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Michigan Voters Disenfranchised Today
2008-01-15 02:14:00
Who do these parties think they are? Have you guys heard about what's going on in Michigan ?So today is Michigan's primary. However, Michigan voters are being disenfranchised by the Democratic Party (disenfranchise = depriving of the rights of citizenship especially the right to vote).Watch it live, folks! That's how obvious this is.Michigan's governor, Jennifer Granholm, moved Michigan's primary up from February 9th (four days after the so-called "Super Tuesday") to January 15th. Now if memory serves me correctly, all this primary-jumping started last year when Schwarzenegger moved California's primary from June to February 5th. Since all those weenies in Washington were apparently afraid to take on The Terminator, it was actually allowed and a whole bunch of other states then jumped on the bandwagon in order to also became more relevant this year. That's how "Super Tuesday" was conceived. Over half the delegates in the nation will be awarded that day.Michigan believed that ...
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Benazir Bhutto Identified Her Assassin on International TV
2008-01-14 09:13:00
There are a lot of different theories going around about who may have killed Benazir Bhutto , although most people who are talking about the assassination at all are talking about the video of the shooting and not the bigger picture. What I’m finding amazing is the vast number of people, even in the blogosphere, who are ignoring one of the best pieces of evidence that is available for whoever wants to use it: The interview with David Frost during which Benazir Bhutto gave everyone watching Al Jazeera English easily decipherable hints as to she thinks was trying to kill her. She personally identified her assassin on International TV. Would Jack McCoy avoid this evidence? I don’t think so. But everybody is… including blogs. Take this article by Michael Shaw at The Huffington Post. This is actually an interesting article that gives little known back-story on the role the Bush Administration played in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Condoleezza Rice, our Secretary of Stat...
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National Applications Office is Back
2008-01-12 09:00:00
On September 18, 2007, I reported on the opening of the National Applications Office (NAO), which is a new part of the Department of Homeland Security which will be dedicated to using super-powerful military satellites to spy on people inside the United States. The opening was originally set for October 1, 2007 but, thanks to the efforts of Congress, has been delayed. However, Big Brother's office is now making a comeback.For a bit of perspective, take a quick trip over to Google Maps. Once you're there, look up your address, click on "Satellite", and zoom all the way in. That's the type of power that anyone is allowed to use. Can you imagine what the military satellites can see?The brief back-story on the National Applications Office goes like this: The plan for the National Applications Office began in 2005 after a "Blue Ribbon Study" was conducted and the plan to use military satellites on Americans was recommended. The study was put together by Bush Administration officials a...
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Obama's Appeal: Generational Shift Needed
2008-01-09 09:58:00
I need to admit something. I have the overwhelming urge to believe in Barack Obama. The cynic in me, after 7 years of the Bush Administration, knows that this may be naive. Is any politician that has succeeded in this system capable of really turning it around? I'm not sure. But out of any of the candidates that have a chance to win this year, I think Barack Obama has the biggest chance of actually being able to shift the country's direction. The reason is largely generational.I was born in 1982. Most of what I know about the 50's, 60's, and 70's (the decades I associate with my parents, and therefore the Boomer generation) I learned about on TV and in school textbooks. People tend to have wildly varying opinions on the Boomer generation, but one thing I think everyone can agree on is that Boomers are fascinating.The 50's was the era of I Love Lucy, when men controlled their women and the world was focused in black in white, in just about every way. Our parents were around the...
More About: Shift , Appeal

Hillary Clinton
2008-01-07 07:35:00
I've been trolling The Huffington Post today and reading the blogs that are breaking down why Hillary Clinton didn't dominate in Iowa. There's lots of theories floating around out there. The women did show up for her. The men didn't show up for her. She's inauthentic. She didn't get the youth vote. She has a bad staff. My favorite stupid theory: Bill Clinton has held her back.But that's all crap. It all boils down to this: I bet you are, Mussolini.The honest truth is that Hillary's problems as a Presidential candidate have next to nothing to do with her gender or her marital problems, as the corporate media would have us obsess on. Sure, there are some dumbasses like Dana Kennedy who really care about that stuff, but most of us are looking elsewhere because we're on to her game. Her whole campaign has been a carefully staged reality-TV show starring Hillary Clinton as a woman who cares. But even people that don't pay close attention know that she's just putting on a show...
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BBC Edited Bhutto Interview to Hide bin-Laden Revelation
2008-01-05 20:01:00
In an interview with David Frost on November 2, 2007, Benazir Bhutto mentioned in passing that Omar Sheikh murdered Osama bin-Laden.David, one of my readers, asked if this interview was broadcast outside of the Al-Jazeera network. The answer is yes - and no.The BBC aired the interview, but edited out the sentence where Benazir Bhutto says Omar Sheikh murdered Osama bin-Laden. Here's a video showing the edit(FYI: This is not the original video I had posted here, but the original is "no longer available". YouTube's very sorry. I have a feeling this is not the last time this will happen so just know that if I need to keep switching out this video, I will.)For the back-story on this post, start here.
More About: Interview , Bin Laden , Revelation , Hide

West Coast Storm
2008-01-04 23:41:00
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I have this horrible, but reasonable, feeling that this weekend is going to have some of those "disaster days".You know that what I'm talking about. Those days when a natural disaster is actually taking place. The days during Hurricane Andrew or Katrina. The Northridge earthquake. The day of the tsunami. The day Laguna Beach washed away. The fires in California...Those days that you are glued to the TV because something big is going down and people are in trouble.I think we're about to have some of those "disaster days" this weekend on the West Coast . Take a look at this storm, ok?Now anyone that has met me in real life will tell you that I'm a total weather junkie. I watch the Weather Channel regularly (even though I live in Southern California, which is usually pretty boring weather-wise) and every time a storm rolls in, I become fixated on the clouds. I have a sick fascination with the Doppler Radar. When a storm is on the horizon, I o...
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Open Email to Rep. Robert Wexler
2008-01-04 03:54:00
Dear Congressman Wexler ,I'm writing today in response to an email I received yesterday regarding your effort to begin hearings looking into the activities of Vice-President Dick Cheney in the House Judiciary Committee. I strongly support your push for hearings and am incredibly thankful that you have decided to step up for the rule of law.In your email, you provided a blog-ad that I was going to put up on my blog to help get more signatures on the petition at www.wexlerwantshearings.com. However, to my dismay, when someone clicks on the blog-ad you provided in that email, it directs the user to a donation form for your re-election campaign. I understand that you need money to do what you do, but wasn't this about getting signatures to show your colleagues the support the American people have for holding hearings? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to have that blog-ad direct users to the petition, instead of a form that tells the user to donate money to you?Unfortunately, I do not m...
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Benazir Bhutto: Omar Sheikh Murdered Osama bin-Laden
2008-01-03 02:02:00
In a November 2, 2007 interview, less than two months before she would be assassinated, Benazir Bhutto was asked by reporter David Frost of Al-Jazeera English about a letter that she had sent to Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf. The letter outlined who she believed should be investigated in the event of her assassination. While giving her answer, she listed as one of the suspects a "key figure in security... a former military officer in Pakistan" who had dealings with, among others, "Omar Sheikh, the man who murdered Osama bin-Laden."Jump to 1:37 to hear this portion of the interview:(I should probably tell you that this is not the original video I posted. That one is "no longer available". Since I have this sneaky feeling that this is not the last time this post's video will somehow become unavailable, please let me know if it doesn't work and I'll refresh it.)If that name, Omar Shieikh, sounds familiar it's because he was a key figure in some huge stories between 1999 and 2...
More About: Osama Bin Laden , Bin Laden , Benazir Bhutto

Happy New Year!
2008-01-01 22:07:00
To my regular readers... the holidays are finally over! I'll be back to posting regularly tomorrow.I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year 's Eve.
More About: Happy , Happy New Year

Think Progress is Covering Cheney Hearings Developments
2007-12-27 21:13:00
Two bits of good news.Think Progress has been consistently covering the efforts by House Judiciary Committee members Robert Wexler (FL), Tammy Baldwin (WI), and Luis Gutierrez (IL) to get hearings into the actions of Vice-President Dick Cheney started in the House Judiciary Committee. The House Judiciary Committee is where the articles of impeachment for Vice-President Dick Cheney now sit after they passed the full House of Representatives on November 6, 2007. Think Progress is looking like a good place to visit for reliable updates on this story.The second bit of good news is what Think Progress reported today:141, 387: The number of Americans who, as of 1:00 PM today, have signed on to Rep. Robert Wexler’s (D-FL) online petition demanding congressional impeachment hearings for Vice President Dick Cheney. Last week, Wexler told Ed Schultz that he launched his website after traditional media outlets rejected an op-ed he had written with his colleagues Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Ta...

J. Edgar Hoover Planned to Jail 12,000 Americans in 1950 - Bush Could Do It
2007-12-26 22:26:00
In a recently declassified document, we found out that J. Edgar Hoover , the former director of the FBI, presented a plan to President Truman in 1950 to permanently imprison 12,000 people, at least 11,640 (97%) of them American citizens, for “treason, espionage, and sabotage.” Marty Kaplan wrote a piece at the Huffington Post about this revelation wondering, “Is it so farfetched to think that, if the contents of Cheney's mansafe manage somehow to evade their rendezvous-with-shredder destiny, we will someday learn that Addington, Yoo and the other elves drafted a just-in-case executive order to round up today's Long War dissenters when (Heaven forbid) the next 9/11 occurs?” My question is, do we really need to see the specific document instructing the Attorney General to round us up to know that the Bush Administration version already exists? Let’s look at the evidence. If we’re to assume that the Bush Administration plan would resemble the J. Edgar Hoover pl...
More About: Americans , Jail

I'm Thinking About Registering Republican
2007-12-22 22:14:00
I'm dead serious about this and I want to get my readers' opinions.I'm currently registered as an Independent. I want to be able to vote in the primaries and I was going to register as a Democrat in order to do so. However, now I'm thinking it might make more sense to put my vote towards choosing the Republican candidate because the Republican candidate will likely determine the tone of the debate we will hear during the months between the primaries and the national election.The reason I think I'm comfortable doing this is because the only person that I would be truly upset to see as the Democratic nominee would be Hillary Clinton (basically because she is just as much a scary corporatist as any Republican). Luckily, I think most people have figured this out about her and I don't know anyone that is gung-ho Hillary. I really don't think she'll get the nomination and I would be satisfied with any of the other Democratic candidates. I trust all of you guys to pick us a good c...
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Deputy Attorney General Evading the Truth
2007-12-20 04:39:00
Following in the footsteps of Attorney General Micheal Mukasey, Mark Filip, President Bush's nominee for the Deputy Attorney General position, refused to correctly label waterboarding as torture during his confirmation hearing this morning. Considering Michael Mukasey's confirmation was not derailed by his disgusting display of false ignorance, there is no reason to believe that Mark Filip's confirmation for the #2 spot in the Justice Department will be hindered by his ridiculous claim that he just doesn't have enough information to interpret the law.Mark Filip's dodging of the "waterboarding as torture" question should not be surprising considering that nobody partnered with the Bush Administration has been allowed to answer that question and keep their jobs. Regardless, I just thought it was something we should know.
More About: Truth , Ruth

AT&T "Splitter Cabinet" Lets Bush Spy on Everyone
2007-12-17 22:50:00
Whenever we hear discussions about FISA and the President’s illegal wiretapping program, the situation is almost always presented as the President wiretapping people without first getting a warrant. This is true, but it doesn’t illustrate the true extent of this program. It makes it seem as though the President is picking out suspicious people, one by one, and then ordering a wiretap. The reality of what is going on is much more sinister, and if us peasants were told by the media just how many people are being spied on, I have no doubt that we would all be enraged. The truth of the matter is that by using the resources of the few telecommunications companies who were willing to break the law, the Bush Administration has been copying the emails, internet searches, and phone calls of everybody. Here’s how we know. On March 28, 2006, a retired AT&T service technician named Mark Klein gave testimony during which he supplied proof that the NSA, with the cooperation ...
More About: Cabinet , Splitter

Cheney Impeachment Hearings Can Begin With Your Help
2007-12-14 19:34:00
I'm so excited right now, I can hardly type!As very few of you probably know, Dennis Kucinich introduced Articles of Impeachment against Vice-President Dick Cheney last month and they passed the House of Representatives. Yes, I typed that correctly. They passed the House of Representatives. Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not want to go immediately into debate, so the Articles of Impeachment moved into the House Judiciary Committee. The House Judiciary Committee is where hearings are to take place if the Chairman, John Conyers, decides to proceed.Rep. Robert Wexler is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and he is calling for impeachment hearings to begin! But the Democratic leadership is still standing in the way. Robert Wexler and two other members of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Luis Gutierrez and Rep. Tammy Baldwin, have written an op-ed in support of starting hearings which can be found on the website Robert Wexler has set up to show public support for starting hearings. ...

Summer Arctic Ice Predicted to be Gone by 2013
2007-12-13 20:01:00
This is scary stuff. As reported by the BBC, the latest computer models produced by scientists in the United States indicate that the entire Arctic Ice shelf will be completely melted in the summer months by 2013, just 5 1/2 years from today.Unfortunately, the data entered into the computer only included measurements from 1979 through 2004, meaning that the computers did not take into account the record ice melts of 2005, 2006, and 2007. To give some perspective, according to The Weather Makers by Australian scientist Tim Flannery,For three decades the ice had been melting away at the rate of 8 percent per decade, but during the summer of 2005 the melt rate accelerated sharply, and the Arctic ice cap shrunk by an astounding 115,000 square miles, an area the size of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey combined. Many researchers had hoped that this was the result of a year of freakish weather. But as the figures for 2006 came in , it became clear that the losses would ...
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Law Experts Imply Government Cover-Up of Torture
2007-12-12 05:01:00
The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Diane Feinstein, held a hearing today on what kind of rights should be granted to Guantanamo Bay prisoners. During the hearing, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartman refused to label waterboarding as either torture or not torture. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois produced a great moment of clarity in the hearing today when he asked two of the members of the second panel, Mark Denbeaux, a law professor, and retired Rear Admiral John Hudson, the current President and Dean at Franklin Pierce Law School, why they believe that Congress repeatedly could not get a response to the question of whether or not waterboarding is torture (remember: our recently confirmed Attorney General Michael Mukasey also refused to label waterboarding as torture. He refused to do so again today.) The responses of the two law experts indicated that they believe that Congress is not getting straight answers from the Bush Administration, and those working with it,...
More About: Government , Experts , Cover , Torture , Cover-up

Howard "Cookie" Krongard Has Resigned
2007-12-09 21:43:00
We actually have some good news today! Howard "Cookie " Krongard, the corrupt State Department Inspector General whose indescretions included:Lying to Congress about his brother, Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard, serving on the Blackwater board of directors at the same time that Howard "Cookie" Krongard was supposed to be investigating Blackwater in IraqStonewalling investigations into slave labor used to erect the enourmous United States Embassy in IraqAllowing the State Department to replace a legit audit of their finanicial dealings with a "clean audit" - twice- that looked better for the State DepartmentHas resigned from his position as the person in charge of oversight in the State Department! This is a good thing, and I'm going to take a day to enjoy it. However, our next task needs to be making sure that he's not just replaced by another "loyal Bushie".For the moment though, feel free to be happy about having a little less corruption in our government.
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Congress Stepping Up Against Bush's Iraq Treaty
2007-12-07 02:28:00
A few weeks ago, President Bush signed a deal (essentially a treaty), called a "Declaration of Principles for Friendship and Cooperation” with Iraq i Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki which guarantees long-term United States military protection for al-Maliki and his government in return for permanent military bases and "investment opportunities" for President Bush.It took a while, but six Democratic Senators have sent President Bush a letter reminding him that he may not promise indefinite protection for Prime Minister Maliki without the approval of Congress .Part of the letter reads:We believe a security commitment that obligates the United States to go to war on behalf of the Government of Iraq at this time is not in America's long-term national security interest and does not reflect the will of the American people. Commitments made during the final year of your Presidency should not unduly or artificially constrain your successor when it comes to Iraq.It's nice to see that Congre...

Diane Feinstein: Corrupt War Profiteer
2007-12-06 02:31:00
A few months ago, I wrote an open letter to Diane Feinstein after she voted in favor of giving the Bush Administration expanded power to spy on Americans. I couldn’t figure out why, as a highly respected Democrat, Diane Feinstein would be so willing to go along with the Bush Administration’s policies. After all, it wasn’t the first time she had voted with the neo-conservatives. She voted in favor of giving President Bush the authority to attack Iraq in 2002. She voted for the Patriot Act. She voted to extend the Patriot Act. She voted in favor of condemning MoveOn.org, and in effect her Democratic base, for questioning the motives of General Petreaus. She voted in favor of confirming Michael Mukasey as Attorney General, even though he made it quite clear he would bend the rules for the Bush Administration. As a Democrat, why would she do these things? It turns out that she may be going along with Bush Administration policies because she is, for all intents and purposes, a ...

S 1959: Thought Crime Prevention Act of 2007
2007-12-01 21:09:00
Eight years ago, I never imagined the Thought Crime 1 Prevention Act of 2007 (referred to by the government as the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007) as being possible in the United States of America. Unfortunately, it is here and it has already passed one of the branches of Congress with shocking and overwhelming approval. The Thought Crime1 Prevention Act of 2007 passed the House of Representatives (as HR 1955) on October 23, 2007 with a vote of 404-6. The Senate version of the Thought Crime1 Prevention Act of 2007, S. 1959, is now waiting for action. The Thought Crime1 Prevention Act of 2007 is how the Bush Administration government is laying the groundwork to make it a crime to be openly opposed to their agenda. It is designed to accomplish two main objectives. The first is the creation of a National Commission on the Prevention of Thought Crime1. The purpose of the Commission is to “examine and report upon the facts and causes of” thoug...

Another Investigator is Under Investigation
2007-11-30 01:52:00
Last week, I wrote a post about Howard "Cookie" Krongard, the Inspector General of the State Department who appears to be helping the Bush Administration cover its ass regarding fraud and slave labor in Iraq, even though his job is to investigate the allegations.This investigator/enabler thing now appears to be a pattern. Scott Bloch, described by the Wall Street Journal as "a loyal member of the Bush administration, serving in the Justice Department's office of faith-based programs, when the president named him to head the Office of Special Counsel in 2003", is the guy that is charge of investigating whether the Bush Administration politicized the Justice department. One of the central issues that has arisen from the investigation is whether or not Karl Rove purposely deleted over four years worth of emails that may or may not contain incriminating evidence.Well, it turns out that Scott Bloch is also under investigation himself for hiring a private company called Geeks on Call to ...
More About: Investigation , Tiga , Gato

The Surge Worked: Bush Got His Permanent Iraq War
2007-11-28 23:57:00
President Bush and Iraq i Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a deal on Monday arranging for permanent bases and “investment opportunities” for the Bush Administration in Iraq. In return, Nouri al-Maliki and his government will get protection from the United States military against any threats to Maliki’s power (at least until Bush decides to renege on the deal). The Bush Administration is calling this arrangement an “enduring relationship with a democratic Iraq”. While this imperial arrangement is the exact opposite of what the American taxpayers are demanding, this is a victory for the Bush Administration, which has been quite clear that its intention is to keep our military in Iraq. In reality, this deal is a treaty between President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki. However, because President Bush decided not to call it a treaty and instead a “Declaration of Principles for Friendship and Cooperation”, the Bush Administration is going to use those semantics to ci...
More About: Iraq War , Surge , Permanent

Military Telling Wounded Soldiers To Give Money Back
2007-11-27 05:43:00
Jordan Fox, a soldier that lost full vision in his right eye and suffered injuries to his back after getting blown up in Iraq, has been contacted by the military and told to return $3,000 of his $10,000 signing bonus because he will not be able to finish the last three months of his tour of duty because of his injuries.Here's the original report from KDKA, a local tv news station in Pittsburgh.The Pentagon also failed to classify at least 20,000 troops that have brain injuries as being injured.How's that for supporting the troops?
More About: Military , Money , Back , Give , Soldiers

Scott McClellan: Bush and Cheney Helped To Out CIA Agent
2007-11-21 19:22:00
Finally, a Bush Administration insider has confirmed that President Bush and Vice President Cheney were personally involved in, at the very least, covering up the outing Valerie Plame, a covert CIA agent who was working on nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. Valerie Plame was outed in retaliation for an article written by her husband, Joe Wilson, which said that President Bush twisted intelligence, and essentially lied to us, during the 2003 State of the Union address when he said Saddam tried to get yellowcake uranium from Africa.Scott McClellan, the ex-White House Press Secretary, confirms in his new book that President Bush was directly involved in the cover-up of Valerie Plame's outing. Here's a portion of McClellan's book from Editor & Publisher:"The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room...
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Diane Feinstein Info Coming Next Week
2007-11-21 17:25:00
The other day I promised to have a post about my corrupt Senator, Diane Feinstein . I'm working on it (and finding out some fascinating things) but I won't be able to get it out this week. Expect it sometime next week, after the Thanksgiving holiday but before Congress resumes (it must be nice having two full weeks off for Thanksgiving, huh?).Sorry for the delay. It will be worth it - I promise.
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Howard "Cookie" Krongard - Update
2007-11-20 05:41:00
Since I wrote this post about the House Judiciary Committee hearing during which the State Department Inspector General Howard "Cookie " Krongard quite possibly committed perjury, there have been a few new developments:In addition to recusing himself from any investigations involving Blackwater, which he did during the House Judiciary Committee hearing, Howard "Cookie" Krongard has also recused himself from " looking into corruption allegations involving the construction of the new U.S. embassy in Baghdad". Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has requested another hearing, to take place during the week of December 3rd, this time to determine if Howard "Cookie" Krongard's November 14th testimony was actually a bunch of lies (the odds are not in Cookie's favor, from what I've observed). Howard "Cookie" Krongard's lawyer has written to Henry Waxman asking that he cancel the hearing. Good luck with that. Howard "Cookie" Krongard's brother, Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard...
More About: Update , Cookie Krongard

Arlen Specter Is For Corporation Immunity
2007-11-16 22:35:00
The most fascinating thing about hearings like the one about FISA yesterday in the Senate Judiciary Committee is watching Senators discuss issues amongst themselves. The reality these people live in is so different from ours. Sometimes it’s the arguments they use to comfort each other that freak me out the most. Here’s Arlen Specter arguing that giving retro-active immunity to corporations, like AT&T and Verizon who were the ones who physically tapped our phones and data-mined our calls and emails without warrants, isn’t a bad thing because, I don’t see, as I sit here, how anyone can prove their privacy was invaded. That they know what was done here. There’s one case under the Terrorist Surveillance Act where there was an inadvertent disclosure by the Federal government and somebody was able to show that they were subject to the program. But unless there would be something like that, I don’t see who’s going to be able to prove anything whether it’s against...
More About: Corporation , Immunity , Unit

Newsweek Hires Karl Rove- I Cancel My Subscription
2007-11-16 04:24:00
Here is a copy of the email I sent to Newsweek canceling my subscription. Feel free to use all or part of it to cancel your own subscriptions:I found out today that in response to the Bush Administration puppet’s “outrage” put on in response to your decision to hire DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas as a contributor, you have decided to hire Karl Rove to create “balance”. This infuriates me and I would like to cancel my subscription. Here is a portion of the resume of the man you think deserves a column in a (soon to be formally) well-respected news source: Newsweek reported that Karl Rove was one of the people who leaked the name of an undercover CIA operative, Valerie Plame, who was working on nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East. Evidence indicates Karl Rove arranged for at least 8 US Attorneys to be fired who were not submissive to the Bush Administration. The positions were then filled with interim US Attorneys, like Tim Griffin, Karl Rove’s pr...