It’s a tricky one, that ethanol conundrum. And our currently skyrocketing gas prices aren’t helping stabilize things any.
In concept, corn ethanol could benefit American farmers. The problem is that the boom is taking place in the same old agricultural economy, which works to the benefit of those on top: landlords, processors and companies selling inputs like seeds and [...]
Tags: Ethanol, Land Prices, Corn Prices
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Still not happening next door in Mississippi. And we’re on the verge of another hurricane season.
PEEK: Mississippi’s Overrated Recovery
Lindsay Beyerstein: While alligators prowl the ruins and the mail doesn’t come, Mississippi’s Republican governor, Haley Barbour, receives accolades [...]
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Hurricanes, Mississippi, Louisiana
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Doesn’t mean this will happen, but the prosecutor’s thoughts usually weigh heavily in such decisions…
Fitzgerald Asks for 2 1/2 – 3 Year Sentence for Libby
From the AP: Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby betrayed the public’s trust and deserves to spend 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday…. U.S. District [...]
Tags: Fitzgerald, Libby, CIA Leak
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Man, the polling hits just keep on coming…most Americans don’t think much of the President’s performance, in general. Most don’t think the Iraq War is going swimmingly. And, now…..Strike Three.
Poll: 70% Think Bush Has Let Iraq Veterans Down
…The Marist numbers above would seem to suggests that Dems have been successful in getting the public to see Bush policies as hurting the troops, which they’ve done by pushing the Walter Reed scandal and other stories. But these storylines don’t appear to be putting much of a dent in the perception that Bush is more [...]
Tags: Marist Poll, Veterans Affairs, Walter Reed, Iraq, Veterans
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He hasn’t popped up for some time, but he obviously didn’t lose any power or authority while he was gone.
al Sadr calls for Sunnis & Shiites to unite against US
One of the more powerful Shiite voices in Iraq, the Muqtada al-Sadr is now calling for Sunnis to join Shiites in fighting against the occupation instead of against each other: Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr appeared in public for the first time in months on Friday, delivering a fiery anti-American sermon to thousands of followers and [...]
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Make sure you take note of this bit of information. And realize how important it really is, how much credibility it adds to the "why did we go to war" questions…
CIA warned of risks of war in the Mideast: "In a move sure to raise even more questions about the decision to go to war with Iraq, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will on Friday release selected portions of pre-war intelligence in which the CIA warned the administration of the risk and consequences of a conflict in the Middle East. Among other things, the 40-page Senate report reveals that [...]
Bush Ignored Senate’s Pre-War Intelligence Warning of Post-War Fiasco
Yesterday, a White House correspondent candidly asked Bush why the American people should trust him as “a credible messenger on the war,” in light of the major mistakes he has made since first invading Iraq: Q: The majority in the public, a growing number of Republicans, appear not to trust you any longer to be [...]
It just gets more and more interesting, the deeper you dig…
Pre-War Intelligence Was Pretty Good
I really hate it when people set their (.pdf)’s so that you can’t cut and paste. But that is exactly what the Senate Intelligence Committee has done with their Prewar Intelligence Reports on Post-War Iraq report. It’s frustrating because I’d like to make some points about their conclusions without having to freaking type out huge chunks of their text. The report details what the intelligence community (IC) told our policy makers about the likely landscape of a post-Saddam Iraq. And, perhaps not too shockingly, the IC got it mostly right [....]
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It’s Jonathan Turley’s specialty. And he DOES know it well. That’s why he’s a frequent and well-spoken guest on "Countdown With Keith Olbermann".
Countdown: Turley Breaks Down Gonzo & Goodling
On Thursday’s "Countdown" Keith brought in George Washington University Constitutional law professor, Jonathan Turley to discuss Monica Goodling’s testimony from Wednesday and it’s ramifications for Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales. Olbermann: "What have we learned about the resume of his top official in Bush law enforcement, other than the fact that [...]
Tags: Gonzales, Goodling, Olbermann, Turley, U.S. Attornies
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One. More. Try.
In 2000, Bush was going to be a “uniter,” not a divider. He was going to “change the tone” in DC, work with Democrats, and deliver the kind of above-the-fray presidency everyone’s always wanted. That … didn’t quite happen. Shortly after Bush came in second but became president anyway, Matthew Dowd started analyzing election data and [...]
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Sometimes, Atrios gets a bit pedantic for my tastes, but he often demonstrates some real insight into an issue. Today, he’s caught without an answer, but his questions get right to the core of how Americans feel these days..
There have been 3 presidents during my adult life – Bush, Clinton, Bush – a period of optimism bookended by pessimism. At the end of Bush I there was a recession. It wasn’t a very big one but it seemed to be accompanied by growing pessimism about the future. Maybe it was just that I was graduating from college roughly around that time, but there was a sense of diminished opportunity, of diminished options. That changed [...]
Tags: Atrios, Bush, Clinton, Economy
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Our good friend, Tony Snow, has up and done it again. Got caught with his hand in the cookie jar of lies. I don’t hold him 100% personally responsible, because you know that he has several people telling him what to say.
What Will Tony and Sam Say Now?
…For Snow, half-truths and whole lies are his bread and butter. Smearing a governor and denying a problem to defend the administration’s policies is just another day at work. For Brownback, who came to gawk at the ruins even as Gov. Sebelius was still trying to work around the lack of equipment, these denials call for [...]
By the way, it’s not just in Kansas…
States missing emergency helicopters due to Iraq.
ABC News reports today that “some Plains and western states have few if any helicopters on hand to respond quickly to a disaster.” For instance, “Nebraska’s contingent of Blackhawk helicopters are deployed in Iraq, leaving few aircraft for disaster relief missions at home.” Wyoming and Texas — Vice President Cheney and President Bush’s respective home [...]
Tags: Tony Snow, Brownback, Sebelius, Tornado, National Guard
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Dems have the upper hand now. Let’s see if they can keep it, in the future…
Rasmussen: Americans Trust Dems Over GOP Across The Board
Rasmussen Via Daily Kos: Democrats are currently trusted more than Republicans on all ten issues measured in Rasmussen Reports tracking surveys. Democrats even have slight advantages on National Security and Taxes, two issues “owned” by Republicans during the generation since Ronald Reagan took office. On National Security, 46% now trust Democrats more while 43% prefer [...]
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Here’s a shocker. Seriously.
Fox News covers Iraq war the least.
A new Project for Excellence in Journalism study finds that of the three major cable news networks, Fox News has given lowest percentage of coverage of the Iraq war. It has also devoted twice as much time to the Anna Nicole Smith story as have MSNBC and [...]
Tags: Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Project for Excellence in Journalism
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There’s been a smattering of posts this week about the President’s signing of a National Security Directive that, it seems, pretty much lets him take control of everything if there’s any kind of "national emergency". Looks like some folks saved the big discussions for the end of the week. It’s a top topic for Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight…
With no press conferences, and with no debate, President Bush has ordered up a plan for responding to a catastrophic "event" under which he has entrusted himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the executive branch. The scheme, laid out in a document entitled National Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-20 that Mr. Bush signed in secret on May 9. It defines a catastropic event as [...]
And there are now multiple posts like this one….
One terror attack or tornado and it could be a whole new U.S. – again
All it will take is one incident. A terrorist attack on a major city. A tornado wiping out some coastline. Just one incident. And we will be living in an entirely different world. When the documents “National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51” and “Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20” were released, it gave President George W. Bush responsibility “for ensuring constitutional government” in the case of catastrophic attack. “It defines a ‘catastrophic emergency’ as ‘any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function,’ ” wrote Matthew Rothschild for [...]
Tags: National Security Presidential Directive, NSPD, HSPD, Catastrophy
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That’s one of the core issues that prompts this report on a frightening scenario. They are right about one thing, we’ve become accustomed to not paying through the nost for the water that comes from our taps…
Report: National water crisis looms [RawStory.com Headlines]
The nation’s hidden water problem rushed into the basement apartments of 51st Street in West New York, N.J., last February 9, shortly after 4 a.m. That’s when a 2-foot-wide pipe ruptured under Bergenline Avenue, New Jersey’s longest commercial thoroughfare. Water burst through the asphalt with the force of a geyser, then cascaded downhill [...]
Tags: Water Supply, Water Crisis
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I’m betting that these two upcoming books about Hillary Clinton become "required reading" for a lot of folks looking for summer reading material, whether on the road or at home…
Clinton Campaign Nervously Awaits Release Of Two Tell-All Books
Two new books on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York offer fresh and often critical portraits of the Democratic presidential candidate that depict a tortured relationship with her husband and her past and challenge the image she has presented on the campaign trail. The Hillary Clinton who emerges from the pages of the books comes across as a complicated, sometimes compromised figure who tolerated Bill Clinton’s brazen infidelity, pursued her policy and political goals with methodical drive, and occasionally [...]
Then, again, maybe not…
The most striking thing about today’s Washington Post get of two, embargoed, much-anticipated investigative books about Hillary Clinton is what’s not there [...]
By the way, did you catch this part of the Washington Post article? Kind of kills the credibility of the authors, doesn’t it?
Tags: Hillary Clinton
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Getting cozy with Mexico, aren’t we?
Leave it to a Republican politician. They’re BRILLIANT; always looking for that “loophole”, and almost ALWAYS able to find it. People need to get over the FACT that President “Surge” W. Bush is no idiot. In fact, he’s quite clever, indeed. We thought we MIGHT have tied his hands on [...]
Tags: Mexico, Wiretaps, Data Mining
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Or blatant lies. There are those who are angered by reporters who question the President. The questions should be hard, when the stakes are so high. When the errors are so obvious…
Way back in March, the Washington Post reported, "Al-Qaeda in Iraq is the United States’ most formidable enemy in that country. But unlike Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization in Pakistan, U.S. intelligence officials and outside experts believe, the Iraqi branch poses little danger to the security of the U.S. homeland." And yet, over and over again [...]
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We’ll see if the Dems really do follow through and do what the majority of Americans seem to want them to do – show some spine when it comes to the tough issues. There are some who are feeling a bit more optimistic today…
‘I feel a direction change in the air’
As everyone has surely heard by now, both chambers of Congress fairly easily passed the war-funding supplemental last night. The White House strongly supports the funding package, and will sign it into law, effectively ending this round of the policy fight. Even before the measure was formally approved, Dems were already talking about looking forward to [...]
They are, at least, sticking with the talking points…
Pelosi: Bush’s Iraq policy beginning to ‘unravel’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the Iraq spending bill is a disappointment because it does not end the war, but that it’s only a matter of time before Democrats get their way. "I think the president’s policy is going to begin to unravel now," said [...]
Tags: War Funding, Iraq Supplemental
Tags: Pelosi
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Missouri tried it, but it was (thanksfully) shot down. If the Democratic Congress didn’t have enough trouble with the outcry over the Iraq Funding Bill, they’re facing a second wave over this issue…
Un-believable. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has introduced an amendment to the proposed new Immigration Law that would require disenfranchising Photo ID restrictions on voters at the polling place, according to a press release just out from National League of Women Voters. The provision tagged onto the immigration bill would amend the horrible Help America Vote Act [...]
Tags: Photo ID, Immigration Law, Help America Vote Act, MCConnell
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Our Vice President just can’t let go. Think about this one long and hard this weekend. I’m not saying it’s the gospel truth, but I’m thinking there’s enough to it to catch my attention…
Maybe someone should investigate this lunacy. From Steve Clemons: "Multiple sources have reported that a senior aide on Vice President Cheney’s national security team has been meeting with policy hands of the American Enterprise Institute, one other think tank, and more than one national security consulting house and explicitly stating that Vice President Cheney does not support President Bush’s tack towards Condoleezza Rice’s diplomatic efforts and fears that the President is taking diplomacy with Iran too seriously. This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is [...]
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