The Dem Diatribe Project

OK, OK. This story is a couple of weeks old. Seems it would have made a little more news. I guess that we have all just accepted the fact that the Bush Administration is so unscrupulous in so many ways that this kind of news does not even raise an eyebrow anymore. According former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, during the 2004 Presidential race, the Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level. FEAR: The great motivator. See also . Fabricating intelligence for political gain is a criminal act --specifically in the case of providing a pretext for war or for influencing the outcome of an election.

The police help protect us from criminals and terrorists, but do you want FBI agents and local police spying on environmental, anti-war, political, and faith-based groups? Do you feel safer knowing they might be spying on you? Documents obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act prove that the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Forces are collecting files on peace groups, and intimidating anti-war activists through aggressive questioning. The public deserves to know who is being investigated, who's doing the investigating, and why. Learn more about the Americans already under investigation and find out how you can help the ACLU fight for the privacy of political and religious groups. http://www.aclu.org/spyfiles Are you in an FBI file? Take this short quiz to find out. http://www.aclu.org/Quizzes/QuizIntro.cfm?quizID=12 Collecting files on anti-war and environmental groups has nothing to do with fighting terrorism and will not make us safer. If

Bush Lied. People Died. A LOT OF PEOPLE DIED. People are STILL dying for Bush's lies. Is there anyone out there who still believes that the U.S. went to war for anything other than oil, U.S. hegemony in the Middle East, and W's obsession with settling a score with Saddam Hussein? The Republicans tried to impeach Clinton over a stained dress. Why is being responsible for almost 2000 Americans' deaths not an impeachable offense? From the Washington Post: By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 22, 2005; Page A26 On Jan. 24, 2003, four days before President Bush delivered his State of the Union address presenting the case for war against Iraq, the National Security Council staff put out a call for new intelligence to bolster claims that Saddam Hussein possessed nuclear, chemical and biological weapons or programs. The person receiving the request, Robert Walpole, then the national intelligence officer for strategic and nuclear programs, wou

Fafblog! is right on the mark (as usual)! I could never express the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration and those barking heads on the right any more succinctly than Fafblog!: Stop Newsweek... Before It Kills Again! Newsweek must be destroyed - for the sake of national security! Oh, dear readers, you may have believed it to be just an innocent newsweekly with an unnatural preoccupation for health features ("Your Liver: The New Urban Nightmare?"), but through such reliable sources such as the White House and some schmuck with a keyboard you will know the truth: that Newsweek has killed over a dozen Afghans with a toilet and will do it again unless it is stopped. But that's not all. The Great Toilet Stab-in-the-Back of '05 was merely the tip of the iceberg of Newsweek's many crimes against America. The Medium Lobster has learned that while it was spreading lies about Korans at Guantanamo Bay, Newsweek managed to torture hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo, Abu Ghra

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee (Pat Roberts, R-Kan.) is working on a bill that would renew the Patriot Act and expand government powers in the name of fighting terrorism, letting the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury. The measure would give the FBI new power to issue administrative subpoenas, which are not reviewed by a judge or grand jury, for quickly obtaining records, electronic data or other evidence in terrorism investigations. More ... THE WAR ON TERROR IS A WAR ON YOUR CIVIL RIGHTS.

The Washington Post reports: Newsweek magazine's now-retracted story that a military guard at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet has sparked angry denunciations by the White House and the Pentagon, which have linked the article to Muslim riots and deaths abroad. But American and international media have widely reported similar allegations from detainees and others of desecration of the Muslim holy book for more than two years. James Yee, a former Muslim chaplain at the prison who was investigated and cleared of charges of mishandling classified material, has asserted that guards' mishandling and mistreatment of detainees' Korans led the prisoners to launch a hunger strike in March 2002. Detainee lawyers, attributing their information to an interrogator, have said the strike ended only when military leaders issued an apology to the detainees over the camp loudspeaker. But they said mishandling of the Koran persisted.

Oh, Hell yes! The hypocrisy just continues to ooze. From ThinkProgress.org: This morning on the floor of the Senate, Sen. Chuck Schumer asked Majority Leader Bill Frist a simple question: SEN. SCHUMER: Isn’t it correct that on March 8, 2000, my colleague [Sen. Frist] voted to uphold the filibuster of Judge Richard Paez? Here was Frist’s response: The president, the um, in response, uh, the Paez nomination - we’ll come back and discuss this further. … Actually I’d like to, and it really brings to what I believe - a point - and it really brings to, oddly, a point, what is the issue. The issue is we have leadership-led partisan filibusters that have, um, obstructed, not one nominee, but two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, in a routine way. So, Frist is arguing that one filibuster is OK. His problem is that several Bush nominees have been filibustered. This position completely undercuts Frist’s argument that judicial filibusters are unconstitutional. (Which is, in turn, t

As if there was any doubt that the United States is the most war-like country on the planet, the U.S. is now planning to put weapons in space. The Air Force, saying it must secure space to protect the nation from attack, is seeking President Bush's approval of a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, according to White House and Air Force officials. The proposed change would be a substantial shift in American policy. It would almost certainly be opposed by many American allies and potential enemies, who have said it may create an arms race in space. A senior administration official said that a new presidential directive would replace a 1996 Clinton administration policy that emphasized a more pacific use of space, including spy satellites' support for military operations, arms control and nonproliferation pacts. What is with these people? Truly the forces of darkness and evil are sweeping over the

Dennis Miller was never funny even on Saturday Night Live. He was about the most un-funny, boring comedian to ever walk on a stage. Frankly, I am surprised that he was not canned sooner. Even more surprising is that he got a show in the first place. His commentary was generally un-insightful, un-enlightened and always un-funny. Good bye and good riddance.

This story is a little over a week old. It does not seem to have gotten a lot of coverage in the MSM. Why ar not more people outraged? "Intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy." Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would see those words in black and white—and beneath a SECRET stamp, no less. For three years now, we in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) have been saying that the CIA and its British counterpart, MI-6, were ordered by their countries' leaders to "fix facts" to "justify" an unprovoked war on Iraq. More often than not, we have been greeted with stares of incredulity. It has been a hard learning—that folks tend to believe what they want to believe. As long as our evidence, however abundant and persuasive, remained circumstantial, it could not compel belief. It simply is much easier on the psyche to assent to the White House spin machine blaming the Iraq fiasco on bad intelligence than t

From The Democratic Underground: The Rev. Chan Chandler made an interesting move last week when he decided to cut his congregation in half and rid himself of the sinners. Who are the sinners? Well according to Chandler, they're anyone who voted for John Kerry in 2004. Chandler, pastor of Waynesville NC Baptist Church, informed his congregation that if they did not vote for Bush they needed to publicly repent or leave his church forever, because he didn't want to be associated with people like that. Well maybe they don't want to be associated with you, Rev. Chandler. Apparently Chandler kicked nine people out of the church - some who had attended for more than 30 years - while other members of the congregation stood up and applauded. 40 more members of his congregation subsequently walked out in protest. Oddly enough, Chandler had the audacity to tell reporters that "the actions were not politically motivated." Uh, what? You know, I'm not sure what warped v

The House-passed that bill broadly rewrites the rules for licenses is portrayed as an anti-terrorism tool. However, like Social Security numbers, it could be used for purposes well beyond their original intent. The measure, passed by a 261-161 vote last month and supported by the Bush administration, could make it possible for the government to monitor people’s movements in the country through a chip in a license. “Supporters of this don’t seem to have the ability to look beyond how this system they are putting in place can change. They can’t see how it can metamorphose into a national ID card,” said Steve Lilienthal, director of the Free Congress Foundation Center for Privacy & Technology. Under the measure, states must verify they are giving licenses to U.S. citizens and legal residents. If they fail to do so, federal officers cannot accept licenses from residents of those states as proof of identity to get on an airplane or into a federal building, for example. Lilienthal, w

Break it, but don't shake it. Texas lawmakers sent a message to the state's high school cheerleaders Wednesday: no more booty-shaking at the game. The state's House of Representatives voted 85-55 to approve a bill that would forbid sexy cheers and give the Texas Education Agency authority to punish schools that allow "overtly sexually suggestive" routines at football games and other events. State Rep. Al Edwards complained of cheerleaders "shaking their behinds, breaking it down," but the proposal does not define what constitutes suggestive cheering. Perhaps "getting jiggy with it"? Democratic state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, also of Houston, said the bill was a waste of valuable time."I think the Texas Education Agency has enough to do making sure our kids are better educated, and we are wasting our time with 'one two three four, we can't shake it any more?"' Hear, hear! Get a life, Edwards.

U.S. Takes Giant Leap Towards Theocracy "The Congress by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on our citizens to reaffirm the role of prayer in our society and to honor the freedom of religion by recognizing annually a "National Day of Prayer." NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 5, 2005, as a National Day of Prayer. I ask the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, each according to his or her own faith, for the liberty and blessings we have received and for God's continued guidance and protection. I also urge all Americans to join in observing this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities." And yet another nail in the coffin of the idea of seperation of church and state ...

Federal judges are a more serious threat to America than Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorists, the Rev. Pat Robertson claimed Sunday on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos". Robertson, never one to support civil liberties, would rather transform the United States into a Fascist regime than allow U.S. citizens free will or free speech. He completely ignores the purpose of the Judiciary as protector of our human rights against an over-zealous Executive and/or Legislative branch. Strike that. He knows exactly the purpose of the Judiciary. He would just rather destroy it, as the Judiciary presently stands in the way of transforming the United States into a theocracy. The religious right is a greater threat to the North American way of life than terrorism. In the world that Pat Robertson envisions, there is no freedom of religion, no freedom of expression, no right to life, nor liberty. There is only Christianity. And this is the law. Sounds very familiar to Iraq and Af