I've got an idea. Let's invite a company from a nation with ties to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to take over ownership of portions of key American Ports. Ooh, ooh, I know what we can do, we can contract the job of piloting all of our commercial airlines to a firm in Iran. And to top it off we can start selling arms to Hamas.

For those of you that don't know, The Federal Government has allowed a British Company to sell their interest in the running of important American Ports to a company based in the United Arab Emerites (UAE). Two of the hijackers that took part in the 9/11 attacks were from the UAE and money financing the attacks was laundered through UAE as well. The company (Dubai Ports World) has had interests in ports where questionable activities have taken place but were not found to be guilty of anything. Congressmen and women from both sides of the aisle have hinted that this is perhaps because laws did not allow for further investigation. The Department of Homeland Security and the White House have both signed off on this transfer of power.

Here we go again. I wrote in a previous entry that sooner or later the Bush White House was going to do something else to jeopardize American lives and what do you F'ing know? I didn't think it was going to be this much sooner but to say I'm shocked would be like saying I would be surprised to hear of a NASCAR driver beating his wife... with this group of yokels it comes with the territory.

The paltry excuse given for this dick brained maneuver is that the Department of Homeland Security investigated this matter to the extent the law allowed so the White House was forced to okay it... Yeah, like breaking the law in the name of "national security" isn't one of the President and his men's favorite pass times.

Some one commented on this very blog that they don't expect perfection from our leaders. I’m sorry to say that I think we left the realm of imperfection and dove right into criminal negligence months if not years ago. I ask again, when are Bush supporters going to take the blinders off and recognize that the men behind the curtain shouldn't even be allowed to go to the zoo with out a handler and a string of mentally disabled children to hold hands with?

Yes, the majority of the responsibility for this horrific lapse of national security falls on the Department of Homeland Security, but the President appointed the head of the department and Okayed this change of power in our nation's ports. Can the members of this President's cabinet crap themselves indefinitely with out ever convincing people of the deplorable skills in judging character our most powerful leader continues to display? Apparently F'ing so.

Well, it's time to get out to the quick shop and buy some Tums because we're going to have indigestion that eating glass wouldn't cause after swallowing the line of bull shit that we're about to be fed in the coming days. Sooner or later they're going to have to set up a warning system so we Americans will know when to assume the position, because at this point we're getting screwed so often that the media can hardly keep up.

I'm looking into setting up a distribution system in D.C. so our favorite retailer won't continue to have the supply problems they've been running in to. But until then it will remain my responsibility to inform offending members of our society of their need to report for duty. To that end, I must relay the message of the most recent phone call placed to the "Bat Phone". Hey Bush White House, the jerk store called. They ran out of you.

Moody

I am a liberal independent. Knowing the opinions that are synonymous with that statement, what am I not getting? What do you see that I don't? Give me one good reason to back our current administration (besides patriotism and religion). Please try to be nice.

Moody

The fact that some people can't see the hypocrisy of a war faught to protect "liberty" in which we get our civil liberties taken away, kills me. G-Dub can't get through a 5 minute speech with out saying Liberty 30 or 40 times, and half the time the speeches I'm referring to are meant to explain why we should be okay with losing MORE civil liberties. Okay, okay, that's not what this post is about. Sorry, I got a little carried away.

This entry is going explain to all the Neo-Cons that call liberals anti-American the reasons we (Liberals) are against warrantless wiretaps. First I'll explain the FISA laws already in place for those that don't know them and then I will go into why ignoring them makes no sense and is, in the opinion of most liberals, just wrong. I'm sure allot of you already know quite a bit of this information but I try to write these things in a way that people that aren't as politically inclined can understand them as well.

Basically the law, as it pertains to this argument, says that A) you can't spy on American citizens with out a warrant and B) in case of an emergency you can spy on them BUT must clear it with the FISC (Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court) within 72 hours. (If there is an objection to these explanations please give me a URL to the laws that void the assertions I've made above.) Since the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act's inception in 1979 there have been over 19,000 warrant requests for wire taps under the FISA laws and only 5 have been turned down...

The point is, if it's something really important no immediate warrant is needed and when they do ask for one they have a better than 3000 to 1 chance of getting it. The President/Attorney General do have to explain themselves eventually but isn't that what checks and balances are all about?

The reason we liberals are up in arms over the warrantless wiretaps is because if they're not spying on Americans they shouldn't be spying on then the FISA laws are a perfectly good way to deal with domestic surveillance.

One of the things FISA laws deal with is "minimization". Which means making sure this power is not used to get information unnecessary to the security of our country. The FISA laws also gave the FISC (the FISA courts) the responsibility of making sure there was enough evidence to support the surveillance of any U.S. citizen under investigation. By circumventing the warrants issued by the FISC they have cut out these important checks of this incredibly broad power.

Under these circumsances what is keeping them from flagging and reading all e-mails with the word “attack” in them? Nothing. What can we do if they implement an automatic scanning operation to monitor thousands if not millions of calls? Nothing. With out the President's adherence to the FISA laws there is no way to determine if this power is even being misused, let alone keep the NSA from continuing its use if it is being wrongly applied. If this policy continues we will have no way of keeping the powers that be from spying on anyone they want for whatever reason they want and using the information in whatever fashion they see fit.

There are a myriad of ways in which the current breaking of FISA laws can be abused and I have only touched on a few of them. Whether or not you believe the current administration would, in fact, abuse this power is of absolutely no consequence. Our form of Representative Democracy is not now, nor has it ever been, run on the Honor System, which is what Republicans propose we do when dealing with this loss of civil liberty. All we Liberals/Democrats (and even some Republicans) want is for the President to follow the laws that were made to handle these situations so our Government can function in the way in which it was designed. With checks and balances.

Moody

If I hear one more thing about Dick Cheney shooting some geriatric Texas lawyer in the face I'm going to puke. The free press in this nation is given the gift to say what ever they want and they choose this story, which has absolutely no baring on our nation as a whole, to tell us.

The gift of free speech needs to be viewed, in my opinion, as an obligation, and I'm sure there are college journalism professors at schools all over the country who would agree with me. As far as the Government is concerned, I feel it is an obligation to inform us on the How's, Why's, and Ways in which our tax money is being spent.

After seeing stories by the same news organizations that have shoved this Cheney crap in our faces for the past several days I can you tell there were at least 5 events happening in the world yesterday that deserved better coverage than this hunting accident garbage.

How does anyone suspect us to educate ourselves on the important issues when we have to read through 3 pages of fluff or watch 15 minutes of talking heads spewing sensationalistic malarkey just to get to a small column or sound bite about something that actually matters in the running of our nation?

When election time comes around, once again, the masses will be voting on who looks the shiniest or who kisses the cutest babies. We will have no real knowledge of the candidates. Our votes will be based on stump speeches where they say nothing and mean the nothing they say even less. Or even worse, we might even decide who and what to vote for based on the slimey little "take a fat dump on the opponent" commercials that independent action groups seem to love so much.

It is the job of the free press to "inform the public" and they are failing miserably. Right Wingers say Liberals control the media and the Liberals say the press corps is afraid to do stories criticizing the Presidency for fear of losing access. Even if both of these theories are true what journalism is really all about today is advertising dollars. If the important stories are boring and don't sell copies or bring in viewers then we get told about some schmuck that probably failed his high school “hunter’s safety” class for the next 3 or 4 days straight. It is maddening to me, and it apparently angers some other people as well because my big red phone just rang. Hey American Media, the jerk store called. They ran out of you.

Moody

Condi Rice went in front of a senate panel today and asked for $75 million to wage what amounts to a propaganda war against the government of Iran.

Being as Iran was a bigger threat to America's security before the war in Iraq started, I have no problem with that. Shit, even I like a good propaganda war. No body gets killed, the skies are filled with pamphlets so that it appears to be snowing in the desert, they wind up with more American funded TV (they can't wait for "Frasier") and everyone has an all around good time of it.

The problem I have with Ms. Rice is something she said to this panel. She made the point of saying that Iran is "our biggest single strategic challenge" in the Middle East... Hmmm, there's something not quite right about that. I can't put my finger on it but I just know that can't be right. Let me think...Oh, I know. For a second I forgot about THE FUCKING WAR IN IRAQ!!! She cannot be fuckin’ serious with that shit. We have 100 something thousand troops over there as we speak; they elected a predominately religious government, and are on the verge of civil war. Yeah, reeeaaall good Condi. Let's pretend that the war is going okay, does Iran THEN become the biggest "challenge”? Heellll no, after Iraq we've got the newly elected Palestinian Government. You remember, they all wear green and call for the destruction of Israel. That's right, FUCKING HAMAS.

This may not seem like a big deal but it shows you the attitude of the people running the country. They tell us that everything in Iraq is fine and that's that. Hamas is chosen to lead the Palestinians; they cut off funding, and that's that. I'm beginning to think they believe their own bullshit

It's amazing how quickly they can knock major international problems out when they need money for some new pet project. As I said earlier, $75 million for promoting democracy in Iran doesn't bother me really, besides in the grand scheme of things 75 mil isn't that much. What bothers me is the skewed priorities of our leaders and their ability to say the dumbest shit ever spoken aloud in order to milk the system. The fact that a senator didn't get up, walk over, and slap the teeth out of her mouth is amazing to me. If we didn’t need these people to run our country I might even find it funny. It would almost be like watching that TV program where they replay all of the stupid stuff people say on game shows.

I'm sure silly stuff like this goes on constantly, but I just happened to read about Ms. Rice this time. I, for one, would like to see everybody in the upper ranks of our federal Government take a week sometime next month and try as hard as they can to make us believe that they can do their jobs better than a team of helmet wearing five-year-olds could.

I know it's a bummer that you're the one they singled out Madame Secretary, but you are the one that got caught puking idiocy in front of a panel of Senators, and when the phone rings I'm obligated to answer it, so here it goes... Hey Condoleezza Rice, the jerk store called. They ran out of you.

P.S. I know this is kind of a fluff post but I didn't want to take the time to try and reproduce the exact same entry that got erased this morning... maybe tomorrow.

Moody