Coast Guard Whistleblower – hosted at Youtube.com \n
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\nI’ll update this with a transcript for when the governement finally gets YouTube to pull the video, as they are attempting to do.
Archive for August, 2006
Coast Guard Whistleblower – hosted at Youtube.com
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006Finally a purpose for www.GeorgeBushBytes.com
Monday, August 28th, 2006Never found the time to put together the reams of content out there for which GW should be removed from office. But the Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee have done some of the work for me with this 354 page report. For your ease of use, you can find it at http://www.georgebushbytes.com. For a PDF of the whole report, click below: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/iraqrept2/fullreport.pdf Or finally for those who just have to have the authorized website: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/iraqrept2.html [Update] And while you’re at it, be sure to Google the word Failure
HarrisWatch: “Pink Sugar” Pushes God, as the Money Runs out
Sunday, August 27th, 2006Justin Rood with TPM Muckraker covers Katherine Harris’ latest attempt to be relavent as she pulls the God card in an interview with the Florida Baptist Witness. He sums up with:
I understand there’s a big swath of folks whose politics move them to hope she won’t ever come to grips with her long odds, her money problems, and her cartoonish inability to portray herself as a viable candidate. But on a human level — isn’t it just a little bit sad to watch this?
And then we remember the 2000 Florida Election and Ms Harris’ important role in that debacle, and the price that we, and the world, have had to pay for her actions. It helps to form a protective coating for our soul, as we wake up each morning to read the Muckraker over our morning coffee and observe her self-destruction from afar.From the Washington Post article, covering the Florida Baptist Witness quote from Ms Harris:
“…because God is the one who chooses our rulers,”
And apparently, she is right. Goodbye Ms Harris. Maybe you should think about retiring and spending your waning years in Florida. Oh yeah, you’re already there.
Feds Rake Mail for Canadian Drugs
Tuesday, August 15th, 2006Feds Rake Mail for Canadian Drugs
By Froma Harrop [realclearpolitics.com]
President Bush has finally found a cross-border commerce he cannot tolerate. He will not, I repeat not, allow Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. That would give his subjects the option of obtaining their Zocor for less than the extortionate prices drug makers charge here. This all falls under the administration’s guiding principle: No policy may ever favor ordinary citizens over corporations.
Since Nov. 17, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been quietly seizing drugs mailed from Canadian pharmacies to people in this country. It’s keeping these confiscations — about 40,000 packages so far — hush-hush because, as the administration knows full well, they are outrageous. The government doesn’t notify the addressees that it’s grabbed their blood-pressure medicine, so the customers become aware of the interception only when their drugs don’t arrive. No doubt some people’s health has suffered, as the drugs they need and think they’ve ordered do not materialize. Read Full Story Here
The Pakistan Connection The thwarted liquid bomb plot
Friday, August 11th, 2006From Juan Cole’s Informed Comment
Pakistani police on Thursday arrested a number of UK Muslims within Pakistan who were also suspected of involvement in the “Liquid Bomb Threat.”
British authorities say that they have been investigating the group behind the airplane bombing plot for “about a year.” The Scotsman says that the investigation began in 2005.
US authorities were only told about some details two weeks ago, apparently. It may be that the British counter-terrorism community learned its lesson from the loose lips of the Bushies in summer of 2004. I argued then that from what we could tell from open sources, it seemed likely that the Bush administration played politics with information about a double agent in Pakistan who was helping monitor a London al-Qaeda cell. It seems likely that the election-year leak allowed budding terrorists like Mohammad Sadique Khan to escape closer scrutiny, and so permitted the 7/7/05 London subway bombings to go forward.[Mike’s Emphasis]
If this operation is as advertised, then it underlines again the importance of plain old fashioned counter-terrorism and police work. An army of 136,000 men in the field can’t stop bombs from going off in Iraq every day. What stopped the liquid bomb plot was something superior, a tool fitted to the task.
Pat Robertson in Northern Israel
Tuesday, August 8th, 2006Had the TV on in the background, and Pat Robertson is in shirt sleeves outside of Haifa in Northern Israel. Interesting to see him, but when it came time to pray, he prayed “for Victory”, not Peace. Unbelievable.
Meanwhile, what of the 700 Club viewers in Lebanon?
Bush, Islamic Fascism and the Christians of Jounieh
Tuesday, August 8th, 2006from Juan Cole’s Informed Comment
Bush is on vacation, his favorite place to be during a major crisis. The August retreat is the only open admission he makes that Cheney and Rumsfeld are actually running the country, and he just doesn’t need to be in his office. The only difference between his stonewalling of Lebanon and the way he let New Orleans drown is that he has put away the banjo this summer, at least in public view. He had someone tie a necktie on him and stopped manically clearing brush for long enough to come out with Condi and hold a press conference. He lied, saying that no one wants to see the violence continue. He wants to see the violence continue. Otherwise he would insist on a ceasefire. You see, if you don’t have a ceasefire, the violence continues. If you oppose a ceasefire, you are saying you want the violence to continue. He does.
Then he tried to explain the war in Lebanon by saying this,
“They try to spread their jihadist message — a message I call, it’s totalitarian in nature — Islamic radicalism, Islamic fascism, they try to spread it as well by taking the attack to those of us who love freedom.”
There are many problems with this passage.
The first is that the Israelis are not confining themselves to bombing Muslim radicals. They dropped 3000 bombs on Aitaroun in a single day. They are leveling the towns of the south altogether. They are hitting people who are not Muslim fascists.
In fact, they are hitting Christian areas such as Jounieh.
Thoughts on the Sierra Club
Sunday, August 6th, 2006I’ve got to tell you, the most amazing opposition I’ve encountered since becoming a PRT advocate, has been that coming from the Sierra Club. It began with a 45 minute one way conversation from the then President of Austin’s Sierra Club blaming me and the big three from Detroit for the narrow defeat of the 2000 Austin Light Rail Initiative.** I continue to encounter opposition from the Sierra Club and a minority of other greens as we present PRT as a better solution for our communities.
Anyway, this puzzling stand by the Sierra Club, literally keeps me up at night, or at the very least, wakes me up obscenely early on a Sunday.
But all of the recent press for “Who Killed the Electric Car” and the Sierra Club’s trumpeting of that movie and pushing for hybrid vehicles, including getting behind Ford’s Hybrid SUV, got me thinking. If the Sierra Club can endorse a hybrid or all-electric vehicle, isn’t PRT just an even more efficient, safer EV on stilts? Maybe an alternative that includes a little walking?
So I gathered up for y’all some quotes and references found on their site and included below my signature. I’d also encourage y’all to share any more endorsements or calls to action that the Sierra Club and other green organizations are making, that PRT can easily fit into.
I’m not sure that I want to get into the relevance of the Sierra Club, and any inaccuracies that they might espouse (Endorsing Hybrids over Plugin Hybrids?) Like them or not, they are often the first people that ordinary citizens turn to when they want to get involved in the helping the environment. And I believe that they should be considered in our pitch, and would be a great asset when they become less of an obstacle to the implementation of a PRT solution.l
–Mike Conwell
ACPRT.org Austin, TX
AND AN ENVIRONMENTAL AND NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVIST!!!! (for those who suspect my motives))
** The big three from Detroit will still not return my calls 
Sure could use the money.
From the Sierra Club:
Hybrid cars are rolling advertisements for clean car technology. Learn how they work and what the future holds for hybrid cars
http://sierraclub.org/globalwarming/cleancars (August 2006)
Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicles can
make a big difference in the air quality of
Los Angeles and Orange Counties (not to
mention helping to curb global warming .)
… …Help drive demand for clean cars by
leasing or purchasing a clean car today.http://angeles.sierraclub.org/conservation/ecars.htm (August 2006)
Get behind the wheel of a hybrid and experience the differnce. Unlike conventional vehicles, hybrids use advanced technology and smart design to go farther on a gallon of gas – cutting pollution, saving oil, and slashing costs at the gas pump.
Take Action:
2. Make Your Next Car A Hybrid. When you to buy a new car, why not cut the pollution and high gas costs while you’re at it? Driving a hybrid will help bring the next generation of clean vehicles into the mainstream
http://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/factsheets/hybridcars_drivingsolutions.pdf
from the 2/17/2004 Nancy Parks Testimony to Commonwealth of PA on Hybrid Cars
We hope that you will seriously consider and support our proposal for a closed loop funding mechanism for providing incentives for hybrid vehicle purchase for all Pennsylvanians and not just the Commonwealth.
Thank You.
Chair, Clean Air Committe
Sierra Clubhttp://pennsylvania.sierraclub.org/PAChapter/Committees/HybridCarTestimony.htm
Also, a book (I haven’t read yet) published by Sierra Club Books "LIFE WITH AN ELECTRIC CAR" (Sierra Club Paperback Library): Books: Noel Perrin by Noel Perrin.
Dizzyness
Saturday, August 5th, 2006I’ve gone through the dizziness/vertigo thing too many times now, but D.B. had it a year ago, and her Ear Nose Throat doctor was able to clear it up in less than half an hour using this following method.
http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/bppv/bppv.html
In Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) dizziness is generally thought to be due to debris which has collected within a part of the inner ear. This debris can be thought of as “ear rocks”, although the formal name is “otoconia”. Ear rocks are small crystals of calcium carbonate derived from a structure in the ear called the “utricle” (figure1 ). While the saccule also contains otoconia, they are not able to migrate into the canal system. The utricle may have been damaged by head injury, infection, or other disorder of the inner ear, or may have degenerated because of advanced age. Normally otoconia appear to have a slow turnover. They are probably dissolved naturally as well as actively reabsorbed by the “dark cells” of the labyrinth (Lim, 1973, 1984), which are found adjacent to the utricle and the crista, although this idea is not accepted by all (see Zucca, 1998, and Buckingham, 1999).
In case you haven’t noticed, a large wall is being built around the American people to ensure that they remain prisoner to the drug industry.
It’s easy to understand why drug makers want to force Americans to buy their products in the United States. Ours is the only industrialized country that doesn’t negotiate the prices the drug companies may charge. As a result, a 90-day supply of Fosamax sells for $105 in Canada but $210 here. It’s less easy to understand why our leaders in Washington have sided with the drug makers and against the American people — less easy but not impossible. They’re well paid by the drug industry, which employs more than one lobbyist for every member of Congress.
Before there was a Medicare drug benefit, Washington didn’t dare mess with elderly Americans seeking affordable drugs from Canada. And since the start of the program this year, the Canadian drug mail-order business has dipped somewhat. Of course, the Medicare drug-benefit law forbids the U.S. government to bargain on behalf of the beneficiaries. (That keeps taxpayers, who subsidize the program, on the hook for the higher prices.)
Some older people didn’t want to join a Medicare drug plan or prefer the simplicity and savings of buying their drugs from Canada. And many younger Americans who lack drug coverage use Canadian pharmacies to avoid domestic price-gouging.
U.S. Customs says that it is stopping the imports from Canada to protect Americans from the harms of counterfeit drugs. Oh, sure. Actually, drugs ordered from licensed pharmacies in Canada are monitored by Health Canada, a government agency that is probably less corruptible than our own Federal Drug Administration. If our elected officials in Washington truly cared about the well-being of the American people, they would have long ago done something about unfairly high drug prices. That way more people would have been able to afford the drugs they should take, and poor people wouldn’t have to cut their pills in half to extend their prescriptions.
(One state, Nevada, has thumbed its nose at Washington and has licensed four Canadian pharmacies to sell drugs to its residents. Several other states may follow its lead.)
Members of Congress have heard an earful from people enraged by the federal seizure of their medications. Both the Senate and the House have approved amendments to the Homeland Security appropriations bill that would bar Customs from using federal money to confiscate drugs.
Do not assume, however, that this obnoxious policy will soon stop. The bills will go into conference committee, and if history is any guide, drug-industry lobbyists will cement shut the Canadian door to lower drug prices. So much for free trade, or even freedom.
And what about you red-blooded Americans out there? Are you going to sit passively as the back-room boys try to preserve the ludicrous ban on buying Lipitor from Canada? Americans, you really don’t have to put up with this. fharrop@projo.com Copyright 2006 Creators Syndicate Page Printed from: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/08/feds_rake_mail_for_canadian_dr.html at August 15, 2006 – 05:53:31 PM CDT