FEINGOLD'S STAKE

I posted (pardon the pun) the previous post prior to finding one in the ground. [Senator Russ Feingold's VERY BRIEF MUST READ: The GOP's Stake in Checking the President]

The Republicans probably feel the Check is in the mail or the form of a bill.

The people must call it due and process.
It is the least that need be done to "stay the course". [As in transitive verbs 9 through 12: stop something, postpone or hinder, alleviate something in the short term, and or restrain something.]

SPEAK STRONGLY AND CARRY LITTLE STICK

Since the unfolding of the illegal spying by the Bush administration there has been a lot of tough talk and little progress. Meanwhile the Dubai port deal is still below the radar or completely off official screens. TM-R(day 36)
As it broke, the first to be blamed was the media, the second to be blamed was the Clinton administration and finally Republicans sound tough but do little.

In review, there may be merit to any small theory but the only barriers to anarchy or tyranny are people of principle doing their jobs for the people in each branch of goverment. CONGRESS and the JUDICIARY must stand up for FISA and the constitution. Excuses that blame the law or previous administrations are just that, excuses to not follow the law nor be as accountable as the ones they blame. Politics does not mean that there is not much more need for a clear division between those who stand up for the principles of law and the constitution and those who will violate them or not uphold them.

[Thanks to the New York Times, CommonDreams.org, wikipedia.org, thinkprogress.org, newsmax.com, aclu.org, cnn.com, securityfocus.com, frontpagemag.com, washingtonpost.com, abcnews.com: For 18 links, not that they are equally used or reliable.]

Kennedy/McCain CIR

From McCain - Feingold to Kennedy - McCain

Three Years In Iraq

The day before, Dis-Courage-Meant.
The day after, Support Our Troops!

SHAME ON REPUBLICANS

For using a natural disaster to get their way, holding aid to Katrina victims hostage to drill in a National Wildlife Refuge. The $10 billion is only a small fraction of the rebates to the wealthy and oil related interests.

Speaking of running

AND NOT TOO FAR
From Bush

HOLD OF(F) COURSE

A tipping point as important as Heck
Iran may talk or they may delay,
Republicans may baulk
or walk their way,
But the law is the law
or is it just the way
to tip our constitution away.

[Or WHY NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN(AND WOMEN)...]
TO UNITE, CAMPAIGN AND GOVERN rather than run, run, run

Trust Me Review Day 22: Catch

TWO GOOD READS:
GOP IRRITATION
and
THE GAME

"Speculation(Slash)questions may be the leap to point, and the connection to the president may be the longest path."
This was my prescience about the "cut and run", while they preempt the gravity(See Impeachable Strategy).

TM-R (day 21)

Barely half-way though a period of review, today we have another quixotic mess which I was barely able to wade through.

HOWEVER I DID,
BUT ONLY AFTER THESE ACTIVITIES TRANSPIRED:

Last night my local Democratic Legislative district passed a resolution to urge our senators to support Russ Feingold's move to censure Bush.

HERE IS MY PLEA TO THEM THE DAY BEFORE:
Since impeachment procedures can only begin in the House, please support Senator Feingold on his resolution to censure President Bush for illegally wiretapping without court order.

This measure should get a full committee hearings with sworn testimony that will hold not only the administration accountable, but Republicans who won't uphold the constitution, accountable.

The argument is that this is a political stunt. It is also a constitutional stunt. If politics is not used at it's fullest to protect the constitution, it will be used to circumvent it. If it is not clear to partisans on our side, it is on the other. Even swing voters would likely prefer a clearer choice than between those that break the law and those that will not uphold it.
[boldness added here]

While some "loyal opposition" may call boldness an Impeachable Strategy and resort to political calculus and even the physics of gravity like trickle down...

My reply:

Gravity does not apply in politics!
Bush (or a con) knows that will does.
Gravity is a two way street and while the masses may pull down the politician's bootstraps, only real leaders with courage can choose to pull up the bootstraps of the people.

Those who will not stand up for clarity from the administration and those who cut and run from the constitution and conversation, have no lack of will to trust, but little faith or courage to verify. Only that makes the process quixotic.

2 QCON: Dubai Ports & Abu Ghraib

Senator Schumer calls it "a promising development, but the devil's in the details,"

So it is also, as they "transfer operations from Abu Ghraib to the new Camp Cropper".

Meaning just what will the big deal be in all this? Looking like Republicans are tough and that the course is still safe?

I guess questions are comments if you can answer them.

Trust Me- (Review)

DAY 14:

Just a check-in, to see where I may have noted (if I did) that the Port Deal is a big deal. I did note that, but the why is two-fold. That is where I need to find where and when I sent that message. The idea is that "they" must "cut and run". Cut their ties to Bush so that they can run for their political lives. But elsewhere I may have noted another two-fold or fore_told . That they will be Republican enough to block investigation into the NSA spying and the Phase II in the investigation into the Pre-Iraq War use of intelligence.

TM-R (day-5)

Trust Me?(review) Early Warning- anarchy [The Problem With Information Anarchy]-
My comment:
Regime Change based on WMD history and evasion of process, nexus intentions.
Trust but verify.

Congress- - to boldly go...

My intention is to keep things short and leave the reading to others. Sound familiar? The latter not the former.

Re: the poll
Darn, there may not be a "heckuva" difference, except for who does the "hard work".

RESULTS:
[I'm not sure] is a surprising third.(3%)
[As long as it gets the job done] is a distant second.(10%)

--I'm not sure if the administration or the designers of the polls are making more progress - - - in designing the polls or uniting "us".
--Even the 87% [be wary] is suspect, as we are hoist by our own Picard. For we so much want to just "make it so" [Q2].

"Under Review"? PLEASE! Start with the president's first announcement, and the review "this government" did and this "ally" in the war on terror and why it was worth a veto threat, and by the way what is up with the review (Phase II) on the use of intelligence running up to the war. Will it be that type of review? What about the presidents "intentions" before he went to war over Saddam's "intentions"?

Oh what irony one weaves [Q3,Q4,Q?] when first we practice... Hide and Q

Looking beyond

Conquest

This one I have fully digested, indeed spewed forth or back through my archives. Two concepts emblematic of The Liaison Report are contrasted in one sentence "People who believe in universal rules and people who see power behind the rules can scarcely talk to each other".

Another two words, "...politicians and their critics..." represent (in my view) the problem and solution: We must have both, not de-value both.

Now I will leave you to fully digest and get back to the "hard work" that should have been done before we spent our blood.

Full-Meal Deal

The least I can do in the next 45 days, until I get back to my previous post to review it(IF EVER), is fully digest those that I run into in the next 45 days like, FEARMONGER IN CHIEF William Greider agrees with David Brooks who has "...dismissed the Dubai ports controversy as an instance of political hysteria that will soon pass." But should "provoke a more rational discussion of the multiplying absurdities."

OK, I may have seasoned my take with a dash of the link below, and I will note in memo terms that The Washington Post titled: Port problems said to dwarf latest fears

TRUST ME?

This is a big deal. And before I read all the links which I will provide here I will make my own connections or speculation/questions. Speculation(Slash)questions may be the leap to point, and the connection to the president may be the longest path. That about sums it all up without much of the burden of facts, which is what appeals most to the public and the Bush administration. Another connection? That was it. But now to insert the links for later reading unless the burden of something else moves me on.

Darn. As usual I cut to a connection and missed a few simple points. Which I guess are actually difficult to make given the problems above.

So here are the random "whatever"s:
Security Not a Problem? Ally in war on terror? Follow the rules? Follow the money. Fight them over there? Overseas Corporation? State-Owned Corporation. Dictatorship. Family Business. Corporatizing, not globalizing-- Democracy/Freedom.

Again the "whatever"s are the catch. But this should merit review of more than this transaction as it is more than about who operates the ports, but the process of the administration and (not just) who is making the decisions and how they are being made, as much as why.

Now I will fill in the links, and trust you to review them, and I hope to get to them later.

But wait-- now I find two more than the three I hadn’t finished. But key words especially intrigue me and I will not jump to connections the way Secretary of State Rice might, but maybe I have a hunch. Early Warning- anarchy - - Debate / facts may be the clue. But these I have yet to open.

Later... Now the links to be inserted.

In fact, maybe I will institute my own 45-day period to get back to this or to read and review this- - IF EVER! Maybe the bubble the media/administrators are blowing will finally break through the filtering/job other branches of government are accountable for, not to mention "we the people" and the "Fourth Estate".

Hoof and Mouth.

I don’t know if it is just me, but I don’t blame people if they think it is. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I didn’t shoot the facts in the hoof. Back to the issue that seems to be me, but it may just be that you had to be there: The Cheney Fox interview and the Kenedy County Sheriff’s Incident Report seem to deviate on the matter of spin. Was the quail flushed to the right or was it flying counter clockwise? I guess I had to be there. Either way, the accident is not what is being beat but the hoofing that was done to get it out.

On that trail, my earlier commentary on the spin:[2-17-06]

David Brooks, in his column Cheney hunting accident enters the spin-everything zone, makes a few good points but mainly is just another player in the spin zone. He refers to stereotypes and roles that the media will use and play, but which are spinning for one reason alone, the preemptive deviations of Cheney, so common in the administration.

Deviation from the process, more than preempts, but cuts out the roles of questioners who resort to stereotypes when the questions are not answered until the facts stop changing. What does the Vice President not having his press people have to do with the investigation waiting till the next day? Too much may be made of the press being slighted, the better to overlook that even "Voldemort" can’t turn back time and undo the spin resulting from the fear or at least delay in facing the truth.

In Brooks criticizing his own field, "Ours is not to feel or think. Ours is but to spin or die.", that seems to be what the administration would like us to do, and many have. This time, hopefully not Cheney‘s "friend".

And on the horizon, still beating

The "Story"

Vice President Cheney made his first and final appearance on the issue of the shooting of his hunting buddy and takes full responsibility. FULL?

First I must make a rare, (maybe twice before) and I can't even recall the details, but in the form of an explaination that I alluded to a dispute on the time, it could be the time zone thing that explains the one hour.

Not that I could not use more vetting, but shouldn't the adminstration be under more scrutiny as well. It is our duty and one the press or media often forgets or even bashes it's self for. More on the Brit Hume job later, but apparently the president is satisfied. He took responsibility but his choice of words needs to be examined and counted upon. The word "you" appeared a few times, so "we" must take some of the blame?

Still Ticking

and still blowing "the bubble" or the press off. The story apparently is still in need of work.

Note that the timeline is disputed between a timeline where MSNBC has a 6:30 shooting versus the 5:30* in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department report. And note that still hospital officials "were not concerned about the six to 200 other pieces of birdshot that might still be lodged in Whittington's body".

It just seems that more has been reported about what has been reported than what really is in any report yet. Maybe we will finally get a story, but not that the press (or Brit Hume) will yet do a job that is not just pressing.

* a rare mea culpa - - see next post

Shoot First

and not ask questions later. Should we really stay the course with the gang that couldn't shoot straight? My point is that the Vice-President shooting someone is a minor deal compared to the administration's normal pattern of behavior, not that it necessarily deviates from it. Also that the only harm in asking questions is that it takes time from other questions that aren't answered. Like, how long does it take to get their stories straight? Or, was this a preemptive deviation?

[2-14-06 08:43 Update: