The Hollywood Liberal

A couple of days ago we posted the story of Blackwater being kicked out of Iraq. I speculated that it would not take very long at all until they are allowed back in. It only took 3 days, not bad. Once again HL predicts the future successfully. I should have done a comic about it. HL’s Comics has successfully predicted the future dozens of times.

US resumes Blackwater convoys in Iraq

AP
Excerpt
BAGHDAD – American convoys under the protection of Blackwater USA resumed on Friday, four days after the U.S. Embassy suspended all land travel by its diplomats and other civilian officials in response to the alleged killing of civilians by the security firm.

A top aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had earlier conceded it may prove difficult for the Iraqi government to follow through on threats to expel Blackwater and other Western security contractors

HL’s Take
Of course it will be difficult to expel Blackwater. Bush is the king of the world thanks to the Democrats. He gets what he wants when he wants it. Erik Prince the head of Blackwater is good friends with Bush’s father, together they are making Billions. No one is going to stop that.

The only guy who can help out Americans with the right health plan is the only guy not allowed to debate it.

AARP to Kucinich: Drop Dead

Counterpunch
Excerpt
AARP President Bill Novelli is a company man. No, the company is not AARP.

Novelli doesn’t give a damn about AARP or its 38 million members.

If he did, he wouldn’t be selling down them down river by opposing a single payer system that would benefit not just AARP members, but everyone in the country.

Novelli doesn’t give a damn about the health of the nation. What he cares about are the health insurance companies.

Novelli a founder of the giant Porter Novelli corporate public relations firm jumped to AARP in 2000. But he never shed his corporate skin.

Case in point?

On Thursday night, AARP will host a debate in Iowa on the issue of health care. Republicans and Democrats running for President will attend.

Of all of the Democrats and Republicans in the race, guess who is the only one who would put the Novelli’s buddies in the health insurance industry out of business?

Guess who is the only candidate among the Democrats and Republicans who would create a Canadian-style single payer, everybody in, nobody out, no deductibles, no co-pays, no in-network, no out-of-network, streamlined system that would save billions of dollars in administrative costs, deliver a higher quality health care system, and cover everyone?

Yes.

And guess who was not invited to confront Novelli’s corporate brotherhood of profit and death?

You guessed it. Congressman Dennis Kucinich.

Why?

Well, Kucinich would put out of business Novelli’s corporate support system including United Healthcare and Aetna.

Republican Senators Setting New Records for Filibustering
Washington Monthly

Excerpt
GOP FILIBUSTERS….I see that Republicans have successfully filibustered two more bills today: one to give a House seat to the District of Columbia (57-42) and one to restore habeas corpus rights to terrorism suspects (56-43).

That seems like a good excuse to rerun this chart that McClatchy put together a couple of months ago. As you can see, Republicans aren’t just obstructing legislation at normal rates. They’re obstructing legislation at three times the usual rate. They’re absolutely desperate to keep this stuff off the president’s desk, where the only choice is to either sign it or else take the blame for a high-profile veto.

As things stand, though, Republicans will largely avoid blame for their tactics. After all, the first story linked above says only that the DC bill “came up short in the Senate” and the second one that the habeas bill “fell short in the Senate.” You have to read with a gimlet eye to figure out how the vote actually broke down, and casual readers will come away thinking that the bills failed because of some kind of generic Washington gridlock, not GOP obstructionism.

HL’s Take
Of course they wined like babies needing a diaper change when the Democrats tried to use it to block Harriet Miers, and a couple of other times. That is until the spineless democrats agreed not to use the filibuster anymore. Remember that, I think we did a comic about it back on May 24, 2005

     

CEOs, Bush Rangers Rebuff Republicans on War, Widening Deficit
AP

Excerpt
Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — Dozens of corporate executives who backed President George W. Bush for re-election in 2004, including some of his top fund-raisers, are now helping Democrats running for president.

John Mack, chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley, Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., and Terry Semel, chairman of Yahoo! Inc., are among some 60 executives writing checks to Democrats such as Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, a review of U.S. Federal Election Commission records shows.

While the vast majority of business leaders still back Republicans for 2008, the stature of some of those donating to Democrats suggests that support may be eroding, seven years into the Bush presidency. Some executives expressed concern over Republican positions on issues ranging from the war in Iraq and stem-cell research to global warming and the fiscal deficit.

The shift in political-spending patterns is “very unusual,” says Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a Washington-based group that advocates campaign-finance reform.

“Normally, if you have dissatisfaction with the administration, you figure out who in your own party you’ll support in the next election,” he says. “You don’t look at other parties.”

The Democratic victory in last November’s congressional elections may have also sparked greater interest in the party. “Money tends to follow people who have power,” Wertheimer says.

`Strong Asset’

Bush sounded unconcerned yesterday that he might adversely affect Republican chances next year. Asked at a White House news conference if he were “an asset or liability” to members of his party seeking election, he replied, “Strong asset.”

Nonetheless, some of his strongest supporters are wavering — or at least hedging their bets

HL’s Take
So some of these top Bush supporters of 2004 are now supporting Democrats. So what has changed since 2004? Republicans were for never ending war then, they still are now. They were for looting the US Treasury then, and they still are now. So why are these big donors giving their money to Democrats now? instead of Republicans? Is it because the Democrats and Republicans are now different? They know that either way the corporate plundering of everything America used to stand for will continue either way. They just look better being agaisnt the biggest failure monkey ever to occupy the Whitehouse.

History Will Not Absolve Us: Leaked Red Cross report sets up Bush team for international war-crimes trial

Excerpt
If and when there’s the equivalent of an international Nuremberg trial for the American perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Guantánamo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the CIA’s secret prisons, there will be mounds of evidence available from documented international reports by human-rights organizations, including an arm of the European parliament-as well as such deeply footnoted books as Stephen Grey’s Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program (St. Martin’s Press) and Charlie Savage’s just-published Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy (Little, Brown).

While the Democratic Congress has yet to begin a serious investigation into what many European legislators already know about American war crimes, a particularly telling report by the International Committee of the Red Cross has been leaked that would surely figure prominently in such a potential Nuremberg trial. The Red Cross itself is bound to public silence concerning the results of its human-rights probes of prisons around the world-or else governments wouldn’t let them in.

HL’s Take
Of course the Democratic congress has yet to begin a serious investigation. They will never begin any kind of investigation, that is because they are just as guilty as Bush in letting this lie fest continue for over 4 years. The Democrats have the power to stop the War, they just choose not too. The Democrats have the power to stop Bush, they just choose not to. The Democrats could listen to the people that voted them in. They just choose not to.

Federal Approval To Travel WITHIN The US Soon?

Excerpt
Buried in the September 5 issue of the Federal Register, was a notice that Thursday, September 20, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) will hold public hearings on their so-called Secure Flight Plan.

Come with me into a nightmare world where American citizens will have to obtain permission from the government before they can travel by air in the U.S. Your government (meaning the Department of Homeland Security) is up to no good.

Beginning in February 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will implement their ¨Advance Passenger Information System (APIS),¨ the gist of which is that you will need permission from the United States Government to travel on any air or sea vessel that goes to, from or through the U.S. The travel companies will not be able to issue a boarding pass until you are cleared by DHS. This applies to ALL passengers, US citizens and visitors alike. And how do you get said permission to travel? That´s for your government to know and you to never find out.

HL’s Take
Pretty soon they will just outlaw leaving your home except to go to work, and for alloted shopping time. That would make the cops jobs much easier and give them much more time to harrass innocent citizens. Cities could save lots of money by laying off all those extra cops, who could then go to Iraq to fight the never ending war.

U.S. military cemetery running out of space

Excerpt
OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (Reuters) – A Kansas military cemetery has run out of space after the burial of another casualty of the Iraq war, officials said on Thursday.

“We are full,” said Alison Kohler, spokeswoman for the Fort Riley U.S. Army post, home of the 1st Infantry Division.

HL’s Take
Hey, a cheaper and easier way to alleviate the problem would be to just end the war already.

U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Kansas Republicans, on Thursday sent a letter to William Tuerk, the under secretary for memorial affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, urging for full funding for a new cemetery for Fort Riley.

Next time you go camping in a US National park, make sure you don’t take a leak outside the outhouses or speak any dissent against the US Government. The agents who control the Forest’s may grab you, hold you down and administer 50,000 volts of electricity to your ass while you yell out “No don’t Taze me bro”

United States Forest Service Purchases 700 TASER X26 Electronic Control Devices

CNN
Excerpt

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 19, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) — TASER International, Inc. (Nasdaq:TASR), a market leader in advanced electronic control devices, today announced that it received an order from the United States Forest Service for 700 TASER(r) X26 electronic control devices and related accessories.

“We are excited about this new additional federal agency purchasing TASER technology to protect life,” said Tom Smith, Chairman and Founder of TASER international. “Traditionally, we have focused law enforcement sales at the local and state level, but we are now seeing acceptance of TASER technology at various federal law enforcement agencies.”

“We have seen a continual marked increase in TASER technology purchases at the federal level following our initial U.S. military approval of a five-year indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract. We are proud that law enforcement within the Departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Interior, and Agriculture are now relying on TASER devices to protect life.”

HL’s Take
As you may know Tazers have already killed something like 500 people, they are not non-lethal weapons.

Here is another edition of Republican Hypocrisy News of The Day.

Sheriff: U.S. prosecutor in child sex sting attempts suicide

Herald Tribune
Excerpt

DETROIT — A Republican federal prosecutor from Florida who authorities say flew to Michigan for a sexual encounter with a 5-year-old girl tried to hang himself in his jail cell Thursday but was stopped in time, the sheriff said.

John D.R. Atchison, 53, used a sheet in an attempted hanging around 4 a.m., said Sanilac County Sheriff Virgil Strickler.

Another inmate yelled out to jailers, who kept Atchison from hurting himself, Strickler said.

The married father of three is an assistant U.S. attorney based in Pensacola, Fla., and president of a youth sports association in Gulf Breeze.

HL’s Take
Bush fires good Federal Prosecutors for not trying to railroad good Democrats, but this POS is fine and dandy with the Bush administration because he is just like them.