The Hollywood Liberal

President of the Christian Action League, 74, Is Arrested after Allegedly Paying Hooker with Checks

Pensito Review
Excerpt:
Privette on two occasions allegedly paid the prostitute with checks then reported the checks stolen.

Rev. Coy Privette, the president of the Christian Action League, a North Carolina ultraconservative Christian political organization based in Raleigh, has been arrested for soliciting prostitution:…

The Christian Action League is funded by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, and it is affiliated with the ultra-rightwing American Family Association.

For over three decades, Privette has been one of the best known and most outrageous spokesmen for “family values” and Christian extreme right politics in North Carolina. In the 1970s, he was serving as minister at the North Kannapolis Baptist Church when he joined the tide of evangelicals entering politics that included the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition. He served in the N.C. Legislature from 1984 to 1992, and has been a member of the board of commissioners in Cabarrus County since 1998.

He and his wife, Betty, have four children.

HLs Take
The more they preach family values, the more likely it is they are seeing prostitutes, or doing young boys. Like Shakespere said, thou dost protest to much…

Paul Craig Roberts former Reagan cabinet member was interviewed on the Thom Hartman show on Air America yesterday. Roberts who wrote an article on July 16, called “Impeach Now Or Face the End of Constitutional Democracy, states that we are in serious danger of Bush imposing martial law, in the US based on a new Executive Order he recently signed. All it would take is another 9/11. Michael Chertoff’s gut is telling him that L.A. and San Francisco could be hit with “dirty bombs” simultaneously. That’s a pretty specific gut feeling. If he’s right, they you know that they were behind it. Here is the audio interview in Quicktime. Takes a minute to load.

Radio Interview with Paul Craig Roberts

WARNING: A Real Dictatorship Coming!

Daily Kos
Excerpt:
I have never in my 50 years of life been more frightened then I am now. I have seen the arrogance of this White House and the massive damage done to our country. But the Katrina-size storm clouds are gathering folks. If we do not wake up now and flood Congress to impeach the President and Vice President, one year from now, Daily Kos may be banned and Markos himself may be disappeared, in a federal prison somewhere.

Even as I write these words I feel like a wild-eyed nutcase. If it were not for the OH SO REAL danger this country faces in the next 15 months or so as the people in power see their own doom and are determined to prevent their expulsion from power by suspending next year’s elections and declaring martial law WHEN the next 9/11 comes or events that can be construed as a national emergency to “justify” such actions, I would be holding my tongue and crossing my fingers.

I know that the readers on Daily Kos are all too aware of the evil intent of the Bush regime, but I fear even they, even you, are not alarmed enough. I fear you, like me until now, are hoping we can get through the next 15 months or so and throw the bums out in the 2008 election and hope that we avoid war with Iran and another 9/11.

FEMA Concentration Camps: Locations and Executive Orders

Mindfully.org
Excerpt:
There over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general’s signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached. Ask yourself if you really want to be on Ashcroft’s list. The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a “mass exodus” of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA. Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned into prisons.

Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are the two sub programs which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose. Garden Plot is the program to control the population. Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments by the federal government. FEMA is the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up all operations. The Presidential Executive Orders already listed on the Federal Register also are part of the legal framework for this operation.

The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport nearby. The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000 prisoners. Currently, the largest of these facilities is just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaskan facility is a massive mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people.

Broader Privilege Claimed In Firings

Washington Post
Excerpt:

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

The position presents serious legal and political obstacles for congressional Democrats, who have begun laying the groundwork for contempt proceedings against current and former White House officials in order to pry loose information about the dismissals.

Under federal law, a statutory contempt citation by the House or Senate must be submitted to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, "whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action."

But administration officials argued yesterday that Congress has no power to force a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges in cases, such as the prosecutor firings, in which the president has declared that testimony or documents are protected from release by executive privilege. Officials pointed to a Justice Department legal opinion during the Reagan administration, which made the same argument in a case that was never resolved by the courts.

"A U.S. attorney would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case," said a senior official, who said his remarks reflect a consensus within the administration. "And a U.S. attorney wouldn’t be permitted to argue against the reasoned legal opinion that the Justice Department provided. No one should expect that to happen."

HL’s Take
Even if Democrats do bring contempt of congress charges. The person in charge of handling is none other then Alberto “Torture Boy” Gonzalez. Yeah like he’s going to stand up for the law.
The only way to stop Bush now is impeachment. Congress has shown repeatedly that they are not going to do that. See below for the story about how congress voted 100 to 0 to allow Bush to impose martial law in the event of the next disaster. Isn’t Hurricane season coming soon, or another staged terrorist attack. Mikey Chertoff can feel it in his gut afterall.

Old-line Republican warns ‘something’s in the works’ to trigger a police state

Raw Story
Excerpt:

Thom Hartmann began his program on Thursday by reading from a new Executive Order which allows the government to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies.

He then introduced old-line conservative Paul Craig Roberts — a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan who has recently become known for his strong opposition to the Bush administration and the Iraq War — by quoting the “strong words” which open Roberts’ latest column: “Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.”

“I don’t actually think they’re very strong,” said Roberts of his words. “I get a lot of flak that they’re understated and the situation is worse than I say. … When Bush exercises this authority [under the new Executive Order] … there’s no check to it. It doesn’t have to be ratified by Congress. The people who bear the brunt of these dictatorial police state actions have no recourse to the judiciary. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man rule. … The American people don’t really understand the danger that they face.”

Working for the Clampdown

Z Magazine
Excerpt:
How many pipe bombs might it take to end U.S. democracy? Far fewer than it would have taken a year ago. The Defense Authorization Act of 2006, passed on September 30, empowers President George W. Bush to impose martial law in the event of a terrorist “incident” or if he or other federal officials perceive a shortfall of “public order” or even in response to antiwar protests that get unruly as a result of government provocations.

The media and most of Capitol Hill ignored or cheered on this grant of nearly boundless power. But now that the president’s arsenal of authority is swollen and consecrated, a few voices of complaint are being heard. Even the New York Times recently condemned the new law for “making martial law easier….”

Section 1076 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 changed the name of the key provision in the statute book from Insurrection Act to Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act. The Insurrection Act of 1807 stated that the president could deploy troops within the United States only “to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.” The new law expands the list to include “natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition”—and such “con- dition” is not defined or limited.

These new pretexts are even more expansive than they appear. FEMA proclaims the equivalent of a natural disaster when bad snowstorms occur and Congress routinely proclaims a natural disaster when there is a shortfall of rain in states with upcoming elections. A terrorist “incident” could be something as stupid as the flashing toys scattered around Boston last fall.

The new law also empowers the president to commandeer the National Guard of one state to send to another state for up to 365 days. Bush could send the New York National Guard to disarm the residents of Mississippi if they resisted a federal law that prohibited private ownership of semiautomatic weapons. Governors’ control of the National Guard can be trumped with a simple presidential declaration.

The story of how Section 1076 became law demonstrates how expanding government power is almost always the correct answer in Washington. Some people have claimed the provision was slipped into the bill in the middle of the night. In reality, the Administration signaled its intent and almost no one in the media or Congress tried to stop it.

The Katrina debacle appears to have drowned Washington’s resistance to military rule. Bush declared, “I want there to be a robust discussion about the best way for the federal government, in certain extreme circumstances, to be able to rally assets for the good of the people.”

His initial proposal generated only a smattering of criticism and there was no “robust discussion.” On August 29, 2006, the Administration upped the ante, labeling the breached levees “the equivalent of a weapon of mass effect being used on the city of New Orleans.” Nobody ever defined a “weapon of mass effect,” but the term wasn’t challenged.

Section 1076 was supported by both conservatives and liberals. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), the ranking Democratic member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, co-wrote the provision, along with committee chair Sen. John Warner (R-VA). Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) openly endorsed it and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), then-chair of the House Armed Services Committee, was an avid proponent.

HL’s Take
This is a very important article, you should click through and read the whole thing. Is the next 9/11 being set up as we speak. A lot of signs are pointing that way.

They all love the war, but none of them want to fight in it. I guess they’d rather be on the other end, getting rich off it, like Bush, Cheney, and the gang. Check out these pathetic weasles.

Bill Clinton criticizes Bush on Iraq

AP
Excerpt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former President Bill Clinton on Thursday criticized President George W. Bush’s administration for failing in Iraq, saying their was no evidence of much-needed political or diplomatic progress.

“The point is, that there is no military victory here,” he said in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America.

“There is no evidence that, whether we have a good day in a particular community or region in Iraq, that we have either the political reconciliation process within the country working or any diplomatic process that’s got a chance to help with the neighbors,” the former Democratic president said.

So, a new report that just came out is saying that Al Qaeda, is stronger now then it ever was. Whaat?, So we have been fighting them for the last 6 years and they are stronger now. What does that say about us, and the people in charge of fighting Al Qaeda. Failure
Bush has once again failed us, failed the military, and made the whole nation look like fools. Now this is all perfect news to Bush who wants Al Qaeda to be stronger then ever so we have to fight them forever. The longer the wars last the richer he gets. it’s as simple as that. So we go into Afghanistan to fight AQ and Bin Laden. We let Bin Laden get away at Tora Bora, the reason has still never been explained especially since Bush got up on that pile of rubble and promised to bring him in dead or alive. That was one of many Bush lies that the Republicans give him a pass on.

Intelligence Puts Rationale For War on Shakier Ground

Washington Post
Excerpt

The White House faced fresh political peril yesterday in the form of a new intelligence assessment that raised sharp questions about the success of its counterterrorism strategy and judgment in making Iraq the focus of that effort.

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush has been able to deflect criticism of his counterterrorism policy by repeatedly noting the absence of any new domestic attacks and by citing the continuing threat that terrorists in Iraq pose to U.S. interests.

So Bush decides that the country that is harboring Al Qaeda, is not as important as a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. Iraq is much more important in the war on terror, not only that, but “Saddam tried to take out my dad,” and lets not forget about the oil. So here we are 6 years later, AQ is flourishing in Pakistan (or are they? the whole story sounds to me like a BS attempt to try to divert from the fact that even Republicans are now defecting from Bush and his endless war policy.) and there are now AQ in Iraq when there wasn’t before. Somewhere the Failure Monkey peels a bananna and lets out a hearty laugh.

Confronted with a political brush fire, the president and his aides retreated to familiar ground, highlighting the parts of the report that they saw as supportive of their policies, particularly the need to confront Islamic radicals on the ground in Iraq.

In talking with reporters in the Oval Office yesterday, Bush concentrated on a single paragraph in the assessment that placed the enemy in Iraq in a larger context of international terrorism. The estimate said bin Laden’s organization will “probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al-Qa’ida in Iraq, its most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the Homeland.”