You gotta Love It

Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, found himself under attack last month when he announced he'd take his oath of office on the Koran -- especially from Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, who called it a threat to American values.

Yet the holy book at tomorrow's ceremony has an unassailably all-American provenance. We've learned that the new congressman -- in a savvy bit of political symbolism -- will hold the personal copy once owned by Thomas Jefferson
...Jefferson's copy is an English translation by George Sale published in the 1750s; it survived the 1851 fire that destroyed most of Jefferson's collection and has his customary initialing on the pages. This isn't the first historic book used for swearing-in ceremonies -- the Library has allowed VIPs to use rare Bibles for inaugurations and other special occasions....

One person unlikely to be swayed by the book's illustrious history is Goode, who released a letter two weeks ago objecting to Ellison's use of the Koran. "I believe that the overwhelming majority of voters in my district would prefer the use of the Bible," the Virginia Republican told Fox News, and then went on to warn about what he regards as the dangers of Muslims immigrating to the United States and Muslims gaining elective office.

Yeah, but what about a Koran that belonged to one of the greatest Virginians in history? Goode, who represents Jefferson's birthplace of Albemarle County, had no comment yesterday.

I whole heartedly Agree with the President

At least on the earmarks...
Bush Warns Congress to Stop Hiding Pork

"But we need to do more," Bush said. "Here's my own view to end the dead-of-the-night process: Congress needs to adopt real reform that requires full disclosure of the sponsors, the costs, the recipients and the justifications for every earmark."

He called on Congress to cut the number and cost of earmarks next year by at least half.

According to a Congressional Research Service study, the number of earmarks in spending, or appropriations, bills went from 4,126 in 1994 to 15,877 in 2005. The value of those earmarks doubled to $47.4 billion in the same period. Earmarked projects often include roads, bridges and economic development efforts.

Now I

This is inspiring

reaffirming My hope in mankind

one step closer to BB (BIg Brother)

The Justice Department is building a massive database

that allows state and local police officers around the country to search millions of case files from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies, according to Justice officials.

The system, known as "OneDOJ," already holds approximately 1 million case records and is projected to triple in size over the next three years, Justice officials said. The files include investigative reports, criminal-history information, details of offenses, and the names, addresses and other information of criminal suspects or targets, officials said.

The database is billed by its supporters as a much-needed step toward better information-sharing with local law enforcement agencies, which have long complained about a lack of cooperation from the federal government.

But civil-liberties and privacy advocates say the scale and contents of such a database raise immediate privacy and civil rights concerns, in part because tens of thousands of local police officers could gain access to
The little-noticed program has been coming together over the personal details about people who have not been arrested or charged with crimes.past year and a half. It already is in use in pilot projects with local police in Seattle, San Diego and a handful of other areas, officials said. About 150 separate police agencies have access, officials said.

About 150 separate police agencies have access, officials said...program will be expanded immediately to 15 additional regions and that federal authorities will "accelerate . . . efforts to share information from both open and closed cases."

This is what Nikki wants to see

This is learning the way it's supposed to be

Ex-employee says FAA warned before 9/11

In the years leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Dzakovic says, the team was able to breach security about 90% of the time, sneaking bombs and submachine guns past airport screeners. Expensive new bomb detection machines consistently failed, he says...
"Immediately (after 9/11), numerous government officials from FAA as well as other government agencies made defensive statements such as, 'How could we have known this was going to happen?' " Dzakovic testified later before the 9/11 Commission. "The truth is, they did know."

What is happening?!!??

Somebody please explain this to me.

Big Dog was so right

you have to get this movie

Bad news Folks

Sorry to break the news. But Pelosi, Dean, and now John Conyers, have all agreed. there are to be no investigations into the possibility of impeachable offenses. This should concern all you die hard Democrats. The only thing holding Conyers back was, he said, the Republican Majority. He even went so far as to hold unofficial hearings in the BASEMENT of the congress.

Now, on the marching orders of his party, he will become part of the cover up. This despite his statements last December:
Now on to the Report and what I plan to do about it. In sum, the report examines the Bush Administration's actions in taking us to war from A to Z. The report finds there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice-President and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their Administration.

The Report concludes that a number of these actions amount to prima facie evidence (evidence sufficiently strong to presume the allegations are true) that federal criminal laws have been violated. Legal violations span from false statements to Congress to whistleblower laws...
First, I have introduced a resolution (H. Res. 635) creating a Select Committee with subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct of the Bush Administration with regard to the Iraq war and report on possible impeachable offenses.
Second, I have introduced Resolutions regarding both President Bush (H. Res. 636) and Vice-President Cheney (H. Res. 637) proposing that they be censured by Congress based on the uncontroverted evidence already on the record and their failure to respond to Congressional and public inquiries about these matters and have never accounted for their many specific misstatements in the run up to War


And what do the American people think:
87% think that the door to impeachment should indeed be open.
I guess sending the Dems to investigate the Republicans is like sending the Genovese family to look into the actions of the Columbo family. Surely they will find rackets but they're more interested in taking over the racket than they are in ending the corruption.

Very weird result in the CT race. Lamont loses with EXACT number that republican did in 2000

Somebody should have played the lottery because the odds of Lamont losing in 2006 with the EXACT amount of votes the republican lost with in 2000 is astronomically high.

Punchscan incorporates cryptography into e-voting

Considering the disaster that has been e-voting, we're not surprised to see another firm stepping forward with a slightly less complex alternative to confidently casting your ballot. Reverting back to the less problematic methods of paper-and-pencil voting, yet offering up a way to electronically store and track each vote, David Chaum and his research team have unveiled the Punchscan system to hopefully solve the world's e-voting woes.

Germans Tell of Secret Nazi Breeding Program

After the Nazis overran Germany's neighbor states in 1940, German occupation soldiers were encouraged to find suitable local mates. Ten Lebensborn homes were set up in foreign lands, where some 8,000 children were eventually born.

Two years later, the Nazis began seeking out blue-eyed, blonde-haired children in neighboring, mostly Slavic, countries and sending them back home to be "Germanized" as Heinicke was


Can you say: "Boys from Brazil"

This is congressional oversight

A panel set up last year to reduce excessive secrecy in government is being labeled toothless after its chairman told lawmakers that he could not act except at the request of the president

Infant Twins Have Different Skin Color

the boys were both born white but as they've gotten older one of the boys got darker and the other lighter.

Where are the "insurgents" getting there armaments

Nine days after the fall of Baghdad, on April 18, 2003, a news crew from Minneapolis station KSTP-TV, traveling with troops from the 101st Airborne Division, entered the bunkers at Al-Qaqaa, south of Baghdad. At one of the bunkers, the troops broke a seal to get inside, where they found barrels filled with powdered explosives, according to reporter Dean Staley.

Constitution, Schmonstitution

7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard A. Posner, a Reagan appointee, argues in "Not a Suicide Pact: the Constitution in a Time of National Emergency" (Oxford 2006) that in a terrorism-induced choice between individual freedoms and collective security, the Constitution was never intended to side with the first at the expense of the second. Maybe it's Judge Posner's bitter reaction to what he perceives as judicial overreaching in constitutional decisions. Or maybe it's his professed disdain for "civil libertarians" whom, he says "are not always careful about history." Whatever the case, Judge Posner is ready to make malleable the protections contained in the Constitution; he's ready to have bedrock individual rights and protections ebb and flow along a sliding scale depending upon the scope of the crisis.

Amendment 2: The Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative

The information below provides a detailed overview of the Initiative. The left column shows the actual text of the measure. The right column provides a plain English explanation of each provision.

Troops' Debt a Growing Security Concern

The Pentagon contends financial problems can distract personnel from their duties or make them vulnerable to bribery and treason. As a result, those who fall heavily into debt can be stripped of the security clearances they need to go overseas.

What's inflation?

giving credit where credit is due: thanks Sh#t guyFirst, let's not let politicians deceive us, and escape culpability, by defining inflation as rising prices, which would allow them to make the pretense that inflation is caused by greedy businessmen, rapacious unions or Arab sheiks. Increases in money supply are what constitute inflation, and the general rise in the price level is the result. Who's in charge of the money supply? It's the government operating through the Federal Reserve...
If you lend me $100, and over the term of the loan the Federal Reserve increases the money supply in a way that causes inflation, I pay you back with dollars with reduced purchasing power. Since inflation redistributes (steals) wealth from creditors to debtors, it helps us identify inflation's primary beneficiary. That identification is easy if you ask: Who is the nation's largest debtor? If you said, "It's the U.S. government," go to the head of the class.

Venezuela, Guatemala battle for UN Security Council seat

Fierce US critic Venezuela and US-backed Guatemala fought a bitter battle for Latin America's open seat on the UN Security Council, forcing voting into a second day under pitched lobbying by the United States.
Guatemala led in all but one of the 10 rounds of voting, which was a tie, but Caracas held on to enough support to deny Guatemala the two-thirds majority of votes cast in a particular round needed to win...
UN rules allow for indefinite rounds of voting. A previous battle between Cuba and Colombia ended in January 1980 after two months and 154 rounds with the election of a third candidate, Mexico.