Truth Surfer

Do you ever watch the news and wonder what caused someone to do something. You know what I mean. When the news is on and the top story is so senseless that you just wonder what motivated the criminal to do it. Sunday, I had that feeling. The funny thing about it was that it was from reading the newspaper. The feeling wasn't from a criminal - it was from a person's opinion piece. I was flipping through the pages of the Star Tribune and stopped on a page with an opinion piece wrote by Katherine Kersten. It was about Paul Wellstone. I read it and felt a sinking unbelief and sadness drop inside of me, like it was a lead ball. Here's a link to the article (read it): Event was proof that the personal isn't always political The opinion piece left me wondering what would cause someone to write such a unfeeling, unkind article? What would motivate the writer? Those questions led to more: If Katherine has children, would they be proud of Mom's article? (a thought) If Katheri...

Rowley announcing her run for Congress in July Over at MDE , Coleen Rowley is criticized for her fashion sense (or lack there in)...but you'll get substance from the Truth Surfer .. 'The Truth Ultimately Will Win' Coleen Rowley on changes in the post-9/11 FBI and her run for Congress in Minnesota on the Democratic ticket. Ann Heisenfelt / AP Web Exclusive By Bao Ong Newsweek Oct. 29, 2005 - After 24 years of service, Coleen Rowley has retired from the FBI. But the woman who moved into the spotlight as the agency's 9/11 whistle-blower is still scrutinizing issues of national security—and how the government is handling them. She takes a measured view of this month's 9/11 Commission's follow-up report criticizing the FBI, Congress and the Bush administration for failing to act on the panel's antiterror recommendations, describing some of the charges leveled at the agency as "unfair" and arguing that the panel was too lenient on the administration. ...

New Merle Haggard CD includes 2 must have songs for the politically minded! Those two songs are: "America First" and "Where's all the Freedom" If you are a country music fan, you'll love the entire CD. If you are not a fan, the lyrics on the 2 songs above are worth reading! "America First" is the first radio single being released to radio. Everyone needs to hear this song, it is so fitting to the current situation we are in. Please call your local Country Radio station and request it! I am planning on buying more copies of this CD to give to friends and other activists. These songs really become meaningful after the horrible milestone that we hit this past week. 2,000 courageous men and women (Americans) died in the Iraqi war. God bless them and their families, our thoughts and prayers are with them. Let's get "America First" heard by all! Here's a link to Amazon.com (please get at least 2 copies - keep one for yourself and give t...

President Bush is no longer his “own man”. Throughout his 1st term and into his second, President Bush touted that he stood by his convictions, a man of principle. He ran for re-election as a President who claimed that he’d never waver when he sets his mind to something. He has said that he’ll say what he means and mean what he says… However, Thursday, October 27, 2005 – proved that he lied about that as well. President Bush is no longer “his own man”, and now it can be argued that he never was his own man. He is now under control of the religious right with his acceptance of Harriet Miers resignation of nomination to the Supreme Court. You know you have problems when your own party won’t back your decision-making. Many people would claim that President Bush has always been a puppet of various groups or people (i.e. – Karl Rove). Maybe, due to the corruption that has been running rapid through Bush’s administration – maybe his puppeteers were so preoccupied with being investigated that...

Can you say 'goodbye best friend kissy butt'? Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to be a Supreme Court justice Thursday in the face of stiff opposition and mounting criticism about her qualifications.... Oh yeah, and there was also that money scam that she was involved with but hey...Bu$hCo can't help himself, he's ethically impaired. Bring on the indictments!

Senator Thomas Neuville (Senate District 25) continues to play blame game at a community forum held in Lonsdale (Oct. 17). Tom looked tired. Tom looked impatient. Tom looked upset. Senator Neuville played the blame game on Monday, October 17th at a community forum held by the Lonsdale Area Chamber of Commerce. The forum was held to mainly highlight the local mayoral and city council races. Senator Thomas (Tom) Neuville and Stat House Rep. Ray Cox were also invited to give a report on last sessions activities and then answer questions. Neuville was asked to come up to the podium first. He insisted that Rep. Cox join him, but the moderator said no Mr. Cox will come up next. Neuville gave a lack luster report and when he ran out of things to say he asked for Mr. Cox to join him and answer questions (the question period of the forum wasn't supposed to take place till the end of the forum) - the moderator quickly jumped in and said that the question part was at the end and right now Mr....

In the Sherrod Brown/Paul Hackett Senate primary fight in Ohio, but if Brown keeps coming up with class acts like his latest blog ad campaign, it's going to be real hard not to choose up sides. Look at this… …give it a click if you want to reward good behavior and help secure a Democratic victory in Ohio. That's right, Brown is paying for ads (this one's a comp) that feature photos of both candidates , to raise money for a fund that will support the primary winner, whoever it may be . Sherrod Brown. Democrat. Damn Good Democrat. Let's see if this starts something with other damn good Democrats working together! Hat tip to another damn good democratic blogger Upper Left

The Miers family received 'excessive' sum in land case * I'm positive this is just a fortunate series of lucky coincidents and not anything else...not! Supreme Court nominee Harriet 'kissy butt' Miers collected more than 10 times the market value for a small slice of family-owned land in a large Superfund pollution cleanup site in Dallas where the state wanted to build a highway off-ramp. The windfall came after a judge who received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Miers' law firm appointed a close professional associate of Miers and an outspoken property-rights activist to the three-person panel that determined how much the state should pay.

Best line on 'kissy face' Miller goes to Maureen Dowd at truth out ,,, Judy admitted in the story that she "got it totally wrong" about WMD "If your sources are wrong," she said, "you are wrong." But investigative reporting is not stenography. I love this the last part... But investigative reporting is not stenography . They should teach that to every first year journalism student and ban any hacks who don't get it...which based on the last four years...is the majority!

Okay I just can't bring myself to post up Delay's ugly mug with his evil grin that's already posted up everywhere...but I do so like this one!

Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has just launched his own brand-new Web site. I believe that's a sign we have 'lift off'. It's certainly not the action of an office about to fold up its tents and slink back into the desert. While Fitzgerald says 'not to read anything into it...either way'...I'm taking it to mean there's a need to post up and desiminate information (indictments?). Just thinking about it makes me smile...

Senator Ted Stevens (R Alaska) vehemently claimed that after 37 years in the Senate he would resign and "be taken out of here on a stretcher" if the Senate killed funding for two Alaskan bridges. The so called Bridges to Nowhere , $223 million in federal funds – will connect Gravina Island (pop. 50 people) to Ketchikan(pop. 14,000 and dropping). Another dog..er pig is the Knik Arm Bridge, which is set to receive $231 million, and would destroy a historic Anchorage neighborhood to connect with an area so remote it boasts only three dirt lanes. The bridges are perhaps the most egregious of approximately $1 billion worth of special earmark funding set aside for Alaska in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act. The pork they represent could buy a whole lot of Hurricane relief. Frankly I think it's high time the Senator did exit on a stretcher and save us the cost of two unnecessary bridges to nowhere.

INTREPID IRAQ REPORTER SAYS THINGS ARE NOW SO DANGEROUS HE ONLY ALLOWS HIMSELF 12 MINUTES TO COVER A STORY The Independent's famously intrepid Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk has revealed that the situation in Iraq is now so dangerous that he doesn't know whether he can go on reporting from the country. Fisk, who has previously accused colleagues of practising "hotel journalism" in Iraq, said that "mouse journalism" is now the best he can do in the country. Fisk, whose new history of the Middle East, The Great War for Civilization, has just been published, described mouse journalism as the practice of popping up at the scene of an event and staying just long enough to get the story, before the men with guns arrive. Speaking at a bookshop in Golders Green, he said: "You cannot imagine just how bad things are in Iraq. A few weeks ago, I went to see a man whose son was killed by the Americans, and I was in his house for five minutes before armed men ...

In 2004’s Presidential race I heard the cry “anyone but Bush! Anyone but Bush!!!”. Unfortunately it was Bush. After the election all those who were involved (well, ok most) disappeared back into their lives. As a new person to the political process I found myself working harder and with more passion after the election. Sure we lost the big one, but we had many small victories along the way. These victories I considered to be the foundation of what was to come. Having Bush in for a second term had me more focused and ready to combat what lay ahead. But as I stood there with my sleeves rolled up ready to get back to work, I noticed the emptiness of it all. Where did all of those passionate volunteers go? What they believed during the election was now more important than ever. Where were the flag bearers? Where were those who had worked so hard and worked so passionately? Surely they didn’t feel that all of that work was for nothing or did they? I realized as time went by that maybe most ...

When Miers(Kissy Butt to Dubya) was campaigning for a seat on the Dallas City Council in 1989, she promised an anti-abortion group that she would support a constitutional amendment banning abortions except in cases when a mother’s life was threatened. Miers also promised to participate in anti-abortion rallies and to try to block public money from going to clinics where women could have an abortion. Yep, she drank the coolaid.

Well I guess this isn't new (or news), and it certainly isn't a surprise. Wonder how much they make on the bush payroll? Fox News Pushing “Criminalization of Politics” Talking Point Conservative defenders of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby have settled on their No. 1 talking point: the grand jury investigation into the CIA leak scandal represents the “criminalization of politics.” In other words, they say, the outing of a covert CIA agent in a time of war to punish a whistleblower is just everyday “politics” — nothing out of the ordinary, certainly nothing criminal. In fact, according to conservatives (as articulated by the National Review), the “criminalizing of politics” is actually “the most dangerous fire of this ordeal.” To spread this talking point across the nation, the right has received a major assist from Fox News. According to a database search, every single television reference to the CIA leak scandal as the “criminalization of politics” in the last 30 days has been on ...

Unlike other established democracies the Iraq draft constitution doesn't act as the supreme law of the land. Islam is the supreme law of the land. It is clearly labeled as such. Because of this the constitution is lacking in the necessary elements to establish equal rights. Islamic law still controls women's lives. They are forbidden to have a passport or travel without a family male escort, forbidden to divorce without permission from a husband (rarely granted), and are still beaten for wearing bare arms, beaten for a lack of escort, beaten for any infraction of Islamic law. Iraq needs a secular not religious government to be a functioning 'democracy'. Only then will women be equal. Besides the vast majority of Iraqis are more concerned with when they will have jobs, electricity, clean water, healthcare...players...no one else will benefit.

It's been a long...very long Bush reign... Have I've mentioned GOP stands for GO TO OUR PRISONS? Upper Left is keeping score: 1. Cheney's secret Energy Task Force 2. Ashcroft's illegal campaign contributions in 2000 3. Boeing I - the $23 billion tanker lease deal 4. Boeing II - the $1.3 billion surveillance aircraft boondoggle 5. Bush-Cheney 2000's failure to report $14 million spent on "recount" activities 6. Haliburton in Iraq 7. Haliburton in Nigeria (*2005 Haliburton in Louisana!) 8. The Valerie Plame outing (Is it Rove or Cheney that's a traitor...more likely both!) 9. Withholding information about the Medicare bill costs 10. Daniel Montgomery, Director of the ATSB, accepting illegal gifts from airlines. 11. John Korsmo, FHFB chair and his wife Michelle, a DOL official, involved in illegal political fundraising. 12. The suspension of Parks Police Chief Teresa Chambers in violation of Title 5 whistleblower protections. 13. The Ir...

Yep I'll buy coincidences...just not every single time... Number One : May 18th, 2002. The first details of the President’s Daily Briefing of August 6th, 2001, are revealed, including its title - “Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S.” The same day another memo is discovered - revealing the FBI knew of men with links to Al Qaeda training at an Arizona flight school. The memo was never acted upon. Questions about 9/11 Intelligence failures are swirling. May 20th, 2002. Two days later, FBI Director Mueller declares another terrorist attack “inevitable.” The next day, the Department of Homeland Security issues warnings of attacks against railroads nationwide, and against New York City landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Number Two : June 6th, 2002. Colleen Rowley, the FBI agent who tried to alert her superiors to the specialized flight training taken by Zacarias Moussaoui, whose information suggests the government missed a chance to break up the 9/11 plot, ...

Yes, she's got one .

cronyism and bush

Bloggers seem to be scoring this more often than not lately. Here's Oliver's comment ... "John Kerry was the left of me, the next candidate might be to my right - I really don’t care about pushing the party any direction besides forward." AMEN! Of course, there's a chance the next candidate might be that Kerry fella…who's NOT actually to the LEFT of me, he's tacting to the right in a strong gusty wind.

...All the way to the Supreme Court! Who knew Bush is a vain as a dragon. I'm willing to bet the Supreme Court on it... AUSTIN, Tex., Oct. 10 - "You are the best governor ever - deserving of great respect," Harriet E. Miers wrote to George W. Bush days after his 51st birthday in July 1997. She also found him "cool," said he and his wife, Laura, were "the greatest!" and told him: "Keep up the great work. Texas is blessed." Ms. Miers, President Bush's personal lawyer and his selection for a Supreme Court seat, emerges as an unabashed fan in more than 2,000 pages of official correspondence and personal notes made public on Monday by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in response to open-records requests.

The very best thing about Howard Dean... "Well, certainly the president can claim executive privilege. But in the this case, I think with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you can't play, you know, Hide the Salami, or whatever it's called." --Howard Dean on Hardball

The Washington Post story headline says it all, "A Deep Dedication to the President." NO No No NO NO NO NO...blind loyalty to an Idiot President is not enough to be a Supreme Court Judge...write your respresentatives today. NO NO NO NO NO

Picked this up at Coldflame... Check out this site, Defcon America , if you believe in the value of the separation of church and state to our country.It includes updates on measures to teach certain religious speculations or ideology as science