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Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:00 AM

The motivation for blocking investigations into Bush lawbreaking

Key congressional Democrats were aware and tacitly supportive of Bush's illegal interrogation and surveillance programs, a key motive in why they helped prevent accountability.

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:39 PM

@kitt

Well, if the shoe fits, it is a statement of fact. Still, it was name calling, however appropriate I think it is or how fitting, nice as Heru's commentary was to read.

--Ron

<<heru

No name calling or silly crap playing with the name/handle of the person. Just a statement of the facts.

-- heru-ur

I guess you think "Concern Troll" is a statement of fact.>>

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:40 PM

@ Red Snapper. If you're looking for hope here, you're out of luck.

But as someone who reads you every day, I'm simply becoming more and more frightened and disheartened by the content of your posts. Your tone suggests that we're screwed, there's nothing we can do about it....
....Give us a straw to grasp at. Please.

-- Red Snapper

Snapper, let me tell you a little secret. Glenn CAN'T give you any hope. His business is based on selling fear. The more fear the better. It's what brings in readers, clicks and then advertisers. In short honey, it's all about the money. The only difference between Glenn and the average Sunday morning preacher, is that the preacher can at least offer you heaven.

Now why in the world should you believe me? You shouldn't. In fact you should be skeptical of anyone that claims to have the answers, even the mighty, virtuous, prancing, Glenn Greenwald. The only thing that will assuage your trembling little heart is knowledge. A lot more knowledge than you'll ever get here.

Go forth young Snapper and see the whole world, not just a minor patch that cultivates thorns and thistles. Contrary to opinion here, truth and beauty are alive and well in this great land of ours... from sea to shining sea.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:41 PM

I can tell you teach University :-)

Poking through Amazon, it seems Laura Westra is "An Authority" and her books don't come cheap. ($45 for a paperback edition) I can see an ethics professor like yourself inflicting such texts on students. Thankfully, the Texas inter-library loan system is excellent. I'll add it to my ever growing pile of good for me serious reading.

Depleted Uranium is going to make Agent Orange look benign. US Navy Phalanx CIWS fire DU and I have handled the rounds. I believe I didn't suffer any ill effects as the exposure was limited and it seems the dust is the real danger, but still... I have active duty friends over in Iraq/Afghanistan who are breathing that crud right now.

Yet another ongoing war crime.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:42 PM

Aych

What earthly difference does that make?

-- Aycharaych

you're being obtuse. But then that has been your pattern in "conversations" with myself and with others.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:44 PM

Pedinska

Exactly what happened to my relative. Someone who had a beef with him lied to the cops and they didn't bother to inform the warrant-signing judge about any of the 'exculpatory' stuff. They executed an illegal no-knock warrant and he was killed defending his family from what he thought were the people who'd been calling his home threatening his family.

My condolences once again on what happened to your relative.

I seem to recall that you claimed in a reply to me some time ago that the killing of your relative had nothing at all to do with the drug war.

That appears to conflict with what you wrote that I quoted above.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:44 PM

GC!

Ask poor Richard if it's okay to move into your hut?

You would have to put up with tiny manicured cat feet.

Ask Richard to make native cheesy sandwiches.

One order of chlebicky coming up.

LT Bohica and e-prof: I actually ran across a physician who insisted that the increase in cancer rates in Iraq were due to "Saddam's hidden WMD". My husband, who knows me well, stepped on my foot to keep me quiet and stuck in place, then calmly disabused him of his assumptions.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:45 PM

Kitt. No Joke.

A Bluejay keeps squawking. It has a shallow and hollow laugh.

It's about time to head out. It has been a sheer chutzpah day.

It's about tomb to be in quest for the perfect psychoanalyst.

I'll steal a couch with`For Sale. It was left from a yard sale.

It's been left in a rain storm. Soggy or not, I need a rest.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:45 PM

@bdop4

As an organic gardener, I tend to want to take your analogy a little further, wondering if we don't also need some predatory insects (the good kind) to attack the bad insects, which suck the life out of good plants. Or perhaps some insecticidal soap to wash them off (maybe they'd be clean then?). Ah well, can only carry this so far...

--Ron

<<Both houses of Congress are like a badly neglected garden, overrun with weeds. We need to pull the weeds, keep the vegetables (they're good for you!) and add to the crop.

It takes a lot of hard work (I just started a backyard garden, so I know first-hand), but the results can be gratifying.

We need to recruit more weed pullers and find some good seeds!

-- bdop4>>

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:47 PM

Mayer

"There are only two or three questions asked and answered at this point. Get over there, people!"

Maybe people are listening to her on Fresh Air instead: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92528583

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:52 PM

Aych

Sorry, I wasn't clear. What I was referring to was the trumped up warrant business, not the drug part. That, and the fact that someone got killed who didn't deserve to die. The lies in our warrant had to do with stolen baby clothes (believe it or not).

They did try to bring drugs into it, but only later, after the enormity of their error started to sink in, but only well after their bogus warrants got someone killed.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:52 PM

Aych

Also, Aych, when someone takes on some famous character's name like 'Tiberious' and I make fun of him by changing it to Tibby, that's funny and clever. Or when someone wants to be thought of as the head of or a member of the GOP by calling themselves Elephantman, and I change it to Elephantdung, that's funny and clever. When someone has a legitimate name of Kitt (whether you are certain that is their name of not) and you change it to Kitty, that's not the least bit funny or clever, that's just stupid.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 01:00 PM

@farbie - thanks, connected the dots for me

As you may know, I have been fighting the FISA “compromise” ever since it was dreamed up by Jay Rockefeller, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Unfortunately, it appears that you have drunk the “Kool-Aid” that Rockefeller has been drinking ever since he was included in the secret briefings that the Bush Administration held shortly after 9-11. Key Democrats, including current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, former ranking House Intelligence Committee member Jane Harman, and several others were extensively briefed on both the illegal wiretapping and NSA data-mining programs, as well as the illegal torture-rendering that was going on at Guantanamo. While they did not actively formulate and create these illegal activities, since they were advised of them, they are at least complicit co-conspirators.

As far as I know, one of the weights behind the Obama candidacy is Daschle.

e.g., see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18040719/

(or click on signature).

That would help explain Obama's vote.

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