Coulter Jokes About Poisoning Justice

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, speaking at a traditionally black college, joked that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned.

Coulter had told the Philander Smith College audience Thursday that more conservative justices were needed on the Supreme Court to change the current law on abortion. Stevens is one of the court's most liberal members.

"We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said. "That's just a joke, for you in the media."

Coulter has made a career of writing and lecturing on her strongly conservative views.
At one point during her address, which was part of a lecture series, some audience members booed when she cut off two questioners. "I'm not going to be lectured to," Coulter told one man in a raised voice.

She drew more boos when she said the crack cocaine problem "has pretty much gone away."

I'm sure that Jesus and Pat Robertson are working on this. Unfortunately, neither would return my calls so I'll have to check back at another time. All jokes aside, this is yet another example of conservative/ evangelical compassion typical of the right wing GOP membership.

From Bill Day

McCain Still Concerned About Guantanamo

Sen. John McCain said Friday that interrogation techniques at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay are still of concern, and the prisoners held there should have their cases processed after spending up to four years in detention without charge.

The remote prison camp in eastern Cuba, where some 500 men accused of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or al-Qaida are held, crept into debates at the World Economic Forum on Friday. Only a handful of the prisoners have been charged.

"What I was concerned about and continue to be concerned about is interrogation methods," McCain, R-Ariz., told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the forum.

"Now, if they want to keep them in Guantanamo or Des Moines, Iowa, that's not a critical issue to me. What is critical is that we adhere to treaties that we are signatories to and observe basic human rights and obey the law that we just passed concerning cruel and inhumane and degrading treatment."

McCain was the chief sponsor of a bill that President Bush signed last month banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign detainees.

The former Vietnam War POW called for more congressional involvement concerning Guantanamo and said the prisoners' cases should be processed and heard.

"All human beings, no matter how evil they are, have the right to some kind of adjudication ... There should be some kind of system set up so their cases can be decided," he said.

FBI documents sent to The Associated Press in 2003 showed cases of prisoner abuse shortly after the camp opened in January 2001. Additional documents showed other cases as the detention mission grew, specifically with the use of female guards and interrogators using aggressive and sexually charged techniques with the detainees, most of whom are Muslim.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who ran the Guantanamo camp from October 2002 to March 2004 and has been linked to the abuse scandal, is declining to answer questions in two courts-martial cases involving the use of dogs during interrogations at the camp.

Former Presidents Clinton and Carter have called for the prison camp to be closed, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called the prison an "anomaly."

An anomaly... what a nice way of saying that the existence of a U.S. interrogation/ torture facility is hypocritical to very principles the U.S. was founded on.

State of the Union? Not so good, most say

A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken last weekend and interviews across the country this week found most Americans pessimistic about the economy, divided on the war and doubtful that Bush has the best plan to address the issues that matter most to them - among them health care and corruption. (Related: Poll results)

By more than 2-to-1, those surveyed say things have gotten worse in the United States over the past five years. "I love my country, but we're going the wrong way for sure," says Faye Sherer, 59, of Salinas, Calif., who helps run a family produce company and was among those polled. "I don't see the point in Iraq, when there were other countries going through worse atrocities and we did nothing to help them."

Still, even conservatives divide 47%-44% on whether things have gotten better or worse.
The country's downbeat mood poses a challenge for the president as he tries to command support for the legislative agenda he'll unveil for his sixth year in office. With a 43% approval rating, he is in "a weakened position trying to convince Congress to do whatever it is in the State of the Union that he wants them to do," says Charles Franklin of the University of Wisconsin.

Those surveyed:

• Said the country has gotten off track. By 62%-35%, they were dissatisfied with the way things are going in the USA. That's the most pessimistic view at the start of a year since Bush took office.

• Rated the economy as faltering. Six in 10 said the current economy was only fair or poor, and 54% said economic conditions were getting worse. Views differed by party: 68% of Republicans but just 16% of Democrats called the economy excellent or good.

• Questioned Bush's leadership. By 64%-34%, they said Bush didn't have a clear plan for solving the country's problems. The president received his strongest approval rating, 52%, on fighting terrorism. But on health care - ranked as an issue equal to the economy - congressional Democrats were more trusted, 54%-35%.

The poll of 1,006 adults Jan. 20-22 has a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points.

"I'm too old to be worrying about much," said Bernice Tabor, 76, of Cleveland. But she frets about casualties in Iraq and layoffs at Ford Motor Co. "We're going backward instead of forward."

I, like most, agree with Bernice in that we are going backward instead of forward. Unlike Bernice, I am in my late-30's and will have to help clean up the mess Bush is making for us. You can help minimize the mess be contacting your Senator and Representative (see links to the right) and tell him or her how you feel.

Swagger Less and Show More Honesty and Humility

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday urged President George W. Bush to "swagger" less and show more honesty and humility in his annual State of the Union speech to the nation next week.

"Republicans run good campaigns, but when it comes to actually governing and protecting Americans, they have a record of incompetence," Reid told an audience at the Center for American Progress.

Reid accused Bush of making promises in past State of the Union speeches and doing the opposite. In 2003, Reid said, Bush promised not to pass the nation's current bills on to the next generation.

Noting that the government will breach the $8.184 trillion debt limit next month, Reid accused Bush of "bankrupting our country and placing an enormous tax on our children and grandchildren, simply so he can hand out tax breaks to special interests and the wealthy."

Reid also urged Bush to offer a plan to fix the new Medicare prescription drug program for the elderly. Since the plan was launched on January 1, many poor and elderly people have been snagged by problems that have made it difficult for them to get their prescription costs covered.

About half of the states have stepped in to pay the costs of people who have run into problems. The drug plan relies on private insurers, pharmacies and healthcare companies to provide coverage to Medicare's 42 million beneficiaries.

It is hope that Bush listens to this advice and provides answers instead of more swagger.

The White House Is Stalling the Senate's Katrina Probe

"No one believes that the government responded adequately," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. "And we can't put that story together if people feel they're under a gag order from the White House."

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the committee's Republican chair, said she respects the White House's reluctance to reveal advice to President Bush from his top aides, which is generally covered by executive privilege.

Still, she criticized the dearth of information from agency officials about their contacts with the White House.

"We are entitled to know if someone from the Department of Homeland Security calls someone at the White House during this whole crisis period," Collins said. "So I think the White House has gone too far in restricting basic information about who called whom on what day."

She added, "It is completely inappropriate" for the White House to bar agency officials from talking to the Senate committee.

Lieberman said the Justice and Health and Human Services departments "have essentially ignored our document requests for months" while HHS has refused to allow interviews of its staff. He described the Homeland Security response as "too little, too late."

House panel of lawyers and activists discuss whether Bush had committed an impeachable offense

On Tuesday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is delivering a speech on the program in Washington.

Gonzales also plans to testify Feb. 6 about the secret program before the Senate Judiciary Committee where Kennedy and Leahy are members.

House Democrats said Bush has committed a crime in authorizing the spying and that House Republicans have abdicated their responsibilities by refusing to hold hearings.
Rep. John Conyers (news, bio, voting record), the House Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, and other Democrats met in a basement room of a House office building Friday to hear a panel of lawyers and activists discuss whether Bush had committed an impeachable offense.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department on Wednesday issued a 42-page legal justification for the eavesdropping program, an expanded version of a document the agency sent Congress last month.

"Making their argument longer didn't make it any better," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (news, bio, voting record), D-Md., a Judiciary Committee member. He said Bush's secret approval of warrantless eavesdropping had made congressional debate on the Patriot Act meaningless.
The NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program is "an intelligence operation in search of a legal rationale," said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.

"What the president ordered in this case was a crime," added Turley, who said House Republicans are establishing a terrible precedent by not holding oversight hearings.

From Bill Schorr

Feds Seek Google Records in Porn Probe

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.

Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said in papers filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose.

Although Google pledges to protect personal information, the company's privacy policy says it complies with legal and government requests. Google also has no stated guidelines on how long it keeps data, leading critics to warn that retention is potentially forever given cheap storage costs.

The Mountain View-based company told The San Jose Mercury News that it opposes releasing the information because it would violate the privacy rights of its users and would reveal company trade secrets.

Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's efforts "vigorously."

"Google is not a party to this lawsuit, and the demand for the information is overreaching," Wong said.

As I see it, this is yet another invasion of personal privacy. While I am firmly against child pornography, I think that people should be able at pretty much anything else online. If King George gets his way, not only will our phone calls and emails be monitored, but now what we look at online.

Google this George... I am not alone in the movement to impeach you and help bring an end to the GOP culture of corruption. Google this... the present GOP run congress and White House is the most corrupt ever. Google this... the Bush administration is and will go down in history as the most corrupt Presidency in the history of the United States.

Ex-EPA Chiefs (5 GOP and 1 Democrat) Blame Bush in Global Warming

WASHINGTON - Six former heads of the Environmental Protection Agency — five Republicans and one Democrat - accused the Bush administration Wednesday of neglecting global warming and other environmental problems.

"I don't think there's a commitment in this administration," said Bill Ruckelshaus, who was EPA's first administrator when the agency opened its doors in 1970 under President Nixon and headed it again under President Reagan in the 1980s.

Russell Train, who succeeded Ruckelshaus in the Nixon and Ford administrations, said slowing the growth of "greenhouse" gases isn't enough.

"We need leadership, and I don't think we're getting it," he said at an EPA-sponsored symposium centered around the agency's 35th anniversary. "To sit back and just push it away and say we'll deal with it sometime down the road is dishonest to the people and self-destructive."

All of the former administrators raised their hands when EPA's current chief, Stephen Johnson, asked whether they believe global warming is a real problem, and again when he asked if humans bear significant blame.

Agency heads during five Republican administrations, including the current one, criticized the Bush White House for what they described as a failure of leadership.

Defending his boss, Johnson said the current administration has spent $20 billion on research and technology to combat climate change after President Bush rejected mandatory controls on carbon dioxide, the chief gas blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.

Bush also kept the United States out of the Kyoto international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases globally, saying it would harm the U.S. economy, after many of the accord's terms were negotiated by the Clinton administration.

As I see it... this is clearly a case of Bush selling out to corporate interests. It is rather sickening to know that this "Christian" President cares more about his political career than the word his God created. I am not surprised though. The Republican culture of corruption and hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Bush Refuses to Join Fellow GOPers and Return Abramoff's Tainted Cash

According to Karen Finney of the Democratic National Committee...

As the Republican culture of corruption continues to grow and more is learned about the misdeeds of Washington Republicans and their relationships with indicted former GOP super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, 30 Republican members of Congress and even the Republican Governors Association have decided to return dirty campaign cash that Abramoff personally directed or raised for them. One notable exception is President Bush, who still refuses to return the more than $120,000 that Abramoff personally raised and bundled for his re-election campaign. While raising the money, Abramoff bragged about his access to the White House and used his deep ties with the Bush Administration to attract business and help his eventual clients.

In my (Max's) opinion, this is yet another example of how King George touts his "above the law" status. As long as Congress is dominated by the corrupt GOP, this will remain the situation. Only by tipping the scales to the public's favor by electing Democrats will this change. A Democratic Congress and should impeach Bush.

From Jerry Holbert

Bush Marks MLK Day With Gospel Performance

He also got in a photo-op at the national archives where he gazed at the Emancipation Proclamation - I'm sure someone had to tell him what it was.

Given Bush's abuse of human right's - illegal wiretaps, willingness to torture, willingness to hold individual in war prisons without out trial and groundless invasion of a foreign nation - I find this an interesting way for him to spend a few moments of his time. After all, the proclamation does uphold the concept of all men are created equal. If Bush felt this way, why would he support torture? Why would he invade a country before being sure there really was a threat? Why would he hold U.S. civilian citizens in military prisons? He's a corrupt hypocrite... that's why. Enjoy the Jesusfest Mr. President!

Israeli Envoy Accepts Robertson's Apology

According to an article in Yahoo posted today...

After Robertson's written letter to the Sharon family, Ambassador Daniel Ayalon said, "Israel respects Rev. Robertson and accepts his apology, which reflects his true friendship and support for the state of Israel."

In a letter dated Wednesday and marked for hand delivery to Omri Sharon, the prime minister's son, Robertson called Sharon a "kind, gracious and gentle man" who was "carrying an almost insurmountable burden of making decisions for his nation."

"My concern for the future safety of your nation led me to make remarks which I can now view in retrospect as inappropriate and insensitive in light of a national grief experienced because of your father's illness," said the letter.

In my opinion this is very gracious on the part of the Sharon family. Perhaps Pat Robertson will learn from this. It is also good to know that God is not in the business of smiting heads of state for making unpopular decisions.

Poll: DeLay Losing Support in Own District

According to an article in Yahoo, barley 1 in 5 registered voters in Tom DeLay's home district claim they will vote for him. As much as one has to wonder what those holdouts are thinking (or if they are thinking) it is good to know that most conservatives faced with enough proof will "get it."

From Rob Rogers

Pat Robertson - God is Killing Sharon

Just when you think that Pat cannot sound any dumber...
According to this from Yahoo, click for story, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for "dividing God's land." Talk about kicking a man when he is down. I'm not a Christian and quite often I find the terms Christian and compassion to be mutually exclusive. However, attacking a dying man in the press is just wrong.

Pat quotes some scripture, blah, blah, blah, and comes to the conclusion that if you divide God's land (aka Israel) that God is going to get pissed and smite you. I wonder what punishment I'll get for writing and posting this. If I'm lucky just a broken arm perhaps... no wait... God will push me down in the street and back over my hands with truck. That way I'll suffer and not be able to type.

Keep in mind this is the same Pat Robertson who the leader of a Christian cult with thousands of members, the same Pat Robertson who said the United States should murder a foreign president, and the same Pat Robertson who ran for President of the United States as a GOP candidate.

Supreme Court Says U.S. Can Move Padilla

The justices overruled a lower court and now Jose Padilla, a US civilian citizen, will be transferred to a military prison and held with non-Americans. Hats off to King George for taking us another step along the path to a police state.

It seems that it is up to the King/ President to decide if an individual can be held and tried as a civilian or not. Naturally, evidence to be used to help make this decision can be obtained via the NSA without a warrant. Somehow I do not think this is what the founding fathers of this nation had in mind when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

To the right of this post are some links that will show you how to contact your Senator and Representatives. Please do so and let them know what you think about having a King instead of an accountable President. Soon, Congress will go back to work on the Patriot Act. Don't miss this important opportunity to let your voice be heard.

Etta Hulme on Torture

Amen!

Abramoff Pleads Guilty

According to an AP article released today, Jack Abramoff, a former $100,000-plus fundraiser for President Bush with close ties to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud.

The last time I heard a list of charges like this it was attached to a crime family like Gambino. It seems the GOP is now in the same league as the MOB - very scary.

The article continued to say that as many as 20 members of congress and possibly several administrations officials are involved too. If this is true this could be the biggest scandal since the 1992 banking scandal that resulted the 77 members leaving the House one way or another.

If this is not a wake-up call for the evangelicals and other hard core right wing GOP followers I don't know what is. How many trials and convictions will it take before the Joe GOP voter realizes he has been taken for a ride on the Republican Culture of Corruption express?