I am reading a book right now that is discussing the American tradition of Anarchism, I am at a point where it discusses how a group of right wingers started to steal the word "libertarian" and use it to describe their anti-government free market ideas.

This book aptly points to the glaring problem with libertarianism.

Freedom from the pikes means death for the minnow.

In the US economy 10% of the citizens possess 85% of the nation’s net wealth and this minority is precisely who will benefit from every reduction in the nations social welfare budget. Just dismantling the government will benefit the rich, not to mention the field day that corporations will have mowing over local citizenry, the environment, etc.

The metaphor I like to use is children at recess. Even if the “teacher” supervising the children is negligent, shows favoritism, and is generally cruel merely sending her away turns the playground over to the bullies.

Right wing libertarians want less government for one purpose. To steal from others. At best they only want to utilize without restriction that which belongs to everyone for their own personal benefit, at worst they want to be able to abuse, intimidate, and rob unrestricted.

Right wingers have found that “Might makes Right” doesn’t sell. So they started peddling, “Freedom from Government!” as "libertarians".

Instead of pushing the philosophy of “Let The Bullies Decide” libertarians are promoting “Send the Teacher Inside!!”

The result will be the same. Those with power steam rolling over everyone else. Replacing the "state" with robber barons.

Anarchist thinking realizes and works toward solutions to this problem.

While libertarians either ignore it or look forward to it.

Pop quiz: who was in charge of government during this pork explosion?

Number of Pork Projects in Federal Spending Bills

2005 - 13,997
2004 - 10,656
2003 - 9,362
2002 - 8,341
2001 - 6,333
2000 - 4,326
1999 - 2,838
1998 - 2100
1997 - 1,596
1996 - 958
1995 – 1439

In 2004, we had $895 billion in discretionary spending, including $454 billion in defense spending. That means that we had $441 billion in non-defense discretionary spending.

Our budget deficit in 2004 was $412 billion.

So without raising revenues, our nation would literally have to eliminate the entire defense department (which ain't gonna happen) or its entire non-defense discretionary spending to simply balance the budget. That's not including the $4.3 TRILLION in debt we current hold and should really be trying to pay off.

I'm a strong proponent of a fiscally responsible country, and the Senate votes on the Coburn Amendment yesterday told me that Democrats still have a ways to go before they can truly be considered the party of fiscal responsibility (may the gods bless Feingold, Bayh, and Conrad for being the only Democrats with the cojones to vote against egregious pork).

Full post @ daily kos

Via Professor Cole, more violence in Iraq:

Three US Marines were killed by a roadside bomb west of Baghdad and in a separate attack a US soldier was killed in Hit, northwest of the capital, the US military said on Friday.

Professor Cole also cites to a statement on the Iraq Constitution from "Iran's Supreme Jurisprudent":

Iran's Supreme Jurisprudent, Ali Khamenei, on Friday praised Iraq's constitution as "blessed," praised the constitutional referendum, and looked forward to Iraqis going to the polls again on December 15. The Iranians generally dismiss US threats and posturing, whereas they saw the Taliban and Saddam as genuine enemies. The Iranians are still worried about a revival of the secular Arab nationalist Baath Party.

The Bush Administration and Iranian Mullahs seeing eye to eye again.

from daily kos

Today we get this piece from The Independent. (Pictures and captions from Greenpeace).

A small stream runs through what was once a huge lake. In an area used to ample rainfall a drought as severe as this in the Amazon basin is having dramatic and devastating effects on the wildlife and people of this unique region. The mighty Amazon River is being reduced to a trickle in places, grinding the entire region to a halt. The people of the Amazon rely on the river and its many tributaries for everything from food to transportation.

And new studies are a major slap in the face to George Bush and his Administration's "Healthy Forests Initiative", a government program that used America's tragic fires of 2002 as an excuse to rape this country's forests and reward corporate logging companies for their generous donations.

"Logged forests are areas of extraordinary damage. A tree crown can be 25 meters. When you knock down a tree it causes a lot of damage in the understory. It's a debris field down there," he said.

Studies of area subjected to selective logging have revealed that light penetrates to the understory and dries out the forest floor, making it vulnerable to fires.

Full post @daily kos

from boston.com

Viagra users will have to give up their federal subsidies under legislation that aims to spend the money instead on the poor and victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The bill, approved by the Senate Wednesday by voice vote and sent to the president for his signature, ends federal Medicaid payments for erectile dysfunction drugs as of Jan. 1, 2006. Medicare payments for such drugs will be terminated on Jan. 1, 2007.

Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., who sponsored the original House bill, said the government could save $690 million over five years by eliminating federal support under the two government health care programs for sexual performance drugs

I'm betting this announcement got a rather limp reception....

from Capitol Hill Blue

Aides say gallows humor has descended on the White House, where the West Wing is now referred to as “death row” and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, along with Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, are known as “dead men walking,” a reference to the last walk death row inmates take to the execution chamber.

Worth reading the whole thing. I'm not able to be optimistic yet, but I fervently hope we're looking at the endgame.

D. A. King an activist who opposes illegal immigration acknowledged he paid more than a dozen homeless people $10 each to hold signs during a rally earlier this week, but said they agreed with his message.

The people he hired are homeless and regularly congregate near the Capitol, King said.

"Trust me, they are angry," King said. "When the day comes when I cannot pay an American for an hour's worth of work for making their voices heard, it's a sad day," he said

"This is too complicated an issue. We don't need people to pay people to agree with them," said State Sen. Sam Zamarripa, a Democrat.

full article @ ABC News via Rachel Maddow Show

The Pentagon has reneged on its offer to pay a $15,000 bonus to members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who agree to extend their enlistments by six years, according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle).

The bonuses were offered in January to Active Guard and Reserve and military technician soldiers who were serving overseas. In April, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs ordered the bonuses stopped, Murray said.

from the newstribune.com

The latest scandal surfaced Wednesday when an Australian television network aired video showing members of a U.S. airborne unit purportedly setting fire to the Taliban bodies, followed by other soldiers, identified as specialists in psychological operations, using the event to taunt other enemy fighters and draw them out of nearby hills to retrieve the remains.

Cremation is shunned by Islamic custom, which calls for even the sinful to receive a proper burial.

"[The alleged body burning near the village of Gonbaz] would be a violation of both military law and the Geneva Conventions, which list mistreatment of the dead as a war crime," said John Sifton, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in New York.

from Washington Post Via Rachel Maddow Show

The issue here is not whether or not you should desecrate dead bodies of Taliban Soldiers [though I belive Cerion would have something to say about that]. The point is that this is against the Geneva Conventions. They are war crimes and you can't do them Period.The Military has very specifically identified the group of soldiers responsible, watch for this to be another exercise in the Pentagon blaming individual troops for Republican military policy.

Tom Delays Mug Shot from Harris County Sherriff's Department.

If there was ever any argument over what politicians are all about... Pork or Helping People, Pork or Integrity, Pork or compassion... Pork wins again.

Hey thinks for cutting in on our chances Judd, ya shitbag. At least I only bought 1 ticket... this rich greedy ass bought 20!!

Poor Rick Santorum. A few months ago, he was being hailed by his GOP brethren as a leading White House contender. Now it looks like the gay-bashing golden boy, who is running for a third term in Pennsylvania, may not even make it back to the Senate. According to a poll published yesterday in The Hill, the devoutly Catholic candidate is now trailing Democrat Bob Casey by 16 points. But as Santorum's campaign has lost steam, Capital Hill sources say his support from RNC heavies has also evaporated. The blow-dried bible-thumper, who launched his campaign with a giant war chest, is also being deserted by the party's major moneymen, who are focusing their largesse on more competitive candidates.

"This is how the Republicans operate," sighs a veteran GOP campaign manager close to Santorum. "Even if you agree with their agenda, they'll abandon you if you're behind in the polls and move on to the next-most important race."

The problem isn't that Santorum is behind on the polls, it's that he's way behind on the polls and has done nothing to reverse course. Rather, his constant stream of outrageous statements and his wingnutty book has provided the Casey camp with mounds of solid attack ad material (like women shouldn't go to college, shouldn't work, etc). And he's pushed a radical right-wing agenda more in tune with Oklahoma than Pennsylvania.

full post @ daily kos

Many Democrats suck worse than John Sununu, when it comes to pork....

The Club for Growth blog is tracking the debate over the Coburn amendment that would cancel the Bridge to Nowhere and Don Young Way and use that $454 million for New Orleans reconstruction.

It's a pretty heated debate. Sen. Ted Stevens has threatened to resign if the amendment passes.

Honestly, there's no reason for any Democrat to vote against this amendment.

Another earlier Coburn amendment to revoke pork projects in Rhode Island, Washington State, and Nebraska, for a total of $1.5 million in savings, was rejected. Those voting for the Amendment:

It's embarrassing that Feingold was the only Democrat voting for it. What a great way to show the country that Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility. Sheez...

Update: FYI, the reason senators would vote against these amendments is because if any of them pass, it puts every single pork project in their own states in danger. What Coburn has done is allowed a challenge to every single pork line item. As well as it should be. Let each project stand on its own.

from daily kos

In the comments below make up and post a caption to this picture.

But this weekend, the New York Times reported that U.S. forces are already engaged in a “shadow struggle” with Syria:

A series of clashes in the last year between American and Syrian troops, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians, has raised the prospect that cross-border military operations may become a dangerous new front in the Iraq war, according to current and former military and government officials. …

…other [Bush administration] officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as American efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, the operations have spilled over the [Iraq-Syria] border - sometimes by accident, sometimes by design.

Some current and former officials add that the United States military is considering plans to conduct special operations inside Syria, using small covert teams for cross-border intelligence gathering.
…
Increasingly, officials say, Syria is to the Iraq war what Cambodia was in the Vietnam War: a sanctuary for fighters, money and supplies to flow over the border and, ultimately, a place for a shadow struggle.

from NYTimes via think progress

Yesterday, Harriet Miers revealed on a Senate questionnaire that she was suspended this year from D.C. bar for late payment of dues:

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers told the U.S. Senate on Tuesday her ability to practice law in the District of Columbia was briefly suspended this year because of nonpayment of bar association dues.

But she left out one thing. Miers was also suspended from the Texas bar for late payment of dues in 1989. She sent a letter to Chuck Schumer today revealing her suspension and blaming it on an “administrative error.” You can read the letter HERE.

full post @ think progress

This image has not been altered. It’s not clear whether the caption is an error or a sudden decision by NBC to raise their standards of accuracy.

from thinkprogress

Gene Lyons:

In the Times ' front-page account of Miller's off-again, on-again refusal to testify before Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury, editor Bill Keller admits some embarrassment.

"I wish it had been a clear-cut whistleblower case," he said.

I wonder what they're putting in the water coolers up on West 43 rd Street. It wasn't a whistleblower case at all. It was the exact opposite : the most powerful people in the United States using the press to damage a whistleblower by endangering his wife, something even the Mob won't do.

That the NY Times, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the people who are using her to testify before Congress next week on behalf of a federal shield law don't get this truly says something about the state of the modern journalism establishment.

from daily kos

From RedState.org:

[C]onservatives have a Hill to Die On - the Coburn Amendment to the Transportation, Housing, & Urban Development appropriations bill (HR 3058)
Make NO mistake - the establishment Republicans are terrified of this bill. The chutzpah of the little people demanding an end to one of the most immoral acts of Congress - earmarked pork spending - has got some in quite the tizzy.

Word is that some are trying to stop the Coburn Amendment from even reaching the floor for a vote.

This amendment will transfer funding from the wasteful pork project, the "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska, to the repair and reconstruction of the "Twin Spans" bridge in Louisiana. According to published reports, the Alaskan pork project costs $220 million for a 5.9-mile bridge connecting Gravina Island (population 50) to the Alaskan mainland. The cost of the bridge alone would be enough to buy every island resident his own personal Lear jet.

Sounds pretty simple, no? And simply the right thing to do. This is a no-brainer, friends. I'm with the Club For Growth, that's chosen to make this one of their very first "Key Votes" in an effort to reign in that out of control spending.

The Amendment is here [PDF]. Senator Coburn's "Dear Colleague" letter is here [PDF].

RedState and other conservatives make this a case of "reigning in spending", which in reality, it's not. It's moving the spending from one of the most egregious examples of pork spending ever to the vital reconstruction of New Orleans. The money needs to be spent, it would just be a great idea to spend the money on our nation's top priorities rather than Alaskan Republican Don Young's vanity monument to himself.

full post @ daily kos

The 10.19.05 podcast is online!!! http://joneaston.podomatic.com/

From CBS News:

A Texas court on Wednesday issued a warrant for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's arrest, and set an initial $10,000 bail as a routine step before his first court appearance on conspiracy and state money laundering charges.

please, please, please let me see a picture of him in handcuffs!!

“A second Cheney aide, David Wurmser, has agreed to provide the prosecution with evidence that the leak was a coordinated effort by Cheney’s office to discredit the agent’s husband,” Raw Story reports.

[from thinkprogress]

“An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair,” according to the New York Daily News.

[via think progress]


The key here is not Bush and Turd Blossoms relationship... but that Bush KNEW that he did this 2 TEARS AGO!!

So Bush knew? He knew when he said this in September 2003?

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, I know of nobody -- I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action.

He knew when he also said this?

"If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.

"I welcome the investigation. I am absolutely confident the Justice Department will do a good job.

"I want to know the truth," the president continued. "Leaks of classified information are bad things."

He added that he did not know of "anybody in my administration who leaked classified information."

If the NY Daily News story is correct, that's a hell of a lot of lying to the American people.

from Daily Kos

White House Watch: Cheney resignation rumors fly

Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Said another Bush associate of the rumor, "Yes. This is not good." The rumor spread so fast that some Republicans by late morning were already drawing up reasons why Rice couldn't get the job or run for president in 2008.

"It's certainly an interesting but I still think highly doubtful scenario," said a Bush insider. "And if that should happen," added the official, "there will undoubtedly be those who believe the whole thing was orchestrated – another brilliant Machiavellian move by the VP."

from the news blog

The AFSC has extended the call in days through Thursday, when the House will be voting on the proposed budget cuts. So - keep calling!! Scroll down to the orignal ear for the message - and call your Congressman! 1-800-426-8073

Tell him we don't believe that cutting school lunch programs while giving tax cuts to the rich are the right priorities for America!!

Newsflash: Dems Who Voted for War Could Face Trouble in '08

Wal-Mart’s PAC donated $5000 to Tom DeLay on September 30 — two days after he was indicted.

Oliver Willis takes on the leadership of the black movement, and pulls no punches.

I think it's past time for there to be a changing of the guard in black leadership in America. People like Farrakhan, Sharpton and Jackson are no better than hustlers, bigots, and crooks. There are hundreds of black leaders who believe in improving the lives of black Americans, and America in general, but the media keeps giving time to the Axis of Irrelevancy.

[kos from daily kos says] I have no opinion on the specifics -- I'm not African American, I don't consider it my business to tell them....

But aside from that, I sense the generational divide between new school activists (those of us who came "of age" politically in the late 90s and 00s), and those who harken back to the 60s and 70s.

.....
I'm increasingly convinced that the biggest intra-movement divide nowadays isn't ideological -- we mostly all agree on the same things -- but generational. Old school activists view politics and the activist realm differently than new school activists (very generally speaking). Those differences manifest themselves in arguments over single issue groups, effective activism, partisanship, tone, style, pragmatism, the types of candidates we should run, etc.

......
New school progressives are also less tolerant of ideological orthodoxy. We don't fall in line with the "acceptable" liberal position, frankly, because we're not trained to fall in line. We are more likely to be educated in an economy that values "proactiveness" and "self-initiative" and "problem solving" over blindly following the orders of our boss.

....
The political landscape is different, no doubt -- the politics of old where "leaders" told us how to think and act is dead. The media landscape has changed -- the era when a few editors and producers determined our "leaders" and excluded other voices is dead.

full post @ daily kos

I have heard lots of talk about all the infighting in the party [and elsewhere] and how it is so bad. I have yet to hear ANYONE often a solution beyond that "New School Progressives" should fall in line. I hope more moderate and compromising voice will start to realize that co-operation is a two way street. Now a one way TOLL ROAD!

As the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name hurtles to an apparent conclusion, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has zeroed in on the role of Vice President Cheney's office, according to lawyers familiar with the case and government officials. The prosecutor has assembled evidence that suggests Cheney's long-standing tensions with the CIA contributed to the unmasking of operative Valerie Plame.

from washington post via daily kos




One of these kids is doing his own thing.

[If you missed it, this is the picture of cheney at a Auschwitz memorial service. Someone forgot to tell him to wear black..... or care.]

Gallup has consistently given Bush some of his best numbers. So for him to break the 40 percent floor in that poll is not a great sign. In fact, it's a terrible sign.

If a senior White House staffer had intentionally outed an American spy during World War II, he'd have been shot.

We're at war, George Bush keeps reminding us. We cannot continue with business as usual. A pre-9/11 mentality is deadly. Putting the lives of our troops at risk is treason.

Then why is the White House and the Republican party engaged in a concerted campaign to make treason acceptable during a time of war? That's exactly what they're doing. On numerous news shows today, Republican surrogates, their talking points ready, issued variations of the following concerning White House chief of staff Karl Rove's outing of a covert CIA agent as part of a political vendetta:

• It's the criminalization of politics
  
• Is this 'minor' leak really worth all this?
  
• Political payback is common and should not be criminalized
  
• Mis-speaking or mis-remembering is not a crime

Yes, the Republicans are now making light of an intentional effort to expose an undercover CIA agent, working on weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, no less, while we are at war in the Middle East on that very issue.

The GOP has become the party of treason.

It would be one thing for a senior adviser to the president to put the nation's security at risk during a time of war. That could be explained as an aberration - a quite serious one, no doubt - but a fluke nonetheless. But when the president himself refuses to keep his own word about firing that aberration, and when the entire Republican party rallies around that fluke and tries to minimize what is usually a capital offense during wartime, something is seriously wrong with that party and its leadership.

From America Blog Via Daily Kos

That is perfect there is nothing for me to add. But if you want to read even more check out Hunter from daily kos commenting on this topic.

In a column posted early Monday in the WSJ Opinion Journal, John Fund quotes from notes from a conference call Dobson participated in in which two judges close to Miers assured him that they had spoken with her about Roe v. Wade and that she had indicated she would vote to overturn it.

from daily kos

[picture: James Dobson, I can only assume by the gesture that he is discussing his favorite topic, the firm supple asses of young men.]

Give Bass, Bradley, Sununu, or Gregg an earful about the proposed budget cuts that are being proposed in order to pay for Katrina. Over $35 billion in cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, student loans - and kids lunch programs (to name a few) are being suggested - while they propose $70 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy.

On October 17 and 18, the American Friends Service committee is sponsoring toll free lines to the Capital switchboard. Dial 1-800-426-8073 and ask to speak to your Rep or Senator.
When they answer the phone, say something like: My name is -----, and I live in ---. I would like Senator ____ to oppose the cuts being proposed in the budget reconciliation process. The right priorities are protecting people from hardship, sickness, and investing in housing, education and jobs. More tax cuts to the wealthy should not be a priority - should not even be a consideration.
Repeat process with your other senator and representative. Be patient if the lines are busy - they should be!!

Check out www.afsc.org to learn more about what the AFSC is doing, and to say thanks!

Several days ago, there was a meeting between Keith Boykin and members of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) and Millions More March (MMM) leader Louis Farrakhan over GLBT representation at the march.

Keith Boykin was chosen to speak, but at the last minute, as he made his way to the podium, he was turned away by the homo-bigot co-organizer Rev. Willie Wilson.

Wilson was making sure that no one at that march was going to hear what Keith had to say about homophobia and the black community, or the need for gay visibility, recognition and acceptance.

from dialy kos

This reminds me of a joke I heard on the Al Franken Show.

Which is harder to be black or be gay?

To be gay, you don't have to tell your parents you're black.

Of coarse if you are black and gay... well, you get the picture.

The California Governator is putting up a proposition [No. 77] to create a non-partisan redistricting process in California. This is what kos [of daily kos] has to say about it....

I'm not sure why busting the current incumbent-protection racket would be a bad thing, why creating competitive districts and forcing incumbents to be more responsive to their constituents than the current 70-80 percent partisan districts require.

Chuck Todd, in this week's column (not a permalink), makes a great argument for supporting the proposition.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the person who could be speaker if Democrats take back control, is actively raising money to defeat the California redistricting measure. Of course, in California, if districts were no longer drawn by partisans but by bipartisan panels of some political or judiciary makeup, then Democrats could possibly lose a few seats -- though no one's made a good case to us how they would net a loss. There are some GOP seats they'd likely nab in Southern California that would offset their losses in other parts of the state.

In fact, Pelosi's commitment to defeat the redistricting measure in California is so great that one Democratic operative told us she called its defeat her "top priority." As this operative noted to us, "left unsaid was the fact that winning back the House was not the 'top priority.'"

In Pelosi's defense, if this California redistricting measure took place in a vacuum, we could understand her focus on defeating it. She could easily spin this as an attempt by national Republicans to save their own majority by re-drawing California the same way Rep. Tom DeLay redrew Texas.

But if there was ever an example of "cutting off your nose to spite your face," this is it. As noted above, Ohio has a similar redistricting reform measure on the ballot this November, which if enacted, would likely give Democrats a better chance in a number of districts. Similarly, some Florida Democrats, led by 2004 Senate nominee Betty Castor, are trying to put a redistricting reform measure on that state's ballot next year. Florida is one of the more grotesque examples of gerrymandering in the entire country.

Bottom line, California initiatives are like colds, they're very catchy. If this reform measure passes in California, every other state with an initiative/referendum process would likely follow suit. And there are far more gerrymandered states in favor of the GOP right now than the Democrats. Redrawing the districts in these states would lead to Congress being much more representative of the national mood.

But Pelosi is making sure she (and probably the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) can't support any of these initiatives in these other states without looking like a blatant hypocrite. By fighting the California redistricting reform initiative so vehemently, Pelosi is proving to some that she's running for power, pure and simple. No different than DeLay. We shouldn't be surprised; she was raised in a household that embraced machine politics and that's how she rules the Democratic caucus, like an old-style machine (ironically, it's how DeLay has shaped the House Republicans).

But this style of politics is exactly what has voters potentially up-in-arms. They are searching for reform, and redistricting reform would be a real step in the voters' direction. And it appears it's a gigantic missed opportunity for the Democrats in search of something substantial to be for as they shape their reform message for '06.

Update: Wow, I'm blown away by the rampant misinformation floating around on this issue, particularly the fiction that Arnold would pick the redistricting panel himself. Here's the text of the proposed law (PDF). Read it for yourself before you try and spread misinformation.

full post @ from daily kos

Of coarse a case could be made that Pelosi isn't being TRULY partisan, as the long term benefits of non-partisan redistricting would benefit dems in places like Ohio, even Texas! Pelosi seems to be willing, in this instance, to sell out larger party goals for her own immediate interests. But this issues to me is about a higher virtue of fairness which SHOULD trump party or ideology.

Unless of course someone can tell me how prop 77 isn't fair and republicans can manipulate it to an unfair advantage?