The Hollywood Liberal

Here is a story about how some of the mega blogs are getting to be as “mainstream” as the mainstream media they are supposed to be replacing. It’s all about getting paid by candidates to pump them up in a positive light, and squashing other stories that don’t make the mega bloggers look so good. I went on an interview with John Kerry one time with some of these types of bloggers present. I wrote what Kerry really said, and some were not too happy about that. Maybe Kerry had some of them on the payroll. I guess when enough money is waved in front of them, anyone will start becoming, what was that work I call the MSM all the time??? oh yeah that’s right, Whore’s.

Meet the New Bosses

Mother Jones
Excerpt:
Last June, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, former soldier, one-time Reagan Republican, and proprietor of the wildly successful liberal blog Daily Kos, sent an email to an invitation-only listserv known as Townhouse. Consisting of some 300 liberal bloggers, journalists, activists, and consultants, the list was an outgrowth of weekly strategy sessions held at a D.C. bar—a forum for brainstorming on issues and tactics, and a means of creating a “unified message,” as Moulitsas later put it. Its members were bound by one main rule: Nothing from the list was to be quoted or distributed, which, this being politics, meant that a leak was bound to happen.

In the message that would end up putting Townhouse, briefly, on the outside world’s radar, Moulitsas asked list members to “ignore” a blog item by the New York Times’ Chris Suellentrop that revealed that Jerome Armstrong—founder of the popular liberal blog MyDD and a close friend and business associate of Moulitsas—had once been implicated in a stock-touting scheme…..

Moulitsas, who had recently coauthored the book Crashing the Gate with Armstrong, told Townhouse members that these revelations were “a non story.” “So far,” he wrote, “this story isn’t making the jump to the traditional media, and we shouldn’t do anything to help make that happen.” He urged participants to “starve it of oxygen.”

The irony is this: Moulitsas’ reaction echoes the very control-the-message philosophy the blogosphere once rose up to fight. Indeed, challenging the methods of an entrenched political elite was the subject of Crashing the Gate.

Remember how when The US first attacked Iraq, Fox News was running endless non-stop cheer leading coverage of the whole thing? Fox was the one that reported that the Iraqi’s would greet us in the street with flowers. They are the ones who ran endless coverage of the people pulling down the statue of Saddam, and acting as if it was the entire city of Baghdad was out there. I remember it because back then I worked at a company that had a few Bushist Yahoos who watched Fox News in the break room constantly. Well the Saddam statue story was eventually debunked when the pictures from a camera that was not showing closeups revealed that there were only a small handful of people pulling down the statue, and they were all there as a phony news op for people like Fox News. Nowadays everyone knows what a total disaster the war, Bush, and everything Fox was rah rah rahing turned out to be, and Fox doesn’t like to acknowledge that the war even exists anymore. Now they talk about Paris Hilton, and Bear attacks. Here is a video by Keith Olbermann documenting some of the things that Fox News finds more important then the war which they cheer leaded, and which has affected us all for over 4 years now.

Here is a story about how a group Bolivian soldiers that are paid for by U.S. Taxpayers for trying to eradicate Bolivia’s Coca crop, are now being fed by an Alaskan company way up in the arctic circle, rather then being fed by people right there in Bolivia. OK first off, why is the US paying Bolivian soldiers to stop coca growing in their country? It’s part of the never ending war on drugs of course. There is more cocaine, and other drugs in this country then at anytime in the past. So you might think to yourself, “why bother paying Bolivians to stop the coca plantations when there could not possibly be more drugs available here then if we did nothing at all. Of course the reason is that The US Government does not want to stop the war on drugs, any more then they want to stop the war in Iraq, it’s all about money, and kickbacks. Now add this to the story. The price that the US pays to feed these Bolivian soldiers went up from just over $3 dollars a man to over 5 dollars a man. Why? Because of super corrupt Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, who is already being investigated by the FBI, along with his son. Stevens somehow wrangled some crooked deal that now allows the Bolivians to be fed by a native Alaskan company called Olgoonik Management Services. Stevens also got a law passed that says that Alaskan firms are can get small business preference even if they are owned by multinational corporations. So now a company that could not be further away from Bolivia is taking care of these troops rather then a local company that can do the job much cheaper. No surprise that Dick Cheney’s Halliburton also had a hand in this deal, and of course the whole thing was a no bid contract. Shocking.

US: What Ted Stevens, Bolivian cocaine and Halliburton have in common; Or, how the Alaskan Inupiat Eskimos got a no-bid contract in South America from the U.S. government.

Corp Watch
Excerpt:
Deep in the jungles of the upper Amazon, in a land rife with coca plantations and drug runners, roughly 1,500 Bolivian soldiers and police camp out each night at U.S. taxpayer expense. They are offered three meals and a snack each day as part of a $31 million State Department effort to stop the cocaine trade at its source.

Until this spring, the troops were fed by a local Bolivian company, contracted to the United States through a competitive process for $3.34 per soldier per day. But in March, the same contract was awarded — without competition — to an Alaskan Inupiat Eskimo firm, Olgoonik Management Services, which is headquartered 180 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The new cost is $5.16 per soldier per day, an increase of 54 percent, or about $1 million more each year.

Bush’s whitehouse budget director Rob Portman quit yesterday only 14 months after stepping into the job after Bush fired the guy before him, in one of his cabinet shakeups he was pulling back then to try to make it look like he was doing something about his plunging popularity. Of course we all knew that just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic would not help. Portman was asked if quitting now was good for his political career, he remarked that quitting now would be good for his mental health. I guess it gets kind of stressful working for the biggest criminal enterprise in human history. Portman also stated, that “There’s a real sense of fatigue and very little sense of purpose,” Perhaps he has completed the real reason Bush brought him in. To hide all the stolen money.

Here is a comic we did on the day Portman was brought in, its called “Follow The Money: The Real Reason Bush Hired Portman, here is an excerpt.

Get the story before it happens, read H.L.s Comics

Here is one more reason to never join the military. First they make promises to get you in that they never deliver on. Like they are going to give you job training. Yeah you can train to drop bombs or something, lots of call for that when you get back home. While you are in they expose you to all kinds of dangerous chemicals, and use you as a guinea pig for the all the latest drugs that they want to try out. They keep sending you back even after you are supposed to be done, once you are finally ready to go home they tell you you have to stay for 3 more months. They cut your pay and benefits, while you are there. Then you finally get home, and the medical care for getting your arm blown off is shoddy, or non-existent. The military left this widow to die rather then help her out with death benefits from her husband who was in the Air Force.

Desperate widow’s D-M calls unanswered

Arizona Star
Excerpt:
When the end came for Air Force widow LaRaine Gallaway, it was not the graceful exit her late husband would have wanted.
She died in low-income housing after months of waiting for military benefit checks that never arrived.
The 85-year-old Tucsonan spent the last of her life scrimping and stressing, unable to get help because no one was answering the aid line she kept calling at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
D-M’s commander said he regrets what happened to Gallaway, who died June 5, six months after the death of her husband, retired Maj. Thomas Gallaway, 90, made her eligible for the survivor benefits she did not receive….
D-M’s troubleshooter was out of the office for much of March and April, then retired May 1 and has yet to be replaced, officials said. But the staffer’s voice-mail wasn’t taking messages and didn’t explain her absence.
Instead, callers got a recording that said: “No one is available to take your call. Please call back later.”

Democrats go light on lawyer who pushed Bush’s ‘enhanced interrogation’ policies

Raw Story
Excerpt:
In Tuesday’s public hearing, Democrats avoided asking Rizzo specific questions about the CIA’s secret detention program and treatment policies — promising to ask harder questions behind closed doors. Because the administration’s intelligence activities are laregly classified, members of the Senate intelligence committee were barred from disclosing specifics of programs in public.

In Tuesday’s public hearing, Democrats avoided asking Rizzo specific questions about the CIA’s secret detention program and treatment policies — promising to ask harder questions behind closed doors. Because the administration’s intelligence activities are laregly classified, members of the Senate intelligence committee were barred from disclosing specifics of programs in public.

White House Budget Director Resigns

Huffington Post
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — White House budget director Rob Portman announced his resignation Tuesday, joining a lengthening list of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of President Bush’s administration.

Portman, in a telephone interview, made it clear he might seek a return to elective office, either by running for governor of Ohio or for the Senate.

He said he was leaving for personal reasons. His family has remained in Cincinnati and he has been commuting home on weekends for 14 years.

“I need to be home more. I’ve got three kids ages 12 to 17. It’s just been very hard to spend as much time with them and Jane as I need to at this time of my life,” he said.

Ron Paul Excluded in Iowa

CCNWO
Excerpt:
Iowans for Tax Relief and Iowa Christian Alliance will host a presidential candidates forum on Saturday, June 30th in Des Moines. Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Sam Brownback, Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, Tommy Thompson, and Tom Tancredo will participate.

Ron Paul, however, will not participate. Why? Because he wasn’t invited.

We heard about this forum from numerous supporters in Iowa who asked why Dr. Paul was not going to participate. Those supporters assumed that Dr. Paul was invited.

The campaign office had not received an invitation so we called this morning; thinking we might have misplaced the invitation or simply overlooked it. Lew Moore, our campaign manager, called Mr. Edward Failor, an officer of Iowans for Tax Relief, to ask about it. To our shock, Mr. Failor told us Dr. Paul was not invited; he was not going to be invited; and he would not be allowed to participate. And when asked why, Mr. Failor refused to explain.

Giuliani campaign chairman indicted

CCNWO
Excerpt:
State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent distribute cocaine, federal and state authorities said at a news conference at SLED headquarters this afternoon.

According to the indictment, beginning in 2005 — before he was elected state treasurer — Ravenel conspired with Michael L. Miller to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

Ravenel also was a state director for Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 the GOP presidential bid. The Giuliani campaign said Tuesday Ravenel had left the campaign.

This video clip shows a meeting of big business people and Human Resources People who are discussing ways they can legally not hire a qualified American for a job, and bring in someone from India to do it instead. There must have been a whistleblower filming it because I doubt any one in the video would want their names attached to it. Have a look

Investigation Uncovers ‘Extensive Destruction’ Of RNC Emails, Violations Of Records Act

Think Progress
Excerpt:
House investigators have learned that the Bush administration’s use of Republican National Committee email accounts is far greater than previously disclosed — 140,216 emails sent or received by Karl Rove alone — and that the RNC has overseen “extensive destruction” of many of the emails, including all email records for 51 White House officials.

For the last several months, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been “investigating whether White House officials violated the Presidential Records Act” by using email accounts maintained by the RNC and the Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign for official White House communications. Today’s findings confirm that the accounts were used “for official purposes, such as communicating with federal agencies about federal appointments and policies

In a surprise ruling (it’s surprising any time the court rules in favor of the people over the cops)
The Supreme Court ruled that passengers in cars, have the same rights against illegal searches and seizures as the drivers. The cops pull over a car for no reason, search it find drugs, (probably a roach or something) and arrest the passenger saying he has no 4th amendment rights. The court disagrees.

Court Embraces Rights for Car Passengers

SF Gate
Excerpt:
Passengers, like drivers, have a constitutional right to challenge the legality of police decisions to stop cars in which they are traveling, the Supreme Court said Monday.
Bruce Brendlin was convicted of drug possession after a sheriff’s deputy stopped a car in which he was a passenger in Yuba City, Calif., in 2001.
Brendlin was wanted for a parole violation, although the deputy who ordered the car to pull over didn’t know beforehand that Brendlin was in the vehicle…..

Justice David Souter, writing for a unanimous court, disagreed. “We think that in these circumstances, any reasonable passenger would have understood the police officers to be exercising control to the point that no one in the car was free to depart without police permission,” Souter said. “A traffic stop necessarily curtails the travel a passenger has chosen just as much as it halts the driver.”

The American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP backed Brendlin, arguing that a ruling in the state’s favor would encourage police to conduct arbitrary traffic stops to target passengers, especially minorities, who lack the same rights as drivers.

Brendlin appealed his conviction, arguing that the drug evidence should be suppressed because it was found as the result of an illegal stop. The state has since conceded there was no basis to stop the car…..

Here is one more example of how the Transportation Security Administration has no intention of making our airlines safe, and every intention of hassling people to the point where they just don’t want to bother flying anymore. A 14 veteran of the US Secret Service, and her young son are trying to board a flight, but wait, we have a potential terrorism situation. The kid has a sippy cup. What nefarious liquid may be in that cup? Some highly volatile chemical? some sort of liquid WMD? Not to worry though, the Secret Service Agent offers to drink the liquid, to alleviate any possible fears the TSA might have. That’s not good enough for the titty grabbing officers. They want her to go to the back of the line, and come back without the cup, causing her to possibly miss her flight. She gets upset and spills the water, causing an National Incident. Here’s Keith with the story, and video of the ordeal.

The end of the American dream?

BBC
Excerpt:
After growing at more than 3% a year in 2004 and 2005, the pace picked up to a blistering 5.6% annual rate in the first quarter of this year - although the pace has since then slipped back to 2.9%.

So far, though, little of that growth has translated into the hands of the average worker, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

For real household incomes, the median point - the level at which half of households earn more and half less - has actually fallen over the past five years.

That marks a notable contrast with the 1990s, when the economic boom boosted both jobs and incomes.

The puzzle of economic expansion without significant job or wage growth has been troubling US economists and commentators of all political persuasions.

HL’s Take:
The reason is simple, Bill Clinton cared about helping the people, Bush only cares about helping HIS people

John Dean: Scooter Libby’s Appeal: The Focus Shifts To the Highly Political U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

Findlaw’s Writ
Excerpt:
A Test for the Rule of Law: Will Judge Walton’s Well-Reasoned Ruling Stand?

Judge Walton, it bears remembering, was appointed to the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia by George W. Bush. Clearly, he is a no-nonsense jurist. The law under which he is sending Libby to prison, rather than allowing him to remain free on bond, is a hard nosed statute that the Reagan Republicans pushed through Congress, the Bail Reform Act of 1984. (I have not checked but it seems overwhelmingly likely that Dick Cheney would have helped enact this law, since he served as the House’s Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987.) The law was part of efforts by conservatives to make life difficult for all criminals, even white-collar criminals….

There are ten active judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia of whom seven are Republicans and three are Democrats. In addition, there are four senior status judges of whom three are Republicans and one is a Democrat. In short, this court is composed of ten Republicans and four Democrats. It does not require a statistician to appreciate that the probability of Libby drawing a three-judge panel composed of at least two Republicans (a majority) is therefore extremely high.

If this court stays Libby’s sentence, that will be a grievous mistake. Judge Walton has taken care to scrupulously follow the law, and he has clearly set aside the fact he was appointed by a Republican president. If the panel deciding upon the stay should overrule Judge Walton, that result ought send shudders through the land — because it will mean the rule of law has become secondary to party loyalty.

So we’ll see. I would be stunned if a GOP-majority panel or, indeed, any panel gave Scooter Libby a pass.

HL’s Take
If the appeals court does not overturn Judge Walton, will it then go to The Supreme Court? Will they then vote 5-4 in Libby’s favor. Will they do this so Libby won’t spill the beans and implicate Cheney, the most powerful man in the world? I do love to see Republicans getting caught up in the “get tough on crime” legislation that they themselves passed. Poetic Justice, (and actual justice) at it’s finest.

It’s Official: The Crash of the U.S. Economy has begun

Global Research
Excerpt:
It’s official. Mark your calendars. The crash of the U.S. economy has begun. It was announced the morning of Wednesday, June 13, 2007, by economic writers Steven Pearlstein and Robert Samuelson in the pages of the Washington Post, one of the foremost house organs of the U.S. monetary elite.

Pearlstein’s column was titled, “The Takeover Boom, About to Go Bust” and concerned the extraordinary amount of debt vs. operating profits of companies currently subject to leveraged buyouts.
In language remarkably alarmist for the usually ultra-bland pages of the Post, Pearlstein wrote, “It is impossible to predict when the magic moment will be reached and everyone finally realizes that the prices being paid for these companies, and the debt taken on to support the acquisitions, are unsustainable. When that happens, it won’t be pretty. Across the board, stock prices and company valuations will fall. Banks will announce painful write-offs, some hedge funds will close their doors, and private-equity funds will report disappointing returns. Some companies will be forced into bankruptcy or restructuring…..”

Among those poised to profit from the crash is the Carlyle Group, the equity fund that includes the Bush family and other high-profile investors with insider government connections. A January 2007 memorandum to company managers from founding partner William E. Conway, Jr., recently appeared which stated that, when the current “liquidity environment”—i.e., cheap credit—ends, “the buying opportunity will be a once in a lifetime chance.”

HL’s Take
It will be Bush’s going away present to America.

Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes 2008 Edition

War Resisters League
Excerpt:
HOW THESE FIGURES WERE DETERMINED

Current military” includes Dept. of Defense ($585 billion), the military portion from other departments ($122 billion), and an unbudgetted estimate of supplemental appropriations ($20 billion). “Past military” represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt.*

HL’s Take
There’s lots more, click through and see, there is another pie chart that shows how the Government claims the money is spent. The War Resisters League has been around since WW1, these are the guys I got arrested with at the 2004 Republican Convention in New York.

New Orleans turns to international aid

Raw Story
Excerpt:
NEW ORLEANS — The cash-strapped city of New Orleans is turning to foreign countries for help to rebuild as federal hurricane-recovery dollars remain slow to flow.
Kenya Smith, director of intergovernmental relations for Mayor Ray Nagin, said city leaders are talking with more than five countries. He wouldn’t identify the countries, saying discussions were in the early stages. But he said the city is “very serious” about pursuing foreign help.

“Of course, we would love to have all the resources we need from federal and state partners, but we’re comfortable now in having to be creative,” Smith said. He did not know if the city would have to overcome any obstacles if it got firm pledges for aid, but “we want to make sure we’re leaving no options unexplored.”

For months Nagin has complained bureaucracy is choking the flow of much-needed federal aid dollars to New Orleans - slowing the city’s recovery. As of June 8, the city said it had received just over half of the $320 million FEMA has obligated for rebuilding city infrastructure and emergency response-related costs. The city has estimated its damage at far more than that - at least $1 billion. And that doesn’t include other improvements - such as raised neighborhoods - meant to help build the stronger city promoted by Nagin and his recovery director

HL’s Take
It’s been almost 2 years and only half the money that was supposed to go to New Orleans has gotten there. That is a disgrace. Bush is the steward of the biggest domestic disaster in US History as well as the biggest foreign policy disaster in US history. It is disgraceful that this much time has passed and parts of New Orleans still look like the hurricane happened yesterday.
If Katrina would have happened when Clinton was President, the whole city would have been rebuilt in less then a year. This is Bush’s way of telling America You’re on your own. Don’t look to us for help when disaster strikes, we are too busy looting Iraq’s oil, and stealing everything that isn’t bolted down.

Rackjite.com
Tony Snow is a liar, so were Bush’s other press secretaries, but Snow makes the others Fliesher, and McClellan look like pikers. Here John Stewart busts him. No and, ifs or buts, no well I meant that. Snow says one thing, then he claims he never said it. Stewart is hilarious as ususal, check iit out.