Dispassionate Liberalism
HAS MOVED....CLICK HERE FOR NEW SITE

Intellectual freedom is the only guarantee of a scientific - democratic approach to politics, economic development, and culture.
-Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov-

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-Benjamin Franklin-

Be excellent to each other.  -Bill and Ted-


"Where's My-Polling-Site-dot-Com?"




Mark Adams is [in no particular order] a Lawyer, Restauranteur, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Landlord, Singer, Guitarist, Political Scientist, Amateur Historian and Rhetorician with no sense of reverence for anything except the freedom to speak one's mind.
To visit Mark's Family Law Website
Click Here!
Google



Web D-Lib




this is a Proud Liberal Site
Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
Trackback by HaloScan.com


Syndicate this site

Subscribe To My Podcasts


Blogroll Me!

Truth Laid Bear


BlogSearchEngine


Listed at:
Political Blog Directory
Political Blog List
Ohio weblogs on current events
Blog Directory Anti-Bush
Ohio - LeftyBlogs.com
American Street
Daily Kos :: Reader Blogs
Technorati

OHIO BLOGS

AsOhioGoes

Agora
An Age Like This
Blue Grass Roots
Bush Lies
Cincinnati Blog
Cincinnati Group
Cincinnati News
Cleveland Diary
Coins For Change
Covington
Dispassionate Lib
Democratic Veteran
Dr. Mike
GrowOhio
Hegemo's
Hypothetically Speaking !
It's In There
Jerry Springer for Ohio
Just Well Mixed
Logan's Lurch
Mad As Hell
Nosey Online
Ohio Voter Suppression
People Have The Power
Red Wheelbarrow
Shameless Agitator
Swing State Project
The Tomb of Horrors
Timroffia
Walk In Brain

TOLEDO BLOGS

Aaron Myers' Blog
Adventures of a Single Mom
Alan Barber
Arbor Update
CatchingFlies
Cloudstrife
Chuck Childers
Chili Dog Blog
Damage Inc
Dan Eble's Blog
Diana Schnuth
E2K Security
Erie Voices
Frank Szollosi
The Glitch
Grace Lutheran Church
Graphikjunkie
History Mike
Jean's Travels
Jeff Hormann
Joey Harrison
Josh Pollard
Keith Instone
Kelegraph
Kevin Marsh
Laura Rae Amos
Liberal Common Sense
Mark Dilley
Micah and Susan
Mindful Musings
Move the Crowd
My Ugly Divorce
Mind Matter
Omar the Great
One Bad Website
Rhea's Journal
Paul's Down Home Page
Photo Dan
Political Whore
Promote the Progress
Random Thoughts
The Rhetorical Box
Right moment
Ruckman.net
Rick Reed
Robin Gorrell's Blog
Sea4Yourself
A Short Domain Name
Small Business IP Protection and Management
Steve Solomon
The Age of Unreason
The Built Environment
Toledo Talk
Toledotastic
Trailing Thoughts
Traveling through Life Without a Map
Tribe's Rants
Untangled Vine
Urban Camel
Vince T
Ws84Tigers
The Yippie Show

BLOGS I RECOMMEND
A Fulmination of Thought
Agitprop, feat. Blogenfreude
A Tiny Revolution
Aaron Swartz
Al Franken Show
Allah Is In The House
American Agenda
AMERICAblog !
American Regression
American Street !
An Inclination to Criticize
Angry Liberal
Another Liberal Blog:
Approximately perfect
Arianna's Blog

Bear Left On Unnamed Road
Billmon
BlogBites
blogunderground
Blue Lemur
BlueGrassRoots
Bob
BOP News !
BRAD BLOG
Brandon Starr

Captain Normal
Castle Argghhh!
ConyersBlog
Corpus Callosum
Crooks and Liars
Cursor.org

Daily Kos !!
Daily Mislead
DemocracyArsenal
Dohiyi Mir !
Doucheblog

E Pluribus Unum !!
Eccentricity
Eschaton !!
Ezra Klein !

Fanatical Apathy
Firedoglake
Folkbum's !

Heli's Heaven and Hell Radio !
Hellblazer
Howler !
Huffington Post !!
Hullabaloo !!

Iddybud !
InstaPundit

Jesus' General
Juan Cole !!
JuliusBlog

LA Conservative
Last Word
Latest Poll Results
Lawyers, Guns and Money
League Of Liberals
Legal Fiction
LIBERAL FORUM
Logipundit.com
LOW RENT RAT

M E D L E Y
Mad As Hell (OH)
MAJORITY REPORT RADIO
Margaret Cho
Metafilter
Moderate Voice
morons.org - Engage Your Brain
MyDD !!


Obsidian Wings
O'Franken Factor

Pandagon  !
PNAC.info
Political Wire
Progressive Capitalist
Proof Through the Night

Queen of All Evil !!

Rational Liberal

ScrappleFace
Scriveners Lament
Shakespeare's Sister
Sideshow !
Sirotablog
Skeptical Notion

Skippy the bush kangaroo
Stockton & Tweed's Smorgasblog/
sustainablog

t a c i t u s
t r u t h o u t
talking dog
Talking Points Memo
Tao of Dowingba
Tar Baby
The FlipSide
THE FULCRUM
The Gantry Launchpad
The Nation
The Note
the RANT
Thunderstorms



Unspecified Chatter
VodkaPundit

Wage Slave Journal
Washington Monthly
White House
Wince and Nod
words mean things

Yellow Doggerel Democrat

Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Where the Real Bad Guys Went

Sobering Info from The Command Post: CIA has 11 Al-Qaida suspects in Jordan facility
The Central Intelligence Agency runs a top secret interrogation facility in Jordan, where at least 11 detainees who are considered Al-Qaida's most senior cadre are being held, Haaretz has learned from international intelligence sources.

A report on these prisoners issued Tuesday by the Human Rights Watch organization claims they are being held somewhere so secret that U.S. President George Bush asked the CIA heads not to report it to him.
"Plausible Deniability," where have I heard that term before?


Posted at 10/12/2004 10:00:48 pm by The Lib       |


"Oh Dude" Hersh & UK media document US atrocities

"Oh Dude"

That was the pilot's reaction after his precision-guided bomb hit the target -- a group of about 20 or so people walking across a downtown street in Fallujah. It is unclear whether they were armed insurgents or civilians but proper protocals were met according to the military, a ground controller confirmed with the pilot to "take them out."(WMV) He does in spectacular fasion.

The British point out this defines the difference between our rules of engagement and theirs. We shoot anything that moves, particularly in Fallujah. Even the wounded and unarmed.(RealPlayer)
Seymour Hersh spoke at Berkeley last Friday, October 8th. He told a story about recently receiving a call from an American lieutenant in Iraq who'd just witnessed other American soldiers massacring Iraqis.
We've put our most honorable men and women in a position where dishonorable accusations are unavoidable. I've no doubt that 30 years from now, there will be a presidential campaign where this century's version of the Swift Boaters will do battle over the holographic "Interlynk" in your living room with today's whistlblowers. And the line between Vietnam and Iraq and the definition of atrocities will again inflame our souls.

Hersh Story from A Tiny Revolution: Uh Oh [Via Eschaton] CNN carried the videos which are out there if you and Google get along.

(Note. The Fallujah cockpit video is from April but only surfaced last week in the UK. It is being "investigated" according to UK media)

UPDATE: A commentor at A Tiny Revolution (Martina) provides this link from U.C.Berkeley News on Sy Hersch's lecture. Only fitting that the man credited with exposing My Lai Massacre and the abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal should know even more than we ever wanted to know.

ADDENDUM: On Bruce's Mind has the RealAudio of Hersh's Berkeley appearance.


Posted at 10/12/2004 6:01:27 pm by The Lib       |


Democratic Campaign HQ Burglarized

toledoblade.com

The Lucas County Democratic Headquarters was burglarized overnight, and three computers, including the party's main system, were stolen.

The computers contained highly sensitive information, including the party's financial information, names and personal phone numbers of hundreds of party members, candidates, and volunteers.

The computers also stored e-mails from candidates that included discussion about campaign strategy.
Somebody check Howard Hunt's alibi...


Posted at 10/12/2004 4:35:13 pm by The Lib       |


BlogNuttistan Confused or Contrite?

I haven't weighed in on Sinclair Broadcasting's decision to pre-empt regular television programing to air their anti-Kerry propaganda piece mainly because I am ambivalent, and so it seems is the WingNuttistan.  I do respect the "freedom to speak one's mind" above all else.  If you need to catch up, Josh Marshall is (as always) all over this.  Start Here and keep scrolling up.

Besides, from the account I have heard/read about the "documentary," Stolen Honor, its effectiveness should not hold that much weight.  It merely sounds like the Swift Boat screed writ large.  Nothing new here, nothing to see. But as close as this election is, maybe it's best not to be so glib.  Columbus, among others regions, is a swing city in a swing State, and has two Sinclair outlets.

Since I don't believe I live in one of Sinclair's markets it won't effect us here in Toledo, and with the volume of TV ads we are subjected to here, it would be impossible to tell this show from any other -- a commercial interrupted by programming or visa-versa, who cares, who can tell?

Another reason is that if it is perfectly permissible to broadcast this film, it should open the door for Fahrenheit 9/11 to be seen on a nationally broadcast network within the same time-frame.  Since I haven't seen Michael Moore's film (yet -- being inherently cheap and part of the choir anyway), this looks like the perfect opportunity to witness that little bit of history. 

And why not.  Surely F-9/11 would cream the Swifties in the ratings -- put 'em on head to head and let the pundits make sense of Neilson versus Gallup rankings. 

Mind you, except for the occasionally shrill Holocaust Deniers accusation, I haven't seen too much support for Sinclair from the usual suspects in Blogtopia who were also remarkably quiet on Kerry's nuanced "nuisance" quote.  Maybe the lynch mob looking for Dan Rather's head are hearing footsteps on their "six."  Is it possible that today's talking point from the GOP said "back off, you're not helping?"  Nope, that's not it.

Except for a few exceptions, many on the right are at least making the attempt to find what's left of their objectivity.  After blasting F-9/11 so voraciously and having fought the Vietnam thing to a draw, they know their guy's number is up -- if only because after they watched his miserable performance at the debates, (made all the worse if microwaved answers had been beamed into his skull, yet Bush still looked the fool -- even as they were accusing Kerry of cheating) and watched as their every defense of Bush's Iraq policy crumble to dust in the last 10 days, they just know the only hope they have is to rig another election -- and don't have the stones to try it again with everybody watching -- or do they?

ADDENDUM: Even Command Post recognizes Bush's rhetoric from Shinola, wondering if Bush's plan really is perpetual war.


Posted at 10/12/2004 2:26:39 pm by The Lib       |


CIA Infiltrated By Enemy Partisans

Last week Ara Rubyan pointed me to a nostalgic article in Slate featuring an interview with Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt.  One of Howard's most interesting if not humorous quotes was when he told us the reason he left the CIA:

Hunt: I found out the CIA was just infested with Democrats. I retired in '70. I got out as soon as I could. I wrote several books immediately thereafter.

Maybe it still is.  From the London Daily Telegraph:

The White House is incensed by the increasingly public sniping from some senior intelligence officers who, it believes, are conducting a partisan operation to swing the election on November 2 in favour of John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, and against George W Bush.

POTUS's Father, an ex-CIA chief, knew better than to piss off the spooks. Yet another lesson unlearned by Shrub.

Hat Tip Neil Rogers


Posted at 10/12/2004 9:37:25 am by The Lib       |


Truly Sad and Bizzar

Absolutely desparate to maintain their thin edge in the Senate, thus securring their trifecta of deceit on all three branches of the federal government, the GOP is proping up a mentally diseased old man who should be at home with his nurse and hiding his ailment until after November -- or so it would seem.
Big rumor making the rounds in Kentucky -- Republican Sen. Bunning is increasingly ill and unable to carry out the duties of his office. As soon as he is reelected (assuming he is reelected), he will resign office, and KY's unpopular Republican governor, Ernie Fletcher, will appoint himself to the seat.
Do read the rest of this at Daily Kos :: Ky-Sen: Bunning is losing his mind.


Posted at 10/12/2004 1:03:36 am by The Lib       |


Monday, October 11, 2004
Suck It Up, Soldier

Two FaceNot only does President Bush play politics with our military, he lies about it too.  When field commanders in Iraq have requested additional troops, contrary to what Bush has said in the past, the request was deniedEzra Klein reminded us of Bush's most recent promise to give our troops everything, including required manpower, that they ask for.
QUESTION: ...what's your answer to General John Abizaid's statement that, "I think we will need more troops than we currently have"? BUSH: "If that's what he says -- he was in my office this morning; he didn't say that to me, but if he were to say that, I'd listen to him, just like I've said all along, that when our commanders say that they need support, they'll get support, because we're going to succeed in this mission." (Bush Remarks, Rose Garden Press Conference with Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi, 9/23/04)
He never listens.  That or it is already understood that no such request should be made.  According to the soldiers of LSA Anaconds who are under constant attack, "there is no indication the soldiers will get the help they want to deal with their nagging and deadly problem."

Pandagon and Talk Left alerts us to the interview Brig. Gen. Oscar B. Hilman, commander of the 81st Brigade Combat Team as reported in Baltimore Sun, 10/11/04:
“Because the enemy is persistent, we need additional forces. We asked twice."
...
“But Hilman said he was told that "there are no additional forces," and that U.S. soldiers are needed elsewhere, particularly to battle insurgents and cover a large area to the north that includes the rebellious cities of Tikrit and Samarra.” .
...
"Hilman said he requested additional forces in the spring and again in the summer from 13th Corps Support Command, which is responsible for LSA Anaconda and all other multinational supply and transportation facilities in Iraq. 
Maj. Richard W. Spiegel, a spokesman for the 13th Corps, confirmed that Hilman put in the request and that it was endorsed by the command's top officer, Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers. The request was forwarded to Multi-National Corps Iraq headquarters, which assesses troop requirements and makes the final decision, Spiegel said. The request was denied, he said, declining to provide details. Sharon Walker, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military headquarters in Baghdad, said officials had no comment on why the request was not approved.
I find it absolutely unbelievable that even though a majority of those polled by a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup believe that the Iraq war wasn't worth the cost in blood and treasure (54%), Bush still commands a 17 point edge on Kerry when it comes to handling the War on Terror.

My god people, pay attention.  This stuff is not funny.  Well, maybe it is if I just lightened up a bit.

I wonder how America will feel after Bush and the corporate board of directors he calls a cabinet are indicted for war crimes and malfeasance in office.  If your local school board superintendent had behaved as this crowd does, s/he wouldn't be thinking how to stay our of jail, rather s/he'd be wondering about just how much time s/he'd do. 

One way or another, Bush has got to go.  Rejecting his reelection bid is the easy way, but if they insist on stealing another election, impeachment will do.  The quality and quantity of the mendacity of this administration surpasses George Orwells worst nighmare.  Epistemological Relativism.  (Sigh) Don't bother looking it up, just follow the links and you will gather a bit more insight as to why the left is so absolutely furious with Bush and why everybody else should be too.

Hat Tip: Talk Left and Pandagon and of course Josh.


Posted at 10/11/2004 11:38:44 pm by The Lib       |


Limbaugh: Fear Monger

The bloviating Bush campaign adviser, Rush Limbaugh, had a final today caller who expressed her unspecific but very real fear of a world with John Kerry as President,  Instead of comforting her, he actually said:
"Fear is a great motivator. I want you afraid"
His Snydley Whiplash chuckle could be heard softly as he closed his show on that note.

Sick freak
.

These guys know better, but the depth of their cynicism is boundless. The wholesale manipulation of the American public by the Orwellian tactics of the GOP through a complicit media is staggering at times.

Two FaceFor example, devoid of a moral core, Bush attacks Kerry for desiring a reduction in the amount of terrorists incidents to where they are no more than annoying, and not the all consuming fear inducing tool of conservative politicians.

Oh no cry brain-benders who beam slogans into Bush's skull from some grassy knoll. That would be like some pansy-assed law enforcement approach, unfathomable to the cro-magnons who prefer more subtle, more "lets blow everything up." more "shoot first" tactics.

Reactionaries like Gary Bauer insist that is the same as waiting until after a school gets bombed and then going after the bad guys -- the bad old days of Clinton's alleged ineffectiveness.  Dick Cheney calls it a pre-9/11 mindset.

However, this twisted logic illicits the same false dichotomy presented by Dave Pell when he says that Bush and Cheney's attacks prove that instead of a desire to reduce terror, their goal is to maintain the fear factor at its current levels in order to cow a frightened electorate into foolishly keeping them in office, hoping that paralysis will set in making us incapable of moving away from their Machiavellian schemes. 

Dave of course was being transparently facetious.  I'm not.


Posted at 10/11/2004 9:18:30 pm by The Lib       |


Boneheads

Bush/Cheney'04 has reached a new level of stubborn and willful ignorance today in their juvenile attempt to portray John Kerry as out of touch and equating terrorism with prostitution, deliberately failing to grasp the idea that terrorism may in all likelyhood never be completely erradicated, but the goal, the objective of the "War on Terrorism" would be  sufficiently satisfied if terrorism were no more troubling than prostitution and not the overwhelming concern it is today.

 Jesse Taylor
also has the termerity to suggest that victory in this so-called war might be something less than total erradication of the muslim world, but he's really tired of explaining simple concepts to moraons.

The Kerry campaign is specifically chastised for "claiming the war on terror isn't really a war."  Well, it isn't, so bite me.


Posted at 10/11/2004 1:08:56 pm by The Lib       |


I'm A Toledoan, and I Don't Approve....

Toledo Tube War: 14,273 Ads and Counting (washingtonpost.com)
Toledo ranks as the most advertised-to market of any in the big battleground states.
Despite the "cacophony" of TV ads here in the Glass City for the Presidential Candidates, they get completely undermined by local non-television media outlets which swarm the area's electorate.

Noteworthy is the Toledo Blade which leans towards Bush bashing by merely reportintg the news (how dare they) and blankets the area with bird cage liners, versus the Clear Channel Radio affiliate WSPD which not only features the usual line-up of fascists: Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, etc., but home-grown drive-time guys who know diidly squat about politics, but spend their time between political commercials (yes of course) and traffic/weather/news updates, distorting everything that comes out of John Kerry's mouth.

These two area media giants reach more voters every day than all the TV ads combined. My biased fur gets especially ruffled when a 60 second ad is run by the Democratic challenger on the 50,000 watt mega talker, which is immediately followed by ten minutes of filibustering lies about Kerry's positions and statements beamed into the skulls of anyone wondering if it will rain, or if the latest construction will force them to change their rush hour commute. It never stops.

I did have some hope when a new talk radio station recently popped up,

WTOD, but naturally their idea of "balance" is running Laura Ingram against Rush and putting Bush Apologist Bill Bennet's show on in the mornings. Arrgggghhh! Bill Bennet: The Moral Hooker of the Right Wing.

Conservative Talk Radio: It's cheap, it's powerful, and it's everywhere.


Posted at 10/11/2004 11:05:56 am by The Lib       |


MAIN

Next Page



MAIN

Next Page






<< October 2004 >>
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 01 02
03 04 05 06 07 08 09
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31

Notable Rants:

A Liberal Credo
Are The Religious Right?
Defining and Debunking Bushiology
September Tenth Thinking.
Rewarding Work, not Wealth
Howard Dean's Impecable Instincts
Reality Perceptions
Can We Agree On Just One Thing
1984 Trials of the Brave New Gulag
Christian Left
Order of the New World
Bush Rejects My Plan
The Plan
Rice's Silver Bullet
Socrates Always Asked the Unaskable
Why I'm not a Trial Lawyer
Dream Team
Rumsfeld: Left Times
UBL's Truce? Why Is He Still Alive?
Dream Team(pdf)
Eyes Wide Open






Since April 4, 2004





Listed on Blogwise

Blogarama - The Blog Directory
 



Blogdrive

 

 

Blogdrive