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Sunday, May 11, 2008
Jenna got married on Saturday. As for the reverend who did the ceremony - guess who he's endorsing for President. posted by Wally 12:51 PM I'll give you a hint. It ain't McCain. President Bush's daughter Jenna Welch Bush on Saturday married Henry Chase Hager, a graduate student and son of a former Virginia lieutenant governor, before 200 relatives and close family friends here, the White House confirmed. On Saturday afternoon, the Hager family hosted wedding guests at a barbecue in Salado. The wedding, which began at 7:30 p.m., took place on the Bush ranch, before a white limestone altar erected next to a man-made lake. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston officiated at the ceremony. Mr. Caldwell, a longtime religious adviser to Mr. Bush, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama. Awkward Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Some meatpacking companies want to test all of their cattle for Mad Cow disease. Bush tells judge to stop them. posted by Wally 7:13 AM How much does Georgie care about the American (or other) people? Enough to try to stop meatpackers from doing additional testing (above and beyond federal regulations) to ensure that they're not putting mad cow disease beef on the market. The logic is so twisted, even those of us who have spent years studying Bush's (ahem) reasoning have a hard time following it. Time Magazine tries to explain: The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority. The government seeks to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Arkansas City, Kan.-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct more comprehensive testing to satisfy demand from overseas customers in Japan and elsewhere. Less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows are currently tested for the disease under Agriculture Department guidelines. The agency argues that more widespread testing does not guarantee food safety and could result in a false positive that scares consumers. Wouldn't want to scare consumers now. They might stop shopping. That could lower corporate profit margins, and we can't have that, even at the expense of human lives and health. The additional, voluntary testing could also result in "real" positives that inform consumers. Perhaps that's another reason Bush is blocking it - he and Cheney have an irrational fear of allowing "we the people" to have any information about anything. (If you doubt this, consider the fact that they still refuse to release even the names of the people that were on Cheney's "energy task force" back in 2001). The more obvious reason, of course, is this: Larger meatpackers have opposed Creekstone's push to allow wider testing out of fear that consumer pressure would force them to begin testing all animals too. Once again, Bush comes to the rescue of the multi-national humongo-corporations in their struggle to squash the little guy. He wouldn't any of that "healthy competition" to enter his "free market" system and affect his big money CEO pals. Another day, another small step on the road to changing our government from "Of, by, and for the people" to "screw the people". Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

And the hits just keep on coming posted by Clyde 5:28 AM Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens It was already shaping up to be a difficult year for congressional Republicans. Now, on the cusp of Mother's Day, comes this: A majority of the House GOP has voted against motherhood. On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest. "Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who has two young daughters, moved to table Tiahrt's request, setting up a revote. This time, 178 Republicans cast their votes against mothers. (Link) Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Unfixing the fix posted by Clyde 5:08 AM Judge Drops General From Trial of Detainee In a new blow to the Bush administration's troubled military commission system, a military judge has disqualified a Pentagon general who has been centrally involved in overseeing Guantanamo war crimes tribunals from any role in the first case headed for trial. The judge said the general was too closely aligned with the prosecution, raising questions about whether he could carry out his role with the required neutrality and objectivity. Military defense lawyers said that although the ruling was limited to one case, they expected the issue to be raised in other cases, potentially delaying prosecutions, including the death-penalty prosecution of six detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for the Sept. 11 attacks. Critics of the military commission system said Friday that the judge's decision would provide new grounds to attack the system that they say was set up to win convictions. (Link) Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Saturday, May 10, 2008
Corporate Wars posted by Clyde 4:47 AM War's shopping cart Pepsi, Apple, Krispy Kreme and other consumer firms profit from Iraq too. Last month, a review of 2006 congressional financial disclosure statements by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found that lawmakers have as much as $196 million "invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the start of the Iraq war." An Associated Press article on the report, however, offered a caveat: "Not all the companies invested in by lawmakers are typical defense contractors. Corporations such as PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson have at one point received defense-related contracts." But the Associated Press is wrong. The fact is that corporations such as PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson are, indeed, typical defense contractors. To suggest that such firms, and tens of thousands like them, only receive defense-related contracts at the odd, aberrant moment is specious at best. In 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his famous farewell address as president, warned of the "acquisition of unwarranted influence" by what he called the "military-industrial complex" in the United States. Today, however, the "large arms industry" of Eisenhower's day is only part of a complex equation. Civilian firms such as PepsiCo and IBM form the backbone of what more accurately can be described as a "military-corporate complex." These businesses allow the Pentagon to function, to make war and to carry out foreign occupations. For example, in 2006 (the last year for which official figures are available), PepsiCo and IBM ranked among the Pentagon's top 100 contractors, taking in $286,696,943 and $291,825,309, respectively. This was no aberration. The previous year, they received $233,053,993 and $382,408,117 each, according to Department of Defense documents. In fact, both companies have been defense contractors every year since at least 2000. And there isn't anything special or odd about PepsiCo or IBM, when it comes to the Pentagon. (Link) Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

Georgie's Big Bad Boogey Man Alive and Well posted by Clyde 4:43 AM Al Qaeda in Iraq leader not captured - U.S. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al Qaeda in Iraq, has not been captured, a senior U.S. military official told CNN on Friday. Iraqi authorities said Thursday that al-Masri had been captured in Mosul. U.S. military officials were surprised about the report of Abu Ayyub al-Masri's capture -- first reported by Iraqi media and picked up by The Associated Press. And intelligence officials said they were skeptical, even though Iraqi officials said al-Masri was already in U.S. military custody. Al-Masri ("the Egyptian"), also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, took the reins of the Iraqi al Qaeda offshoot in June 2006 after a U.S. missile strike killed his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (BOO) Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Friday, May 9, 2008
"I can't quit you George." posted by Dookie The Webmaster 12:27 PM McCain Says He Did Vote For George W. Bush ABC News' Jan Simmonds and Jennifer Parker report: Heightening a he-said she-said brouhaha, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., today disputed liberal blogger Arianna Huffington's assertion that the presumptive Republican nominee voted against George W. Bush during the 2000 election. "It's nonsense," said McCain, whose campaign has suggested Huffington made up the story to promote her new book. Huffington, a former Republican, supports the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. ... Two other guests at Bergen's party, former "West Wing" actors Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff, have come forward this week in the media to say that they, too, heard McCain say he didn't vote for Bush. Campaigning today in New Jersey, McCain disputed the story. "I voted, campaigned for, worked as hard as I could for President Bush's election in 2000 and 2004," McCain told reporters. "I voted for President Bush, I said so at the time. I know we're already in silly season, but my record stands very clearly of campaigning all over this nation on behalf of the candidacy of President Bush." McCain also admonished the media. "In all due respect, this is all not worth our time ...this happened eight years ago." McSame Permalink :: 6 comments :: Post a Comment