The net effect of the Hillary office hostage situation

There's a bomber in Hillary Clinton's Rochester, NJ campaign office as I type. These days whenever I hear of situations like this, I try to step back emotionally and ask the question, "what will be the net effect of this situation on our country's policy, on our democracy?" And it's pretty obvious, isn't it? There will be an even more chilling and distancing effect between the people and their electable officials. The announcer guy was just talking about the "open, easy access" people in New Hampshire have traditionally enjoyed with presidential candidates, and how this allowed a guy to just walk in with a bomb.

So, even though I'm certainly not suggesting that this is anything more involved than some crazy idiot who wants attention (Lord knows there's plenty of people like that out there) once again "anti-democratic" forces would seem to gain. It would be a good exercise in critical thinking to keep a jealous watch on our access to our elected officials and political candidates in the near future.

The truth is closing in on Bush

Former press secretary Scott McClellan, concerning the treasonous outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame:

"I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the Vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the President himself."

From Robert Parry: Bush's Plame-Gate Coverup
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112307Z.shtml
"... McClellan has become the first White House insider to acknowledge the original lies that senior administration told about the Plame-gate affair - and to put the President in the middle of the cover-up."

Here's a reminder that
Outing Plame was Much More than Political Revenge
http://jpaulson.blogspot.com/2007/04/outing-plame-was-much-more-than.html .

CBS affiliate finally covers chemtrails

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okB-489l6MI

for more about chemtrails, see: http://carnicom.com/ .

Buzzy 'n' Cookie: the Krongard Brothers

Oops! It turns out that our State Department inspector general (in charge of the non-investigations of mercenary firm Blackwater USA), Howard "Cookie" Krongard, has a brother on the Blackwater advisory board -- "Buzzy" Krongard. This all came out when Democrats confronted him at a House Oversight hearing . Of course, Cookie claimed he did not have a conflict of interest prior to the hearing because he was unaware of his brother's association with the company. This is rich -- the chutzpah of these guys is over the top!

State Department Inspector General Linked to Blackwater
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111507J.shtml

For those of you who know a bit about 9-11, "Buzzy" Krongard also managed the firm that handled the “PUT” options on United Airline Stock.
http://www.hereinreality.com/insidertrading.html

Maybe they should call them "Buzzard" and "Crookie."


Update:

Here's a youtube video that reports on the whole thing, including Cookie's jaw-dropping testimony.

TPMtv: Watch the Cookie Crumble

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4YDZyi9jAcw&feature=user

Here's the news update from truthout.org:
State Official, Brother Are Called for Hearing
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111707F.shtml

San Francisco Bay Oil Spill

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, I'm seriously down to less than an hour's internet time a day ... I have to use the public library.

I wish I had more time to do research, because let me tell you this, the oil spill here in San Francisco Bay is too strange *not* to investigate. I was living in Fairbanks, Alaska when the Exxon Valdez oil spill happened. I remember it well -- it was a Bonanza for us college students looking for quick cash -- people were scrambling from everywhere to get the oil spill cleaned up, and the work paid *very well*. Here they are actually (almost "Katrina like" ....!) turning away volunteers, actually arresting people who come to help. [ http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/11/11/thanks-but-no-thanks/ ]

How did this oil spill happen? What is going on with the weird non-response by the Coast Guard? Isn't it creepy that crab season is being opened as scheduled and the actual fishermen are stunned in disbelief? http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iAFBygtO5mNUnjSgieRSJbAFAO6AD8SU2JD80

Like I said, I have no time to actually investigate this stuff, but it begs to be investigated. Having followed the Exxon Valdez spill response, I can tell you this ... there's something very creepy going on.

A profile in courage

Daniel Levin was indeed brave to allow himself to be waterboarded, but Keith Olbermann was equally brave to make this segment:

Read/watch the whole thing at http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110607A.shtml .

We've got to stop voting for the lesser evil

Yesterday, Cindy Sheehan, I and other Code Pinkers, and various activists went to Dianne Feinstein's house and staged an event much like this one in D.C. -- the difference being that Dianne Feinstein actually saw the one in D.C.! Here's the video:



As I mentioned earlier on this blog, I actually met with Dianne Feinstein after fasting at her house several days. The first thing I did after shaking her hand was thank her for calling for the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Senator Feinstein was actually quite responsive to a letter I wrote her about the horrifying experience of a renditioned torture victim -- I know she actually cares about this issue. I think I know why she's voting to confirm Mukasey ... they probably got some sort of "deal" out him about putting an end to waterboarding, but giving grandfather clause free-passes to those who have practiced this evil up until now. She's probably afraid that if Mukasey doesn't get confirmed, Bush will put in somebody worse during a recess appointment.

A caller on the Stephanie Miller show (of all places!) made a good point -- Bush would *never* appoint anybody who would say that waterboarding was torture, because that would identify Bush with war crimes. So is Mukasey the best we can get???

Why can't we just impeach this bastard and not go on recess until we've cleared house???