Kos, Gibson, and MSOC

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Sunday February 05, 2006 · 2:03 PM PST

2006/02/05 · 14:03

I've been watching the firestorm created by MSOC's appearance on Faux radio and the massive kneejerk fear response from many kossacks. If what I've read here by some, supposedly the best the lefty blogosphere has to offer, is any indication of the power of this blog, I must admit I'm astonished by the lack of vision and fortitude. I don't know whether to compare it to chicken little who was convinced the sky was falling, a circular firing squad or a club whose members must swear absolute loyalty to the rules laid down by the kid who owns the treehouse. I've actually READ all the comments in the MSOC diary, truly a "tempest in a teapot," as one kossack put it, and find it curious how shortsighted Kos' strategy and tactics are regarding the media. This post is about our chances for Dems to win by changing media tactics. I believe anything less is a fatally flawed losing strategy. More below the fold. Read More

US Army Admits Dumping Tons of Poisons, Nerve Gases, and Radioactive Waste in the Oceans for decades

Laughingcat

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Thursday February 02, 2006 · 1:09 PM PST

2006/02/02 · 13:09

In an alarming piece of news courtesy of the Newport News Daily Press, we find the Army dumped chemical weapons at sea for decades, and some of it is now a toxic sludge poisoning all of us in more ways than we can imagine. Even though a select few have known for years the Army was disposing of chemical weapons in ways not healthy for any of us, we are told "records obtained by the Daily Press show that the previously classified weapopns-dumping program was far more extensive than had been suspected." The Army now admits it dumped 64 MILLION pounds of nerve and mustard gas agents, 400,000 chemical filled bombs, landmines, and rockets, and more than 500 TONS of radioactive waste into the seas. This is a disaster beyond description, and affects every living thing on Earth.

I hope that kossacks will rise in outrage in response to this story, and mobilize at least as passionately as they do for lesser causes. Contact your Senators and Representatives and get them to do something about this horror story that affects all of us. More on the gruesome details of this criminal act against life on Earth below the fold. Read More

Democratic Party Strategies and Why Filibuster Alito

Laughingcat

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Friday January 13, 2006 · 1:20 PM PST

2006/01/13 · 13:20

Thanx to a friend and this post, I thought I'd cherry pick the comments on this fight from the bright minds over at dkos, so this is about strategies, facts, and views from a lot of people. These are not my words, but the words of many. There is some excellent strategic thinking. Please email or call your Representatives and Senators to let them know the true issues at stake. For those in California, here is Senator Feinstein's webpage with phone numbers to contact her and let her know protecting the Constitution is more important than being nice, and that until the FISA issue is raised and answered satisfactorily, Alito MUST be filibustered. Click on the title to read what's at stake, and how to contact your Senators and House members. Read More

Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, and legalized bribery - Or is it legal?

Laughingcat

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Thursday November 03, 2005 · 9:24 AM PST

2005/11/03 · 09:24

Well, it seems that Tom DeLay, grinning in his mug shot, may not have much to smile about. According to this AP story via ABC News, his staff was knee deep in trying to get our favorite crooked lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, access to Gale Norton. Of course they were successful after the tribes old Jack was representing sent a cool quarter million to an "environmental group" founded by Grover Norquist and the newly nominated Interior Secretary. Yes, it's the same Grover Norquist that stated he wanted to drown government in a bathtub around the time that Katrina showed us all why that was not such a good idea.

Apparently the "Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy" is a front group for Norquist, not a name one usually associates with environmental concern, unless it's to destroy as much of it as possible through the usual Repub agenda. As an aside, "Conservative environmental group" still seems like such an oxymoron that I just can't get a handle on it. To find out more about the damning emails sent from DeLay's office clearly outlining some sort of influence peddling, there's more below the fold. Read More

Alito and abortion rights - a study in contradictions

Laughingcat

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Wednesday November 02, 2005 · 10:11 AM PST

2005/11/02 · 10:11

From the Christian Science Monitor, an article examining past legal opinions of this would-be Supreme concerning abortion rights. It seems that while his personal beliefs run one way, his rulings often runs contrary to his personal beliefs. From the article:

... the true test of appeals court judges isn't which personal views they hold, but to what extent those personal views may influence how they rule in a particular case. On this issue, legal analysts disagree in their assessments of Judge Alito. Some say he is a conservative ideologue. Others say he is a smart, careful jurist who leaves personal views behind when he dons his black robes.

The best evidence of his work as a judge are his published opinions. They contain a few surprises and some ammunition - for both the left and the right. For example, of the four abortion cases in which he participated as an appeals court judge, he voted on the pro-choice side in all but one. A 1995 Alito vote striking down a Pennsylvania abortion restriction in particular is raising eyebrows among some legal scholars.

Laughingcat

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Tuesday October 25, 2005 · 9:03 AM PDT

2005/10/25 · 09:03

And now it begins. Dick Cheney's impending bust sets up the hijacking of the Presidency. Fitzmas is on the way! However, it could be very, very bad for the US if Cheney resigns, due to a plan I believe has been put into play. The neocons are playing a shell game, and palming the pea.

There are many ways to subvert democracy, since the process itself lends itself to machinations that often are not caught until well after the fact, and the way American law is structured it often yields neither justice nor equity. In a classic example of the well-connected making sure we got the "leader" we deserved, remember that when Vice President Spiro Agnew went down under indictment for corruption from his days in Baltimore, Nixon replaced him with a consumate insider, Gerald Ford. Nixon thus made sure that if/when the process actually caught up to his own criminal behavior, he'd have someone in there to guarantee a pardon, supposedly "for our own good." Read More

Who Is Holding the Red Cross Accountable?

Laughingcat

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Thursday September 01, 2005 · 7:47 PM PDT

2005/09/01 · 19:47

Who Is Holding the Red Cross Accountable?

Don't mean to be a spoilsport, but the American Red Cross is a bogus organization, with zero accountability and a track record of greed, misrepresentation, and waste bordering on criminal behavior. It cannot manage even something as basic as the blood supply, even mismanaging it to the point of compromising the nations' ability to ensure we have enough uncontaminated blood. Then there's the 9-11 debacle, where they were busted so badly that they had to issue retractions, denials, and move millions out of dubious bank accounts and actually give to the cause they touted so brazenly while they profited off of their lies. Do you really think they have instituted the accountability structures that need to be in place in an organization of that size and responsibility? Read more about my personal experience with this duplicitous organization. Read More

The Ohio Scandal, Tom Noe, and Illegal Republican Donations

Laughingcat

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Saturday May 28, 2005 · 10:56 AM PDT

2005/05/28 · 10:56

The real scandal behind the obvious one coming down in Ohio shows a trail that leads to the election fraud perpetrated by Republicans in Election 2004. The LA Times reports that "What started as an unusual investment in rare coins by the state of Ohio... has exploded into a political and legal scandal."

The smoking gun for those of us who want honesty in politics comes through the investment manager Tom Noe, described in news reports as a "wealthy Republican donor." Apparently old Tom and his wife have contributed "tens of thousands of dollars to state GOP candidates, as well as to five of Ohio's seven Supreme Court justices and to President Bush's reelection campaign."

Add to this an FBI investigation looking into whether Noe violated federal campaign financing laws by giving money to people who then turned around and donated it to the Bush reelection campaign, and it seems as though we have some lawbreaking that directly impacted Bush taking Ohio, even without the fact that there were too many voting irregularities going on and some machine rigging to boot. Read More

High gasoline prices feed the Neocon strategy - Where is the Democratic party opposition?

Laughingcat

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Sunday April 10, 2005 · 3:52 PM PDT

2005/04/10 · 15:52

Now that gas is now headed for $3/gallon on its way to $4/gallon, I offer you this extensive piece I wrote last summer outlining the "gaming of America" by the oil interests. Take a look at it, and then ask yourself why America isn't mobilizing all out for energy independence. The technology is there for us to cut our gasoline consumption in half within 90 days. Then there's less debt to the Saudis, less risk from OPEC manipulations, less disruption from refinery shut-downs, less need to drill, and fewer spills in the ocean or near shorelines. So why aren't we mobilizing?

We know why the government isn't mobilizing. Bush is in the pocket of the oil industry. What I can't figure out is why the Democratic party hasn't taken the initiative on this, since cutting our oil dependence would result in a lot of money that would go to the Dems rather than the Repubs. Read More

Tom DeLay - An overview on a tangled web of deceit

Laughingcat

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Thursday March 10, 2005 · 8:58 AM PST

2005/03/10 · 08:58

Here's an overview that attempts to pull the entire Tom DeLay mess together. I've been following the story over at Political Physics for almost a year now, and have some details in the various links that you may not have seen anywhere else, especially concerning his indicted henchmen. The Hammer is going down, sooner or later. You will note the various scandals really are interrelated. Read More

The Death of Hunter S. Thompson - Suicide or Murder? - Poll results

Laughingcat

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Wednesday February 23, 2005 · 8:06 AM PST

2005/02/23 · 08:06

Well, preliminary results are in from the informal poll taken by Kossacks yesterday, and it's still not clear who dunnit. Other suspects besides the ones listed include Nolo, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, and Hunter himself as his public statement about the cancellation of the hockey season (long nights in Aspen do that to you!) Anyway, I'll keep the poll open as long as possible so we can get to the bottom of the matter. Please re-read the original post, since it fills in the backstory of the bear, who still remains the most likely suspect IMHO. That said, here are the results of yesterday's poll:
Who killed HST?
the bear 7%
Karl Rove 25%
an ex-lover 3%
ghost of Sonny Barger 0%
Carlos the Jackal 37%
the MSM 11%
little green men from Mars 14%

Please feek free to draw your own conclusions from this poll of kossacks. Perhaps it was Carlos the Jackal. There are lots of grassy knolls outside of Hunter's place in Aspen. And whether it was Carlos, the bear, or someone else, it still doesn't exclude the possibility that we'll find Karl Rove's prints all over the matter.

The Death of Hunter S. Thompson - Suicide or Murder?

Laughingcat

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Tuesday February 22, 2005 · 1:48 PM PST

2005/02/22 · 13:48

The bear did it. I always told Duke that he'd regret the day that he taught the bear to play cassino. Of course, being the animal lover he was, he felt that he was improving bear culture locally and in posterity by teaching the bear how to play cards. I argued the issue wasn't teaching the bear to play cards. It was that the bear was such a sore loser at poker, you could see the mean streak a mile wide coming out of that cavernous mouth every time Duke out-cassino'd the bear, sweeping the cards off the table and laughing to himself in the fog of amphetamines and booze. Then the bear'd roar and take another shot of pernod. Now pernod as we know it isn't real pernod, tho I hear that some smart frog has resurrected the original formula passed down from some pathologically insane booze soaked ancestor (or so they said at the time, even tho it was probably only a variation of 19th century "vapours" that they used to create a myth for the faint hearted.) Read More

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