Happy 24th Birthday Cody

Lesbian Teen Picture in Tux Barred from Yearbook

Scary comment from parent at meeting about lesbian teen's tux picture:
"When uniformity is compromised, then authority no longer holds."


County school officials are backing a principal's decision to bar a picture of a lesbian student dressed in a tuxedo from the high school yearbook.

Sam Ward, principal of Fleming Island High School, said he pulled the senior class picture because Kelli Davis was wearing boy's clothes. His decision was debated Thursday at a Clay County school board meeting that drew 200 people, but the board took no action, and Superintendent David Owens said the decision will stand.

full story:
Lesbian's picture in tux cut from yearbook

Even Hollywood is Running Scared of this Adminstration

They wonder why all the award shows have had ratings drops this year. With 7 second delays on the broadcasts and the censorship of what is said especially now that it is politically incorrect to lampoon this administration. People watched for the spontaneity, the surprise that is no more. This is just one example:

ABC executives have forced Robin Williams to drop a comic song from the Oscars show that might well have proved one of the most political and racy numbers of the broadcast, despite the fact that the network and the show's host, Chris Rock, have been promoting the night as anything but tame.

Mr. Williams, the presenter of the Academy Award for best animated feature, decided last week that his one minute on stage would be a prime time to lampoon the conservative critic James C. Dobson, whose group Focus on the Family last month criticized the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants for appearing in a video about tolerance that the group called "pro-homosexual."

full story:
Cut From the Oscars: Cartoon Characters' Sins

What an Ashcroft you are!

John Ashcroft's name has become synomous with the "A-word," in the minds of some Hollywood artists.

The Washington Post reports the former attorney general's surname was dubbed over the seven-letter obscenity that begins with the same first two letters in a version of the Oscar-nominated movie "Sideways."

full story:
Film industry's new swear word: Ashcroft
Former AG's name reported substituted for obscenity in movie

Another Hate-filled Racist Coulterism

From the lips of the Rights most hate filled mouth:

Ann Coulter:
"Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president."

Here it is:
anncoulter.com
REPUBLICANS, BLOGGERS AND GAYS, OH MY!

Christopher Hitchens on the Ohio Vote -- Somethings Fishy in Denmark!

Christopher Hitchens a former leftie turned neocon columnist and pundit writes an amazing article in March's Vanity Fair about the Ohio vote:



"No conspiracy theorist, and no fan of John Kerry’s, the author nevertheless found the Ohio polling results impossible to swallow: Given what happened in that key state on Election Day 2004, both democracy and common sense cry out for a court-ordered inspection of its new voting machines."

full article:
OHIO’S ODD NUMBERS

$10,000 Reward for info on Jeff Gannon

Have you seen this man:



A wealthy Washington socialite is offering a $10,000 reward for proof that Jeff Gannon (pictured), an allegedly gay kinky-sex prostitute / escort / white house reporter / GOP operative, has had sexual relations with top-ranking government officials.

full story:
Reward: Jeff Gannon information

The Manchurian Candidate in a G-string

.....What separates Jim/Jeff from the rest of the pack of media whores is that HE REALLY IS A WHORE. Yes, as in male prostitute. As in, he has sex with men for pay, while also being a valued Republican press, ahem, orifice. Daily for the past two years, Jeff/Jim has attended press conferences in the White House and is one of the "journalists" favored by George W. Bush.

Don't look away from this, America. Don't shrug your shoulders and call it, as Ari Fleischer used to say about every breaking scandal, a "partisan fishing expedition." This is not partisan. This is The Manchurian Candidate in a G-string. This is a veritable golden shower of high crimes and misdemeanors. Why?

You might recall the name Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent whose expertise was weapons of mass destruction.

As I put it in my Jan. 8, 2004 column ("Watergate Redux"), the leak of her identity "served as nasty political revenge against Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, who would not take the fall for the claim that Saddam had received uranium from Niger. Nonetheless, those claims became the pretext for an invasion of a nation that posed no imminent threat to our nation, in violation of every international treaty or code of conduct to which we have ever subscribed ... There's a criminal loose in the White House, a person (or persons) so dangerous that they would jeopardize national security for short-term political gain."

"Jeff Gannon" might be one of those people. Or, then again, he might just be one of those people's, ahem, handmaidens. Either way, he's one of the "journalists" to whom Plame's name was leaked and who, in turn, attacked Wilson. "Jeff Gannon" also knew about Bush's plans to invade Iraq four hours before Bush announced them in March 2003. .....

full story:
The Dean of Dirt
Gannon/Guckert is the new Monica Lewinsky

When Democracy Failed - 2005

This is a chilling article comparing the rise of Hitler and facism with what is happening today:

When Democracy Failed - 2005
The Warnings of History
by Thom Hartmann

Not With My Kid ~~ Send Your Twins!!!

More DRAFT Talk

The United States has not had a military draft since 1973, but fears are growing throughout the country that there might soon be a return to the Selective Service.
Students are beginning to take the looming threat seriously as they consider ways of making themselves “draft resistant” as they gear up for conscientious objector status, establishing advance proof that they will qualify.

full story:
Country Bracing For Draft

Send these first:

Germans Protest Bush Visit

Protesters made their feelings known in Mainz Wednesday as President Bush's itinerary avoided contact with everyday Germans. A meeting with the public was canceled for fear the audience would be hostile.

President Bush of course is not the first president named Bush to come to this town on the Rhine, but the very physical circumstances of this president's stopover here on Wednesday suggest how different, how less automatically warm, German-American relations are now than they were when his father stopped in Mainz 16 years ago.

Most conspicuous was the lack of contact between ordinary Germans and an American president visiting what could almost have been a stage setting: a town with buildings but no people, the shops and restaurants in the center of town closed, and only uniformed police officers on the streets.

full story:
The Germans Bush Wasn't Able to See

also:
President's visit brings town to a halt

More on Germany trip:

During his trip to Germany on Wednesday, the main highlight of George W. Bush's trip was meant to be a "town hall"-style meeting with average Germans. But with the German government unwilling to permit a scripted event with questions approved in advance, the White House has quietly put the event on ice. Was Bush afraid the event might focus on prickly questions about Iraq and Iran rather than the rosy future he's been touting in Europe this week?

With a Hush and a Whisper, Bush Drops Town Hall Meeting with Germans

In Remembrance of "AMANDA"

A Year ago today my son's finacee Amanda passed away, she was 22 years old and died of thymic carcinoma, cancer of the thymus gland. I sent this letter to our local paper and they never printed it, so I am going to publish it here in remembrance of Amanda:

A True Love Story

Many years ago I sat crying at a drive-in theater watching Erich Segal's Love Story. Later I told my self, "thank goodness it is only fiction." I have now lived through the real thing, a real true Love Story. It has broken my heart, yet left me inspired, proud and with heroes in my life.

I would like to tell you a little about those heroes with the hope it will inspire you also. It may leave a tear in your eye and hopefully a good feeling in your heart.

I was introduced to a young girl named Amanda about four years ago by my son Cody. She was beautiful both inside and out. She loved life, writing, Elvis, Dolphins, and fishing. She adored her mom, sister and nephew. Most of all she loved my son. She was going to become my daughter and I came to love her very much.

A tough childhood did not deter her dreams. Her Dad passed away when she was a toddler, she lived in virtual poverty much of her life, but she had ambition. Graduating from high school and going on to college, she had great dreams for the future. Getting her degree, becoming a journalist, writing a book, marrying her love Cody and having my grandbabies.

Some of her dreams had already come true. Visiting Graceland, petting a dolphin, seeing the ocean, visiting New York, seeing the Mall of America. She caught her first fish last summer on the Fourth of July, she had dreamed of that for a year after I had introduced her to my favorite sport. You should have seen that smile when she reeled it in and held it up for Cody to see. It was a wonderful thing to witness. She landed a job as a reporter and got to see her nephew grow for a year. But most of all she had met her soulmate and best friend and was able to spend four great years with him.

This October she became ill and was diagnosed with Thymic Carcinoma. She believed in her doctors and believed if she did everthing they said, she would overcome the cancer and be able to get on with her life. Amanda did everything they told her she needed to do. All the chemo and radiation, the draining of fluid from her lungs and heart. She endured such pain that I cannot begin to imagine what she went through. The body aches that the chemo caused. An esophagus so burned by the radiation that even a teaspoon of applesauce would cause such pain she would have to scream. Constant vomiting from the chemo and fluid build up from the cancer that caused her lymph nodes to quit working. The weakness so bad that just walking from her car to her Mom's door took all the strength she had. She lost all her hair, had to be on oxygen most of the day and lost forty-five pounds. Yet through it all I never heard her complain. I have never known anyone as brave, strong and tough as Amanda.

Cody stayed by her side through it all. He proposed to her with a full page ad in the newspaper and gave her the engagement ring he bought by saving up for almost a year. He told her he would never leave her side no matter what and he didn't. With a maturity way beyound his twenty-two years he cared for Amanda the best that he could while working full time and going to school. He was compassionate and sympathetic when she needed that. He made sure she took her meds, waited on her when she needed it, fed her when she couldn't feed herself, ran her bath, washed her clothes and did everything he could to make her as comfortable as possible. One night Amanda vomited after taking a pain medication, afraid that the pill may have come back up and that Amanda would have to wait four hours to take another for the horrific pain she was in, Cody dug through the vomit with his bare hands to find the pill. He became her rock and she was the love of his life.

The Thursday before Valentine's Day Amanda returned to the hospital to have fluid drained again, it had become just a routine thing by this time. She would only be there a few days the doctors had said. Cody bought her a necklace for Valentine's Day and stayed in town through the weekend figuring she would be released on Monday. Amanda never got to wear the necklace. The oncologist told
Cody on Monday that the cancer was just taking over her body and that they should prepare for the worse. And they did, with such strength and grace for their twenty-two years that it was heart breaking. Amanda decided to give Cody the power of attorney to make the decision when the time came, if it did. And then they had five days together with Cody never leaving her side. She told him she wasn't afraid, she would get to see her Dad, her Grandma and Elvis. She told him even if the cancer had gone away and then came back she could not go through this again and again. They had five days together to make their peace and tell each other all that needed to be said. On Friday the cancer had taken over both lungs and the doctors put her on the respirator. She fought on for two days, the doctors told Cody that on Tuesday he would have to make the decision. A little before midnight Cody told Amanda he loved her and what he was going to have to do the next day and how hard it was going to be and she let go and died peacefully so he would never have to live with that decision.

Amanda lost her battle on Monday February 23rd, Cody made all the funeral arrangements, picked out the burial plot and worked day and night on a video tribute to her life for her services. Amanda was buried on Saturday, February 28th,

Cody's twenty-third birthday. He hopes that someday he will be able to celebrate his birthday without the thoughts of his love being buried on that day.

These two brave young people have put me to shame for all the silly complaints I have made over the years about trivial things that happens in ones life. I have been inspired by Amanda and Cody's bravery and strength. I am proud to have been a part of Amanda's life and proud that my son turned out to be so wonderful. They are both my heroes. Unsung heroes, known but by few, but heroes nonetheless.

Amanda Kay Duty ~~ 1981-2004

Republican "CODE" Words

Did you know that Republicans use "code" words in their talking points to us, things like family values and personal accounts. We should work on their true meanings.

I have figured one out for myself: "OWNERSHIP SOCIETY" which means:
"The Rich own Everything"

This Guys Gotta Be a Ringer

Pulitzer Prize winner Columnist Maureen Dowd was denied a White house press pass but Male Prostitute Jeff Gannon got one on a daily basis for 2 years. There is something just too fishy here. He has to be a ringer for the White house:



By Dave Zweifel
February 21, 2005

If you're into reading political columnists, you've no doubt heard of Maureen Dowd, the prominent liberal columnist for the New York Times.

You may not have heard of a fellow named Jeff Gannon, but he, too, is somewhat of a political columnist. He has worked as a conservative correspondent for two political Web sites owned and operated by one of George W. Bush's pals in Texas.

....Gannon, however, has had credentials to get into the White House press briefing room for the past two years.

Maureen Dowd does not. In fact, although she had credentials since 1986, the Bush people turned down her request to have her pass renewed when they took office in 2001. Dowd doesn't often write nice things about Bush. Gannon does....

full story:
Dave Zweifel: Bush's journalism jihad exposed

First SpongeBob, Then Postcards from Buster Now Shrek

Shrek 2 is the latest animated film title to be "outed" by Christian fundamentalists in the U.S.

On its website the Traditional Values Coalition (news - web sites) is warning parents about the cross-dressing and transgender themes contained in the hit DreamWorks feature, now on DVD.

full story:
Shrek character is latest target of anti-gay religious group

Channel One Trying to Get Your Kid to Die in Iraq!!!!!

Why Go to College, When You Can be Cannon Fodder?

I read this yesterday and asked my son if his school was showing the same ads. His reply was "yes, all the time," plus he said the military recruiters were at his school constantly. I am very angry about this, "Leave my kid alone, we do not believe in this war that our "Emperor in Chief" has created and I don't want my child bombarded by recruiters telling him how wonderful the military is. Thank goodness he is smart enough to know that this war in Iraq is a sham and it is not unAmerican to say so. A "real" war is fighting to defend one's country not fighting to see a purple finger of a voter. Leave my kid alone. He does not fight in illegal pre-emptive wars, that neocon conservatives see as "democratizing" the world.

"SICKO" Swift Boaters Doing the Same thing to AARP as they did to Kerry

Here is an ad they are already running:

The Simpsons Take on the Evangelicals -- Have Gay Marriage in Program

Good for you Simpson's Producers, too many shows and people are backing down from the pressure put on by The Bush Administration and the Far Right Evangelicals. Last night's show had Simpson's city Springfield legalizing gay marriage to attract tourists. Marge sister Patty Bouvier comes out of the closet to announce she is a lesibian.



full story:
Reverend Homer breaks new ground

Bush Bans Camilla and Charles -- They are "GASP" Divorcees

GEORGE Bush has banned Camilla Parker Bowles from the White House - because she is a divorcee.

The unprecedented snub has effectively sabotaged Charles's plan to take his bride on a Royal tour of America later this year.

The trip would have been the pair's first official tour as a married couple.

But the US President - a notoriously right-wing Christian and reformed alcoholic - told aides it was "inappropriate" for him to be playing host to the newly-weds, who are both divorcees.

full story:
CAMILLA BANNED FROM WHITE HOUSE

Republican "Family Values"

Rush Limbaugh's third marriage is officially over, Cox News Service reports.

His divorce from Marta Limbaugh was finalized by a circuit court judge in Key West in December. The settlement agreement is sealed.

full story:
Marriage No. 3 Ends For Rush

We Just Love Red States

Black children received corporal punishment at Union County schools nearly twice as often as other students, according to research done by the Charlotte Observer.

The newspaper compiled the report after a bevy of questions arose, stemming from a letter sent home to parents notifying them that corporal punishment had been added to the district's code of conduct a few months ago. The policy has since been suspended.

full story:
Newspaper: Black children twice as likely to receive paddling

With Friends Like This Who Needs Enemies?

Georgie Porgy's "friend" secretly taped phone conversations in which Emperor George admits using marijuana:

full story:
In Secretly Taped Conversations, Glimpses of the Future President

Bob Woodward of "Watergate" Fame Thought Bush Bulge Story enough Evidence to Print

Bob Nelson the NASA scientist who enhanced the "BUSH BULGE" photos and tried to take the story to several newspapers was called by Bob (Watergate) Woodward to see what evidence he had and "The scientist obliged, telling Woodward he had also offered it to Salon. The next day, Woodward told Nelson he was going “through hoops” to get the story published and suggested he work with Salon, which ran its little-noticed story five days before the election.



full story
Battle of (Bush) Bulge

We Have to Wonder if he'll sample the poppies while there:

Limbaugh to visit Afghanistan with US aid official

Discovery Launch Date Set

NASA sets May 15th launch date for the shuttle Discovery.

YAY!!!! He's BACK!

Who Would Want to Join The Marines After Seeing This!

Drill instructor caught on tape striking 19-year-old

An autopsy revealed 19-year-old Jason Tharp drowned last week during water survival training at the Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, S.C.

Video shot on Feb. 7, the day before Tharp's death, by NBC affiliate WIS-TV in Columbia, S.C., shows Tharp, visibly shaken and almost terrified, taking a forearm shot from a Marine drill instructor.

In the Marines only five weeks, Tharp had written seven letters home telling his family he wanted out. His father, John Tharp, claims Jason had been singled out by drill instructors because he couldn't keep up with the rigorous basic training.

"I don’t know how they could treat my son the way we saw on that video," says Tharp. "He never hurt nobody. He'd do anything anybody asked him."

Full story and video:
Marines probe boot camp drowning

Daily Show -- Watch Jon Stewart on Bloggers and Gannongate

Watch Jon Stewart on Jeff Gannon and Bloggers, "really funny"

Gannon/Guckert on the Daily Show

From our Government : Don't use the Words "GAY" -- "LESBIAN"

This is ridiculous:

the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration wants the words ``gay,'' ``lesbian,'' ``bisexual'' and ``transgender'' pulled from the program of a federally funded conference on suicide prevention.

At issue is a conference on suicide prevention to be held Feb. 28 in Portland and organized by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center of Newton, Mass., a SAMHSA contractor. On the program is a talk that, until recently, was titled ``Suicide Prevention Among Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Trans- gender Individuals.''

full story:
Agency wants 'gay' out of title

More on Jeff Gannon White House Press Core/Male Prostitute?

Maureen Dowd:

"I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the "Barberini Faun" is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?"

"At first when I tried to complain about not getting my pass renewed, even though I'd been covering presidents and first ladies since 1986, no one called me back. Finally, when Mr. McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, he said he'd renew the pass - after a new Secret Service background check that would last several months."

full story:
Bush's Barberini Faun

and

From Frank Rich NYT
The White House Stages Its 'Daily Show'

also
from Joe Conason

....Imagine the media explosion if a male escort had been discovered operating as a correspondent in the Clinton White House. Imagine that he was paid by an outfit owned by Arkansas Democrats and had been trained in journalism by James Carville. Imagine that this gentleman had been cultivated and called upon by Mike McCurry or Joe Lockhart—or by President Clinton himself. Imagine that this "journalist" had smeared a Republican Presidential candidate and had previously claimed access to classified documents in a national-security scandal.....

full story
‘Liberal’ Media Silent About Guckert Saga

RESIGN Brit Hume

FDR's Grandson James Roosevelt Jr. says Brit Hume's "outrageous distortion" of his grandfather's Social Security Plan should be retracted, apoligied for or he should resign.

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann and former Social Security associate commissioner James Roosevelt Jr. examined how FOX News Washington managing editor Brit Hume and other pundits distorted a quote by Roosevelt Jr.'s grandfather, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in order to claim that the former president would have supported privatizing Social Security.

During their discussion, Olbermann referenced the distortions by Hume, nationally syndicated radio host and former Reagan administration official William J. Bennett, and Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund -- which Media Matters for America has documented. Roosevelt Jr. echoed Air America Radio host Al Franken's call for Hume to resign, saying that "he rearranged those sentences in an outrageous distortion, one that really calls for a retraction, an apology, maybe even a resignation."

full story
Media Matters

Crazy Right Wing say if You are anti Iraqi War you are a Terrorist!!!!!!!

"Is there a difference between Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Dennis Kucinich? Or Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Susan Sarandon? How about Mohammed Atta and Noam Chomsky?

Not according to DiscoverTheNetwork (DTN), a “Guide to the Political Left,” a sprawling database set up by the former Maoist and reborn Strausscon, David Horowitz. DTN, according to its About page, “identifies the individuals and organizations that make up the left and also the institutions that fund and sustain it; it maps the paths through which the left exerts its influence on the larger body politic; it defines the left’s (often hidden) programmatic agendas and it provides an understanding of its history and ideas.”

Sort of like the Illuminati or Third Degree Masons, only Marxist...."


Zacarias Moussaoui

Michael Moore

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Barack Obama

Fidel Castro

John Kerry

full story:
DiscoverTheNetwork: David Horowitz's Smear Portal

Discover the Network.org
leftwing agendas

RNC Chairman Links DNC with Lawyer aiding Terrorists

Howard Dean, just four days into his job as Democratic National chairman, called Wednesday for New York's state Republican chairman to apologize or resign over remarks linking Democrats to a civil rights lawyer convicted of aiding terrorists.

Calling Stephen Minarik's comments "offensive," the former Vermont governor said, "The American people deserve better than this type of political character assassination."

full story:
Dean: New York GOP chairman must apologize or resign

Bushies Fetish -- BALDIES?

The smoking scalp?

Military Posts Gruesome Photos of Dead Iraqis

THE US Defence Department has been asked to investigate a website being used by American soldiers to post grisly pictures of Iraqi war dead.

The site, which has been operating for more than a year, describes itself as "an online archive of soldiers' photos".

Dozens of pictures of decapitated and limbless bodies are featured on the site with tasteless captions, purportedly sent in by soldiers.

full story:
Anger over Iraqi war dead on Internet

Here are pictures
Warning: Graphic Photos :

Are We Headed to the Draft Again?

Uncle Sam wants you. He needs you. He'll bribe you to sign up. He'll strong-arm you to re-enlist. And if that's not enough, he's got a plan to draft you.



full story:
The Return of the Draft

We Have Nothing to Fear but Bush Himself

This is a good op-ed piece written by a conseravative about our Emperor in Chief:

Suppose you are the party responsible for invading a country under totally false pretenses. Suppose you had totally unrealistic expectations about the consequences of your gratuitous aggression.

What do you do when, instead of being greeted with flowers, you find your army is tied down by insurgents and you have no face-saving way to get out of the morass? If you are the moronic Bush administration, you blame someone else.

Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Cheney and Bush blame Syria and Iran for the troubles that they brought upon themselves. The Iraqi insurgency, say the Five Morons, is the fault of Syria and Iran.

full article:
We Have Nothing to Fear but Bush Himself

This is What You Get for Fighting for Your Country

The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The rationale: Today's Iraqis are good guys, and they need the money.

full story:
White House Turns Tables on Former American POWs

More Chipping away of the 1st Amendment

Press freedom: One-third think First Amendment rights go too far
The story of Jim Taricani frightens journalists. I'm curious to find out whether it scares readers.
Taricani, a reporter in Providence, R.I., sits under house arrest.His crime? He told a story of government corruption.

full story:
Free-press freedoms are under attack, but does anyone care?

Alan Keyes who called Mary Cheney a "Selfist Hedonist" has lesibian daughter:

The 19-year-old daughter of Alan Keyes has a Valentine for the anti-gay rights conservative pundit and frequent Republican candidate.

Maya Marcel-Keyes will be making her first public appearance as a gay activist at a Valentine Day's rally in front of the Maryland State House, says Dan Furmansky, the leader of Equality Maryland, a gay rights group.

full story:
Alan Keyes' Daughter Coming Out

Police hunt poo protesters

"Police in Germany are hunting pranksters who have been sticking miniature US flags into piles of dog poo in public parks."

This would have been better:

Rock the Vote Joins AARP to Help Save Social Security from Bush!

This is COOL the young folks at Rock the Vote have joined forces with AARP to go against Bush's privatization of Social Security.



Go here to buy a shirt:
Rock the Vote

Bush Administration = Propaganda and Payola

This is a really good op-ed piece connecting the Bush Administration Payola scandals of Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus with Talon News' Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert and how this administration is spreading propaganda through a free press:

Talon News is Just Part of a Bigger Scandal

Bush Approval Rating at 45 Percent - Last Week's Gallup Poll Biased

Last week's Gallup Poll that showed Bush with a 57% approval rating proved biased.
More Republicans were polled than Democrats:

CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll
February 4-6, 2005
Bush Approval/Disapproval 57%-40%

Republicans: 378 (37%)
Independents: 353 (35%)
Democrats: 279 (28%)

A Poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs after the State of the Union Speech and the Iraqi Elections tell a very different story

The public's confidence in President Bush job performance and the nation's direction has slipped in the opening weeks of his second term, particularly among people 50 and older, according to an Associated Press poll. Adults were evenly divided on Bush's job performance in January, but now 54 percent disapprove and 45 percent approve.

full story:
Poll Shows Drop in Bush's Job Approval

Bush Administration's First Memo on al-Qaeda Declassified

Washington, D.C., February 10, 2005 - The National Security Archive today posted the widely-debated, but previously unavailable, January 25, 2001, memo from counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke to national security advisor Condoleezza Rice - the first terrorism strategy paper of the Bush administration. The document was central to debates in the 9/11 hearings over the Bush administration's policies and actions on terrorism before September 11, 2001. Clarke's memo requests an immediate meeting of the National Security Council's Principals Committee to discuss broad strategies for combating al-Qaeda by giving counterterrorism aid to the Northern Alliance and Uzbekistan, expanding the counterterrorism budget and responding to the U.S.S. Cole attack. Despite Clarke's request, there was no Principals Committee meeting on al-Qaeda until September 4, 2001.



January 25, 2001 Richard Clarke Memo:
"We urgently need . . . a Principals level
review on the al Qida network."

Senator Lautenberg Requests all Documents from White House relating to James D. Guckert, A.K.A. Jeff Gannon

WASHINGTON, DC -- In light of yet another scandal involving the Bush administration's manipulation of the media, United States Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today requested from White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan all the documents relating to the press credentials of James. D. Guckert, a.k.a. "Jeff Gannon"; the "journalist" now famous for being the White House correspondent for his softball questioning of President Bush and various Administration spokespeople.

more:
Lautenberg Requests All Documents From White House Relating to Discredited "Journalist" James D. Guckert, A.K.A. Jeff Gannon

Coni in France -- Questions were vetted

Just like everyone in the Bush administration no one has access except supporters:




It had all the trappings of a modern-day Daniel in the Lion's Den: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice venturing bravely into the heart of French intellectual opposition to America, the Institute of Political Sciences, an elite school in the heart of Paris's trendy Left Bank.

But if the roar from the audience was mostly polite and restrained, that was partly because only a handful of the school's 5,500 students were allowed near the auditorium where Rice spoke, and the initial questions were vetted in advance by the school and the State Department.

full story:
A Scripted Follow-Up For Rice

Charlie and Camilla to Marry

Prince Charles to marry Camilla

Prince Charles will marry his long-term partner Camilla Parker Bowles on April 8th

Lawsuit in Germany Accuses Rummy of War Crimes

German prosecutors say they will not follow up a criminal complaint about US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

Mr Rumsfeld had already decided not to attend a security summit in Munich because of the threat of prosecution.

full story
Rumsfeld safe from German inquiry

Bush Administration Blocks 9/11 Report on Warnings of Hijackings

In the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations, according to a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 commission.

But aviation officials were "lulled into a false sense of security," and "intelligence that indicated a real and growing threat leading up to 9/11 did not stimulate significant increases in security procedures," the commission report concluded.

The report discloses that the Federal Aviation Administration, despite being focused on risks of hijackings overseas, warned airports in the spring of 2001 that if "the intent of the hijacker is not to exchange hostages for prisoners, but to commit suicide in a spectacular explosion, a domestic hijacking would probably be preferable."

The report takes the F.A.A. to task for failing to pursue domestic security measures that could conceivably have altered the events of Sept. 11, 2001, like toughening airport screening procedures for weapons or expanding the use of on-flight air marshals. The report, completed last August, said officials appeared more concerned with reducing airline congestion, lessening delays, and easing airlines' financial woes than deterring a terrorist attack.

The Bush administration has blocked the public release of the full, classified version of the report for more than five months.......

9/11 Report Cites Many Warnings About Hijackings

More on GannonGate

BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution.

full story:
Bush press pal quits over gay prostie link

Was a FAKE Reporter Credentialed as Official White House Press?

Washington, DC - Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (NY-28), long time champion of media reform and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Rules, sent a letter to President George W. Bush today asking him to explain how discredited "reporter" Jeff Gannon was credentialed as a member of the legitimate media by the White House.

full story:
Rep. Slaughter Calls on President Bush to Explain Emerging White House Briefing Room Scandal

More on Bush's Bulge

The Battle of the (Bush) Bulge: Why Did the 'NYT' Kill Its Story?

By Brian Orloff

Published: February 09, 2005 1:00 PM ET
NEW YORK "It's just as important a story after the election, and they've dropped it," says freelance writer David Lindorff, referring to the alleged bulge under President Bush’s suit jacket during the first presidential debate late fall. Lindorff’s take on how, and why, The New York Times killed a story on the controversy just before the November election gained wide attention this week after it was published in Extra!, a magazine produced by the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.........

...."This story was saying that he probably cheated, and it was saying that he definitely lied, because that picture has something under his jacket, and he was saying it was an ill-fitting suit," Lindorff said. "Calling the president a liar, the Times doesn't do that recently.".....

Ron Reagan to Host New MSNBC Spot

Yay!! I love this guy, I was getting so sick of Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan, Ron should bring a breath of fresh air for those of us on the left.

Ron Reagan to Host MSNBC News/Talk Show

Just What we Needed --- A WAR Channel

The U.S. military is to beam its own news coverage to millions of Americans.

Moving on from its phase of embedding journalists, or as some would say, 'a policy of restricting and contolling the flow of information,' the Pentagon will now produce and disseminate the news itself. It will be beamed to the public at no charge.



Pentagon to broadcast to millions of U.S. homes

Fahrenheit 451-- in America!

Parents censor high school literature and are allowed to burn books they find offensive



A "brown shirt" (member of the SA) throws some more fuel--"un-German" books-- into a roaring fire on the Opernplatz in Berlin. May 10, 1933

Abusing Power -- The Nuclear Option

The right's all-out attack on the filibuster could pave the way for extremist nominees to the Supreme Court.

full story:
The "Nuclear Option"

What Was Poyeye Really Smoking?

Interesting take on Popeye and his "Spinach"



.....Yet is the spinach which gives Popeye his super-strength really a metaphor for another magical herb? Have children around the world been adoring a hero who is really a heavy consumer of the forbidden weed – marijuana?

What's In Popeye's Pipe?

George W's Favorite Book Second only to the Bible -- You'd Never Guess!

If you ask the White House what President Bush is reading these days, the press office will call back with the official list: "His Excellency: George Washington" by Joseph J. Ellis, "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow and, not least, the Bible.

But the one they leave off the list that he is recommending to friends:
Tom Wolfe's racy new beer- and sex-soaked novel,
"I Am Charlotte Simmons."

full story:
Bush's Official Reading List, and a Racy Omission

Moral Values are GOOD! But PORN is Better if it pays Big Bucks!

Cable Companies Provide Porn while funding Politicians

George Bush
Rick Santorum
The Republican Party
just to name a few

A German zoo has imported four female penguins from Sweden in an effort to tempt its gay penguins to go straight.

The four Swedish females were dispatched to the Bremerhaven Zoo in Bremen after it was found that three of the zoo's five penguin pairs were homosexual.



full story:
Zoo tempts gay penguins to go straight

Iraq: Democracy = Theocracy

Iraq Shiite leaders demand Islam be the source of law:

......One cleric issued a statement setting out the position and the spiritual leader of Iraqi Shiites made it known straight away that he backed demands for the Koran to be the reference point for legislation.......

Leave Every Child Behind especially if they are Poor!

In his speech in Detroit, President Bush said he was committed to improving education in America.

FACT: In his 2006 budget, President Bush is eliminating “$1.1 billion in state vocational education grants, $496 million for educational technology grants, and $437 million for safe and drug free schools.”

Fact: Bush’s budget will increase the top Pell grant only by $100 next year. At the same time, he eliminated the Perkins loan program, a program that helped about 673,000 students from low- and middle-income homes afford a college education last year.

US Outsources TORTURE

From the New Yorker:

OUTSOURCING TORTURE
by JANE MAYER

The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program.

On January 27th, President Bush, in an interview with the Times, assured the world that “torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture.” Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer who was born in Syria, was surprised to learn of Bush’s statement. Two and a half years ago, American officials, suspecting Arar of being a terrorist, apprehended him in New York and sent him back to Syria, where he endured months of brutal interrogation, including torture........

Bush Keeps Tax Cuts for Rich While Cutting Back on Veterans

Here:
Back from Iraq - and suddenly out on the streets
Social service agencies say the number of homeless vets is rising, in part because of high housing costs and gaps in pay.

and here:
Bush Budget Raises Drug Prices for Many Veterans

Final Indignity Revocation of Purple Hearts

It wasn't enough to send these young men into an illegal war, now they get this:

Eleven Marines shamed by Purple Heart incident
full story:
Revocation of medals adds insult to injuries

You Will Have to go to Europe to be Cured with Stem Cells

Dolly's Creator Granted Human Cloning License

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - The scientist who created Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, was granted a license Tuesday to clone human embryos for medical research.

Professor Ian Wilmut, of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, plans to obtain stem cells for research into Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a procedure that divides the medical world along ethical lines.

Britain's cloning watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), granted the license Tuesday to Wilmut, Dr Paul de Sousa from Edinburgh and Professor Christopher Shaw from King's College London.

It is only the second such license granted in Britain.

"Our aim will be to generate stem cells purely for research purposes," Wilmut said in a statement. "This is not reproductive cloning in any way."

Human reproductive cloning is illegal in Britain but therapeutic cloning, creating embryos as a source of stem cells to cure diseases, is allowed on an approved basis.

Stem cells are the body's master cells. Those from days-old embryos have the ability to form any kind of tissue and scientists are working to learn how to manipulate them for transplants to treat diseases ranging from diabetes to cancer and MND.

The practice has divided the medical world. Opponents argue the use of a human embryo for medical research or even treatment is unethical.

President Bush says he plans to press for even stricter limits on human embryo research.

But the British group said the stem cell technique would greatly enhance their understanding of MND and accelerate the discovery of new drugs.

"We have spent 20 years looking for genes that cause MND and to date we have come up with just one gene," Shaw said. "This is potentially a big step forward,"

More Biblical Child Training Tools!!

These people are looney. Maybe we should all buy these and carry them around with us so when we incounter someone doing or saying something we don't like we can just give them a little sting on their backside. If you're not intelligent enough to figure out how to discipline a child without using a stick you must have the IQ of a slug.



OUR CHASTENING INSTRUMENT

• Flexible - produces the right amount of sting without injury!
• Unbreakable - will last a lifetime! *
• Convenient - fits easily into purse or diaper bag!
• Affordable - buy one for kitchen, bedroom, car - wherever!
• Guaranteed - satisfaction or money back

Fulfilling the purpose and function of the Biblical rod, yet designed with today's parents in mind, our chastening instrument is perfectly suited for the loving correction of your little ones. Simply return it to us for a full refund if not completely satisfied.

* Our instrument is made of premium grade polyurethane and measures 9" long, 1-1/2" wide and 3/16" thick. Child Training Resources is not responsible for misuse of this product.

Note to parenting class leaders: We offer a free chastening instrument to leaders of child training classes with 15 or more people. Why? Because our experience has been that once people see and use these chastening tools, they will love them. If you know of such a leader, have them E-Mail us, or contact us at the address listed below.

$6.50 each 1-10, $6.00 11+

More Shades of Orwell's 1984

In George Orwell's dreary classic '1984', the totalitarian state of Oceania is perpetually at war with either Eurasia or Eastasia. The enemy changes periodically, but the war is permanent; its true purpose is to control dissent and sustain dictatorship by nurturing popular fear and hatred.
Bush and his administration are showing the same governing principles of Oceania:
WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.



......What's the popular expression? "Go along to get along"?

What an appalling notion. Shades of Orwell's "1984" -- the most frightening piece of literature I've ever read or taught. For those who haven't yet read it -- do it now. Read it with your children and grandchildren. Read about what happens to a society that exchanges thought and action for heat, food, and gadgets.....

full story:
Where is bin Laden? Or is it un-American to ask?

Bush Pushing us Even Futher Away from Stem Cell Research

.....Bush's mention of ensuring that embryos "are not created for experimentation" clearly refers to a ban on so-called therapeutic cloning, much desired by Bush's religious-right supporters, such as Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, as well as most members of the President's Council on Bioethics. This legislation, which Bush has previously embraced, is a real nightmare; it would mean actual jail time for offending medical researchers.....

full story:
Cell Out

Good-Bye Hubble

NASA Budget Increase Won't Save Hubble



No money is in President Bush's budget to send either a robotic repairman or shuttle astronauts to Hubble to extend its lifetime, a decision that is sure to anger astronomers and members of Congress. Critical telescope parts on Hubble are expected to conk out by 2007.

Fox Cancels The Only Good Ad on Super Bowl Sunday -- GoDaddy.com's 2nd Run

The only good ad actually to run on Super Bowl Sunday, GoDaddy. com was pulled from it's second run by Fox:

What happened to Go Daddy's second Super Bowl ad spot?

Orwellian ---- "JCS Conplan 0300-97,"

Sun, February 6, 2005
By Eric Margolis

The film Seven Days In May is one of my all-time favourites. The gripping 1964 drama, starring Burt Lancaster, depicts an attempted coup by far rightists in Washington using a top-secret Pentagon anti-terrorist unit called something like "Contelinpro."

Life imitates art. This week, former military intelligence analyst William Arkin revealed a hitherto unknown directive, with the Orwellian name "JCS Conplan 0300-97," authorizing the Pentagon to employ special, ultra-secret "anti-terrorist" military units on American soil for what the author claims are "extra-legal missions."

In other words, using U.S. soldiers to kill or arrest Americans, acts that have been illegal since the U.S. Civil War......

full story:
Paranoia grips the U.S. capital

Christian Parents: Spanking Rods for Sale

Christian crusaders go to battle over spanking
Tools of discipline horrify some of faithful

Arlington, Mass. -- To raise a child, one needs three invaluable allies: the Bible, the help of an extended family and "biblical-based resources" -- 9-inch-long spanking paddles of blue polyurethane, according to Steve Haymond from Bakersfield, who sells the paddles online for $6.50 apiece.

Twyla Bullock, in Eufaula, Okla., swears by the Rod -- a 22-inch, $5 white nylon whipping stick her husband designed and produced until recently. Named after the biblical "rod of correction," the Rod provides "a faith-based way to discipline children ... and train them as Christians," Bullock explains.

IRAQ = IRAN

With religious Shiite parties poised to take power in the new constitutional assembly, leading Shiite clerics are pushing for Islam to be recognized as the guiding principle of the new constitution.

full story
Leading Shiite Clerics Pushing Islamic Constitution in Iraq

Make sure the brainwashing Starts early!!

Nipplegate - McCarthy and Today's TV Censorship

LET us be grateful that Janet Jackson did not bare both breasts.

On the first anniversary of the Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction that shook the world, it's clear that just one was big enough to wreak havoc. The ensuing Washington indecency crusade has unleashed a wave of self-censorship on American television unrivaled since the McCarthy era, with everyone from the dying D-Day heroes in "Saving Private Ryan" to cuddly animated animals on daytime television getting the ax. Even NBC's presentation of the Olympics last summer, in which actors donned body suits to simulate "nude" ancient Greek statues, is currently under federal investigation.

The Year of Living Indecently

Woman tells Bush that she works three jobs, which he deems "uniquely American"

George W. Bush has no idea how middle America lives:

In Omaha on Friday, a divorced single mother named Mary Mornin tells the president, "I have one child, Robbie, who is mentally challenged, and I have two daughters."

"Fantastic," the president exclaims, and he tells her she has "the hardest job in America, being a single mom."

Later, the 57-year old Mornin tells Bush that she works three jobs, which the president deems "uniquely American" and "fantastic." He asks her if she gets any sleep.

full story:
Birth of a Salesman: Pitching Social Security

U.S. Places "Most Wanted Ad" in Pakistan Paper for Bin Laden

The United States placed a newspaper advertisement on Friday offering rewards of millions of dollars for information leading to the arrest of Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda kingpins.

full story:
Most wanted' ad for Laden in Pak paper!

Old McDonald Had a Farm and Bushie Cut His Pay Ee i ee i o

I bet they didn't figure on this when all those farmers went out and voted for him:

Bush Is Said to Seek Sharp Cuts in Subsidy Payments to Farmers

56% of Americans say Stock Market too Risky for Social Security

Fifty-six percent of Americans think the stock market is too risky for Social Security funds, according to a Newsweek poll released on Saturday.

The poll signaled a tough sell for President Bush as he promotes his plans to change Social Security and allow workers to shift part of their payroll taxes into private stock and bond accounts.

full story:
Americans Wary of Stocks for Social Security -Poll

The Values of the George W. Bush Administration:

1. Tax cuts for the rich to insure that social programs are cut for the needy.

2. Social Security reform to add wealth to Wall Street: (Professor Austan Goolsbee Professor University of Chicago predicts Wall Street could collect $940 billion or more over 75 years an amount he calls the largest windfall in American financial history, while cutting future promised retirement benefits for millions of young workers by as much as 6 percent)

3. Tort reform to insure corporations no accountability for negligence or malfeasance.

4. Record deficits to pass on to our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren.

5. Eliminating overtime pay for more than 6 million workers.

6. Ignoring Geneva Conventions to allow torture of prisoners.

7. No environmental policy: (weakened clean air rules, resinding a rule to cut down on sewage dumping, ignors global warming, weakened environmental protection on 234 million acres.)

8. Secrecy: (Rep. Henry A Waxman: "A consistent pattern in the administration's actions, laws that are designed to promote public access to information have been undermined, while laws that authorize the government to withhold information or to operate in secret have repeatly been expanded.")

9. Illegally paying a journalist and pundit (Armstrong Williams) to promote their "No Child Left Behind Policy."

10. Illegal Propaganda: (The Government Accountability Office, has said the Bush administration violated federal law by producing and distributing television news segments abut the effects of drug use among young people. They violated the prohibition on using taxpayer money for propaganda.)

11. Illegally outing a CIA operative: (Valerie Plame, ongoing investigation).

12. Illegal preemptive war based on deceptive information about weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons.

Just to name a few.

Possible Blow for Stem Cell Research -- Judge Rules Zygote Human

A frozen embryo destroyed in a Chicago fertility clinic was a human being whose parents are entitled to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, a Cook County judge ruled Friday.

Full Story:
Destroyed embryo deemed human


Zygote

The Rapture Index, The Far Right and the White House

Bill Moyers:

"One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington.

Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.

Remember James Watt, President Ronald Reagan's first secretary of the interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever-engaging Grist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, "after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."

Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the Bible is literally true -- one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In this past election several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index.

That's right -- the rapture index. Google it and you will find that the best-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the "Left Behind" series written by the Christian fundamentalist and religious-right warrior Timothy LaHaye. These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the 19th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative that has captivated the imagination of millions of Americans.

Its outline is rather simple, if bizarre (the British writer George Monbiot recently did a brilliant dissection of it and I am indebted to him for adding to my own understanding): Once Israel has occupied the rest of its "biblical lands," legions of the antichrist will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon.

As the Jews who have not been converted are burned, the messiah will return for the rapture. True believers will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to Heaven, where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts and frogs during the several years of tribulation that follow."

Full Text:
Bill Moyers: There is no tomorrow

Bush Budget Would Cut Law Enforcement Aid, Home Heating for the Poor

President Bush's budget will propose slashing grants to local law enforcement agencies and cutting spending for environmental protection, American Indian schools and home-heating aid for the poor, The Associated Press learned Saturday.

Full Story:
Bush Budget Would Cut Law Enforcement Aid

Who Said This:

"The national government will regard as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nations a spirit of unity and cooperation, it will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built, it will regard Christianity as the foundation of our national morality and the family as as the basis of our national life."

A. George W. Bush
B. Adolph Hitler

Answer: B. Adolph Hitler ( He kinda sounds like Bushie)

More Warm Words of Wisdom From Dr. James Dobson

Views on corporal punishment and authority


Dobson advocates the spanking of children from 15-18 months to eight years old. According to Dobson, "pain is a marvelous purifier." (Dare to Discipline, p.6) He argues that "it is not necessary to beat the child into submission; a little bit of pain goes a long way for a young child. However, the spanking should be of sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely." (Ibid., p.7.) In The Strong-Willed Child (p.73), Dobson writes: "Some strong-willed children absolutely demand to be spanked, and their wishes should be granted." As for the magnitude of the spanking, he argues that "two or three stinging strokes on the legs or buttocks with a switch are usually sufficient to emphasize the point, 'You must obey me.'" (The Strong-Willed Child, pp. 53-4.) Dobson directly connects parental authority to social authority: "By learning to yield to the loving authority...of his parents, a child learns to submit to other forms of authority which will confront him later in his life -- his teachers, school principal, police, neighbors and employers." (The Strong-Willed Child, p. 235.) He frequently portrays the child as the natural enemy of the parent and emphasizes that it is necessary to punish the child to uphold parental authority. "When you are defiantly challenged, win decisively." (Dare to Discipline, p. 36.) In The Strong-Willed Child, Dobson draws a strong analogy between child rearing and dog rearing. He tells a story in which the family dog refuses to leave his resting place on the lid of the toilet seat. According to Dobson, a "vicious fight" between him and the dog resulted in which he "fought him up one wall and down the other, with both of us scratching and clawing and growling and swinging the belt [sic]." He concludes that "just as surely as a dog will occasionally challenge the authority of his leaders, so will a little child--only more so." (emphasis Dobson) To deal with crying, Dobson recommends: "Real crying usually lasts two minutes or less but may continue for five. After that point, the child is merely complaining, and the change can be recognized in the tone and intensity of his voice. I would require him to stop the protest crying, usually by offering him a little more of whatever caused the original tears."

From Reviewer on Amazon.Com
"The irony here is that if I beat Mr. Dobson for writing this book, I would be the one to going to jail."

Neocon vs. Chickenhawk! Who Actually Served in the Military

Chickenhawks:

Representative Richard Gephardt, - Missouri Air National Guard, 1965-71.
Representative David Bonior - Staff Sgt., United States Air Force 1968-72
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle - 1st Lt., U.S. Air Force SAC 1969-72
Former Vice President Al Gore - enlisted August 1969; sent to Vietnam January 1971 as an army journalist,
Former Senator Bob Kerrey... Democrat... Lt. j.g., U.S. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam Senator Daniel Inouye, US Army 1943-'47; Medal of Honor, World War Two
Senator John Kerry, Lt., U.S. Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, and three awards of the Purple Heart for his service in combat
Representative Charles Rangel, Staff Sgt., U.S. Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea
Former Senator Max Cleland, Captain, U.S. Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam
Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) - U.S. Army, 1951-1953
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) - Lt., U.S. Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) - U.S. Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91 (1)
Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) - served as a U.S. Army officer in World War II, receiving the Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
Representative Leonard Boswell (D-IA) - Lt. Col., U.S. Army 1956-76; two tours in Vietnam, two Distinguished Flying Crosses as a helicopter pilot, two Bronze Stars, and the Soldier's Medal. Former Representative Pete" Peterson, Air Force Captain, POW, Ambassador to Viet Nam, and recipient of the Purple Heart, the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit.
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-CA: Staff sergeant/platoon leader with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, U.S. Army; was wounded and received a Purple Heart.
Bill McBride, Democratic Candidate for Florida Governor - volunteered and served as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam; awarded Bronze Star with a combat "V."
Gray Davis, former California Governor, Army Captain in Vietnam; received Bronze Star.
Pete Stark, D-CA, served in the Air Force 1955-57
Wesley Clark, Democratic Presidential Candidate - lengthy military career.

Neocons:

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert - avoided the draft, did not serve.
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey - avoided the draft, did not serve.
House Majority Leader Tom Delay - avoided the draft, did not serve. "So many minority youths had volunteered ... that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself."
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt - did not serve
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist - did not serve.
Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-KY - did not serve
Rick Santorum, R-PA, third ranking Republican in the Senate - did not serve.
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott - avoided the draft, did not serve.
GW Bush - decided that a six-year Nat'l Guard commitment really means four years. Still says that he's "been to war." Huh?
VP Cheney - several deferments, the last by marriage (in his own words, "had other priorities than military service")
Att'y Gen. John Ashcroft - did not serve; received seven deferment to teach business ed at SW Missouri State
Jeb Bush, Florida Governor - did not serve.
Karl Rove - avoided the draft, did not serve, too busy being a Republican.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich - avoided the draft, did not serve
Former President Ronald Reagan - due to poor eyesight, served in a noncombat role making movies for the Army in southern California during WWII. He later seems to have confused his role as an actor playing a tail gunner with the real thing.
Bob Dornan - avoided Korean War combat duty by enrolling in college acting classes (Orange County Weekly article). Enlisted only after the fighting was over in Korea.
Phil Gramm - avoided the draft, did not serve, four (?) student deferments

Bush's Bulge New Information NYT Kills Story That Could Have Changed Election

One week before Election Day, the Times (10/25/04) ran a hard-hitting and controversial exposé of the Al-Qaqaa ammunition dump—identified by U.N. inspectors before the war as containing 400 tons of special high-density explosives useful for aircraft bombings and as triggers for nuclear devices, but left unguarded and available to insurgents by U.S. forces after the invasion.

On Thursday, just three days after that first exposé, the paper was set to run a second, perhaps more explosive piece, exposing how George W. Bush had worn an electronic cueing device in his ear and probably cheated during the presidential debates.


full story:
The Emperor's New Hump