The Legend speaks out!!

This is what the great Senator from West Virginia had to say about Bush's trampling of the Constitution that the Senator is holding in this picture.


Senator Byrd: No President Is Above the Law
t r u t h o u t | Statement

Monday 19 December 2005

Americans have been stunned at the recent news of the abuses of power by an overzealous President. It has become apparent that this Administration has engaged in a consistent and unrelenting pattern of abuse against our Country's law-abiding citizens, and against our Constitution.

We have been stunned to hear reports about the Pentagon gathering information and creating databases to spy on ordinary Americans whose only sin is choosing to exercise their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble. Those Americans who choose to question the Administration's flawed policy in Iraq are labeled by this Administration as "domestic terrorists."

We now know that the F.B.I.'s use of National Security Letters on American citizens has increased one hundred fold, requiring tens of thousands of individuals to turn over personal information and records. These letters are issued without prior judicial review, and provide no real means for an individual to challenge a permanent gag order.

Through news reports, we have been shocked to learn of the CIA's practice of rendition, and the so-called "black sites," secret locations in foreign countries where abuse and interrogation have been exported to escape the reach of U.S. laws protecting against human rights abuses.

We know that Vice President Dick Cheney has asked for exemptions for the CIA from the language contained in the McCain torture amendment banning cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment. Thank God his pleas have been rejected by this Congress.

Now comes the stomach-churning revelation that through an executive order, President Bush has circumvented both the Congress and the courts. He has usurped the Third Branch of government - the branch charged with protecting the civil liberties of our people - by directing the National Security Agency to intercept and eavesdrop on the phone conversations and e-mails of American citizens without a warrant, which is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment. He has stiff-armed the People's Branch of government. He has rationalized the use of domestic, civilian surveillance with a flimsy claim that he has such authority because we are at war. The executive order, which has been acknowledged by the President, is an end-run around the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which makes it unlawful for any official to monitor the communications of an individual on American soil without the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

What is the President thinking? Congress has provided for the very situations which the President is blatantly exploiting. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, housed in the Department of Justice, reviews requests for warrants for domestic surveillance. The Court can review these requests expeditiously and in times of great emergency. In extreme cases, where time is of the essence and national security is at stake, surveillance can be conducted before the warrant is even applied for.

This secret court was established so that sensitive surveillance could be conducted, and information could be gathered without compromising the security of the investigation. The purpose of the FISA Court is to balance the government's role in fighting the war on terror with the Fourth Amendment rights afforded to each and every American.

The American public is given vague and empty assurances by the President that amount to little more than "trust me." But, we are a nation of laws and not of men. Where is the source of that authority he claims? I defy the Administration to show me where in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or the U.S. Constitution, they are allowed to steal into the lives of innocent America citizens and spy.

When asked yesterday what the source of this authority was, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had no answer. Secretary Rice seemed to insinuate that eavesdropping on Americans was acceptable because FISA was an outdated law, and could not address the needs of the government in combating the new war on terror. This is a patent falsehood. The USA Patriot Act expanded FISA significantly, equipping the government with the tools it needed to fight terrorism. Further amendments to FISA were granted under the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2002 and the Homeland Security Act of 2002. In fact, in its final report, the 9/11 Commission noted that the removal of the pre-9/11 "wall" between intelligence officials and law enforcement was significant in that it "opened up new opportunities for cooperative action."

The President claims that these powers are within his role as Commander in Chief. Make no mistake, the powers granted to the Commander in Chief are specifically those as head of the Armed Forces. These warrantless searches are conducted not against a foreign power, but against unsuspecting and unknowing American citizens. They are conducted against individuals living on American soil, not in Iraq or Afghanistan. There is nothing within the powers granted in the Commander in Chief clause that grants the President the ability to conduct clandestine surveillance of American civilians. We must not allow such groundless, foolish claims to stand.

The President claims a boundless authority through the resolution that authorized the war on those who perpetrated the September 11th attacks. But that resolution does not give the President unchecked power to spy on our own people. That resolution does not give the Administration the power to create covert prisons for secret prisoners. That resolution does not authorize the torture of prisoners to extract information from them. That resolution does not authorize running black-hole secret prisons in foreign countries to get around U.S. law. That resolution does not give the President the powers reserved only for kings and potentates.

I continue to be shocked and astounded by the breadth with which the Administration undermines the constitutional protections afforded to the people, and the arrogance with which it rebukes the powers held by the Legislative and Judicial Branches. The President has cast off federal law, enacted by Congress, often bearing his own signature, as mere formality. He has rebuffed the rule of law, and he has trivialized and trampled upon the prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure guaranteed to Americans by the United States Constitution.

We are supposed to accept these dirty little secrets. We are told that it is irresponsible to draw attention to President Bush's gross abuse of power and Constitutional violations. But what is truly irresponsible is to neglect to uphold the rule of law. We listened to the President speak last night on the potential for democracy in Iraq. He claims to want to instill in the Iraqi people a tangible freedom and a working democracy, at the same time he violates our own U.S. laws and checks and balances? President Bush called the recent Iraqi election "a landmark day in the history of liberty." I dare say in this country we may have reached our own sort of landmark. Never have the promises and protections of Liberty seemed so illusory. Never have the freedoms we cherish seemed so imperiled.

These renegade assaults on the Constitution and our system of laws strike at the very core of our values, and foster a sense of mistrust and apprehension about the reach of government.

I am reminded of Thomas Payne's famous words, "These are the times that try men's souls."

These astounding revelations about the bending and contorting of the Constitution to justify a grasping, irresponsible Administration under the banner of "national security" are an outrage. Congress can no longer sit on the sidelines. It is time to ask hard questions of the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Director of the CIA. The White House should not be allowed to exempt itself from answering the same questions simply because it might assert some kind of "executive privilege" in order to avoid further embarrassment.

The practice of domestic spying on citizens should halt immediately. Oversight hearings need to be conducted. Judicial action may be in order. We need to finally be given answers to our questions: where is the constitutional and statutory authority for spying on American citizens, what is the content of these classified legal opinions asserting there is a legality in this criminal usurpation of rights, who is responsible for this dangerous and unconstitutional policy, and how many American citizens' lives have been unknowingly affected?

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I could not have said it better myself.

Senator Byrd-Protecting West Virginia and Defending America!

We will not get the chance to get rid of this reckless President unless the Democrats take control of one of the houses of Congress in 2006. Here's to the end of 2005 and to a happy 2006, at least for the half of the country that has watched our Democracy be run into the ground over the past 6 years.

Who me Spy on Americans?

"All I have to say about the accusations about me spying on Americans is that I only spy on the bad ones. I can not reveal who or how many Americans we have spied on without a court order but you can be sure that the Bushie would never spy on anyone that voted for him. He, he, he" "If I did spy on you then you deserved it because you said something that was unpatriotic. Like errrrr 'I supported Kerry in the last elelction.' that would mean that you are a Communist and you need spying on." Or maybe you got one of dem bumper stickers that says 'We need to defoliate the Bush's' You would need to be spied on because you were planning on using some kind of chemical weapons." "All anyone needs to know is that Daddy Bush is watchin."

Jesus is the reason for this Season????

(Notice the Picture is on the far right)

The right wing wants us to believe that Christmas is under attack!!! They want us to believe that the when a corporation tells it employees not to put up Merry Christmas or say Merry Christmas that we are stripping Jesus and Christianity out of the holiday. I hate to tell them that money stripped Jesus out of Christmas a long time ago. I have news for the likes of Bill O’Reilly—IT IS NOT THE CHRISTMAS SEASON YET!!!! Us Christians call the season we are in Advent.

It is the shopping season. It is time for retailers to make as much money as they can and for kids to expect huge paydays come Dec. 25th. The Christmas season today is a joke and the right wing is making it even worse. If the right wing demagogues like O’Reilly and Hannity want to make a religious speech let them join Pat Robertson on the 700 Club.

Christian Calender lesson—

Advent-
First season of the liturgical year. It is traditionally a fast, and begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve. Its purpose is the preparation for Christmas, with the focus on expectation. Awaiting the coming of the Christ Child into the world is often represented by the Advent Wreath, a garland of evergreens with 4 candles: 3 purple and one rose. Each candle lit represents a particular theme of the COMING Christmas season for which one is preparing, usually hope, faith, love and joy.
Christmas-
Typically begins with a worship service or a Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve (December 24) and ends on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord on the Sunday after January 6 (formerly on the eighth and final day of the Octave of Epiphany, or January 13). Christmas Day itself is December 25.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_calendar#Advent

So what have we learned? Bill O’Reilly is an idiot. I’m sorry everyone knew that. We learned that we are not to wish anyone Merry Christmas if we are Christians we are to say HAPPY ADVENT.

I for one do not care if I am ever greeted with the phrase Merry Christmas because I do not wear my religion on my sleeve and do not want to force my religious views upon anyone else. We have enough corporate greed in this world and I do not need them to make me feel good about my religious choices. I do not need any corporation trying to hijack my religious beliefs more than they already have. I do not need the government trying to force my religious beliefs upon others by displaying the nativity scene or the Ten Commandments at a courthouse. If you feel you need these things to feel like a true Christian then you have missed Jesus’ entire message, and to you I say “God Bless You.” You need it.

I am a Chicken Hawk!

Since my comrade has given a Social Studies award to a Bird Flu project I thought I would enlighten you all to what is apparently going to kill ½ the population of the world. (Allegedly) The Bird Flu to date has killed about ½ of the REPORTED cases. Since the major outbreaks have been in China we really do not know the true extent of the outbreaks or the true death toll. I believe the death rate to be much lower than the scare factor that is being reported by the media and Bill Frist. (I watched him today on C-Span spouting off about how bad the pandemic would be if the virus mutates to be transmissible from human to human.) You all remember Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Leader; he is an M.D. and diagnosed Terri Schiavo from a video he saw as able to understand what was happening around her. (Her autopsy showed her brain was ¼ the size it should have been and she was a vegetable like all the doctors that actually examined her said.) Mr. Frist was touting all the fear factor statistics and also talking about the economic impact of a pandemic. I will share a tidbit of economic impact that he did not share*. The biggest economic impact so far has been a positive for the drug companies Roche and Gilead. Gilead is the company that makes Tamiflu and Roche is the company that markets it. This drug is being touted as the only thing that can stop the Avian Flu. (It does not stop it, but it does increase survival rates-allegedly)

What is bird flu (avian influenza)?
• Avian influenza is an infectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza virus. The disease, first identified in Italy more than 100 years ago, occurs worldwide.
• All birds are thought to be susceptible to the avian influenza, though some species, such as wild ducks, are more resistant than others. Domestic poultry, such as chickens or turkeys, are particularly susceptible. • Infection triggers a wide spectrum of symptoms in birds, ranging from mild illness to a highly contagious and rapidly fatal disease resulting in severe epidemics.
• In severe cases, the flu is characterized by a sudden onset of severe illness, and rapid death, with a mortality that can approach 100 percent.

ARE YOU SCARED YET?

Have humans come down with bird flu?
• Avian influenza does not normally infect species other than birds and pigs. But humans came down with the bird flu in Hong Kong in 1997, when the H5N1 strain infecting 18 humans, 6 of whom died.
Then, people became infected after coming into close contact with live infected poultry.
• Genetic studies showed the virus jumped directly from birds to humans, and caused severe illness with high mortality.
• Hong Kong's entire poultry population, estimated at around 1.5 million birds, was destroyed within three days. This is thought to have averted a pandemic.
• The World Health Organization has said the H5N1 bird flu virus is responsible for a number of deaths in Vietnam. They suspect people became ill after coming into contact with chicken feces.

BETTER CALL THE DOCTOR!

Why is H5N1 of particular concern?
Of the 15 avian influenza virus subtypes, H5N1 is of particular concern because:
• It mutates rapidly and seems to acquire genes from viruses infecting other animal species.
• It can cause severe disease in humans.
• Birds that survive infection excrete virus for at least 10 days, orally and in feces, helping spread the virus at live poultry markets and by migratory birds.
• The more birds that come down with bird flu, the greater the opportunity for direct infection of humans.
• The more humans get infected, the greater the likelihood people can become infected with both human and bird flu strains.
• Humans could then serve as a "mixing vessel" for a new type of virus that could easily be transmitted from person to person. Such an event would mark the start of an influenza pandemic.

CUT DOWN THE BIRD HOUSE AND SHOOT ANY BIRD THAT LANDS IN THE YARD

What are the symptoms, can it be tested and how do you treat it?
• When humans came down with H5N1 bird flu in Hong Kong in 1997, patients developed symptoms of fever, sore throat, cough and, in several of the fatal cases, severe respiratory distress secondary to viral pneumonia.
• Previously healthy adults and children, and some with chronic medical conditions, were affected.
• Tests for diagnosing all influenza strains of animals and humans are rapid and reliable.
• Antiviral drugs, some of which can be used for both treatment and prevention, are clinically effective against influenza A virus strains in otherwise healthy adults and children, but have some limitations.
• At least four months would be needed to produce a new vaccine, in significant quantities, capable of conferring protection against a new virus subtype.
Compiled from a World Health Organization fact sheet.



My take on it:

Would it really be a bad thing if half the population was killed? The overpopulation of this planet is causing most of our problems anyway. Maybe like all the devastating hurricanes this past year this is just another way Mother Earth is fighting back. We can try and destroy her all we want but at some point she is going to say enough is enough.
If this thing starts in China wouldn’t that be a good thing for the United States. China is our number one competition for the oil we so need, and they are the major reason we are losing Middle America. They are the only other super power in the world. If enough of them die then W. would think our Army could take them then they to would be in the Axis of Evil.
This is really just another scare tactic to get people to get a flu shot and keep people in line and buying pharmaceuticals.
Just an FYI- They keep telling everyone they are working on a vaccine for it. If it does break out and they keep slaughtering all the chickens then we will not have enough eggs to make the vaccine anyway. Why do you think they ask you if you are allergic to eggs when you get a flu shot? I advise everyone to invest in eggs, this will be the next hot industry. Of course this is only if you know a Republican who has some pull who has done this, otherwise the government could slaughter your entire nest EGG. (Ha, Ha)


*Among the beneficiaries of the run on Tamiflu is Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who was chairman of Gilead from 1997 to 2001 and owns at least $5 million of the stock, which has jumped from $35 in April to $47 (47 is an old stat; it is now at $52). Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead in 2005.

Stupid Fool

“Fool me once, errrr, shame on you, fool me, errrr, you can’t get fooled again.” -A quote from our President. Just watch the video it is much better.

That is what I think of the Bush speech about how the war in Iraq is going, how can we trust what this administration tells us about the war in Iraq? One minute they tell us we will be there for years to come, a week later Cheney says the insurgency is in its “last throes”, and the next minute Rumsfeld tells us we will probably be there for 10 years. This war has been nothing but politically motivated from the beginning, and Bush used it to get re-elected and now he'll try and salvage some use out of it to keep the Republican majority. All you hear from Republicans and the right wing news sources is that the Democrats have no better plan than to “stay the course.” I guess it is not good enough that we would never have been there in the first place if back in 2000 the elected person would have been handed the Presidency, but I digress.

What if I told you that no matter what plan is implemented, Iraq ends up in a civil war. You have a 60% Shiite population that was brutally repressed by a 20% Sunni population. You also have the Kurds in the North that were gassed and repressed by the Sunnis. These were the major reasons that Bush I and General Schwarzkopf did not invade the during the first Gulf war. They were at least smart enough to know that an outside force could not keep this country together.

For as much as Bush touts the fact that a stable, democratic Iraq would be a stabilizing force in the region, he has no plan for such a place. Unfortunately this Iraq is a dream. The Iraq that Bush and his neo-con buddies have created will be a destabilizing force for decades to come.

And what is the deal with catching the #3 man in Al Qaeda? We have caught this guy 4 times now. I wish the Administration would tell us ahead of time who the #3 person is. I bet then we would not catch him so many times. Of course Pakistan claims he was the #5 man in Al Qaeda but Fox news claims a great blow to Al Qaeda as we have killed the #3 man. Of course every time we kill a Muslim in Afghanistan Fox news claims we have killed the #3 man in Al Qaeda. Fox is to news what al jazeera is to news. A bit slanted.

Enjoy the video.
If the link does not work just cut and paste

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/multimedia/foolbush.mov