The Hollywood Liberal

Did you see Bush’s speech last night? I didn’t. A friend of mine called up and said, “are you watching the speech?” I said no I’ve already seen it. “What do you mean its on live now?” he asked. Trust me I’ve seen it time and time again I replied. While the speech was on I was watching a show about the rivalry between The Lakers and Celtics in the ’80s. Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird are two of the greatest basketball players ever, and made the NBA what it is today. James Worthy, Kareem Abdul Jabber, Robert Parrish, and Kevin Mchale also made it one of the greatest sports rivalries ever. It makes todays NBA look lame in comparison. I did happen to flip past the speech at one point as it was on so many channels, and all I saw was everyone in the place (democrats especially) giving the monkey standing ovations for everything he said. “Ah the usual circle jerk” I thought to myself. The entire congress giving Bush a collective handjob. Yep seen it all before many times. Anyway here is Jim Webb’s response to Bush, he slams him on the war after the dems, gave him countless standing O’s. Good work dems.

Think Progress.org

Under oath, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff Scooter Libby told a grand jury that he first learned that Joe Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent from conversations with the media. In fact, he first learned that information from Vice President Cheney himself.

Libby is now on trial for perjury. His defense is that he simply forgot who told him that Plame worked for the CIA. But in court today, prosecutors outlined a powerful case establishing that Libby had reason to remember who told him and motive to cover it up. MSNBC’s David Schuster said today’s revelations from prosecutors are “new and will astound a number of people, even those who have been following this case.” Among the new claims:

– “Vice President Cheney himself directed Scooter Libby to essentially go around protocol and deal with the press and handle press himself…to try to beat back the criticism of administration critic Joe Wilson.”

– Cheney personally “wrote out for Scooter Libby what Libby should say in a conversation with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper.”

– “Scooter Libby destroyed a note from Vice President Cheney about their conversations and about how Vice President Cheney wanted the Wilson matter handled.”

Suicide Bomber Kills 10 in Afghanistan

Washington Post
Excerpt
KABUL, Afghanistan — A bomber blew himself up amid a crowd of workers outside a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing 10 and wounding at least 14 others in the deadliest suicide attack in four months, officials said.

Maj. Matt Hackathorn, a U.S. military spokesman, said there was no immediate word of any U.S. military casualties.

Suicide attacks have become much more frequent as Taliban militants have intensified their insurgency against Afghan government and foreign troops backing them. According to U.S. military figures, there were 139 suicide attacks during 2006, up from 27 in 2005

Senior U.S. officials have warned that fighting in Afghanistan is likely to surge again this spring, as warmer weather clears snow from mountain passes and militants try to weaken the grip of President Hamid Karzai’s U.S.-backed government.

H.L.s Take
Afghanistan, another track on Bush’s unblemished record of failure. Another war that will never end. They are making way too much money running opium out of there to let it end. The Bush family always profits off war.

Key 9/11 survivor in Lancaster

Morecambe.com
Excerpt
THE last man to leave the World Trade Center building alive is coming to Lancaster on Thursday, February 8, to speak on his experiences during and since 9/11. Visitor news editor INGRID KENT hears what William Rodriguez has to stay and finds out why he will be travelling all the way to the UK to give a lecture
WILLIAM Rodriguez was working as a janitor in the World Trade Center on the ninth of September 2001 when he heard explosions from below.
But William didn’t just try to save his own skin; as the only key holder for the North Tower stairwell where he was working, he unlocked doors and helped firefighters to rescue hundreds of people.

H.Ls. Take
Remember the scene at the end of The Godfather when they are getting ready to leave for Vegas, but then as they are leaving Michael says to Carlo “Your not going to Vegas…You have to answer for Santino.” I have a dream scenario that when Bush leaves office and is ready to leave for his new 98,000 acre ranch in Paraguay, he is told “Your not going to Paraguay, you have to answser for 9/11.
William was also the last survivor to leave the building. He spent the rest of 9/11 helping out as a volunteer in the rescue efforts, and at dawn the following morning, was back at Ground Zero continuing his efforts…
In February William is coming to Lancaster to tell his side of the story; a story the US Government would not let him tell in full.

4 Americans in Iraq crash shot in head

AP
Excerpt
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Four of the five Americans killed when a U.S. security company’s helicopter crashed in a dangerous Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad were shot execution style in the back the head, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday.

A senior Iraqi military official said a machine gunner downed the helicopter, but a U.S. military official in Washington said there were no indications that the aircraft, owned by Blackwater USA, had been shot out of the sky.

In Washington, a U.S. defense official said four of the five killed were shot in the back of the head but did not know whether they were still alive when they were shot. The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

The Iraqi official, who also declined to be identified because details had not been made public, said the four were shot in the back of the head while they were on the ground.

H.L.s Take
It’s not just our soldiers, and innocent Iraqis that get killed in Bush’s Genocide, Mercenaries get it too.

Imagine where Bush’s approval rating would be if the Democrats went after him as hard for killing thousands of people, as The Republicans went after Clinton for getting a BJ

One Graphic To Give Republicans Heartburn

Bob Geiger.com
Excerpt
For those of you who still maintain healthy relationships with Republicans and want to throw a good-natured jab in their direction, I have the prefect graphic for you. This is from a CBS News poll released yesterday and it compares George W. Bush’s latest, dismal approval rating with those of a couple of other presidents at the same time in their terms.

Ouch!

Now, I’m sure that given the fondness most right-wingers have for Bill Clinton, this won’t bother them much — not even the reality that, after all they tried to do to him, Clinton had a much higher approval rating than did their patron saint, Ronald Reagan, after seven years in office.

This must be a reflection of those horrible times during “the Clinton years” that delusional Republicans like to talk about.

Here is a special report from that conservative think tank The Cato Institute. The author must have been the victim of a botched Police raid.

Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America

The Cato Institute
Excerpt
Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.

These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers.

H.L.s Take
One of the big benefits of 9/11 for the police is that for some reason they think they can do whatever they want to whoever they want and they will always get away with it (of course they are right, just about every time a cop is put on trial for murder, or using excessive force, they walk away clean no matter how bad the evidence against them. They act as if they think they are rooting out terrorism and “evil doers” when all they are doing is busting people for normal every day domestic crime. Of course they screw up and hit the wrong house, and kill the wrong people more often then not. Most cops are not exactly geniuses. Thats why they had to take a job where they get shot at.

Check out this

Map of Bothced Military Style Police Raids

Ex-dictator Noriega to be released Sept. 9

Miami Herald
Excerpt
It’s official and final: Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega, held in Miami-Dade on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, will be released from prison on Sept. 9 after completing his sentence.

The news was revealed to El Nuevo Herald by Noriega’s attorney, Frank Rubino. The release order appears on the official Web page of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

”There is no turning back. The order is obligatory and nobody can stop it,” Rubino said.

According to Rubino, Noriega, who is ”in very good health,” will return to Panama as soon as possible. He is 72 years old.

”He wants to go home. He has no intention of remaining here,” Rubino said.

H.L.s Take
He must have agreed to a deal. Keep quiet about how we screwed you over after we were Cocaine dealing partners, and you won’t wind up like that other old partner of ours: Saddam

Edwards Pledges Allegiance

Anti-War.com
Excerpt
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is out on the stump:

“Iran is serious about its threats,” former US Senator John Edwards has told an audience in Israel.

“The challenges in your own backyard – represent an unprecedented threat to the world and Israel,” the candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination told the Herzliya Conference, referring mainly to the Iranian threat.

I don’t know about New Hampshire, but I’d say Edwards is off to a strong start in Tel Aviv.

After opening his speech with great praise for Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Edward’s continued to express great appreciation for the Israeli people and the special bond between the two countries, saying it was “a bond that will never be broken.”

H.L.s Take
Yet another Democrat that puts Israel before The United States. We ship Israel billions of dollars in aid every year (thats the tax money that comes out of your paycheck every week) Israel in returns funnels that money back to our politicians in the form of “campaign donations.” The politicians use that money to get elected so they can continue to put the wants of Israel above the needs of the people that voted them in. All so Israel can continue it’s hatred and persecution of anyone in the region who is not Israel, but shhhh to state the obvious is considered anti-semitism, by pro israelis. Must be nice to always have a built in attack response to anyone who does not agree with your war mongering.