PULSE - Top Stories of the Day

2003-11-20T04:54:00.000-08:00

Rash of incidents hit Iraq's pipeline network

Mon Nov 17, 4:34 PM ET KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) - Two northern Iraqi pipelines went ablaze in northern Iraq (news - web sites), following an explosion and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack, as a fire struck a natural gas pipeline in the same area, official US and Iraqi sources said.

A fire erupted in an oil pipeline 25 kilometers (12 miles) north of Kirkuk after a group of unknown gunmen fired RPGs, said the head of the Iraq's northern oil company, Aidin Mohammed Hassan. He said the fire began at 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) and was still ongoing. Earlier that day, a blast on a pipeline forced Iraq's largest oil refinery in Baiji to shut down electricity for two days. Baiji's oil refinery director, Ali Adjil, told AFP the explosion occurred at 1:00 am (2200 GMT Sunday), two kilometers (1.2 miles) to the east of the refinery in a pipeline that takes fuel oil to the refinery of Dora, in the southern suburb of Baghdad.

The explosion caused a fire in the pipeline and damaged the power supply line to the Baiji refinery and the rest of the surrounding area, he said. A security guard at the pipeline, Mohammed Shalaf, said the blast was sabotage because he found a crater in the ground. The 300,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Baiji refinery is located 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. It is Iraq's largest and newest refinery, built in the 1980s. The Dora refinery's capacity is around 100,000 bpd.

In a separate incident, also in the Baiji area, a US army spokesman reported a fire near a natural gas pipeline. "We were notified by the Iraqi police at 6:15 pm (1515 GMT) that a fire had broken near a natural gas pipeline in Baiji," US army Captain Wolfe told AFP. He could not immediately assess the extent of the damage. Meanwhile, an explosion near Iraq's two largest oil fields of Kirkuk and Jambur was averted when one ton of explosives was discovered nearby a pipeline, Iraqi police said.

"Residents of Shamsiyah said they had seen strange crates of two by two meters (six feet)," said police chief Darar Abdullah of Taza, a town 35 kilometers (20 miles) east of Kirkuk. "We also found a vehicle laden with five Katyusha rockets ready to be fired," he added. "We turned what we found over to the American forces," he said. The US army could not immediately confirm the information.
Paris Hilton Pulls Out of David Letterman Interview

Nov 20, 2003 NEW YORK (AP) - Socialite Paris Hilton, star of an upcoming Fox reality series and an inadvertent Internet icon, is pulling out of Paris Hilton's announced interview on David Letterman's "Late Show." Paris Hilton's spokesman said no slight on Letterman was intended. He added that Paris Hilton wants to keep a lower profile because of the extraordinary amount of attention Paris Hilton's received from Paris Hilton's now-ubiquitous Internet porn video.

Paris Hilton said this week that Paris Hilton was "embarrassed and humiliated" that Paris Hilton's homemade sex video Paris Hilton shot three years ago with Paris Hilton's then-boyfriend Rick Salomon has been making the rounds online.
Natural Resource Giveaway GOP's Inhofe approves of torture Clap for the Pigboy's Money Laundry and Tennessee GOP Rep in a perp-walk.
Is Dawn Wierd? a Woman of Color or a Lawyer? have Pedro Martinez feelings? Well Hooray join the Conspiracy
Difficult Days during the Illegal Invasion and the Rape of the Earth where Protests and Whistleblowers are Patriots not Traitors
A Periodic Check of the League show better planning than the Military and certainly for "wirehead" BJ. Shades of the Solviets A Matrix Score No News Here hardly. He Loved the Rush - William Bennett replaces Rush Rush is Back Rush is a Money Launderer Liar Liar Pants on Fire Liberal Radio Network Greatest Threat to Life on the Planet ? Bush or just Stupid and Incoherent?
Just a Bump in the Beltway Too Sweet Yer Cadillac Pissed Off 1 and 2 Sick F#@K$ like Gunny and more at the Mudshark

2003-11-18T05:02:00.000-08:00

CIA warns of designer bio-weapons

17nov03 A GROUP of US scientists has warned the Central Intelligence Agency that recent advances in biotechnology could give life to "designer" biological weapons able to target selected groups of people, act with a delay and turn deadly in reaction to medicine, according to a CIA document made public in Washington.

The warning came during a closed-door seminar organised at the request of the CIA by the National Academy of Sciences to devise strategies for dealing with the dangerous by-products of the so-called genomic revolution. The spy agency would not disclose when and where the meeting occurred. But its unclassified account of the seminar, dated November 3, was obtained by the Federation of American Scientists, a non-profit organisation.

"The effects of some of these engineered biological agents could be worse that any disease known to man," the CIA report warns. Scientists have cautioned that explosive growth in knowledge about genes and their functions could make traditional means of monitoring weapons of mass destruction obsolete, according to the document. This could make weapons that now exist only in science fiction novels real over the next decade.

These new tools of war were likely to include binary biological agents made up of two components that are relatively harmless separately but that become deadly when combined, according to the CIA account. "A particularly insidious example would be a mild pathogen that when combined with its antidote becomes virulent," the report says.

It may well be possible in the future, experts explained, to design a virus that, acting alone, would cause just flu-like symptoms but that would turn deadly when its target takes an aspirin in the hopes of relieving a headache. Other "designer" biological weapons could be taught to resist antibiotics, evade an immune response and permanently wreck a person's genetic make-up, the panellists told the CIA.

New Blog Showcase contestant Anarchy Zero is the latest addition to the League. Another Cat Blogger is always welcome and keeping with the Open for Change full acceptance policy of the League an Anarchist will fit right in:
Britain Welcomes "President" Bush as Perle Tells Truth and the World Reacts in Shock as 1,000's Dance At the FTAA and 27 are Killed By Truck Bombs in Instanbul
Is it the End of The World or will the "Irrelevant" United Nations Rescue America from Bush the Madman who sent London into Literal Martial Law

IRAQ = DEATH is Anarchy Xero's entry in the New Blog Showcase and The League of Liberals has a new member in the race. Cast your votes and update your blogrolls accordingly.
Welcome Anarchy Xero.
Around the League - On Top of their games this weekend
The Ma ha blog_ The cost of Fish & Chips with the Fundies
Natalie Davis All Facts and Opinions _ on Gay Marriage MJ
Ayn Clouter - Old Europe Cowers Again
Wilson's Blogmanac _ GPS for Spies Lincoln Kennedy parallels
Turquoise Waffle Irons in the Backyard - Candidate's Tech Survey and the Church Signs
Musings of a Philosophical Scrivner_ State's Rights and a More Expensive Future
Indigo Ocean _ Maui Tomorrow
Estim ated Prophet _The Greatest Story Never Told some contrasts
The Huck Upchuck _ Kingfishery and Kingcakery down in Louisianna
Speed kill_ Who is leading the Attacks? The Daily Howler? _ Hilarity Ensues
Bill Gates better watch out for The Poison Kitchen
Ink from the Squid on Medicare
Rick's American Cafe_ Bush fights negative fire with more negatives and CVS morality
Left is Right _ Abandoning the Drug Free America Myth and An Apology
Cup O' Joe _ What Happened Yesterday and Been Busy
Ham mer down _ Not the Sharpest Tool and Greatest Hypocrisy
Phar yn gula _ Glow in the Dark Fish and Krugman in Syracuse
T-Rex's Guide to Life_ Nader is a Sanctimonious Prick and Judicial Stats
The People's Republic of Seabrook_ Canadian Outdoor Hockey and Holiday in Dallas

2003-11-18T04:49:00.000-08:00

DU SCOOP! (must read) $28 Million to get DRAFT READY BY JUNE 15, 2005!!

Sat Nov-15-03 02:03 PM Oh, so there are "no plans" to re-instate the draft? No, there are just EXERCISES and $28 million extra to get the whole Selective Service ready and open for business by June 15, 2005!!

Read this official budget carefully and you will see that Bush is gearing up the draft--there is no longer any doubt about it. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005, that the system is ready for activation within 75 days. So on June 15, 2005, expect the announcement that the first draft lottery since Vietnam will be held for 20 year-olds.

Here is where the DU rubber hits the road, my friends. This is a DU EXCLUSIVE as far as I know, so please read this one carefully and let me know what we are going to do about it. To put this all into context, the SSS has lain basically dormant for decades and now in the 2004 budget, Bush has added $28 million to get the whole thing ready to fly in 2005. The 4 performance goals below basically make the system ready for activation.

This FY 2004 APP identifies the activities and strategies that will take place during the
fiscal year to achieve Agency goals and objectives. It also identifies relevant performance
measurement target goals to be achieved. The performance goals for FY 2004 are:

1. Develop an Area Office Prototype Exercise that will test the Health
Care Personnel Delivery System (HCPDS) work flows and support
programs.

2. Redefine Agency infrastructure based on a Quinquennial Workload
Study.

3. Prepare and conduct an Area Office Prototype Exercise which tests
the activation process from SSS Lottery input to the issuance of the
first Armed Forces Examination Orders.

4. Ensure 90% of people tested are capable of implementing activation
procedures.

5. Ensure that 95% of the predefined readiness objectives are attained
and validated during an Area Office Prototype Exercise.

6. Train 90% of assigned State Directors (SDs) and Reserve Force
Officers (RFOs) on HCPDS and Timed-Phased Response (TPR)
functions and responsibilities.

7. Attain a 92% or greater compliance rate for men 18 through 25 years
old.

8. Attain and appoint Registrars in 85% of the Nation’s high schools.

9. Obtain 75% of all registrations electronically.

10. Maintain an average systems change request implementation time of
39 days.

11. Maintain a functional proponent and customer satisfaction level of
87%.

12. Have a telephone call completion rate of 93% or higher.

13. Answer correspondence in less than 10 days.

14. Train 90% of assigned SDs and RFOs on Alternative Service plans
and procedures.

ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORT

An annual report providing the results of the implementation of these performance
measures will be submitted by March 31, 2005. This report will address attained versus
planned levels of performance, explain unattained target levels, and identify where and
how strategies, performance goals, and performance indicators should be changed to
ensure that the SSS reaches its strategic and annual goals and objectives.

2003-11-18T04:44:00.000-08:00

FBI may collect juveniles' DNA

Mon Nov 17, 6:44 AM ET DNA profiles from hundreds of thousands of juvenile offenders and adults arrested but not convicted of crimes could be added to the FBI (news - web sites)'s national DNA crime-fighting program under a proposed law moving through Congress. The law, if enacted, would be the greatest single expansion of the federal government's power to collect and use DNA since the FBI's national database was created in 1992. The FBI says its national DNA database holds genetic profiles from about 1.4 million adults convicted of state and federal crimes.

The changes, in a little-noticed section of a bill that would authorize $755 million for DNA testing, were approved by the House of Representatives on Nov. 5. Backers say the Senate is likely to approve a similar version by early next year. The FBI system works by using computers to match a person's DNA, the cellular acid that contains an individual's unique genetic code, to DNA taken from unsolved state and federal crimes. Using DNA drawn from convicted adults, the system made 8,920 matches through September, the FBI says.

Proponents, including the Bush administration, say that expanding the number of profiles in the database would greatly increase the number of crimes solved. Keeping DNA profiles on file to solve future crimes, they argue, differs little from maintaining a database of fingerprints, which the FBI also does.
The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) counters that DNA is different because it contains genetic information that should be kept private. Taking a person's DNA before he is even convicted, said ACLU Washington lobbyist Jesselyn McCurdy, "removes the presumption of innocence."

Advocates for juveniles say that giving teenagers what amounts to a "permanent criminal genetic record" defeats the purpose of the juvenile justice system by treating the youths as adults. "It runs counter to the tenets of juvenile court, which is toward confidentiality and giving a child another opportunity to turn around," said Nancy Gannon of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, which advises state governments on justice policy.

Thirty states already collect DNA from juvenile offenders, typically ages 13-17, for their own use. In 1998, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 634,000 youths were found responsible for crimes by juvenile courts or other authorities. Virginia began taking DNA from arrestees in January and expects to collect 8,000 samples this year. Other states are considering arrestee sampling. To date, Virginia has matched DNA taken from arrestees to 40 unsolved crimes, including 11 sexual assaults. But federal laws prevent these samples from being added to the national database and compared to unsolved crimes in other states.

2003-11-18T04:37:00.000-08:00

US firms told 'take UK jobs home'

18 November 2003 GEORGE Bush's administration has called on US companies in Britain to relocate jobs to America in an astonishing move that could trigger a major trade war. US-based multinationals have been told they will receive compensation from American trade authorities if they cancel contracts in Britain and take jobs home, according to CBI director-general Digby Jones. The allegations come only a day before Bush arrives in London for his controversial State visit and escalate the storm of protest he has already caused by slapping big protectionist tariffs on European steel imports.

Speaking at the CBI's annual conference in Birmingham, Jones said: 'Three chief executives of American companies investing in Britain have told me to my face that they have been told to close down, bring their stuff home and make it in the US.' He said the companies were major employers in defence or manufacturing. Jones continued: 'Whether flouting international law with their steel tariffs or telling their companies to come home, this bullying affects Britain and British jobs.

'We are America's biggest trading partner, but if this escalates into an international trade war it hits us worst because we are such a big player in the world market.' Unilever chairman Niall FitzGerald said: 'There is a mid-Atlantic trade storm whipping up. There will be retaliation and then retaliation to that retaliation, which could lead us to a 1930s decline.'

FitzGerald said it was unlikely Bush would back down over steel as Presidential elections take place next November. A spokesman for Trade Minister Patricia Hewitt said: 'It is extremely worrying and just emphasises the damage, the negative effects, a trade war can have.'

US delegates were critical of the administration's behaviour. 'We would caution against and resist protectionism,' said Kirk Lock-Scobie, finance director of IT group Avaya, which employs more than 700 people in Guildford, Surrey. American companies have a massive presence in Britain and are responsible for providing an estimated one million jobs.According to the Department of Trade and Industry, more than 17,000 new jobs were created by US firms in the last year alone.

There are an estimated 5,700 US companies operating here, covering every sector of the economy. They range from car manufacturing giant Ford to investment banks Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. Pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer and household goods group Procter & Gamble also have huge operations here.

Household names such as Black & Decker, Campbell's Soup, Gap, Heinz and Kellogg are all US-owned. And virtually every High Street in Britain is graced by the burger behemoth and American icon McDonald's.

2003-11-18T04:32:00.000-08:00

A "major league asshole"
In an embarrassing gaffe, George W. Bush insults a New York Times reporter.
September 04, 2000 | At a Labor Day event in Naperville, Ill., Monday morning, apparently oblivious of the microphone just inches from his mouth, Gov. George W. Bush made a crude offhand remark about a reporter that those in the campaign of his rival, Vice President Al Gore, hope will take some of the shine off Bush's warm and sunny veneer.

Waving and smiling to the crowds, Bush and his running mate, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, seemed to be enjoying the generous reception offered by the Republican enclave in the Chicago suburbs.

Then Bush spotted New York Times reporter Adam Clymer, who has been with the paper since 1977, serving as national political correspondent during the 1980 presidential race, as polling editor from 1983 to 1990 and as political editor during the successful presidential campaign of Bush's father in 1988.

"There's Adam Clymer -- major league asshole -- from the New York Times," Bush said.

"Yeah, big time," returned Cheney.

Because of the crowd noise, few if any of the audience could hear the remarks. But reporters -- especially those with radio or network TV sound equipment plugged into the microphone -- heard the remark clearly. As of early afternoon Monday, media executives were reportedly deciding whether or not to use the tape.

The Bush campaign had no comment. Gore's campaign, however, was quick to seize on the gaffe. "Bush promised to change the tone and now he's broken his word twice," said Gore spokesman Douglas Hattaway. "He launched negative personal attacks on Al Gore" both through a recent negative ad against Gore, "as well as on the stump, and now he's using expletives to describe a New York Times reporter in front of a crowd of families. He talks out of both sides of his mouth about changing the tone."

Bush has made civility a major issue in the campaign. When Gore expressed irritation at Bush's waffling on the presidential debate schedule, calling it "put up or shut up time," Bush said, "We have to do something to change the tone of the discourse," adding that "politics doesn't have to be ugly and mean."

Yet within hours a Bush-approved attack TV ad that mocked Gore personally and was paid for by the Republican National Committee was running in more than a dozen swing states.

"I thought it was tongue-in-cheek," Bush said, when asked if the ad went against his pledge to "change the tone." Later, when asked about the ad by two of Clymer's colleagues at the Times, Alison Mitchell and Frank Bruni, Bush dismissed complaints about the ad, saying, "This is politics."

Though he's done a decent job of hiding it in this election cycle, Bush has been known to use salty language. At the Republican National Convention in 1988, he was asked by a Hartford Courant reporter about what he and his father talked about when they weren't talking about politics.

"Pussy," Bush replied.

2003-11-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

Kent State University was placed in an international spotlight after a tragic end to a student demonstration against the Vietnam War and the National Guard on May 4, 1970. Shortly after noon on that Monday, 13 seconds of rifle fire by a contingent of 28 Ohio National Guardsmen left four students dead, one permanently paralyzed, and eight others wounded. Not every student was a demonstration participant or an observer. Some students were walking to and from class. The closest student wounded was 30 yards away from the Guard, while the farthest was nearly 250 yards away.

The divisive effect of the Vietnam War on American society was especially evident on campuses throughout the country. At Kent, the day after the announcement to send U.S. troops into Cambodia marked the start of a weekend of anti-war protests that began on campus and spilled into the city of Kent's downtown. Broken windows and other damage to a number of downtown businesses prompted fear, rumors, and eventually a call by the city's mayor to the governor for assistance.

The National Guard arrived Saturday night. That day some students assisted with the downtown cleanup. That night some other students set fire to the campus headquarters of the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). Sunday morning the governor came to Kent and in the city's firehouse held a press conference saying the University would remain open. After a Sunday of relative calm, an anti-war rally at noon on Monday brought 2,000 to 3,000 people to the University Commons area. When the Guard gave the order to disperse, some in the crowd responded with verbal epithets and stones. The Guard answered with tear gas, but when the spring winds altered its effect, the Guard attempted to enforce the Ohio Riot Act with raised bayonets, forcing demonstrators to retreat. The Guard then changed formation. As the Guard approached the crest of Blanket Hill, some Guardsmen turned toward the Taylor Hall parking lot and between 61 and 67 shots were fired. Four students were killed and nine wounded. That afternoon, University President Robert I. White ordered the University closed.

History, sorrow and healing remain a part of Kent State University. The University Library has dedicated a Memorial Room containing books, papers, studies, and other materials relating to the events. In addition, the University has established an academic program designed to help students and others employ peaceful conflict resolution to resolve disputes. On May 4, 1990, the University community dedicated a permanent memorial. Each year, the May 4 Task Force student organization holds a candlelight vigil and commemoration program to enable the University, the Kent community, and others to privately and publicly express their feelings. In observance of the 25th anniversary in 1995, a series of commemorative programs and events were held throughout the Spring Semester at Kent, highlighted by two-day scholarly symposium titled "Legacies of Protest" which examined political and civil unrest.

The University will continue to remember the four students who died -- Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder -- through scholarships in their names and in the words inscribed on the May 4 Memorial: "Inquire. Learn. Reflect." The Memorial site is next to Taylor Hall, on a hill overlooking the Commons, near the site of the shootings. Pamphlets are available at the site.
And Then...: Late Night With Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist

2003-11-15T15:24:00.000-08:00

12 killed as two US choppers crash in Iraq Initial reports suggest another Black Hawk has crashed

Twelve soldiers have been killed and nine others wounded in the crash of two US military helicopters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. A US occupation force spokesman has confirmed that two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters had come down. There was no word on possible Iraqi casualties on the ground.

One of the helicopters that crashed on Saturday was hit by a rocket propelled grenade (RPG), a US officer at the scene said.
"I know one of the helicopters was hit by an RPG on the tail wing," said the officer who declined to be identified. An Iraqi police officer said that he saw assailants ambushing a US foot patrol in the area, prompting the intervention of a Black Hawk helicopter. A missile was then fired towards the chopper, which crashed into a second Blackhawk as it tried to dodge the missile, he said.

while we keep track of the Miserable Failure Project, snicker at Senator Bill Frist's Web Shenanagans, and marvel at the Damn Liberal Media thanks to the efforts of oour newest member, Turquoise Waffle Irons in the Back Yard. Remember to update your blogrolls
Study the Myths of the War on Terrorism and Iraq, travel around the world in 80 days with Nellie Bly, or learn how to shake hands with the president. While you're welcoming Pip and the Blogmanac to the League of Liberals, you'll be thinking universally and acting terrestrially. Just wait--it will all become clear!

The League of Liberals is ~~PROUD~~ dismayed to ~~WELCOME~~ tolerate the inclusion of AYN CLOUTER just to keep an eye on her. AYN is the infamous author of THE BLOGFATHER review and the shrill twisted diatribe "How I Came To Hate Liberals" Ayn's work like CANONIZE BUSH and RENAME THE DEMOCRATS has caused speculation about her possible membership in The Landover Baptist Church There should be no question now that The League of Liberals is unbearably Liberal. We are truly the "party of inclusion" and we may see applications from LITTLE BROWN POOHBALLS and the INSTYPOOHBAH.

NOTE: If any of the membership wishes to call into question the leadership that has allowed inclusion of Ayn Clouter and The Politburo Diktat to the League now is the time to speak your piece. Welcome to "The Big Tent"
9000 US Casulties in Iraq
Halliburton Employee admits to Illegal Warhead Sale
Rush Limbaugh back on the Air on Monday with Investigation still in progress
A History of Majority Leader Senator Frist
Rush Limbaughtomy has the 12 Step Program for Right Wing Radio Addicts

2003-11-12T22:19:00.000-08:00

"DELAND, Fla., Nov. 11 - Something very strange happened on election night to Deborah Tannenbaum, a Democratic Party official in Volusia County. At 10 p.m., she called the county elections department and learned that Al Gore was leading George W. Bush 83,000 votes to 62,000. But when she checked the county's Web site for an update half an hour later, she found a startling development: Gore's count had dropped by 16,000 votes, while an obscure Socialist candidate had picked up 10,000--all because of a single precinct with only 600 voters."
- Washington Post Sunday , November 12, 2000 ; Page A22

Yes. Something very strange happened in Volusia County on election night November 2000, the night that first Gore won Florida, then Bush, and then as everybody can so well remember there was a tie.

Something strange indeed. But what exactly? In the above report ( click for full version), written days after the election, hotshot Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank goes on to attribute the strange 16,022 negative vote tally from Volusia's precinct 216 to an apparently innocent cause.

"…. faulty 'memory cards' in the machines caused the 16,000-vote disappearance on election night. The glitch was soon fixed," he wrote.

But thanks to recent investigations into Black Box Voting by Washington State writer Bev Harris we now know this explanation is not correct. In fact it is not even in the ballpark.

According to recently discovered internal Diebold Election Systems memos, Global Election Systems' (which was later purchased by Diebold) own technical staff were also stumped by the events in Volusia County/

In Chapter 11 of her new book "Black Box Voting In the 21st Century" released early today in .PDF format at Blackboxvoting.com and here at Scoop Ms Harris observes.

"If you strip away the partisan rancor over the 2000 election, you are left with the undeniable fact that a presidential candidate conceded the election to his opponent based on [results from] a second card that mysteriously appears, subtracts 16,022 votes, then just as mysteriously disappears."
Working in parallel with Ms Harris Scoop has also been inquiring into the events on election night in Volusia county. Much of the material that follows is similar to that which appears in Chapter 11 of her book.

The starting point in this shocking discovery about election 2000 came in a series of internal Diebold ES technical support memos.

The following is an abbreviated version of the exchange concerning the peculiar events in Volusia county. For the purposes of research the exchange is included in full as an Appendix to this report (APPENDIX TWO). The discussion took place in early 2001 as an audit was underway in Volusia county into the events.

Memes Forgiveness Bush threatened by Brits Larry Flint Dead Bush Rape Victim Nazi Tendencies Lynchings there is much Mud for the Mudshark
GOP Sleepover at the Crybaby Party where Mr. Smartass and Mr. High horse were seen begging a Cup O Joe at the LoL Roundup
**********

2003-11-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

216 Days have passed in the search is it Time to Evolve? The Sesquipedalian is no Incipient Ass
He is For God and Country and "pretty much a shot in the dark most days..."

We Alway's Knew They'd Come Around and make Bush fear for his re-selection with More Lost Heart's and Minds Losing Faith with the Occupation.
So enters Stageleft like the Freeway Blogger

Franken ponders a run for the Senate in his Native Minnesota at Speedkill
Is Gephart the tortoise gonna catch Dean the hare? BYTE BACK is excited.
Mad Kane has the humor round up and St. Reagan's song I am waiting for "Why Can't the American's Teach Their Leader How To Speak" and "All I Want is a War Somewhere", from the same musical.
The latest "Where will you be" picture is up at Hammerdown. There is a whole series of pained expressions.
Chinese food on the Moon - only from The Poison Kitchen
Origination of Denomination and Anti-American Asshats on Parade will Shock and Awe you.
It is Officially Unofficial - Celine Dion is destitute check your sitemeters
ACT now the Shrub is not welcome at this Coffee Break
Rick's response to the Truth Laid Bear has drawn 147 Responses _ some of them are worth the time _ As is Bush honoring the veternarians at Arlington National Cemetary
Bush tells the British what to do and Flint has Jessica in the nude
With us or Against Us Clear Skies and More Lies and they are Coming to take you away It is always a strong signal to noise ratio at SouthKnoxBubba

2003-11-09T22:32:00.000-08:00

Dr. PZ Myers of pharyngula is new League of Liberals member 5 in the past 6 hours.
Appropriate since our embryonic League has possibly reached the pharyngula stage in it's rapid growth.
Godless Sunday, about pharyngula, Tim Berglund Still Doesn't Get It, FOOM!, and my favorite: The Crayola Strategy about Texas textbooks, make for great reading at pharyngula.
You will also find interesting pictures
Please offer an educated welcome to the insightful intelligent pharyngula
and update those blogrolls.
Haunting Bush from the Grave
The Rush Addiction Trifecta and Parsing Rush
School Boards & the Most Patronizing Deception Just a few of the offerings at The Huck Upchuck

A Trip through the Ecosystem mid-section was revealing. 3000 down to 2800 with only 14 liberal blogs. 30 to 40 of this 200 were dead ends. Old dates, switched to MT from blogger, or just dead links. The Ecosystem has lots of deadwood if this section is any indication
2801.Waremouse (6) details
2832.ddjangoWIrE (6) details
2836.Leftist Propaganda (6) details
2845.Loaded Mouth (6) details
2847.The Decembrist (6) details
2859.The Parks Department (6) details
2890.PoLiTicAl - - D i A b L o G (5) details
2894.Charen Watch (5) details
2895.Seize the Fish (5) details
2896.Dubya Chronicles (5) details
2919.Short Hope Unfiltered (5) details
2927.6040hindsight (5) details
2935.Constant Struggle (5) details
2949.Capitol Blog (5) details

AS promised the Liberal Linker is gonna slowly work the way up the Ecosystem seeing what kewl voices lurk in the muck of micro-organisms. Here are 28 of the bottom 150 with at least a bit of a liberal bent.
One obeservation: What's with the 50% Canadian Blogs at this level
These contestants are no-longer no-link wonders
Welcome new Slimy Mollusks.

4942.Turn That Shit Up (0) details
4945.Hypgnosis (0) details
4947.Gore4Dean (0) details
4950.Clark Truth Squad (0) details
4953.American Politics (0) details
4954.Economics and Other Random Stuff (0)
4955.Empty Wheel (0) details
4956.Weather Head (0) details
4957.Jeff Davis (0) details
4963.reagank.com (0) details
4964.Braganza (0) details
4966.Herb Bowlman (0) details
4967.Coprolites (0) details
4968.Fates Worse Than Death (0) details
4970.Unnamed Democrat (0) details
4973.This is not my .com (0) details
4975.The Chestnut Tree Cafe (0) details
4994.Random Thoughts (0) details
5001.canadiansfordean (0) details
5030.April Follies (0) details
5036.It's Craptastic (0) details*
5038.The Daily Travesty (0) details
5039.John McCrory (0) details
5040.Windmills of My Mind (0) details
5041.1 Florida Democrat (0) details
5085.The Ivy Bush (0) details
5086.No Right Turn (0) details*
5092.The Expat (0) details

Ask Me NO Questions, I'll Tell You NO Lies
A Squid Down in Texas' Pop Quiz
He's not "Changin Tactics"
These Cliff Notes are His
Get a Rope he'll help Bush with "good-byes"

Ornicus sez Left IS Right and it's true
Our "focus" is slightly askew
Praise be to George Soros Want to marry Kucinich?
Read GORE and there's more
Here that's NEW.

Please welcome these new members to the League of Liberals despite the bad poetry.
And don't forget to update those blogrolls.
If it aint broke, don't Frist it.
Shoshana Johnson is a Wonderful American
Bush can be insulting
Soilders, White House and Media Agree, Andrew of BYTE BACK is What Bush is Afraid Of
Please welcome BYTE BACK to the League of Liberals

There is no 18 Minute Gap in the blog of the same name. It is all good.
A nice chart on campaign contributions The can't dance puppets of the Iraqi Council - another miserable failure of the Bush Admin.
Webster's introduces McJob The latest plug for the Freeway Blogger and committing crime for Healthcare
Class War you bet says The Estimated Prophet and sobering news in We're Watching You

2003-11-05T11:51:00.000-08:00

Why America's plutocrats gobble up $1,500 hot dogs

The band pumped out brassy dance tunes, many dedicated to the gritty urban realities of New York. A few couples in the black tie and taffeta crowd found a space to dance, but most milled about in the packed ballroom, gravitating towards the stage as they waited for the president.
Republicans used to detest New York as a heaving pit of liberalism, but since September 11 the city has become a patriotic icon. This Republican fundraising gala was in a Washington hotel, but the imagery was a pastiche of New York streetlife, complete with street signs and a mock facade of the Yankees' stadium. The catering followed the same theme.

These politically charged dinners are normally five-course affairs eaten off white linen, but the folksiness of the Bush White House has by now pervaded the Republican party. The menu on this night was hot dogs and peanuts, served from food carts and eaten standing up. "I think it's great because I thinks folks would rather be eating hot dogs with President Bush than sipping wine and nibbling cheese with Hillary Clinton," declared George Allen, a Virginia senator.

The president, who marched in to an ecstatic welcome, offered rhetoric to match the humble fare. After vowing to persevere in the battle against terrorism, he turned to his domestic ambitions, "to work for a society of prosperity and compassion so that every single citizen has a chance to work and succeed and realise the great promise of this country".

He promised to reach out to those Americans "who seem hopelessly lost, some who hurt, some who are lonely". This is President Bush's trademark - language that was once the preserve of black Baptist churches and Democratic party rallies. But what is more extraordinary is his capacity to co-opt the populist style of his adversaries at a time when the Republicans are more than ever the party of extraordinary wealth.

The men and women in the ballroom had paid a minimum of $1,500 (£900) for their hot dogs, and almost all of them had contributed much, much more. The single night brought the Republican party a total of $14m. Mr Bush has so far raised $83m for his primary campaign, more than all nine Democratic contenders put together, even though he does not have an opponent inside his party.

This financial superiority flows from the simple fact that the president's backers are far wealthier than those of his rivals. More of them give the maximum contribution to a presidential campaign of $2,000, and more of them are chief executives who vie with each other to become honoured Republican "Rangers" or "Pioneers", by putting together $200,000 and $100,000 "bundles" of contributions from their employees and friends.

"You don't raise that kind of money at barbecues and backyard sales. You raise it from big business," said Charles Lewis, who runs the Washington watchdog the Centre for Public Integrity. The egalitarianism of the evening also stood in marked contrast to the reality of contemporary America, which in hard economic terms is a more divided and unequal country than at any time since the "gilded age" of the late 19th century.

The richest 1% of Americans now own well over 40% of their nation's wealth. It is a skewed distribution that sets the US apart from other modern industrialised nations. In Britain, widely viewed in America as the embodiment of social stratification, the richest 1% owns a mere 18% of the wealth.

These disparities are, of course, not solely the work of the Bush administration. The economic division of the country has been under way for 20 years. After a long period of levelling incomes and wealth after the second world war, inequality began to rise exponentially from 1980, driven principally by the boom in stock prices and the decline in unions.

Differentials continued to stretch, albeit more slowly, under the Clinton administration, despite its efforts to institute a more progressive tax policy. What sets the Bush era apart is the extent to which policy has reinforced the divide rather than sought to mitigate it.

Nearly half the benefits of Mr Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001 went to the richest 1%, while 60% of this year's cuts will go to taxpayers with incomes of more than $100,000, according to the tax policy centre run by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Mr Bush also fought hard to repeal an inheritance tax that affected only the wealthiest 2%, as well as cutting capital gains tax and trying to abolish the tax on dividends. The Bush cabinet also stands out for its big money background. Every member is a millionaire and, the Centre for Public Integrity says, its total net worth is more than 10 times that of the Clinton cabinet. President Bush may not be the cause of America's unequal society, but the members of his administration arguably personify a new plutocracy.

In the view of Kevin Phillips, an economic historian and the author of a history of America's rich, Wealth and Democracy, you have to go back more than 100 years to find an era when big money and government were in such a tight embrace.

"It's the second plutocracy after the gilded age," Mr Phillips said. "Laissez-faire is a pretence. Government power and preferment have been used by the rich, not shunned. As wealth concentration grows, especially near the crest of a drawn-out boom, so has upper-bracket control of politics and its ability to shape its own preferment." Yet it would be hard to imagine a country less ripe for social upheaval.

Mr Bush may be politically vulnerable in the approach to elections a year from now, but he remains favourite to win, and his opponents in the Democratic party try to avoid the language of class warfare at all costs. The "liberal" label can still spell death at the polls. For outsiders, the absence of class-based politics is the enduring mystery of American society. Among US analysts it is a matter of ideological disagreement.

David Brooks, a commentator at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, believes the divide is cultural rather than economic. It is the divide between the urban, cosmopolitan and liberal culture of the coasts where there are "sun-dried tomato concoctions" on restaurant menus - what he calls Blue America - and the conservative, church-going, gun-owning, patriotic and mainly white culture of Red America.

Red America eats meatloaf and votes for George Bush because it identifies with his cultural values. Its people are not envious of the top 1% of the population, Mr Brooks argues, because in Red America they never meet them. Instead, they consider themselves lucky to live in their own modest communities where prices are so low they see little they cannot afford. "I didn't find many who assessed their own place in society according to their income," he reported. "They don't compare themselves with faraway millionaires who appear on their TV screens. They compare themselves with their neighbours."

Paul Krugman, a Princeton economist and Mr Brooks' liberal counterpart on the comment pages of the New York Times, argues that this cultural divide is more manipulated than natural, and serves to mask the society's ingrained inequity. "There has been a tremendously successful campaign to shift the focus from economic elitism to cultural elitism," Mr Krugman said. "Because the president uses short words and talks tough, he is seen as an ordinary guy."

Certainly, most Americans appear to take Mr Bush at face value - as a plainspoken, homespun Texan, rather than the scion of a wealthy East Coast family. It is hard to imagine his real social background passing so unremarked in a British election campaign. His party has also toyed with the cultural imagery of class, in one instance arranging for party loyalists to wear street clothes and workmen's hard hats at a rally for the Bush tax cuts.

The memo sent out to would-be demonstrators stressed that "If people want to participate - AND WE DO NEED BODIES - they must be DRESSED DOWN, appear to be REAL WORKER types etc." In the end, the televised rally involved the president's supporters dressed as the working poor, cheering for more money to go to the rich. It is hard to think of a more fitting tableau for Bush's America.

Start your tour of the League of Liberals here:
The Democratic Veteran asks Where have all the Cowboys Gone? and offers a lesson on the Fish Dyslexicon
Anglican Aftermath and Cowardly Cave are the crux of the avuncular entries on All Facts and Opinions
What rhymes with witch-slapped? and other "horrors" are among the Halloween holdovers at WTF is it Now?
Seek or See different strings on Diebold problems in Va.
Bush Sucks Bush hates Blue Skies read Sick of Bush it is a Principal of Least Effort.
Futurballa voted for Whale Power
Speedkill supports the League of Liberals by vote and voice
Limbaughtomy revisited Escape and Diebold sued see Rush Limbaughtomy
Cruise the Cosmos with the League of Liberals
Harmonic Concordance tomorrow night. - Indigo Ocean _ does that mean we all will vote this week?
Veralynne at A-Changin' Times is in Concordance too but not with Bloodthirsty Christians.
Christmas a week after Halloween? our Philosophical Scrivner wants to be British
A TTLB cartoon at Gotham City and another take on Hillbilly Heroin Rush
The author of The People's Republic of Seabrook and I share more than the same white beards, cats, and politics _ we have the same sunsign
This job "creation" chart from the 18 1/2 Minute Gap will make you wish you could Hitchhike the Galaxy
Officially unofficial is in the poppy fields of OZ looking at the tollbooths on the information superhighway
More cyberspace travel will come later _ Enjoy your trip around our cosmos.
Please Welcome Kevin and The Gunther Concept to the League of Liberals. Like The People's Republic of Seabrook, The Gunther Concept is an isolated bastion of reason in the lost State of Texas soon to be the only home of the current pReznit. So update those blogrolls and give a Texas sized Howdy to The Gunther Concept _ the latest link to the League of Liberals.
Project Trinity
Radical Failure Puppet Liar Thief these are the Screaming Points. Please welcome our newest member and add Screaming Points to your blogrolls.

2003-11-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

Choices present themselves for the League of Liberals
Here are a few for now.

And Then.....Sigh we did not Rock the Vote but we Mourn Every Loss
A Legal Victory for Clarefied and Death by Invitation
Cosmic Iguana's Deadly Garage Sale
Gotham City 13 cites That ol Bush Admin and joins the League
Is the Philosophical Scrivner a Geek?
or a virgin?
What to do with the NASCAR DADS? asks Maha and Censoring for the Gipper
Linda Tripp on MTV that's an 18 Minute Gap that should get your attention
Rick has new diners at his Cafe Americain are you on the A list?
Relax go surf and see on the healing waters of the Indigo Ocean
Take the Oxy out of Oxymoron
Take the poll at SKBubba and remember Rabin the recipie at the Poison Kitchen
Welcome to the Future with a Cup O Joe

2003-11-04T12:53:00.000-08:00

The Reagan Truth - WTF is it NOW?
The NRO is Pathetic - Dohiyi Mir
blunted on reality - The End of the World
Windfall - Hell for Halliburton
Disconnect? - Happy Furry Puppy Story Time
Crappy Porn? - Shock and Awe
All Fact's and Opinions on Left Wing Media?
Mad Kane has the Spinning Song and
Pen-Elayne is Spinnin
different strings - Bush is a NITHING
Futurballa has a new gallery
Meet the NeoCons on Cup O' Joe
Indigo is NaNo
SpeedKill from Bozeman has his own Roundup
A Byrd in the hand is worth 200 Bushes - Sick of Bush
Arms and the Man - Sabotage
Election Day - at Rick's Cafe
Chomsky Soundbites And Then
Art Spies? - the Estimated Prophet
Rebel War - A Changin' Times

2003-11-04T09:02:00.000-08:00

WHAT THE HELL?---- Jesus Wept

JIM BAKKER HAS A BRAND NEW WIFE AND TV SHOW AND HE IS ROLLING AGAIN
A new leaf for the old Jim?

Tammy Faye Bakker --- Son Jay Bakker --- Jim Bakker

DOES ANYBODY REMEMBER THE 165,000 POOR FOOLS WHO SENT JIM AND TAMMY FAYE $1,000 EACH?
Well they got their settlement this week and it is hard to tell who is worse.
The Bakker's or the lawyers for the victims.
Out of the 165 Million Dollars they get back:

PTL Victims to Receive $6.54 Each
Lawyers take $2.5 million of $3.7 million settlement.

The 165,000 people who gave $1,000 to Jim Bakker's planned Heritage U.S.A. resort in return for promised four-day vacation stays will receive just $6.54 each.

That's partly because attorneys will receive $2.5 million of the $3.7 million settlement fund (created by former PTL accountants years ago), under a July 24 order issued by U.S. District Judge Lacy Thornburg in Asheville, North Carolina. A claims administrator will receive $200,000 to track down people entitled to money. Had the victims been given the entire settlement, it would have amounted to only $22.42 each. Thomas T. Anderson and Associates, a California-based law firm, actually asked the judge for the entire settlement. The firm claimed it would be fruitless to search for all involved in the 16-year-old class action. Thornburg denied that request last year.

Bakker resigned from PTL in 1987 after admitting to an affair with a ministry secretary. He was convicted two years later of a wire- and mail-fraud scheme involving the sale of lifetime partnerships in Heritage U.S.A. in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison. A judge later cut his term to 18 years. He served 5 before being paroled in 1995. Bakker is on the air again with The Jim Bakker Show, which originates at the Studio City Café in Branson, Missouri. The show's first installment aired on January 2.

I guess they can be proud of their pierced and tattooed son Jay. Quite a change from his days on the PTL CLUB.

The game is afoot and the League of Liberals has been challenged to do battle against the larger Blogger Alliance (83 members) and Axis of Naughty (24 members). If you have friends who blog and who will vote ask them to join. We need to strengthen our numbers.Liberal League Launches
Current vote, links, and visits information

Hell for Halliburton: entry Halliburton Again - and again - and again SouthKnoxBubba has a rant worth reading

Shock and Awe is in the League of Liberals

WTF is it Now? is in the League of Liberals

Maybe you should read the Democratic Veteran

The Poison Kitchen is in the League of Liberals - maybe you should check it out and join too.

T-Rex

Please welcome Major Barbara of Arms and the Man to the League of Liberals
Please welcome and continue to be Sick of Bush

Please welcome The Felonious Elephant to the growing League of Liberals. An Elephant never forgets to blogroll

Please welcome member number 30 Speed kill and remember those blogrolls.

Read Rush Limgbaughtomy for the latest on the growing Mutual Fund Scandal
Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure Bush is a miserable failure

Investing in the future and voting for the TTLB Showcase

2003-11-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

Around the web with the League of Liberals
Natalie Davis at ALL FACT'S AND OPINIONS covers Justice for HMO Members.
Oppose the parade of Right Wing Judges join ARMACT Alerts
Is Halliburton protected at the expense of injured workers? - see Arms and the Man
Do we only protect the white troops? asks Blunted on Reality
Clarified asks "What does a Lawyer look like?"
Iraq price tag to hit $200 Billion? - The Cosmic Iguana
Cup O' Joe says they want us LINED UP AND SHOT
Democratic Veteran covers yet more Republican whining.
Different Strings finds Wolfowitz Over the Line
Dohiyi Mir has a Quote from Cheney we all should read and take to heart.
Futurballa has his own take on Ecosystem fluctuations.
The Happy Furry Puppy runs down the Conservative Columnists.
Hell for Halliburton takes on the Mutual Fund Inside Traders
Indigo Ocean strings it all together
Mad Kane has the Spinning Song and The Felonious Elephants finds Lincoln spinning in his grave
That hissing sound is Dennis 'the menace' Miller's ego inflating on TPRS
Pen-Elayne covers the Strange Case of Stephen Kaye
The Philosophical Schrivner is all over the E-mail dilemma
163 Billion Dollars for LASSER of Prudential and he could not resist stealing a million on top of that?
Should we baptise Patriots - see Shock and Awe
Sick of Bush on the STALKER T-Rex on the Party of Hatemongers The Mahablog on Bush's Down Day The Poison Kitchen offers and invitation to Canada
Nobody should have to go a day without WTF is it NOW!?
Read Rush Limgbaughtomy for the latest on the growing Mutual Fund Scandal

2003-10-24T04:02:00.000-07:00

Want to take action to make a better world? ARMACT Action Alerts from The Armchair Activist presents progressive-issue activism opportunities for direct-action types and stay-at-homes. Welcome ARMACT Action Alerts to the League of Liberals and please update your blogrolls.

Need a quick lift try a shot of caffine - the full strength expresso of a Cup O' Joe

The Fantastic Fabulous F(ph)otographer Futurballa has joined forces with The League of Liberals
Please welcome this past winner of the TTLB New Blog Showcase to the League and update those blogrolls.

That's number 22 for those who are counting.

Please welcome the delightful, delicious, and daring different strings to the League of Liberals. and update your blogrolls naturally!
Kriselda has posted a nice tribute to the League of Liberals on different strings. Check it out.

Kynn at Shock and Awe has posted an awesome and colorful tribute to The League of Liberals.
Thank you Kynn for you link to our entry in the Ecosystem new blog showcase
Everybody should check it out.

Please Welcome the Dememted Delirious Drivel of Dubya's Daily Diary to The League of Liberals
and naturally update your blogrolls - again.
We are now 20 having expanded by 25% today
Invite your friends and fellow liberal bloggers!

Please Welcome the Magnificent Marvelous Magical Madeleine Begun Kane to the League of Liberals
Please update your blogrolls

2003-10-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

This new Economic Policy Institute report by senior economist Jared Bernstein and EPI President Lawrence Mishel covers in great detail the worst hiring slump since the Great Depression. There is no issue of greater importance to workers in these United States in the battle for balance between owners and workers, management and labor, wealth and wages, haves and have-nots, individuals and the good of the community, and, yes, Republicans and Democrats.

In LABOR MARKET LEFT BEHIND the current data are analyzed and problems hidden behind the numbers are discussed. “For too many working families, the current recovery is indistinguishable from the recession,” Bernstein said. “Recent signals suggest growth will improve in the second half of the year, but even optimistic forecasts for unemployment hover around 6%. In other words, we’re looking at little if any improvement in unemployment for at least the rest of this year.”
Among the findings Bernstein and Mishel discuss are these:

1) In terms of employment growth, the current recovery is the worst on record since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking employment in 1939. Employment is down over one million since the recovery began. Adding in the job losses from the actual recession, payrolls are down by 2.7 million overall—3.2 million in the private sector—making this the worst hiring slump since the Great Depression.
2) Even if predictions of stronger growth in the second half of 2003 prove accurate, unemployment will stay near 6% through most of 2004.
3) During this recovery, unemployment has risen 0.6 percentage points overall and 1.3 points among African Americans.
4) Real wages of the typical (median-wage) worker, which grew about 2% more than inflation through 2001, stopped growing entirely in 2002.
5) This is only the second recovery since World War II in which unemployment has not yet started to fall this many months into recovery.
6) Employment opportunities have declined more for college graduates than for high school dropouts.
7) Underemployed workers – those working fewer hours that they want to or in a job for which they are overqualified – reached double digits (10.2%) in July 2003.

Although the recent recession was officially declared over as of November 2001, on Labor Day 2003 the job market remains decidedly weak. Unemployment is high and, instead of coming down in the nascent recovery, it has climbed from 5.6% at the recession’s end to 6.2% in July 2003 (the most recent data available). Tracking the nation’s payrolls reveals the worst hiring slump since the Great Depression. And the weak labor market is not just a problem for those without jobs—wages have been growing more slowly for most workers and even falling in real terms for some.

How could it be that the nation’s economy is supposedly in recovery, yet the job market is much weaker now than when the recession ended? The explanation has something to do with the criteria used to determine when a recession ends, but the main point is that, although the economy is expanding, it is doing so at too slow a rate to lower unemployment quickly or to generate the needed job growth.

Over the past few years, the Bush Administration and Congress have passed numerous tax cuts purportedly intended to stimulate the weak economy and restart the engine of job creation that was delivering 241,000 jobs per month, on average, between 1995 and 2000, a stark contrast to an average loss of 93,000 jobs a month since March 2001. Thus far, these tax cuts have failed to lower unemployment, much less stimulate private sector job growth. In fact, hundreds of economists, including 10 Nobel laureates, argued that these cuts were poorly structured as a stimulus. George A. Akerlof Nobel Laureate in Economics is one of those ten.

2003-10-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

JOIN THE LEAGUE OF LIBERALS - the alliance of liberal bloggers
If you have a progressive liberal blog apply to join the League of Liberals
e-mail aurabass at hotmail dot com or leave a link and e-mail address in the comment section
Visit the League of Liberals for details.

The purpose of this blog is to form an alliance of Liberal Bloggers to counter the impact of the Blogger Alliance and the Axis of Naughty e-mail aurabass at hotmail dot com for application if you are a progressive liberal blogger.

Charter Members of the League of Liberals

Democratic Veteran

Rush Limbaughtomy

The Mahablog

The People's Republic of Seabrook

Hell on Halliburton

The Spy Game

Cosmic Iguana

T. Rex's Guide to Life

WTF is it NOW?

Treason Online

Musings of a Philosophical Scrivener

Savage Cruel Bigots

Dohiyimir

blunted on reality

The game is afoot and the League of Liberals has been challenged to do battle against the larger Blogger Alliance (83 members) and Axis of Naughty (24 members). If you have friends who blog and who will vote ask them to join. We need to strengthen our numbers.Liberal League Launches
Current vote, links, and visits information

Hell for Halliburton: entry Halliburton Again - and again - and again has been entered in the TTLB New Web Log Showcase.

2003-10-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY AFTER THE FALL OF RUSH LIMBAUGH is the Sunday offering at Rush Limbaughtomy
Visit The Spy Game and vote in the TTLB New Weblog Showcase

2003-10-06T15:55:00.000-07:00

Great Reading at Open Source Politics
Jeff Alworth’s Cheney Lied
Susie Madrak’s Self-defense for Voters George Will’s context by John Williams Jeremy Puma’s Republican’s are just mean
The Pot Calling the Kettle Pious by Earl Dunovant Colin Powell is Done by Kenneth Quinnell Civility Dawn’s on Bush by Kevin Hayden

2003-10-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

OPEN SOURCE POLITICS
Something Wicked This Way Comes says Jeremy Puma as someone wicked is forced to leave - see Barry Bozeman's: Dean & Clark ask ABC to Fire Rush and no sooner said than done: Rush Resigns - hoisted on his own ample petard. In these United States it is some justice in the end for Limbaugh who thought he was Above the Law of acceptable behavior like Lilith Devlin's County Official in So Help You God

In an action alert for those who love liberty Laura Poyneer wants a roll back of Ashcroft's Patriot act. While Stephen Charast finds you can reconcile Faith and the Law.

The Worldview of L'Shana Tova by Natalie Davis and Mike Golby's Walls of the Third Temple focus on Palestine.

Work and Pay may both be affected as OPEC plays a new hand says Fred Henning Do we have the knowledge to stay solvent in these troubled times? asks Tom Geveart author of The Tomato Bomb.
The NCLB part II: No School Left Unfailing is Jay Bullock's contribution for the day

Although our Social Eyes see the rich get richer it is "let them eat cake" or Pie in the Sky according to Allen Brill But this Nation Will Yet Be Saved rants Guy Andrew Hall. Kenneth Quinnell says "I Am Not A Role Model"

Miracle Drugs Vs Super Drugs is the Inside-Outside offering of P. G. Gandy

OPEN SOURCE POLITICS has exploded in readership this week
These entries have become must reads for the informed:

Robert Novak is a coward
The CIA's Patriotic Math
A Matter of Trust
I Have A Little List
all are about The Valerie Plame Affair

Action Alert

Pie In the Sky
The Politics of Power

Asbestos Legislation One and Two

2003-10-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

Dean and Clark call for Rush to be fired from ESPN
Rush Resigns
Cooked with gas and boiled in oil
The Worst Hiring Slump since the Last Depression
9-11 from Personal Experience
Sorting Out the 9-11 Links
The Illusion of Security Part 1
The Illusion of Security Part II
S.1135 gives 3 Billion Dollars to Halliburton and The S.1125 Asbestos History

2003-09-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

FREEPERS, FALWELLIANS, FAUX NEWS FANATICS, ASSCRAFTERS, BUTTCANNONS, CARLSONITES, COULTERGEISTS, 700 CLUBBERS, PSEUDO-CHRISTIAN PATRIONAUGHTS, HAN-NINNEYS, HORRORWITZES, HALFWITS, HESTONIAN GUN NUTS, DITTOHEADS, & NEWS-MAXED DRUDGES: RightWingNuts one and all this is for you. Trolling in Tennessee with BJ and Bustin is exploring the political orientation of some of the inhabitants of Tennessee in search of any semblance of logic or intelligence. .Friday installment from Knoxville. This could easily be a BJ and Bustin moment:

"Two Kingston Republicans were injured when their pickup truck left the road and struck a tree. The accident occurred as the two men were returning home after an NRA outing. The pick-up truck headlights malfunctioned when the fuse burned out. As a replacement fuse was not available, they noticed that a .22 caliber bullet fit perfectly into the older model fuse box near the steering wheel. After inserting the bullet, the two men proceeded. 20 miles later the bullet overheated, discharged and struck the driver in the right testicle and the vehicle swerved striking a tree. The driver will require surgery to repair his wound and the passenger sustained a broken clavicle. The pick-up truck was covered in Bush-Cheney, NRA, and other common RightWingNut stickers. Both men are jobless and have no medical insurance since they were laid off when nuclear waste cleanup at Oak Ridge lost funding. When asked the two indicated they still support Bush and would rather lose their jobs and their nuts then their guns."

Roane County spans the Clinch and Tennessee River Valley and climbs the Cumberland Plateau to Central Standard Time. The Oak Ridge reservation is a large part of the county. Oak Ridge is said to have the highest per capita IQ. of any city in America - from a population of Nuclear Scientists; Kingston, Oliver Springs, Rockwood, and Harriman are not so blessed. These are tough coal mining towns with a history of moonshine and drug smuggling. Roane County is only 2.7% non-white yet Al Gore managed 44% of the vote here. There is some intelligent life in Roane County from the influence of the Oak Ridge

2003-09-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

THE ARROGANT MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE HAVE OVER-RULED THE PEOPLE ONCE AGAIN.

The schism between Americans was obvious in the FCC Commissioners' comments and votes. (On the latest relaxing of media ownership rules) Though it had 3 votes needed to change the rules, the majority ignored 750,000 public comments, 150 congressional representatives, and groups like the NRA, NOW, and Common Cause, which were opposed to the decision. The arrogance of the majority mirrors the arrogance of the majority in the U.S. Congress.

The Republicans are incapable of civil discourse.
They are loath to entertain opposing viewpoints.
They engage in ad hominem attacks when confronted with alternative perspectives.

The majority decision was based on facts and logic; the dissenters, they said, were well meaning but misguided by the same emotions and fear of Americans who were against the hijacking of the airwaves. Fools they, and fools we, Abernathy said. History will prove Americans wrong, and the three who know better than we what is in our public interest chose the right path for us. Monopolistic control of the media will benefit diversity of views (there is that Bush regime Alice-in-Wonderland logic again).
It was not so much the decision, for none of us can truly predict the end result. Though unlikely, the Supreme Court may reject or remand the new rules (still unpublished, for we--you and I--don't need to know what they are just yet, you see). No, it was the way the big three spoke about you and me. It was the way they dismissed the comments of three-quarter million Americans. It was the way they put us down, that chauvinistic accusation of emotionality for our challenge of their decision. It was the defiant attitude, the belligerent tone.

It was George Bush telling the rest of the world that he would do what is best for Iraq and the world, world leaders' insight and expertise be damned.

It was the Supreme Court awarding the Presidency to George Bush. Voters and elections be damned.

It was the government telling the governed that their opinions did not count.

It was a democracy handing over the avenues of First Amendment expression to a powerful few that support the Bush regime.

It was the FCC telling Americans to go to hell.

with thanks to ELAINE CASSEL of Counterpunch

2003-08-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

2003-08-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

2003-08-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

Mainstreet - a new avenue of information
Main Stream - a Focus on the Flow of information in cyberspace
PULSE - "from the HEART of the Body Politic"

Visit these superior bloggers for the best the web has to offer

Apathy Inc.

A Rational Animal

Arms and the Man

Atrocities

Blah 3

Blowtorch Monkey Armada

Blunted on Reality

Democratic Veteran

Folkburn

Frog N Blog

Genfoods

Heller Mountain

High Water

Ignatz

In a Dark Time

Jesus's General

Life as if it's Real

Mark A. R. Kleiman

Nurse Ratched

Out 2 Lunch

Pandagon

Prometheus 6

Rantavation

Rook's Rant

Rush Limbaughtomy

Sadly No

Suburban Guerrilla

T Rex's Guide

The Funny Farm

The Poison Kitchen

Totalitarianism Today

The Right Christians

The Peoples Republic of Seabrook

Mad Prophet

American Sentimentalist

2003-08-07T07:59:00.000-07:00

This is a name appeal test for PULSE - "From the Heart of the Body Politic"