The Dem Diatribe Project

And not a moment too soon. That son of a bitch should be in jail. Rove got out while the going was still possible. The rest of them should be on their way to the slammer by now too but it seems lying to Congress and the American people is no longer a crime.

Bush, Big Oil at it again. Always at it. This time it is just a little more blatant. Here's to the worst planet money can buy. From the story: Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today. Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In the most shockingly cynical, mis-directed and mind-boggling statement by an Attorney General in perhaps the history of the world, Gonzales offered his own feeble-minded re-interpretation of the United States Constitution. In an further attempt to somehow justify the criminal activities of the Bush Administration, Gonzales stated, "There is no expressed grant of habeas in the Constitution; there’s a prohibition against taking it away,". So in order to take it away, does not one have to have it in the first place? My god, where did Bush find this guy? Answer: the same pea pod of neocons who are bent on taking away the rights of the US people, imposing imperial rule on the United States and expanding US hegemony to the rest of the world. It may be time to dust off those Hitler references.

The Pentagon has been planting "news" stories in the foreign press for several years. Government propaganda in the U.S. is supposedly illegal though the Bush administration seems to flaunt this with impunity and FOX news is all too happy to assist. Setting the constitution aside, the Pentagon has announced a new "media war" unit to add it's own noise to the din of misinformation in the world. Fearing that insurgents and anyone else deemed unfriendly to U.S. policy (including U.S. citizens) are gaining the upper hand in the dissemination of information, disinformation and misinformation, the Pentagon will continue to plant U.S.-friendly news stories in all media outlets that it can manage to infiltrate including 24 hour news channels, the Internet and newspapers. What is different? Nothing. The Pentagon is merely announcing that it is doing something that it has been doing all along. They are covering their butts so no one can act surprised when U.S. citizens wak...

If you cannot squelch public opinion and facts with propaganda and lies, just block access to the facts. It seems that the self-appointed "Decider", George W. Bush, has decided to "end public access to research materials" at EPA Regional libraries without Congressional consent. In an all out effort to impede research and public access, Bush has implemented a loosely covert operation to close down 26 technical libraries under the guise of a budgetary constraint move. Scientists are protesting, but at least 15 of the libraries will be closed by Sept. 30, 2006. ... The suppression of information to the public and efforts to control the flow of information of the sciences has reached critical mass. Shades of the once science fictional book, Fahrenheit 451, are dangerously close to reality and the banning and burning of books looms all to surreal, but are more fact than science fiction now. Who could have ever envisioned that Ray Bradbury's vicious, futuristic, dysto...

NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional Judge orders immediate halt to program Thank you ACLU! (CNN) -- A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the U.S. government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered it ended immediately. In a 44-page memorandum and order, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, -- who is based in Detroit, Michigan --struck down the National Security Agency's program, which she said violates the rights to free speech and privacy. Taylor's ruling stems from a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. According to The Associated Press, Taylor is the first judge to rule the eavesdropping program unconstitutional. (Read the complete ruling -- PDF) The defendants "are permanently enjoined from directly or indirectly utilizing the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) in any way, including, but not limited to, conducting warrantless wiretaps of telephone and Internet communications, in contravention of the Foreign...

Published: June 7, 2006 New York Times: If there was ever a sign of a ruling party in trouble, it is a game plan that calls for trying to win by discouraging voting. The latest sign that Republicans have an election-year strategy to shut down voter registration drives comes from Ohio. As the state gears up for a very competitive election season this fall, its secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, has put in place "emergency" regulations that could hit voter registration workers with criminal penalties for perfectly legitimate registration practices. The rules are so draconian they could shut down registration drives in Ohio. Mr. Blackwell, who also happens to be the Republican candidate for governor this year, has a history of this sort of behavior. In 2004, he instructed county boards of elections to reject any registrations on paper of less than 80-pound stock — about the thickness of a postcard. His order was almost certainly illegal, and he retracted it after he came ...

This will be a busy week in the House -- Congress goes into summer recess Friday, but not before considering the Section 115 Reform Act of 2006 (SIRA). Never heard of SIRA? That’s the way Big Copyright and their lackey’s want it, and it's bad news for you. Simply put, SIRA fundamentally redefines copyright and fair use in the digital world. It would require all incidental copies of music to be licensed separately from the originating copy. Even copies of songs that are cached in your computer's memory or buffered over a network would need yet another license. Once again, Big Copyright is looking for a way to double-dip into your wallet, extracting payment for the same content at multiple levels. Today, so-called "incidental" copies don't need to be licensed; they're made in the process of doing *other* things, like listening to your MP3 library or plugging into a Net radio station. If you paid for the MP3 and the radio station is up-to-date with its bookkeepin...

Mike McCurry, former Clinton Administration Press Secretary turned telecommunications industry lobbyist is out to kill the open Internet while lining his and the telcos pockets. Nothing good can come of this. If McCyrry and the giant telcos have there way, say goodby to free speech on the Internet.

Dem Diatribe's Pick for the special election on Tuesday, Aug. 2, to elect the successor in the 2nd District to Congressman Rob Portman, who recently appointed by the President to a high trade post: Paul Hackett The 2nd District it is gerrymandered to wind from eastern Cincinnati’s prosperous suburbs and posh commercial sites through such small farm counties as Brown, Adams and Pike, part of Warren and Clermont, and all the way east across the state to downtrodden Portsmouth in poverty-ridden Scioto County. The race is down to Republican Jean Schmidt, who was the only female in a 10-person primary race, a 100 percent Bush backer from Loveland, who is the head of an anti-abortion group in Cincinnati. Her opponent is Paul Hackett, a charismatic, impressive lawyer from Indian Hill, who recently returned from a seven-month tour of duty in Iraq as a Marine major, where he served on the front lines in battered Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold. If elected, he will be, incredibly, the on...

President Bush is completely back-pedaling from his 2004 pledge to fire anyone involved in leaking the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Now that it appears that his most trusted, most evil confidant is the guilty party, Bush is adjusting his rhetoric. According to the Shrub, Darth Rove must now be convicted of a crime before said Shrub will fire him. I guess giving Rove his walking papers will be a lot easier once convicted, as he will be on his way to prison anyway. The Shrub is on his way to being a bigger flip-flopper than John Kerry and he might want to pay careful attention to some of the things he says with such conviction. e.g.: "...if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration ..." Well Mr. Shrubbery, if you were to live by those words, you would have a pretty empty office. You might want to adjust your rhetoric again in the future to something like, "If someone in my administration who is not Karl Rove or Dick Chen...

Yeah, right. We believe you. See Also: Power Line . Rove: the architectect of most Bush Administration lies.

Democracy For America has put out a short Flash animation describing the Downing Street Memo and what it means for America. Take a look: http://democracyforamerica.com/memo_movie.php

"Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does." That's what Dick Cheney had to say about my brother, Howard Dean, on Monday. This wasn't a quote from an insecure schoolyard bully at recess -- this was our vice president speaking on prime time television. It's outrageous! But then again, this is a guy who has no regrets about misleading America into a war with Iraq and the deaths of over 1,700 brave men and women in uniform. He has no remorse over mismanaging our nation's economy and running up the biggest deficit in history. He wants to destroy Social Security. And he has given away billions to his corporate cronies at Halliburton. Howard has said a lot of things about Republicans, but he was wrong about Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney has worked a day in his life -- and the nation is worse off because of it. Vice President Cheney says he has never met anyone who likes Howard - well, it's time for us to re-introduce ourselves to him. It...

To: Democrats in U.S. Congress Recently some Democrats in Congress have chastised Governor Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, saying that he does not speak for the party. We the undersigned have a simple message we would like to convey to you: Howard Dean Speaks For Me. And, we respectfully request that you refrain from public criticism of your fellow Democrats and that you begin to speak for us as well Sincerely, The Undersigned Sign the petition.

I'll take "The Obvious" for $1000, Alex. Providing yet more evidence that Bush cannot think more than about one move ahead in any situation, the Washington Post is reporting on British analysis that the Bush administration had not given any serious thought regarding what to do with Iraq after the invasion. Forget chess. This man probably sucks at checkers. And he is "leading our country", YOW! A briefing paper prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers eight months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq concluded that the U.S. military was not preparing adequately for what the British memo predicted would be a "protracted and costly" postwar occupation of that country. The eight-page memo, written in advance of a July 23, 2002, Downing Street meeting on Iraq, provides new insights into how senior British officials saw a Bush administration decision to go to war as inevitable, and realized more clearly than their American counterp...

The evidence in Bush's manufacture of evidence for war seems to keep growing. How long can the U.S. mainstream media ignore this? Isn't it about time for a special counsel to investigate Bush's lies to Congress, the American people and the world? MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal. The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier. Read more ...

Republican U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, who was praised and vilified for her role as Florida's secretary of state in the 2000 presidential recount, said today she will run for the U.S. Senate next year against Democrat Bill Nelson. Running against an incumbent may be a more difficult challenge, but Harris is considered a top fundraiser and is a popular figure among Republicans." "A popular figure among Republicans". I'll bet she is. Her reward for giving Bush the WH was tons of campaign funding. She raised more than $2 million for her House seat campaign. The incumbent did not raise that much in his ten years in office. ggggrrrrrrrrrr

Senate panel votes to expand Patriot Act This week the Senate was to take up the repeal of the Patrion Act, or at least consider scaling it back. Instead, the controversial post-9/11 law would be expanded to give the FBI new powers to demand documents from companies without a judge's approval, according to a vote late Tuesday by the Senate Intelligence committee. The latest proposal grants the FBI more power to seek information from banks, hospitals, libraries, and other organizations through "administrative subpoenas" without prior judicial oversight. In addition, the FBI may designate that the subpoenas are secret and punish disclosure of their existence with up to one year in prison. The ACLU denounced the Senate Intelligence committee's vote. "In a move antithetical to our Constitution, the new 'administrative subpoena' authority would let the FBI write and approve its own search orders for intelligence investigations, without prior judicial approval,...

The Bush administration somehow feels justified in chastising Newsweek for their report on desecration of the Koran and smug, arrogant and hubristic in dismissing Amnesty International, but this is all just desperate rhetoric. This administration has the worst record of human rights abuses in the history of the United States. A closer read of the Amnesty report details specific cases of abuse and a policy that flies in the face of what the U.S. stands for. The editorial in Sunday's New York Times expresses this more succinctly than I could attempt to do myself. Rather than snarking about the situation, as I often do, the article offers some constructive advice to the Bush administration: Now that the Bush administration has made clear how offended it is at Amnesty International's word choice in characterizing the Guantánamo Bay detention camp "the gulag of our times," we hope it will soon get around to dealing with the substantive problems that the Amnesty rep...