Terrorist trial may go to military tribunal, not court.

Jesus H Christ in the stockade, would someone please tell me a couple things? First, what is the basic difference between Bush and Obama? Second, what happened to the fucking rule of law in the US?

WASHINGTON — Looking to breathe life into President Barack Obama's stalled pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, White House advisers are inching toward recommending military trials for alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four accused henchmen.

Attorney General Eric Holder's original plan to try them in a civilian court in New York City met with criticism so fierce that it threatened to derail Obama's promise to shut the U.S. military's Cuban prison.

As difficult as the politics are concerning how and where to try the most notorious terror suspect in U.S. custody, that's only one step toward the even more fraught and complicated goal of closing Guantanamo where Mohammed and nearly 200 other terror detainees remain

As difficult as the politics are concerning how and where to try the most notorious terror suspect in U.S. custody, that's only one step toward the even more fraught and complicated goal of closing Guantanamo where Mohammed and nearly 200 other terror detainees remain.

Closing Guantanamo was a signature promise of Obama's presidency, and it is still unkept well past his original deadline of January. Failing to keep it would have huge implications for the president, both with his base of supporters in the Democratic Party and in his efforts to remake America's image around the globe.

Has Obama accomplished much of anything he promised, you know the things we elected him to do?

Has he undone anything Bush did wrong? Well, except for banning torture during interrogations? Has he eliminated spying on phone calls, emails, mail, bank accounts, medical records of any Americans without obtaining a court order? Has he really upheld American's rights to privacy under The Constitution? And now he intends to stay in Iraq longer than he promised? Has he closed Gitmo?
As difficult as the politics are concerning how and where to try the most notorious terror suspect in U.S. custody, that's only one step toward the even more fraught and complicated goal of closing Guantanamo where Mohammed and nearly 200 other terror detainees remain.

Closing Guantanamo was a signature promise of Obama's presidency, and it is still unkept well past his original deadline of January. Failing to keep it would have huge implications for the president, both with his base of supporters in the Democratic Party and in his efforts to remake America's image around the globe.

In the next election will we give him eight more years to not do things?

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More Dems Join EPA Block

Oops. That's not the right Holland image.

That's the right image.

I know the windmill is a cliché , but they're even on some of their fucking stamps.

Had these people been around, there would be no Holland. They'd have run around pulling the little Dutch boy's fingers out of the holes in the dykes.

And I'm well aware I lost your attention with that last sentence. Focus!

Two House Democrats are joining the assault on the coming greenhouse gas regulations from the EPA. On Thursday, Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Armed Services Chair Ike Skelton (D) introduced a resolution to overturn the agency’s finding that emissions threaten human health. Missouri Republican Jo Ann Emerson is cosponsoring the legislation.

Their measure mirrors the Senate attack on EPA regulations from Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who is using a resolution of disapproval--an obscure procedural maneuver to overturn agency regulations--to block the agency’s scientific conclusion that planet-warming gases endanger humans. The House trio introduced a separate piece of legislation earlier this month to amend the Clean Air Act, but has now synched its efforts with those in the Senate. Murkowski’s measure has 40 cosponsors, including Democrats Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Mary Landrieu (La.).

The EPA's finding has triggered the regulation of gases, with rule for automobiles expected next month and major stationary sources like power plants coming in April. With Senate debate on a carbon cap stalled out, the EPA rules are seen as the last hope for regulating emissions this year.

Climate change won't wait. Its gonna happen regardless whether politicians ignore it and refuse to act. And it will happen even faster when those politicians also insist on blocking any efforts to fight it. At least the EPA is trying to do something.

I'm sure anyone with asthma would contend the fucking emissions affecting air quality are most definitely a health hazard to them as they are for the rest of US.


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Bipartisanship Runs Aground At Health Care Summit

Did you watch? Did you enjoy this latest fucking kabuki theater? Were you impressed with McCain's clownish behavior? Did you honestly expect any other God damn outcome?

Somewhere I read the key to such negotiations is both sides have to know what they need and then to discuss these needs with the other side to see what commonality is there.

I disagree. The absolute prime condition required is for both sides to believe, before the negotiations begin, agreement is possible. The GOP didn't believe that at all or they decided they would not allow agreement under any circumstances. I lean toward the latter.

The 'summit' [stupid fucking word fed us by the media] was ridiculous. You were smothered by the politics in the room. The whole point was to posture for November 2010. Hell, Obama even specifically mentioned November.

President Obama’s face-to-face effort to forge a bipartisan agreement on health care overhaul appeared to fall short Thursday, as differences that have plagued the process for months re-emerged during a meeting at Washington's historic Blair House.

Although Democrats maintained that the two sides were actually close to a solution, Republicans insisted that neither they nor the American people can stomach the bill as it now exists.

“Mr. President, what we've been saying for a long time is, let's scrap the bill,” House Republican Leader John Boehner said. “Let's start with a clean sheet of paper on those things that we can agree on.”

Obama wrapped up the nearly seven-hour session by asking Republicans to do some "soul searching." He held out some hope that compromise could be reached and that a bill could be finalized within a month to six weeks.

"And if we can't, then I think we ought to go ahead and make some decisions and then that's what elections are for,” the president said. “We have honest disagreements about the direction of the country and we'll go ahead and test those out for the next several months till November."

And they forgot the damn decent intermission. Not good theater at all. A complete waist of time. Better to have grabbed a DVD and some popcorn.

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God damn son of a bitch

I truly hate it when this happens.

After stating in my own comments that I see a huge difference between progressives and wingers in that progressives can disagree, but wingers have to stay loyal to The Message™, I run into this shit.

Bucking Republican Orthodoxy

Uh oh. It looks likes someone is in danger of losing his status as a conservative in good standing. It began yesterday when Ramesh Ponnuru of the National Review took issue with a claim made by the New York Sun editorial staff. The editors of the Sun, in an editorial entitled "What is a Republican?" claimed that all Republicans should be able to unify around the following idea:

Reductions in top marginal tax rates provide incentives for growth and lead to greater government revenues in the long run. That is not always the case. There is a point on the Laffer Curve at which tax cuts on the top margin stop generating increased income, but we are nowhere near that point now.

Ponnuru, who is the most intellectually honest of the Corner gang by a country mile, took issue with this, noting the obvious:

Presumably what they [the editors of the Sun] mean is that the top income tax rate is higher than the revenue-maximizing rate, but I'm not sure why they think that it is. Bush's tax cuts appear to have caused revenue to be lower than it would otherwise have been, which suggests that we're already below the revenue-maximizing tax rate.

Of course, as stated by A L in the first couple sentences, Ramesh Ponnuru is probably dead meat to the Republicans. The stupid ass strayed from The Message™. The Republicans will teach him about the folly of thinking.

He's authored a book called The Party of Death. Duh. You can see that in the picture.

Haven't read that book, but my research shows it refers to Democrats* when it should be about Republicans.

* Here it gets tricky. From my research**, Ponnuru denies its about the Dems and then says it is. He's writing about abortion and euthanasia. I guess bombing the shit out of Iraqi civilians doesn't count as "death".

** Remember, dear reader, I'm lazy ass so my research is always suspect.

Despite Large Majorities, Democrats Are Chicken on Gun Control (NSFW)

Come on. This is pure bullshit. The Democrats are chicken shit on everything. Face it and live with it.

I've posted before I'm no advocate of gun control. Guns have always been part of my life from an early age and they can be controlled by those who own them.

But this is an issue many Americans have a problem with and the Dems don't give a shit.

This is supposed to be a republic controlled by the People. Even if I don't agree, the People should rule. The Dems are like the Repugs in not caring what the People want.

So sad.

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Democrats Hide Pet Projects From Voters

Yep, I'll go after the Dems when I feel they deserve it. Transparent government is something America deserves out of Washington DC.

After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress' pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year.

Democrats are sidestepping rules approved their first day in power in January to clearly identify "earmarks" - lawmakers' requests for specific projects and contracts for their states.

Rather than including specific pet projects, grants and contracts in legislation as it is being written, Democrats are following an order by the House Appropriations Committee chairman to keep the bills free of such earmarks until it is too late for critics to effectively challenge them.

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Clinton, Edwards and Obama: Strike Iran

Doesn't look like "going Democratic" would make any difference in the Mid-East. So far it hasn't.

To put it bluntly, none of the front running Democrats are opposed to Bush's dubious "war on terror" or his bullying of Iran. They support his aggression in principle but simply believe a Democratic presidency could handle the job more astutely. All put Israel first and none are going to fundamentally alter U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

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Bush and the Democrats

Jesus H Christ on a beach, are the Democrats drinking the Kool-Aid® now?

President Bush squarely addressed the issue most on the mind of House Democrats, saying Saturday that deep divisions over the Iraq war need not bring anyone's patriotism into question.

"You know, I welcome debate in a time of war and I hope you know that," Bush said in opening remarks at the guest speaker at a retreat that drew about 200 lawmakers to a Virginia resort.

He said disagreeing with him over the war — as many in the room do — does not mean "you don't share the same sense of patriotism I do."

"You can get that thought out of your mind, if that's what some believe," the president said. "These are tough times, but there's no doubt in my mind that you want to secure this homeland as much as I do."

Bush's conciliatory words were similar to some of his previous statements. But the applause that followed them offered some indication that this audience was happy to hear them so directly and in person. [emphasis mine]

This is a fucking psychopath who lies from the moment he awakes until bed time.

Do not let him send more cannon fodder to Iraq and, for gawd sakes, don't let him attack Iran.

Yes, everyone wants to secure the homeland. Everyone wants apple pie. Everyone wants to go on picnics.

We just don't want to attack other countries to steal their pies and picnic baskets.

And I'll reiterate, we are not at war with Iraq.

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House approves huge spending bill

Those fucking Democrats!

A must-pass bill covering about one-sixth of the federal budget swept through the House on Wednesday. A sizable chunk of Republicans joined virtually all Democrats in approving spending increases for education, veterans and the AIDS battle in Africa.

The 286-140 vote — with 57 Republicans voting in favor — was a pleasant surprise for Democrats who expected far less GOP support. The $463.5 billion spending bill had much to please the rank and file, including Republican moderates, even though it contained no pet projects for their districts.

"The content is a heck of a lot better than most expected we'd come up with," said the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. David Obey (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis. He worked with his Senate counterpart, Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va., to add money for initiatives popular with both Democrats and Republicans.

The winning vote would have been even higher had there not been such hard feelings over how Democrats powered the bill through the House: just an hour of debate time, no amendments allowed.

In truth, this is a good article. It admits the spending bill was necessary and even Republicans felt compelled to support it. Perhaps those Democrats aren't so bad after all?

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