Schmidt has to eat her words again

Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) called Rep. Murtha a coward in the House on Friday (11/18), by reading from a conversation she had with one of her constituents. After conferring with Republican leaders, she later asked that her remarks be striken from the record. Now that statement has been rebutted by the constituent she apparently mis-quoted for her own political posturing: Colonel Denies Disparaging Murtha By The New York Times WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 - A colonel in the Marine reserves has taken issue with how his views were represented in a Republican attack last week on Representative Murtha. Speaking on the House floor on Friday, Representative Jean Schmidt, Republican of Ohio, asserted that the colonel had "asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, marines never do." But a spokeswoman for the colonel, Danny R. Bubp, said Ms. Schmidt had misconstrued their conversation. While Mr. Bubp, a Republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives, opposes a quick withdrawal for forces, "he did not mention Congressman Murtha by name nor did he mean to disparage Congressman Murtha," said Karen Tabor, his spokeswoman. "He feels as though the words that Congresswoman Schmidt chose did not represent their conversation." Asked to respond on Monday, the congresswoman's office said only, "Mrs. Schmidt's statement was never meant to disparage Congressman Murtha." [HA! Reread that statement above: "SEND...MURTHA A MESSAGE"]

Also onegoodmove.org has the Murtha and Hunter resolutions for comparison.

And the reason is? So the reason for staying in Iraq is: Bush broke Iraq so we have to stay and fix it. Making it worse is there was no valid reason for breaking it, since the justification for war was based on lies and incompetence. Furthermore Bush has increased terrorism by providing them a real-life training ground and giving more people reason to hate the US.

Hobbes

Republicans revise tactics

VP Dick "Dark Lord, Five Deferments" Cheney for the first time has changed his tactics and has decided to attack his opponents' IDEAS instead of attacking his opponents personally. This is a new untested tactic for Republicans and no one is really sure how successful it will be, but their usual smear campaigns were backfiring.

Late last week, the White House, through Press Secretary Scott McClellan, attempted to deride Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) by aligning him with film-maker Michael Moore.   Rep. Murtha [see below], a decorated career Marine who served in Vietnam, had called for a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq. That attack, combined with Rep. Jean Schmidt's (R-OH) calling Murtha a coward (albeit through reading a letter from one of her constituents). Schmitt was later forced by her leadership to have her remarks stricken from the record and the White House did the back-peddle on their remarks also.

Now, forced to do something they have little experience doing, the Republicans are attempting to criticize their opponents' positions, which actually reflect the opinion of the majority of Americans, instead of personally attacking them. This bold new step can only be out of desparation. Rove must be bound and gagged somewhere in an undisclosed location because Bush and Cheney apparently felt obliged to actually PRAISE Murtha over the weekend and yesterday as "a good man" and "a patriot". You know that must hurt.

---

My Letter to Rep. Murtha

Hon. Rep. John P. Murtha PO Box 780 Johnstown, PA 15907-0780 Rep. Murtha: Thank you for standing up to speak out for our troops. I support your valiant efforts and want you to know that despite the numerous attacks from the Republicans that you are encountering over this issue, there are dozens of millions of people who regard your bold action as the watershed event in overcoming what has become a very dark chapter in the history of the United States. Thank you for your service both in the Marines and in the House of Representatives. Kind Regards,

Hobbes

PS: I recommend you to read Murtha's statement rather than just the reporters' synopsis.

The Murtha of All Disent

	Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), a decorated Vietnam War veteran, expanded on his comments: "I like guys who got five deferments and [have] never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."
Cheney did not serve in the military, and Bush was an Air National Guardsman who did not leave the United States during the Vietnam War.
Meanwhile opinions are coming in and they are bad news for Bush (BNFB):
EJ Dionne (Washington Post): An Iraq Deadline For Bush

More Tent Seams Heard Ripping
Charles Krauthammer, typically a neo-con supporter in his columns, blasts the IDiocy in Kansas

Bad check writer

Hobbes

Bush debris encounters rotating blades

	Warning that other global threats "cannot be ignored," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, a leading adviser on defense issues, called on Thursday for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.(CNN) In criticizing Cheney's speech yesterday attacking the administration's critics, Rep. Murtha added that "people with five deferments" had no right to make such remarks.
Now we're talking! This can't be going over well at the White House. Cheney must be sneering even more than usual if he isn't already apoplectic about this. Did they really think their critics would just run away with their tails between their legs? Sorry but the campaign is over. Now it's time to see if they can actually govern (NOT).
Actually I don't know how the Republicans can keep their coalition together much longer. Between the radical Christians on one side calling for the repeal of Science in favor of IDiocy, and the radical neo-cons on the other plundering our grandchildren's taxes while they wage a war based on lies, I can't imagine the seams of their tent are holding much longer without some new kind of super-glue, like the fear tactics they used on the American people after 9/11.

"The saddest part is that our people in uniform have been subjected to these cynical and pernicious falsehoods day in and day out."

If you thought that was a Democrat that said that you would be wrong. That was Our Dark Lord (The Dick) Cheney. (I decided not to display his image here in case you are eating)

According to Bill O'Reilly (aka O'Lielly) responding to the flak over his encouraging al Qaeda to blow up San Francisco "They [the 'far' left] are anti-American people. They hate this country. They do. And if you read their garbage day in and day out, we're the bad guys. We're always wrong. Blame America first. That's who these people are on the far left on the Internet. And they are well funded by George Soros and Peter Lewis, the radical billionaires. They're as dishonest as they come." (Radio Factor)

Well I agree with him only that I DO consider him (Bill) one of the bad guys, in as much as I consider myself part of the left on the internet (but not that far). [Notice that if you disagree with Bill you "hate this country"?]

So anyway, "Hey George! Where's my check?"

Hobbes

PS: I was really busy this week and had no time to post until now but that doesn't mean I wasn't paying attention!

Wizard of Gauze

Bush today applied Rove-brand bandages to his wounded reputation and desperately tried to pull the curtain back over his exposed administration by claiming that people who criticize him are "rewriting history".
	Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., replied: "It's deeply regrettable that the president is using Veterans Day as a campaign-like attempt to rebuild his own credibility by tearing down those who seek the truth about the clear manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war." Well said.
Strangley the "liberal" NY Times gave no quotes from any Democrat as a rebuttal. Expect more attacks on the messengers which is standard MO for these bastards.

Hobbes

Internet Intelligently Designed by Supernatural Creator

	I've come to the undeniable conclusion that the internet was intelligently designed by a supernatural creator. I have been studying it for some time and the amazingly complex structure has led me to conclude that it is too complex to have evolved naturally. There are too many parts that exist to function together and could not have existed on their own.
I mean how did all these blogs get here? The blog species must have been created by a supernatural being because they are just too complex for me to figure out.
And how about routers, switches, ethernet wide area networks and wireless and bluetooth? You think these all just evloved? I mean, come on, really!
I hope that the computer science schools will come to the same inevitable conclusion and not burden our budding computer scientists with phony "theories" of the history computer "science". I would think that at least the University of Kansas is not afraid to teach this alternate view of the origin of the internet.

Hobbes

Post-Election Day Feels Better This Year

Republicans feel the sting of anti-Bushism across the nation:
	Schwarzenegger Is Dealt a Stinging Rebuke by Voters Democrat Wins Race for Governor in Virginia Democrats score big in off-year elections
And on the IDiot side, you win some you lose some: Evolution Slate Outpolls Rivals Kansas Board Approves Challenges to Evolution
Activists wearing shirts reading "Exxpose Exxon," listen during a hearing on Capitol Hill today while Oil company executives attempt to explain record profits.

Hobbes

Deconstructing Cheney

THE INDICTMENT of the vice president's chief of staff for perjury and obstruction of justice is an occasion to consider just how damaging the long public career of Richard Cheney has been to the United States.
	He began as a political scientist devoted to caring for the elbow of Donald Rumsfeld. As a congressman, Rumsfeld had reliably voted against programs to help the nation's poor, so (as I recalled in reading James Mann's ''Rise of the Vulcans") it was with more than usual cynicism that Richard Nixon appointed him head of the Office of Economic Opportunity, the antipoverty agency.
Rumsfeld named Cheney as his deputy, and the two set out to gut the program-- the beginning of the Republican rollback of the Great Society, what we saw in New Orleans this fall.
Read the FULL STORY by James Carroll, November 7 in the Boston Globe.

More dirt on Cheney

If you can stand it watch this and then tell me that the US should continue to occupy Iraq.

Hobbes

The Next Attack

The Next Attack (by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon) shows how the war in Iraq has weakened the US in its war against terror(ism) and strengthened those who would seek to destroy it. I haven't read it yet but this NY Times review looks good.

Hobbes

It's the WAR stupid!

Dennis Kucinich makes the point that the Democrats have to make the War in Iraq a central point of their 2006 congressional campaigns http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105R.shtml

Hobbes

Senate holds closed session

Yesterday Sen. Harry Reid the Democratic leader, motioned for a closed Senate session after lambasting the Senate for not being critical of President Bush. Republican senator Frist claimed to be of course personally insulted.
	Sen. Frist, apparently upset about Reid following Senate procedures said: "It's an affront to the United States of America." The Senate held closed sessions 6 times during the impeachment process of Pres. Clinton. Was that also "an affront to the United States of America?"
Sen. Reid: "And now the question is, Will this Senate meet its responsibility under the Constitution to hold this administration, as every administration should be held, accountable?"

More ID nonsense

At the Dover PS ID trial yesterday Dr. Behe has a new definition for what makes a scientific theory valid: It's whether it fits in with Christian faith or not. "Because the Big Bang is compatible with Christianity, and because it makes some theistic views seem more plausible, that does not mean that the Big Bang itself is not a scientific theory. And in the same sense, just because intelligent design is compatible with Christian views, or because it makes such views or other theistic views seem more plausible does not mean that intelligent design itself is not a scientific theory." (This is an example of Fallacy of Afirming the Consequent)

Hobbes

Can we trust our elections?

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies:
Diebold and ES&S.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm
http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.

http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm

12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml

13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html

16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here: http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.)

http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html

20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.

http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
http://uscountvotes.org/

Hobbes