West Virginia: We're Too Poor To Think About Banning Gay Marriage!

Hell! Banning ANYTHING Just Makes Us Poorer!

(And besides - it's not the right thing to do)

Christofascist Alert!

The Family Policy Council is now embroiled in "intimidation" of lawmakers.

By 365gay Newscenter Staff
03.30.2009 2:23pm EDT

(Charleston, West Virginia) A bid to advance an amendment to West Virginia’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage has failed.

Republicans and social conservatives [Christofascists] had pushed the amendment, but it languished in a House committee.

Earlier this month, the conservative Family Policy Council began a telemarketing campaign accusing two lawmakers - Delegates Carrie Webster and Barbara Fleischauer - of blocking a vote on the measure.

Webster and Fleischauer called the move “intimidation.” The bill was tied up in the House Committee on Constitutional Revision, which Fleischauer heads. If approved there, it would have gone to the House Judiciary committee headed by Webster..

Last year, the Family Policy Council unsuccessfully attempted to pressure Gov. Joe Manchin to recall the legislature to pass the proposed amendment. The measure was added to the legislature’s agenda this session.

Now let's have some background on this situation. West Virginia ranks 47th in the nation in terms of income per capita and 15st in the ratings of colleges and advanced education. (there are only 24 colleges and universities in West Virginia, - and that's counting bible-thumper schools). A great deal of West Virginia's youth sign up for the National Guard or for one of the armed services. When questioned why students are so eager to sign up: "To get an education so's I can get the hell out of West Virginia."

Foundations like the Family Policy Council usually thrive in such uneducated soil: they're allied with Family Research Council, Alliance Defense Fund and James Dobson's Focus on the Family. If you look at the wikipedia link, however, there are MANY Family Policy Councils, some of which provide services for LGBT families. So this one? Strongarmed Christofascists with a hate agenda a mile long!

A bit of an anomoly isn't it: one of the poorest states in the union, with a 75% solid "Christian" demographic and a poor showing for education, will not pass an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage.

My memory just passed a situation called Abu Ghraib. It was West Virginia's Joe Darby who turned in the photos because it was simply "the right thing to do." But when he came back to West Virginia, he and his wife had to have bodyguards for six months.

The Family Policy Council did not reckon with the deep-rooted family values of West Virginia.

Just a thought.

NOBODY Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

Monty Python's Flying Circus
Originally uploaded by twm1340

Least of All: Ex Bushites!

Spanish law allows courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture or war crimes under a doctrine of universal justice, though the government has recently said it hopes to limit the scope of the legal process.

From ThinkProgress.com:

A Spanish court “has agreed to consider opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials…over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at Guantanamo Bay.” The officials include former attorney general Alberto Gonzales, former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith, former Cheney chief of staff David Addington, Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee, and Pentagon lawyer William Haynes.

Hmmm...is there a special place for them waiting in Paraguay? Wouldn't it be coincidental for these people to suddenly disappear at the same time? Hey, they're Bushites! They really are that dumb! Maybe they'll get indictments from all over the world!

France, Germany, Aregentina, India, Finland: WHAT'S KEEPING YOU? Come on! Any one of you can do better: why keep the number to six? Why not ten, or, maybe twenty? Think of the possibilities! You could hold the trials at Guantanamo! The follow-up movie would get Oscar buzz even before it came out in theaters! "Judgment At Gitmo!" Or "Gitmo's Revenge", starring Tom Cruise (or Philip Seymour Hoffmann if you're really serious about Oscar) as a "Gitmo Guard with a Guilt None Of Us Should Bear!"

Seriously, will this be the first incidence of righteousness and justice coming from a foreign country?

We can only hope.

Thank you, Spain, for helping to re-establish our faith in mankind!

Distancing Bill O'Reilly: Walking Away From Hearst Journalism Tactics

Remember the movie Citizen Kane? It's always listed as one of the top 10 great movies. Millions of people have seen it. But there was a time when it wasn't shown in certain theaters. The reason: it came too close to the image of someone still living - William Randolph Hearst, at one time, the most powerful man in America. Hearst's newspapers barely mentioned the flick. Theater chains were afraid to present it.

People are going to pillory me about this analogy, but, in a way, I don't really care. Kane was about a personality who became larger than life. William Randolph Hearst WAS larger than life.

Here's an oft-repeated story (but true): Famous artist Frederick Remington worked for Hearst newspapers and was sent to Cuba to view and send back drawings of the "conflict" there. "Mr. Hearst," he wrote back, "there's really nothing here. No battle, no conflict, no war. I'm trying to be considerate to the newspaper budget when I suggest I come back to the states to work on something else." Hearst shot back: "Do not leave! You provide the pictures. I'll provide the war!"

In a sense, this is what O'Reilly does. He piles on loads of misinformation, works up a subject, then tries to suppress dissent. HE will spout about something, build it up (as Hearst did) then make sure that people will be too afraid of his harassment to put things in the proper perspective.

Hearst, Kane and O'Reilly: three personalities steeped in the media and called journalists. Not! Hearst made wars when he wanted them, but he was no journalist. Kane wanted control of everything, but he was no journalist. Now Bill O'Reilly uses questionable (and possibly criminal) tactics on his dissenters, but he is certainly no journalist. He is a pundit. He is the trumpet in the brass section of a symphony that, because he only cares about himself, blows louder (and more off-key) than all the other instruments, souring the orchestra, the composer and the audience.

He is currently the only pundit who employs "henchmen" to run down dissenters and publicly harass them. He's giving ideas to the likes of Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck.

ThinkProgess.com has been attacked by O'Reilly and it's managing editor, Amanda Terkel, was harassed by Jesse Watters, a producer of O'Reilly's show.

Sadly, Amanda is just one of at least 40 different victims of O’Reilly’s Harassment Machine. O’Reilly has hired producers whose job is to track, harass, and intimidate anyone whom O’Reilly perceives as an opponent. That’s not “journalism” — that’s a mafia-style operation. And we need to put an end to it.

ThinkProgess' campaign against O'Reilly's tactics has worked so far (UPS has pulled out as a sponsor of the Fox show) but O'Reilly's "journalism" has to stop, or someone is going to get hurt.

An enterprising person used Google to find out what many Americans think of Bill O'Reilly. The results are funny as well as astounding. Sorry about the poor readability of the gif, but I couldn't get better resolution. Anyway, the most results for "Bill O'Reilly is..." are very telling: Highest: "Republican" (2,340,000 results), then "racist" (818,000), "joke" (809,000), "idiot" (654,000) and "insane" (424,000). I'm going to do the same for Ann Coulter and see what happens. Wish me luck.

It's Sunday! Do You Know Where Your Christian Entertainment Is?

Could It Be With These People?

Jesus Christ! Now THAT'S Entertainment!

The series will be on THIS BLOG starting Monday evening!

COMING SOON: Jesus Christ! Now THAT'S Entertainment!

It's Blasphemous! It's Christofascist! iT'S Sooo American!

America Has Made a Religion Out of Entertainment...
And An Entertainment Out of Religion

This next week, we'll be looking at what really counts as entertainment in this country: religion! More specifically, American Christian religion - what it has shown us this past century and what we can expect. No, this is no Religulous. I don't have the money nor the wit of Bill Maher. Religulous, quite frankly, didn't tell us anything we already know. I'm proposing a kind of montage of what America has done to religion and with religion - and what religion has done to America.

The Federal Budget: WTF Numbers

Again: The following graphs prove why the letters "W" "T" and "F" were invented. These may be the comparisons Republicans don't want you to read:

The DOUBLING of our national debt was in 2008. And it obviously took a lot of effort to get it to the trillion-dollar mark. When Bush took office in 2001, he inherited billions in windfall. By the end of his tenure, our deficit was $450 billion and our debt was above $1 trillion. In 2007 our interest payments (still due and mounting) were $243 billion. OUR INTEREST!!

Who was borrowing all of that money? Who had wars to pay for? Who gave only 3% of the budget to education: the real insult being the kick in the rear to kids - "No Child Left Behind" wound up to be "No Child's Behind Left!"

In fact, the government, OUR government looked exactly like some homeowners the Republicans have been railing about: borrowing well above their means. And what did our government borrow the money for?

War. A preemptive war. A preemptive war based on ... nothing (or at best, wishful thinking). A preemptive war based on nothing and lasting longer than any other wars in American history.

The Republicans (and Rush Limbaugh) want to destroy President Obama and send him back to Chicago in humiliation.

But for what he has done in such little time, what he has already gone through and what he has to face, he should be awarded a medal.

Redoubt Ash Is Falling On Homer!!

Homer - the little Alaskan town with a sense of humor - is now covered by Mt. Redoubt's volcanic ash. Gov. Sarah Palin has no plans to investigate any damage or side effects, even though, at over 5,000 residents, it about as big as Wasilla.

(from Alaska Daily News):

Ash began falling in Homer shortly before 2 p.m. The city sent workers home early, said City Manager Walt Wrede, before a purplish plume blocked the view across Cook Inlet and the smell of sulfur wafted into town. Businesses closed up, he said. By 4:45, skies had cleared and a small sprinkling of ash covered the snow.

(From Wikipedia):

Homer is a city located in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population was 5,364. One of Homer's nicknames is "the cosmic hamlet by the sea"; another is "the end of the road". A popular local bumper sticker characterizes the town as "Homer - A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem."

And to add from our cornucopia of useless knowledge: "It Takes A Village."

The Republican Budget Was Drawn Up By Sarah Palin!

It's The Budget To Nowhere!
Or...
It's the "Thanks But No Thanks" Budget!

Either way, no Republican was thinking clearly when they "unveiled" their "budget." (Yeah, I'm using quotation marks as liberally as Tony Perkins!). However, the blue folder that was held up had twenty pages of polemic rhetoric and NO NUMBERS! None at all! It was a slap in the face of the present administration saying "You chided us for not having a plan! Here's what we think of your plan!" ("Oh, a we'll roll out the numbers in, a week or so"). The Party of No now includes The Party of No Budget as well as the Party of No Ideas.

It's also a slight to President Obama: a guy who's been working day and night, not merely "outlining" a budget, but presenting concrete dollars and cents. Forcing him to "work with us" on a mere outline is insulting to Obama as well as the American people. Obama's budget would be $3.55 trillion. Sounds like an unfathomable amount of money, but the chart below (our last post) shows how much the budget was for 2007: $2.7 trillion, with a big chunk going to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. AND $243 billion in DEBT INTEREST.

Fox To The Right Pt 1: VP Shine's "We Hate Obama!"

And It All Started With A Lapel Pin!

Fox News Declares itself the Voice of Opposition to Obama
Submitted by jmeasley on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 23:27.
Jason EasleyPolitics & TV

During an interview with NPR today the senior vice president for programming at Fox News, Bill Shine called his network the voice of opposition to the Obama administration. So much for the fair and balanced slogan, but at least FNC is now being honest about its intentions.

...NPR’s David Folkenflik points out that FNC’s ratings are up since the election of Obama. In terms of ratings, Fox is way ahead of CNN and MSNBC.

A Pew Research survey done last year found that MSNBC and CNN split the Democratic viewership. Fifty one percent of CNN’s viewers are Democrats, and 45% of MSNBC viewers are Democrats. Only 18% of viewers on each of these two networks are Republicans.

As a business strategy, declaring themselves the voice of opposition to Obama is smart. If anything it will push their ratings even higher among Republicans. At least maybe FNC will stop pretending that are an objective network.

Fox News has never pretended that they were "fair and balanced" as far as their "News" was concerned. Reporting on the wearing of a lapel pin as the campaign set off, liberal Alan Colmes (who gave up his stint on "Hannity and Colmes" presumably because he couldn't stand Hannity or Fox's tilt far to the right) points out how ridiculous and hypocritical it is for anti-Obama people even to be discussing something like the lack of a flag lapel pin. (Watch it below).

Now Shine did say "Obama administration policies", but we all know that the emnity will be towards Obama himself, his staff, his advisors, his Cabinet and, yes, even his family. Fox will interview Ann Coulter(geist) countless times about her takes on Michelle Obama's style, charisma, etc. Bill O'Reilly will now be able to call out Obama with slightly racist undertones because he knows he won't be fired. No matter what success the Obama administration meets with, it will be "Nobama" all the way with Fox. There will not be one positive thing mentioned about the President.

As I've said before, Fox "News" is not journalism. It is Hearst "You-provide-the-pictures-I'll-provide-the-war" journalism. The problem with that kind of power, as Hearst himself proved, becomes toxic and, eventually, irrelevent.

Now, the problem is, how long will the American public be subjected to "Faux News"? And what will it take to make us all sick of "Obamattacks"? Malia and Natasha better be shipped off to an "undisclosed location" for at least four years.

Just a thought.

Jindal and The Ideology of Preemptive Strikes

Well, Republicans Really DO Believe In
PREEMPTIVE STRIKES!

As someone much wiser than I once said: "This is why the letters "W" "T" and "F" were invented:

La. Gov. Jindal urges GOP to stand up to Obama

(Associated Press)

WASHINGTON – Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal again found himself carrying the Republican mantle opposite a primetime appearance from President Barack Obama on Tuesday, saying Republicans must be ready to defy the president when they disagree with his policies. He also joked about his widely panned response to Obama's address to Congress last month.

"We are now in the position of being the loyal opposition," Jindal said at a Republican congressional fundraising dinner that only by coincidence fell on the same night as Obama's news conference. "The right question to ask is not if we want the president to fail or succeed, but whether we want America to succeed."

But NOT if we want Republicans to succeed, evidently. Just who's idea was it to have Jindal make his "preemptive" speech anyway? Is the Republican party so bent on destroying Obama that they will lose all reason at picking a spokesperson? Couldn't they have waited a little while (like a year or two).

Right now, all the Republicans seem to have is VENGEANCE; no economic crisis plan, no plans for foreign policy (unless "shoot everything that moves" is a plan), no plan for distressed homeowners, no plan for the unemployed or the uninsured.

Just pure vengeance.

And right now, all the Republicans are actually offering is:

OR WORSE YET:

Just a thought.

Republicans Want THE SNEER To Go Away!

Look At It! Wouldn't YOU?!!

(From ThinkProgress)

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has refused to stay out of the political spotlight since leaving office, giving high-profile interviews to CNN and Politico. Last night, The Hill reported that congressional Republicans are telling him “to go back to his undisclosed location and leave them alone to rebuild the Republican Party without his input”:

Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) said, “He became so unpopular while he was in the White House that it would probably be better for us politically if he wouldn’t be so public…But he has the right to speak out since he’s a private citizen.”

Oh, for an Amendment to the Constitution!

Ask yourself: Why the hell is Dick Cheney still "dickin' around" in politics and governmental affairs? Why hasn't he just asked for a desert island to retreat to? Dan "No-brain" Quayle at least had the decency to fade into the past and write books nobody would read (simply because nobody believed he could write!). Al Gore took up a cause fiercely and won a Nobel for it. What the hell is Nobel going to give Cheney a prize for?

"The Nobel Prize for Pure, Unmitigated World Contempt" goes to Richard 'The Sneer' Cheney."

Do we have to applaud?

Democrats have wanted him to go away for the last 8 years. Now Republicans want him to go. Next: the trusted NRA will take him to the Mexican border - at gunpoint.

Just a (delightful) thought.

Joe Sixpack (aka Sarah Palin) vs The Volcano (Mt. Redoubt)

Imagine an eruption FIVE TIMES IN ONLY TWO HOURS!

Last night, at 10:30 PM, Mt. Redoubt in Alaska erupted. Actually, it erupted five times within two hours. Its plume was 50,000 ft. high. Although 103 miles southwest of Anchorage, the ash could settle in Anchorage if winds shift from north to northwest. With that ash, the chemical words that come up most often are: chlorofluorocarbon pollution, radiation balance, acid rain, carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid.

And the political name that could come up is: Sarah Palin. Isn't it rather scary thinking of Sarah Palin in charge after a disaster?

From Anchorage Daily News:

Ash is not expected in Anchorage or Wasilla at this time, the Weather Service said.

An ash cloud is headed up the Susitna Valley west of Willow and is expected to arrive in the Talkeetna area around 3 a.m., said Dave Stricklan at the Weather Service's Anchorage office.

“It looks like (Anchorage) might dodge the bullet,” Alaska Volcano Observatory geophysicist Peter Cervelli said.

We should hope so, but what about any people directly north of the eruption?

Wikipedia:

In 1990 The eruption also caused an airliner to have all four engines die after it flew into a cloud of volcanic ash. Damage from the eruption was estimated at $160 million, the second costliest volcanic eruption in United States history.

Hmmm. $160 million. How much did Sarah refuse from the stimulus package that would go to education? Maybe God's telling her something! Will the Alaska state legislature support her, saying "Go Sarah, Go - in 2012!" Or will they just say to her: "You gotta be kidding, Palin, we need all the goddamned money we can get right now!"

So far, there are three villages directly affected: Skwentna, Trapper Creek and Talkeetna, total population of all three: 1306. Since she has been criticized extensively for paying no attention to depressed and distressed areas of Alaska, I wonder of Palin will break down and send a fruitb asket. Or maybe she'll have Thomas Muthee exorcise evil spirits from the area. You can rest assured that Palin will weigh if a photo op is worth any largesse the governor dishes out. How will it help her in 2012? How would she do during a catastrophe like Katrina but with a volcano as the culprit? Would she like to fly over the houses covered in ash.? Would she slap the back of the Alaska FEMA-like agency head and say,

"You're doing a heckofa job, ah, whoever you are." ?

Just a thought.

UPDATE: As of 7:28PM, Redoubt erupted AGAIN, making it the sixth eruption and possibly the most dangerous: the plume of ash reached its highest point at 60,000 feet.

(Anchorage Daily News)

High-elevation winds above 40,000 feet are beginning to veer toward Anchorage, but no ash is expected to fall on Alaska's largest city at this time, Bob Hopkins, the meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service office in Anchorage, said.

"Eight miles up -- that's going to stay there," Hopkins said. "But that will affect aircraft at that altitude."

It's the lower-elevation winds between 10,000 and 20,000 feet, currently blowing north by northeast, that are most likely to carry ash to the ground, Hopkins said.

Is George Bush Coaching Michael Steele?

Maybe, Maybe Not - He's Very Busy Writing His "Book" While Learning His ABC's At The Same Time!

Today, Michael Steele gave evidence to the fact that he doesn't know much about the Constitution:

(HT: Think Progress)

This morning, RNC Chairman Michael Steele came out of isolation and guest-hosted Bill Bennett’s Morning in America. During the program, a caller asked Steele about the constitutionality of the 90 percent bonus tax passed by the House yesterday. The caller said that he believed that the tax was unconstitutional because “the first amendment…specifically states that a law cannot be passed to specifically target a person or a group of people.”

And Steele said: "Right!"

CALLER: And we’ve got a president who is supposedly a constitutional scholar.

STEELE: Right. Right.

Even non-scholars of just about any discipline would tell you that the First Amendment is not about targeting specific people:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

By now, we know that Michael Steele beats Joe Biden for gaffes. It seems impossible that The Republican National Committe could not have known about this man's past faux pas. Then again, Sarah Palin... Steele's gaffes seem almost staged. Could he...? Nah. Bush is too busy writing his book "Connect The Dots" no wait, it's something about his being The Decider:

President Bush has signed a book deal with Crown to publish his memoir, tentatively titled “Decision Points.” The deal is worth a reported $7 million — a hefty sum, but it pales in comparison to the rumored $11 million Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) might fetch.

Other sums for memoirs:
Bill Clinton - $12 million Hillary Clinton - $8 million Tony Blair - $9 million

Late last year, some publishers were suggesting that Bush hold off writing a book, because of his dramatically low approval ratings. “[G]iven how the public feels about him right now, I think patience would probably be something that I would encourage,” Paul Bogaards, executive director of publicity for Alfred A. Knopf, said.

But let's be honest: Bush can't really afford to wait fifty years. By that time, the $7 million will be worthless.

Most of the comments on the blogosphere haven't been so much about Bush as they have been wondering just who is going to get the odious task of writing it, editing it, and changing history books so that the Katrina disaster will only get a paragraph ("It was fun seeing all that water from a plane.") while other issues will get...nothing. (Read Our previous post about his Presidential Library's Website). It will be interesting to see if the "ghost" will slip in words that George doesn't know, like Afghanistan, Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, torture, diplomacy, accountability.

BTW: Does anyone know that George W. Bush actually HAS BOOKS WITH HIS NAME GIVEN AS AUTHOR?

We Will Prevail: President George W. Bush on War, Terrorism and Freedom
George W. Bush on God and Country: The President Speaks Out About Faith, Principle, and Patriotism
A Charge to Keep

You can get the last two for ONE PENNY each. We Will Prevail will cost you much more: 47 cents. Other books favoring George Bush that you can get for ONE PENNY:


Rebel-in-Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush by Fred Barnes
A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush by Ronald Kessler
The Right Man: An Inside Account of the Bush White House by David Frum
A Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush by David Aikman



But cheer up, George, the book will make money. You're so solid with the State of Texas (except Arlington, of course) just think how many Texans will read it ...at gunpoint.

Other cheap and interesting George W. Bush books:

The Two Biggest "Hate Crimes" Of All: Prop 8 and Tony Perkins

What Tony Perkins Actually Thinks

Tony Perkins of Family Research Council puts just about everything in quotes: "protect" homosexuals, "decriminalization," "principal of non-discrimination," "sexual orientation," "gender identity," "stigmatization and prejudice," "The Agenda," "Fairness Doctrine," "Hate Crimes," and, of course, "diversity." By putting them in quotes, Perkins stresses that these things either don't really exist or that they're other than how he (the "normal" person) would define them.

All of the above words and phrases came from two missives today: Perkins' daily screed, today's titled "Queer Eye For The State Guy." (For terrible pun-like, nonsensical titles, absolutely nobody beats Tony Perkins) and a donation plea entitled Stand Up To "The Agenda" Now! Both emails are basically conspiracy-theorizing, fear-mongering letters.

The first email points to the U.N. declaration (non-binding) concerning decriminalizing homosexuality. Bush refused to sign it as did African and Arab nations that still have homosexuality on the books as a capital offense. The Obama administration may sign it. Perkins is frightened out of his wits that signing such a declaration legitimizes homosexuality, a "policy already forced on the U.S. by a 2003 Supreme Court decision." (emphasis my own).

The second email possits something Perkins swears is true: "The Agenda." This is a mysterious, secret cabal intent on destroying his America.

As you probably know by now, the Obama-Pelosi-Reid government is moving swiftly to silence you and everyone else who disagrees with "The Agenda" . . . a blueprint of their dangerous vision of an anti-faith, anti-family vision for America. The so-called "Fairness Doctrine" is just the tip of the spear. They'll stop at nothing to strip Christian and conservative Americans of their voices.

And later:

Silencing the moral voices of America is critical for the Left to place America under government control, except when it comes to moral or sexual restraint.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch called Reality:

(From the San Jose Mercury News)

Hate crime cases involving anti-gay sentiment shot up in Santa Clara County last year, a striking increase that a leading prosecutor attributes to controversy over Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on gay marriage.

Conspiracy theorists like Perkins don't seem quite as formidable as an effort like Prop 8. After all, $40 million is a lot to spend for discrimination. But don't discount him, either. The people who shelled out those millions listened to "somebody."

Just a thought.

The GITMO Victims: A Scandal As Bad As Abu Ghraib!

A "Mosaic" should consist of pieces of tile -

NOT pieces of men!

This is as bad as Abu Ghraib.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Many detainees locked up at Guantanamo were innocent men swept up by U.S. forces unable to distinguish enemies from noncombatants, a former Bush administration official said Thursday. "There are still innocent people there," Lawrence B. Wilkerson, a Republican who was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, told The Associated Press. "Some have been there six or seven years."

Wilkerson, who first made the assertions in an Internet posting on Tuesday, told the AP he learned from briefings and by communicating with military commanders that the U.S. soon realized many Guantanamo detainees were innocent but nevertheless held them in hopes they could provide information for a "mosaic" of intelligence.

Who knew?

Whose Money Is It Anyway? AIG Exec's? Tax Payer's? Hannity and Limbaugh's?

Showing The Right's Disdain For
The Poor and The Middle Class

Do the AIG people who got bonuses actually believe in "trickle down" economics? Do they believe in anything besides themselves? Do they care that the entire country looks upon them as less than pond scum? As Republicans and Democrats alike scream "foul!" at AIG's largesse with government bailout money, it's hard to conceive anyone standing up for the ones who got the bonuses. Enter Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

Plum Line Greg Sargent's blog:

Split Emerging Between Conservative Media And GOP Leadership On AIG Mess

Mitch McConnell recently blasted AIG’s bonuses as an “outrage.” John Boehner said that the “American people are rightly outraged.” And Eric Cantor bemoaned the “stunning lack of accountability” on AIG’s part.

But...

Rush Limbaugh recently said: “I am all for the AIG bonuses” and attacked the Obama administration for trying to undo them. He also blasted Dem efforts to get the names of the AIG bonus recipients as “McCarthyism.”

Fox News followed suit, also comparing Dems to “Joe McCarthy.” And Sean Hannity has now derided efforts to tax the execs by saying: “In other words, we’re going to just steal their money.”

Yes, the bonuses were a direct slap in the face to the poor and the middle class. AIG was hideously stupid in presenting them without any attempt to seek government approval. The money they gave out as "rewards" was simply not theirs to give. They did not earn it. It was loaned to them by the government and, by extension, the United States taxpayers.

Loans are never free. Talk to the people whose homes are being foreclosed on. The largesse of the American taxpayer should never be discounted: it comes with a certain condition THAT SHOULD BE EVIDENT without putting it in writing: ithe money loaned to AIG was money to help a business pay off debts. Bonuses are not debts. A bonus may be promised to an employee, but it is not in any way considered a debt. A bonus is just what it means: a stipend above and beyond a salary to be given out at the discretion of the employer for employees he deems worthy of something extra. A bonus (we learned in school) was NEVER to be counted upon because it is discretionary. The Puritan ethic allows us to strive for a bonus, but comes with the caveat that we should be proud in the fact that we earned more than a bonus. We earned self-respect in doing our best.

And let's face it: the American public is O.K. with athletes and actors getting enormous contracts but they aren't entertained by executives getting extra money for doing something they didn't do: MAKE money for the company.

And now Rush and Sean want us to believe that these "AIG Bonusers" actually deserve the loaned money and that they are being singled out by the government for the sake of persecution. They are attacking Democrats as "McCarthyites." Hmmm. Strange. The McCarthy I learned about was more in line with Rush and Sean in the department of ideology. Joe McCarthy persecuted people for being what he considered un-American. Limbaugh and Hannity have called people un-American countless times. Now it's un-American to loan a business money and tell them what they can do with that loan.

High finance and politics - they're both getting wierder and wierder.