Dusty's View of Life - dusty1215's Blog - Bakersfield.com

Bond's record-setting baseball will go into the HOF with an asterisk.

From Sportsline.com:

The ball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking 756th home run will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Fashion designer Marc Ecko, who bought the ball in an online auction, set up a website for fans to vote on the ball's fate, and Wednesday announced the decision to brand it won out over the other options -- sending it to Cooperstown unblemished or launching it into space.

Ecko said he believed the vote to brand the ball showed people thought "this was shrouded in a chapter of baseball history that wasn't necessarily the clearest it could be."

Ecko, whom Bonds called "an idiot" last week, had the winning bid Sept. 15 in the online auction for the ball that Bonds hit Aug. 7 to break Hank Aaron's record of 755 home runs. The final selling price was $752,467, well above most predictions that assumed Bonds' status as a lightning rod for the steroids debate in baseball would depress the value.

The asterisk suggests that Bonds' record is tainted by alleged steroid use. The slugger has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs. Fans brought signs with asterisks on them to ballparks as he neared Aaron's hallowed mark.

Bonds publicist Rachael Vizcarra did not immediately respond to an e-mail sent early Wednesday seeking comment about the ball's fate.

"distract, delude, amuse and insulate us."

Thats a line from Edward R. Murrow, one of the giants in the journalism field. Alternet has a piece up about the evening news and the talking heads that give it to us every evening. By us..I mean the universal 'us' as I very seldom watch local or national news in the evening anymore, getting my news fix from the internet sites. From the article:

he launch of Katie Couric a year ago as the anchor of the CBS Evening News was hailed by CBS as the biggest thing in news since, well, the invention of denture fixative commercials. It was also the biggest flop. The CBS Evening News Without Dan Rather or Bob Schieffer had its lowest ratings since Nielsen began tracking evening news shows in 1987. This turn of events stunned CBS executives -- who had given her the famous "Kiss Me Kate" contract, which paid Couric $15 million a year -- and the news consultants who thought she was the answer to CBS being mired in third place in the network news race for the past ten years. The news doctors who have been paid millions trying to fix the show for the past year have only made it worse. It didn't matter how many times the consultants got it wrong. Remember what they did to poor Dan Rather? Smile, don't smile. Wear a sweater, don't wear a sweater. Stand up to deliver the news, sit down. It is a law of the news consultancy/network relationship: If we are paying so much money, it must be right. Otherwise, why are we paying so much money?

So, as a TV critic who has logged millions of hours of viewing to help save one of my three favorite commercial networks, I decided to volunteer my services to the Save CBS Campaign. Here's what I would do: First, I would dump the Walter Cronkite school of reporting, of which Katie Couric is the latest practitioner. The objective that's-the-way-it-is style they use at all the network evening news shows is so old, so over. No wonder all the network news programs are falling in the ratings. Katie Couric is just the hardest hit.

What the evening news shows need is less "objectivity" and more analysis. The problem with objective journalism is that it doesn't exist and never did. Molly Ivins disposed of the objectivity question for all time when she observed in 1993, "The fact is that I am a 49-year-old white female, a college-educated Texan. All of that affects the way I see the world. There's no way in hell that I'm going to see anything the same way that a 15-year-old black high school dropout does. We all see the world from where we stand. Anybody who's ever interviewed five eyewitnesses to an automobile accident knows there's no such thing as objectivity."

What I'm proposing is nothing new. Before Walter Cronkite became the model "objective" newsman, there was Edward R. Murrow. In the late 1930s Murrow started the tradition of reporting the news and analyzing it, giving his opinion of what it all meant. The Murrow legend was built on his opinionated analyses on the CBS Evening News.

For those who never saw Murrow's news show, here's how it would go: After running through the headlines, he would call on reporters at home and abroad to give reports on the scene. These so-called Murrow's Boys were real TV journalists, not actors who played them on TV. CBS News in the Murrow years had people we respected because of their expertise, not because they were famous TV names. The foreign correspondents weren't empty trench coats but real experts like William Shirer, who reported from Berlin on the menace of Hitler in the 1930s. It didn't matter that Murrow's Boys were bald like David Schoenbrun, who reported from Paris in the glory days, or older than the 18-49 demographic like Dan Schorr. They were specialists in specific areas.

Then Murrow would do his closing essay, in which he would comment on some hot issue, continually treading dangerous waters: McCarthyism at home, apartheid abroad, J. Edgar Hoover, the atomic bomb, stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction -- all of which he opposed. He was pro-union and anti-business. He was a dissident on US foreign policy post-World War II. He spoke out against the Truman Doctrine, which had America supporting fascist dictatorships in Greece and elsewhere because they were anti-Communist. He was against funding Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist army, which John Foster Dulles told us would retake the mainland someday, if they didn't die of old age first. He was hard on Douglas MacArthur when he took his troops across the 38th Parallel in the Korean War. He criticized the Pentagon snafus that were getting our troops killed. He was critical of US support for the French in Indochina (pre-Vietnam) and of the Eisenhower Administration's embrace of the French puppet government in Saigon led by a Riviera playboy, Bao Dai. He was against Red Channels and blacklisting and the House Un-American Activities Committee, which identified a Communist under every bed. He even attacked television itself, warning that it had the capacity to "distract, delude, amuse and insulate us."

For the rest of the article, click here..its quite interesting..and LONG. :P

People trust the Democrats more than they trust Republicans.

At least Gallup Polling says so:they have been polling the American public on these questions for over 50 years:

Public Prefers Democratic Party to Republican for handling terrorism, military security

by Lydia Saad

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Public attitudes toward the two major political parties have not changed much in recent months. That's good news for the Democratic Party, which moved into a superior image position when compared to the Republican Party more than a year ago. Americans not only continue to view the Democratic Party more favorably than the Republican Party in general terms, but they also choose the Democratic party as the preferred party for maintaining the nation's economic prosperity. And, in a departure from recent history, Americans see the Democrats as the political party better able to protect the country from terrorism.

According to Gallup's annual Governance survey, conducted Sept. 14-16, 2007, the Democratic Party enjoys a 15-point lead over the Republicans in overall favorability, 53% vs. 38%.

These ratings are nearly identical to those obtained during July 2007.

Gallup's frequent measurement of party favorability in recent years shows that favorable views of the two major parties were fairly balanced between January 2003 and February 2005. In this period, positive ratings of both parties typically ranged between 47% and 55%, with a high rating of 56% for the Republicans in 2003 (shortly after the start of the Iraq War) and a high rating of 59% for the Democrats in January 2004 (immediately following the New Hampshire Democratic primary).

However, starting in the second half of 2005, the public's positive image of the Republican Party began to show signs of decline. Since April 2006, the Democrats have maintained a consistently strong advantage in favorability, averaging about 14 points.

The recent gain in the Democratic Party's image advantage is due primarily to a sharp decline in Americans' favorable perceptions of the Republican Party more than an improvement in the public's perception of the Democrats.

This is particularly evident when looking at annual averages of the favorable ratings for each party. Between 2002 and today, the percentage of Americans with a favorable view of the Republican Party fell from 54.7% to 38.7% -- a 16-percentage point decline. (This was after a sharp rise in Republican Party ratings between 2001 and 2002 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.) Over the same period, the Democrats' average favorable rating barely changed, falling by 1 percentage point (from 54.0% to 53.0%).

Party of Prosperity

For more than a half century Gallup has asked Americans whether the Republican Party or Democratic Party would do the better job keeping the country prosperous. Since 2001 the Democrat Party has either tied or led the Republicans on this measure. However, that lead expanded significantly between September 2005 and September 2006, from 5 points to 17 points, and is currently 20 points. Fifty-four percent of Americans now say the Democrats would do the better job, compared with only 34% choosing the Republicans.

Party of National Security

Through this period of decline in the Republicans' overall favorability, one enduring strength for the GOP has been the perception that it is the better party for handling international terrorism and national defense. One year after the 9/11 attacks, the Republicans had a 19-point lead over the Democrats in this area. That lead gradually sank to a statistically non-significant 2-point lead in 2006.

This year, for the first time since Gallup started asking this question in 2002, more Americans say the Democratic Party will do a better job than the Republican Party of protecting the country from security threats, 47% vs. 42%. These results mirror those Gallup obtained last October when it found a 46%-41% advantage for "the Democrats in Congress" over "the Republicans in Congress" when Americans were asked which representatives do the better job handling terrorism. Thus, Democrats likely gained the upper hand on the terrorism issue last fall just before the elections, and have been able to maintain that slim advantage since then.

Tethered to the Party Leader

The recent declines in public preferences for the Republican Party on the economy and terrorism run parallel to the decline of the Republican Party's overall favorability.

For the rest of this detailed summary click the link at the top.

Are you smarter than the average American? Test your knowledge of the news..

Pew Research has a current quiz up that's open to everyone. It tests the readers knowledge on basic facts that usually have something to do with current events. What is troubling to me is how low the avg score was. The quiz asked 12 questions. The average score was a whopping 50% right!

Isn't that sad? Doesn't that bother you? It does bother me since the questions were so easy and generalized. Here are some of the results from the original quiz:

The demographic differences in knowledge levels among respondents are familiar ones. Better educated people did better on every question than did those with less education. Overall, those with a college degree answered, on average, about eight (8.2) out of 12 questions correctly, while those with a high school education or less had an average of fewer than six (5.5) correct answers. Men did better than women on many questions, and, on average, correctly answered 1.3 more questions overall than women did.

Older people did better than younger people on the test. People ages 50 and older answered, on average, seven and a half (7.5) questions correctly, while people under the age of 30 averaged fewer than six (5.5) correct responses.

So, take the quiz if your so inclined and tell us if your smarter than the average American. I think most of the b.com folks will come through with flying colors.

I got 11 of the 12 right. I blew it on the NYSE question.

Neo-Nazi's go after the Jena 6

Somehow, you knew this would happen, at least I did. From the Roanoke Times:

As thousands of people rallied in Jena, La., for six black youths charged with assaulting a white classmate, the FBI was monitoring a neo-Nazi activist in Roanoke who posted their names and addresses on a Web site that proclaimed: "Lynch the Jena 6."

William A. White also listed some of the defendants' telephone numbers, urging his readers to "Get in touch, and let them know justice is coming."

The leader of a Roanoke-based white supremacy group, White has a penchant for inserting inflammatory rhetoric into racially charged incidents that attract national attention, as the Jena Six case has done this week.

"He has done this kind of thing routinely, but probably never in such an outrageous way as this," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.

"It's appalling, but it's not surprising."

An FBI official said the agency is aware of White's posting.

"The FBI reviews information provided for possible violations under our jurisdiction, and would seek a prosecutive opinion at the appropriate time," said Sheila Thorne, a special agent with the agency's New Orleans division.

The review came as protesters gathered Thursday in Jena, the site of racial unrest since last summer. After a black student asked the school for permission to sit under a tree where white students traditionally gathered, three nooses were found hanging from the tree. Months later, the Jena Six were charged with beating a white student.

On his Web site, White complained of "agitators" who were demanding acquittals.

A posting Thursday afternoon that contained contact information for the six youths was headlined: "Addresses of Jena 6 N-----s; In case anyone wants to deliver justice."

In a second item, White was quoted as saying: "If these n------s are released or acquitted, we will find out where they live and make sure that white activists and white citizens in Louisiana know it ... in order to find someone willing to deliver justice."

White, commander of the American National Socialist Workers Party, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Earlier this year, White seemed unconcerned about reports that the FBI was investigating death threats against Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, whose phone number White posted online during a controversy over a Pitts column about black-on-white crime.

Feds investigating Blackwater USA for weapons smuggling

From AP:

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

Now..isn't THAT special? I mean really..they make more than twice what a soldier makes and now this allegation?

In Saturday's editions, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that two former Blackwater employees - Kenneth Wayne Cashwell of Virginia Beach, Va., and William Ellsworth "Max" Grumiaux of Clemmons, N.C. - are cooperating with federal investigators.

Cashwell and Grumiaux pleaded guilty in early 2007 to possession of stolen firearms that had been shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, and aided and abetted another in doing so, according to court papers viewed by The Associated Press. In their plea agreements, which call for a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the men agreed to testify in any future proceedings.

Canaries! They have a couple of canaries for the prosecution..should be interesting no?

In the United States, officials in Washington said the smuggling investigation grew from internal Pentagon and State Department inquiries into U.S. weapons that had gone missing in Iraq. It gained steam after Turkish authorities protested to the U.S. in July that they had seized American arms from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, rebels.

The Turks provided serial numbers of the weapons to U.S. investigators, said a Turkish official.

The Pentagon said in late July it was looking into the Turkish complaints and a U.S. official said FBI agents had traveled to Turkey in recent months to look into cases of missing U.S. weapons in Iraq.

Investigators are determining whether the alleged Blackwater weapons match those taken from the PKK.

Stay tuned...

The death of the History of Civilization…

When America’s military landed in Iraq in 2003, their first concern was securing the Oil fields and the Oil Ministry. The thought never occurred to the Generals evidently that the birthplace of humankind’s history was right under their noses in the museums of Iraq and the archaeological digs that still existed.

The plundering of the archaeological sites is a travesty that, to be sure, should be blamed on the Iraqi’s themselves. But with the country unable to sustain its inhabitant’s, the archaeologists themselves are digging through the ancient cities, destroying thousands of priceless jars, bottles and other artifacts in their search for gold and other treasures. Robert Fisk has a great write-up in the IHT about the systematic destruction of the dig sites. His words are dripping with sorrow as he describes what is taking place:

2,000-year-old Sumerian cities torn apart and plundered by robbers. The very walls of the mighty Ur of the Chaldees cracking under the strain of massive troop movements, the privatization of looting as landlords buy up the remaining sites of ancient Mesopotamia to strip them of their artifacts and wealth. The near total destruction of Iraq's historic past – the very cradle of human civilization – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation.

The American military is part of the problem as well, setting up bases within sensitive areas that are deemed militarily important..with no regard to the area’s historical value. We are talking about places that are thousands of years old. Trained archaeologists were meticulously unearthing artifacts from these areas when Saddam was in power. Now, tanks rumble over the precious ground..and what ever lies underneath is most likely being destroyed.

World-renowned Lebanese archaeologist Joanne Farchakh has done an extensive study on the museum and archaeological site lootings. Her report will be published in December. She graciously spoke to Mr. Fisk about his IHT article and the state of the remaining artifacts both in the ground and under the control of the Iraqi’s. A couple of her statements as to the degree of looting and destruction:

"There are 10,000 archaeological sites in the country. In the Nassariyah area alone, there are about 840 Sumerian sites; they have all been systematically looted. Even when Alexander the Great destroyed a city, he would always build another. But now the robbers are destroying everything because they are going down to bedrock. What's new is that the looters are becoming more and more organized with, apparently, lots of money.

"Quite apart from this, military operations are damaging these sites forever. There's been a US base in Ur for five years and the walls are cracking because of the weight of military vehicles. It's like putting an archaeological site under a continuous earthquake."

The biggest loss, site-wise, has been in the ancient city of Ur. From Wiki, we get this basic information on the importance of the area; Ur was an ancient city in southern Mesopotamia, located near the mouth (at the time) of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers on the Persian Gulf and close to Eridu. It is considered to be one of the earliest known civilizations in world history. Because of marine regression, the remains are now well inland in present-day Iraq, south of the Euphrates on its right bank, and named Tell el-Mukayyar, near the city of Nasiriyah south of Baghdad. Ur is even mentioned in the Bible in the book of Genesis.

One of Ur’s big archaeological claims is the existence of cuneiform, Sumerian writings, on the walls and on huge tablets of clay/sand. It also features in the works of Arab historians and geographers where its name is Qamirnah, The City of the Moon. This city came into existence in 4000 BC my dear reader. The inhabitants of this ancient city invented the principles of irrigation, developed agriculture and metalworking. Fifteen hundred years later – in what has become known as "the age of the deluge" – Ur produced some of the first examples of writing, seal inscriptions and construction. In neighboring Larsa, baked clay bricks were used as money orders – the world's first checks – the depth of finger indentations in the clay marking the amount of money to be transferred. The royal tombs of Ur contained jewelry, daggers, gold, azurite cylindrical seals and sometimes the remains of slaves.

Air strikes and bombing’s also destroyed important archaeological regions. At least seven historical sites have been used in this way by US and coalition forces since April 2003, one of them being the historical heart of Samarra, where the Askari shrine built by Nasr al Din Shah was bombed in 2006.

According to Fisk’s article..this activity is “a breach of the Hague Convention and Protocol of 1954 (chapter 1, article 5) which covers periods of occupation; although the US did not ratify the Convention, Italy, Poland, Australia and Holland, all of whom sent forces to Iraq, are contracting parties.”

Its hard to blame the farmers and indigenous people for plundering the history of man and womankind..afterall, they are just trying to make a living the only way left to them since America occupied their country. A cylinder seal, a sculpture or a cuneiform tablet earns $50 and that's half the monthly salary of an average government employee in Iraq..if they can get such a job.

But at the end of the day, it’s hard to rationalize destroying the history of civilization, even if it’s to feed your family. The people that need to be ferreted out and arrested are the rich collectors who are taking advantage of the Iraqi people that plunder the sites looking for specific requests made by these millionaire collectors. The archaeologists say a continually growing number of Internet sites offer Mesopotamian artifacts, objects anywhere up to 7,000 years old. What, if anything, is being done to nail these bastards selling our history? Make no mistake..its our history..the history of every human being my dear reader.

Ms Farchakh adds: "The longer Iraq finds itself in a state of war, the more the cradle of civilization is threatened. It may not even last for our grandchildren to learn from."

For an excellent read on the looting of the Iraq museum’s read this Guardian article about US marine Matthew Bogdano’s quest to get the treasures back. He spent two years of his life attempting to right the wrongs and returned “more than 5,000 artworks, including unique pieces from the first fluttering of civilization”. His trek took him from the sands of Mesopotamia to Madison Ave in NYC. Mr. Bogdano’s is a Greek-American classics scholar and a New York prosecutor. God bless him for his work to save the history of humanity.

The good General couldn't accomplish his first job in Iraq, why should we expect anything better out of his second stint there?

Petraeus' first job in Iraq was to train the Iraqi army. He failed miserably at that task, so why would anyone think he could run an entire war successfully? From Alternet:

The occupation set out to rebuild the Iraqi Army and Police. So they could stand up and we could stand down.

The man who was given the job was that rising star, Gen. David Petraeus.

He failed.

Reminds me of the guy at work who never does anything right and manages to rise to his highest level of incompetence by being promoted time and time again.

Petraeus has a PHd from Princeton. No one is saying he isn't an intelligent man. But after he was kicked back to the states, after failing to rebuild the Iraq Army, he was given a new job..that of updating the Army's counterinsurgency manual. Its right here if you care to peruse it.

Petraeus did a bangup job when he wrote that manual, seriously, he did. He has obviously mastered the english language and how best to use it. Its a clear, concise manual for dealing with insurgents.

The counterinsurgency manual recommends a force ratio of between 20 and 25 troops per 1,000 in the population.

So lets use Petraeus' own manual to grade his current job so far by using Alternet's writeup again:

The current estimated population of Iraq is 27,500,000.

The proper size of a counterinsurgency force is therefore a minimum of 550,000, more comfortable at 687,500.

Right now, at the peak of the surge, there are about 169,000 coalition troops (92 percent U.S.) in Iraq. That's 381,000 short of the minimum. Or 506,000 short of the more ideal ratio.

Ok, so much for those facts in General Petraeus' manual..So judging by his job so far, he isn't following his own advice. Tsk Tsk.

Patreaus also wrote in the manual:

COIN(counterinsurgency war) is fought among the populace. Counterinsurgents take upon themselves responsibility for the people's well-being in all its manifestations. These include the following:

    * Security from insurgent intimidation and coercion, as well as from nonpolitical violence and crime.

    * Provision for basic economic needs.

    * Provision of essential services, such as water, electricity, sanitation, and medical care.

    * Sustainment of key social and cultural institutions.

    * Other aspects that contribute to a society's basic quality of life.

Neither the Iraqi government nor the US occupation forces provides any of those things with any regularity do they? Amazingly enough..the insurgents are the only ones that seem to be able to provide most of the essentials on that list above via the black market. After all these years, 4 and counting, the Iraqi citizens still can not count on essential services such as..well you know..clean water, electricity etc...Oh, btw..the first case of Cholera has finally been reported in Iraq and its spreading like crazy.

How a counterinsurgency war is fought according to ..yep you guessed it..Petraeus' own Army manual again:

The principles of COIN are well known and form the skeleton of this manual. In essence, the counterinsurgent(thats us) should --

    * Understand the environment in which the war is being fought.

    * Isolate the insurgents from their cause and their base.

    * Secure the population under the rule of law.

    * Generate intelligence from the population to drive actions against the insurgents.

    * Apply all elements of national power in unison to support the legitimacy of the host nation's government.

    * Be prepared for a long commitment, measured in years, if not decades.

Well, we now know why Bush and Petraeus have finally stated the US will be in Iraq for decades..its part of the manual written by the General himself!

The bottom line is this...Petraeus wrote the manual and Bush is ignoring it. So how can we expect Petraeus to win when he isn't allowed to follow his own advice, which we all can read online? Does the current resident of the oval office really want to win the war in Iraq? I doubt it..he is ignoring the best advice he could get on the subject and is now merely waiting to hand his mess over to the next President of the United States. So if we aren't winning and are unable to follow Petraeus' manual without a draft...its time to pack up the tents and tanks and bring our soldiers home.

Support Debra Bowen's decision regarding Diebold voting machines

Democracy for America, aka DFA has sent out an email asking voters to support the decisions made last week. Debra Bowen made a huge decision. Show your support by contacting our local Registrar of voters and telling them:

“I support Secretary of State
Debra Bowen’s decision to
restore election integrity and
ban unsafe voting machines.
I’m counting on you
to support the ban
and protect our votes.”

If anyone attended the States investigation of the Kern problems with Diebold, great, so did I but if you didn't I blogged about it here. Below is the contact information for Kern County:

Ann Barnett, Auditor-Controller-County Clerk-Registrar of Voters
Elections Office
1115 Truxtun Avenue
Bakersfield, CA 93301
(661) 868-3590
1-800-452-8683
(661) 868-3768 Fax
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm
E-mail: barnetta@co.kern.ca.us
E-mail: brockmans@co.kern.ca.us
Website: www.co.kern.ca.us/elections/

Coast Guard's Deepwater project price skyrockets

From WaPo:

The Coast Guard said yesterday that two ships key to its modernization efforts are now expected to cost a combined $1.1 billion, an increase of about $255 million that will pay for extending their lifespans and making other improvements.

The 400-foot ships, known as national security cutters, are central to the Coast Guard's Deepwater program, a $24 billion effort to modernize and replace its ships, helicopters and planes. Congress has criticized the program for cost increases, technical and design flaws, and the decision-making power allowed to the contractors, Lockheed Martin of Bethesda and Northrop Grumman of Los Angeles. In a January report, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general said the cutters had design flaws.

The first ship, which is about 90 percent complete, is now expected to cost $640 million, and the second will cost about $496 million, according to the Coast Guard.

Its OUR money people! Gotta love those federal contractors...NOT!

Rove-a-mort and GOP Stonewalling

Harry Potter taken to a new, smarmy level. Courtesy of Campaign for America's Future.

Court rules FBI blew it in Jefferson's office raid.

Isn't this some batguano? But the money in the freezer is still fair game so far. From TPMmuckraker:

The FBI violated the Constitution when agents raided U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's office last year and viewed legislative documents, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The court ordered the Justice Department to return any privileged documents it seized from the Louisiana Democrat's office on Capitol Hill. The court did not order the return of all the documents seized in the raid.

The introduction to the ruling (pdf) is posted below.

Note: This decision dealt exclusively with the raid of Jefferson's Congressional office. So it shouldn't substantially affect the government's case against him.

Update: Here's some interpretation from CREW, who filed an amicus brief in the case.

Update: Here's the Justice Department's reaction to the ruling, from spokesman Brian Roehrekasse:

    “The Department of Justice is pleased that the D.C. Circuit opinion does not find that the search of a congressional office is unconstitutional. We are disappointed with the ruling that requires that a member of Congress be provided advance notice and the right to review materials before the execution of a search warrant. Because of the procedures that were put in place for the execution of the search warrant, the indictment and prosecution of Congressman Jefferson will not be negatively impacted by this decision. The Court of Appeals notes that there is no indication the Executive Branch did not act based on a good-faith interpretation of the law, as reflected in the District Court’s prior approval. The Department of Justice will continue to prepare for trial, scheduled for January 2008, and we are pleased that the D.C. Circuit opinion allows the prosecutors to retain non-Speech or Debate clause documents. The Department will review the decision and evaluate further action.”

From the ruling:

    This is an appeal from the denial of a motion, filed pursuant to Rule 41(g) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, seeking the return of all materials seized by the Executive upon executing a search warrant for nonlegislative materials in the congressional office of a sitting Member of Congress. The question on appeal is whether the procedures under which the search was conducted were sufficiently protective of the legislative privilege created by the Speech or Debate Clause, Article I, Section 6, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution. Our precedent establishes that the testimonial privilege under the Clause extends to non-disclosure of written legislative materials. See Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. v. Williams, 62 F.3d 408, 420 (D.C. Cir. 1995).

    Given the Department of Justice’s voluntary freeze of its review of the seized materials and the procedures mandated on remand by this court in granting the Congressman’s motion for
    emergency relief pending appeal, the imaging and keyword search of the Congressman’s computer hard drives and electronic media exposed no legislative material to the Executive, and therefore did not violate the Speech or Debate Clause, but the review of the Congressman’s paper files when the search was executed exposed legislative material to the Executive and accordingly violated the Clause. Whether the violation requires, as the Congressman suggests, the return of all seized items, privileged as well as non-privileged, depends upon a determination of which documents are privileged and then, as to the non-privileged documents, a balancing of the separation of powers underlying the Speech or Debate Clause and the Executive’s Article II, Section 3 law enforcement interest in the seized materials. The question of whether the seized evidence must be suppressed under the Fourth Amendment is not before us.

    We hold that the compelled disclosure of privileged material to the Executive during execution of the search warrant for Rayburn House Office Building Room 2113 violated the Speech or Debate Clause and that the Congressman is entitled to the return of documents that the court determines to be privileged under the Clause. We do not, however, hold, in the absence of a claim by the Congressman that the operations of his office have been disrupted as a result of not having the original versions of the non-privileged documents, that remedying the violation also requires the return of the non-privileged documents. The Congressman has suggested no other reason why return of such documents is required pursuant to Rule 41(g) and, in any event, it is doubtful that the court has jurisdiction to entertain such arguments following the return of the indictment against him while this appeal was pending.

Cartoon of the Day: Gonzo and Oscar

Hopefully you folks have heard about Oscar the cat. If you haven't click the link..then this cartoon will make sense :)

Is Schumer a shill for the top 1%? You betcha!

Today's NYT has an article which caught my eye. The title: In opposing Tax Plan, Schumer Breaks with Party. Now, Schumer is a Senator from New York, where most of the hedge and private equity funds roost. I realize they are a part of his constituency..but please..they are NOT humans. Sure, humans run them and make money from them...but folks that use these types of investments aren't trying to make ends meet by ANY stretch of the imagination.

But Schumer holds a two very important posts that relate to hedge funds and private equity funds, he is on both the Banking and Finance committee's. In fact..Chuck raked in more than $1 million large for the Democratic Senatorial Committee from these guys.

The NYT article calls him "Pro-business"..I call him a shill for the top 1%. Perhaps that is a little harsh..but you can not call yourself a supporter of the middle class AND a supporter of the hedge and equity funds. Nope, you really can't do that Chuckie.

There is a bill in the works that wants to raise the taxes on these types of investments. Even Hillary, Obama and Edwards have come out in support of these taxes that will provide revenue for health and educational programs..not to mention relieve some of the burden of taxes on the middle class. I mean..really now..if Corporate-loving Hillary can support it..it can't be all bad for investors right?

But Chuckie has his state and its employers to think about he says. There is this interesting tidbit in the NYT writeup:

"Mr. Schumer said in an interview that he was torn between the need to protect an industry vital to his home state and the need to generate revenues to finance government programs. He said a tax increase on private equity and hedge fund executives could lead to an exodus of jobs and companies from New York, and even from the country. He said the plan, if enacted federally, would also lead to an increase in New York State tax that would further bear down on the industry. He said he worried that the industry was being unfairly singled out."

I call bullshirt on that right now. So does the other Senator from NY, Charles Rangel. I am sick and tired of businesses using the "we will move our operations if we don't get what we want" shtick..I could puke. It's a time-honored tradition for them to use that line isn't it? It's a threat to get what they want.

Well, the middle class has been getting the ever-loving shaft for decades now..and they need a friggin break, not the damn hedge and equity funds. Hell, even a senior exec from Citigroup, Robert E. Rubin is calling this tax a good move for the love of Christ. Joe Schocken, the chairman of Broadmark Capital, an investment banking and private equity firm in Seattle, backs the bill and calls it fair.

This tax move will raise billions annually. It will only hit those top 1%ers remember..so I don't give a rats ass who Chuck Schumer's voting base is..this tax isn't going to kill off any investors or cripple the damn industry, because its folks that make a boat-load of cash every year and don't work for it..you know..unlike the middle class that works for their money.

Schumer's stance on this bill really pisses me off. I have always thought highly of him until this came out. If Hillary the biggest Corporate Shill alive can back it..so can Chuckie damn it. And if he doesn't see the light I will have to call him what he is..a politician who will once again screw over the middle class so those that already have their nest eggs can get their greedy little fingers on more money they won't be able to spend in their lifetimes. In other words those with the most money to give will receive the most from Schumer and the DSCC.

Come on Chuck..give the middle class a freaking tax break for a change and put some money into the federal coffers for educational programs you nimrod..screw those top 1%ers....Stop pandering to them. If there is any doubt why Chuckie panders to these guys..get a load of this nugget from the NYT writeup:

"From January through June, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised nearly $2 million from executives and employees of private equity and hedge fund firms like the Carlyle Group and the Blackstone Group, according to analyses of campaign finance disclosure reports conducted by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that researches the influence of money in politics, and by The New York Times. The $2 million figure, which includes contributions from relatives of employees and executives, is a low-end estimate because many donors do not list their employers on financial disclosure reports."

Ain't that something? You bet it is..and it smells like fresh dog poop if you ask me.

Mitt Romney's expenditures rival Edwards 4k haircut.

From MSNBC:

Here are some more FEC nuggets. We found these in Romney's filings. We'll do more of these with the other candidates as well.

--$688,784 to Survey Research (polling)
--$44,000 to right-wing Newsmax.com (for List Service, subscriptions and Web service)
--$31,500 to Boston Red Sox to rent Fenway Park (Box seat season tickets are $8,500/person -- could pay for almost four)
--$21,284.48 to the Four Seasons in Boston
--$14,821.39 to Subaru of New England
--$7,932.66 at the Atlantic Coffee Company in Marshfield, MA
--$2,520.03 for flowers
--$1,031.02 to the swanky Miramonte Resort and Spa in California.
--Someone likes pancakes. $368.38 to Flapjack Family Restaurant in Michigan
--$182.77 to Outspokin Bicycles in Columbia, SC listed as a “travel” expense.
--$115.34 to Springfield Beer Distributor in Philadelphia, PA

Since most of the money in his campaign is his own..its ok?