November 19, 2006

THE THINKING SPOT

"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a communist; then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a socialist; then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a trade unionist; then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–because I was not a Jew; then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak out for me."

WAR
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"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."-- Samuel Adams
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Barney Frank speaks out on Iraq: "I voted against this war from the beginning. I think that we should pull out of Iraq. I see no negative consequences from withdrawing, either."
http://tinyurl.com/yeg8bm

Why We Fight -- What are the forces that shape and propel American militarism? (Posted in response to Rep Rangel's call to reinstate the draft.)
http://tinyurl.com/5hwpg

Rangel: If US Had A Draft We “Never Would Have Invaded Iraq”...
http://tinyurl.com/ylxejh

Kissinger: Military Victory In Iraq Is No Longer Possible...U.S. government must enter into dialogue with Iraq's regional neighbors _ including Iran _ if any progress is to be made in the region.
http://tinyurl.com/ye8mfc

THE WHITE HOUSE
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The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding: Louis D. Brandeis
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EXCELLENT READ! --- Embittered Insiders Turn Against Bush -- Kenneth Adelman believes that "the president is ultimately responsible" for "the debacle that was Iraq." "A country's at stake. A region's at stake. This is a gigantic situation. . . . This didn't have to be managed this bad. It's just awful."
http://tinyurl.com/tjhgn

After losses it may be cold day in hell before GOP looks to Karl Rove as a leader
http://tinyurl.com/yfce7n

Air Force One Grounded After Mechanical problems... Bush To Continue Asia Trip On “Back Up” Boeing 757 (I just won't say what I was thinking!)
http://tinyurl.com/ygfykj

Scowcroft On Rumsfeld's Replacement: “He's Crazy To Take The Job”...
http://tinyurl.com/yzbtve

CABINETS, COMMISSIONS, etc

State Dept. Rice offers North Korea olive branch--THE United States offered an olive branch to North Korea and Burma yesterday, with the promise of peace and opportunity if their isolated regimes made the right “strategic choices”.The change of tone came as President George W Bush used a summit in Vietnam to try to hold together America’s Asian allies in maintaining pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons
http://tinyurl.com/ydcpot

CIA analysis finds no Iranian nuclear weapons drive: report -- A current senior intelligence official confirmed the existence of the CIA analysis and said the White House had been hostile to it, he wrote. "They're looking for the degree of comfort level they think they need to accomplish the mission."
http://tinyurl.com/y9ttlf

POLITICS
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“Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular- but one must take it simply because it is right.” : Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968
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The Video Pelosi and AIPAC Don’t Want You to See
http://tinyurl.com/ymzgkr

Republicans plot to bring down Pelosi ... and Clinton with her - "Two years of Pelosi gives a good idea of what four years of Hillary will be like," said Tom DeLay, the Republican powerbroker who ran his party in the House before he was caught up in a lobbyist corruption scandal. "They are both committed liberals and we will make that clear to the American people."
http://tinyurl.com/uz9vg

Time for a Constitutional Convention
http://tinyurl.com/y9vnjl

LEGAL ITEMS

Libby, may have disclosed conclusions from a highly classified government report on Iraq to journalists before the report was declassified by President Bush,
http://tinyurl.com/yaxhpj

ELECTION ITEMS

Most callers report voting problems - More than 100 Sarasota County residents said their votes in the congressional race were not recorded
http://tinyurl.com/y9zcp7

ECONOMY

Ford, GM down - banks move in for the kill
http://tinyurl.com/ykbze8

911

The Secret Service at Booker Elementary: The Dog That Did Not Bark --- This is the question the White House cannot answer, indeed dares not allow to be asked: With a supposedly unknown number of aircraft flying all over the eastern half of the country crashing into buildings, with President Bush's presence at Booker Elementary announced in the media three days in advance, and with an airport just 4 miles away, how did the United States Secret Service KNOW that President Bush was safe where he sat reading about goats? How did the United States Secret Service KNOW that they did NOT need to get Bush into his armored limo and start driving to foil a potential inbound? How did the United States Secret Service KNOW that they were not making targets of all those teachers and children by keeping them in that room with President Bush? How did the United States Secret Service KNOW that President Bush was not a target?
http://tinyurl.com/dapuo

CONGRESS
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"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels--men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, we may never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."- Dwight D. Eisenhower, May 31, 1954
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Rahm Emanuel's Dirty Secret
http://tinyurl.com/ye74ew

Democrats split on ethics overhaul
http://tinyurl.com/yjzo9y

DOMESTIC

Immigration top issue for new governors
http://tinyurl.com/yn96wy

700 are ill as ship docks in Florida
http://tinyurl.com/yg8k3o

RELIGIOUS ITEMS
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"If the bible is universally diffused in Hindustan, what must be the astonishment of the natives to find that we are forbidden to rob, murder and steal; we who in fifty years, have extended our empire...over the whole peninsula...and exemplified in our public conduct every crime of which human nature is capable. What matchless impudence to follow up such practice with such precepts! If we have common prudence, let us keep the gospel at home, and tell them that Machiavelli is our prophet, and the god of the Manicheans our god.": The Reverend Sydney Smith - (1771 - 1845)
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Jesus Camp is church and state sanctioned ritual child abuse
http://tinyurl.com/ymtenf

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Microsoft Vista cracked - Apparently Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Edition has also been cracked. So far Microsoft has refused to comment about hacks, but claims it is working hard to stop pirates.
http://tinyurl.com/y3e2nt

INTERNATIONAL

Leading Russian critic of Putin's regime is poisoned in London
http://tinyurl.com/yhjce9

MILITARY
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Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder: Percy Bysshe Shelley, "A Declaration of Rights"
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Plea Deals Pile Up for Accused Marines - Some observers of the military justice system find the developments mystifying.
http://tinyurl.com/yao83q

MEDIA AND JOURNALISM

FOX Affiliates: OJ's “Confession” Interview With Regan Is “Disgusting”...We Won't Air It...
http://tinyurl.com/yge2lz

Fox hit by revulsion at O.J. 'confession'
http://tinyurl.com/ybpthl

SPECIAL INTEREST ITEMS

The "NASA Airbrushed UFOs / Lunar Base Towers" trailer from the "UFO - The Greatest Story Ever Denied" movie
http://tinyurl.com/ycuk9x

Only in New York: Get your pot order delivered
http://tinyurl.com/yb92g9