Just one question: didn’t the GOP just have 8 years?
Newsweek’s title is: IF THE REPUBLICANS WERE IN CHARGE… Well they got voted out of the majority, and the Presidency. So countering Obama’s agenda might seem like its their job as the opposition party, but its not. When GWB was President, Dems were told to be patriotic and follow their President, which many did. They followed him into a trillion dollar war, trillion dollar deficit and a housing implosion and lobbyist/insurer/banking explosion.
So why, one year in to a Democratic Presidency, are we wondering what the Republicans would do if they were in charge?
We see it every day, the detritus, the lost jobs, the massively increased credit card charges, the $500 million bonuses to bankers who destroyed the world (yes, Goldman Sachs, people still blame you).
Newsweek shows its death knell: NEWS and WEEK are supposed to be going together, not guesstimating what the 8 year veterans have up their sleeve. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the obstructionism, the lack of reform in the financial arena and the refusal to provide Americans with reasonable health care reform.
Mischa Barton smoking dope at an intersection in LA? Caught by paparazzi in broad daylight?
pacificcoastnewsonline.com
When I say some Americans are above the law, you think I’m talking about this famous & rich white chick who is ending 3 years probation after a DUI for driving all over the road in 2007. She seems to still be getting away with her blatant, in public, in-your-face breaking the law.
Nope, I’m talking about this guy who broke the War Crimes Act of 1996, a federal statute that makes it a federal crime for any American to violate the Geneva Convention by engaging in murder, torture or inhuman treatment. Anyone who knew about, ordered or failed to take steps to stop torture is guilty under the statute.
And if someone dies while being tortured? Then those who tortured, knew about, ordered or failed to take steps to stop torture are subject to life imprisonment and/or the death penalty…
Why isn’t he in jail? By his own words, he broke this law. He admitted telling the Justice Department to write arguments that waterboarding is legal. (Just as an FYI, remember that the Executive Branch is supposed to be SEPARATE from the Justice Branch, and the Legistlative Branch? That’s supposed to be the basis of the American governmental system, isn’t it?) Telling Justice to cover his ass means that he ordered others to commit illegality, which makes him a war criminal. AND, on TV last week, he defended CIA Operatives and Justice Department stooges who did waterboard, saying they shouldn’t be punished for doing what they were told…
I’m sorry, but the chain-of-command is always responsible for the illegalities they force their underlings to do… That was the point of the Nuremberg Trials. Cheney admits breaking the law, admits he made underlings follow his lead and yet is doing the equivalent of smoking a joint on a public street in front of tons of paparrazi; Cheney just did it on nationwide TV.
18 U.S.C. § 2441 has no statute of limitations, which means that a war crimes complaint can be filed at any time.
The penalty may be life imprisonment or — if a single prisoner dies due to torture — death. Given that there are numerous, documented cases of prisoners being tortured to death by U.S. soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan (see for example this report), that means that the death penalty would be appropriate for anyone found guilty of carrying out, ordering, or sanctioning such conduct.
That means that Cheney could be rounded up as a fugitive as long as he is alive, just like those old Nazis you see on the news.
There really should be ‘justice for all’, not just justice for the 2,300,000 Americans who aren’t either rich, famous or powerful enough to game the system…
LIDDY: I understand that they found out today that Miss Sotomayor is a member of La Raza, which means in illegal alien, “the race.” And that should not surprise anyone because she’s already on record with a number of racist comments.
Finished with the race-based attack, Liddy moved on to denigrate Sotomayor’s gender:
LIDDY: Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.
Finally, Liddy disputed the entire idea that there’s anything wrong with the paucity of women and total lack of Hispanics on the Court:
LIDDY: And everybody is cheering because Hispanics and females have been, quote, underrepresented, unquote. And as you pointed out, which I thought was quite insightful, the Supreme Court is not designed to be and should not be a representative body.
The Supreme Court has had 106 white men out of 110 sitting judges. Two women, two men of color.
G. Gordon Liddy believes that its okay to have the highest court in the land run by white men only, not reflective of the ethnic diversity of the people the high court is governing.
I just read the most AMAZING book, The Unforgiving Minute, by Craig Mullaney. If our soldiers are like this guy, then we need to step up our game and be faithful to them while they are serving our country, and when they come home. He is an amazing young man, smart but compassionate and thoughtful. He takes the lives of his platoon to his own heart.
The book is fantastic, read it!
The Amazon page has a great video, and you can get the book as a Kindle or Audiobook.
New Scientist magazine has a huge chart showing the life of the natural resources that we use to make our big hunks of metal, our gadgets, and our junk:
According to the Wikipedia, the definition of condom includes:
Because condoms are waterproof, elastic, and durable, they are also used in a variety of secondary applications. These range from creating waterproof microphones to protecting rifle barrels from clogging.
Or perhaps they are made into Pope-mobiles to protect crowds.
Seriously, what does it say about you as a ‘Man of the People’, when you can’t travel amongst ‘the people’ unless you’re in a big motorized condom?
Okay, one more unexpected (really??? you didn’t see this one coming?) little known fact about Nadya Suleman, the mother of 6 sad and angry kids and 8 preemie babies.
Nadya admitted to the National Enquirer that she had lingerie modeled and topless danced at a young age, but quit after one night when she realized she’d have to lap dance with patrons. She said this, to counter claims that she raunchy danced for a few years at bachelor parties.
I know the US is schizophrenic about SEX: we love our ads with sex, we sell sexually enticing clothes to tweens and teens, but we don’t want to hear about the teen pregnancies that result (usually at the hands of older boys).
So Octo-mom was a stripper.
I’m more concerned about her mental health, since she’s fired the free nannies, has kids who seen unhappy and is now bringing home 8 more that desparately need healthy caretaking.
The first is a wildly frantic 911 call made by OctoMom back in October of last year, when she thought one of her kids was missing. At one point Suleman repeats over and over that she’s going to kill herself — in front of her other children. Five patrol units ended up rushing to her house — but it turns out the five-year-old had simply followed his grandma around the block.
In the second, one of her kids called 911 and hung up. When the 911 operator called back, her six-year-old answered the phone and told the operator he was there with a babysitter — and said “my mom and dad went to like, a party.” Turns out this call was made on January 23 of this year — when Octo was in the hospital about to have her litter.
Won’t someone step in to help this woman, and her kids? Do we have to keep watching the train wreck in slow motion, waiting for impact?
So, for weeks and weeks and weeks, the White House has been inundated with a clarion call from the media: “Why have you not fixed the economy yet? You better explain it soon! Oh My God, look at the Dow Jones! It falls, because of you, and your lack of a solution.” So, President Barack Obama went on the Tonight Show, and did an interview with 60 Minutes, and will do another news conference tonight. These appearances will help Obama advance an explanation of his bank bailout program, and offer reporters a chance to publicly question the president. One would think that this would be a good thing. But NO! God, no! Doesn’t Obama realize that he’s risking over-exposure, with all the explaining and answering questions and being a public figure? How dare he?
That’s the recent message that’s been advancing through the press. After Obama appeared on a rival network’s late night show, CBS’s Chris Wragge was given to wonderment: “The Obama blitz, the President’s appearing everywhere, but is his media tour taking attention away from his message?” Because clearly, the last thing a “message” needs is a series of sessions that allows it to be clearly elucidated!
Here’s the President of the United States speaking with school kids, to our Astronauts.
Obama reached out by sending an Op-Ed to 30 newspapers worldwide, asking for a coherent response to the global financial crisis.
Overexposed?
He’s doing his job.
I guess we were so numbed by the last guy’s inability to stay awake past 10 pm, that we’re exhausted by Obama’s energy.
Leave Obama alone, he’ll surprise his critics by actually getting things done…
“Over the last eight years, government spending on contracts has doubled to over $500 billion,” he said. “Far too often, the spending is plagued by massive cost overruns, outright fraud, and the absence of oversight and accountability.”
Lest their be any ambiguity about where the real problem lies, the president took particular aim at defense contracting:
Last year, the Government Accountability Office, GAO, looked into 95 major defense projects and found cost overruns that totaled $295 billion. Let me repeat: That’s $295 billion in wasteful spending. … In Iraq, too much money has been paid out for services that were never performed, buildings that were never completed, companies that skimmed off the top. At home, too many contractors have been allowed to get away with delay after delay after delay in developing unproven weapons systems.
Uggh, fraud and cost overruns make me SICK.
According to WIRED, contractors have already figured out how to SPIN the conversation: they will put the blame for cost overruns not on the contractors, but on the military services for failing to be specific about what precisely they want built or delivered. “I would lead with [telling the government], ‘We waste money because you can’t make up your mind,’” an ex-official suggested.
Without transparency, TRUTH, and honesty, defense contractors could run the US into the ground, FAST.
As if that isn’t bad enough, 
