Do We Still Have A Democracy?

Bush has denied the peoples’ voice via its elected representatives

From The Boston Globe

It seems that bush has delivered 750 signing statements in his five years and four months that he has held office. That is a rate of about .4 per day. Get it? The rate at which this is happening is MORE than 1 signing statement (going around the constitution) every 3 days.

What is the big deal, you ask? There are several issues at hand, and the implications are disturbing.

1) The Constitution sets up three branches of government – and a balance between those branches to prevent a monarchy sort of system from developing. There is a directly elected branch which (in theory) represents the will of the electorate legislatively. Congress is given the authority to create laws, and to hold the purse-strings. There is a judicial branch that can review the laws to provide oversight of the laws in terms of following the Constitution. And there is an executive branch that administers the laws and carries out the functions of government, that also appoints members of the judiciary (pending senatorial approval), and that can VETO acts/laws from the legislative branch – only then allowing the law to become law if a super-majority of the representatives of the people (congress) vote to override the veto.

The reliance on the signing statement subverts the constitution by disallowing the representatives of the people from creating/passing law – and due to its secretive nature (these are most often created after the law has been signed by the president and are not seen/known by the press or members of congress) there is no way for the congress to assert its Constitutional right/duty to override the president’s veto – because there is no veto. Thus at a rate of one time every three days, President Bush has denied the peoples’ voice via its elected representatives. And done so in secret.

The reliance of the signing statement also subverts the constitution by claiming the right for the president to use HIS view of the constitution as the final arbiter of the law – rather than the judicial branch of the government. While there could be judicial oversight were there challenges, the intentionally secretive nature of this practice almost ensures that no-one knows so there will be no challenges brought to the courts.

Simply – Bush has determined that the Constitutional power he is granted, to VETO acts of congress – is unnecessary and instead claims an Extra-Constitutional means to subvert the will of the people (acts of congress which are – in theory – the representatives of the people). He also has determined that HIS (extremist and opportunistic) views of the Constitution need no judicial review.

Again – the rate of this extra-constitutional activity by Bush is one time every three days.

2) Done in the dark of night (figuratively). These signing statements are filed after he signs the bills into law. In secret with no notice to Congress in terms of his intentions per laws they passed and he signed.

Thus there is no follow-up; no way of knowing what he has “signed into law” but has directed the govt agencies to disregard. Perhaps this article and the constitutional scholars who are cited (and thus can give Congress a place to start – were they to even care – to look in terms of WHERE there have been signing statements, on what topics, in order to see whether or not the law – or bush’s signing statement is being followed by the exec branch (federal agencies). However it appears that to date – within the government there is little record of what the administration is or is not doing per law – over the passed five + years.

Again – the rate of this extra-constitutional activity by Bush is one time every three days. Aren’t folks in congress starting to wonder which provisions that they put into laws are simply being ignored/subverted? At the rate cited one would guess that there is a whole lot occurring in the executive branch that is intentionally hidden from the light of day – just due to these signing statements alone.

Additionally, according to the Globe story, often what Bush signs works to nullify (in terms of how he is directing the govt agencies to act) ‘compromise deals’ that were hammered out during the legislative process… that is items that were they not in the bill, the bill would not have garnered enough votes to pass. There is no way to describe this except as subverting the process.

3) We, the public, first became aware of this practice last December due to the anti-torture legislative fight, followed by a congressional win, followed by news of the “signing statement” – and echoes from Congress of “What the Heck is THAT?” In that case and its infamous follow-up regarding FISAless searches – the administration proclaimed that it was due to National Security reasons (and thus they didn’t have to tell us anything more to keep us safe). And due to the continued post 9-11 fear, that seemed to work – for a couple of months. However – these 750 signing statements wander FAR afield from areas of national security.


Presidential signing statements are more than just executive branch lunacy.

Sign Here

By Dahlia Lithwick
Posted Monday, Jan. 30, 2006, at 5:32 AM ET

Stephen Colbert's Tribute to Dubya

Bush, celebrities attend press corps
dinner.

Updated 4/30/2006 10:08 AM ET

By Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY



WASHINGTON — Not one, but two George Bushes showed up on Saturday night at the White House Correspondents'. Association annual dinner.

This was well reported on allmost all of the media, however they failed to mention the excellent tribute to George W Bush by comedian Stephen Colbert. Even the San Francisco Chronical didn't mention it. Colbert exhibited some Huevos' Grande' as he made fun of the current administration and it's questionable policies. Stephen has stood up for the growing numbers of "We The People" that want to be heard on the issues presented by this lying administration.

By E&P Staff

Published: April 29, 2006 11:40 PM ET updated Sunday

WASHINGTON A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.

Mary Quite Contrary
By Torie Bosch
Posted Monday, April 24, 2006, at 4:59 PM ET

Mary quite contrary:
On Friday, the CIA dismissed Mary McCarthy, a 61-year-old analyst who leaked information about secret CIA prisons to Washington Post reporter Dana Priest, who recently won a Pulitzer for her coverage of the CIA and the war on terror. McCarthy, who worked for both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, has become a cause célèbre for the left and a whipping girl for the right.




Mary McCarthy's Tough Choice

By Ray McGovern, TomPaine.com. Posted April 25, 2006.

As a 27-year-veteran of the CIA, I have one overwhelming reaction to the news that senior intelligence analyst Mary McCarthy has been fired for leaking information to the press on CIA's network of secret prisons abroad: She must have seen no alternative to stop the abuses.

It appears that McCarthy was one of the sources upon which Washington Post reporter Dana Priest relied for the prison scoop that won her a Pulitzer. The Post quoted an unnamed "former senior intelligence official" yesterday saying he thought a majority of CIA officers would probably agree with the firing of McCarthy. "A small number might support her, but the ethic of the business is not to leak," said the former official, adding that one should stay within official grievance channels.

DC9 Full Of Cocaine Linked to DeLay Appointee

WORLD EXCLUSIVEAPRIL 17 2006--
Venice,FL.by Daniel Hopsicker

One of the two owners of the DC9 (tail number N900SA) busted at an airport in Ciudad del Carmen in the state of Campeche, Mexico, had been appointed in 2003 to the Business Advisory Council of the National Republican Congressional Committee by then-Congressional Majority Leader Tom Delay.5.5 tons of cocaine was on board.
The DC9 was purchased several years ago in a partnership between "Royal Sons Motor Yacht Sales, Inc. DBA Royal Sons" and a company owned by Brent Kovar called Skyway Communications Holding Corp, which jointly signed a loan with United Bank and Trust Company in St. Petersburg, FL. for $1.5 million.

The plane's registered owner, “Royal Sons LLC,” a Florida air charter company, was at one time housed in a hanger at the Venice Fl. Airport owned by infamous flight school Huffman Aviation. Huffman Aviation's owner Wally Hilliard had his own Lear jet busted by DEA agents, during the same month Mohamed Atta arrived at his flight school, unhappy to discover 43 pounds of heroin aboard. The Orlando Sentinel called it “the biggest heroin bust in Central Florida history.”
"Congressman Tom Delay, Majority Leader, has appointed Brent C Kovar to serve as the Honorary Chairman, Business Advisory Council,” read the headline of an August 7, 2003 release from PrimeZone Media newswire and press release service.

Also of major significance is the fact that photos of the DC9, seized last Monday in Ciudad del Carmen, reveal that the plane is painted with the distinctive blue and white color color scheme of official U.S. Government planes.
Moreover, to reinforce the effect, or subterfuge, the plane carries an official-looking Seal painted on its side, which reads: SKY WAY AIRCRAFT, PROTECTION OF AMERICA'S SKIES, around an image of a federal eagle clutching the familiar olive branch in its talons. Many have been fooled into concluding that the plane belongs to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.

~WHY BUY GOLD?~

 

 

********HOT NEW POLITICAL COLLECTIBLE********

It's true that gold has risen to over $600 per ounce, but imagine what this historical bronze will be worth. Your friends will be in awe, as this astounding work of art reminds them of our patriotism for the most important leader of the free world

~MISSION ACCOMPLISHED~

Bush Defector to Demolish 9/11 Big Lie in Madison

The former top economist in Bush's Department of Labor, Morgan Reynolds, will speak out on the 9/11 inside job at the State Historical Society, University of Wisconsin-Madison on Saturday, May 6th. The film Loose Change will be shown, and refreshments served, starting at 1 p.m, and Reynolds will speak at 3:00 p.m
Dr. Reynolds, who holds three U.W.-Madison degrees, and who is currently Professor of Economics at Texas A&M University, will present evidence that top Bush Administration officials orchestrated the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center, and the murder of almost 2,500 Americans, as a pretext for initiating their pre-planned “long war” in the Middle East.

“While more Americans doubt the 9/11 story every week, evidence abounds that many have a mental block against rational examination of the evidence about 9/11” writes Dr. Reynolds in a recent article. This mental block, he thinks, amounts to willful ignorance—not just about 9/11, but about history.
Reynolds argues that the Twin Towers and World Trade Center Building 7 were destroyed in a manner that can only be explained by CONTROLLED DEMOLITION with pre-planted explosives—which should not be surprising, since no steel framed high-rises have ever collapsed in the way the three World Trade Center buildings did for any other reason.

Bush pushes for next generation of nuclear weapons

MERCURY, Nev. ( USA TODAY) — If the Bush administration succeeds in its determined but little-noticed push to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, this sun-baked desert flatland 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas could once again reverberate with the ground-shaking thumps of nuclear explosions that used to be common here.

The nuclear-weapons test areas are now a wasteland that is home mostly to lizards and coyotes. Throughout the Nevada Test Site, the ground is strewn with mangled buildings and pockmarked with craters, the ghostly evidence of the 928 nuclear tests the government conducted here from 1951 to 1992.

A concrete tower designed to hold the bomb for what would have been the 929th test still looms over the desert floor.

But "Icecap," the test of a bomb 10 times the size of the one that devastated the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, was halted when the first President Bush placed a moratorium on U.S. nuclear tests in October 1992. The voluntary test ban came two years after Russia stopped its nuclear tests.

Scientists critical of test site blasting plan

Associated Press
April 16, 2006

LAS VEGAS - A group of scientists has criticized the Defense Department's plan to detonate 700 tons of explosives at the Nevada Test Site, saying the test is intended to simulate a nuclear blast as part of Pentagon research into the development of low-yield nuclear weapons.

The Pentagon refused to confirm or deny the claim made by the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington, D.C.-based liberal policy group opposed to development of nuclear weapons.

The federation said it based its statement on a review of Pentagon budget requests since 2002 that it says show the blast, scheduled for June 2, would serve as a "low-yield nuclear weapon simulation."

The charge comes less than a week after James Tegnelia, director of the Threat Reduction Agency, told reporters that the test would send "a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas." Although Tegnelia quickly retracted the comment and stressed that the test would be non-nuclear, Nevada political leaders called for more information on the blast planned about 90 miles from Las Vegas.

Federation analyst Hans Kristensen said the test, while non-nuclear, could be used to develop a nuclear bunker-busting warhead, something some analysts have urged the Bush administration to pursue. The test "is about fine-tuning tools for fighting nuclear wars, Kristensen said. The nuclear war fighters are trying to calibrate a low-yield nuclear weapon against a relatively shallow target in limestone."

Kristensen said the goal of the test program was to find the weakest nuclear weapon that would still achieve knock out hardened, underground structures.

Lower-yield weapons would spread less radiation and fallout that would affect civilians and troops.

Asked last week about the federation's comments, agency spokesman David Rigby told the Las Vegas Sun, "I don't confirm them. I don't deny them. I don't discuss the quality of their information.

"This is a test to have better predictive tools to defeating hardened and underground targets," Rigby said. "It is not a precursor to a nuclear test. It is not a nuclear test."

The June blast "has been redefined over the past several years," and the goal now is to provide data on how such massive explosions and their ground shocks affect structures in different geologic situations, he said.

More Than You Want To Know About A Tooth

An extremely boring artical...mainly about the periodontal ligament. One of my front teeth was jarred out of place, when I bit down at the wrong angle. It is loose, and kinda sticks out at a forward angle. This is limiting my diet to soup and soft foods, and is painful when I bite down on it, so naturally I looked on Google to see what's up. From what I read here, the tooth will kinda fuse back into place, if I can keep from wiggling it. I do think that a dentist is in order here, as I would love to chew on something, like a burrito or a pizza.

A tooth consists of four parts:
Pulp... Dentin... Enamel... Cementum

There is a connective tissue that surrounds and holds the root in the jaw socket. This tissue is called the periodontal ligament.
_____________________________________________________

Pulp is the innermost layer of a tooth. It consists of connective tissue, blood vessels and nerves. The blood vessels nourish the tooth and nerves transmit sensations of pain to the brain.

The pulp has two parts, the pulp chamber and the root canal. The pulp chamber lies in the crown of the tooth. The portion of a tooth that rises above the gum is the crown and the portion below it is called the root. The root canal lies in the root of the tooth. Blood vessels and nerves enter the root canal through a small hole at the tip of the root. They extend through the root canal and into the pulp chamber.

Dentin is a hard, yellow substance that surrounds the pulp. It makes up most of a tooth. Dentin is harder than bone. It consists mainly of mineral salts and water but also has some living cells.

Enamel lies over the dentin in the crown of the tooth. It forms the outermost covering of the crown. Enamel is the hardest tissue in the body. It enables the tooth to withstand the pressure placed on it during biting and chewing. Enamel consists of mineral salts and a small amount of water. Enamel is white but transparent. The yellow colour of the dentin shows through the enamel, and so most teeth appear slightly yellowish.

As a person grows older, small amounts of enamel begin to wear away. This process is called attrition and occurs as a result of long-term use of teeth.

Cementum overlies the dentin in the root of the tooth. In most cases, the cementum and the enamel meet where the root ends and the crown begins. As the surface wears away, the tooth grows farther out of its socket, exposing the root. These areas may then become more sensitive to hot and cold liquids. Cementum is as hard as bone and consists mainly of mineral salts and water.

Periodontal Ligaments

The periodontal ligaments are considered part of the periodontium, as they are supporting tissue of a tooth. These ligaments are a specialized connective tissue that attach teeth from the cementum to the surrounding alveolar bone. They are about .2 millimeters in width, which decreases with age.

Since teeth are not embedded in bone directly, large compressive forces can occur on teeth without destruction of the bone. Instead, the tooth, pulling downward on the periodontal ligaments, create tension which is actually the stimulus for bone growth.

Another function of the periodontal ligaments is to serve as a method for sensation. There are receptors within the periodontal ligaments which sense differing amounts of tension. This helps the body discern the amount of force being placed on a tooth, during chewing for example, because enamel has no sensory receptors itself.

The periodontal ligament has fibers composed of Type I and Type III collagen. Compared to most other ligaments of the body, these are highly vascularized.

Collagen is the main protein of connective tissue in animals and the most abundant protein in mammals, making up about 40% of the total. It is one of the long, fibrous structural proteins whose functions are quite different from those of globular proteins such as enzymes. It is tough and inextensible, with great tensile strength, and is the main component of cartilage, ligaments and tendons, and the main protein component of bone and teeth. Along with soft keratin, it is responsible for skin strength and elasticity, and its degradation leads to wrinkles that accompany aging. It strengthens blood vessels and plays a role in tissue development. It is present in the cornea and lens of the eye in crystalline form. It is also used in cosmetic surgery — for example lip enhancement — although hyaluronic acid is now often used instead.

If anybody read this, I appologise, but It's a good place to store my information...
I warned you...It's a ~~~BORING~~~ artical.

I've been on vacation in Santa Cruz California...It was just another shade of gray, with plenty of rain, including mud slides, and a tree down on hiway 17...Back in Oregon, and the sun is out today. The tulips are blooming , and the grass needs mowing...

Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq

Intelligence 'Misused' to Justify War

The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush administration of "cherry-picking" intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
The truth, as revealed by Paul R Piller, is the same truth that we knew was being underreported in the media in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq.
The President, and all of his PNAC cronies should be censured, not only for lying, but for planning a war that was in my opinion, iniated for their own agenda in the Middle East.


By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 10, 2006; Page A01

Paul R. Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, acknowledges the U.S. intelligence agencies' mistakes in concluding that Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction. But he said those misjudgments did not drive the administration's decision to invade.

"Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war," Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Instead, he asserted, the administration "went to war without requesting -- and evidently without being influenced by -- any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq."

Paul R. Pillar, , who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, says warnings on Iraq were ignored. (By Dennis Cook -- Associated Press)

DUBYA'S SECRETS

COMMANDER IN CHIEF


Cocaine and Alcohol
Books About 9/11




The George W. Bush Presidential Library, Inc.



George W. Bush's Skull & Bones Fraternity

God, Money, and the Rise of the Republican Congress

THE HAMMER

When his hopes of getting into medical school faded...Tom Delay,University of Houston 1970 graduate, went to work for Redwood Chemical, which sold rat bait. In 1972 started he started a pest control business that he named "Environmental Services", and in a couple of months bought Albo Pest Control.

A conservative, DeLay was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984 from Texas's 22nd Congressional District. Known as "The Hammer" for his enforcement of party discipline in close votes and his reputation for exacting political retribution on opponents. When he was running for the Republican seat in congress, the IRS filed liens against De Lay and Albo, in 1979, 1980. and 1983. De Lay had consistantly failed to pay income and social security taxes that he had withheld from his employees. De Lay quickly ran radio spots, to contain the damage.
He overcame that embarrasment, and won the election, in the wake of Ronald Reagon, who recieved 69% of the vote in Texas. In Nov. 1994 Hutto and De Lay sold to Rogers Pest Control.

Here's Tom's autobiography from his Government web site, which gives a brief and rosy picture of his past.

DeLay graduated from the University of Houston in 1970 with a degree in biology. Shortly afterwards, DeLay opened and operated a successful small business in Houston.
The demands of attracting customers and running his business and the responsibility of making payroll for his employees every month convinced DeLay that the primary impediment to economic growth stems from the twin burdens of excessive taxation and unneeded regulation. He soon grew to appreciate the tremendous costs imposed on small businesses by state and federal regulations. The need to lower these burdens sparked his involvement in the political process.