Bush is 'greatest threat to life on planet'

18 November 2003 Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched a stinging attack on President George Bush last night, denouncing him as the "greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen".

His provocatively timed comments, on the eve of Mr Bush's arrival in London tonight, threaten to create severe embarrassment for the Prime Minister. They also come with talks under way on whether to re-admit Mr Livingstone to the Labour Party before his five-year exile ends. Although he made his many differences with the Government on a range of issues clear, he reserved his strongest comments for the American President in an interview with The Ecologist magazine.

The President's three-night trip, which will culminate on Friday with a visit to the Prime Minister's Sedgefield constituency, has sparked a flood of protests from those opposed to his foreign policy. But Mr Livingstone's outburst makes him one of the most high-profile and explicit of his critics.

Mr Livingstone recalled a visit at Easter to California, where he was denounced for an attack he had made on what he called "the most corrupt and racist American administration in over 80 years". He said: "Some US journalist came up to me and said: 'How can you say this about President Bush?' Well, I think what I said then was quite mild. I actually think that Bush is the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen. The policies he is initiating will doom us to extinction."

READ WHAT THE AVERAGE IRAQI THINKS ABOUT BUSH HERE

GET YOUR NEWS HEADLINES FROM WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

BUSH IS STUPID OR INCOHERENT SAY 70% OF BRITONS
The full extent of the low regard Britons have for George Bush revealed in a Saturday poll.

The US President was branded a threat to world peace by a clear majority, 60%, of those questioned by YouGov.

MOST BRITONS CONSIDER BUSH STUPID - 37% or INCOHERENT - 33%

More than one in three, 37%, said Mr Bush was "stupid" while 33% called him "incoherent".

VERY FEW HAVE A POSITIVE IMPRESSION

Only a minority saw positive characteristics in Mr Bush, with just 7% regarding him as a good world leader, 6% as articulate and 10% as intelligent.

MOST AGREE WITH ANTI-WAR PROTESTS

There was sympathy with anti-war campaigners who plan a series of protests to mark the visit with a majority of 53% to 41% supporting the demonstrations.

The antipathy toward Mr Bush is matched by a gloomy view of Iraq.

A majority said Britain and America were wrong to go to war with Iraq
45% to 43% in April voters were in favour of the war by 66% to 29%.

73%, expect the security situation to get worse while only 15% believed that things would get better in Iraq with just 18% saying the country's future would be as a peaceful democracy. An overwhelming 70% thought there was little hope for the people of Iraq and that it would be a permanently unstable country.

There was little faith in the President's ability to handle the continuing problems in Iraq.

24%, had confidence in Mr Bush on Iraq, while 74% did not.

Prime Minister Tony Blair fares only slightly better:
38% express confidence 59% do not.

If anyone had any doubt how far the current administration had fallen in the esteem of the World this poll should erase all doubt. Britain is America's closest friend and supporter in the World. If the British hold Bush in this low esteem you can bet the view in the rest of the World is worse.

Bush needs to go and he needs to go now.

YouGov surveyed a representative sample of 1,934 adults, online, on Thursday and Friday, November 13-14.

Limbaugh Is Back, at least temporarily, with Fans and Foes All Ears

Nov. 17, 2003 More than five weeks after he entered a residential treatment center for what he described as an addiction to prescription pain medication, Rush Limbaugh is to return to the airwaves today.

While his voice will be beamed into an atmosphere swirling with questions — not the least of which center on whether he acquired some of those drugs illegally — one point seems assured: Mr. Limbaugh, by far the biggest star in talk radio, is poised to draw one of the biggest audiences in his 15-year career in syndication.

The "feminazis" and other liberals Mr. Limbaugh says he loves to hate — wonder how he might reconcile his own behavior with his past statements recommending jail time for drug users.

"I would expect that Limbaugh's listenership will be three to four times its normal size when he comes on the air," said Michael Harrison, the editor and publisher of Talkers magazine, a trade journal, which estimates Mr. Limbaugh's weekly audience at more than 14.5 million. "Personally, he might be in the worst trench he's ever been in. But people are curious to hear what Rush's going to say, which puts him, professionally, at the peak of his career."

Mr. Limbaugh, who is heard on WABC-AM in New York and counts his audience as closer to 20 million, has done nothing to dampen that anticipation. A spokesman, Allan Mayer, said on Friday that Mr. Limbaugh was giving no interviews and would not even say whether he was planning to broadcast from his studios in Manhattan or those in West Palm Beach, Fla., near where he has a home.

Before he went silent, Mr. Limbaugh was the subject of news reports in The National Enquirer and other publications that he had bought drugs like OxyContin, a powerful painkiller, without a prescription. Other reports suggested that law enforcement officials were investigating the matter, and Mr. Limbaugh told his listeners that he would not discuss any details "until this investigation is complete."

Asked what Mr. Limbaugh might say today, Mr. Mayer said: "The only people he's going to be speaking to publicly are his own listeners, through his own microphone. They are going to get it from the horse's mouth, as it were, the first comments he has to make about his own situation and his view of the world."

In many ways, how people view Mr. Limbaugh's prospects for recovery — personally, as well as professionally — depends on their political affiliations. Mr. Limbaugh had been a hero of the right, particularly after he helped galvanize those who seized Congress for the Republicans in 1994.

William J. Bennett, a conservative who served as the so-called drug czar during the first Bush administration, said in an interview that Mr. Limbaugh was at the center of "a human drama about a guy who's having huge success, takes a huge step down, and is now trying to get himself in shape."

That Mr. Limbaugh, with his advocacy of stiff punishment for drug offenders, would himself admit to a long-term addiction was evocative of the situation that Mr. Bennett was in earlier this year. One of the nation's pre-eminent moral crusaders, Mr. Bennett acknowledged that he had set a poor example by "too much gambling."

Nonetheless, Mr. Bennett sought in the interview to distinguish his own shortcomings from the conduct of Mr. Limbaugh, a close friend who has dined at his home, once with Justice Clarence Thomas. "Not an addiction," Mr. Bennett said of his own actions, as if ticking off a list of talking points, "not a problem, no therapy, gambling too much, stopped it."

Limbaugh returns to the microphone today: Will his signal fade?

Devotees say Limbaugh walks a fine line, having violated the moral code that makes him famous and trounces "feminazis and "commie-symps." That the witty, bombastic conservative champion was getting buzzed - on the air, to boot - has been hard for many to swallow, especially since the same Limbaugh who condemned the late Jerry Garcia's drug use allegedly hoarded a cache of pills. And Limbaugh's confession came less than two weeks after he quit as a pro-football commentator on ESPN amid cries of racism over a comment on a black athlete.

Still, some 94 percent of Limbaugh's audience promises to return - and some say the legions will only increase, at least for Monday's show. "There's a disconnect between his behavior and all those years of calling for personal responsibility," says Joe Capella, a professor at the Annenberg School of Communication in Philadelphia. "The disconnect undermines his credibility ..., but the question is with whom?"

Many critics say Limbaugh is more sophist than ideologue, more in the camp of troubled actor Robert Downey Jr. than disgraced televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. His fans' forgiveness, some experts say, offers a telling glimpse of a country in a quandary - not just over "hillbilly heroin" like Limbaugh's OxyContin, but over a growing acceptance of populist leaders who do what they do, not what they say.

Cheney Ignored War Chaos Alert -
British Ambassador Provides Evidence of Serious Divisions Between Allies
Tony Blair made a personal appeal to Bush to delay the war.

Sunday Nov. 16, 2003 British warnings that America was failing before the war to prepare properly for a crumbling security situation in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was ousted were ignored by Vice President Dick Cheney and the Pentagon.

In some of the first direct evidence of serious divisions between the key allies in the run-up to the conflict, the former British Ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, said the US had failed to focus on what might happen after Saddam had been overthrown.

His admission raises serious questions that a lack of planning by US forces is at least partly to blame for Iraq's present security problems.

In an interview with The Observer, Meyer, who was ambassador just before the war began, said there were a series of meetings between British and American officials between the signing of the United Nations Resolution 1441 last November and the start of the war in March. The British regularly raised their concerns about how much planning was going on to secure the country after Saddam, but the issue was largely ignored.

'One of the things that did not work out between us was a properly agreed on post-Saddam strategy, a lot of those things have now been shown to be right.' Asked if the Government had warned the US about the need for planning the post-Saddam era, he said: 'Absolutely, absolutely. The problem was that bureaucratically there is a tendency in Washington to be able to focus on only one big issue at a time. 'I think they were consumed in the contingency planning for war.

'We were saying that's fine but we must be clear in our own mind what is happening afterwards. That was absolutely indispensable. 'The message was well taken in the State Depart ment but it could not agree an approach with the Defence Department and the Vice President.'

Meyer revealed that Tony Blair had made a personal appeal to Bush in the new year to delay the war. At their Washington summit in January, Bush had made it clear that America was ready to attack the following month, well before all the diplomatic avenues had been exhausted

GET BEST HEADLINES AT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

U.S. casualties from Iraq war top 9,000

UPI **Exclusive** Nov 14 2003 20:28:40 ET WASHINGTON-- The number of U.S. casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom -- troops killed, wounded or evacuated due to injury or illness -- has passed 9,000, according to new Pentagon data. In addition to the 397 service members who have died and the 1,967 wounded, 6,861 troops were medically evacuated for non-combat conditions between March 19 and Oct. 30, the Army Surgeon General's office said.

That brings total casualties among all services to more than 9,200, and represents an increase of nearly 3,000 non-combat medical evacuations reported since the first week of October. The Army offered no immediate explanation for the increase. A leading veterans' advocate expressed concern.

"We are shocked at the dramatic increase in casualties," said Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center. Of the non-combat medical evacuations:

-- 2,464 were for injuries, such as those sustained in vehicle accidents. -- 4,397 were due to illness; 504 of those were classified as psychiatric, 378 as neurological, and another 150 as neurosurgery.

"We are especially concerned about the psychological and neurological evacuations from this war," Robinson said. "We request a clarification of the types of illnesses people are suffering from so we do not have a repeat of the first Gulf War. We need to understand the nature and types of illnesses so scientists can determine if significant trends are occurring."

In early October, the Army Surgeon General's office said 3,915 soldiers had been evacuated from Operation Iraqi Freedom for non-combat injuries and illnesses, including 478 with psychological problems and 387 for neurological reasons. The new total of 6,861 reported non-combat evacuations is a rise of 57 percent since then.

The latest data on non-combat evacuations includes 1,628 orthopedic (bone) injuries.
Other leading causes for evacuations include:
-- 831 surgeries for injuries;
-- 289 cardiology cases;
-- 249, gastrointestinal;
-- 242, pulmonary (lung);
-- 634, general surgery;

Stephanakis said the pulmonary problems included soldiers who suffered from pneumonia as part of a cluster investigated by the Army in August. The numbers don't include service members treated in theater or those whose illnesses -- such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder -- were not apparent until after they returned to the United States.

GET BEST HEADLINES AT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

while we keep track of the Miserable Failure Project, snicker at Senator Bill Frist's Web Shenanagans, and marvel at the Damn Liberal Media thanks to the efforts of oour newest member, Turquoise Waffle Irons in the Back Yard. Remember to update your blogrolls, and favor this Slimy Mollusc with a few links.
Study the Myths of the War on Terrorism and Iraq, travel around the world in 80 days with Nellie Bly, or learn how to shake hands with the president. While you're welcoming Pip and the Blogmanac to the League of Liberals, you'll be thinking universally and acting terrestrially. Just wait--it will all become clear!

The League of Liberals is PROUD dismayed to WELCOME tolerate the inclusion of AYN CLOUTER just to keep an eye on her. AYN is the infamous author of THE BLOGFATHER review and the shrill twisted diatribe "How I Came To Hate Liberals" Ayn's work like CANONIZE BUSH and RENAME THE DEMOCRATS has caused speculation about her possible membership in The Landover Baptist Church There should be no question now that The League of Liberals is unbearably Liberal. We are truly the "party of inclusion" and we may see applications from LITTLE BROWN POOHBALLS and the INSTYPOOHBAH.

NOTE: If any of the membership wishes to call into question the leadership that has allowed inclusion of Ayn Clouter and The Politburo Diktat to the League now is the time to speak your piece. Welcome to "The Big Tent"

Ex-Halliburton employee: I felt sale of missiles was illegal

11/14/2003 7:15:32 AM By: Associated Press (Albuquerque-AP) -- A former Halliburton Company employee says even though he thought it was illegal—he helped complete the sale of mini-warheads to a Canadian explosives expert. Mitchell Hambright took the stand yesterday in the federal court trial of David Hudak. He is accused of stockpiling more than 2,400 shoulder-launchable missile warheads and using U.S. defense techniques to train foreign troops.

Hudak operated an anti-terrorism training business in Roswell. He faces a mandatory 50 years in prison if convicted.Hambright said the merchandise was not of any use to the Halliburton subsidiary and he went along with orders to move it in spite of his concerns.

GET YOUR BEST HEADLINES AT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

League of Liberals member And Then...'s entry in the New Blog Showcase is Late Night With Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist And Then... takes on our own native Tennessee Senator, The Shame of Rocky Top. Rush Limbaughtomy is proud to make BILL FRIST "THE REPUBLICAN ROLE MODEL of the Day" in support of And Then....

Get ready for the next big FRISTING see skb Frist is pissed because SCOTUS got him out of our bedrooms. So Bill is thinking about a Constitutional Amendment to get back in.

This rich Medicaid Fraud already profits by abortions while buying votes opposing them. He's rich because his father founded HCA, the nation's largest hospital company that just agreed to pay $880 million to settle charges of health care fraud the GOP has simply replaced a racist with a corporate crook.

Frist was born rich, and got richer - thanks to massive criminal fraud by the family business. the Bush Justice Department suddenly ended a near-decadelong federal investigation into how HCA for years had defrauded Medicaid, Medicare and Tricare (the federal program that covers the military and their families), giving the greedy health-care behemoth's executives a sweetheart settlement that kept them out of prison."
Frist Gets Rich from Abortions While Trying to Outlaw Them
Bill Frist votes to outlaw 99.5% of abortions, good enough to earn him a 100% voting record from the National Right to Life Committee - and 0% from Planned Parenthood and NARAL. But Frist owns at least $5 million worth of HCA, a for-profit hospital chain that provides abortions, thus fattening Frist's own wallet, and that of his brother, HCA's CEO.
Civil Rights NAACP Rating of 15% Bill Frist voted
against sanctions for predatory lending abuses
against NAACP-supported education amendments
against technology centers for poor and minority communities
against expanding higher education grants
to decrease voting registration through purging voter rolls
against increased global AIDS funding.
National Hispanic Leadership Conference.. 18% (2001) 25% (2000) 0% (1999)
against bilingual education and supported education funding
against federal hate crimes legislation
strong community reinvestment requirements for banks
Labor AFL-CIO Rating: lifetime rating of 3%
against workplace ergonomic standards and a real patient bill of rights
to restrict the free speech of unions versus other groups on firm premises
against giving collective bargaining rights to police and firemen
for Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy for massive cuts in NLRB funding
against minimum wage legislation. (1999-2000)
Environment League of Conservation Voters: 107th - 0% 106th - 0% 105th - 27%
for drilling in ANWR against renewable energy
against increased fuel standards for cars (2002)
for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico & national monuments
to give President unilateral power to block agriculture-related environmental regulation
to subsidize corporate timber cutting in Tongass forests
to allow unlimited mine waste by corporations on public leases
supported cut-rate pricing for oil leases on public land
voted to exempt all coal mining operations from the Clean Water Act. (1999-2000)

Bill Frist's personal stake in the family fortune is unknown exactly (in the tens of millions), but his brother's share according to Forbes is $950 million... And how did HCA/Columbia get rich? Raiding nonprofit hospitals, dumping the poor previously served and turning them into profit mills for the family bottom line.

Oh. the Irony - Bush "welcoming" protests in Britain? He doesn't expect everybody in the world to agree with him except the US Senate on his reactionary Judges Next He'll nominate Judge NO Moore Accept Natalie's "birthday gift" to us "The Speech Bush Did Not Give" and wish Natalie "Happy Birthday" (a few hours late) while you are there.
Cast your vote for the latest plan cause you are either with us or against us Flashback on the stepped up strategy and stage the news one more time. SouthKnoxBubba has the plan.

Rush Limbaugh will be back on the air next week, still under investigation

Limbaugh is still under investigation according to Palm Beach sources

(West Palm Beach, Florida-AP) -- Rush Limbaugh has completed a five-week treatment program for an addiction to painkillers -- but that doesn't mean he's off the hook.

A law enforcement source in Palm Beach County, Florida, says the state attorney's office is continuing to investigate Limbaugh's alleged drug use. Allegations about Limbaugh began when his maid was quoted by the "National Enquirer" as saying she was her boss's connection for purchasing OxyContin and other drugs.

Limbaugh shocked followers of his conservative talk show last month by announcing he was taking time off to deal with his addiction. But now, he's coming back -- taking over the microphone again starting on Monday.

216 Days have passed in the search is it Time to Evolve? The Sesquipedalian is no Incipient Ass
He is For God and Country and "pretty much a shot in the dark most days..."

We Alway's Knew They'd Come Around and make Bush fear for his re-selection with More Lost Heart's and Minds Losing Faith with the Occupation.
So enters Stageleft like the Freeway Blogger

FACE OFF CONTEST ON SAVAGE CRUEL BIGOTS

Ten British people have put their names forward to become the first in the world to undergo a face transplant. Details on plans for the pioneering operation will be announced by surgeons within days. Teams on both sides of the Atlantic are now confident they have the skills to attempt the operation.


The Royal College of Surgeons preparing to raise new concerns this week could delay the British team for months - allowing Americans to make the first attempt. There are concerns including the huge psychological and emotional difficulties patients associated with having another person's face.

The American attempt is being led by John Barker, director of plastic surgery research at Louisville University, in Kentucky. If they agree, surgeons would carefully remove the face of a donor within 24 hours of death and graft it on to the patient or in the alternative do the proceedure on those who simply agree to trade faces. Face transplants have featured in a number of films including the 1997 Hollywood thriller Face/Off, when an FBI agent "borrows" the face of a criminal.

A CHANGE OF FACE? THIS IS A DEVELOPMENT TOO GOOD TO PASS UP
Choose your favorite contestant and supply Savage Cruel Bigots with an alternative face via e-mail:
to aurabass AT hotmail DOT com. - all files 200 x 200 pixels jpg format only
Savage Cruel Bigots will perform the operation and feature the changed faces here.
The Contest will run through November 21, 2001 all entries must be in by midnight PST.
Winning combination receives a copy of BIG LIES by Joe Conason.
The referring site wins a copy of WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION (be sure to say who referred you)

Rush Limbaughtomy = the Dittohead Recovery Zone is proud to share this new found 12 step program with our readers who are dependant on help in becoming un-Limbaughtomized. Please copy these 12 steps and follow them diligently. Make sure that you continue to attend daily meetings here on Rush Limbaughtomy. "Remember it works if you work it and keep coming back".

"I am a Limbaughtomized addict clean and free of Rush Radio for 22 days. I thank my Higher Power for the Dittohead Recovery Zone" Oliver North

Free Yourself from Right Wing Talk Radio: 12 Steps to Recovery

Step 1: Admit that you were under the sway of right-wing, anti-democracy radicals.
This is the first step for every conservative or "ditto-head" listener on the way to recovery. It is important to understand that the people you were listening to are not "compassionate conservatives," "Republicans," or "pillars of morality." They're right-wing conservative radicals, more interested in strong corporations than strong democracy, and you must be honest with yourself about that fact.

Step 2: Realize that we can't have freedom & liberty without first building a civil society.
And civil society has certain costs, such as education, infrastructure, health care, defense, transportation, communications, a viable social safety net, and the protection of the commons, which we all agree to pay for with something called taxes that we levy on ourselves and not on our children. Only on this basis can we have individual liberty.

Step 3: Love democracy's basis in debate and respectful disagreement.
The processes of debate, dissent, and compromise are democracy's underlying strength. This may be the most difficult step for those of you who had completely surrendered to the dark side of conservatism and have labeled dissenters as unpatriotic. Admit that democracy actually requires dissent. You might want to read the words of our Founders to better understand what democracy is and what it isn't. Start with Jefferson.

Step 4: Understand that a living wage is vital to maintain a viable middle-class.
A strong middle class is vital to democracy. To say that somebody who earns millions a year by sitting by the pool collecting dividend checks "works that much harder" than a middle-class wage earner is simple nonsense. Although morality tells us that people deserve a livable wage and fair taxes, reality tells us even more starkly that without everybody having access to a good job, and in a nation where dividend-earners pay only 15% in income tax, democracy is at risk.

Step 5: Support labor unions and stop chanting "cheap labor" as the tired old right-wing mantra.
"Cheap labor" is the core mantra of the conservatives, and ultimately harms democracy. If capital can organize in the form of a corporation, and corporations can organize as conglomerates, Chambers of Commerce, and trade and lobbying associations, then labor must have an equal and guaranteed-by-law right to organize. Strong unions are the only thing standing between you and serfdom at the hands of corporate masters, and without the unions of the past there would be no American middle class today. If you have difficulty with this step, spend a week with a family living below the poverty level because their manufacturing jobs were sent overseas for "cheap labor" and all that was left was a cashier's position at Wal-Mart. You'll be chanting "livable wage now!" in no time at all.

Step 6: Stop listening to TV and radio pundits who have "amnesia" about the separation of church and state.
Their intent is to convince everyone that church-state separation was never intended by our Founding Fathers and that the United States was started as a Christian nation. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robinson not only lie about our founding fathers, but also don't grasp the lessons of millennia of bloody battles between popes, mullahs, and kings. Look at the back of a dollar bill and see "novus ordo seclorum" - "a new secular order" - and realize that the US Government is a secular democracy, not a religious theocracy.

Step 7: Stop pretending that you don't understand that government is "We, The People," and not some sort of "them."
"Drowning government in a bathtub," as conservatives have recommended, may have been a good idea in the former Soviet Union, but the United States is a constitutional representative democratic republic where our government is, literally, us. It was designed to work for us, be owned by us, exists solely by virtue of our ongoing approval, and must answer to us. The shared commons of our nation - including our air, water, transportation routes, airwaves and cable networks, communication systems, military, police, prisons, fire services, health care infrastructure, and courts must, for democracy to work well, be held either by locally-controlled non-profit corporations or by a government responsive to its citizens, with corporations barred from the political process.

Step 8: Repent from your SUV and let's start taking care of the planet we all share.
The natural world - including our water and air - is our most vital and essential commons, and therefore must be protected from those who would despoil it for short-term profit. When they poison the world, they degrade our quality of life and threaten our children's future. Begin now - by participating in our representative government - to take immediate steps to protect the commons we share with all other life on planet Earth.

Step 9: Stop listening to conservative talk radio.
Understand that talk show hosts of the conservative ilk daily demonstrate that bullying, humiliation, and the "big lie" are at the core of conservative talk radio. Turn them off, and instead tune into one of the many liberal talk shows that are daily sprouting across America, and where democracy is still alive and well.

Step 10: Help transform America back into an energy-independent nation.
Building a civilization on liquefied fossils and then thinking it will last forever makes no sense. World oil reserves are enough to sustain us only into our children's lifetimes, and then will run out. Encourage your elected representatives to help create viable energy sources that are not dependent on fossil fuels, and, in the meantime, take immediate steps to reduce use of and preserve our precious stores before they're exhausted.

Step 11: Refrain from rewriting political history.
Its now time to admit that George W. Bush and his administration have been lying to us about the war on terror, the invasion of Iraq, taking away our freedoms with The Patriot Act, and misleading the America people on issues from the environment to taxes to jobs. Know now that George W. Bush was selected not elected, and the election was stolen from Al Gore. You may now research beyond propaganda from right-wing think tanks and Faux News to understand things as they really exist in the world. Stay in touch with the many progressive news sites (like this one) and publications and encourage our mainstream media to stop being cowed by right-wing bullies and corporate paymasters.

Step 12: Be a visionary.
Once you have completed the previous steps to freeing yourself from conservative talk radio, it's time for you to share this awakening with others who will benefit from your new enlightenment. Go out amongst the "ditto-head" sheep and spread the good word of your freedom from the chains of ignorance that once bound you. Congratulations, and welcome to reality! And keep tuning your radio to The Thom Hartmann Program.

Visit the Thom Hartman website Renaissance Thinking about the Issues of Our Day It is chock full of good stuff to help the Recovering Dittohead.

HOW WOULD THINGS BE WITH AL GORE AS PRESIDENT?

The early exit polls in FLORIDA were correct.
Had all the votes counted as intended Al Gore would be President.
We would be prosperous, people would be employed, the deficit would not exist,
the Rich would have gotten richer, the poor would not be as poor,
we would not be at war, soldiers would not be dying, Bin Lauden would be dead,
there would be no Dept. of Big Brother Security, there would be no Patriot Act
and the World Trade Towers would still be standing.


EXCERPTS FROM THE GORE SPEECH

"I want to challenge the Bush Administration’s implicit assumption that we have to give up many of our traditional freedoms in order to be safe from terrorists.

Because it is simply not true.

In fact, in my opinion, it makes no more sense to launch an assault on our civil liberties as the best way to get at terrorists than it did to launch an invasion of Iraq as the best way to get at Osama Bin Laden.

In both cases, the Administration has attacked the wrong target.

In both cases they have recklessly put our country in grave and unnecessary danger, while avoiding and neglecting obvious and much more important challenges that would actually help to protect the country.

In both cases, the administration has fostered false impressions and misled the nation with superficial, emotional and manipulative presentations that are not worthy of American Democracy.

In both cases they have exploited public fears for partisan political gain and postured themselves as bold defenders of our country while actually weakening not strengthening America."

Dr. PZ Myers of pharyngula is new League of Liberals member 5 in the past 6 hours.
Appropriate since our embryonic League has possibly reached the pharyngula stage in it's rapid growth.
Godless Sunday, about pharyngula, Tim Berglund Still Doesn't Get It, FOOM!, and my favorite: The Crayola Strategy about Texas textbooks, make for great reading at pharyngula.
You will also find interesting pictures
Please offer an educated welcome to the insightful intelligent pharyngula
and update those blogrolls.
Haunting Bush from the Grave
The Rush Addiction Trifecta and Parsing Rush
School Boards & the Most Patronizing Deception Just a few of the offerings at The Huck Upchuck
Ask Me NO Questions, I'll Tell You NO Lies
A Squid Down in Texas' Pop Quiz
He's not "Changin Tactics"
These Cliff Notes are His
Get a Rope he'll help Bush with "good-byes"

Ornicus sez Left IS Right and it's true
Our "focus" is slightly askew
Praise be to George Soros Want to marry Kucinich?
Read GORE and there's more
Here that's NEW.

Please welcome these new members to the League of Liberals despite the bad poetry.
And don't forget to update those blogrolls.
If it aint broke, don't Frist it.
Shoshana Johnson is a Wonderful American
Bush can be insulting
Soilders, White House and Media Agree, Andrew of BYTE BACK is What Bush is Afraid Of
Please welcome BYTE BACK to the League of Liberals

DICK CHENEY'S WAR - Cheney is the Puppetmaster

Of all the president’s advisers, Cheney consistently took the most dire view of the terrorist threat. On Iraq, Bush was the decision maker. But more than any adviser, Cheney was the one to make the case to the president that war against Iraq was an urgent necessity. Beginning in the late summer of 2002, he persistently warned that Saddam was stocking up on chemical and biological weapons, and last March, on the eve of the invasion, he declared that “we believe that he [Saddam Hussein] has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons.” (Cheney later said that he meant “program,” not “weapons.” He also said, a bit optimistically, “I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.”) After 7 months, investigators still look for the arsenal of WMD.

Get Headlines at What Really Happened

NOW HERE IS SOME SERIOUS SELF SERVING REASONING:
No amount of money can adequately compensate the brave men and women of Gulf War I so the Bush Admin is going to take away the settlement and leave them with nothing. Read this crap:

White House fights POWs for Iraq fund

The Bush administration is seeking to block a group of American troops who were tortured in Iraqi prisons during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 from collecting any of the hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Iraqi assets they won last summer in a federal court ruling against the government of Saddam Hussein.

In a court challenge that the administration is winning so far but is not eager to publicize, administration lawyers have argued that Iraqi assets frozen in bank accounts in the United States are needed for Iraqi reconstruction and that the judgment won by the 17 former U.S. prisoners should be overturned in its entirety. If the administration is successful, the former prisoners would be deprived both of the money they won and, they say, of the validation of a judge's ruling that documented their accounts of torture by the Iraqis.

"I don't want to say that I feel betrayed, because I still believe in my country," said Lt. Col. Dale Storr, whose Air Force A-10 fighter jet was shot down by Iraqi fire in February 1991. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "No amount of money can truly compensate these brave men and women for the suffering that they went through." But, he said, "it was determined earlier this year by Congress and the administration that those assets were no longer assets of Iraq, but they were resources required for the urgent national security needs of rebuilding Iraq."

The League of
There is no 18 Minute Gap in the blog of the same name. It is all good.
A nice chart on campaign contributions The can't dance puppets of the Iraqi Council - another miserable failure of the Bush Admin.
Webster's introduces McJob The latest plug for the Freeway Blogger and committing crime for Healthcare
Class War you bet says The Estimated Prophet and sobering news in We're Watching You
Memes Forgiveness Bush threatened by Brits Larry Flint Dead Bush Rape Victim Nazi Tendencies Lynchings there is much Mud for the Mudshark

From the "Life in the Bush/Cheney World" department:

"Honey - pick up a dozen form 8302's when you are at the Post Office"
Electronic Deposit of Tax Refund of $1 Million or More
General Instructions - Purpose of Form

File Form 8302 to request that the IRS electronically deposit a tax refund of $1 million or more directly into an account at any U.S. bank or other financial institution (such as a mutual fund, credit union, or brokerage firm) that accepts electronic deposits. The benefits of an electronic deposit include a faster refund, the added security of a paperless payment, and the savings of tax dollars associated with the reduced processing costs.

That way We don't need to run to the bank with those refund checks. Found at Aces Full of Links