went down in Shanksville, and Flight 175 is the aircraft that's alleged to have hit the South Tower. I don't believe it's possible for, like I said, for a terrorist, a so called terrorist to train on a [Cessna] 172, then jump in a cockpit of a 757 767 class cockpit, and vertical navigate the aircraft, lateral navigate the aircraft, and fly the airplane at speeds exceeding its design limit speed by well over 100 knots, make high speed high banked turns, exceeding pulling probably 5, 6, 7 G's. And the aircraft would literally fall out of the sky. I couldn't do it and I'm absolutely positive they couldn't do it."

-- Article 7/17/05: "The government story they handed us about 9/11 is total B.S. plain and simple." Wittenberg convincingly argued there was absolutely no possibility that Flight 77 could have "descended 7,000 feet in two minutes, all the while performing a steep 270 degree banked turn before crashing into the Pentagon's first floor wall without touching the lawn."

"For a guy to just jump into the cockpit and fly like an ace is impossible there is not one chance in a thousand," said Wittenberg, recalling that when he made the jump from Boeing 727's to the highly sophisticated computerized characteristics of the 737's through 767's it took him considerable time to feel comfortable flying."

-- Audio Interview 9/16/04: Regarding Flight 77, which allegedly hit the Pentagon. "The airplane could not have flown at those speeds which they said it did without going into what they call a high speed stall. The airplane won’t go that fast if you start pulling those high G maneuvers at those bank angles. To expect this alleged airplane to run these maneuvers with a total amateur at the controls is simply ludicrous.

It’s roughly a 100 ton airplane. And an airplane that weighs 100 tons all assembled is still going to have 100 tons of disassembled trash and parts after it hits a building. There was no wreckage from a 757 at the Pentagon. The vehicle that hit the Pentagon was not Flight 77. We think, as you may have heard before, it was a cruise missile."

Commander Ralph Kolstad--Member, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

U.S. Navy (ret); retired commercial airline captain with 27 years experience. Aircraft flown: Boeing 727, 757 and 767, McDonnell Douglas MD 80, and Fokker F 100. Retired fighter pilot. Former Air Combat Instructor, U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School (Topgun). 20 year Navy career. Aircraft flown: McDonnell Douglas F 4 Phantom, Douglas A 4 Skyhawk, and Grumman F 14 Tomcat. 23,000+ total hours flown.

-- Statement to this website 8/20/07: "I started questioning the Sept 11, 2001 “story” only days after the event. It just didn't make any sense to me. How could a steel and concrete building collapse after being hit by a Boeing 767? Didn't the engineers design it to withstand a direct hit from a Boeing 707, approximately the same size and weight of the 767? The evidence just didn't add up. ...

At the Pentagon, the pilot of the Boeing 757 did quite a feat of flying. I have 6,000 hours of flight time in Boeing 757’s and 767’s and could not have flown it the way the flight path was described.

I was also a Navy fighter pilot and Air Combat Instructor at the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School and have experience flying low altitude, high speed aircraft. I could not have done what these beginners did. Something stinks to high heaven!

Where is the damage to the wall of the Pentagon from the wings? Where are the big pieces that always break away in an accident? Where is all the luggage? Where are the miles and miles of wire, cable, and lines that are part and parcel of any large aircraft? Where are the steel engine parts? Where is the steel landing gear? Where is the tail section that would have broken into large pieces?

I also personally knew American Airlines Captain “Chick” Burlingame, who was the captain of Flight 77 which allegedly hit the Pentagon, and I know he would not have given up his airplane to crazies!

And at the Shanksville Pennsylvania impact site, where is any of the wreckage?!!! Of all the pictures I have seen, there is only a hole! Where is any piece of a crashed airplane? Why was the area cordoned off, and no inspection allowed by the normal accident personnel? Where is any evidence at all?

When one starts using his own mind, and not what one was told, there is very little to believe in the official “story.”

Every question leads to another question that has not been answered by anyone in authority. This is just the beginning as to why I don’t believe the official “story” and why I want the truth to be told."

Joel M. Skousen--Member, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

Commercial pilot; former U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot. Aircraft flown: McDonnell Douglas F 4 Phantom, Douglas A 4 Skyhawk, Grumman F 9 Cougar, North American T 2C Buckeye, various civilian planes. Member, Experimental Aircraft Association. Member, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Former Chairman of the Conservative National Committee in Washington DC and Executive Editor of Conservative Digest. Author of Essential Principles for the Conservation of Liberty (1984), The Secure Home Architectural Design, Construction and Remodeling of Self Sufficient Residences and Retreats (1982, 1999), How to Implement a High Security Shelter in the Home (1996), Strategic Relocation North American Guide to Safe Places (1998), Foundations of the Ideal State (2007).

-- Essay Debunking the Debunkers 2/14/05: "For over a decade now, the PTB [Powers That Be] have used an odd vehicle to do their debunking on a variety of issues Popular Mechanics Magazine (a Hearst publication). I suppose they are targeting the back yard mechanic and auto enthusiast crowd, who are often prone to accepting conspiracy facts and theories.

In the March 2005 issue, PM magazine singled out 16 issues or claims of the 9/11 skeptics that point to government collusion and systematically attempted to debunk each one. Of the 16, most missed the mark and almost half were straw men arguments either ridiculous arguments that few conspiracists believed or restatements of the arguments that were highly distorted so as to make them look weaker than they really were.

I am one of those who claim there are factual arguments pointing to conspiracy, and that truth is not served by taking cheap shots at those who see gaping flaws in the government story.

There is significant evidence that the aircraft impacts did not cause the collapse of the Twin Towers.

The issues of the penetration hole [at the Pentagon] and the lack of large pieces of debris simply do not jive with the official story, but they are explainable if you include the parking lot video evidence that shows a huge white explosion at impact. This cannot happen with an aircraft laden only with fuel. It can only happen in the presence of high explosives."
http://www.rense.com

Lt. Col. Jeff Latas--Member, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

U.S. Air Force (ret); former combat fighter pilot. Aerospace engineer. Currently Captain at a major airline. Combat experience includes Desert Storm and four tours of duty in Northern and Southern Watch. Aircraft flown: McDonnell Douglas F 15E Strike Eagle and General Dynamics F 111 Aardvark fighter/bomber. Former President, U.S. Air Force Accident Investigation Board. Also served as Pentagon Weapons Requirement Officer and as a member of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review. Awarded Distinguish Flying Cross for Heroism, four Air Medals, four Meritorious Service Medals, and nine Aerial Achievement Medals. 20 year Air Force career.

-- Audio interview with Rob Balsamo 6/25/07 regarding the 9/11 Commission's account of the impact of Flight 77 at the Pentagon and discrepancies with the actual Flight Data Recorder information:

"After I did my own analysis of it, it's obvious that there are discrepancies between the two stories: between the 9/11 Commission and the flight data recorder information. And I think that's where we really need to focus a lot of our attention to get the help that we need in order to put pressure on government agencies to actually do a real investigation of 9/11. And not just from a security standpoint, but from even an aviation standpoint, like any accident investigation would actually help the aviators out by finding reasons for things happening.

The things that really got my attention were the amount of descent rate that you had to have at the end of the flight, of Flight 77, that would have made it practically impossible to hit the light poles. [Editor's note: destruction of the light poles near the Pentagon by Flight 77 was stated in the 9/11 Commission Report.] Essentially, it would have been too high at that point to the point of impact where the main body of the airplane was hitting between the first and second floor of the Pentagon. ...

You know, I'd ride my bike to the Pentagon. So, you know I'm a little bit familiar with that area. [Editor's note: Lt. Col. Latas served as a Weapons Requirement Officer at the Pentagon.] But, you know, that kind of descent rate it would have been impossible essentially for the results that we see physically from what the flight data recorder was recording. Like I say, that's an area that I think deserves explanation.

The ground track [the path of the airplane] is off from the 9/11 Commission. There are several things that can be brought up but it's been a while since I've seen the film and looked at the flight data recorder. And I can't think of all the discrepancies I saw, but there are several there. [The film he refers to is the video documentary, Pandora's Black Box, Chapter 2, Flight of American 77.]

And I think that we Americans need to demand further investigation just to clarify the discrepancies that you've [Pilots for 9/11 Truth] found. And I think that we need to be getting on the phone with our Congressmen and women and letting them know that we don't accept the excuses that we're hearing now, that we want true investigators to do a true investigation." http://video.google.com

Commander Ted Muga, BS CE--Member, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

U.S. Navy (ret) – Retired Pan Am commercial airline pilot. Aircraft flown: Boeing 707 and 727. Retired Civil Engineer. Retired Naval aviator. Aircraft flown: Grumman E 1 Tracer and E 2 Hawkeye.

-- Interview on the Alex Jones Show, 4/11/07:

Alex Jones: Recap Hani Hanjour's maneuver, what they claim go through the maneuver they claim he did and then what supposedly happened there at the Pentagon.

Commander Muga: The maneuver at the Pentagon was just a tight spiral coming down out of 7,000 feet. And a commercial aircraft, while they can in fact structurally somewhat handle that maneuver, they are very, very, very difficult. And it would take considerable training. In other words, commercial aircraft are designed for a particular purpose and that is for comfort and for passengers and it's not for military maneuvers. And while they are structurally capable of doing them, it takes some very, very talented pilots to do that. ...

When a commercial airplane gets that high, it gets very, very close to getting into what you refer to as a speed high speed stall. And a high speed stall can be very, very violent on a commercial type aircraft and you never want to get into that situation. I just can't imagine an amateur even being able to come close to performing a maneuver of that nature.

And as far as hijacking the airplanes, once again getting back to the nature of pilots and airplanes, there is no way that a pilot would give up an airplane to hijackers. ...

I mean, hell, a guy doesn't give up a TV remote control much less a complicated 757. And so to think that pilots would allow a plane to be taken over by a couple of 5 foot 7, 150 pound guys with a one inch blade boxcutter is ridiculous.

And also in all four planes, if you remember, none of the planes ever switched on their transponder to the hijack code. There's a very, very simple code that you put in if you suspect that your plane is being hijacked. It takes literally just a split second for you to put your hand down on the center console and flip it over. And not one of the four planes ever transponded a hijack code, which is most, most unusual.

Commercial airplanes are very, very complex pieces of machines. And they're designed for two pilots up there, not just two amateur pilots, but two qualified commercial pilots up there. And to think that you're going to get an amateur up into the cockpit and fly, much less navigate, it to a designated target, the probability is so low, that it's bordering on impossible." Appears half way through the second hour segment at http://www.realradioarchives.com

Col. George Nelson, MBA--Member, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

U.S. Air Force (ret)–Licensed commercial pilot. Former U.S. Air Force aircraft accident investigator and airplane parts authority. Graduate, U.S. Air Force War College. 34 year Air Force career. Licensed airframe and powerplant mechanic.

-- Essay: "In all my years of direct and indirect participation, I never witnessed nor even heard of an aircraft loss, where the wreckage was accessible, that prevented investigators from finding enough hard evidence to positively identify the make, model, and specific registration number of the aircraft and in most cases the precise cause of the accident.

The government alleges that four wide body airliners crashed on the morning of September 11, 2001, resulting in the deaths of more than 3,000 human beings, yet not one piece of hard aircraft evidence has been produced in an attempt to positively identify any of the four aircraft. On the contrary, it seems only that all potential evidence was deliberately kept hidden from public view.

With all the evidence readily available at the Pentagon crash site, any unbiased rational investigator could only conclude that a Boeing 757 did not fly into the Pentagon as alleged. Similarly, with all the evidence available at the Pennsylvania crash site, it was most doubtful that a passenger airliner caused the obvious hole in the ground and certainly not the Boeing 757 as alleged.

As painful and heartbreaking as was the loss of innocent lives and the lingering health problems of thousands more, a most troublesome and nightmarish probability remains that so many Americans appear to be involved in the most heinous conspiracy in our country's history."
http://www.physics911.net

Ralph W. Omholt

Commercial airline pilot. Aircraft flown: Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, and McDonnell Douglas DC 10.

-- Statement: "Almost nothing in the "official" 9 11 account proves to be factual. For all the purported U.S. failures; no one was punished most were rewarded.

At the 9 11 Pentagon, the world witnessed a fire and suggestions of explosions. Airport fire trucks rushed to the scene of a purported “crash” site without discovering an airplane. There is no viable evidence of burning jet fuel. Just the statement, "They say it was an airplane." The pre collapse Pentagon section showed no ‘forward moving’ damage. The damage is at the wrong location. The expected “crash” damage doesn't exist. There was no particular physical evidence of the expected "wreckage." There was no tail, no wings; no damage consistent with a B 757 “crash.” Even the Pentagon lawn was undamaged! The geometry of the day certifies the ‘official’ account as a blatant lie. The few aircraft parts discovered at the Pentagon are highly suspect. The dramatic "witness" accounts lack supporting physical evidence with the exception of those who described the incredibly few aircraft parts. All images show that the building wasn't aggressively searched for survivors. Lacking any 'expected' clues, one is left to ask, "Who said this was an airplane crash in the first place?"

The purported Flight 93 crash site in Pennsylvania is quite similar.

Since 9 11, it was discovered that there was no expected Air Force fighter response. By all appearances, the expected fighters were held back from interfering with or witnessing the unfolding events. The fighter onboard electronics would have not only offered an intercept target but would have displayed and recorded the forbidden reality of the day. Of particular interest would be the fate of two obviously missing airliners.

The alleged hijackers apparently were not on board the aircraft! Their names were not on any passenger manifests yet shown. The ‘names’ of at least seven of the alleged hijackers were discovered to be still alive with no questions being asked about whom the real hijackers were. No attempt has been made to discover the “known terrorists.” There were at least four hijackers – all evidence pointing to their being highly qualified jet pilots not zealous Arab wannabes.

As the names of “al Qaeda” and “bin Laden” continue to be pandered in the shadows of “terrorism,” journalists continue to discover that the bin Laden family was given the treatment of royalty, immediately following 9 11. ...

The legacy of 9 11 is that America and its Constitution are far more threatened from the White House than the caves of Afghanistan."
http://home.comcast.net/~skydrifter/exp.htm

Personal website: http://home.comcast.net/~skydrifter/exp.htm

Dennis Cimino

Commercial pilot rating for 25 years. Systems Engineer. Navy Combat Systems Specialist (Radar, ECM, UHF/VHF/HF COMMS., GPS, INS, SATNAV).

-- Statement to this website 6/3/07: "I have been a licensed pilot with a commercial rating, multi engine, IFR, since 1981. Prior to that, I served as an Electronic Warfare / Electronic Signals Intelligence (EW ELINT) specialist in the U.S. Navy, with many 'first time' signal intercepts in the national (NSA) sigint database. Since I left the Navy in 1979, I have been heavily involved in DoD weapons system testing and certification. I have held high level clearances most of my career.

There is no doubt in my mind that what transpired on September 11, 2001, was an inside job carried out by members of our own government. Based on my experience as a commercial pilot, I do not believe that it's possible for four large commercial airliners to have gone off course for as long as they did and as far as they did and not be intercepted by Air Force pilots without the explicit cooperation of highly placed people in the military and government.

I also do not believe that both of the WTC Twin Towers could have been identically pulverized and that both identically collapsed into their own footprints as a result of a single airplane impact and the fire from a few thousand gallons of jet fuel. I also do not believe that WTC Building 7, which wasn't even hit by an airplane, could have entirely collapsed as a result of a few fires, particularly in a manner that is entirely consistent with a controlled demolition.

Additionally, the visible evidence at the Pentagon is inconsistent with an impact by a Boeing 757. There was virtually no debris from the 80 ton airplane, except a few small pieces that were picked up by hand. Nor was there any evidence of holes in the building that surely would have resulted from the impacts of the two 6 ton RB 211 engines on the alleged Boeing 757. Similarly, at Shanksville, PA, the small gash in the earth is far too small to have resulted from the impact of a Boeing 757.

All of these factors have convinced me that our government was fully onboard with what took place on 9/11. The official account of 9/11 is absolute B.S. We, as citizens of this great country, need to do research, question the government, and demand a full, impartial investigation to determine what actually took place that day."

Robin Hordon

Former Certified Commercial Pilot. Former Certified Flight Instructor and Certified Ground Instructor. Former FAA Air Traffic Controller at the Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center, located in Nashua, NH, 1970 1981. After leaving the FAA, he had a 12 year career in the field of comedy ending up as artistic coordinator for "Catch A Rising Star" in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA.

-- Statement to this website 4/10/07: "I knew within hours of the attacks on 9/11/2001 that it was an inside job. Based on my 11 year experience as an FAA Air Traffic Controller in the busy Northeast corridor, including hundreds of hours of training, briefings, air refuelings, low altitude bombing drills, participating in huge military exercises, daily military training exercises, interacting on a routine basis directly with NORAD radar personnel, and having had my own direct experience dealing with in flight emergency situations, including two instances of hijacked commercial airliners, I state unequivocally: there is absolutely no way that four large commercial airliners could have flown around off course for 30 to 60 minutes on 9/11 without being intercepted and shot completely out of the sky by our jet fighters unless very highly placed people in our government and our military wanted it to happen.

It is important for people to understand that for scrambling jet fighters to intercept aircraft showing the signs of experiencing "IN FLIGHT EMERGENCIES" - such as going off course without authorization, losing a transponder signal, and/or losing radio contact - is a common and routine task executed jointly between the FAA and NORAD controllers.

The entire "national defense first responder" intercept system has many highly trained civilian and military personnel who are committed and well trained to this task. FAA and NORAD continuously monitor our skies and fighter planes and pilots are on the ready 24/7 to handle these situations. Jet fighters typically intercept any suspect plane over the United States within 10 15 minutes of notification of a problem.

This type of "immediate, high speed, high priority and emergency" scramble had been happening regularly approximately 75 to 150 times per year for ten years.

I believe that 9/11 was what is known as a "False Flag Operation," in which a country inflicts casualties upon itself and then blames it on an enemy that they want to go to war against. It is one more instance in the United States’ long history of using "False Flag Operations" and blatant propaganda to ramp up hostile emotions towards an enemy in a population otherwise resistant to going to war."

-- Statement: "When it became clear that there hadn't been a systems failure of any kind on the morning of September 11th, Hordon was certain that something had gone terribly wrong within the upper echelons of authority. A pilot (third level air carrier) as well as an ATC, he is well versed on in flight emergency protocol. He is also adamant that if these procedures had been followed on 9/11, not one of the hijacked planes would have reached their targets.

"I'm sorry, but American 11 should have been intercepted over southwest Connecticut - bang, done deal."

The unfathomable delays seen in military action on 9/11 are inconceivable to those who have painstakingly investigated the matter and for a man who worked for years keeping air travel over the U.S. safe. ...

"I think we all have to agree that, one way or another, the U.S. military was involved in the attacks. The advantage that Rumsfeld had is that he can classify, reshape, make available, and make unavailable any information that he wants at any time and deny that information to the public for any reason, especially national security."
http://www.prisonplanet.com

Peter Rapp--Member, Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

Owner of service company carrying out business flights in Europe (PA 46 Turbo Malibu JetProp and Beechcraft Kingair 90). Private pilot IR (Austria). 950 hours flight time. Aircraft flown: Piper Turbo Arrow, PA 32T Saratoga, Cessna 172 and 182T Garmin 1000.

-- Statement: "Thanks to PatriotsQuestion911 for the outstanding work you are doing. Your site is a perfect eye opener in 9/11 discussions. It underlines, by the great number of personalities speaking out, that the truth about the 9/11 attacks and their geopolitical background can no longer be denied as ‘conspiracy theories.’" July 16, 1007

Lt. Col. Shelton F. Lankford

U.S. Marine Corps (ret); retired U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot with over 300 combat missions flown. 20 year Marine Corps career. Aircraft flown: Douglas A 4 Skyhawk, Lockheed C 130H Hercules. 10,000+ total hours flown.

-- Letter to the Editor 2/5/07 regarding 9/11: "Our government has been hijacked by means of a "new Pearl Harbor" and a lot of otherwise good and decent people who are gullible enough to think that the first three steel framed buildings in history fall down because they have some fires that the fire fighter on the scene said could be knocked down with a couple of hoses and through which people walked before they were photographed looking out the holes where the plane hit . One of these, bldg 7, was never hit by a plane, and even NIST is ashamed to advance a reason for its collapse. And, miracle of miracles, these three buildings just happened to be leased and insured by the same guy who is on tape saying they decided to "PULL" the last one to fall."
http://michigandaily.com

-- Statement to this website 2/20/07: "This isn't about party, it isn't about Bush bashing. It's about our country, our Constitution, and our future.

Your countrymen have been murdered, and the more you delve into it, the more it looks as though they were murdered by our government, who used it as an excuse to murder other people thousands of miles away.

If you ridicule others who have sincere doubts and who know factual information that directly contradicts the official report and who want explanations from those who hold the keys to our government, and if you have motive, means, and opportunity to pull off a 9/11 but you are too lazy or fearful ... to check into the facts yourself, what does that make you? Scholars for 9/11 truth have developed reams of scientific data. Michael Ruppert published an exhaustive account of the case from the viewpoint of a trained investigator. David Ray Griffin provides a context for the unanswered or badly answered questions that should nag at anyone who pretends to love this country.

*****
The Biggest Rally Ever in Alaska -- and it was NOT for Sarah Palin!

Editor's note: this report was received in a broadcast e-mail. I don't have the reference for it, but I'm sure you can Google it. The account below is from one of the organizers.

And it was in front of a Library!

[The] Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage . Home made signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women, or men. I had no idea what to expect.

The rally was organized by a small group of women, talking over coffee. It made me wonder what other things have started with small groups of women talking over coffee. It's probably an impressive list. These women hatched the plan, printed up flyers, posted them around town, and sent notices to local media outlets. One of those media outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-time uber-conservative Anchoragetalk show host. Turns out that Eddie Burke not only announced the rally, but called the people who planned to attend the rally "a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots," and read the home phone numbers of the organizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and tell them what they thought. The women, of course, received some nasty, harassing and threatening messages.

I felt a bit apprehensive. I'd been disappointed before by the turnout at other rallies. Basically, in Anchorage , if you can get 25 people to show up at an event, it's a success. So, I thought to myself, if we can actually get 100 people there that aren't sent by Eddie Burke, we'll be doing good. A real statement will have been made. I confess, I still had a mental image of 15 demonstrators surrounded by hundreds of menacing "socialist baby-killing maggot" haters.

It's a good thing I wasn't tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the library or I would have ended up in somebody's trunk. When I got there, about 20 minutes early, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library grounds, along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find a place to park. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of the car and started walking, people seemed to join in from every direction, carrying signs.

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't happen here.

Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up. He tried to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn't be heard. Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.

So, if you've been doing the math Yes. The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin's rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy the photo gallery. Feel free to spread the pictures around to anyone who needs to know that Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all Alaskans. The citizens of Alaska , who know her best, have things to say.

Editor's note: since this post is already running long, I will just list what the signs said rather than uploading all the nifty photos (again, "use the Google" if you're so inclined):

OBAMA '08
Voted for her once: never again
First Amendment Rocks!
the word "Palin" with a red circle around it and a red slash through it
In the same format as the McCain-Palin signs: Reckless-Inexperienced
Hockey Mama for Obama
McPain-Failin'
Lies, Abuse of Power...Sounds like Bush
Hey, Hockey Mom -- Keep the PUCK out of DC!
Alaskans for Obama
Palin is not my Choice
Palin is a dangerous northern extremist!
Pro-woman, anti-Palin: beware of tricksters
The Alaska Disasta
Elect OBAMA/Biden; Keep Palin in AK; Retire McCain
Like the PALIN Kool-Aid?
Palin: drilling to nowhere
Polar bear moms say No Palin
Bush in a Skirt
Great performance, SP, but we're not that stupid
Palin = George Bush with lipstick
(with a picture of polar bears) We can't bear Palin
McSame
McBush-Palin = More Exxon Justices
I'm a Proud Community Organizer
Flip-flop Sarah: not all Alaskan women support Palin
She doesn't speak for me
God's Will is NOT a Foreign Policy!
Vote issues, not gender: Palin will take away my freedom of choice!
America should not sleep if Palin is veep
Eddie Burke, give us YOUR phone number!

*****
Even Rove thinks McCain's campaign has crossed the line of lies and offensiveness!

Watch the ad:
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/honor1?source=20080916_DP_DNC_ND

John McCain is running the sleaziest and most negative presidential campaign we've ever seen -- his campaign is setting new lows with their lies and desperate personal attacks.

Even Karl Rove, the mastermind of George W. Bush's slash and burn politics, admitted that McCain's attacks have gone "too far."

The Obama campaign is hitting back hard and letting everyone know the Republicans aren't going to get away with this again. They're running a new TV ad that exposes McCain's dishonest strategy -- and they're aiming for 100,000 donors by Friday at midnight to help keep it on the air.

The McCain campaign has defended and repeated their lies, even after news outlets and independent watchdogs called them "shamelessly misleading," "thoroughly dishonest," and "a toxic mix of lies and double-speak."

The Republicans even lied about the crowd size at one of Sarah Palin's rallies -- they reported 23,000 attendees when there were only 8,000.

These tactics are just more of the same culture of the dishonesty and division that has hurt America so badly the last eight years.

And John McCain is fighting for another four years of the same. Last week, he hired a Washington super-lobbyist to handpick potential White House staff. Apparently he wants to run our government the same way he runs his campaign -- surrounded by lobbyists.

Democrats have less than 50 days to stop the lies and negative tactics of the Republicans from winning again.

Thanks,

Howard Dean

*****
Don't forget: Rove himself is reprehensible.
For him to call the McCain kettle black is a dumbfounding piece of truthiness.

In mid-September, in the New York Times there was an op-ed written by the editorial board imploring Nancy Pelosi to schedule a vote on contempt charges for Bush's Brain, Karl Rove. Karl Rove ignored a subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this summer and Cindy for Congress (CFC) is in total agreement with the NYT: Rove must be held in official contempt as he is held in unofficial contempt all over the world. Instead of appearing on Fox News, as a political contributor, he should be appearing in Federal Court. Karl Rove can be the domino that knocks the rest of the crooked administration over.

There are a wide range of issues that CFC believes need to be addressed before Congress can even begin to think about recessing. George Bush is attacking Pakistan and rattling his deranged saber towards Iran and Russia and the illegal and immoral occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan continue.

Instead of confronting our energy crisis head on by working for complete fossil fuel independence, Pelosi is caving into the oil companies, Republicans and pandering to Blue Dog Democrats and the lowest denominator in the country by scheduling a vote on "Off-shore drilling" that would not only be disastrous for our already fragile ecology, but would have no affect on high gas prices at the pump.

Our economy is in frightening free-fall and when Congress-members go home, George Bush and his crony-capitalist friends will have free-reign to dig this country even deeper into an economic quagmire that no amount of "hope" will ever be able to fix. Our brothers and sisters are losing their jobs and homes at record rates. CFC believes that foreclosure moratoriums and jobs programs that pay living wages are just two things Congress must do immediately to help the working-poor class instead of continuing to use tax-payer dollars to bail out our nation's parasite-class.

George Bush is the lamest of lame ducks, but he has over four months left to wreak complete havoc on the world. Pelosi has just a few weeks to stop acting like a collaborator with the Bush Mob and she must reset her table to hold the George Bush administration accountable. As the Times noted: It is an issue of paramount national interest.

*****
Why America needs to restore accountability and integrity in government

Mondale and Me (More FISA Revelations)
by Cindy Sheehan

I was flying back to the states from Kristiansand, Norway, after receiving an award and was flying on the leg from Oslo to London. The flight's purser pointed out one of my "countrymen" sitting in 2D. I had already been recognized on the flight by the crew because I had won the award and been on Norwegian TV. The purser pointed to seat 2D and told me that it was Walter Mondale.

I looked and did a double take, because he did not look so much like Mondale from about 10 feet away. I was eventually convinced that it was Walter Mondale (Former Senator from Minnesota; Jimmy Carter's VP, Democratic presidential Candidate in 1984 and Ambassador to Japan during the Clinton administration). So being the shrinking violet that I am, I immediately went to introduce myself.

After we established who I was and that he supported "Nancy" even though I was a "wonderful person," he looked at me and said: "Boy wasn't the FISA thing awful?" I said, "Yes, it's awful and my opponent supported it." He returned with: "Oh, I don't think she was really for it." My last question went unanswered: "Well if she was against it, why would she allow it to go to a vote, as Speaker, and then vote for it, as a member?" Note: On many controversial votes, Pelosi often does not vote, on the FISA Act she voted the wrong way.

Our chat was then over because he said: "Nice to meet you, good luck with everything," and looked back down at the paperwork he was reading. I had been dismissed for asking a question that has no reasonable answer. Nancy allowed the Act to come to a vote and voted for it, against the wishes of our liberal district, because SHE WAS FOR RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY. Not only are telecoms some of Pelosi's biggest donors, she has been in on the illegal wiretapping crimes from the beginning. As a member of the Democratic minority leaderhip's "Gang of Four" with Jane Harman (D-CA), Steny Hoyer, (D-MD), Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), not only was the gang briefed on Bush's FISA felonies, they were also briefed on torture. There was and is a rightful outcry on the FISA abuses (if the crimes weren't retroactively legalized, the penalites for breaking FISA laws are steep), but to me, torture is a crime against humanity and, in my opinion, that issue, and lying to a nation about going to war and funding war, are the ones on which the Gang of Four and the Bush Crime Mob should be held accountable.

Ever wonder why "impeachment" has always been inexplicably "off" of Pelosi's table?" Ever wonder why the most criminal and corrupt administration, in this country's long and checkered history that is liberally peppered with corruption and violence, is going to walk away and be allowed to live the rest of their lives in relative comfort and ease? Ever wonder why Pelosi's Congress has an approval rating under double digits? It's because the twin parties of corruption are the "Lawmakers" and the "Lawbreakers." How can Mondale credibly say that Pelosi did not "support" the legislation when she voted "Yea?" Did he mean that it is common for one to sell out his/her constituents and his/her principles when money and crime and punishment are involved?

Walter Mondale (a man whom I voted for three times) has been a political insider for generations and would not even broach the subject of accountability with me. Ever wonder why the system was allowed to decay so far that it appears that only a miracle can save it now from total socio-economic destruction?

This nation is in dire straits partially because of blind allegiance to a two-party monopoly (I used to say "duopoly," but what's the use?) that only exists to perpetuate itself and the unscrupulous system that supports it. That system built of popsicle sticks and set on a shaky foundation will soon go the way of all Empires unless our "leadership" becomes more responsive to the people's needs and less concerned with their bank accounts and personal power trips.

"Change" will not come from inside the monopoly. How much more proof do we need?

Vote for true change.

Vote for Cindy.

*****
The REAL John McCain and the house that greed built

"Most working families today do not have homes that have anywhere near ten rooms. John McCain has ten houses. Many working people in America have to work two and three jobs to provide for their families and pay their car loans. John McCain hops on a private jet. Is it any wonder why McCain champions a George Bush agenda of cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy, helping oil companies turn record profits, and leaving working families to fend for themselves? McCain's velvet world leaves him utterly unprepared to make the tough choices we need to restore the middle class and ensure that everyone in America has quality, affordable health insurance."

- Andy Stern, President, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

John McCain is soaring to new heights of hypocrisy on his wife's personal jet. He flies around the country bent on duping the public into believing he's "one of them," a regular guy who can empathize with Americans facing an overwhelming economic crush. What's more, he disparages those who oppose his ridiculous policy proposals as "elitist." But who's the real elitist?

The REAL McCain is a multi-millionaire who owns ten luxurious homes. The REAL McCain backs President Bush's tax cuts for big corporations. The REAL McCain empathizes only with the interests of our nation's wealthy minority, not its money-strapped majority. But far too many are buying into McCain's deceit because the corporate press won't present the whole picture, so we created this video to educate the public about the REAL McCain.

Watch the video and send it to everyone you know:
http://therealmccain.com/?utm_source=rgemail

Together, you have been a force in making sure The REAL McCain videos have been seen by nearly 6.5 million people. But as Frank Rich noted in his NY Times column yesterday, 40% of Americans hear too little about McCain from the mainstream media, meaning "the public doesn't know who on earth John McCain is." That's why it's crucial you ensure this video is seen by as many as possible, and that we use each and every tool at our disposal to get the word out. Send this on to five friends and family members, and tell them to send it to five people they know. Get it to your local news outlets and blogs and networking sites like Digg. Raise hell about McCain's economic duplicity!

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney summed it up best when he said McCain "simply doesn't understand the challenges America's working families are facing because he isn't remotely affected by them." It's up to us to tell people who McCain really is, a jet-setting elitist more concerned with corporate lobbyists than hard-working Americans.

Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New team

*****
A letter from Dot Calm to Rep. John Conyers in the Judiciary Committee

Dear Congressman Conyers:

I've worked long and hard attempting to see that justice was done regarding our president, vice president, secretary of state, et al...This is OUR Constitution...the very one this president referred to as g_damned piece of paper, meaning he had no regard for its importance...I've studied our Constitution; so have my children, one of whom serves this country as an attorney and FBI Agent, the other as an engineer in our country's defense...yes, we are an average American family that works together for the common good...unfortunately, that's more than we can say for this president, who doesn't seem to respect ANYTHING!

*****
Katrina: Never Forget!
A letter from Dot Calm to the Obama campaign

I am a 65-year-old white woman living on social security. I am still reeling from the non-response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina by this administration.

My husband and I have signed up for the Brad Pitt/Habitat for Humanity program, automatically making a monthly donation for the survivors of that tragedy.

The Ninth Ward needs greater assistance than folks like us can ever provide. They need the assistance of THEIR government, which thus far has remained in absentia.

We are anxious for the Obama administration to seize the opportunity to right the many wrongs committed by this gang of evil.

PLEASE PUT THE VICTIMS OF HURRICANE KATRINA AT THE TOP OF AN EXTENSIVE LIST!

MOST IMPORTANT: Keep a watchful eye on the casinos which have been lusting after the land the good citizens of New Orleans have occupied for generations.

They didn't build the levees. They didn't control the construction, which undoubtedly went to the lowest bidder.

The good people of New Orleans 9th Ward have been dealt with shabbily. If the 9th Ward were inhabited by whites there would have been a groundswell of anger.

Instead, we witnessed people on their roofs clutching signs that cried, HELP!

But, no help came. Then we watched some of those same people floating down the streets of the city like logs in a trough!

Please remember the victims of Katrina and the Bush administration, who will otherwise have lost their homes and their lives in vain.

Thank you.

*****
DANGER-DANGER-DANGER!!!
George W. Bush has "near dictatorial powers"
according to the newest McCain official

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/02/goldfarb/index.html

Newest McCain official: President has "near dictatorial powers"
by Glenn Greenwald

Monday June 2, 2008 08:31 EDT
(updated below - Update II)

Bill Kristol today proudly announces that one of his Weekly Standard staff members, Michael Goldfarb, was just named the Deputy Communications Director of the McCain campaign. Last April, this newest McCain official participated in a conference call with former Senator George Mitchell, during which Mitchell advocated a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Afterwards, this is what Goldfarb wrote about what he thinks are the powers the President possesses in our country:

Mitchell's less than persuasive answer [to whether withdrawal timetables "somehow infringe on the president's powers as commander in chief?"]: "Congress is a coequal branch of government...the framers did not want to have one branch in charge of the government."

True enough, but they sought an energetic executive with near dictatorial power in pursuing foreign policy and war. So no, the Constitution does not put Congress on an equal footing with the executive in matters of national security.

As I noted at the time:

Until the Bill Kristols and John Yoos and other authoritarians of that strain entered the political mainstream, I never heard of prominent Americans who describe the power that they want to vest in our political leaders as "near dictatorial." Anyone with an even passing belief in American political values would consider the word "dictatorial" -- at least rhetorically, if not substantively -- to define that which we avoid at all costs, not something which we seek, embrace and celebrate.

And the very idea that the Founders -- whose principal concern was how to avoid consolidated power in any one person -- sought to vest "near dictatorial power" in the President is too perverse for words. But that's been the core "principle" driving the destructive radicalism of the last seven years, and it's an extremist view that is obviously welcomed at the highest levels of the McCain campaign.

Kristol closes his boastful announcement by noting that the pro-dictatorial Goldfarb will return to the Weekly Standard after the campaign ends -- "unless he's appointed national security adviser in the McCain White House." Somehow, McCain continues to be depicted in the media as a "moderate" and the like despite the enthusiastic support of our nation's most crazed and unprincipled warmongers. But even more revealing is that McCain is now staffing his communications apparatus at the highest levels by reaching into Bill Kristol's The Weekly Standard -- one of the most deceptive propaganda organs of the Bush years. Does one even need to point out that there are few things more incompatible with one another than "straight talk" and The Weekly Standard?

UPDATE: Michael Goldfarb on waterboarding and other illegal interrogation practices internationally considered to be "torture" (h/t A.L.):

The Times indicts the Bush administration for exposing terrorists captured abroad to "head-slapping, simulated drowning, and frigid temperatures." Boo hoo.
McCain is a deeply principled opponent of torture and waterboarding, which is why his new communications official's view of objections to those techniques is "Boo hoo."

UPDATE II: Last October, this is what Goldfarb wrote in arguing that telecoms deserve amnesty even if they broke the law in enabling warrantless spying on Americans:
[I]f federal agents show up at a corporate headquarters for a major American company and urgently seek that company's officers for assistance in the war on terror, the companies damn well ought to give it as a matter of simple patriotism, whether the CIA wants a plane for some extraordinary rendition or help in tracking terrorists via email. . . . [T]o expect a company to resist a plea from the government for help in a time of war is ridiculous.

So, consistent with his President-as-Dictator vision, McCain's new communications official believes that -- as I wrote at the time -- when "federal agents" come knocking at your door and issue orders, you better "damn well" obey -- you had better not "resist" -- even if the orders you're being given are illegal, even if they're designed to spy on Americans in violation of the law, and even if they're intended to facilitate the torture of detainees. That's what patriotic Americans do -- they obey the orders of their near-dictatorial Leader, so sayeth the heel-clicking Michael Goldfarb. That's a superb, and very mainstream, new addition to the maverick McCain team.

*****
More from the Progress Report

Editor's note: please remember that John McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time and has pledged to continue Bush's policies, despite his recent sound-like-Obama debating strategy.

ECONOMY
More Hungry Mouths To Feed

Skyrocketing food prices have wreaked havoc around the world. Food shortages and starvation have led to riots in Bangladesh and Egypt, political upheaval in Haiti, military intervention in Asia, increased hunger across much of the developing world, and the worst food in flation that the United States has seen in seventeen years. At a news conference on Sunday, World Bank president Robert Zoellick explained to Bank and IMF officials, "We have to put our money where our mouth is now -- so that we can put food into hungry mouths." America is not immune from the crisis. Food banks, soup kitchens, and food pantries report an estimated 20 percent increase in visitors since April of last year. Over the past twelve months, the United States has seen the number of citizens enrolled in food stamp programs grow by 1.3 million, the highest ever. CNN reports, "At $1.32, the average price of a loaf of bread has increased 32 percent since January 2005. In the last year alone, the average price of carton of eggs has increased almost 50 percent." The federal government is expected to release new data on domestic food prices today, with notable increases expected.

THE CAUSES: No single factor has caused the dramatic increase in prices. Irregular weather, dietary changes, high energy prices, and alternative fuels have redefined the global market for food. Drought in key grain-producing countries, such as Australia and China, has dramatically decreased global supply. Increased meat consumption in Asia has also boosted the need for grain, as the current supply must now feed livestock along with humans. It takes 8.3 grams of corn feed to produce a 1 gram of beef, or 3.1 grams for pork. High oil prices pushed by global demand, a low dollar, and tight supply have elevated transportation costs, raising the price tag on everything from tractor fuel to fossil fuel based fertilizers, to long-haul trucking and freight expenses. The recent surge in alternative fuel production, aided by new government fuel targets and subsidies in the United States and Europe, has also impacted markets. In addition to generating traditional food and feed, farmers have begun diverting grain and arable land toward first generation biofuels. Despite the contributions of traditional biofuels towards the rise in food prices, biofuels are not wholly responsible for the current volatile situation. With current wheat stockpiles in the United States at 60 year lows, there is no flexibility in today's infrastructure. And in the face of these cascading disturbances, there is little on which to fall back.

THE SOLUTIONS: International action is necessary. The United Nations, in partnership with the World Bank and IMF, has requested an emergency appeal of $500 million from its donor countries. The Bush administration has taken the first step in doing its part, pledging Monday to draw an estimated $200 million from a food reserve known as the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. But more must be done. The United States must devote more resources to help increase productivity in developing countries, with the goal of reducing these states' dependence on food imports from the developed world. An overview of the import ratio for grains shows this glaring need: Eritrea, 88 percent; Sierra Leone, 85 percent; Niger, 81 percent; Liberia, 75 percent; Botswana, 72 percent; Haiti 67 percent; Bangladesh, 65 percent. America must act with others in the international community to increase output in developing nations so that these states can become self-sufficient. Workin g hand-in-hand, the western nations must cut subsidies and tariffs so that, once produced, developing countries can sell their goods both domestically and on the international market. International food aid programs must also be reformed so that money is given directly into the hands of growers, producers and local authorities, rather than Western shippers, suppliers, and corporations. Finally, the world must move to the next generation of biofuels on semi-arable land that are not overly dependent on corn and do not compete with food crops.

THE ROLE OF CONGRESS: The $286 billion farm bill, which has already been passed by both the House and Senate, gives Congress a legislative opportunity to help solve the domestic and international food crisis. Providing more than just a safety net to America's agricultural system, the farm bill grants the critical funding to our nation's poverty, nutrition, land conservation, energy, and international trade programs. However, final compromise on this contentious measure has still not yet been reached, despite the current farm bill's expiration this Friday. Congress "has produced a bill that makes commendable progress in the areas of conservation, food stamps, nutrition and ag-based renewable energy -- in particular, support for the next generation of sustainably produced biofuels. Nonetheless, a glaring weakness remains in the current legislation," said Jake Caldwell, an agriculture, trade and energy expert at the Center for American Progress. That weakness is commodity subsidies. The current menu of commodity subsidies in the farm bill goes to just five crops and leaves 57 percent of American farmers out in the cold. These subsidies distort markets, impede expansion of social programs, and take funding away from the research and development of new sources of alternative energy. Their reform would mean more money for proposals that progressive m embers of Congress are so hotly fighting to ensure, which would feed Americans and help alleviate the hunger problem around the world. The farm bill, as it currently stands, represents a missed opportunity to remove oppressive subsidies that could have a dramatic impact on this crisis both at home and abroad.

UNDER THE RADAR

ADMINISTRATION -- PERINO CLAIMS POPE 'UNDERSTANDS' SUCCESS OF IRAQ SURGE: Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Washington, and today he will meet with President Bush, where they are expected to discuss Iraq. The pope has been a staunch critic of the war in Iraq in the past. In his 2007 Easter message, he said, "Nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees." Just last month, on Palm Sunday, the pope decried the continuing turmoil: "Enough with the bloodshed, enough with the violence, enough with the hatred in Iraq!" Yesterday, however, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino washed over the pope's criticism of Bush's war. She admitted that "there was a difference of opinion, back in 2003 and beyond" but declared that "now I think there is an understanding that, with the strategy that's working in Iraq right now, that the most important thing we can do is help solidify the situation." It is no surprise that Perino added, "I really don't think that the president is planning to spend a lot of time talking about the issues of Iraq with the pope."

BUDGET -- SHORTCHANGING CHILDREN IN BUSH'S BUDGET: First Focus recently released its Children's Budget 2008, a "comprehensive guide to all federal spending on children, finding that total spending for children only makes up "10% of the entire non-defense budget." While all other non-defense spending increased by 8 percent over the last four years, "spending on children has declined by more than 6%." The Children's Budget 2008 also showed that spending on education for children dropped by 9.9 percent over the past five years with a 10.6 percent drop in funding for Head Start programs. Health care also has fared poorly under the Bush administration. In February, the National Association of Children's Hospitals reported that Bush's FY2009 budget cut "$700 million from discretionary health programs that children depend on," including Medicaid and the Emergency Medical Services for Children program. Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus, called Bush's FY2009 budget cuts on children a "tragedy" and noted that this is just "another year where the President has failed to make children a priority in his federal budget."

ECONOMY -- GRAHAM CLAIMS AMERICANS' ECONOMIC 'UNCERTAINTIES' STEM FROM FEAR OF TAX INCREASES: In an op-ed yesterday in The Greenville News (SC), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) argued that making President Bush's tax cuts permanent will solve the economic burdens that South Carolinians face on Tax Day. As evidence of the efficacy of tax cuts, Graham said they resulted in "more" federal tax revenue, adding that the "uneasiness taxpayers feel today about the economy is driven by concerns" that Bush's tax cuts will expire. However, many economists disagree with Graham's claim that tax cuts boost revenue. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson has said that "as a general rule, I don't believe that tax cuts pay for themselves," while Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke once noted that tax cuts only "partially offset the losses in revenues." But claiming that the fear of Bush's tax cuts expiring drives Americans' negative attitudes toward the economy ignores a number of key factors that are more indicative: the housing and credit crises, job losses, rising unemployment, a volatile stock market, high gas prices, flat wages, and rising health care costs -- not to mention the economic effects of the Iraq war.