The Hollywood Liberal

According to the mainstream media, Barack Obama is about to pull off the big upset and defeat Hillary Clinton. Obama is bringing in most of his money through small donations from everyday people like you and me. Hillary on the other hand is supported by the super rich corporate elite who are invested in keeping the status quo. And of course the one of the biggest donors of all are members of AIPAC. (The American Israeli Political Action Committee) Now I have heard that both Obama, and Clinton are taking money from AIPAC but apparently Ms. Clinton is taking a lot more. Hillary’s campaign is going broke and she has had to go back for even more money. Of course that means that if she wins she is going to owe them big time, and you know what that means. It means that the status quo will be preserved, more corporatism, and less for the people, it also means that Israel will be running our foreign policy. AIPAC is worried that Obama with his ability to raise money without them may not do like Bush has done, and Clinton will do, that is give them whatever they want. Consortium News Picks up the story

Right now, the front line for the Washington Establishment is Hillary Clinton’s struggling presidential campaign, which has been stunned by Obama’s political skills as well as his extraordinary ability to raise money over the Internet. Obama’s grassroots donations have negated Clinton’s prodigious fundraising advantage with big donors.

Powerful lobbies – from AIPAC to representatives of military and other industries – also are recognizing the value of keeping their dominance over campaign cash from getting diluted by Obama’s deep reservoir of small donors. It’s in their direct interest to dent Obama’s momentum and demoralize his rank-and-file supporters as soon as possible.

On Feb. 25, the New York Times’ new neocon columnist William Kristol attacked Obama’s patriotism by citing the Illinois senator decision to stop wearing an American flag lapel pin because, Obama said, he saw how George W. Bush was exploiting the flag to stampede the nation toward war with Iraq.

“You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin,” Obama said when asked about his lack of a flag pin in October 2007. “As we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.”

In a column entitled “It’s All About Him,” Kristol mocked this explanation as an example of both Obama’s dubious claim to patriotism and his pomposity.

“Leaving aside the claim that ‘speaking out on issues’ constitutes true patriotism,” Kristol wrote. “What’s striking is that Obama couldn’t resist a grandiose explanation. … Moral vanity prevailed. He wanted to explain that he was too good – too patriotic! – to wear a flag pin on his chest.”
One former Israeli official told me that the Israeli government feels it can work with Obama, Clinton or McCain, but that the Israeli lobby in the United States is adamantly opposed to Obama, preferring Clinton because “they own her.” The ex-official said the lobby has some concern, too, with McCain because of his independent streak.

Like other powerful lobbies, AIPAC is threatened by Obama’s ability to raise large sums of money from everyday Americans, thus reducing the need of Washington politicians to hold out their tin cups to AIPAC’s legendary network of wealthy donors.

HL’s Take
If this story is true, then it makes me like Obama a lot more. I don’t know how much money Obama is taking from AIPAC as opposed to Clinton, but it’s time this country stopped taking orders from Israel. We give them Billions of dollars a year in aid, and we are fighting their wars for them. Israel has a deep hatred for Muslims, that’s why we are still in Iraq, that’s why Bush is doing what he can to try to get us into war with Iran, which we would already be in if Israel had it’s way. Fortunately Bush screwed up so badly that he can’t get the support he needs to attack Iran.
I think the people in this country are starting to realize that they need someone to fight for them, and not the big corporations who want to keep things the way they are and even make them worse. I just hope Obama is not a wolf in sheeps clothes who will turn around and do all the same things that Hillary, or Bush would do.

Yesterday we brought you the story of Halliburton/KBR Employees being indicted for war profiteering, today comes the story of a Halliburton employee getting away with rape. Not only was he not arrested, he hasn’t even been fired. After Downing St.org has the story.

Barker has brought charges against Halliburton/KBR claiming that she was sexually assaulted, harassed, and falsely imprisoned while working at Camp Hope in Basra, Iraq. Barker is a military wife and mother of 3 who worked for Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary as an administrative assistant in Iraq while her husband served in the U.S. military. According to ABC News, Barker claims that State Department employee Ali Mokhtare attempted to rape her: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=3998439

“Mokhtare denied that he had attempted to rape her, but admitted that he had gone too far with Tracy, and signed a statement to that effect, which ABC News has obtained. In the document, Mokhtare states he ‘admitted that he pulled her vest and shirt’ and that he asked Barker, ‘What do you have behind there?’ He also says that he ‘made a mistake and it was stupid,’ according to the document. Despite his admission, Mokhtare, a U.S. citizen, still works at the State Department today….

“Mokhtare was a diplomatic official in Basra who first came to Iraq as a Farsi translator interviewing detainees. The U.S. Diplomatic Security Service investigated the allegations against Mokhtare and presented the case to the Justice Department for prosecution, but ‘the case was declined for prosecution’ states the document. Furthermore, investigators requested that the State Department suspend Mokhtare’s security clearance, but according to a handwritten note at the bottom of the document, that request was denied.”

Following the incident, Barker says, Halliburton confined her to a living container where she was constantly watched, including when she used the bathroom. Food was brought to her as if she was a prisoner, and she was denied medical attention and any outside communications. Barker says she was forced several days later to wear the same clothing she’d worn the night of the assault (ordinary pants and a long-sleeved shirt) and paraded through a crowded dining area apparently to humiliate her. This was part of the official investigation, aimed at determining whether she was sexually provocative. At this point she was still be refused medical attention.

Eventually, Barker says, she was able to use a cellphone belonging to National Guardsman Kevin Rodgers. Barker’s husband, 1st Sergeant Galen Barker, says that his wife contacted him through Rodgers. He then tried unsuccessfully to get to Kuwait so that he could rescue his wife from Iraq. Barker continued to be held against her will by Halliburton, and the State Department continued to stall her release. She was eventually rescued by Dr. David Pakkal of the State Department who took her to Kuwait.

When she returned home, Barker spoke out about what she had been through and began pursuing justice through U.S. courts. She says she was the first victim to do so. Several months after returning home, in July of 2005, Barker started receiving phone calls from other Halliburton employees who also alleged sexual harassment and rape while in Iraq. Barker learned that a State Department investigator and a Halliburton employee had given her home phone number out to gang rape victims because they thought Barker could help them.

PHOTO: Stewart Hoffer

Barker says the State Department offered her $3,500 in cash to drop certain charges, but she refused.

Halliburton has requested private arbitration instead of facing a civil suit and claims that this is required by Barker’s employment contract. A judge ruled this month in favor of arbitration, arguing that sexual harassment, including assault, is a reality in today’s workplace. Barker’s attorney Stewart Hoffer is in the process of appealing this order.

Barker was invited to testify before Congress on December 19, 2007, by Congressman Bob Etheridge. Barker’s newborn twins were fighting for their lives, but Barker made the trip to Washington, only to be denied the opportunity to testify.

HL’s Take
Slowly the whole house of cards is coming down, Eventually all the players in this tradegy of a war will face the consequences. Except of course for Bush, and Cheney. They are obviously bulletproof as far as the media, and congress are concerned. Those two could be filmed cutting open live babies and ripping thier hearts out, and the media would still find a way to sugar coat it, and make it seem so grand and noble.

Yesterday I watched one of the Oscar nominated documentaries “No End in Sight” It is basically a history of the Iraq war, It goes over every detail from the planning of the war which started right after 9/11, all the way up to the “surge” which was made possible by the fact that Bush, Rumfeld, and the Iraq Czar L. Paul Bremer refused to listen to anyone who knew what they were talking about in regard to how many troops we sent over there. People like General Shinseki, and Jay Gardiner who was the first Iraq Czar, when Bush found out that Gardiner was actually trying to do some good over there, Bush fired him and replaced him with Bremer, who proceeded to FUBAR’d (A military term meaning F**ked Up Beyond All Recognition)
The film also details how the Bush administration made the worst possible decision at every possible term. The incompetence was so stunning that I feel it had to be intentional. You see they wanted to make sure we were there for as long as possible so they could steal as much money throught the oil as possible.

The movie also highlights all the no bid contracts awarded to Kellog, Brown and Root (aka KBR) which is a subsidiary of Halliburton the company that Dick Cheney used to run and still owns hundreds of thousands of shares of stock in. The actions of KBR were blatantly criminal, and today comes word that 35 KBR execs. have been indicted for war profiteering.

Daily Kos has the story:

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island, Illinois have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show.

And, the dirty little secrets are in free-flow mode

Saturday’s Chicago Tribune tells the sordid tale:

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war’s largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors’ pockets, records show.

(snip)

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Rock Island sentenced the Army official, Chief Warrant Officer Peleti “Pete” Peleti Jr., to 28 months in prison for taking bribes. One Middle Eastern subcontractor treated him to a trip to the 2006 Super Bowl, a defense investigator said.

Prosecutors would not confirm or deny ongoing grand jury activity. But court records identify a dozen FBI, IRS and military investigative agents who have been assigned to the case. Interviews as well as testimony at the sentencing for Peleti, who has cooperated with authorities, suggest an active probe.

The home to the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM), Rock Island, Illinois serves as the epicenter for the ongoing FBI probe into war-profiteering committed by KBR, because it’s here that the Army top brass at the arsenal act as administrators for all contracts awarded to KBR’s so-called LOGCAP III — which calls for the company to feed, shelter and support U.S. troops – while helping to restore Iraq’s oil infrastructure.

“No End in Site” talks about this in depth. I want to see this case go all the way to the top, to the head war profiteers, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bremer, and many more

John McCain thinks he can change America’s mind on Iraq, he thinks he can convince people that the surge is working. McCain just came out and said if he cannot do that he looses. Well guess what Johnny Boy, you lose. There is no way anyone that wasn’t going to vote for you anyway (the harcore 25% that will never admit they were wrong.) is going to believe a word your lying ass has to say about Iraq. The quagmire you helped prolong with your whole “surge” idea. Don’t you think that saying we should stay in Iraq for the next thousand is going to make people know that you are justing fronting for the neocons and the oil companies, and your corporate masters. Hey John did lobbyists pay you to say that. You seem to be pretty far into their pockets. C’mon John, even Hillary says the war has to end. You better find a way to steal a bunch of states in the election John otherwise you got no chance.

AP
ROCKY RIVER, Ohio – John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can’t, “then I lose. I lose,” the Republican said.

But McCain ever the flip-flopper immediately retracted his statement that he will lose

“Let me not put it that stark,” the likely GOP nominee told reporters on his campaign bus. “Let me just put it this way: Americans will judge my candidacy first and foremost on how they believe I can lead the county both from our economy and for national security. Obviously, Iraq will play a role in their judgment of my ability to handle national security.”
“If I may, I’d like to retract ‘I’ll lose.’ But I don’t think there’s any doubt that how they judge Iraq will have a direct relation to their judgment of me, my support of the surge,” McCain added. “Clearly, I am tied to it to a large degree.”

John must have realized at that moment that he was dreaming about Iraq, but he can’t think that he can win by running on the economy? How is he going to fix the economy? by ending the Bush tax cuts. His own party will revolt agaisnt him if he does that. We know he isn’t going to end the war, so what will he do? Nothing.

Over the next eight months, McCain said he would take the same approach when discussing Iraq that he’s taken all year as he won primary after primary on his way to securing the GOP nomination.

He said he would “tell them that I understand their frustration and their sorrow over the sacrifice that has been made and then I try to explain to them what’s at stake and what’s going on there now. And that’s the best I can do.”

Sorry Johnny Boy, not good enough, not nearly good enough

Heres a story about all the graft, kickbacks, extortion, and greed that goes along with War Profiteering. Of course this story as all MSM stories like this attempt to punish the low level Death Merchants, and will never come close to mentioning the biggest war profiteers of them all: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of the Neocon murderers for profit. It was the same deal as Abu Gharib where the low level uneducated grunts who were just following orders get punished, but the people who issued those orders are never touched. Of course this is the real reason for all wars: Money. The rich despicable bastards get even richer while the poor who join up becuase they cannot get any kind of decent work get killed.

Chicago Tribune
Inside the world of war profiteers

Excerpt:
ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war’s largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors’ pockets, records show.

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm that holds the contract, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Rock Island sentenced the Army official, Chief Warrant Officer Peleti “Pete” Peleti Jr., to 28 months in prison for taking bribes. One Middle Eastern subcontractor treated him to a trip to the 2006 Super Bowl, a defense investigator said.

Prosecutors would not confirm or deny ongoing grand jury activity. But court records identify a dozen FBI, IRS and military investigative agents who have been assigned to the case. Interviews as well as testimony at the sentencing for Peleti, who has cooperated with authorities, suggest an active probe.

Read The Whole Story Here

The Republican front runner and until know shoo-in for the nominantion has been hit by twin blasts by a 12 guage shotgun today. First off a report out of the New York Times is saying that McCain has been having an affair with a woman over 30 years younger than him, he also apparently has been doing some favors for the woman who is, get this, a Lobbyist. McCain you silly old man. Did you really think she was hanging out with you for your good looks. And what will McCains’s wife think of this? Then at the same time some people want to talk to him about loans, and public funding and lines of credit that he used on his campaign. So McCain seems to be every bit a crooked as Bush, and the rest of the Republicans, no new news there. You know this won’t be any detriment to his nomination because only Democrats should be taken to task for affairs and illegal dealings with lobbyists, and illegal loans. Wasn’t McCain a part of the Campaign Finance Law. The Republicans will love this guy. You can read all the sordid details here.

NY Times
For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk

WASHINGTON — Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.

It had been just a decade since an official favor for a friend with regulatory problems had nearly ended Mr. McCain’s political career by ensnaring him in the Keating Five scandal. In the years that followed, he reinvented himself as the scourge of special interests, a crusader for stricter ethics and campaign finance rules, a man of honor chastened by a brush with shame.

But the concerns about Mr. McCain’s relationship with Ms. Iseman underscored an enduring paradox of his post-Keating career. Even as he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards, his confidence in his own integrity has sometimes seemed to blind him to potentially embarrassing conflicts of interest.

McCain Loan Raises FEC Questions

WASHINGTON (AP) – The government’s top campaign finance regulator says John McCain can’t drop out of the primary election’s public financing system until he answers questions about a loan he obtained to kickstart his once faltering presidential campaign.

Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason, in a letter to McCain this week, said the all-but-certain Republican nominee needs to assure the commission that he did not use the promise of public money to help secure a $4 million line of credit he obtained in November.

McCain’s lawyer, Trevor Potter, said Wednesday evening that McCain has withdrawn from the system and that the FEC can’t stop him. Potter, who was FEC chairman in 1994, said the campaign did not encumber the public funds in any way.

"Well, it was done before in another campaign. … We think it’s perfectly legal. One of our advisers is a former chairman of the FEC, and we are confident that it was an appropriate thing to do," McCain told a news conference Thursday.

The Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and most of the rest of the DLC, and DNC hate Dennis Kucinich. He is the only one holding them back from completing the Facist takeover they have been working on for decades. These Democrats are especially pissed that Dennis is trying to impeach their good friend George W. Bush Jr.
To get back at Dennis they are investing heavily in some out of towner to go in and beat Dennis in his own district. Here is an interview with DK

Buzzflash.com
The independent media is a treasure, and we understand how important it is to access independent media to be able to have a viewpoint that is unadulterated by the commercial interests. … There are many people who are trying to get out independent messages. I know BuzzFlash is one of them. Cherish those outlets, because they’re the key to maintaining whatever semblance of a democracy we still have. …

Impeachment is not, per se, removal from office. It really says that there are serious questions that must be asked as to the conduct of the people who are guiding this nation. And in the case of the President and the Vice President, there is incontrovertible evidence that they lied to take us into a war. They should be held accountable.

— Congressman Dennis Kucinich

* * *

Many progressives lamented that the person who most articulated their values in the current presidential primary race was Dennis Kucinich (or John Edwards). But in large part due to media neglect of his campaign, he was never able to get enough exposure to gain traction. MSNBC even went to court to keep him out of a presidential debate.

Kucinich cut short his effort to raise fundamental issues of justice at the national level because trouble was brewing in Cleveland. In short, well-monied interests took advantage of Kucinich’s presidential campaign to back a candidate to challenge Dennis in the March 4th Ohio primary. So Kucinich had to suddenly switch gears from running for president to battling to keep his Congressional seat, due to well-heeled opposition who don’t cotton to Kucinich’s calls for corporate and political accountability.

We don’t normally do this, but you can help Congressman Kucinich by going to http://kucinich.us/ and making a contribution. And if you live in his district or know someone who does, help get out the vote for Dennis on March 4th. We need his fearless truth to power.

Read The Interview Here

Bush hanging out with his only friends
Happy President’s Day, Today is the day that we celebrate the leaders of this (once) great nation. Back in the ’60s or so, we used to celebrate Washington’s Birthday, and Lincoln’s Birthday, which happened to be only a week or so apart. Then at some point it was decided that 2 days off for everyone was too much, so they combined the two days, and added in all the other Presidents as well. This was a Republican idea so that great leaders like Nixon, and later Reagan, Bush, and Bush could bask in the glory.
So today is the day for Jr. It is his last President’s day. Time for him to greet the people, and bask in all of his accomplishments before he rides off into the sunset. But wait, it appears he already had ridden off into the sunset. Rather than host a ceremony honoring his achievements and those of his predecessors, and trumpeting his success in Iraq, and with the economy, Bush is nowhere to be seen. In fact he is about as far away from Washington D.C. as you can get before you start coming back around again. Bush is hanging out with the Masai Tribesman in Kenya.
Perhaps he is afraid of a repeat of his original inauguration, where his limo was pelted with eggs. You see the people were not happy when they stole his way into power, and they are even less happy now. So unhappy in fact that Bush has cleared out of the hemisphere rather than face the music of the worst Presidency in history. The most criminally inept government in the history of the world. The 943 Proven lies Bush has told have sunk this country to a new low. I will not go over all the things that Bush lied about and all the other crimes he committed that would take up an entire library of books. You can browse this site to see many of them.
Let’s just hope that by next President’s Day Bush will be where he really belongs, in prison.

by HL
After all the votes, and all the debates in all the states it now seems almost certain that the Democratic nomination will come down to 300 undecided Super delegates who are uncommitted out of the 796 Super delegates total, these SD’s are the big money power people in Washington and they will decide, not you, who gets the nomination.

I see now that everyone is saying that Hillary’s campaign is in trouble, that she is slipping and Barack Obama is surging. The media now seem squarely behind Obama, However this is starting to remind me of 2000, when NBC called Florida and thereby the election for Gore, only to have Bush’s father engineer the theft of the election.
Looks like the media is pumping everyone up for Obama, I guess they love to see people disappointed when the candidate they love, suddenly loses.

Lets look at the numbers. Clinton, and Obama are in a virtual dead heat in terms of delegates. However Hillary has won virtually all of the big states with the exception of Obama’s home state of Illinois. Hillary is also polling ahead in the two upcoming big states of Texas and Ohio. If she wins both of those states, (and I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t have some help in Ohio if you know what I mean) She will be in the lead. Even so it appears almost certain that the nomination will come down to the super delegates.

And what is the story with these super delegates anyway? I have been following politics for a long time and had never heard of a super delegate before, maybe because a Democratic nomination was never this close since I have been watching so the SD’s didn’t come into play. In the primaries the candidates win delegates based on the number of votes they collected in any given state. The Super delegates however can pick either candidate even if it means going against the will of the people from their particular state; It’s kind of like the electoral college. In a general election a state can vote overwhelmingly for one candidate, only to have that states electors cast their votes for the losing candidate, it’s just another way to fix an election. They did it twice in a row with Bush, (fix an election that is) and it appears a handful of the corporate elite will decide who gets to run against McCain this time around.

That being the case I don’t see how anyone could believe that The Clinton’s will not find a way to wrangle more of the super delegates than Obama. As the ex-President Bill Clinton must have plenty of markers he can call in to get people to vote for his wife. The Clinton’s have been beltway insiders since at least 1992, while Obama didn’t come on the scene until 2004. To me it looks pretty clear that Hillary will be the nominee, I don’t see it going down any other way.

So once Hillary gets the nomination, what will happen in the general election. My first reaction would be to say that McCain and the Republicans will find a state or three to steal a la the Bush family, and maybe that’s the whole master plan from the start. If that were to happen the media could begin crowing that “Well, I guess the nation was not ready for a Woman president after all” As countless Millions hang their heads in disbelief that a Republican has once again taken what was not theirs. However the only thing that stops me from really believing this scenario is that we are talking about the Clintons, and not lame-o’s like Al Gore, and John Kerry.

So the really interesting part of the election will come on election day itself, when we see if Bill and Hill will put a stop to the highway robbery that the past two nominees could not. Either way the war will continue, and corporate America will reap the benefits. Poor people will have a choice of being forced to pay for health insurance they can’t afford, (and avoid being fined) or eating and paying for gas so they can drive to work. Maybe Obama will have a chance in 2016, but by then Jenna Bush will be old enough to run, and she can go up against Chelsea, and the Bush/Clinton dominance of the US will go on for the rest of our lives. What could be better than that?

I know that no one really considers Bush revelant anymore, he is the lamest of lame ducks ever, but Kieth Olbermann is still bashing him, and any basher of Bush, is a friend of mine, here is Keith’s most fire-breating comments yet regarding Bush.