Mike's Blog

Well they're consistent

There was a recent bill to prohibit pesticide testing on people.  It's interesting to note that the group who thought lynching was just fine and dandy are mostly included in the list of those who think that pesticide testing using human subjects is a good idea.  Those below who voted Nay are all GOP. The lynch mob had a few Democrats up until the last.

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes    109^th Congress -    1^st Session

as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate

Vote Summary

                                                                               

Question:              On the Amendment (Boxer Amdt. No. 1023 )
Vote Number:	162	Vote Date:	June 29, 2005,  12:49 PM
Required For Majority:	1/2	Vote Result:	Amendment Agreed to
Amendment Number:	S.Amdt. 1023                              to H.R. 2361                   (Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 )
Statement of Purpose:	To prohibit the use of funds by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to accept, consider, or rely on third-party intentional dosing human studies for pesticides or to conduct intentional dosing human studies for pesticides.

   

                                       

Vote Counts:	YEAs	60
	NAYs	37
	Not Voting	3

(link via a comment on AMERICAblog by Think Progress)

So what would happen?

I saw the news that Cheney was in the hospital up in Vail for an 'orothopedic checkup'.  Lot's of "nice thoughts" about what could happen but then a scary comment over on AMERICAblog " Whoever replaces Cheney as VP is Rove's candidate for 2008". That would be -

Theodore Fulton "Ted" Stevens (born November 18, 1923) is an American politician from Alaska. He is currently the longest serving Republican in the U.S. Senate and, because of this, is the current president pro tempore.

I don't know anything about him but the thought that Rove would have several years to position this person and himself is scary. Of course being in his 80's now it would seem a long shot that he'd last another 3 years plus another 4 if he were elected. So hard to say how it would turn out. With him being this old it could have very little impact.

If people are tired of the new lies, let's go back to the old lies

Now it's back to blaming the WTC bombing on Iraq. If the justification for the war in Iraq was the WTC bombing, then Liechtenstein better watch out as there's as much reason to declare war on them as there was on Iraq.

...As we work to deliver opportunity at home, we're also keeping you safe from threats from abroad. We went to war because we were attacked, and we are at war today because there are still people out there who want to harm our country and hurt our citizens. Some may disagree with my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but all of us can agree that the world's terrorists have now made Iraq a central front in the war on terror. These foreign terrorists violently oppose the rise of a free and democratic Iraq, because they know that when we replace despair and hatred with liberty and hope, they lose their recruiting grounds for terror... (President's Radio Address on  6/18 )

Actual US Fatalities in Iraq 9000?

This kind of deception and over the top 'misleading' I suppose wouldn't surprise me too much with this administration but I still find it hard to believe they would actually have this much blatant disregard for Amercans and their own supporters. They made a big deal out of Clinton's dancing around what was meant by 'sexual relations'. "Dead as a result of the Iraqi war doesn't really count as dead as the result of the Iraqi war if ....  This is too much!  I read this in several blogs that I have respect for and will watch how this plays out over the next days-weeks.  If this turns out to be true it certainly adds to the case for immediate impeachment and trying the lot of them for war crimes. I don't support the death penalty but this is certainly an exception where a public execution would provide a positive example to the world. Or maybe just set them free in the streets of Baghdad.  So now we may have 9000 American lives and 100,000 Iraqi lives. Nixon and his crew who served jail time are  small time amateurs and saints compared to Shrub and his crew.

                    Jim Lampley                    

The Ultimate Deception?

     A Bush-watcher website identified as TBRNews.org is reporting under the byline of "domestic intelligence reporter" Brian Harring that the Department of Defense is using a cynical tactic to mislead the public regarding the true death toll for American military personnel in Iraq. Harring claims he has an internal pdf. file from the D.O.D. which establishes that nearly 9000 Americans have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom, but that the official number has been held to 1713 by designating as Iraq deaths only those who perish on Iraqi soil. The remainder, he says, are military personnel who have died en route to Germany or in German hospitals-- casualties of the war, but not listed in the official death toll.

If this is true it would explain the apparent statistical discrepancy between dead and wounded. A combat action which produces nearly eight times as many officially wounded-- 13000 plus-- as officially dead...well, it's not the norm. It goes without saying it would also further jolt a public majority already disturbed by the war's "progress" and eager to see the troops come home....(link the Huffington Post)

                                               

Bush says the opposite of politcal talk is the truth

President Promotes Medicare Drug Plan

..."This isn't political talk, this is true," he said. "And I encourage people to take a look at this program."...

Of course hidden in the 'truth' is the little fact that the people who sign up for the Medicare drug plan are signing up, locking in and agreeing that the insurance companies can do whatever they want afterwards.

...Insurers will be able to alter benefit packages even after a senior has signed up. One of the administration's strongest critics, Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.), said that provision is "the real trap" and "then they're stuck in a plan that doesn't have the drugs they hoped they would get." Washington Post via AMERICABlog

So I guess no surprises here. We know we get screwed when he lies, now he tells us we're getting the same treatment when he tells the 'truth'. He is consistent.

 

The Senate pro-lynching squad

There are only two ways to read this, they are either personally pro-lynching  or so afraid of losing votes back home that they did not put their names on the list of co-sponsors.  These are the sickest of the sick.  They  personally think lynching was good, just and within the rights of states and/or are proud to represent and defend people who do.

I've been watching this for the last couple of days and I just can't fathom how a US Senator would not sign on as a co-sponsor either because they disagree with the point of it or they have too many constituents back home that they would offend. 

And as John Aravosis points out the Senate intentionally took a  'voice vote' which means they call for a 'aye' or 'no' and whoever is there (late at night in this case) speaks up if they want and then if it's a single 'aye', it's a unanimous vote. There is no record of who voted, didn't vote or which way they voted.   There is only  the list of those who refused to sign on as co-sponsors. 

The list of Senators not opposed to lynching. (this is an amazing sentence to write).

Via AMERICAblog
...
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)  (he signed on eventually, now it's all GOP)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Michael Crapo (R-ID)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
George Voinovich (R-OH)
...

More Than a Dozen Senators Decline to Sign On as Co-Sponsors of the Resolution, Outraging Supporters

Jun. 13, 2005 - The U.S. Senate formally apologized this evening for its role in one of the darkest chapters of American history.

At least 4,749 Americans are known to have been lynched during a time when the Senate failed to act on some 200 anti-lynching bills.

"The Senate has more than blood on their hands by not stopping it," said Jimmy Allen, editor of Without Sanctuary, a collection of lynching photographs that helped to spur the Senate resolution.

The resolution, initially introduced by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Sen. George Allen, R-Va., apologizes to the victims and their descendants "for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation."
...(ABC News link Via AMERICAblog)

Why do people grow up to be such bigoted assholes...

I was at the Livermore Rodeo Parade this weekend. Very long parade, lots of local groups, Boy Scouts, dance academies, horse and rodeo related.  Nice parade.  Also a number of young shaved heads in military vehicles being praised as heroes as they go off to kill and be killed in the name of lies and theocracy. Lots of flags and and cheering.  Then there were about a dozen people in the parade with signs protesting plutonium and bombs. Livermore and LLNL is a popular place to protest plutonium and bombs for some reason.  http://www.abolitionnow.org/.

  The crowd grew mostly silent and the announcer who was enthusiastically announcing all the other entrants made a very brief comment and then was quiet.  Then a lone voice - "boooo".  The voice belonged to a small boy, maybe 7 years old.  Hmm, I wonder where he got that opinion.  I don't think it was from the parade. Gee, maybe a few mumbled comments from his parents?

The Dem's said 'Ok, fine" on this one...

how bad are the ones they are still blocking?  Priscilla Owen is even too much of a right wing nutjob  for Mr. "Geneva Conventions are quaint"  Alberto Gonzales.

...
Right-wing Republicans fight to make the world safe from "judicial activists" by appointing Priscilla Owen -- the biggest, baddest, worstest judicial activist Texas ever produced -- to the federal bench.

Owen is so notorious for reading her own opinions into the law, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, then her colleague on the Texas Supreme Court, described her opinion in a parental consent case as "an unconscionable act of judicial activism." ...(Molly Ivins)

"Free kool-aid for all", Cheney cheers

Iraq insurgency in 'last throes,' Cheney says

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 Posted: 3:50 AM EDT (0750 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The insurgency in Iraq is "in the last throes," Vice President Dick Cheney says, and he predicts that the fighting will end before the Bush administration leaves office.

... Cheney said he was "absolutely convinced we did the right thing in Iraq." He said the United States was making "major progress" in Iraq, where a transitional government took power in April and was working on drafting a new constitution.

"America will be safer in the long run when Iraq, and Afghanistan as well, are no longer safe havens for terrorists or places where people can gather and plan and organize attacks against the United States," he said....(link CNN)

Of course some opinions (can we say facts?) differ.

Suicide Attacks Rising Rapidly

By Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD — Suicide bombings have surged to become the Iraqi insurgency's weapon of choice, with a staggering 90 attacks accounting for most of last month's 750 deaths at the militants' hands.

Suicide attacks outpaced car bombings almost 2-to-1 in May, according to figures compiled by the U.S. military, The Times and other media outlets. In April, there were 69 suicide attacks, more than in the entire year preceding the June 28, 2004, hand-over of sovereignty.
The frequency of suicide bombings here is unprecedented, exceeding that of Palestinian attacks against Israel and of other militant insurgencies, such as the Chechen rebellion in Russia. Baghdad saw five suicide bombings in a six-hour span Sunday.

Early today, three suicide bombers killed at least 16 Iraqis in blasts north of Baghdad... (link LA Times)