It's Deja Vu all Over Again: 3000 - In Search of
Peace with Cindy Sheehan

post from BuzzFlash - Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 01 January 2007 12:40:39 PM. © BuzzFlash - Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Cindy Sheehan

Gerald Ford, an incompetent, never-elected past-president, was memorialized by one of his good buddies, and close confidantes, Dastardly Dick. The execution of Saddam Hussein is being celebrated by a blood thirsty media and another never elected, execution-happy, incompetent president. Dozens, if not hundreds more innocent Iraqis were killed today and the 3000th soldier crossed the threshold from life into the next world, more than likely.

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http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/670

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New user registrations

post from Draft Gore 2008 PAC (v.4) - Grassroots Organizing Really Early (v.4) on 01 January 2007 12:32:50 PM. © Draft Gore 2008 PAC (v.4) - Grassroots Organizing Really Early (v.4)

No user-initiated new user registrations while I'm merging the prior user databases. Check back in a few hours.

Read The Full Article:
http://draftgore2008.org/fr/node/30

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REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS ABANDONING
BUSH/McCAIN/LIEBERMAN CALLS FOR IRAQ ESCALATION, "SURGE"

post from DownWithTyranny! on 01 January 2007 12:18:00 PM. © DownWithTyranny!

Earlier I wrote about how congressional Republicans are not exactly jumping up and down about the McCain/Lieberman calls for escalation of the Iraq war. Turns out, Bob Novak covered the story today for the Washington Post today. Lieberman and McCain went over to the Middle East with a gaggle of other senators so that they could appear to be speaking with authority when they declared that what we need is to send more troops into Baghdad. Lieberman fired the first shot last week with a badly-received and utterly pathetic editorial in the Post. (After swearing to Connecticut voters he had gone through a metamorphosis before the election and was now anti-war, it's understandable he would have been afraid to write the editorial calling for escalation of the war for any of his own state's newspapers.)

Novak, not exactly naive, starts his story with the absurd proposition that the McCain/Lieberman delegation was in Iraq to collect "evidence" that a surge is just what the doctor ordered. Novak well knows the complete lack of opportunity for McCain/Lieberman to collect "evidence" on anything other than the quality of the toilet paper in the Green Zone. But even a far right propagandist like Novak, who incorrectly refers to McCain as "the front-runner for the party's 2008 presidential nomination" (as though the fact that Rudy Giuliani isn't a Beltway hack makes his candidacy less than real), admits that barely a dozen Republican senators support the McCain/Lieberman escalation plan.

Last night I had mentioned how this thoroughly discredited idea is being opposed by usually reliable Republican rubber stampers like Susan Collins, Norm Coleman and Gordon Smith. Novak quotes Chuck Hagel: "It's Alice in Wonderland. I'm absolutely opposed to sending any more troops to Iraq. It is folly."

What to do about Iraq poses not only a national policy crisis but profound political problems for the Republican Party. Disenchantment with George W. Bush within the GOP runs deep. Republican leaders around the country, anticipating that the 2006 election disaster would prompt an orderly disengagement from Iraq, are shocked that the president now appears ready to add troops.

Republicans around the country are confused about why exactly Bush is ignoring the Iraq Study Group's recommendations. They trust James Baker's solid proposals far more than the re-packaged stay-the-course generalities being tossed blithely around by Bush, McCain, Cheney and Lieberman. And in 3 weeks... Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden will gavel open hearings on the surge/escalation proposals. Other members eager to oppose it include John Kerry, Russ Feingold, Chris Dodd, Barack Obama and Chuck Hagel. Why is this important? Christy over at Firedoglake nails it... perfectly.

Read The Full Article:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/01/republican-lawmakers-abandoning.html

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cameraphone recording of Hussein hanging: it
can't be controlled

post from W. David Stephenson blogs on homeland security et al. on 01 January 2007 12:16:54 PM. © W. David Stephenson blogs on homeland security et al.

Before Hussein's hanging, the wise men of the TV networks debated howmuch of the actual video coverage, if any, they'd release. Meanwhile,the real world of the 21st century made their debates irrelevant: Iraqi present at the hanging used their cameraphones to record it and then released it via the[...]

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/stephensonstrategies/Rbib/~3/69372951/01.html

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Oops!

post from Crooks and Liars on 01 January 2007 12:15:45 PM. © Crooks and Liars

YahooNews :Wisconsin's revenue agency said Friday that it sent as many as 170,000 forms to taxpayers with mailing labels mistakenly printed with their Social Security numbers.The state Department of Revenue was scrambling to alert taxpayers to be on the lookout for the mailings."We want to prevent any chance identity theft might occur," department spokeswoman Meredith [...]

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/01/oops/

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Senior Iraqi Politician Running Al Qaida Safe
House

post from NewsHog on 01 January 2007 12:12:00 PM. © NewsHog

This fresh from Radio Free Europe:

January 1, 2007 -- There are conflicting accounts of a U.S. military operation today in Iraq.

The U.S. military says its troops killed six "terrorists" during a raid on a possible safe house in Baghdad for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, after first coming under heavy fire themselves.

The building belongs to a leading Sunni Arab politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, who heads the National Dialogue Front. He called the raid a provocation.

In an interview with Reuters, Al-Mutlaq is quoted as saying a family of four was killed in an adjacent building during the raid, including two children, as well as two of his security guards.

A U.S. military spokesman told Reuters that he was unaware of civilians being injured or killed in the raid.

That's a pretty big difference of opinion. An Al Qaida safe house belonging to the leader of one of the Sunni minority's two largest political coalitions or the same house, same owner, packed with his own guards and the firefight spilling over next door with horrible consequences?

If Saleh al-Mutlaq, who was the head Sunni negotiator on the Iraqi constitution, was running an Al Qaida safe-house then that is massive news. Just as big as the arrests of the supposed Iranian gunrunning bigwigs on Christmas Day - they were arrested in the house of the head of the Iraqi parliament's security committee, on the compound of a major-time Shiite politico who has recently been jokeying to replace Prime Minister Maliki. They had been invited to Iraq by President Talibani and had an appointment later that day with Maliki himself.

Is every Iraqi politician in league with those killing American troops? If so, it's definitely time to leave.

Or maybe the Bush administration hawksjust decided to remind them all who is boss...

Read The Full Article:
http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/01/senior-iraqi-politician-running-al.htm
l

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Momentum Stock: GFI Group (GFIG)

post from Jutia Group on 01 January 2007 12:04:24 PM. © Jutia Group

GFI Group (NASDAQ: GFIG)My next momentum play for you today is an inter-dealer broker specializing in over-the-counter derivatives products and related securities. The Company provides brokerage services and data and analytics products to institutional clients in markets for a range of credit, financial, equity and commodity instruments. It functions as an intermediary on behalf [...]

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http://jutiagroup.com/archive/2007/01/01/281/

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Iowa: Mama 0 - Obama 1

post from What Happened to My Country? on 01 January 2007 12:01:30 PM. © What Happened to My Country?

Hillary has some tall explaining to do in the tall corn state.

"In corn-growing Iowa, the first stop in the presidential nominating process, Clinton will have to explain the ethanol vote she cast on June 15, 2005." (WaPo)

"Clinton-Obama Differences Clear in Senate Votes" and the ethanol difference is a silo-sized stumbling block for Hillary since Iowa has more ethanol plants than any other state.

Hillary supported an effort to block a proposed amendment to the 2005 energy bill that would have established an ethanol mandate for refineries, Obama voted for the ethanol mandate.

On the Iowa caucus scoreboard, chalk one up for Obama.... who is already wildly popular in the state that put John Kerry (D-Mass) on the road to his successful nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.

As Iowa's Democratic governor-elect Chet Culver opines, "Many of us dream of a day where Iowa is the national leader in renewable energy...." (Des Moines Register, 1/1/07)

Hillary tramples Iowa's fields of dreams at her peril.

Read The Full Article:
http://whathappenedtomycountry.blogspot.com/2007/01/iowa-mama-0-obama-1.html

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Bush Was Allegedly Asleep When Saddam Was Hung -
Verse-Case Scenario

post from BuzzFlash - Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 01 January 2007 11:42:39 AM. © BuzzFlash - Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

VERSE-CASE SCENARIO

Bush Was Allegedly Asleep When Saddam Was Hung

by Tony Peyser

As far as explanations go
That qualifies as a queer one
Translation: he passed out
After Condi's second beer run.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/peyser/343

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Why Not Gore

I woke up New Years Day to this story front and center in my hometown newspaper.

And I almost immediately began thinking of Al Gore.

My immediate thought was, "this girl would not be spending her days in a cemetery if the votes had been fairly counted in 2000 or if Sandra O'Connor had done, what she had to know, was the right thing.

Of course, I am very prone to thinking of the 2000 might-have-beens.

For me, the 2000 election is right up there with Nov. 22, 1963 as a terrible watershed moment that changed everything -- although I think the 2000 election altered our futures more than JFK's death did (as earthshaking as the assassination was).

I believe 3000 dead Americans who died in Iraq would be alive if Gore had been sworn in. I believe hundreds of thousands of Iraqis would be alive too. I don't just believe these things. I know them.

In fact, I try not to think too often about the 2000 election. It is too painful. I got over the 2004 election by midnight on election day. I'm still not over 2000.

The question I have to ponder now is whether Al Gore is the leader I believe he is.

Is he worthy of all my might-have-beens?

Because I have to say that if he does not run in 2008, I have to consider that he is just a good man, not a great one.

After all, he has to know that he is the only Democrat (with the exception of Bill Clinton) who is completely qualified to serve as President.

Yes, we have some decent candidates out there. I think Obama and Edwards are both good candidates and would be good Presidents.

But neither they, nor any other potential candidate, is in Gore's league.

With 8 years experience as Vice President and with his strong leadership against this war (before it began), he is uniquely qualified. And then there is global warming, the most dangerous threat to our whole planet.

Gore has been warning us about this looming disaster -- and explaining how to fix it -- for 20 years.

I know why he would want to pass on another run. I can hardly imagine how anyone could endure the lies and libels that the GOP would hurl at him. And there is no guarantee he would defeat John McCain (as much the media's favorite as Gore is its whipping boy).

On the other hand, I think he has a better chance of winning than any other possible candidate. He is more experienced than McCain and hundreds of years younger.

He is right about the war while McCain is more wrong than any other major politician including George W. Bush.

Plus, he won once. Why would the electorate that gave him a majority in 2000 deny him one in 2008?

So it's up to him?

If he runs, I'll know that the grief I've felt over his loss (and continue to feel) is legitimate. If not, I'll still believe his loss was a disaster for America but not so much because we lost the possibility of a second FDR but because his loss brought us Bush.

There is a big difference.

He has to run.

And while I'm at it, I have to say that he should pick Obama as his VP. Gore-Obama is a sure ticket to victory is to run as a ticket in the primaries. Let primary voters know that a vote for Gore is a vote for Gore-Obama. (Although I have to concede that Gore-Clinton has a nice ring to it too).

Unbeatable.

So the question is. Just how much of a patriot is Al Gore? America needs him. Now more than ever before.

I think he's a great patriot and the one candidate out there who would be the next FDR.

He'll run and he'll win.