The Hollywood Liberal

Here is my audio interview with my congressman, and Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Henry Waxman. The Interview was conducted this morning over the phone from his LA office. In the interview we discuss Impeachment, The Democrats, Pat Tillman, Sibel Edmonds, Alberto Gonzalez, Condi Rice and more. Its about 24 Minutes long. Have a listen. (may take a few seconds to download)

Audio Interview with Henry Waxman

Transcript
HL: It’s an honor to have with us today Henry Waxman, the congressman representing the 30th district of California, which includes Hollywood. Mr. Waxman is also the Chairman on the Committee on oversight and Government Reform, and has singlehandedly been leading the charge against corruption in the Bush administration. Thank you for coming on

Henry Waxman: Thank You, pleased to be with you.

HL: You’re one of the fighters in the Democratic party and I want to thank you for all your hard work in terms of your investigation of corruption in Oversight I also want to say that I am proud to be from your district, I have voted for you every chance I’ve had, you are the only choice on the ballot I don’t even have to think about.

HW: (Laughs) Thank You

HL. OK lets get to some questions. In a video interview I watched with you back in April you stated that you did not think the American people were in favor of impeachment, do you still feel that way.

HW: I don’t know what the public opinion polls show…some people have told me the majority may be for impeachment, but I’m not sure of that. I don’t think that’s the essential point is whether there is a majority at this point, the question is whether there is enough evidence, whether congress has the ability to go down this road…whether the Senate can muster 2/3 for an Impeachment, when they can’t even get together 60 votes for most worthwhile legislation, and whether it will lead to the public coming to the conclusion that the Democrats may be doing to the Republican, what the Republicans did to the democrats which in my view would be a very bad thought.

HL: Some people are saying that it’s a moral thing, that the constitution mandates impeachment for an executive who tries to go too far in his executive powers regardless of the situation just to show that Congress is against what’s going on but I understand your point of view. According to a recent poll I read 54% of Americans are in favor of Impeachement, and with Bush’s approval rating at 28% I just think that a lot of people feel that now is the time to do it rather then allowing Bush to continue to do what he has been doing for the next 18 months or so .

View the Rest of the Transcript

HL is happy to welcome a new blogger to the site, he is Michael O’Mccarthy. Michael is an internationally published poet, writer of prose, journalist and blogger. In the past Mr. McCarthy has written for progressive websites like Counterpunch, Buzzflash, and American Chronicle. Michael is also the author of the book Rebels In Hell. Here is Michaels first post on the HL

Up The Rebels! — A blog in keeping with the legacy of The Declaration of
Independence and “the Right of the People to alter or abolish…”

Michael O’McCarthy
Email: Opolitique@aol.com

I want to thank HL for inviting me to be a feature Blogger from
my old stomping grounds, Los Angeles and that great bastion of progressive
Liberalism, Hollywood. Perhaps no other community has sponsored the cause of
progress political politics more than Los Angeles. There the late and wonderful
Dorothy Healey, (heir to Rosa Luxemburg and Emma Goldman, pioneers of the
humanization of democratic socialism), turned old style, doctrinaire Lefty
Politics into a New American Movement and then joined with the late and wonderful
Michael Harrington in the formation of Democratic Socialists of America. (I
give a nod to the work of Warren Beatty for providing the US with his first
alternative view of the development of modern socialism with his iconic film,
REDS.)

So lets get at it and define why I am, as a democratic socialist, aligning
myself with the “liberals” who have so often found opportunism much more
comfortable than progress. Of my generation, the two who stand out most are
Lyndon (“light at the end of the tunnel” of the war against South East Asia)
Johnson and Hubert “Chicago police riot of 1968” Humphrey — or today, the “
liberalism of Joe Lieberman.

So to define my understanding of “liberal”:

Liberal — The American Heritage Dictionary:

Adjective
a. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian
attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.

b. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and
tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

c. Of, relating to, or characteristic of liberalism.

The synonym of liberal as defined by Heritage is Progressive —

1- Moving forward; advancing.
2- Proceeding in steps; continuing steadily by increments: progressive
change. Promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies,
ideas, or methods.

For an excellent American historical, though outdated, example see:
Progressive Platform of 1924

For today See:The Political Perspective of the Democratic Socialists of America

I invite you to read and digest the information at those sites and ask
yourself: does this not better reflect your values and aspirations for the world
than the current politics of the Democratic Party and the Corporate State that
owns and controls it?

I believe that it is time for the truly Liberal community to move forward
with Left Progressives and democratic socialists to advance and redefine the US
political agenda; to either abolish or alter the current form of oppressive
government. To that end I am happy to be here.

I guess the commenter who called himself Henry Waxman was really him. I called the number he gave on the comment and got through to someone who emailed me back and said that Mr. Waxman was ready to speak with that morning. Henry represents my district (the 30th) here in Hollywood. I scheduled it for 11 AM this morning. (Wednedsay) I’ll be busy prepping in the morning and will do an audio interview which I will post up here by the afternoon. I did a post on Democratic Underground asking people if they had any questions for him. This is what they asked. If anyone else has any questions leave them here. HL

The democrats could have stopped the war, but no, they decided to keep funding it because they were “afraid” that a country that is 75% against the war would be mad at them for doing what the people put them in there to do. Democrats could have stopped Bush’s illegal surveillance of American Citizens but they didn’t because they were “afraid” that the vast majority of the population who hate Bush would be mad at them for not giving him more power.
Then they took that latest huge check down to the bank and cashed it.

Iraqi Crisis Deepens as 5 More Ministers Quit Cabinet Meetings

Washington Post
ExcerptU.S. Announces Deaths of Nine Soldiers, Four Killed on Monday in Diyala Province

BAGHDAD, Aug. 7 — Iraq’s political crisis deepened Monday as five more ministers withdrew from cabinet meetings, delivering a major blow to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s fractured unity government and efforts to reconcile Iraq’s warring parties.

Hours earlier, a truck bomb in a Shiite village near the northern city of Tall Afar killed 31 people and wounded scores more, striking an area that was once hailed by President Bush and U.S. military commanders as an oasis of stability, following U.S. operations against insurgents there. Six children were among the dead, police said.

The U.S. military also announced the deaths of nine American soldiers, including four killed in an explosion Monday in volatile Diyala province, where U.S. forces are engaged in a major offensive against Sunni insurgents. The blast injured 12 other U.S. soldiers, the military said in a statement.

Tonight’s Debate: A Labor of Love for Democratic Candidates

The American
Excerpt
The Democratic presidential candidates will stand before organized labor tonight at Soldier Field, in a debate sponsored by the AFL-CIO. From a debating perspective, the event will probably be a snoozer, at least when the candidates are discussing the bread and butter issues that are important to the AFL-CIO. (Foreign policy, if it comes up, might be a different matter.)
On merits alone, the most clearly “pro-labor” candidate is John Edwards. Since the end of the last campaign, Edwards has been on a relentless journey to secure labor’s endorsement. His luxurious house and hedge fund gig not withstanding, Edwards walked picket lines with union members, cultivated relationships with key labor leaders, stacked his campaign with former union staffers, and spoken the populist rhetoric that the AFL-CIO craves.

HLs Take
I wonder if anyone will ask the candidates which ones are in favor of repealing NAFTA, and bringing American jobs home instead of sending them to India, and other countries where big buisness can hire people for 6 cents an hour. I wonder what Hilary will say about that. Will she dodge the question like she did last weekend at the blogger convention?

Dubya’s Dudes Dealing, Dodging, and Dancing in Dubai

Huffington Post
Excerpt
I’m still waiting for Congressional investigations to begin into Halliburton’s move to Dubai. Six months ago Halliburton — our leading military contractor in Iraq, thanks largely to no-bid no-look contracts — announced that it was moving its main corporate headquarters and its chief executive from Houston to Dubai.

The apparently hasty move came but a month after Halliburton spun off its military division — KBR — as a separate legal entity and, curiously, about the same time federal investigators started charging that Halliburton, or whatever-the-legal-hair-splitters-now- want-to-call-that-company, had illegally squandered, overcharged, and defrauded U.S. taxpayers out of billions in Iraq.

Just a business move?

Realize that Dubai has become the grand destination for cutthroat corporations seeking to evade domestic taxes and regulations — a Switzerland, Hong Kong, Cayman Islands, and Las Vegas all rolled into one. Plus, Human Rights Watch reports that boomtown Dubai features exploitative and hazardous working conditions that HRW describes as “modern-day slavery.” No corporate taxes, no regulations, no extradition treaties, cheap labor, great golf courses, great beach, great horse track, tallest buildings: such a deal!

Six months ago, leading Democrats demanded an investigation. Should our national security basically be outsourced to Dubai (didn’t we go through this once before with the U.S. ports issue)? Isn’t the re-headquartering, given the war situation and Halliburton’s profitable role in it, just a tad un-American? Should U.S. tax dollars really be flowing into a tax haven? Henry Waxman, Hillary Clinton, Patrick Leahy, Bryon Dorgan, and Charles Schumer all denounced the move and called for investigations. So what happened? Where’s the follow-up?

HLs Take
That will be one of my questions to Henry Waxman if I get to interview him. Apparently Mr. Waxman left a comment on one of my posts telling me to call his LA office for an interview, which I am going to do right now.

“All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.”- Bush 6 years ago. August 6, 2001. After being warned repeatedly that Bin Laden was going to Fly planes into buildings in the US. Then he went on vacation.

Here is a list of the weak, spineless, pathetic, traitorous, paid off Republican shills in democrat clothing who voted to give Bush all the power he ever wanted in regard to warrantless spying on American Citizens. If you live in a state where one of these bastards live. PLEASE make sure you vote against them in the next election. Don’t even let them on the ballot. Get Democrats who are not Bush sack lickers on the ticket, and send these idiots back home never to be heard from again.

Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Salazar (D-CO)
Webb (D-VA)

And where was Barbara Boxer, she didn’t even bother to show up and vote. I’ll give her a pass this time because she has been a pretty good Senator, unlike are other California Senator Dianne Feinstein who might just as well change her party to Republican. John Kerry wasn’t there either. Kerry has been saying all the right things regarding Bush, and the war lately, but now he is enabling Skull & Bones brother Bush, just like he did in the last electionHere are The Democrats who thought that giving Bush all the power in the world just wasn’t important enough to bother. with.

Boxer (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Murray (D-WA)

The Fear of Fear Itself

NY Times
Excerpt
It was appalling to watch over the last few days as Congress — now led by Democrats — caved in to yet another unnecessary and dangerous expansion of President Bush’s powers, this time to spy on Americans in violation of basic constitutional rights. Many of the 16 Democrats in the Senate and 41 in the House who voted for the bill said that they had acted in the name of national security, but the only security at play was their job security.

There was plenty of bad behavior. Republicans marched in mindless lockstep with the president. There was double-dealing by the White House. The director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, crossed the line from being a steward of this nation’s security to acting as a White House political operative.

But mostly, the spectacle left us wondering what the Democrats — especially their feckless Senate leaders — plan to do with their majority in Congress if they are too scared of Republican campaign ads to use it to protect the Constitution and restrain an out-of-control president.

It’s official, we are police state…

At Largely
Excerpt
“This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.” - Plato

Thanks to 40 Democratic members of the House and the Democratic leadership in the Senate, the FISA Absolute Power bill has now passed. I promise you that whatever tiny restriction the Congress managed to put on the Absolute Power bill, the Decider will attach a signing statement to it making sure that that he gets every inch that he pretended to give. This Congress is a disgrace. Compared to the Congress before it, which redefined corruption and took it to whole new levels, the Democratic Congress is the culture of cowardice and compromised people.

Make NO mistake, we are in serious peril when an Attorney General who has subverted the Constitution per request of his boss, lied, obstructed justice, and defended torture, is now in full authority to declare who is going to be a target of warrant-less surveillance. You may not see this as seriously as I do, but then again, you have not lived under a dictatorship to know the difference. Mostly though, the people who failed most, are the citizens of this country - who should have taken to the streets and shut down all commerce, all traffic, and disengaged from the machine of government. You did not shut it down. You did not even try. You waited as your hopes were put entirely in the hands of cowards.

Ron Paul Doubled the vote of the rest of the field combined. How will the Republicans stop this guy. You know they want to.

Vote Who Won The Republican Debate

ABC News

Ron Paul Champions Internet Freedom

Infowars
Excerpt

Presidential candidate Ron Paul has stated in no uncertain terms that he is thoroughly against internet regulation and has spoken out against federal rubric of the web in the week after a bill was passed by the Senate Commerce Committee as a pretext towards implementation of universal filtering on the Internet….

“I believe strongly that the internet should not be regulated by the federal government and believes even more strongly that people should be free to engage in the activities they wish, as long as they are willing to take responsibility for their actions.”

Dodd On Bloggers And Fox News: “You Scare The Hell Out Of These Guys”

Excerpt
Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd sat down with a small group of Progressive bloggers on Saturday at the Yearly Kos conference and, in a 45-minute conversation, discussed Iraq, impeachment, the recent Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) vote and Bill O’Reilly’s rabid attacks on liberal writers and activists…
“There’s a lot of money involved and all of a sudden a growing percentage of people get their information from a very different set of sources,” said Dodd. “One of my theories about O’Reilly… Something tells me, you scare the hell out of these guys….
“You’re a threat to institutions like Fox and Newscorp and others.”

HLs Take
Blog readership keeps going up, while Television news viewership keeps going down. Keep up the whoring ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox. Pretty soon you will be so irrevelant, that all your advertisement money will dry up and you will all be fired.

Democrats allow Bush’s Illegal spying on US citizens to continue….

Democrats’ responsibility for Bush radicalism

Salon

Examine virtually every Bush scandal and it increasingly bears the mark not merely of Democratic capitulation, but Democratic participation. In August of 2006, the Supreme Court finally asserted the first real limit on Bush’s radical executive power theories in Hamdan, only for Congress, months later, to completely eviscerate those minimal limits — and then go far beyond — by enacting the grotesque Military Commissions Act with the support of substantial numbers of Democrats. What began as a covert and illegal Bush interrogation and detention program became the officially sanctioned, bipartisan policy of the United States….

And now Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, with revealing symbolism, cancel their scheduled appearances this morning at Yearly Kos because George Bush ordered them to remain in Washington in order to re-write and expand FISA — a law which he has repeatedly refused to allow to be revised for years and which he has openly and proudly violated. Congressional Democrats know virtually nothing about how the Bush administration has been eavesdropping on our conversations because the administration refused to tell them and they passively accepted this state of affairs.

The intense rush to amend this legislation means that most of them have no idea what they are actually enacting — even less of an idea than they typically have.

Here is a comment on the whole debacle that I like from Blondesense

“The chickens**t Democrats voted to continue sucking Bush! Because they didn’t want blamed if another “attack” happened in this [country] by them bad guys (Cheney and friends) they passed his Hitlerian Spy Bill.

It says that the real terrorists in America are Americans who oppose Bush.
Tell your piece of S**t Representative in D.C. that if you wanted this kind of ass-kissing subservience, you’d have voted Republican.

And I’m sick and tired of hearing Kos and Atrios and Amato telling us to “be nice” when you write or call the chisckens**t Democrats because it works better to be nice! NOT! The Democrats that think we’re being nasty are rationalizing for their own cowardice and capitulation.

At least we KNOW Bush is a prick. Now we know these vermin are just as bad as any Republican.

Let’s start calling them (Democrats) what they are; the equivalent of Ronnie’s a**holes.

To me they are now and forever, Democrats for Bush!
Pricks, Bastards, a$$holes, dipsh**s, traitors….just like Republicans.

Looks like Rove got his ONE PARTY NATION, doesn’t it? Tell your representative piece of shit that. See how they answer!!!”

HLs Take
Well…what can I say Blondesense says it all, just like I have been for years

7 of the 8 Democratic candidates for President spoke at the Yearly Kos convention yesterday in Chicago. In the debate style setting all Candidates except Joe Biden were present. During the forum John Edwards, and Barack Obama spoke of no longer accepting donations from Washington DC lobbyists. Hilary dodged the issue until later when she was asked point blank if she would continue to accept lobbyist money, her answer: ‘Yes I will continue to accept lobbyist money because they represent real people. At that point the audience of close to 1500 began to boo, hiss and laugh at Ms. Clinton.

Democrats court liberal bloggers

AP

Nonetheless, the bloggers booed and hissed when Clinton insisted a moment later that nobody would believe that she could be influenced by lobbyists’ money. So would she continue to accept those donations?

“Yes, I will,” she said, arguing that plenty of lobbyists represent good causes. “They represent nurses, they represent social workers, they represent, yes, they represent corporations that employ a lot of people.”

Obama rejected that argument, saying Clinton should know better because special interest money helped sink her health care package in 1993. The crowd cheered wildly….

Again and again, Edwards took swipes at Clinton. On terrorism, he said: “I don’t believe we’re safer. I don’t agree with Sen. Clinton on that.” In a previous debate, Clinton had said the country had been made safer.

Clinton explained Saturday that while post-9/11 reforms have improved the nation’s safety, the country is not as safe under President Bush as it should be. “I listened carefully to John. I think we have a vigorous agreement,” she said, coldly.

Heres another Hilary quote on the same story from Huffington Post.

Senator Clinton tried to clarify her statement by asking the audience to look at her history. “I don’t think that based on my 35 years fighting for what I believe in, that anybody thinks I’m going to be influenced by a lobbyist.”

HLs Take
Yes they will Hillary, (or should I call you Ms. AIPAC) yes they will. Another reason why Dennis Kucinich is the only real Democratic candidate for President. I didn’t get a chance to attend the convention in Chicago because unlike Daily Kos, I am not able to charge $9000 for one weeks advertisements, and am not rich like Kos. Funny how Hilary buys those 9 grand ads on his site, and despite the fact that they continue to slam her. As my good friend Bartcop pointed out. ‘Funny how the two biggest liberal blogs on the Internet are owned by former Republicans’. Kos was a member of the Reagan Youth, he was also in the military and according to one rumor I read may have been in the CIA. The other big blog Huffington Post is owned by Ariana Huffington, who used to be a member of the right wing Republican noise machine. Her husband was some sort of Republican congressman, until she divorced him when she found out he was gay. (what a surprise a closeted gay Republican) I consider both of these blogs to be “mainstream” or moderate. Yes they trumpet democratic causes but they always seem to mute there criticism
of the Dems whenever they do something like bow to Republican will even though they have a majority in congress. If you want a real blog for liberals, stick to people like Bart, and of course your old pal HL

HL is proud to welcome a new advertiser. It is Michael O’ Mc Carthy and his new book Rebels In Hell

The boy, from the United States whose radical father is murdered by right wing hit men; the girl fleeing from the rape and beating by her Mexican, landowner step-father. The boy, rising to become a revolutionary rock and roll guitarist know as Coilean, La Artista; the girl know as Petra, in honor of the great Mexican female revolutionary who fought with Villa.
Around them rose the tens of thousands. Together they are rebels in love leading a rebellion in the midst of Hell.

Excerpt of Book Review by The Hartford Advocate
Michael O’McCarthy proves himself to be a polemical fictionalist in the mold of Orwell and Huxley. Take his protagonist, Healy, an idealistic writer whose ire was “focused on the politicians who had stolen the country for the rich.” Hmmmm. Sounds familiar. Healy’s foil is Miguel, the assassin for hire who learned his craft (extremely well!) in the U.S. Marines.

Though O’McCarthy’s novel is set in the near future, with the “3rd Petroleum War” in full swing, the tale is as timely as this week’s headlines from Iraq and Afghanistan and as old as the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.

Order the book at Amazon, or Go to the site to read more

Four More U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq

AP
Excerpt
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Four U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Friday, underlining U.S. President George W. Bush’s grim prediction of “a very difficult August” for U.S. troops in Iraq.

The military said a roadside bomb killed three soldiers on patrol in eastern Baghdad on Thursday during operations targeting Shi’ite and Sunni militants. Eleven others were wounded. A fourth soldier died in combat in a western district.

HLs Take
That brings the official total of our soldiers killed for Bush’s folly to 3665. You know the actual total is much higher. Longer deployments, and more tours lead to more stress which leads to…

Marine convicted of murdering Iraqi man

AP
Excerpt
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - A Marine Corps squad leader was convicted Thursday of murdering an Iraqi man during a frustrated search for an insurgent.

Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, 23, also was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, making a false official statement and larceny…
Prosecutors said that during a nighttime patrol in Hamdania, Iraq, in April 2006, Hutchins’ squad hatched a plan to kidnap and kill a suspected insurgent from his house. When they couldn’t find him, they instead kidnapped a man from a neighboring house, dragged him to a hole and shot him….
Prosecutors said squad members tried to cover up the killing by planting a shovel and AK-47 by his body to make it look like he was an insurgent planting a bomb.
Several witnesses testified the plot was born out of frustration after suspected insurgents kept evading prosecution.

by HL
That bridge that collapsed in Minnesota the other day, had been inspected and cracks were reported last year. See Video of Bridge Collapsing Here So why was nothing done about it? One reason might be that when our Govenrment spends $200 Billion, on a useless war that it is losing anyway, there is a lot less money to go around here at home. Bush long ago took funding that was supposed to go to the states for things like..oh, infastructure, and road repair, and funneled it back to his pals in the military industrial complex, so they could make more bombs, and guns, so we could kill more innocent iraqi’s. Democrats use money for things we need here, Republicans use it for fighting wars. This is not the first time that a bridge has collapsed in The US in recent history. There have been several, and everyone happened while a Republican was in the whitehouse. Here is a list from Scholars and Rogues

• The Mianus River Bridge on Interstate 95 in Greenwich, Connecticut.
• I-90 bridge over the Schoharie Creek in New York.
• I-88 over Carr’s Creek in New York.
• I-787 ramp partial collapse in downtown Albany.
• The Silver Bridge connecting West Virginia and Ohio.
• And while this was a bridge under construction instead of an older one, the irony of this week’s collapse in California (reported by FAUX, even) makes for good irony.

Like Hurricane Katrina this is one more way for Bush to tell the American people ‘hey you got a problem don’t come to me, I’m just here to steal all your tax money and put it into my never ending wars. You gotta drive a car over a bridge, tough luck, get out and swim across if you are afraid’

And Just to prove Bush wants to cut even more money out of domestic spending to put into war.

Bush budget puts pinch on domestic spending Boosts war fund, hits healthcare

Just one more reason to impeach now. Don’t forget we are just one more big Hurricane away from Martial Law, if Bush wants it.

Speaking of Hurricane Katrina. Looks like Insurance companies just got bailed out of paying off about a Billion Dollars. A judge just said that they don’t have to pay off damage caused by Katrina. Gotta love those Insurance companies. They are the biggest bastards in the world. They will do ANYTHING to not have to pay off, when they should after you paid those premiums all those years and got nothing for it. Why bother having Insurance if they are not going to cover you?

Katrina Victims Lose in Appeals Court

AP
Excerpt

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Hurricane Katrina victims whose homes and businesses were destroyed when floodwaters breached levees in the 2005 storm cannot recover money from their insurance companies for the damages, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The case could affect thousands of rebuilding residents and business owners in Louisiana. Robert Hartwig, chief economist at the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute in New York, said in June that a ruling against the industry could have cost insurers $1 billion.

“This event was excluded from coverage under the plaintiffs’ insurance policies, and under Louisiana law, we are bound to enforce the unambiguous terms of their insurance contracts as written,” Judge Carolyn King wrote for a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Seems like Bush is blowing up the infrastructure in Iraq, as well as right here in the US. After 4 years over there. They still have no electricity for part of the day almost every day, and they are without running water a great deal of the time. Yep sounds like the work of the disaster Monkey to me. Way to win the hearts and minds George. So how long do you suppose it’s going to be before that starts happening here? And you know it will, The privatization of water resources has already begun. If you want to control a population, take away their water. After a couple of days of going thirsty they will do pretty much anything you want. Lets not forget, global warming causes drought. Less rain means less water that the peasants can drink for free.

Water taps run dry in Baghdad

AP
Excerpt
BAGHDAD - Much of the Iraqi capital was without running water Thursday and had been for at least 24 hours, compounding the urban misery in a war zone and the blistering heat at the height of the Baghdad summer.

Residents and city officials said large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days because the already strained electricity grid cannot provide sufficient power to run water purification and pumping stations.

Baghdad routinely suffers from periodic water outages, but this one is described by residents as one of the most extended and widespread in recent memory. The problem highlights the larger difficulties in a capital beset by violence, crumbling infrastructure, rampant crime and too little electricity to keep cool in the sweltering weather more than four years after the U.S.-led invasion

Speaking of Water, (Isn’t it funny how all these stories interconnect) The house approved by a margin of 381-40, the Water Resources Development Act. The Senate Vote is going to be equally strongly in favor of with Senators from the most liberal Barbara Boxer, to the most conservative (Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma) on the same side. But, guess what Bush wants to do?
Veto it.

Setting the Stage for More Katrinas

Time
Excerpt

Once again, it’s President Bush against just about everyone else. This time, he’s vowing to veto the Water Resources Development Act, a wildly popular collection of 940 Army Corps of Engineers projects, including $3.5 billion for post-Katrina Louisiana and $2 billion for the Florida Everglades. Archliberal Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer of California and archconservative ranking Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma can’t agree on the color of the sky, but they’re both pledging to override a veto.

HLs Take
Time argues that until the Army Corps of Engineers,who they blame for the levee collapse, is fixed of their stunning incompetence, that there is no point in giving them money to fix anything.
Come on guys, lets get realistic. Bush loves stunning incompetence. He has based his career on it. Bush wants the Corps of Engineers, and FEMA (heck of a job Brownie) screwing up as much as possible.

Old Flipflopper McCain is at it again. Back on March 2nd we did a comic called John McCain Flipflopping with Disaster A small sampling.

“McCain has been for Bush’s immigration program, (and everything else Bush is for, yet he still wonders why his campaign is DOA) Of course those ever so tolerant Republicans have crucified him for it. So what does Johnny boy do? He pulls a 180 on his immigration policy. Now he wants to kick those ‘greasy wetbacks’ right the hell out of here. Straight across the Mexican border.

McCain changes course on immigration

AP
Excerpt

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday backed a scaled-down proposal that imposes strict rules to end illegal immigration but doesn’t include a path to citizenship.

The move away from a comprehensive measure is an about-face for the Arizona senator, who had been a leading GOP champion of a bill that included a guest worker program and would have legalized many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. It failed earlier this year….
Observers said McCain’s switch was political. “He recognizes his position on the issue is killing him,” said Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors vigorous immigration enforcement.

HLs Take
Way to stand up for your principles John. Just like you did in 2000 when Bush lied and said you fathered a baby by a black Crack Ho. It was a lie of course, but what did you do John? You made out with Bush because you thought it would help you get the nomination. What does that make you John? Oh yeah a whore. Just like you were back on July 26, 2005.

Looks like Fred Thompson is having as much trouble raising money as McCain. The Republicans are in so much S**t right now, none of them can raise any money worth a damn. So if it’s not going to be Thompson or McCain, who? Romney? or will Ron Paul continue to rise up, and get these corrupt criminals out of the election completely?

Fred Thompson Will Drop Out

Newsmax
Excerpt

Let’s take the beginning of August to step back and examine some political developments: 1) Fred Thompson — before he has even announced his candidacy — is beset with difficulties. He did not raise the amount of money his backers expected for his Exploratory Committee, and this should be easy because the first money a candidate raises is from his closest supporters, past donors and associates. The fact that he couldn’t even meet his own internal goal of $5 million (he raised about $3.5 million) shows big trouble for Thompson. He has already had a major staff shake-up, further evidence of a troubled campaign, and he hasn’t even announced his candidacy yet!

33 Down, 502 to go.

33 Congress Members for Impeachment

AP
Excerpt

Congress is taking the next month off. Congress Members will be in their districts. They’ll be near your house. They have offices near your house. Now is the time to ask them to cosponsor H Res 333 or introduce their own articles of impeachment against Cheney. If they agree to cosponsor H Res 333, you should contact Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s office and let him know. If they do not agree, you should make a bunch of big posters that say “Honk to Impeach” and stand on the street corner in front of your Congress Member’s office. Or you should sit in their office, read the Constitution out loud, and refuse to leave. August is your time to make your message clear. 54% of Americans want Cheney impeached, and 40% do not. See how many of that 54% you can bring with you to your representative’s office.

HLs Take
I called the office of my congressman Henry Waxman a couple of weeks ago to request an interview with the HL, I was told to leave my number (yeah I haven’t heard that before) and they would get back to me. I insisted on calling back, and the second time was told the same thing. So I left my number, imagine my surprise when I didn’t get a call back. Is that why I voted for him, to be ignored? I realize that Henry is a busy man what with him single handedly busting the Republicans for all the corruption that went on for the last 7 years, but his appointment secretary could have called back. I will be on the phone with this person whose name is Karen Lightfoot (or something like that) again. I want Henry on here. I got some questions for him.

Rumsfeld was asked whether he had any contact with Whitehouse about the case before it became public knowledge. Guess what his answer was, never mind because you couldn’t possibly guess if I gave you 100 chances. Ok you know what he said? “I Don’t Recall.” He also didn’t recall when he first heard about Tillman’s death, or what he had for breakfast this morning.

Rumsfeld: No cover-up in Tillman’s death

Time
Excerpt

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday there was no evidence of a cover-up of the circumstances of Army Ranger Cpl. Pat Tillman’s death.

“I know that I would not engage in a cover-up. I know that no one in the White House suggested such a thing to me,” Rumsfeld testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is examining what senior Defense Department officials knew about Tillman’s April 2004 death by friendly fire and when they knew it.

Tillman’s parents, brother and widow attended the hearing.

Rumsfeld said he was sure Tillman’s family felt “great sorrow at their son’s death” and “the handling of the circumstances could only have added to the pain of losing a loved one. I offer … my deep regrets.”