The tears of a clone: Conyers closes in on Karl and his Rove-bots

Boo-hoo! I made Tim Griffin cry.

He cried. Then he lied.

You remember Tim. Karl Rove's right hand (right claw?) man. The GOP's ragin' cagin' man.

Griffin is the Rove-bot exposed by our BBC Newsnight investigations team as the man who gathered and sent out the infamous 'caging' lists to Republican state chairmen during the 2004 election.

Caging lists, BBC discovered, were used secretly as a basis to challenge the right to vote of thousands of citizens - including the homeless, students and soldiers sent overseas. The day after BBC broadcast that the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, sought our evidence on Griffin, Tim resigned his post as US Attorney for Arkansas. That job was a little gift from Karl Rove who made room for his man Griffin by demanding the firing of US prosecutor Bud Cummins.

Last week, our cameras captured Griffin, all teary-eyed, in his humiliating kiss-off speech delivered in Little Rock at the University of Arkansas where he moaned that, "public service isn't worth it."

Is this heaven?

Some people said they received thirty-nine copies of my last column.

That is enough to land me on the FBI "Most E-mails" List, and is a Class I felony in some counties of Connecticut.

I'm trying to use an address book to mail these out. Some people complained about having their address visible. I tried to hide those and for some reason I sent out thirty-nine copies.

Well, here goes again. I do mean to only send you one at at time.

I've got a few more I would like to send out.

I would imagine these flurries of emails will subside fairly soon.

I watched "The Weather Underground" last night after I got home from work about midnight.

I just can't help but be impressed by the commitment of those people. They actually fought the United States government. Nobody does that.

Can you imagine — just try to imagine — canceling your Survivor Party to fight the FBI toe-to-toe?

I cannot imagine postponing my stair-stepper workout to fight the United States government.

My wife and I once went "underground" in the 1980s for two weeks, pursued by the Omaha FBI office.

Ohio, the DOJ scandal and "Thor" - the god of voter suppression

The current scandal involving the firing of U.S. attorneys cannot be separated from the Bush administration's scheme to suppress black, poor and working class voters. In order to divert attention from its voter suppression tactics that won Bush the White House in 2000 and 2004, the Bush administration created the myth of "voter fraud." Using fake "voting rights" organizations, obscure groups to finance civil suits and pressure on the U.S. Department of Justice to bring criminal charges against voter registration organizations, Karl Rove and his political operatives like Mark F. "Thor" Hearne have succeeded in undermining the United States' democracy.

"Hearne was one of the most important Bush operatives that almost nobody in America has ever heard of. He applied his vote-suppressing trade from coast to coast, behind the scenes, in a well-funded systematic effort to undermine democracy and keep voters – Democratic voters – from exercising their legal franchise," Brad Friedman, Editor of Bradblog, told the Free Press. Bradblog was the first to reveal Hearne's masquerade as a voting rights advocate.

Congress Votes this Week to Cut Funding to the School of the Americas

Action Alert!
SOA Watch has received confirmation that this week Congress will vote on an amendment to close the School of the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/ WHINSEC). Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts will introduce an amendment to the Foreign Operations appropriations bill to cut funding for the school!

Click here to send an email and fax to your Representative Email
(Be sure to click the "Send a Fax" box to have the fax sent).

Call-in Days to Close the SOA/WHINSEC
Monday, June 18 - Wednesday, June 20:
Call Congress at 202-224-3121.
Ask to speak with the foreign affairs legislative assistant. Here is a suggested message for you to convey:

Making history in Atlanta

Experience shows that history, like nature, does not move in a linear way, in a straight line. It is characterized by long periods of time when, on the surface, little seems to be changing. Then, all of a sudden, big changes can happen, much more quickly than anyone thought possible.

We are facing this reality in a negative sense with the transcendent issue of climate change. The hard truth of the matter is that we are in great danger of experiencing soon, within years, not decades, a “climate snap,” a shift from the general climate reality the world has been experiencing for the past 10,000 years, to one characterized by freakish, violent and persistent major storms, spreading drought and wildfires, extensive plant and animal species extinction, water scarcity and crop failures on a massive scale, and accelerated sea level rise.

This is what the world scientific community is telling us. The rapid heating up of our atmosphere, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, is the evidence which leaves no room for doubt.

Obama says he'll use force unilaterally to protect "vital interests"

There is much that I can agree with or tolerate in Barack Obama's new article in Foreign Affairs. On the occupation of Iraq, he does not favor completely ending it, and he does not mention the ownership of oil, but he does say:

"[W]e must make clear that we seek no permanent bases in Iraq. We should leave behind only a minimal over-the-horizon military force in the region to protect American personnel and facilities, continue training Iraqi security forces, and root out al Qaeda."

Obama is no George W. Bush. But then, neither was candidate Bush what he and Dick Cheney have been in office. And preferability to Bush is far too low a threshold, I think, to merit support as a candidate for president. It is an indication of how far to the right Washington opinions on war and peace have shifted, that a Democratic candidate for president can write the following:

"I will not hesitate to use force, unilaterally if necessary, to protect the American people or our vital interests whenever we are attacked or imminently threatened. We must also consider using military force in circumstances beyond self-defense…."

Sudan’s reported acceptance of peacekeepers for Darfur must be followed by immediate deployment

Washington, DC – In the aftermath of the government of Sudan’s announcement that it would accept the latest plan for deployment of the African Union (AU)-United Nations (UN) hybrid peacekeeping force, Africa Action urged that the plan be put on a fast-track and implementation begin immediately. Today, the UN Security Council will discuss the plan for international peacekeepers in Darfur. Africa Action stressed that the U.S. and other Security Council members must ensure that no more delays be allowed to prevent the immediate provision of a protection force for at-risk civilians and humanitarian aid workers.

This deployment of 17,000 to 19,000 troops would mark the third and final phase of the hybrid peacekeeping force first proposed in November 2006. While Sudan stated in April 2007 that it would accept a second phase or “heavy support package” of 3,000 UN personnel, that phase has yet to deploy in any substantial way.

Belief and doubt

Cindy Sheehan’s temporary withdrawal — in exhaustion and frustration — from a leadership role in opposition to the war that claimed her son has at least given the mainstream media something to talk about: the antiwar movement’s lack of a “face,” or celebrity void.

That’s news, I guess, while mere abysmal poll numbers, which indicate that the war is lost on the home front, seem to have little more than curiosity value. And, indeed, the American public’s two-to-one opposition to the war and a presidential disapproval rating of nearly 70 percent have so far barely caused a sputter in the Bush war machine. Its vigor and ability to intimidate Congress haven’t flagged, and plans for a 50-year occupation of Iraq proceed apace, under cover of impenetrable cliche: Our troops have to be allowed to complete their mission.

The Senate is moving energy legislation that undermines current and future efforts to save the planet

Tell your senators you expect better! The new Congress is trying to pass the buck on global warming and we can't let them. As currently written, legislation coming to the floor in the Senate and developing in the House not only comes up short, it will likely take us backwards. Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Pete Domenici (R-NM) moved a misguided biofuels bill out of their committee to form the basis of the major Democratic energy package in the Senate. Under pressure from industry, this Senate package is getting worse.

Fuel Efficiency Standards: Though better than nothing, the Senate bill sets a weak car and light-truck fuel economy standard for the year 2020 -- only 35mpg. But thanks to big loopholes, even this less-than-ambitious standard will be easy to duck. (The Democrats' House bill contains standards weaker than those in proposals President Bush has advanced! More on this in alerts to come.)

All He Wanted

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