Third Times a Charm

post from Moue Magazine on 19 March 2008 11:05:38 AM. © Moue Magazine

Senator John “foreign policy” McCain seems to have a problem conceptualizing the fact that the mostly Sunni Al Qaeda does not train among the predominantly Shiite Iranians.This is what McCain said yesterday: Mr. McCain said at a news[...]

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Complaints from Treasury Dept. Watch List
Released

post from TPMMuckraker on 19 March 2008 11:02:00 AM. © TPMMuckraker

From The New York Times:

A sheaf of documents that a federal court forced the Treasury Department to release indicate there have been repeated complaints from American consumers who have been falsely linked to terrorism or drug trafficking during routine credit checks, the organization that sought the documents in a lawsuit said Tuesday.
The more than 100 pages of documents released Monday to the organization, the Lawyers? Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, include a variety of complaints about the list maintained by the Office of Foreign Asset Control in the Treasury Department, said Philip Hwang, a lawyer for the group....
The documents include e-mail messages from a Navy veteran who had been unable to use the Internet service PayPal, and an 18-year-old who wrote to say that he was not a Libyan minister who was apparently on the list.
A client of a Maryland Toyota dealer reported being checked by a salesperson for tattoos because of a Treasury list match.
A Treasury Department official was baffled by the last claim, saying information on the list did not include physical characteristics....
Another official said the department did not have numbers on how many people might have been falsely identified, since institutions can check their clients? identity against the list and ignore it if something like the date of birth obviously does not match the person in front of them.

Remember that, according to The Wall Street Journal, the Treasury Department feeds transaction information to the National Security Agency for their vast data driftnet. So it's possible that a mistake on that watchlist could have led to much more than an inconvenience during a credit check.

If you're curious, the Treasury Department posts its watch list here (pdf).

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_list.php

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Mikes Blog Roundup

post from Crooks and Liars on 19 March 2008 11:00:27 AM. © Crooks and Liars

A few reactions from around the blogosphere, to Obama’s big speech. Also, here, here, and here. Halfway There: Thanks to our news media, I realize I come from a family of terrorists and can never be president. Consortiumblog: Iraq War as War Crime (Part One) and (Part Two)Econbrowser: Iraq Burn Rate > $12 billion per [...]

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VA - Jim Gilmore's Ties to Bear Sterns

post from MyDD on 19 March 2008 10:58:05 AM. © MyDD

The collapse of investment banking giant Bear Sterns sent shockwaves through the financial sector over the weekend, and resulted in the Fed expanding it's safety net to cover investment firms like Bear Sterns. It also hit really close to home for one[...]

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VA - Jim Gilmore's Ties to Bear Stearns

post from MyDD on 19 March 2008 10:58:05 AM. © MyDD

The collapse of investment banking giant Bear Stearns sent shockwaves through the financial sector over the weekend, and resulted in the Fed expanding it's safety net to cover investment firms like Bear Stearns. It also hit really close to home for one[...]

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Barbara's Daily BuzzFlash Minute for March 19,
2008

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 19 March 2008 10:54:21 AM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

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Technorati Tags: Barbara's Daily Buzz McCain Iraq Iran Gaffe Lou Dobbs Obama Caroline Kennedy "Worth It" Winter Soldiers Lieberman

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Michigan re-vote isn't happening as Clinton
campaigns in the state

post from AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth on 19 March 2008 10:48:00 AM. © AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Hillary Clinton was in Detroit today pleading for a new vote. The visit smacks of desperation. She needs a game changer and Michigan was her last hope. Now, comes word via Ben Smith that the re-vote in Michigan is dead.

Here's how NBC's First Read described Clinton's predicament this morning:

Her desire to make this case is obvious: Clinton needs these do-over contests in Florida and Michigan -- and needs to win them by big margins -- to convince superdelegates that she should be the nominee. The question is: Will primary voters in other states care about this issue? (Or will they see this as pure politics, given the fact that Clinton never spoke up about Michigan and Florida until right before the South Carolina primary?)

Clinton is not getting the do-over contests. It's over.

Last week, listening to her interview on NPR, I knew Clinton had jumped the shark. That's the interview where she described how fair the January 15th Michigan primary was. I found a YouTube video with the audio -- it's really worth a listen:

video details and more

The Clinton campaign is running out of tricks. The race is basically over. With yesterday's speech, Obama essentially clinched the Democratic nomination. Clinton can't win the nomination. Sure, she'll win Pennsylvania by 15 - 20 points. She has Governor Rendell, the mayors of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and now, John Murtha, on her side. Let Pennsylvania be her last hurrah. She can go out on a victory. It's time to wrap this up and get into the battle with McCain.

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pening-as.html

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No Regrets

By Cernig

Dubya says he has "no regrets" about invading and occupying Iraq.

Not one?

Not the fixing on intelligence around the policy to enable the invasion in the first place? not the setting of a dangerous precedent for other nations by invading without a UN authorisation? Not the disbanding of the Iraqi armed forces? Not the backing of corrupt exiles or the attempt to set up an Iraqi government without a democratic process? Not the failures in drafting a fair constitution that have made reconciliation a pipe-dream? Not the deplorable situation where the world's most powerful army is paralysed by the thought of a Bin Laden press release claiming his own victory if they withdraw? Not the outrageous domestic spying, the torture, the rollback of the rule of law, that have attended Bush's grand adventure? Not the hundreds of thousands of lives lost and not the trillions of dollars in deficit spending that have created a recession?

Not one?

I'm forcibly reminded of the Kerry/Bush debates of '04 when Dubya couldn't think of a single mistake he'd admit to. Sociopathic or pig-stupid, take your pick.

As for declaring the Surge a "major strategic victory in the broader war on terror" because the Awakening is now turning its back on Osama - when the Awakening had nothing to do with the Surge in the first place and when all those insurgents who now form the Awakening wouldn't have climbed on Osama's bandwagon without the U.S. invasion/occupation in the first place...

...well, that's just plain dishonest.

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http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2008/03/no-regrets.html

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TPMCafe on Obama's Speech

We've got reactions to Obama's big speech yesterday still coming in at TPMCafe. For your reading convenience, we collected links to some of the more noteworthy posts here.[...]

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ILLINOIS IMMIGRANTS COMMUNITIES URGING RAHM
EMANUEL TO REMIND HIS BOY HEATH SHULER THAT HE IS, AFTER ALL, A DEMOCRAT

Mediocre ex-footballer Heath Shuler had to make a decision back in 2005-- to run for Congress in Tennessee as a Republican against a Democratic incumbent or to run in North Carolina as a Democrat against a Republican incumbent. Eeny-meanie, miney-mo... Then-DCCC Chair Rahm Emanuel persuaded him that there was enough dirt on Charlie Taylor, one of the corrupt GOP congressmen, in western North Carolina, to make that race the most competitive. Shuler decided to "be"-- or at least run as-- a Democrat.

He promptly promised voters in his district that, if elected, he might not vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker because she is too liberal. He did vote for Pelosi in the end, of course, but since then he has consistently been one of the 4 or 5 Democrats who have been most willing to act as rubber stamps for all the most toxic policies of the Bush agenda-- soup to nuts.

He's even gone so far as to work on an anti-immigrants bill with xenophobic maniac Tom Tancredo and to try going around the Democratic congressional leadership by joining the Republicans in a naked, partisan parliamentary maneuver meant to embarrass his own collegues in tough re-election races. Rahm Emanuel's Heath Shuler has been the worst "Democrat" in the House of Representatives since he took the oath of office in 2007.

This morning our pals at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights were back at Rahm Emanuel's Chicago office-- with a leash. They're asking Emanuel to "reign in Rep. Heath Shuler," whom he helped elect, and who is sponsoring a flawed "immigration reform bill" that House Republicans are trying to force to the floor of the House for a vote this week. The Shuler-Tancredo 'SAVE Act' is a disaster for civil liberties and for immigrant and workers rights alike. They also made a short clip that explains why Shuler's bill is the wrong approach to immigration reform:

video details and more

Emanuel wouldn't see his constituents, possibly because they came with a leash and petition and not check books, but he did send someone out to say he's voting against his boy Shuler's bill.

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http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/03/illinois-immigrants-communities-urgin
g.html