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« Liberal Outrage: December 2005 | Main | Liberal Outrage: February 2006 »

Liberal Outrage

Like quoting Axl Rose for tips on keeping the band together.

Firedoglake:

"The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. "The trick will be to harness their energy and their money without looking like you are a captive of the activist left."
I'm going to let James field this one (from the comments):
If your name is accompanied by the words "Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign," then you deserve a warm glass of shut-the-hell-up.

It's like quoting Axl Rose for tips on keeping the band together.


By fnord12 | January 30, 2006, 10:42 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Despite All the Beans...

...vegans are still emitting out less carbons than you meat-eaters.

An average burger man (that is, not the outsize variety) emits the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes more CO2 every year than the standard vegan.

And don't think switching to a hybrid gets you off the hook either.

By comparison, were you to trade in your conventional gas-guzzler for a state of the art Prius hybrid, your CO2 savings would amount to little more than one tonne per year.

By min | January 27, 2006, 8:43 AM | Liberal Outrage & Science | Comments (1)| Link



We really want you to hate us.

Went to look up some tablature, clicked on the link and got this:

This tab or lyric has been removed over possible copyright infringement. We are currently looking into methods to display this tab or lyric that abide by copyright laws. Click here to learn more about the situation and voice your opinion.

The link leads to a forum full of angry musicians, and a link to this BBC article:.

The US Music Publishers' Association (MPA), which represents sheet music companies, will launch its first campaign against such sites in 2006.

MPA president Lauren Keiser said he wanted site owners to be jailed.

He said unlicensed guitar tabs and song scores were widely available on the internet but were "completely illegal".

Mr Keiser said he did not just want to shut websites and impose fines, saying if authorities can "throw in some jail time I think we'll be a little more effective".

Mr. Lauren Keiser goes on to whine about the Xerox machine as well, and says he's doing it for the poor struggling artists, who get .00000001% of the sale of any sheet music, if it even exists.

Why is our system set up to protect these archaic industries?


By fnord12 | January 26, 2006, 8:51 AM | Liberal Outrage & Music | Comments (3)| Link



Chomsky's back

Haven't heard from him in a while, but he's got an article on Counterpunch. Warning: It's Chomsky, so it's long.


By fnord12 | January 25, 2006, 1:04 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1)| Link



Letter to John Kerry

From Simbaud, King of Zembla


By fnord12 | January 25, 2006, 1:02 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



We are your rulers and you will bow to Our will

The end of unalienable rights.


By fnord12 | January 25, 2006, 1:01 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Bush's New Wiretapping Defense Untrue

Who would have guessed? Read this analysis of the Administration's latest excuse for breaking the law.

So, in June, 2002, the Administration refused to support elimination of the very barrier ("probable cause") which Gen. Hayden claimed yesterday necessitated the circumvention of FISA. In doing so, the Administration identified two independent reasons for opposing this amendment. One reason was that the Justice Department was not aware of any problems which the Administration was having in getting the warrants it needed under FISA.

[snip]

The second concern the Administration expressed with DeWine's amendment was that it was quite possibly unconstitutional...

Eventually, they'll just have to come out and say, "Look, we are your rulers and you will bow to our will" because these excuses are pretty lame.


By min | January 25, 2006, 12:02 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Dynasty

min has brought this up, but i've never seen anyone on the internet say it before. Doesn't the politician pool already look like an exclusive rich people's club without having to alternate between two specific families?

(Of course, since we don't like the politics of either of 'em, so it's easy for us to talk.)


By fnord12 | January 25, 2006, 11:11 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Top Ten Mistakes of the Bush Administration in Reacting to Al-Qaeda

Juan Cole.


By fnord12 | January 24, 2006, 5:14 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



A Special Friendship

Michael Moore's response to the Chris Matthews "Osama bin Laden sounds like Michael Moore" comment.


By fnord12 | January 23, 2006, 4:56 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



And Still the Democrats Manage to Flounder

Given all this help from the Bush camp, it's amazing to see that the Democrats stll can't seem to turn things to their advantage. But, really, who can blame them for freezing in the face of such formidable Mickey Mouse lawyering:

On the crucial issue of whether the president was required to have a FISA court approval, Gonzales said Thursday that the 1978 law created an exception for electronic surveillance "authorized by statute."

[snip]

But Turley [a George Washington University law professor --min] said that an "authorized-by-statute" exception simply meant that Congress had the authority to pass another law modifying FISA. It has not.

Turley noted that a case cited as precedent in the Justice Department paper involved the right of elementary and middle schools to search for drugs and other paraphernalia without permission.

"That is hardly a case on which to base national security policy," he said.

[emphasis mine]

Ofc, as we all know, law school does not teach you about laws. It teaches you about making shit up to suit your fancy.


By min | January 20, 2006, 1:52 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Another Reason to Switch to Google

We originally started using Google to search the web because it's free of ads, unlike Yahoo. Now it seems that Google's the only one willing to protect our privacy while the other companies are tripping over themselves to give it away.

Yahoo has admitted that it granted the US Government access to its search engine's databases this summer, as a battle develops over the right to privacy in cyberspace.

Google, by contrast, promised last night to fight vigorously the Bush Administration's demand to know what millions of people have been looking up on the internet.

UPDATE:  Might be time to invest in some stock.


By min | January 20, 2006, 1:31 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



*Snort!*

Wah ha ha ha!


By fnord12 | January 19, 2006, 12:40 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Re-Runs

Dean Baker:

The latest news about Iran should be very scary to anyone old enough to remember the 2002 elections. Those who lived in that distant time will remember a president slumping in the polls in the wake of a sinking economy and an accounting scandal that centered on his Texas buddies at Enron. Recognizing the seriousness of the situation, President Bush's team began raising the warning about Saddam Hussein and his WMDs. The Democratic leadership, showing the combination of courage and foresight that has made them legendary, supported Bush's drive to war. The argument was that if they just voted for the war resolution, they could then turn public debate to domestic issues. Three and a half years later, we're still waiting.

By fnord12 | January 18, 2006, 4:08 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey

A vampire is running for governor of Minnesota:

Honesty is very seldom heard nowadays, especially from a politician. So, I am going to break from political tradition. My name is Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey, Ph.D., L.D.D.D. I am a Satanic Dark Priest, Sanguinarian Vampyre and a Hecate Witch. My Magikal Path name is: Lord Ares.

I despise and hate the Christian God the Father. He is my enemy.

Here's a news article:

"The common misconception is that (vampires) are 100 percent evil, that they do not have any caring in them -- that they kind of, like, prowl in the night seeking their meals, and that's not true," Sharkey explained.

Voters have nothing to fear from him, he says -- only bad guys such as murders, rapists and terrorists, whom he promises to personally execute on the State Capitol lawn.

"I think after the first impaling, it will send a message to terrorists not to attack my people," Sharkey said.


By fnord12 | January 18, 2006, 1:29 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2)| Link



The Broken Triangle

Go read in full:

The NSA scandal and the Alito confirmation hearings are just two more examples of the left's broken triangle and of the isolation of the progressive netroots. A flurry of activity among bloggers, online activists, and advocacy groups is met with ponderously inept strategizing by the Democratic leadership and relentless -- and insidious -- repetition by the media of pro-GOP narratives and soundbites.

By fnord12 | January 13, 2006, 4:32 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Stirring Up Trouble

The woman moderator, who said she was from Maryland, wanted very much to talk about immigrants. The participants already had discussed any issues they were concerned about, except the war in Iraq. There would be no talk about Iraq, the woman said. But up to that point, no one had mentioned immigration, much to the annoyance of the moderator. So she prodded the group to complain about immigrants.

"I haven't heard anybody talk about immigration," Peoples, an independent, recalls her saying. "Anybody have a problem with the illegal aliens coming in?"

The group's response to the question was "a deafening silence," Peoples says. But the woman pushed harder, listing some of the complaints she said she had heard in other states where she had conducted focus groups. Still, no one obliged her. Instead, Peoples mentioned the immigrant workers in a nearby town, praising them for how hard they seem to work.

Not the correct answer. Someone was paying money for this. They wanted problems.

"She shut me off," Peoples recalls. "Then she said, 'Aren't you having problems here?' "

Link.


By fnord12 | January 13, 2006, 3:32 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



And Now, The Dog and Pony Show

I have two problems with the hearings for Supreme Court nominees. Three if you count the fact that the nominee doesn't have to actually answer any questions and they give just about everybody who makes it as far as the hearings to get a pass. But why beat that dead horse again?

1) Why is it that abortion is the only major issue they bring up? Constantly. It's all talk about Roe vs. Wade. Granted, it's important. And it's the hot button issue the evangelicals used to convince the Catholics to join forces (this despite the fact that Catholics are against the death penalty and evangelicals love nothing more than a good execution, with or without due process). But, really, it's not the only case that's going to come before the Supreme Court. We need to know the nominee's opinions on race, separation of church and state, socio-economic issues, corporate power versus an individual's rights. We need them to explain any dubious actions they've made in the past or court rulings or opinions that are questionable or exhibit a pattern of thinking that may be undesirable in a Supreme Court Justice. In light of recent discoveries, the Senate Judiciary Committee ought to have questioned Alito very carefully about his opinions on presidential power, not to mention Alito's membership in CAP. Roe vs. Wade should be a part of that, but it shouldn't be the one and only thing on which we base his suitability. Ofc, this nominee's non-answer to every question posed to him pretty much negates the hearing in general. In a society that claims to be so democratic and fair and free, how is it possible that a member of an organization against allowing minorities and women into a college is even a viable candidate for the Supreme Court?

2) Why does every new Justice have to be the same as the one who just left? Society is ever changing. The Supreme Court needs to change and adapt, as well. The new candidate is always compared to the one they're replacing as if they're not just filling an open position, but are actually being casted for a role that's already been written. It's extremely annoying. And it's only the democrats who are playing by these rules. The neo-cons are constantly trying to push the Court further right. In their attempt to appease everyone and maintain the status quo, the democrats are actually allowing the center to inch further and further right. Just look at the make-up of the court now. Clarence Thomas. Antonin Scalia. John Roberts. O'Connor was supposed to be the center, the tie-breaker, and if her venomous hate of the democrats is anything to go by, she's no centrist. You can't even hope that when one of the "liberal" Justices retires, they have the courtesy to do it when there's a democratic administration. Knowing the democrats, they'd just muck it up anyhow and nominate some neo-con in democrats clothing which the Right will fuss about but take since it works to their advantage. At this rate, the status quo will be kept so well, segragation will be legal again.


By min | January 13, 2006, 9:46 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1)| Link



I Gots Me the Sugar Diabetes

Hey, everybody! It's Diabetes Week at the New York Times! Yay!!!!!

All week the front page has had some article about this diabetes thing and how it's becoming an epidemic in NY. They talk about it like it's some new disease that's suddenly attacking the city. It's really odd. Diabetes has been around for a long time and it's been a big problem for a long time. It's just getting worse. Mebbe it's like their refusal to recognize global warming. The geniuses at the NYT don't know something's going on until it's reached astronomical proportions.

It's not Diabetes Month, either. I checked. That's in November. So i don't know what the deal is. They even ran an article about how the health care system doesn't care much about prevention since the money is in the treatment. I couldn't believe it. Isn't the NYT supposed to keep stuff like that quiet? They're not going to make their pharmaceutical friends very happy. I suppose we should be glad of this brief moment of lucidity at the NYT. Or, we can be completely cynical and figure they're doing anything they can to distract people and take up space that ought to go to discussing Alito's dubious judicial background and his stint as a proud member of CAP.

Also, Wei, fyi:

Asians, especially those from Far Eastern nations like China, Korea and Japan, are acutely susceptible to Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease and the subject of this series. They develop it at far lower weights than people of other races, studies show; at any weight, they are 60 percent more likely to get the disease than whites.

By min | January 13, 2006, 8:38 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Almost done ripping off the King of Zembla...

My bunch of posts today were all from his blog.

Various sources are reporting that Mrs. Samuel Alito broke into tears today because cruel Senate Democrats refused to believe her husband's risible claims of amnesia regarding his membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton.

The Mrs. may buy his absent-minded professor act, but then she was thick enough to marry a member of a group that opposed the admission of women to Princeton. And even if she fell for his protestations of innocence, the nominee himself must have known that the details of his long, sordid history of racism and sexism would come to light during the hearings. If Samuel Alito possessed the merest shred of decency -- much less chivalry -- he would withdraw his name from consideration immediately, to spare his poor, naive, morbidly sensitive wife the prospect of further embarrassment.

Don't you agree?


By fnord12 | January 12, 2006, 9:18 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Athiests are the second largest religious group in America

At 14%, after 79% for Christians, and 5% for "non-Christians". That's not the point of the
article, of course.


By fnord12 | January 12, 2006, 9:18 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (5)| Link



Oooh a really long article about the politics of small town America.

If this doesn't excite my imaginary audience, nothing will.
I guess this is the key passage:

So we will either see that Americans, religious or not, get educated equally so they won't be suckered by political and religious hucksters. If not, then we must accept that uneducated people interpret politics in an uninformed and emotional manner, and accept the consequences. America can no longer withstand the political naivete of this ignored white class.

And if you haven't read this yet, it's a good follow-up:



As far as I could tell, the problem wasn't the word "issue"; it was a fundamental lack of understanding of what constituted the broad category of the "political." The undecideds I spoke to didn't seem to have any intuitive grasp of what kinds of grievances qualify as political grievances. Often, once I would engage undecided voters, they would list concerns, such as the rising cost of health care; but when I would tell them that Kerry had a plan to lower health-care premiums, they would respond in disbelief - not in disbelief that he had a plan, but that the cost of health care was a political issue. It was as if you were telling them that Kerry was promising to extend summer into December.


By fnord12 | January 12, 2006, 9:17 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



In case Jim Kunstler's predictions weren't bad enough

http://informeddissent.org/2006/01/water-water-everywhere.html

Alarmed by an accelerating loss of ice in the Arctic Ocean, scientists are striving to understand why the speedup is happening and what it means for humankind.

If present trends continue, as seems likely, the sea surrounding the North Pole will be completely free of ice in the summertime within the lifetime of a child born today. The loss could point the way to radical changes in the Earth's climate and weather systems. . . .


By fnord12 | January 12, 2006, 9:16 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



The old "Canada has two MRIs" thing

Canada may not have the best healthcare system in the world but it is one of the fairest and their citizens are happier with theirs than we are with ours. The best thing about it is that the people in charge of it are the government, not private corporations, so if people are unhappy with it they can actually do something about it by holding their politicians accountable. 15 or so years ago, Canada did have a lack of MRI machines, and they fixed it:

Canada had a total of 147 MRI scanners in January 2003 compared to 30 in 1993, an increase of nearly 400%.
...
The 2001 Statistics Canada Health Services Access Survey found that about half of Canadians aged 15 and older who reported receiving a non-emergency CT, MRI, or angiography waited three weeks or less. Most (55%) waited less than a month.
...
One of the most common arguments presented against the adoption of a single payer system in the United States is that there are unacceptable queues or delays for services in any universal, government funded program. Perhaps the most frequent example given is the unacceptable delays in diagnostic imaging in Canada due to the fact that they do not have enough CT or MRI scanners to meet their needs. This report reveals that, in the past decade, great progress has been made by Canada in addressing this problem.
...
Canada's access to imaging is not bad and is improving dramatically. Contrast that to imaging in the United States. We have the capacity, but the uninsured and many of the under-insured cannot afford CT or MRI scans. Tens of millions of Americans are not even allowed a place in the queue.

Which system is better: a lower cost system that recognizes a capacity problem and takes measures to resolve that, or a higher cost system that has adequate capacity but nevertheless engages in wholesale rationing based on ability to pay?

Check out this FAQ and the rest of the PNHP site for more info/propaganda.


By fnord12 | January 11, 2006, 10:26 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (5)| Link



The state of Iraq

From Juan Cole:

"I am an American currently working in Baghdad for a news organization. I've been here numerous times over the past 15 years.

The current security situation here has gotten much worse since the elections. We had a security briefing yesterday right after a fellow journalist was abducted. Besides the usual reminders to keep a low profile and going over our own unique security measures and procedures as to what to do in any given scenario we were told that there's a high probability of all out civil war.

Iraq has been in a low level civil war since the end of 2003 that has been increasing in intensity ever since, but now our security team is telling us that should all-out war break out most, if not all of us, may have to be evacuated to safety in a nearby country. Instead of the scores of Iraqis dying each day as do now, thousands a day could perish. Most Sunnis have given up hope of getting adequate representation in the new Iraqi government and radical elements in the Shiite parties want to exact revenge on the Sunni for supporting Saddam over the years. Shiite death squads roam the city at night (in police and army uniform no less) dragging all the male members of a Sunni family out into the street and executing them in front of their women folk. Sunni insurgents (not in uniform) do the same to Shiite families in areas claimed as theirs.

The Sunni insurgents, it seems, are now determined to bring the new government to its knees by cutting off fuel supplies to Baghdad. The city's supply of gasoline nearly dried up last week and local authorities literally shut the city down by banning all privately owned vehicles from the streets. They claimed it was to help hunt down the kidnappers of the Interior Minister's sister but the real reason seems to be to reduce the demand for gas until supplies could be replenished. Electricity in most Baghdad neighborhoods has now been further reduced to as low as 1 hour per day. The black market rate for fuel for generators has doubled again and in many areas even that has run out. At this rate the city will go dark by the end of the month. Iraqi troops are reluctant to escort fuel trucks into Baghdad and American troops have their hands full escorting their own convoys.

Most US casualties are a result of trying to protect US military supplies. You can forget about the US military escorting civilian fuel convoys. So it all comes down to the Iraq army's ability to get fuel into Baghdad and I don't have much confidence they will succeed."


By fnord12 | January 11, 2006, 11:20 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Is it believable?

Neocons Considered Planting WMD Evidence in Iraq?


By fnord12 | January 11, 2006, 11:14 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Predictions from the future. Predictions bound to come true.

My favorite peak oil apocalyptic prophet makes his predictions for 2006.

Among them:


  • Gas at $4+ a gallon, and oil at $100 a barrel
  • Collapse of the housing bubble and subsequent decline of first the US and then the world economy.
  • Dow Jones at 4000
  • US Government takeover of the Airline industry
  • General Motors and Ford go out of business
  • War with Mexico

... and much more!


By fnord12 | January 10, 2006, 1:40 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Gilberto Gil

Former Latin American musician of the 60s and 70s, now turned Minister of Culture for Brazil is helping to lead the fight against the concept of intellectual property. I appreciate that they're going to stop paying for expensive licenses to use Microsoft products and will instead be using open-source software. I also appreciate that they are forcing pharmaceuticals to offer drugs at a discounted rate considering the percentage of poor in Brazil. Ofc, some would point out that if they were thumbing their noses at Human Rights Watch or Greenpeace, i prolly would appreciate it less. The difference here is that by these actions, the government is trying to do something for the people instead of kowtowing to the corporations. I think that's a significant difference. Ever since corporations were allowed to be considered persons in this country, they've taken advantage of the system to increase their profit margins. All men are created equal but rich men and big corporations are more equal than the rest.

A similar mischievousness seems to have explained the government's response when an official accused Microsoft of behaving like a drug dealer in handing out free software to make customers dependent on its products. Microsoft Brazil sued, but the administration simply ignored the case, and the company eventually withdrew it. "But this is not demagoguery," Gil insists, if you accuse him of just being provocative. "This is pedagogy."

By min | January 10, 2006, 12:54 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Am i bugging you? I don't mean to bug you...

Thanks to this new law, it's now illegal to annoy people on the internet without revealing your real name. So i guess i'd better fess up, because i know i'm annoying.

I am... Umberto Eco!

Min, when are you going to come clean?


By fnord12 | January 10, 2006, 12:35 PM | Liberal Outrage & My stupid life | Link



WalMart: Working Hard to Trod on the Downtrodden

So i already hate Wal-Mart because they treat their employees poorly and they put local stores out of business. Now they're breaking a serious personal law. They're wasting food. And they're screwing the poor to do it.

January 6, 2006: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the nation's largest food retailer, said Thursday it will no longer donate nearly-expired or expired food to local groups feeding the hungry.

Instead, that food will be thrown away, a move several Sacramento charities consider wasteful.


By min | January 7, 2006, 11:09 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Right to Privacy?

In addition to the illegal wiretapping the NSA has been performing, the illustrious Dept. of Homeland Security has been reading our mail.

He has had an ongoing correspondence by snail mail with a former professor of history at the University of the Philippines, where Goodman had taught on three separate occasions.

[...]

He won't release the name of the former professor in the Philippines, but says she is in her mid-80s and hardly a security risk. "This is a very devout Catholic woman who goes to 6:00 mass every evening, and I don't know what they would be interested in her for," he says. "She hasn't written about anything in years."

This is the best bit:

"The bottom of the envelope had been slashed open and then retaped with green tape," says Goodman. "And it said, 'Opened by Border Protection' in great big letters. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security seal is on it, too."

You know you're in trouble when they aren't even trying to be stealthy about how they're spying on you.

(Thanks to Rose for the link)


By min | January 6, 2006, 2:51 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Blogging: the New Punk?

Jane at firedoglake puts forth a comparison: today's blogosphere is akin to the 70s punk movement. She's prolly right about this being our salad days. We may eventually get so bogged down by everybody putting up a blog that the pool of informed and well-written sites will become diluted and lose the feeling that this is where you go if you want to be "in the know". But i think that the blog "culture" won't so much end as it will move on to become something else. People will still have ideas and insights that they want to get out there. Cultural movements wax and wane; they need a catalyst to get them going. Most people just want to live their daily lives, go about their business. So, naturally, at the end of a movement, a period of complacency is bound to follow. Eventually, people get sick of what is bred from the complacency and we're back on the upswing. The medium may not be in the shape of the blogosphere, but it will be something. I can even imagine that instead of moving away from the blog, the blog will just get better. One day we could be getting information Spider Jerusalem style like in Transmetropolitan. So, don't despair, Jane. There will be the new new punk to look forward to.


By min | January 6, 2006, 9:51 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



The Abuse Team is here to help

We got an email from our hosting service's Abuse Team, threatening to beat us with sticks if we didn't remove all the mp3s from our site. When i explained that these were in fact our mp3s, the Abuse Coordinator wrote back saying sorry, it was just their automated bots getting a little too ambitious. But think about that for a second. The record industry has these hosting providers so scared that they've got them monitoring and harassing their own customers in the RIAA's interests. We pay our providers, so they are supposed to be looking out for our interests, not the record companies'. I guess that sounds a lot like telling a cop "i pay your salary", but really, it's one thing to respond to a complaint. It's another to have our sites monitored for unacceptable file formats.

The record industry needs to give up. First of all, we've been swapping music since the invention of cassette tapes, which is when they first started claiming the industry would collapse if it didn't stop. (I still have my Dead Kennedys In God We Trust, Inc. EP. "The record industry says home taping is killing the music business. We left side B blank so you can help.") But if they really want to do something about it, how about lowering prices, putting out a lot less crap, and paying your artists more? I'm a lot more likely to care about ripping off a struggling artist than i am Sony Records.


By fnord12 | January 6, 2006, 4:19 AM | Liberal Outrage & Music & My stupid life | Link



The Return of Chaps?

At least in Maryland, anyway.

McNealy's attorneys appealed the verdict, arguing that indecent exposure in Maryland constitutes the willful public display of a person's "private parts" -- which, they argued, do not include a person's buttocks.

(You can all thank Wei for the link)


By min | January 4, 2006, 12:16 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Nothing Suspicious Going On Here, Officer

So, all this time Abramoff's been investigated, nobody in the Bush camp said "Hey, we took contributions from this guy. Maybe we should give that money back or something." But now that Abramoff has pleaded guilty and agreed to testify, all of a sudden they remember they got this dirty money and are quickly trying to unload it. What better way to wipe your slate clean than to donate the money to charity? "Oh, no, Mr. Prosecutor, sir. We didn't do anything wrong. See? We gave that money to charity as soon as we saw our guy was going down." It's the political version of saying your Hail Marys.


By min | January 4, 2006, 10:42 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Make It Legal!

In the face of Bush authorizing illegal wiretaps and stating he would pick and choose what parts of signed bills he will follow, it seems unnecessary for him to try to push the Patriot Act through. As Dictator-in-Chief, Bush believes he can do whatever he wants regardless of the law. So, why not relax and go back to his brush clearing instead of holding staged events? Mebbe he wants to make illegal wiretaps legal so he can retroactively apply that to himself just in case the Democrats find their spines and go for an impeachment in 2006.


By min | January 4, 2006, 9:32 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Monopoly

Here in the States, when we talk about monopolies and corporations, it usually follows that the corporations have too much influence over government policies, thus benefiting corporate ends. We rarely talk about the flipside which is the government exerting its political power over a corporation to serve its political ends. Whilst King George works to turn us into an empire, Russia, it seems, never let go.

Russia's state-owned gas company Gazprom cut the supply of gas to Ukraine after the latter refused to pay the new price Russia is charging Kiev: a rise from 50$ to 230$ per 1,000 cubic metres of gas.

[...]

"...Konstantin Kosachev, Chair of the Duma's Foreign Relations Committee, put it succinctly when he said the other day that no deal would be reached before Ukraine has its parliamentary election in March. [...] Russia has made it plain it wants [control over] Ukraine's gas transporting system. Then, Gazprom says, the prices will go down."

Putin's play to influence the Ukrainian parliamentary elections is just another example of the Russian leader testing his reach. They didn't succeed in quietly poisoning Victor Yushchenko, so now they'll try for the old fashioned squeeze tactic. As this article describes, the Russian owned gas company Gazprom controls 25% of the world's oil reserves. This could mean serious trouble for the EU, at the least, especially since the reluctance to admit an energy crisis is imminent has stunted development of alternative energy resources.


By min | January 4, 2006, 9:00 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Bigger Is Not Better

So, for those of you who couldn't figure out on your own that a vehicle prone to flipping over might not be safer, afterall, here's a study for ya.


By min | January 3, 2006, 12:31 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Can You Say "Dictatorship"?

I have no words for this piece of unbelievableness.

Bush signed the Defense Dept supplementary authorization on Friday (note the timing), adding a little statement about how he intends to interpret several of its provisions out of existence, including the requirement that Congressional committees be informed in advance of any future spying programs, and the McCain amendment against torture, citing in each case "the President's constitutional authority as Commander in Chief." He says he might choose to inform Congress about programs "as a matter of comity," just being neighborly-like, but then again he might not.

By min | January 3, 2006, 11:19 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



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