2003 Evil GOP Bastard of the Year ( from www.democrats.com )

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.democrats.com

Today's Quote

We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy.
Robert L. Jackson, Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunals, 13-Mar-03

DAY: 1150

Dean Can Survive Shark Attacks
Sidney Blumenthal: "By calling attention to Dean's boldness (or rashness) without any effectual action of their own, Dean's rivals are underscoring his fusion of acceptable political credentials as the only governor in the race who is also the insurgent... The sin of the 'Washington Democrats' in the eyes of Democrats isn't simply their fecklessness; it's that they have appeared as appeasers. Whether Dean or another Democrat can win the war is another war. But the first requirement for becoming the wartime leader is to understand that there is a war. Lieberman has declared that Dean is not in the mould of Clinton in 1992, as though attempting to repeat the past makes a New Democrat born again. But Dean's pragmatic strategy may be another version of that which Clinton adopted after he suffered the loss of the Democratic Congress in 1994. By defining his position apart from the rightwing Republicans and the 'Washington Democrats', as he calls them, Dean has reinvented triangulation."

Bush Would Have Been Hanged by the Founding Fathers
Gore Vidal: "We are talking about despotism. I have read not only the first PATRIOT Act but also the second one, which has not yet been totally made public nor approved by Congress and to which there is already great resistance. An American citizen can be fingered as a terrorist, and with what proof? No proof. All you need is the word of the AG or maybe the president himself. You can then be locked up without access to a lawyer, and then tried by military tribunal and even executed. Or, in a brand-new wrinkle, you can be exiled, stripped of your citizenship and packed off to another place not even organized as a country - like Tierra del Fuego... The Founding Fathers would have found this to be despotism in spades. And they would have hanged anybody who tried to get this through the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Hanged... I think of them as an alien army. They have managed to take over everything, and quite in the open. We have a deranged president. We have despotism."

2003's Worst Corporate Abuses against America
"The notion that the free market is more important than the free society was pushed to new heights during 2003," writes Jamie Court. "At the same time, the counter-corporateering movement scored some major victories that could set a new tone in 2004." Among the 10 worst corporate outrages (many aided and abetted by the corrupt Supreme Court): The FCC sellout of 45% of America's airwaves to one holder, the obscene profits of HMOs while citizens access to insurance declined, the sellout of Americans' privacy to banks and insurers, Halliburton's Iraq contract fraud, the loss of Medicare's right to negotiate drug costs. Read 'em and weep -- then work to get Bush out of office so this trend does NOT continue!

Bush Labor Dept. Hands Corporations Millions to Close Out High Tech Workers
A high percentage of the "longest-unemployed" US workers have advanced degrees in info technology (IT) and engineering. Some haven't worked in their field for 2 or 3 years. Why? Their jobs have been "outsourced" to India, etc. So what is Bush doing? Handing out millions to retrain less qualified workers to perform jobs that should go to bonafide techies. For example, the Labor's Employment and Training Administration has awarded $3 million to the California Manufacturers and Technology Assoc. to train 1,744 workers in IT and engineering to "upgrade" their skills. The only requirement is a bachelor's degree or 5 years "comparable" work experience. Thus corporations can replace, at taxpayer expense, 6 or more years of tech training with a "retraining course."



Senators Question Agency's Ability to Block Terrorist Funding
"The top senators on the Senate Finance Committee are openly questioning a key federal agency's ability to block terrorist money, citing examples in which U.S. officials failed to freeze the money of people identified as terrorist financiers by American allies [before and after 9-11]. 'Other nations look to the U.S. for leadership and information in the war on terrorism. We should not be playing catch-up,' Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Max Baucus, D-Mont., wrote the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control....[They] cited numerous concerns about OFAC's performance, including evidence of sloppy record keeping, failure to provide required information to Congress and reliance on voluntary compliance by banks to impose sanctions against suspected terrorists. Though an internal investigation in 2002 recommended OFAC make changes to ensure it has the legal authority to test banks' compliance with sanctions, the agency hasn't taken steps to do so."



Bush Misses the Boat for Homeland Security Deadline
"Terror strikes from the sea could be even more catastrophic than those from the air, intelligence officials say. They fear a hijacked oil tanker could be rigged with explosives or a radioactive dirty bomb could be smuggled ashore in a shipping container. But almost 5,000 ships and about four out of every five of the nation's ports, ferry terminals and fuel-chemical tank farms failed to meet a Wednesday deadline for submitting security plans showing how they will deal with terrorism threats... One reason [they] were missing their deadline is they were given too little time, said Maureen Ellis, a spokeswoman for the Association of American Port Authorities. The government didn't finalize what it wanted until Oct. 22... For others, coming up with the money for fences, guards, lights or closed-circuit TV will be difficult, Ellis said. The Coast Guard estimates that meeting the new requirements will cost $7.4 billion over the next decade."



Nine hundred and Eleven Missing Pieces
Alan Cabal writes, "Where is the coverage of those insisting on finding out what really happened on that day before they sign away their 'claims?'... The internet is boiling with analyses of the 9/11 event. In Europe, a fair number of people believe the American government was complicit in the attacks. According to recent polls, one-third of young Germans believe this. Media here ignore the questions, but it can't be kept from public view forever. It's all out there. It's been two years, and we still have nothing but questions and Grassy Knoll theories. The answers lay scattered in shreds and pieces, waiting to be assembled. Now come the widows, asking the right questions. Mariani's lawyer, Phil Berg, makes a point to remind people that he is not in the least bit suicidal, or given to playing with loaded guns. They may not be able to reassemble or reanimate their loved ones in a literal sense, but these families who are choosing the hard road, the Narrow Way, will get to the truth. "



Petition to Stop Criminalization of Dissent
United for Peace and Justice writes, "To Senate and House Judiciary Committees: I am outraged that the FBI has been conducting coordinated, nationwide surveillance operations on the US antiwar movement under the cover of fighting 'terrorism.' I support the efforts of the antiwar movement to end the Bush administration's policies of illegal war and occupation. I support our right to engage in nonviolent dissent free of government surveillance and interference. I call on you to take immediate action to stop the FBI and local police from spying on the anti-war movement and to begin an investigation into these spying activities... I will not be intimidated or silenced by the FBI and the Bush administration. I am proud to participate in nonviolent political dissent, like the Global Day of Action Against War and Occupation on March 20, and I will continue to work for peace and justice."



2003: Imperial Gong Show Year
Tom Engelhardt writes, "2002 should certainly have been dubbed the Year of the New Rome, the year neocon pundits (and a few liberal commentators as well) proudly urged us to shoulder our new imperial burden and emulate the Romans, or at least the 19th century Brits, forever and a day. If so, then 2003 was the year in which our homegrown imperialists fell silent on the subject of empire, while our legions, setting out to remake the Middle East and then the world (cap that W), fell into the nearest nation-building ditch... 2004 should be a fierce holding action for [the Busheviks]. The question is - as with Richard Nixon in 1972 - can they make it through to November before the seams start to tear. They might be able to. But here's the thing: Sooner or later, the children will leave the stage and some set of adults will have to start picking up the pieces. If the 2004 election is theirs, however... well, sometimes there are just things, our planet included, too broken to fix."



Brazil Will Fingerprint U.S. Visitors
"A Brazilian judge has announced that US citizens will be fingerprinted and photographed on entering the country. Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva was reacting to US plans to do the same to Brazilians entering the United States. He made the order after a Brazilian government office filed a complaint in a federal court over the new US immigration measures. From 5 January, travellers from all countries which need a visa to enter the US will undergo the same checks. 'I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis,' Federal Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva said in the court order."



Zinni Says Americans Were 'Conned' into Iraq War
"As Central Command chief [until 2000, Gen. Anthony] Zinni had been immersed in U.S. intelligence about Iraq. He was all too familiar with the intelligence analysts' doubts about Iraq's programs to acquire WMD. 'In my time at CENTCOM, I watched the intelligence, and never-not once-did it say, 'He has WMD." Though retired for nearly two years, Zinni says, he remained current on the intelligence through his consulting with the CIA and the military. 'I did consulting work for the agency, right up to the beginning of the war. I never saw anything. I'd say to analysts, 'Where's the threat?" Their response, he recalls, was silence. As he walked off the stage in Nashville [in 8-02], Zinni concluded that the Bush administration was determined to go to war. A moment later, he had another, equally chilling thought: 'These guys don't understand what they are getting into.'... 'I think the American people were conned into this,' he said." Impeach Bush Now!

[Gimpy]

of Tom (The Head CockRoach) Delay!

Yep, he'd surely be close to the top of MY list as well!

Thanks Dude!

[SuperScout]

Having been around the world three times, to several goat ropin's and a county fair of two, I've acquired some wisdom, some of which has helped me to formulate the following theory: the higher the probability and possibility of the Democrats losing the next presidential election, the greater knot in their collective panties! And this tightness in said undergarmets also chokes off oxygen to their little bitty brains, making them all the more ludricrous and laughable!! Hopefully, they'll exercise a cranial-rectal retraction, and follow the sage advice and counsel of fomer mayor of New York, Ed Koch (D-NY). Tee-hee, or maybe they'll just call him a traitor too. Ho-hum.

[Gimpy]

have "roped" one to many a goat!

Tee-Hee!