Bush reigniting nuclear arms race?

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Thursday April 06, 2006 · 6:09 AM PDT

2006/04/06 · 06:09

Yesterday, Night Owl raised some troubling questions around the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)"simulation" of low-yield nuclear underground strikes in its Divine Strake testing program.

A report in today's LA Times raises broader questions over the intentions behind plans, called the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program, revealed by the Bush regime on modernizing the U.S. nuclear weapons infrastructure.

The plan, outlined to Congress yesterday by the head of National Nuclear Security Administration Thomas D'Agostino, would restart the production of new nuclear weapons. The last new nuclear weapon was produced in 1989. Read More

Israelis consider drawing Arab towns out of Israel?

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Wednesday April 05, 2006 · 11:17 AM PDT

2006/04/05 · 11:17

The CS Monitor reports today that Israelis are beginning to "ponder" a land swap that would transfer the status of Arab towns just inside Israeli's border, making them PA controlled areas.

The idea is currently being promoted right-wing nationalist Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman. That in itself may make the notion suspect, but the particular problem is that his proposal essentially converts Arabs who currently have full rights as Israeli citizens into subjects of the Palestinian Authority living under Israeli military occupation. Who the hell would want that?

It is essentially an ethnic resettlement policy, without having to physically move anyone.

More below... Read More

Bush's EPA hacks to polluters: Rape us more, please

baldandy

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Tuesday April 04, 2006 · 12:37 PM PDT

2006/04/04 · 12:37

NPR's Elizabeth Shogren broadcast a report on Morning Edition revealing that Bush's EPA is preparing to unleash yet another crime against nature:

A leaked document to the NRDC from the Environmental Protection Agency suggests that the agency is considering a significant change in air-pollution rules. It would give chemical factories, refineries and manufacturing plants new leeway to increase emissions of pollutants that cause cancer and birth defects.

Yes, there's more... Read More

Bush's Intel Oversight Board: A sleeping watchdog

baldandy

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Monday April 03, 2006 · 6:01 AM PDT

2006/04/03 · 06:01

Quiz question for intelligence wonkish kossacks:

How many cases of possible illegal or improper U.S. intelligence activities were referred by President Bush's Intelligence Oversight Board to the Attorney General during Bush's tenure so far?

What is the Intelligence Oversight Board, you ask? That and a few more pertinent facts to crib your quiz, below the fold... Read More

Call for independent reform candidate for IL gov -- nominate here!

baldandy

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Wednesday March 22, 2006 · 5:36 AM PST

2006/03/22 · 05:36

Incumbent Illinois governor Rod "Elvis" Blagojevich yielded 30% of Democratic voters to a virtually invisible primary opponent.

Will those Dem dissenters jump parties to support Judy Topinka, a GOP veteran of Illinois' bipartisan sleaze machine? Perhaps not, but independent and swing voters probably will, figuring Rod has missed his chance to fulfill his 2002 promises to change Illinois politics and government.

Is there a public figure in Illinois with enough stature to mount an independent reform campaign? And I don't mean some Jesse Ventura-esque idiot like Mike Ditka. Read More

Impeachment THE election issue

baldandy

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Monday March 20, 2006 · 10:42 AM PST

2006/03/20 · 10:42

If you, like me, are in one of the Congressional districts facing a contested Democratic primary, and having some trouble deciding between various well qualified candidates, there is one particular issue I think should take precedence.

Now I am not normally one for a litmus issue, but this is time for an exception: Ask this of your Dem primary candidates: If the Dems retake control of Congress this November, will you support bringing Conyer's resolution to open a committee of inquiry for impeachment of President George W. Bush?

More below... Read More

Common sense from Obama

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Tuesday November 15, 2005 · 5:19 AM PST

2005/11/15 · 05:19

Senator Barak Obama lays out in the Chicago Tribune today a common sense plan to carve $100 billion dollars for Gulf Coast reconstruction using a combination of spending cuts and deferring or canceling Bush's tax cuts for millionaires:

Every family knows that it's one thing to use a credit card; it's another thing to keep spending money you don't have. You have to "Pay as You Go," which is a rule most Americans live by. Washington once did too, until the White House and Senate Republicans abandoned it to push through the president's tax breaks.

The latest example of this irresponsibility is Congress' plan to pass $70 billion in additional tax breaks despite record-breaking deficits. Clearly, old habits are hard to break.

It's time for a return to responsibility in the budget process.

More below the fold... Read More

Drug companies buying endorsements for Prop 78

baldandy

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Friday November 04, 2005 · 6:45 AM PST

2005/11/04 · 06:45

Recent California TV and radio ads campaigning "Yes on 78/No on 79", claim, "The list of groups saying Yes to 78 grows bigger every day."

What those ads aren't stating is that many on that list are getting big bucks to "say Yes to 78".

From the LA Times:

Well-heeled campaigns have always bought space on mailed brochures. Some have paid people who offered testimonials.

But the campaign led by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Assn. and funded by the nation's biggest drug manufacturers is pushing the practice to new levels.

"They are clearly going beyond the traditional TV, radio and slate mailers," said Robert M. Stern, president of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies, which has joined with the California Healthcare Foundation to analyze the Proposition 78 and 79 efforts. "The question is, are endorsements up for sale or are the endorsements coming first? ... We won't know the answer."

More below... Read More

Pundit Parade: Iraq, 'Can't Win, Can't Leave'

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Thursday November 03, 2005 · 5:43 AM PST

2005/11/03 · 05:43

Former Senator Thomas Eagleton (D-Missouri, 1968-1987), writes in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the hubris of the Bush regime has left us in a "damned-if-we-leave, damned-if-we-stay" situation:

What do we do? Do we repeat what happened when we finally withdrew from Vietnam? Do we pull out on our own? "We are not ready," President Nguyen Van Thieu begged us. President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger crossed their fingers and hoped for the best but knew the chances that the Thieu regime could survive were, to say the least, thin.

More from Senator Eagleton, and more pundits below, including:

Dr. William Hazel Jr., warns against cutting Medicare
Miami's Andres Oppenheimer on Bush's antagonist in Argentinia (it's not Hugo)
Today's cartoon

baldandy

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Wednesday November 02, 2005 · 5:24 AM PST

2005/11/02 · 05:24

When your President, not to mention your House and Senate majority leaders, top administration officials, key gubernatorial candidates, etc., are all on the political and legal ropes, what do you do?

Kill more evil-doers!

Hey, it worked in Texas! Frying and lethal injecting evil-doers is what Dubya does and loves best!

The House bill for reauthorizing the Patriot Act has amendments sponsored by Rep. John Carter (Republican from Texas, of course), that would expand the number of terrorism-related offenses eligible for the death penalty from 20 to 61, and would drastically change the rules to make it easier to get a death sentence.

If this measure passes, and you unknowingly donate money to what you believe is a charity, but it turns out to be a terrorist front, YOU will be eligible for execution.

I kid you not. More below... Read More

Laying the Alito trap: The real reason to fight

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Tuesday November 01, 2005 · 6:01 AM PST

2005/11/01 · 06:01

I have doubts that Sammy Alito is the foaming-at-the-mouth right-wing nutcase a lot of folks here are making him out to be. Perhaps the details yet to emerge in the coming weeks will answer that question.

Two wonky attornies and legal bloggers, Tom Goldstein from SCOTUSblog.com, and Howard Bashman of How Appealing, both claim that a thorough look at Alito will reveal a candidate less doctrinaire than a Brown, Luttig or Owens would have been.

Bush, in fact, may be counting on Alito being just conservative enough to appease the right-wing without meeting the "extraordinary circumstance" that would lose the seven key centrist Democrats.

But the right and left are itching for this fight, and I hope they get it anyway, despite my doubts.

My reasons why, below... Read More

Pundit Parade: Emperor Bush is naked, and it's U-G-L-Y!

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Friday October 28, 2005 · 5:59 AM PDT

2005/10/28 · 05:59

No more hiding from failure
Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu writes that regardless of what comes out of Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury, Bush can no longer escape the weight of his accumulated failures:

But whatever happens criminally, Americans should be asking this question: Why was the Bush White House so hell bent on going to war with Iraq that it relied on discredited evidence to build the case? And what was President Bush's role in that?