Nurse Ticketed for Political Bumper Stickers in Deep South

A nurse coming home from working at her hospital in Georgia was stopped by a police officer. He gave her a ticket for “Lewd Decals.” There were two bumper stickers on her car one said “I'm tired of all the Bushit” and the other had a W crossed out and “Hillary 2008” written in its place. The ticket is for $100 and under "offense" it says "Lewd decals."

Problem is there is no offense of “Lewd Decals” in Georgia. Georgia's Supreme Court struck down a "lewd bumper sticker" law in 1991, after a defendant with a "Shit Happens" bumper sticker took the their case to court. One of the alleged lewd decals on the nurse’s car had “Bushit” and the other had “Hillary.” She was ticketed for having lewd decals (plural). The police department refused to comment on the incident, but they are proceding with the case.

The nurse is scheduled to go to court on April 18 for her offense.

Government Accountability Office Sneaks Bomb Making Material through 21 U.S. Airports

The non-partisan investigatory arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, conducted a clandestine review of airport security throughout the country.

Bomb making materials were passed through Transportation Security Administration (the department of Bush's Executive Branch entrusted with protecting us from terrorists) passenger screening at 21 airports, without being detected. Meanwhile the Bush Administration keeps the no-fly list, a list of more than 80,000 people not allowed to fly in or over the US. Many on this list have turned out to be American citizens who have nothing to do with terrorism, but just disagree with Bush Administration policy on Iraq or other touchy issues. We are protected from flying with Americans who disagree with Bush on Iraq, but we are NOT protected from bombs smuggled onto planes according to yet another review of security. There have been many previous reviews and the Bush Administration failed those tests, too. So Cindy Sheehan can't fly next to you but Zacarias Moussaoui can.

Don't you feel safer?

---------------------------------------------------------
Update March 30: Nearly five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Washington DC still lacks a strategic plan in case of future attacks. Nor has the Homeland Security Department spent the money earmarked to effectively protect the capital. Federal and local officials testified under oath to this before Congressional hearings being held this week.

In testimony yesterday, William O. Jenkins Jr., director of Homeland Security issues for the Government Accountability Office, was asked whether local officials can really know whether they are adequately prepared without such a plan.

"In a word, no,'' he said.

Of course by posting this I may find myself on the no-fly list to protect my fellow Americans from this kind of dangerous information.

Bush Admin Says We’ve been Fighting Wrong Guys in Iraq for 3 Years!

Bush Administration officials are now saying that Shiite militias are the No. 1 problem in Iraq, more dangerous than the Sunni-led insurgents who for nearly the past three years have been branded the gravest security threat.

Shiite militias have been accused of running death squads that kidnap and brutalize Sunni men, and on Sunday the American military said the cell its forces raided had kidnapped Iraq civilians according to our troops in Iraq who have been fighting the Shiites.

So we pulled a Sunni leader (Saddam) out and put Shiite leaders in and now they are our number one enemy.

Oops.

Of course all this talk of the Bush Administration being incompetent such as the way they handled Hurricane Katrina is just Democratic propaganda. Right.

Christian Peacemaker Tom Fox Found Bound and Killed in Iraq – Rush Limbaugh Likes It

A while back four Christian peacemakers (members of the Quaker faith who believe in Christ’s teachings about peace) were taken hostage in Iraq. Now one of them, Tom Fox, has been found dead with his hands tied and bullet holes in his head and chest along with bruises and cuts all over his body. When he and the three other Christians were taken prisoner Rush Limbaugh announced that he was pleased that they had been taken captive since they were working for peace in Iraq. "Part of me likes this." He explained, "Well, here's why I like it. I like any time a bunch of leftist feel-good hand-wringers are shown reality." Limbaugh considers himself a loving Christian and anyone who disagrees with him is not and therefore must be killed. “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Jesus said. Death to the peacemakers says, Rush.

Tom Fox wrote in his final days of the love God has for all people, and told his friends that if he is killed not to take revenge on those responsible.

Not even on Rush Limbaugh.

Peace, Rush.

New 20 Year Study Finds Whiney Crybaby Children Grow Up to be Conservatives – Self-Reliant Kids Grow Up to be Liberals

A 20 year study just published in the prestigious Journal of Research Into Personality finds insecure kids who think everyone is out to get them and always run to the teacher with complaints more than likely grow up to be conservatives. Whereas self-reliant self-confident kids more than likely grow up to be liberals. This after tracking more than 100 children for 20 years.

Jeff Greenberg, a conservative critic at the University of Arizona said of the study "I found it to be biased, shoddy work, poor science at best." He thinks insecure, defensive, rigid people can as easily gravitate to left-wing ideologies as right-wing ones. He suspects that in Communist China, those kinds of people would likely become fervid party members. Greenberg based his contradictory findings on no study whatsoever but solely on his own thoughts and feelings (far more biased and shoddy than a 20 year scientific study tracking more than 100 children). Greenberg felt the need to whine about how unfair the study was to the press. Why am I not surprised? His kindergarten teacher was too busy for him to complain to.

Conservatives across the country are “very hurt” about this study and are complaining about it to anyone who will listen. I guess they never really grow up. Poor babies!

Update on E-Votes -- Utah Must Use Defective Machines

Despite their e-vote machines being defective the State of Utah is mandating that election officials use the defective e-vote machines. Some have been delivered as new systems with election data results already installed on their memory cards. Isn’t that handy? No need to have the actual election because the results are already in the system when the machine is delivered. They were also found to be set up to be accessed via a network. Also very handy. Why would someone need to login into an e-vote terminal remotely during an election? Hmm. Very handy indeed. But Utah State Government Officials say they have to use these machines to collect (or actually they’ve already collected since they arrived with election results already installed) the votes in the upcoming elections. Read more at Black Box Voting.

White House Employees Impersonating Secret Service Agents AGAIN!

Josh Marshall has the story of another two White House employees impersonating Secret Service agents. (Remember, something similar happened last year in Denver.) In that case the government let the White House employee posing as a Secret Service off without charging him with the crime. In this case two White House employees were impersonating Secret Service agents impersonating FOX News journalists. No, I'm actually not kidding about this. Perhaps it just would have been simpler to say they were White House employees rather than journalists working for FOX News since it's pretty much the same thing.

Two E-Vote Machines Confiscated by New Hampshire’s Attorney General’s Office for Failing to Tally Votes Accurately

Brad Blog has the story of two electronic vote counting machines which had to be confiscated by the New Hampshire’s Attorney General’s Office for miscounting vote tallies.

The machines did not malfunction in the tests prior to the election, but did miscount the votes in the actual election. These were two of the few that have paper votes that can be counted to see the inaccurate tallies. Most electronic voting machines throughout the country do not produce paper copies and there is no way to know how many votes have been miscounted in US elections. This is why all electronic vote machines need to produce paper copies, and the voter needs to verify that their votes are accurately printed on them to avoid these kinds of “glitches” as these are called. Are they mistakes? We don’t know because most of the e-voting machines source code is not available to election officials or anyone else in government. They are black boxes that we are supposed to trust our democracy to. Doesn’t that make you feel safe?

Another Reagan Administration Republican Warns America about Bush Administration

Lifelong Conservative Republican, Paul Craig Roberts, who was assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury in the Reagan Administration, a Senior Research Fellow at the right-wing Hoover Institution, an editor of the Wall Street Journal, an editor of the conservative National Review, and has a PhD, has a chilling tale to tell half of the American people about the dangers of terrorism caused by the Bush Administration. Read Catastrophe Looms.

This true conservative Republican’s writings are quite enlightening to those who believe themselves to be conservative Republicans. Do yourself a favor and read his articles. You’ll learn what true conservatism is.

Rumsfield Assures World that 21st Century Civil War Will NOT Look Like 19th Century Civil War – World Breathes Collective Sigh of Relief

From Crooks and Liars: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld fielded questions today about the state of Iraq-including if they are in civil war.

Video-WMP Video-QT

His answer made no sense at all. Rumsfeld said he doesn't know how to define a civil war and needs more time to think about it. He's certain about one thing, though:

Rumsfeld: "I think until I've had a chance to think more about it and-and-uhh-I-I will say I don't think it'll look like-ahh- the United States's civil war."

Gee, ya’ think, Don? A civil war fought in the 21st Century isn’t going to look like a civil war fought in the 19th Century? That’s just BRILLIANT! No wonder you’re head of the military of the World’s Only Super Power! With decisive in-depth military analysis like that we know we’re in great hands with Rummy!

This is like something that might be printed in The Onion, but it’s Bush’s own incompetent staff. He’s got a Vice President getting drunk and shooting people. A Chief Economic Advisor arrested for shoplifting and fraud at Target. A Chief Procurement Officer indicted for lying to investigators looking into dirty deals between the White House and Lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Cheney’s Chief of Staff is indicted for lying to the FBI, Perjury and Conspiracy charges in the identity revealing of a CIA agent (the very CIA agent working to keep Iran from getting Nuclear Weapons and by outing her they outed her entire group which was working on the same mission) in to punish her whistleblower husband. And a Grand Jury is investigating Cheney and Bush’s deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for the same thing. A head of FEMA and a head of the Dept. of Homeland Security who screwed up so royally during the Katrina disaster that they looked like two of the three stooges. And now Dandy Don says Iraq will absolutely NOT look like Gettysburg back in the 1860s.

Jeb Bush’s Appointee Doesn’t Want Public to Know How Elections Handled in Florida

From Brad Blog: Jeb Bush’s Police State of Florida is violating the law on openness of meetings with regard to open elections in Florida .

Florida Secretary of State Sue Cobb (Jeb's recent political appointee) has been threatening Leon County's elected Election Supervisor Ion Sancho because he revealed that the Diebold voting machines in Florida and elsewhere can be hacked and the results of the election altered without a trace being left behind. In response Diebold and some other electronic voting companies are refusing to do business with Sancho because he revealed that their systems are easily hacked. Florida has a Sunshine Law that requires meetings to be open to the public and the press and had just started “Sunshine Week” to celebrate how open they are. To kick off the week Jeb’s politically appointed Secretary of State banned the public and the press from the meeting in clear defiance of the law.

Meanwhile...Down in "the Sunshine State"...

Police called to remove reporters
Public meeting turns private when Cobb restricts access to reporters

Sunshine Week started off with the slamming of the secretary of state's door Monday, when Leon County Commissioner Bob Rackleff and news reporters were shut out of an announced public meeting on county voting issues.

"I've always said I have no objection to the press, but we do make faster progress without people having to look at cameras - that's a fact," said Florida Secretary of State Sue Cobb.

Tallahassee Democrat Political Editor Bill Cotterell, Associated Press reporter Brent Kallestad and cameraman Dave Heller also were threatened with eviction from a hallway outside Cobb's closed conference room by Capitol Police for trying to attend the meeting with Cobb, Leon County Commission Chairman Bill Proctor, Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho and staff members.

"I'm very concerned and very confused," Democrat Executive Editor Bob Gabordi said. "I have to know that when reporters show up to a meeting that has been given proper public notice, that they will not be harassed and threatened with arrest."

This story is just incredible.

The county issued a public notice to the media Sunday about Monday's meeting, which was called by Cobb. The notice said Rackleff planned to attend, making it a special meeting of the County Commission. Cobb's office late last week distributed two letters she sent to Sancho and Proctor, inviting them to the meeting.

Under Florida's open-government law, which is being celebrated by state and national media this week, when two or more members of the board are together and may discuss issues of future board consideration, the meeting is open to the public and requires notice.

But when Rackleff tried to enter the meeting, he was turned away, along with reporters. With only Proctor inside, Cobb could call the meeting closed.

"This kicks it off with a bang," said Adria Harper, director of The First Amendment Foundation. "The public was invited and now they are being told they can't attend, and in the middle of Sunshine Week. It's almost an ironic tragedy that it is occurring."

In some instances, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled, even having a single board member present could constitute a public meeting if there is an effort to frustrate openness, Harper said. That was clearly the intent here, she added, but in any case, "they violated the spirit of the Sunshine Law."

Cobb suggested the meeting should be closed because the public notice did not come from her office.

"The press is not invited to this meeting," Cobb told reporters. "There might be a government-in-the-sunshine problem."

When reporters refused to leave the hallway outside the meeting room, Department of State officials called Capitol Police officers. Four uniformed officers arrived, but since no trespassing complaint had been filed, they said they would not stop the group from entering the meeting.

Rackleff went in, followed by reporters, and Cobb stopped the meeting. Sancho, who said he had no problem conducting business in public, told Rackleff it was essential talks with state and county officials happen in advance of today's commission workshop - and if the commissioner stayed those talks wouldn't happen. Rackleff agreed to leave, and the door was again shut.

Standing in the hallway with a crowd of reporters as the closed meeting progressed, Rackleff said the day's events showed Florida knew how to honor openness: "Happy Sunshine Week - slam!"

If you haven't done so already, it's not too late to send a note of support for Sancho to Florida state officials. VoteTrustUSA has made it very easy to do...

More than One in Three Returning Soldiers and Marines Need Mental Health Treatment as Result of Iraq War

About a third of US soldiers and Marines who served in Iraq have required mental health treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or other mental health problems resulting from the war, according to a study of military medical records published March 1 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study points out that the actual number of our troops receiving mental health treatment may be much higher because “Mental health problems treated in primary care settings may not be coded under the primary diagnosis, and service members may receive care from civilian professionals not connected with the military health care system. Thus, this study likely underestimates the total utilization of services for mental health problems.”

So MORE than One in Three of our returning US Soldiers and Marines are in need of mental health treatment due to Bush’s preemptively invading Iraq. He also cuts their VA benefits and educational benefits when they return and makes them pay for their own body armor and vehicle armor while they are in harms way. They are forced to serve beyond their agreed upon tour of duty through stop loss. Many have been forced to re-enlist by threatening to pull them back in and deploy them to Iraq if they don’t. A policy ruled illegal that continues under Bush.

Tell me again how the Republican Party is for the troops and we who are fighting to re-instate their benefits and provide adequate armor to them are against them?

“Well, Joe, Fox News [sic] tells me that every night. So it must be true. They have Bush and Cheney and everybody I trust telling me so. So who should I believe them or my own lying eyes?”

Another Little Girl Shot to Death Thanks to the Tyranny of the NRA

Arch Lobbyist Organization, the NRA, has killed another child in Chicago in order to pad the pockets of gun manufacturers supplying criminal gangs throughout the US. The NRA gets only a portion of their Million$ from dues from regular Americans with most of their filthy lucre coming from those who supply violent criminals throughout America. Those gun manufacturers own the Republican Party though their lobbying arm, the NRA. The rest of America is held captive with a gun to our heads as they become more and more wealthy and the GOP fills their coffers with payoffs and our coffins with children.

The Bush Administration and the Republicans in Congress allowed the Assault weapons ban to elapse and our streets to fill with semi-automatic weapons easily converted to automatic ones. Democrats in Congress tried to renew the ban, but the GOP gets too much of their graft from the killers. So the ban was lifted despite the fact that police departments throughout the country begged Congress to renew the ban. The Republicans decided to ignore our men in blue and endanger all Americans to keep the bribes they receive from the NRA.

Claims that this is about hunters’ rights are pure BULLSHIT since it is illegal to hunt with assault weapons. Claims that it’s about protecting your home is ridiculous since no one sleeps with an Uzi under their pillow to keep prowlers at bay. This is about gangs spraying homes with bullets in turf wars that rarely encroach upon the neighborhoods of Bill Frist, Dennis Hastert, George Bush or the CEOs of Corporations providing guns and ammo to the Crypts and the Bloods.

The next time you read about another gangland murder think about the politician and the executive who can afford another yacht or third summer home courtesy of the child victim’s blood and her parents’ grief. That’s what America is all about if you are a Republican in Congress or the White House.

Remember to vote in November. It’s not just a right; it’s your responsibility. Let’s take America back from the Lobbyists.

Joe

Bush’s and Congress’ Corruption Endangers Our Lives and Killed an Honors Student

The following is a piece by former Justice Dept. US Attorney Ronald S. Safer who led the federal law enforcement fight against street gangs in Chicago.

Fear kept Washington officials from standing up to the NRA

By Ronald S. Safer

Published March 10, 2006, Chicago Tribune

We are focused these days, and rightly so, on public officials whose self-serving acts of corruption victimize American citizens. All well and good--provided we don't lose sight of an equally insidious, equally intractable, equally endemic form of corruption: the corruption that killed Starkesia Reed, a 14-year-old freshman honor student at Chicago's Harper High School. You've read about Starkesia. She was struck down by a stray bullet from a high-powered assault weapon last Friday morning as she stood in the sanctity of her own home.

I don't absolve the killer who fired the weapon. I think I earned my anti-street-crime bona fides as a federal prosecutor. But the killer had a big assist from Congress and our president. In 2004, those so-called public servants let lapse the federal law that banned assault weapons like the one that evidently killed Starkesia. Tuesday's Tribune reported that law enforcement sources have concluded that the shooter sprayed 29 rounds, hitting seven other houses on the stretch of South Honore Street where Starkesia lived.It is now lawful for companies to manufacture, sell and distribute these weapons. And it is lawful for a person to buy an assault weapon if he or she is not a felon.

Why did the president and Congress allow these weapons to again fill our streets?

Not because the law banning assault weapons was unpopular; poll after poll shows that the public favors gun control, particularly a ban on assault weapons.

Not because lawmakers and the president wanted to support law enforcement; most police unions and law enforcement organizations that spoke to the issue in 2004 favored renewing the ban. That made sense. Officers and agents are tired of being outgunned by criminals.
Not to protect the rights of hunters. I know of no deer or duck hunters who use assault rifles.

Not to allow people to protect their homes. It is the rare homeowner who goes to bed with an Uzi under his pillow.

And, most chilling, not because they didn't know that Starkesia Reed would have her precious life taken by one such weapon. They knew.

They did not know her lyrical name and they did not know the date: March 3, 2006. But they knew that legions of innocent children have been cut down in the crossfire of drive-by shootings.

Those drive-bys are precisely what these semi-automatic weapons--many of them convertible to automatic--are designed to execute. They're efficient, capable of quickly spraying a broad area with lethal bullets. Anyone in that area--an intended victim or a bystander like Starkesia--risks extermination.

Our elected officials in Washington, D.C., knew. They had to know. And they let it happen. Why?

Corruption. They weren't bribed by a gang. This corruption is more subtle. They were corrupted by fear. The National Rifle Association opposed the ban on assault weapons--just as it indiscriminately opposes any legislation to ban ammunition such as armor-piercing bullets that are designed to penetrate the supposedly bulletproof vests of law enforcement officers.

What do NRA leaders have that corrupts these politicians? Votes? Absolutely not. Their members are decidedly in the minority on the assault weapon issue.

They do, though, have money. Cold cash. And organization. They can withdraw the grease that lubricates the re-election machine of members of Congress. They can support a congressman's opponent with impressive resources. They are disciplined, single-issue-oriented and relentless in their opposition to anyone who has the audacity to suggest any weapon or ammunition controls be implemented.

I understand the politicians' concern. When I wrote an op-ed piece before the assault weapons ban lapsed, urging Congress to renew it, I received approximately 1,000 e-mails from NRA members. One was careless enough to attach the e-mail from an NRA leader who had forwarded my e-mail address to the organization's members and urged them to let me know how "alone" I was in my viewpoint.

The membership dutifully responded. Some of these e-mails were thoughtful and interesting. Some were threatening and criminal. (I concluded that the people who wrote the latter messages had skipped over the 1st Amendment to the Constitution in their haste to distort the 2nd. But I suspect they could name every member of the Simpson family.)

But remember, I am a harmless and powerless voice. I can only imagine the resources the NRA can train on those with the power to protect children like Starkesia against these weapons of slaughter.

Until we change our political system so that sound ideas rather than 30-second ads bought by private contributions decide our elections, we will have to rely on the courage of our elected officials to keep our children safe. I suppose even a brave lawmaker could ask, "What good would it do for me to act on this issue if it results in my being voted out of office and losing power?"

My response would be: "What good is being in office if it gives you the power to save the life of Starkesia Reed and all those who will tragically follow, yet you choose not to exercise it?"

That failure to act ratifies the corruption. The corruption that cost Starkesia Reed her young life.

----------

During the 1990s, then-Assistant U.S. Atty. Ronald S. Safer headed the Justice Department's prosecution of Chicago's Gangster Disciples.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The fact that dangerous assault rifles that are only intended for crime have poured onto our streets thanks to Bush and the Republican Leadership in Congress is further proof of the unholy alliance between the GOP and NRA which derives most of its revenues from gun manufacturers supplying criminals like the gang members who killed this young honors student.

The NRA only derives a portion of their revenues from the paltry dues of their members. On the other hand, there is a lot of money to be made supplying criminal gangs with weapons, and the NRA and gun manufacturers are happy to share some of that money bribing Republicans in office funding their re-election campaigns and taking them on trips (as well as threatening to unseat them through campaigning against them if they refuse to comply).

I would only add to to Mr. Safer’s piece that in addition to fear our elected officials are aware that they are paid prostitutes of the very organizations supplying guns and bullets to criminal gangs in America. How different are they than politicians who take bribes from the Mafia? No different at all.

2006 is an election year. Clear Congress of Criminals this November!

Joe

72% of US Troops In Iraq Want US Out – 85% Tricked by Bush Administration

72 percent of the U.S. troops in Iraq want the US to pull out of Iraq within a year because they know the Iraq War is unwinnable. Only 23 percent favor George W. Bush’s plan to “stay the course.” But 85 percent of US troops in Iraq believe they are fighting in Iraq “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks.” Not realizing that the September 11 Commission (a group handpicked and appointed by President Bush and led by Republican Governor Thomas Keane) as well as Bush, Rumsfeld and Condi Rice have all admitted that Saddam was not behind the 9/11 attacks. Our troops believe this myth because Bush and his Administration frequently juxtapose references to Osama bin-Laden and Saddam Hussein purposely to cause confusion between them. Doing this has tricked a majority of Americans who also think Saddam was responsible despite evidence to the contrary.

I suspect that if the 23 percent knew they had been tricked into believing that Saddam was behind the attacks they, too, would insist that we pull out. Here are the poll numbers.

Cindy Sheehan and 3 Others Roughed Up, Held in Jail for Delivering Petition

Cindy Sheehan and three other activists were arrested at the UN Monday when they attempted to deliver a petition with 72,000 signatures organized by womensaynotowar.org to the United States mission. The four are being held now at Police Service Area 4, 8th Street and Avenue C, on their way to the DA's office. They are to be charged with resisting arrest. Sheehan is apparently rather injured from the arrest, according to Rev. Patti Ackerman, who just called from custody, with a wrenched arm and bruises on her torso and head from being dropped on the pavement. After initially telling the activists they could deliver the petitions to a receptionist at the US Mission, where they had an appointment to do so, the New York police cited a change of plan from "higher up" and moved in to prevent the delivery and arrest the activists. Sheehan and the others sat down in protest which led to the police roughing them up..

In addition to rough handling of Ms. Sheehan, one of the Iraqi women with the group was punched in the stomach. This according to Rev. Ackerman on the phone. One broadcast producer who saw footage of the incident said the police were "particularly nasty" in their handling of the women.

Eyewitness Rebecca MacNeice was present filming the events when the arrests took place. MacNeice described the police as very rough. She said that many in the crowd were thrown against a building, including the press. She described the arrestees as being "dragged off" in a rough manner. TruthOut.org spoke to Cindy Sheehan's sister, Dee Dee Miller, who spoke to Sheehan after the arrest. Miller said that Cindy indicated that the police were very rough with her and the other three arrested. She said that they were requesting an ambulance.

Ann Wright, who was also on the scene, confirmed that the police were very rough and described that the arrestees were carried with their arms behind their backs. She said at times that their arms were raised very high, which could have caused an injury.

These events were filmed, but it is not known if the police have confiscated the film of the incident. If not the footage of the arrests will be posted on TruthOut.org.

The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees Americans the right to petition the Government. Under the Bush Administration such petitions are not allowed if they run counter to the Bush Administration’s Official Policies. The Constitution is hereby suspended. No rights for you!