White House Civil Liberties Panel Finally Meets After 16 Months

A White House civil liberties panel created more than a year ago to monitor the effects on ordinary citizens of the war on terrorism took its first significant action this week.

It met.

One of Mars Rover's Wheels Stops Working

One of the Mars rover Spirit's wheels has stopped working and the solar-powered robot must use its five other wheels to drag itself up a slope to catch enough sunshine to keep operating in the descending Martian winter, NASA said Friday.

The right front wheel previously had an episode of balkiness but this week the motor that turns the wheel stopped working, the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement.

Americans want Democrats to control Congress: poll

President George W. Bush's approval rating hit its lowest score in the Newsweek poll, the newsmagazine said in a statement, citing recent events, such as the Dubai ports controversy and the upcoming third anniversary of the Iraq war.

Only 36 percent of American adults approve of the way the president is handling his job, according to results of the survey conducted on Thursday and Friday.

Sixty-four percent are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time, while only 30 percent are satisfied.

A Newsweek Poll conducted exactly a year ago found 57 percent of Americans approved of the way Bush handled terrorism and homeland security, and 35 percent disapproved, the magazine said.

Now only 44 percent of Americans polled approve, while 50 percent disapprove, it said.

Sixty-five percent disapprove of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq and 29 percent approve.

Forty-seven percent approve of Bush's appointments to the Supreme Court -- a five-point increase since the last Newsweek Poll and the sole issue in the poll in which the public believes he is performing well.

The poll results were based on a survey of 1,020 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

a random thought

It's funny when people like russ get you to thinking. When the Space shuttle crashed a couple of years ago there was an Israeli astronaut on board. How big is the Israeli space program? For that matter what are all the Eropeans doing with their space programs? Anyone?

speaking of Pat Robertson

check out this piece at Political Cortex the religious right remains a powerful faction in American politics, and Pat Robertson remains a wealthy power broker with daily television audience that is one of the largest on cable television. True, he has become an embarrassment to many in his movement, who are now seeking to distance themselves in various ways. But this is more complicated than it may seem at first blush, because Robertson is also an embarrassment of riches for televangelism, for the religious right and for the Republican Party.


and remember that this guy is still in charge

AHHH Democracy at work

first you buy the votes

Democratic precinct committeeman to 10 months in prison and two years of supervised release for his role in a vote-buying scheme...


then you buy the congressmen

a conservative advocacy group picked up the $10,000 tab for a chartered plane and helicopter flight


now I know the vote buying is definitely illegal. But they were giving $5-$10 per vote to citizens(?) fro a specific vote. Do you think the 10 large spent on Brownback was for a specific vote or a slate of issues. Brownback said in an interview. "I was asked to speak at each of them, and my request was just to get me there and back." By the way, I've been to San Antonio and I just can't get my mind arond the trip costing 10 grand. unless the Senator was on a partially paid trip to tibet. The Buddhist association paid to et him there and Robertson's group had to pick up the tab for the long trip to Texas.

a song to make you think

check it out

Pentagon dismisses poll that says US troops want out of Iraq

I'd love to give this one to you from the NY Times or some other "liberal" MSM source, but apparently ths is no news to them either:

Nearly one in three troops said US forces should withdraw immediately. Another 22 percent said US forces should be out within six months, and 21 percent thought they should exit within a year

Everyone, everyone, everyone wants the U.S. out of Iraq

A majority of Americans of every political persuasion support Congressman Jack Murtha's call for a rapid redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq. More Republicans support it than Democrats.

...
According to a new poll of 1150 Iraqis conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, 70 percent of Iraqis want the fledgling government to request a U.S. timetable for withdrawal, including 64 percent of Kurds and 90 percent of Shi'ites.

more proof Bush shaped reality?

I'm sure this means nothing to Mike in Bigdog's butt

Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq...The first report, delivered to Bush in early October 2002, was a one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate... Among other things, the report stated that the Energy Department and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research believed that the tubes were "intended for conventional weapons," a view disagreeing with that of other intelligence agencies, including the CIA, which believed that the tubes were intended for a nuclear bomb...The disclosure that Bush was informed of the DOE and State dissents is the first evidence that the president himself knew of the sharp debate within the government over the aluminum tubes during the time that he, Cheney, and other members of the Cabinet were citing the tubes as clear evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program... The second classified report, delivered to Bush in early January 2003, was also a summary of a National Intelligence Estimate, this one focusing on whether Saddam would launch an unprovoked attack on the United States, either directly, or indirectly by working with terrorists.

The report stated that U.S. intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that it was unlikely that Saddam would try to attack the United States -- except if "ongoing military operations risked the imminent demise of his regime" or if he intended to "extract revenge" for such an assault, according to records and sources

Pentagon Releases Names of Gitmo Inmates

"Prisoners here are in paradise," he says. "American people are very good. Really. They give us three meals. Fruit juice and everything!" Still, he says, he wants to return to his family.

Guantanamo man tells of 'torture'

hunger strikers were strapped to a chair and force-fed through a tube three times a day.

Bush on "trial" in high school class.

Bush on "trial" in high school class.

Seems to me the las tline of the story hits the nail on the head.

more news from the border

A U.S. Border Patrol agent opened fire when he was attacked by men with rocks

the abortion debate as discussed on the air this morning.

now let me arue uninterrupted and maybe you folks can straighten this out:

1. Life is a continuous process -Lefty and mike from Fairway
2. the question is when does the new life receive rights and responsibilities- Socialist Keith

Keith would submit to you that there are no rights and /or priveleges held by a cellular mass known as a fetus. In fact, He would add that the baby that does eventually get born( that is until we see one of these mutant births that Lefty has concluded happens from time to time) still has no rights. Now I would like to point out that we as adults are assigned the responsibility( by law) to care for these rightless individuals. Now I am no leggal scholar, but I'll bet that we have to care for them because they are alive and as a society we say you can't bring that life into the world and then just leave it in a dumpster. We do, as a somewhat rational society, provide a means whereby to discharge that adult responsibility :

1. a new mother can just takae a newborn to several safe spots and just leave him with no questions asked
2. i could right now decide that i don't want my kids at 9,2, and 1. If i take them to the appropriate place to discharge them (an adoption agency, e.g.) then I will suffer no penalty.

We as a society have decided that we won't force one entity to remain responsible for another. But we do require that they et out from under these responsibility in an appropriate way. this is why I would be okay with saying if you don't want the child and it is viable (however science may define it) then you have to undergo the procedure to deliver the child. Now this wld certainly be a high cost for the society (atleast early on) but that's life.

Jose Padilla: update

Jose Padilla was denied bail. As well he should be. the issue that i protested was the holding without charges. Now charges are filed, bail is denied. I hope the next step is show the proof and punish this crack head.

A word on the use of Tasers

The Taser stun gun shold be looked at the way you do many programs. Cases of abuse should be punished with extreme prejudice. Cases where police have tasered old ladies or zapped suspects because they had bad attitudes should result in prosecution of the officer. the technology itself is useful and has ndeed saved lives. Think of how many people have been tased that might have otherwise been shot. here in K.C. think back to the guy shot in his yard because he approached police with a bbq fork. Or the blind guy in the northeast that got tased in 2004. The outcome in both of these cases would certainly havve been better if they had been shocked instead of shot.

U.S. Army detained suspects' daughters, wives as leverage

Is this why Jill Caroll was kidnapped. The leadership of our military should reconsider the practice of picking up wives to flush out suspected insurgents. While these are a very few cases, i hope that the practice is halted. I can clearly see this being a move that generates lot's of blowback.

2 doctors balk at killer's execution

The doctors, whose names have not been made public, were to have certified that a drug administered to Morales had rendered him unconscious before two other chemicals were administered to kill him.



I can't help but feel that their are good republican doctors in California that would certify. I have my misgivings about the death penalty, but if this guy spent 24 years on death row then the 15 minutes (tops) that he would feel before dying is nothing.

how ironic

Actors (from left) Waqar Siddiqui, Rizwan Ahmed and Arfman Usman with Michael Winterbottom and detainee Rhuhel Ahmed
The actors who star in movie The Road to Guantanamo were questioned by police at Luton airport under anti-terrorism legislation