McCain Can't Take the Pressure?
Is Senator John McCain losing it?
From a local newspaper account of a campaign stop McCain made at the VFW Hall at Murrells Inlet, South Carolina:
Another man--wondering if an attack on Iran is in the works--wanted to know when America is going to "send an air mail message to Tehran."
McCain began his answer by changing the words to a popular Beach Boys song. "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran," he sang to the tune of Barbara Ann. "Iran is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. That alone should concern us but now they are trying for nuclear capabilities. I totally support the President when he says we will not allow Iran to destroy Israel."
He stopped short of answering the actual question and did not say if he supports an invasion of Iran.
McCain has been under plenty of stress lately--slippage in the polls, lousy fundraising totals, misstatements about security in Baghdad. But joking about war? That's not conduct becoming a former POW who wants to be commander in chief.
Posted by David Corn at April 19, 2007 12:14 PM
52 comments:
Mr. David Corn,
"Is Senator John McCain losing it?"
No, he lost it some time ago. I used to think well of Senator McCain but alas nostalgia is never what it used to be.
Thanks for all of your work!
Kirk
But joking about war? That's not conduct becoming a former POW who wants to be commander in chief.
Well, GWB wasn't a POW (no chance of that the way he dodged Viet Nam), but he is C-I-C, and he's joked about war. (Looking for WMD under tables.) The precedent is there.
Must be a Republican thing.
McCain needs to become just a pasture ornament...
McCain is nuts. He's a hot head and probably quick on the drawn toward war. His 5 and one half years in a POW camp loosened a screw in his brain. But, Nazi America will get what they deserve!!!
Democrats are divide on whether to attack Iran. That means Bush is free to attack Iran. Nazi America and Americans are truly an empire where screwballs control the power.
More Americans are starting to walk like Bunnypants with shit in their underwear out of fear.
If you look carefully at Nazi America, you are truly seeing a DAMNED NATION!!!
I ask that Nazi Americans have tree leaves in their possession so they can wipe the shit off their asses out of fear.
"McCain needs to become just a pasture ornament..."
An insult to pasture ornaments.
With all due respect to lawn jockey's - McCain should be Bunnypants' lawn jockey in Crawford (Waco).
Still an insult to lawn jockey's. All apologies.
capt
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capt
Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran
Some say that Iran is out to destroy Israel. I say that Israel is doing a good job of destroying herself.
The End Is Near for Iran
Praying Each Day: April 19
Iran, I Pray That God Will Hold You in the Palm of His Hand
capt --- My sister raises horses. When a horse becomes old, its not riden anymore and becomes just a pasture ornament.
No insullt to old horses intended...
For His angels, God has given a command, "TO GUARD IRAN IN ALL HER WAYS!"
Capt, why wait for exxon/mobile to do something? Here's something everyone can do to put them in their place, STOP FUCKING DRIVING!! They WILL listen to that!
DB,
I wasn't certain what a pasture ornament was but a cow-pie was my initial visual.
capt
capt --- Impossible to insult cow-pies, so no apologies required in that case...
:-)
Saladin,
The Amish are the true leaders for the future. They are off the electrical grid and have no use for a Chevron/Exxon/Mobile card.
I imagine the Amish will be our professors in the school of life after the energy holocaust.
The Amish Connection here in NM does use electricity in their furniture showroom but I am sure they would have paper and pen to calculate the sales tax in the event of the grid going down.
capt
If you are ever in the Northwest area of Indiana, you must stop by Shipshewana, Indiana and visit the Amish community. We need to adhere to many of the Amish principles that will lead us to a simpler life.
We stayed at a B and B right in town and at the break of day - driver, carriage, and horse could be heard to be off to work.
May God bless the Amish community!!!
I sense that Bush becomes more certifiably crazy with each passing day
Leading through Actions
People may say that someone is a natural- born leader, but the reality is that at least some leadership qualities are learned.
And one of the best ways of learning comes from watching the good example of leaders we admire.
Professional golfer Phil Mickelson remembers a lesson that the legendary Arnold Palmer taught years ago.
Mickelson and Palmer were at a tournament which, as usual, had a large number of behind-the-scenes volunteers. Palmer slipped away from the crowds and media to spend an hour signing autographs and talking with these volunteers.
Mickelson quotes Palmer as saying, “I wanted to…let you know how much we appreciate what you do.”
Palmer did more than express appreciation to the volunteers. He influenced a new generation of leaders in his field.
Pay attention to the good example you see – and be sure to show it to others, too.?
Let us set an example. (Judith 8:24)
Open my eyes to the good that other people do and help me to learn from it and emulate it, Spirit of Counsel.
"Justice in the hands of the powerful is merely a governing system like any other. Why call it justice? Let us rather call it injustice, but of a sly effective order, based entirely on cruel knowledge of the resistance of the weak, their capacity for pain, humiliation and misery." -- Georges Bernanos - 1888-1948) Source: in Diary of a Country Priest
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"What no one seemed to notice. . . was the ever widening gap. . .between the government and the people. . . And it became always wider. . . the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway . . . (it) gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about . . .and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated . . . by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. . .
From Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1938-45 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11845.htm
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"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government." -- George Washington (1732-1799) Founding Father, 1st US President, 'Father of the Country' Source: Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, Ref: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (521)
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Thanks ICH Newsletter!
Faith in the ability of a leader is of slight service unless it be united with faith in his justice.
~ George Goethals (1858 - 1928)
Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.
Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972)
Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.
Marian Anderson
Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.
Jesse Jackson
I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.
Ralph Nader
Whether a man is burdened by power or enjoys power; whether he is trapped by responsibility or made free by it; whether he is moved by other people and outer forces or moves them -- this is of the essence of leadership.
Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1960
You do not lead by hitting people over the head-that's assault, not leadership.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.
Harold Geneen, Chairman, ITT Corp.
Kucinich to launch Cheney impeachment push on April 25
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), the former mayor of Cleveland who is seeking the 2008 Democratic nomination for president for the second time, has selected a date to introduce articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney.
A source who asked to remain anonymous told RAW STORY that the articles of impeachment would be introduced next week.
"The Congressman plans to introduce the articles on Wednesday, April 25th," the source told RAW STORY.
The Congressman's office responded in an e-mail Thursday afternoon to RAW STORY by saying "No comment" when asked if the report was true.
More HERE
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I hope he stays safe.
capt
Et tu, Wolfie? Et tu?
Imagine our shock at Paul Wolfowitz’s shock. He not only masterminded humanity’s greatest current catastrophe, the US invasion of Iraq, but he did so by fabricating and marketing a complete mythological cosmology of Good versus Evil (Bush good! Saddam bad!), the likes of which might have left even Jim Jones envious and amazed. And he did so in a fashion that no doubt brought a posthumous smile to the face of his graduate school mentor, Leo Strauss, who taught that we of the hoi polloi don’t have the right stuff to maintain our democracy, and thus need enlightened elites like Wolfowitz to spoon feed us religion and other fairytales in order to keep us on the right course, even if it’s for all the wrong reasons.
But then, of course, the whole dang thing came a cropper in Baghdad, and – as if the symmetries between Vietnam and Iraq weren’t already spookily profound enough – Wolfie found himself following the trail of shame pioneered by Robert McNamara, casually parachuting out of his Pentagon office and into the presidency of the World Bank. (Does this mean that, like McNamara, thirty years from now Wolfowitz will be the subject of a feature film in which he kinda sorta apologizes for his grand goof? We’ll just have to wait and see if he becomes the last human on earth to recognize the full magnitude of his spectacular achievement in Mesopotamia.) Meanwhile, safely ensconced at the apex of financial (as opposed to military) power, Wolfowitz simply refused any longer to answer questions related to his previous employment. Though the dead and the dying of Iraq will not be any time soon, Wolfowitz had simply moved on.
And, with seemingly nary a whiff of irony about him, he came to his new position preaching the virtues of ‘accountability’. Moreover, Wolfowitz – dictatorial leadership style no worse for wear after the last go ‘round – blasted into the World Bank declaring that the evils of corruption were the key source of global development problems, and that rooting them out would become job one at the Bank. But now he and his supporters, including the Wall Street Journal, the National Review and the White House, profess shock at all the hullabaloo generated by the revelation that the anti-corruption president was ordering up massive promotions for his girlfriend (also his employee) while simultaneously preaching the gospel of squeaky clean, again with no apparent sense of irony. So Mr. Accountability is now running around trying to make sure that no one holds Mr. Anti-Corruption accountable for his corruption. Meanwhile, Mr. It’s-All-About-Me is utterly uncomprehending when it comes to understanding other people’s feelings about all this.
What’s going on, here? Sadly, a pattern.
More HERE
Title for the above:
Dark of Heartness Part II
AND
a H/T to Pat for DMG
capt
Walking Over the Dead
US is already at war with Iran
Revolution - Without Making Noise
Benedict vs. the War Party
Michael Novak, a Catholic theologian, is a prime example of G. K. Chesterton's words, "The greatest stumbling blocs to Catholicism are Catholics."
The pope's bold statement is a sign of the rebirth of the resistance to the plainly evil forces that have had the upper hand until now. How appropriate that it happened on Easter, a celebration of regeneration and the resurrection of hope. Ah, but every bright cloud has a darker lining: as if to dramatize the biblical warning that the Devil often cites Scripture, we have the neocon theologian Michael Novak justifying America's unholy crusade – and where else but in that formerly pro-Catholic magazine, National Review? Novak writes:
"Benedict XVI's Easter Sunday remarks in St. Peter Square hit a low point, I would think. He said that 'nothing positive comes from Iraq.' This is a very skewed report on the realities on the ground. But it might mean that the message the Pope wanted to convey is that of the American Left: 'Whatever the good or the bad achievements, it is time to get out.' In other words, not an accurate description, but a prescription for the near future.'"
Yes, the pope, AKA Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the most conservative of Catholic theologians prior to his ascension to the papacy, is a shill for the American Left. What kind of incense is Novak inhaling? To Novak and the very few practicing Catholics who take him seriously, the Church's just-war theory is really just Marxism with a Catholic face, and the pope is a Chomskyite. Well, I say better a Chomskyite than a Trotskyite – or Trotskycon, as they're known these days.
What is striking about Novak's little encyclical is its utter amorality: he wants "an accurate description," not a moral prescription. In the moral universe of the Church, no "achievement" could balance out the Iraqi casualty count of 650,000, an estimate based on a methodology recently endorsed by the British government. In Novak's neo-pagan moral universe, 650,000 dead Iraqis are disappeared, and in their place are the "achievements":
"Even as he was speaking, an immense protest meeting among Iraqi Shiites was taking shape in the holy city of Najaf. Here were TWO positive things taking place in Iraq on account of the deposing of Saddam Hussein. First, the Shiite holy cities are free and open for feast days, festivals, and pilgrimages from all over, as they were not under Saddam. Second, this particular protest, against the Americans and in favor of Iraqi nationalism, was also free, peaceful, and not only unopposed by Coalition forces but protected and assisted by them."
Could anyone be so utterly clueless as to hail the Sadrist demonstration that demanded a complete U.S. withdrawal and was rife with anti-American rhetoric as evidence that we ought to stay? I have yet to see or hear of such a perfect example of Bizarro World "logic."
I don't know what Novak means when he claims the demonstration was "protected and assisted" by coalition forces, unless he recognizes that the very presence of an occupying force in Iraq is the main impetus for the growth of violent nationalism. And if he does so recognize this, then is he really hailing the prospect of an all-out U.S.-Shi'ite confrontation as another one of his vaunted "achievements"?
Novak's isn't a Christian conception of a just outcome, but a quintessentially pagan rationale. In the Novakian view, it doesn't matter how many lives have to be sacrificed in order to build the great Mesopotamian monument to American hubris and his own overweening pride, just as long as the great pyramid of Middle Eastern "democracy" rises over the graves.
Catholic Social Teaching
To consider yourself a Catholic Christian and not a Catholic Fundamentalist, a Catholic Nazi, or a Catholic Taliban you must adhere to Catholic Social Teaching. The Catholic bishops have stressed ten areas that are important in Catholic Social Teaching.
1. Respect for the dignity and life of the human person, from conception to NATURAL DEATH
2. Call to family and community life
3. The right and duty to participate in social, economic, and political life
4. Advancing the common good to love our neighbor
5. Promoting peace and social justice
6. Promoting human rights and responsibilities
7. Special care and concern for the poor and vulnerable
8. The dignity of work and the rights of workers
9. Solidarity – loving our neighbor locally and globally
10. Caring for God’s creation: stewardship of the earth
Unless these areas are important to you, you cannot consider yourself a Catholic Christian.
The Catholic Right stresses these five areas: abortion, gay marriage, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and capital punishment. These are important areas but Catholic Social Teaching goes beyond these specific areas. Of the five areas there are four areas that stress life issues and one area stresses family and community life. Eight important areas are excluded from Catholic Social Teaching. The hijacking of my Catholic faith must not be allowed to continue by the Catholic Right.
Dave Robinson, Executive Director of Pax Christi USA, makes a profound statement and I am in total agreement with him. Here are his words. “We will directly challenge the religious right and particularly the Catholic right, who would reduce Catholic identity to a handful of issues while rejecting the broader teachings of the Church. We can no longer allow a partisan hijacking of our Catholic identity to define Catholicism in the political dialogue here in this country.”
Called to the Common Good
Democracy serves what is true and right when it safeguards the dignity of every human person, when it respects inviolable and in inalienable human rights, when it makes the common good the end and criterion regulating all public and social life. Pope John Paul II, in his departing remarks following his visit to the United States and the United Nations, October 8, 1995
As faithful Catholics, we believe in the values Jesus taught and embodied: love of God and neighbor, justice and concern for the poor. These tenets of our faith inspire us to remain committed to the common good in all aspects of our lives. Grounded in scripture and in tradition, we understand that our civic choices as Catholics must reflect the fullness of our faith and our commitment to the common good.
As faithful Catholics, we are troubled by a divisive national debate in which partisan agendas distract us from the Gospel message and urgent threats to the common good: threats that include increasing economic burdens on the American family, a war that seems to have no end, children who live in poverty within our own borders, global warming, and lack of effective policies to build a culture of life.
As faithful Catholics, we work for a society that respects the lives, dignity, and equality of all persons. We believe in government of integrity, in which public officials put the good of our nation ahead of private gain. We look forward to a day in which working families do not live in poverty and when parents in the middle class can provide health care for their children. We seek a culture that resists rampant greed and materialism in our corporate, political, and family spheres. We call for a nation that puts our cherished principles ahead of profiteering and political pandering.
As faithful Catholics, living in this crucial time in our nation’s history, we understand that Americans of all faiths must unite to restore our democracy to its deepest values. As faithful Catholics we are called to promote justice and defend human dignity. As faithful Catholics, we are called to the common good.
TRULY I SAY TO YOU, AS YOU DID IT TO ONE OF THE LEAST OF MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, YOU DID IT TO ME. Matthew 25:40
Capt, I agree, the Amish people really have it together! I don't understand this expectation for one of the biggest members of the evil empire to respond in any way to ecological concerns. They aren't going to change their ways. The people must change theirs if they expect improvement. The sure way to create change is to boycott. This has always been an effective method. If consumers simply stop purchasing the product, in this case gasoline, they will take notice. But the truth is, it isn't just petroleum companies at fault here, they are being aided and abetted by the people, who then turn around bitching and moaning about how evil the oil companies are! Get a grip! If sacrifice is to be made it has to start at the grass root level, where change has always begun. If the people aren't willing to give up the convenience of driving, then they have no right to bitch at oil companies. This is hypocritical and will accomplish nothing.
I just read that Kucinich is proposing a total hand gun ban. Have these people failed to notice that this atrocity took place in a banned gun area?? How on earth do they think disarming the people is going to help? If any of the students on that campus had quick access to a gun that day this could have been prevented. I guess they won't be happy until we the people are completely helpless and the only guns will be in the hands of the Blackwater Goon Squad types. Don't bother looking at statistics, they have the facts, cause they believe! Amen.
Happy 4/20 to all!
Please remember the pulmonary-impaired among us during your celebrations on this holiest of daze!
-T
Cow Emissions Harm Planet
Far More Than C02 From Cars
By Geoffrey Lean
Environment Editor
4-19-7
Meet the world's top destroyer of the environment. It is not the car, or the plane,or even George Bush: it is the cow.
A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs.
The 400-page report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, entitled Livestock's Long Shadow, also surveys the damage done by sheep, chickens, pigs and goats. But in almost every case, the world's 1.5 billion cattle are most to blame. Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.
Burning fuel to produce fertiliser to grow feed, to produce meat and to transport it - and clearing vegetation for grazing - produces 9 per cent of all emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. And their wind and manure emit more than one third of emissions of another, methane, which warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide.
Livestock also produces more than 100 other polluting gases, including more than two-thirds of the world's emissions of ammonia, one of the main causes of acid rain.
Ranching, the report adds, is "the major driver of deforestation" worldwide, and overgrazing is turning a fifth of all pastures and ranges into desert.Cows also soak up vast amounts of water: it takes a staggering 990 litres of water to produce one litre of milk.
Wastes from feedlots and fertilisers used to grow their feed overnourish water, causing weeds to choke all other life. And the pesticides, antibiotics and hormones used to treat them get into drinking water and endanger human health.
The pollution washes down to the sea, killing coral reefs and creating "dead zones" devoid of life. One is up to 21,000sqkm, in the Gulf of Mexico, where much of the waste from US beef production is carried down the Mississippi.
The report concludes that, unless drastic changes are made, the massive damage done by livestock will more than double by 2050, as demand for meat increases.
Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
Univ of West Indies
-----------
This is an easy fix, just stop eating beef! Much easier than giving up your car and a lot healthier for you in general. Factory beef is positively toxic to humans as well as the environment, where it creates many ill effects. I gave it up 20 years ago and have never missed it. This can actually make a huge difference.
Saladin,
I am inclined to agree with you. I dont want to give up any more rights at this point. Like with the problems of drugs, the causes of desperate wierd behavior are completely ignored. The statistics of workplace violence these days are frightening. Instead of addressing the conditions that are driving people to snap, the guy that flips out is labeled crazy, the root problem is ignored, and things like metal detectors and gun laws are talked about instead.
I am also wondering what role, if any, anti depressant medications may have played in the recent tragedy at VT.
Hey Corky! How ya been?
Hajji, in honor of 4/20
Marijuana History and Timeline
The original miracle plant.
Saladin,
You have touched upon something significant when you said "stop driving they will listen to that."
As much as I try to lay the blame on Bush and the loyal Bushie army for our society unraveling, ultimately the American people themselves are responsible. If you look at consumer spending, despite the evil that our corporate driven government continues to commit, we the people continue to spend spend spend and feed the monster that terrorizes us.
Corky, I've read that medication has played a role in several of these types of incidents. But instead of addressing the problem of depression and treating it with LEGAL pharmaceuticals, the knee jerk reaction is to punish the entire country for the actions of a handful of seriously disturbed people. What you get with banning weapons is three fold, first, manipulation by a psychotic govt. run amok, second, a major upsurge in illegal weapon sales which said govt. will be helpless to stop, bye bye gun registration, and third an entire population held hostage by criminals with illegal guns who couldn't care less about gun ban laws. All you have to do is look at the drug ban to see what will happen. Banning things creates an out of control black market. But the idealistic left thinks that banning will reduce violent crime? That's funny, it hasn't worked yet. I suppose if Jesus would just come back things would be a lot better. Two fantasies that aren't going to happen.
Right wing me-me-me Libertarians are a bane to the common good.
Thom Hartmann talks about that, very very eloquently.
Left wing mememe socialists are a bane to liberty. History expresses that very eloquently. Please take care of us big brother, we're too stupid to do it ourselves. Take our guns away and give us some prozac, we'll feel much better.
New target to reduce emissions of CO2 is agreed
By Geoffrey Lean
Emissions of the pollution that causes global warming must be cut by much more than half if the world is to escape dangerous climate change, the world's governments have agreed.
The deal - at the latest round of international negotiations on combating global warming in Nairobi - shows that the size of the problem is at least being acknowledged. But environmentalists pointed out that the practical measures adopted at the talks do not even begin to address it.
The new aspiration - that pollution by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases should be cut to "well below half" of the levels they were in 2000 - brings political rhetoric more into line with scientific analysis. Scientists have long been urging cuts of over 60 per cent by 2050, while the Kyoto Protocol only provides for reductions of about a tenth of this by 2012.
But the negotiations - among the 180 countries that subscribe to the Protocol or its parent treaty, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - amounted to little more than an agreement to keep talking about what will replace the existing Kyoto target, which expires in six years. It is not even clear yet that the talks will conclude in time for any new programme of reductions to succeed the existing one, without a damaging gap.
Yet last month's Stern review agreed with most scientists that drastic cuts in emissions will have to be under way within 10 years if the world is to have a realistic hope of avoiding disaster. And Tony Blair recently wrote to his fellow EU leaders, warning: "We have a window of only 10-15 years to take the steps we need to avoid crossing catastrophic tipping points."
The meeting - which was punctuated by torrential rains which flooded Nairobi - also decided to take concrete steps to help Africa cope with climate change.
More HERE
Apocalypse Now: How Mankind is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth
Floods, storms and droughts. Melting Arctic ice, shrinking glaciers, oceans turning to acid. The world's top scientists warned last week that dangerous climate change is taking place today, not the day after tomorrow. You don't believe it? Then, says Geoffrey Lean, read this...
by Geoffrey Lean
Future historians, looking back from a much hotter and less hospitable world, are likely to play special attention to the first few weeks of 2005. As they puzzle over how a whole generation could have sleepwalked into disaster - destroying the climate that has allowed human civilization to flourish over the past 11,000 years - they may well identify the past weeks as the time when the last alarms sounded.
Last week, 200 of the world's leading climate scientists - meeting at Tony Blair's request at the Met Office's new headquarters at Exeter - issued the most urgent warning to date that dangerous climate change is taking place, and that time is running out.
Next week the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty that tries to control global warming, comes into force after a seven-year delay. But it is clear that the protocol does not go nearly far enough.
More HERE
*****end of clip*****
If Geoffrey Lean is right . . .
capt
Global Warming Spirals Upwards
GEOFFREY LEAN / The Independent (UK) 28mar04
Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have jumped abruptly, raising fears that global warming may be accelerating out of control.
Measurements by US government scientists show that concentrations of the gas, the main cause of the climate exchange, rose by a record amount over the past 12 months. It is the third successive year in which they have increased sharply, marking an unprecedented triennial surge.
Scientists are at a loss to explain why the rapid rise has taken place, but fear that it could show the first signs that global warming is feeding on itself, with rising temperatures causing increases in carbon dioxide, which then go on to drive the thermometer even higher. That would be a deeply alarming development, suggesting that this self-reinforcing heating could spiral upwards beyond the reach of any attempts to combat it.
More HERE
BETRAYING THOMAS JEFFERSON
The enemies of the Constitution are growing in number and are to be found now, not just in the White House and the Congress, but also in state capitals, from Washington to Vermont.
Not only do we have a president and vice president who are almost daily undermining and rending at the fabric of the Constitution. Not only do we have Democratic Party leaders actively barring the party's elected representatives from standing up to the president by submitting bills of impeachment, as called for in the Constitution.
We now have Democratic Party leaders in state legislatures betraying Founder Thomas Jefferson, by sabotaging grassroots efforts to get joint legislative resolutions passed demanding the start of impeachment proceedings in the House.
Thomas Jefferson, a complex and personally deeply conflicted human being was, as a philosopher of government, incredibly prescient. Not only did he foresee the critical need for a section laying out the inalienable rights of man in the nation's founding document. He also understood the concept of a "beltway bubble" long before there were even paved roads, much less interstate highway beltways.
Jefferson understood that a monomaniacal and unprincipled president, particularly in time of war or national crisis, could intimidate members of Congress-particularly a weak Congress riven by political rivalries-and prevent that body from going forward with impeachment. He understood that members of Congress themselves, remote geographically and politically from their constituents, could eventually become so isolated they would fail to act in accordance with the wishes of the voters who sent them to Washington. That's why Jefferson came up with an alternative way of initiating impeachment proceedings, in addition to the standard Constitutionally-prescribed method of having a House member submit an impeachment bill. His solution, laid out in his Manual of the Rules of the House, was to allow a joint resolution by any state's legislature calling for impeachment to also require the House to initiate impeachment.
Over the past year, there have been grassroots campaigns underway in at least 10 states to get such resolutions passed.
Unfortunately, the Democratic leaders of a number of state legislatures, working in collusion with, or at the direction of even more craven Democratic Party leaders in Washington, are undermining Jefferson, and are sabotaging his carefully crafted mechanism for defending and protecting the Constitution and ensuring the survival of democratic freedoms.
More HERE
U.S. to sell Saudis 'smart bombs' — report
The United States reportedly will sell "smart bombs" to Saudi Arabia, despite Israeli objections. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Israeli officials of the decision to sell the Saudis the Joint Direct Attack Munitions during his visit to Israel this week, Ha'aretz reported.
Israel, which used such weapons against Hezbollah during last summer's Lebanon war, is concerned that they could end up in terrorist hands. Gates has said that moderate Arab states need the weapons as a deterrent to Iranian ambitions, and that if they did not get them from the United States they would get them from Russia or elsewhere.
More HERE
*****end of clip*****
Where's AIPAC when we need them?
capt
Paul Wolfowitz: A Neocon in Torn Socks
The unfolding crisis of Wolfowitz's romantic entanglement with Ms Riza was not without its element of farce. This was perfectly expressed by David Corn of the Nation who said:
"You can make a misleading case for war, support a secret internal Pentagon effort to manipulate and hype intelligence that supports the case for war, invade another country without preparing for what comes after the invasion. ... And nothing happens. In fact, you are subsequently awarded with a medal and a plum job. But if you use your influence to get a pay raise for your girlfriend, well, then, you're in big, big trouble. It's sort of like nabbing Al Capone on tax evasion."
Life, it must be noted, has its moments of delicious irony as l'affaire Riza seems to indicate.
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