TODAY'S SHOW: MONDAY AUGUST 6TH 2007
We have lots of interesting news to cover today, everything from campaign news to Yearly Kos to sports (yes, sports) to the outrageous gutting of FISA-- the foreign intelligence surveillance act. And by "foreign" they now mean domestic. Because if you are inside the US making an international call, the government can now monitor that call with only the approval of Alberto Gonzales, the Torture Guy. Couldn't we have gotten someone with a more reassuring moniker?
Luckily, Caroline Fredrickson from the ACLU joins Rachel to talk about how serious and lasting the damage might be.
And later, Rachel will be joined by Sarah Sewall. Sarah wrote the introduction to the new US Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. She says that if you don't think this document is radical, then you don't understand it.
MENTIONED ON TODAY'S SHOW
5 years ago today a piece of paper rested on President Bush's desk. Its title? "Osama bin Laden Determined to Attack in US"
Not only did the Peace Corps receive political briefings, but now we discover that the Justice Department did too.
Barry Bonds has a legitimacy problem, Part II
FISA RIP
Mitt Romney is a jerk
Whew!
The stream sounds like someone talking at the bottom of a trash can during a windstorm!
Or maybe it's just the way Randi normally sounds.
:cheese:
"We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anyone tell you different."--Kurt Vonnegut
underdog
Thanks to Rachel, I have been singing the underdog theme. My mom & I went to see the Underdog movie this weekend, partly due to my obsession and the fact that mom's dog looks like Polly Purebred, UD's girlfriend. Needless to say, we thought it was hysterical, in a cheesy, Jim Belushi is in this movie kind of way. Ultimately, it was cute. and goofy. much like underdog.
Thought you should know, Rachel. If it weren't for you and Olbermann, I would go crazy :)
Why Bill O'Reilly HATES The Daily KOS
From DB Schell's Mr. Drinkwater Cartoon Site:
BillO is very, very, scared of us.
That's why.
~Nyc Alberts, Digital Components
Lasciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'intrate.... Bitches
I'd Rather Be A Matin' Than A Hatin'
They could tap them before. Now it can be used in COURT!!!
The FISA scam is a TELCO BOARD OF DIRECTORS approved BIG BROTHER SYSTEM which does exactly what Hoover wished he could have done. The RFID stuff goes hand in hand with the GPS phones and On Star. They want total control Eichmann IBM style PERIOD!!!!!!
TOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS POINDEXTER IS BACK!!!!!!
It's an expost facto attempt to exonerate the junta for misdemeanor 4th amendment felony to short-circuit impeachment by forcing a full SCOTUS intervention.
It's also a GRAND DEFLECTION from the PRIORITY IMPEACHMENT wave created by Fein Nichols Moyers boulder dropped on the media before the TERROR steam pipe, bridge 10,000:1 catastrophic collapse, moved the public's attention away from the TREASON CHARGES being hurled at the unelected cabal running the executive branch.
WAKE UP!!!!!!
forums.therandirhodesshow.com/ .. 116759
Surrender on the FISA spying authorization....NO reason to have caved on that. And DEFINITELY no reason that 60 House Dems and 16 Senate Dems should have voted for it.
Cenk Uygur on "Young Turks" this morning was right....at this point, Bush can do anything he wants and the Dems won't object. And impeachment just became a dream.
forums.therandirhodesshow.com/ ..1176773
POTUS threatened to veto 60 percent of the House’s work.
Implementing 9/11 Commission's Recommendations - H.R. 1
Status: Passed January 9, 2007
The Administration opposes in its current form
U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability Act
Vetoed by the President May 1, 2007
Rail and Mass Transit Security Act - H.R. 1401
The President has threatened to veto
...
forums.therandirhodesshow.com/ ..113551
Conyers knows there is no downside to impeachment.
Why divide the Democrats? 80% of Democrats want Cheney impeached. What kind of divide is that? It would be 90% the day after Conyers began impeachment.
Conyers knows there is no downside to impeachment. We need to provide the public pressure to allow him to act.
http://www.airamerica.com/thomhartmannpage/node/77#comment-2830
What's the big shock?
Many--myself included--have pointed out time and time again that the Dems are in no way a real opposition party, a force for change, a counter to the neo-cons, however you want to put it. Nader was right for the most part: not a dime's worth of difference between the "two" parties. They're owned by the same people.
'We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anyone tell you different."--Kurt Vonnegut
Pelosi's blog entry
I checked out "The Gavel" after Rachel referred to the "we gotta look into this FISA thing we did" entry. Pelosi sent this letter to Conyers and another committee chair saying "the American people aren't going to put up with this for six months; please convene hearings asap...." I'm wondering how often this kind of thing happens - is this the first time a Speaker has asked committee chairs to start revising legislation a few hours after it's passed???? Or does this happen fairly often?
Visit my blog at http://swanofblue.blogspot.com
Mitt Romney's beliefs
Did anyone find it objectionable or even a wee bit scary that Mitt casually mentions killing all the Jews just before the rapture?
August 6th
August 6th is my Birthday. First, Hiroshima and Nagaski, now the PDB. Can I still have fun? Would you?
August 13
I share a birthday with Annie Oakley, Alfred Hitchcock and Fidel! So you bet I'm gonna party!
:cheese:
"We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anyone tell you different."--Kurt Vonnegut
Barry Bonds Is Being Unfairly Railroaded...
Just ask former White House Ant-Terrorism Czar, Richard A. Clarke.
He totally agrees with me, read his latest book, Cyber Punk novel, Breakpoint, if you doubt me.
The E&P piece is nonsense.
Professional sports is a rigged game, why else is it that World Series games now generally go the full 7 games?
Or why this Gordie Thoren joke has a ring of truth?
"NBA official admitted today that they should have known that something was amiss when they received reports about disgraced referee Tim Donaghy officiating games in the off-season for the Harlem Globe Trotters, games in which the Globe Trotters would consistently *not* beat the spread."
:coolsmirk:
End The Hypocrisy, Eliminate ALL Drug Testing In "Professional" Sports
From a recent correspondence on the subject of Barry Bonds and using performance enhancing drugs in general:
Show of hands.
Who here has ever been on prescription medication to improve and/or enhance their performance in life, be it work or personal?
Or had their kids put on Ritalin, so they'd do better in school?
OK, of those that raised your hands, how many of you believe that Barry Bonds has to have an asterisk* or 2** placed next to his name?
Such bullshit.
End the hypcrisy.......
Like, y'know.....
now.
Instead of the nonsense we have now, let's.....
Set up separate leagues in *all* Major League, "professional" sports with
**NO**
Zilch
Zero
NONE
no, that's, no drug testing....
whatsoever.
Don't get me started on maintaining 'the purity' of the game, either, that ship sailed a long time ago.
The real scandal here is the one that goes like, 'oh we have all this wonderful technology that can take you to unimagined levels of human performance, but if you use it, and get caught, not only are you on your own, but we'll make your life a living hell, to boot. Good luck, to ya, pal.'
I suggest you re-think your premises on this one, and wake up and smell the 21st Century.
Pet peeve, and you just landed square on it, sorry.
/rant
and this follow-up:
But since it's on the table, let's talk about integrity in sports in America.
The NBA, as it's come out in the wake of the Ref 'scandal', all by its lonesome, is a $3 billion dollar business.
Can you name one business in the USA that generates over a billion dollars of revenue that runs from a morally ethical center?
Microsoft? GE? Time Warner? Exxon-Mobile? Blue Cross/Blue Shield?
Any of those?
Why should the NBA, or any other sports league, be an exception to predatorial way America does business?
I really don't get the sports doping = fuct idea. What are you basing that on?
Try to put yourself in the shoes of an adolescent/early 20s, naturally gifted athlete, in a culture that's money driven.
On the one hand, they can go the au natural route, work their asses off to get to the top of their game and at the end of that their reward is a $2 million dollar contract.
Or they can do all that, plus add a little chemical enhancement into their regimen and at the end of that their reward is a $20 million dollar a year contract.
Guarantee you that 90% of all these young professional athletes, when looking at these sets of numbers, and planning for their futures of themselves and their families are going to make the obvious choice.
I know you mean well, but seen one way, your position literally takes food out of your young charges mouths, and in the very near future, when this false, Puritanical based 'morality' is finally seen for what it is, someone of your mindset may be seen as committing sports malpractice.
That being said, I, as well as millions of others are with ya on the pole vaulting thing, tho, I'll cede that:
http://tinyurl.com/2qepf8 heheheh
Here's a hypothetical question for you.
An affordable drug, with no side-effects, comes to the market, after going through a rigorous set of FDA clinical trials, that gives you a 100% photographic memory.*
Would you take it?
Would you counsel parents who want their kids to get into the best school that they can to not let their kids take that drug, even though every other kid in the class is taking it?
Would you want the President of The United States, as well as all his advisers, to take it?
If not, why not?
If so, then how is that any different than taking a regulated drug to enhance physical performance?
And besides, do you think Sly Stallone looks like shit at the age of 60 and oughta stop taking his HGH?
Or is that just not fair that he can afford it?
And what's fair in this culture when the First Athlete plays like this:
http://graphics2.snopes.com/politics/graphics/rugby.jpg ?
So what if it's a poor, unsporting, example to set?
It's the way the game is played today and those that don't get with the program are gonna get steam-rollered.
....
~Nyc Alberts, Digital Components
Lasciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'intrate.... Bitches
I'd Rather Be A Matin' Than A Hatin'
The water on the hill must be spiked. WHY ARE THEY DRINKING IT?
How do you explain Webb's complicity in FISA TREASON, fear for his boy's neck?
Were the DEMS blackmailed, or are they just STUPID?
http://www.airamerica.com/thomhartmannpage/node/77#comment-2829
This canned DEJA VU speech prior to abolishing habeas corpus sounds rumsfedian, dont it?
Remarks by the President at Bob Riley for Governor Luncheon
Birmingham, Alabama September 28, 2006
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/print/20060928-8.html
I want to spend a little time on what else occupies my mind, other than making sure our economy grows. And it's this: My most solemn responsibility and the most solemn duty of the federal government, as a matter of fact governments at all levels, is to protect the American people. (Applause.)
We are a nation at war. I wish I could report differently, but you need to have a President who sees the world the way it is, not the way somebody would hope it would be. We face an enemy that is brutal, an enemy that is determined, and enemy that has a set of beliefs that is the opposite of our beliefs.
I'll never forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001, and I will continue to use, as I vowed then to the American people, every element of national power to defeat the terrorists and to defend the freedom of the United States of America. (Applause.)
I'll make you this pledge: Our troops will have whatever it takes to do the job we have asked them to do. (Applause.)
If somebody that we think is al Qaeda or an al Qaeda affiliate gets on the telephone and is making a phone call into the United States, we want to know why, in order to protect the American people. (Applause.)
These people hide in remote regions of the world and then strike with lethality, as we learned firsthand in our country.
I also believed it was important to set up military commissions that will enable us to bring to justice the people that ordered the attacks on the United States of America. (Applause.)
We must defeat the enemy overseas so we do not have to face them here at home. (Applause.)
Here's what a senior Democrat in Congress put it when she was discussing Iraq. She said, "The President says that fighting them there makes it less likely we'll have to fight them here. The opposite is true," she went on to say. "Because we are fighting them there, it may become more likely that we'll have to fight them here."
We didn't create terrorism by fighting terrorism. Iraq is not the reason why the terrorists are at war against us. We were not in Iraq when the extremists killed nearly 3,000 of our people on September the 11th, 2001. (Applause.)
Five years after the 9/11 attacks, some in Washington, D.C. still don't understand the nature of the enemy. We will stay on the offense. We will fight them across the world. And we will stay in this fight until the fight is won. (Applause.)
In order to win this war, we need to understand that the terrorists and extremists are opportunists. They will grab onto any cause to incite hatred and to justify the killing of innocent men, women and children. If we weren't in Iraq, they would be using our relationship and friendship with Israel as a reason to recruit, or the Crusades, or cartoons as a reason to commit murder. They recruit based upon lies and excuses. And they murder because of their raw desire for power. They hope to impose their dominion over the broader Middle East and establish a radical Islamic empire where millions are ruled according to their hateful ideology. We know this because al Qaeda has told us.
This idea that a candidate's religion gets a free pass...
...from criticism, because supposedly it doesn't apply to his/her politics, that it can be held separate, is a load of bullshit. No major religion is without a dogma, an essential philosophy that for most practitioners lies at the very heart of their fundamental (pun intended) operating system. In this regard, it is no different than one being a logical positivist, a cynic or an existentialist--or for that matter, a conservative, a liberal, a communist or a fascist. In fact, the only difference between secular philosophy and religious philosophy is that the latter (at least in the US) generally tacks on some wierd anthropomorphic super-being...which in itself should call into question the reasoning ability of the adherent. Which is also something you might wanna know before you vote for someone.
It sure isnt' something to ignore.
"We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anyone tell you different."--Kurt Vonnegut
Sarah Sewall BLAH BLAH BLAH ...
Has she said anything comprehensible yet?
Oh I get it, BIRTH PANGS!!!
Killing civilians once in a while if you get the bad guy most of the time is Honorable?
Using overwhelming force when restrained police action to win hearts and minds is the objective is Honorable?
Random midnight raids, air strikes on folks sleeping on the roof due to the heat, that cant be Honorable, can it?
Ya think 20 sq mile permanent bases makes the occupying force more honorable?
My field manuals arent rounded, yours are?
WHAT THE FULUK HAPPENED TO COL. McMASTERS?
February 2005
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/endgame/interviews/mcmaster.html
Sarah Sewall argues the
Sarah Sewall argues the "left" has a problematic view of insurgencies. That "international insurgents" would attack "legitmate" "democratically elected" governments. Cripes I'm tired of having to endure this newspeak.
THIS Government wasn't democratically electd.
THIS Government has a long and shameful history of attacking "legitmate" "democratically elected" governments.
It makes me nauseous.
We have succumbed to Fascism. Wake the F*ck up!
Mike G
http://www.quadkite.com
No new FISA
When I got into work yesterday and saw the NYT headline about the new warrantless wiretapping LAW, headed by Alberto Gonzales (?!), I couldn't believe my eyes. The last I knew, on Friday, it seemed like a no-brainer that the Dems would reject it. The bill was so over-the-top outlandish. I thought, hey, did I miss something here? What the heck happened? And there it was, in print. No FISA court, Gonzales has (more) free reign. Sigh. :long:
I guess I had better watch it when I email and phone my cousin and college buddies in London...
UPDATE: NYT editorial board listening to TRMS? ;-)
...the spectacle left us wondering what the Democrats — especially their feckless Senate leaders — plan to do with their majority in Congress if they are too scared of Republican campaign ads to use it to protect the Constitution and restrain an out-of-control president. [snip]
Mr. Bush claims that he has kept America safe since 9/11. But that claim ignores the country’s very real and present vulnerabilities. Six years after the 9/11 attacks the administration has still failed to secure American ports, railroads and airports from terrorist attack, and has put the profits of the chemical and nuclear-power industries ahead of safeguarding their plants.
On the plus side, however...
...since they're gonna get us all sooner or later, I now no longer feel the need to hide my blatant treason. Or my baby-killing, either.
:cheese:
"We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anyone tell you different."--Kurt Vonnegut
The Captain Returns!
Captain Obvious On Bush
It takes a village to have an idiot - Actor212
re:death metal kid, misheard
hey Rachel & crew -
I think the Al-Qaeda Cali kid said "divine Sharia" instead of "violating Sharia", so his idea makes "sense" - if you're into that sort of thing.
I too have a crush on Olbermann (& on you too) in a "I respect you guys so much for doing and saying what you do/ mad integrity" kind of way.
Poverty
As the competitions between presidential candidates increase and tense up, the candidates need to be reminded of the critical issues that still trouble our society today. Issue such as global poverty needs to be address by our candidates to each and to the general public. As one of the nation that has pledge to fulfill the goals of Millennium Development Project, whose goal is the elimination of world hunger and poverty, the Bush Administration has not shown any substantial action to bring this fundamental problem to a stop. According to the Borgen Project, dedicated to fighting and ending Poverty around the world, only $19 billion dollars are needed annually to stop world wide poverty, hunger and malnutrition. However, more than $340 billion dollars has been poured into this “war on terror.” And each year, our country has a military budge of $522 billion dollars. It's time for a new leader who will be addressing an issue that affects 1.2 billion people everyday worldwide.
Keep your emails secret....................
Title all your emails "bin Laden determined to strike inside the US"
and the Bush Administration will never read it.
Never trust a man who got his start as an anchor for Inside Edition!
:aar: