Rudy Giuliani praises 2006 Terror trial; Now against KSM Trial in New York

One thing that irks me to the bone is Politicians who are able to change their stance in the blink of an eye. Case in point, Rudy Giuliani.

In the 2006 trial of 20th Hijacker Moussaoui, Rudy said:

"At the same time, I was in awe of our system," the former mayor continued. "It does demonstrate that we can give people a fair trial, that we are exactly what we say we are. We are a nation of law. . . . I think he's going to be a symbol of American justice."

But now, in the age of where no Republican can be for whatever Obama is for, Rudy has done a 180 and now says in an interview with Fox News that he is against a United States Trial for KSM. See below:

Wallace:I want to take you back to what you said after the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers. You said this, “I think it shows you put terrorism on one side, you put our legal system on the other, and our legal system comes out ahead.”

And after the 2006 trial of the so-called 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, you said, “It shows that we can give people a fair trial, that we are exactly what we say we are. We are a nation of war (sic).” Respectfully, Mayor, you supported civilian trials for terrorists then.

GIULIANI: And if there’s no other alternative, I support civilian trials for terrorists. The reality is there is another alternative here. And this administration has created tribunals. At least five, possibly more, terrorists are going to be tried in those tribunals.

If there was no other choice, again, Chris, I support this. If there was no other choice and they had to be tried in New York, of course they should be tried in New York. But the reality is there is another choice. It is a better choice for the government. This choice of New York is a better choice for the terrorists. Why would you seek to give the terrorists a better choice than you’re giving the -- than you’re giving the public?

Jack Reed came out later and refuted Giuliani's statements as idiotic at best:

REED: Well, as you pointed out, in 2006, Moussaoui, the 20th hijacker, under the Bush administration was tried in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Mayor Giuliani was one who testified in the penalty phase and he, as you indicated, claimed this was a symbol of American justice, as he said in 1993.

But this was not 1993. This was 2006. The alternative existed for a military tribunal then. The Bush administration decided to make the case in federal court. They succeeded. A hundred and ninety or so terrorists have been convicted in federal courts, only a handful -- less than 10 -- in tribunals.

There are 200 individuals serving time in federal facilities now for their terrorist crimes. So what was a statesmanlike decision by the Bush administration can’t be a political decision by this administration.

Sean Hannity admits doctoring Protest footage

And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Fox's tricky editing techniques.

The Obama "WAR" on Christmas

The following email/bullshit made its way to my inbox this morning:

White House will not do Christmas

Thought you might be interested in this information from the White House. This isn’t a rumor; this is a fact.

We have a friend at church who is a very talented artist. For several years she, among many others, has painted ornaments to be hung on the various White House Christmas trees. The WH usually sends out an invitation to send an ornament and informs the artists of the theme for the year.

She got her letter from the WH recently. It said that they would not be called Christmas trees this year. They will be called Holiday trees. And, to please not send any ornaments painted with a religious theme.

Like an educated person, I don't take these things at face value. So I looked into it and found that the "War" on Christmas this year, is complete bullshit and is just meant to hype up the base.

PolitiFact.com's "Truth-O-Meter" gives this rumor a rating of "Pants on Fire," meaning that this "friend at church" is a Liar, Liar. PolitiFact.com contacted White House Spokesperson Kate Bedingfield who denied any such letter or name change to the White House Christmas Tree:

"'There is no truth to this, and the letter referenced in the e-mail does not exist,' [Kate Bedingfield] said. 'No letter has gone out yet from the White House pertaining to Christmas tree ornaments.' She added, 'The trees in the White House will be called Christmas trees, and the tree on the Ellipse will be called the National Christmas Tree. There will be no name changes.'"

Conservative Wing Nut claims Fort Hood Shooter advised Obama

This guy is bat shit crazy.

Jerome Corsi of World Net Daily recently released an article stating that the Fort Hood shooter Maj. Malik Hasan had advised President Obama during his transition to power.

This, of course, is nothing short of a lie.

Corsi's sole piece of evidence for this is a document from May 19, 2009 by the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute. In this document, Hasan is listed on Page 29...as a "Task Force Event Participant".

He was one of hundreds listed as "participant" and apparently did not do much participating. He sat in the audience. It's kind of like little league, everyone gets a trophy.

Nidal was not the author of the document. He was not a member of the HSPI's "Presidential Transition Task Force." Nor was he a member of the HSPI's "Task Force Staff." He was not a member of the HSPI's Steering Committee or a briefer to the task force.

GOP members liken Holocaust to Health Care reform

Need proof?

In Case you cant see:

Keep in mind that this wasn't some Glenn Beck-organized 9/12 stunt. This was an event staged by the House Republican leadership -- actual elected officials, members of the U.S. government.

Other Republican members of Congress were on stage, too: Minority Leader John Boehner (OH), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (VA), Roy Blunt (MO), Jeb Hensarling (TX), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA), Michele Bachmann (MN) -- who was a key organizer of the event -- Virginia Foxx (NC), Ginny Brown-Waite (FL), Jean Schmidt (OH), Sue Myrick (NC), and many more.

If Republicans wonder why most Americans view them as part of the fringe extreme, they need not look beyond this event. While Democrats were touting the endorsement of AARP, Michele Bachmann and the House leadership were rallying amidst signs like this, shoulder to shoulder with 2,000 teabaggers.

Swipe from Kos.

Michael Steele is a tool.

Nuff' Said.

Rep. Joe "YOU LIE!" Wilson blames Obama Admin. for lack of H1N1 Vaccines, while voting AGAINST its funding.

In another chapter of "Are you F'N kidding me", Rep. Joe Wilson came out against the Obama Administration for the diminishing numbers of H1N1 vaccines saying:

"The current administration is solely responsible. They can't blame this on any prior administration," said Wilson. "This is the responsibility of the current administration. They've put the lives of Americans at risk."

Hypocrisy at its finest...why you ask? All I have to do is point to a June vote where Rep. Wilson voted AGAINST a spending appropriations bill that contained an amendment to fund H1N1 vaccines.

Idiot'a.

Sen. Vitter turns his back and walks away from Rape Victim.

These people are disgusting.


Sen. Vitter was confronted by a rape victim for his vote against the Franken amendment that stripped Federal money from companies who silenced victims of rape who worked for them.

WOMAN: It meant everything to me that I was able to put the person who attacked me [behind bars]. And what allowed me to do that was our judicial process. I showed up in court every day to make sure that happen

VITTER: And I'm absolutely supportive of any case like that being prosecuted criminally to the full extent of the law.

WOMAN: But there are rape victims who are being kept silent.

WOMAN: But how can you support [a law] that tells a rape victim that she does not have the right to defend herself?
Story continues below

VITTER: Ma'am The language in question did not say that in any way shape or form.

WOMAN: But it is unconstitutional to have a law that says a woman does not have a right to defend herself.

VITTER: You realize Mr. Obama was against that amendment that his administration was against that amendment

WOMAN: But I'm not asking Obama. I'm asking you.

VITTER: Do you think he's in favor in rape?

WOMAN: I'm asking you Senator. What if it was your daughter who was raped? Would you tell her to be quiet and take it? Would you tell your daughter to be silent

Vitter's excuse here doesn't exactly hold water. While the Obama Defense Department raised concerns about the reach of the Franken amendment, the White House itself said it supported "the intent" and was working to make sure it was "enforceable."

Opin-u-tainment

Jon Stewart took Fox News to task again last night. Job well done sir, Job. Well. Done.

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The Defining Moment.

Paul Krugman is a Nobel Economic Prize winner and a columnist for the New York Times (Commie, Liberal Smut Rag). I try to catch him whenever he is on TV and absorb as much knowledge as possible.

His latest blog takes on the health care issue and where it currently is at in the legislation process, he says:

The odd thing about this group is that while its members are clearly uncomfortable with the idea of passing health care reform, they’re having a hard time explaining exactly what their problem is. Or to be more precise and less polite, they have been attacking proposed legislation for doing things it doesn’t and for not doing things it does.

Thus, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut says, “I want to be able to vote for a health bill, but my top concern is the deficit.” That would be a serious objection to the proposals currently on the table if they would, in fact, increase the deficit. But they wouldn’t, at least according to the Congressional Budget Office, which estimates that the House bill, in particular, would actually reduce the deficit by $100 billion over the next decade.

What's the next excuse Joe?

You can read the rest of the Op-Ed Here.

Coburn Is Concerned About Garage Doors -- Rape Victims, Not So Much

by BarbinMD

Tom Coburn (R-OK) [Seen above, if I had time, I'd super impose something funny] has earned a permanent spot in the Misplaced Outrage Hall of Fame for this one:

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has sent a letter (PDF) to Defense Secretary Robert Gates asking why contractors under criminal investigation were able to obtain millions of dollars in work from the federal stimulus program.

Recall that earlier this month, Coburn became a corporate sponsor of rape when he, along with 29 of his fellow Republicans, voted no on the Franken Amendment, but now he's worried:

"If somebody fixed your garage door and they defrauded you—or, rather, you thought they defrauded you—would you give them more business? Nobody else in the country would do that."

Well, sure. But if a company allows someone to be drugged, gang-raped, and held prisoner in a barely-ventilated shipping container for days, it would be downright irresponsible to stop doing business with them. What are you people, some kind of freakin' morals police?

The Public Option is dead?!?!

I guess not.

When Voting Records become inconvenient.

I thought this was interesting:

Rep. John Culberson (R-No Shit) was among hundreds of people lined up to get the swine flu vaccine at a public clinic at the Arlington County Public Health Division headquarters Wednesday morning.

That in itself isn’t terribly newsworthy — the Texas Republican was there to get his daughter vaccinated, a spokeswoman told HOH.

Until I read this:

But our tipster noted Culberson’s visit to the clinic was "a little ironic since the Congressman voted against the funding that was used to purchase the vaccines in the first place."

Sometimes, I just don't have the words.

Pentagon Instructs Officials to Cancel Contracts with ACORN. The Problem: They Don't Exist

From Jeremy Scahill @ Rebel Reports:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Tuesday night, US Undersecretary of Defense Shay Assad, the Pentagon’s top contracting official, sent a memo to the commanders and directors of all branches of the military instructing them to cease all business with the embattled community organization ACORN and to take “all necessary and appropriate” steps to prevent future contracts with the organization. Assad’s brief memo [PDF] contained the two-page guidelines issued October 7 by Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Orszag’s guidelines were issued following the passage of Congressional legislation aimed at “defunding ACORN.”

Orszag’s guidelines were sent on October 7 to “the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies” and instructed them to “immediately commence all necessary and appropriate steps” to comply with the terms of the Defund ACORN Act. These include: no future obligation of funds, suspension of grant and contract payments and no funding of ACORN and its affiliates through Federal grantees or contractors. “Your agency should take steps so that no Federal funds are awarded or obligated” to ACORN, wrote Orszag.

While the DoD memo sent by Assad is basically a formality initiated by Orszag’s guidelines to all federal agencies, it is nonetheless remarkable given that ACORN is not a Defense Department contractor. According to an ACORN spokesperson, the group has not received Pentagon funds, nor has the community group even considered applying for such funds. “Of course we were hoping to win the contract to build the B-1 bomber, but we didn’t get that one,” says Brian Kettering, ACORN’s Deputy Director of National Operations, sarcastically. “This is all just silly, but the travesty here is that once again the witch-hunt against ACORN continues while there is a total neglect of [the misconduct] of the likes of Blackwater and Halliburton.”

While the DoD sends out memos regarding an organization that it does not contract with, the Pentagon currently does business with a slew of corporate criminals whose billions of dollars in annual federal contracts make the $53 million in government funds received by ACORN over the past 15 years look like, well, acorns. The top three government contractors—all of them weapons manufacturers—committed 109 acts of misconduct since 1995, according to the Project on Oversight and Government Reform. In that period, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Boeing paid fines or settlements totaling nearly $3 billion. In 2007 alone, the three companies won some $77 billion in federal contracts. There has been no letter sent around to federal agencies instructing them to cancel contracts with these companies that have ripped off taxpayers and engaged in a variety of fraudulent activities with federal dollars.

Also, it is not just the Defense Department that continues to hire corporations with real rap sheets. Contracting fraud and abuse is a corrupt cancer that permeates the federal bureaucracy. Overall, the top 100 government contractors make about $300 billion a year in federal contracts. Since 1995, they have paid a total of $26 billion in fines to settle 676 cases stemming from fraud, waste or abuse. According to the 2008 Corporate Fraud Task Force Report to the President, “United States Attorneys’ offices opened 878 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 1,548 potential defendants. Federal prosecutors had 1,612 health care fraud criminal investigations pending, involving 2,603 potential defendants, and filed criminal charges in 434 cases involving 786 defendants. A total of 560 defendants were convicted for health care fraud-related crimes during the year.” Last month, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer settled a series of cases, including Medicaid fraud and illegally marketing banned drugs, in what the Department of Justice said is “the largest civil fraud settlement in history against a pharmaceutical company.” The company has also been ordered to pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, “the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter,” according to the DoJ.

ACORN, which, like all recipients of federal dollars, certainly should be subjected to scrutiny, but these stats are a damning commentary on the upside down priorities when it comes to fighting contracting corruption.

Florida Representative Alan Grayson has argued that the Defund ACORN Act as written by the Republican geniuses on the Hill should actually apply to all government contractors. As he told Salon’s Glenn Greenwald after the bill passed: “The barn door has been opened, and the horses and the cows have both left. It’s done. It’s passed; there’s nothing they can do. There’s not take-backs in legislation; that’s not the way it works. And if they were sloppy in writing up this bill, then maybe they should have read the bill before they went ahead and tried to ram it through the House. Read their own bill, for a change.”

If the law is to be applied equally, then Peter Orszag should be firing off memos instructing all federal agencies to cease business and cancel contracts with massive financial institutions, weapons manufacturers, mercenary firms and pharmaceutical companies. Given the incredible government reliance on corporations, particularly in the defense industry and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, don’t hold your breath waiting for such a memo on DoD stationary any time soon.

Fiscal Conservative?

Here is a political cartoon from last year I found on my HD. The myth of Republican Fiscal Conservatives has been going on for nearly 30 years.

The difference between their spending and Obama's?

Obama's budget is projected to give us a return in the long run (okay, fine...the VERY long run). The GOP's budgets were inflated by tax cuts to the rich and rampant Defense spending. Two things that have never given us a return on investment.

Hmm

Master?

Am I the only one that interprets this as having racial undertones?

Premature Celebration.

Republicans and Conservatives have for the past several months been gloating that they are poised to take back Congress in the 2010 midterm elections. With the media portraying tea parties, angry town halls and and massive "grassroots" movement brewing by the GOP, it's no wonder why the average Fox News viewer would believe this.

But the numbers just don't add up.

First of all, a few facts for you:

- The Democrats currently control the House by a 79 seat margain (Minus 2 current vacancies) and Republicans would have to gain 40 seats to once again control the House.
- With the Democrats up 60-40 in the Senate, the Republicans would have to win 11 seats to once again control the Senate.

History does not seem to appear on their side. Only a handful of times has a lead so large been surmounted by the minority party. In 1994, the Republicans gained 54 seats in the House. So what would stop the Republicans from doing it again? Besides lacking the leadership and direction they had in 1994 with Newt Gingrich, the polls show the Republican party approval rating is at the bottom of the barrel.

In a recent poll by ABC/WaPo, only 20% of adults identify themselves as Republican (A 26 year low), and only 19% express confidence in Republicans to make the right decisions.

Poll respondents are evenly divided when asked whether they have confidence in Obama to make the right decisions for the country's future, but just 19 percent express confidence in the Republicans in Congress to do so. Even among Republicans, only 40 percent express confidence in the GOP congressional leadership to make good choices.

Only 20 percent of adults identify themselves as Republicans, little changed in recent months, but still the lowest single number in Post-ABC polls since 1983. Political independents continue to make up the largest group, at 42 percent of respondents; 33 percent call themselves Democrats.

The wide gap in partisan leanings and the lack of confidence in the GOP carries into early assessments of the November 2010 midterm elections: Fifty-one percent say they would back the Democratic candidate in their congressional district if the elections were held now, while 39 percent would vote for the Republican. Independents split 45 percent for the Democrat, 41 percent for the Republican.

Of course though, ABC/WaPo is liberal commie smut. So lets look at another poll. Research 2000 says below:

Since January 8, Dems have gone from +8 net favorability to -10 -- an 18-point drop. Republicans have gone from -28 to -46 -- an 18 point drop.

And really, I'd rather be the party at -10 than the one at -46. Wouldn't you?


While it's true, Obama's numbers are down along with the Democrats, the Republican numbers are catastrophic anywhere but the south.


This is a base election and the Republicans seem to be more energized, but it is just not translating into numbers. The House and members of the Senate fought hard this summer and did not back down from the lies and smear campaigns that were conducted by the right. The Tea Bagging movement is appearing to lose steam and the media is already wearing thin with the Republicans appearing to offer no solutions and merely conduct themselves as a "Party of No".

Throwing all these factors on top of the fact that the Republicans trail on virtually every issues on every credible poll (Even with the South boosting their numbers), the idea that the Republicans are taking back Congress seems to be a myth.

The party remains a regional stump party with no new ideas that is doing nothing but pandering to their far right extremist base.

Obama's Czar's

A lot of hooey is being made about the number of "Czars" that Obama has in his administration. Of course this is being propagated on Fox News insinuating that this is a clue to his secret Socialist agenda. In case you are unaware, I put the Czar's description via Wikipedia below:

Originally, the title Czar (derived from Caesar) meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who claims the same rank as a Roman emperor, with the approval of another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official.

So how did this term find our way into American Politics?

Easy. The termanology was popularized by Ronald Reagan and is media slang to shorten the officials full title. In fact, a number of the Obama "Czar's" have been confirmed by the Senate, by some of the SAME REPUBLICANS WHO ARE MAKING THESE STATEMENTS!!

I wonder why Glenn Beck and Fox News don't explain this in their commentary.

Center-Right Country

The GOP loves to make the claim that the United States is a center-right country.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, exhibit 1(A) in the form of the county voting trends for the 2008 election:



I rest my case.

Welcome

Hi,

Welcome. The name says it all. Check back daily.

-Brett