Bill Clinton lied about his whore,
which was his blasphemy and sin.
George Bush lied on the need for war,
defends it still with Karl Rove’s spin.
Which liar, I ask, has hurt us more,
weighing  the Iraq mess we’re in?

An angry groundswell has risen against the appointment of George W. Bush’s personal attorney to the US Supreme Court.

One key question must be asked: as a Justice, would she soon be asked to rule on a conspiracy conviction against her present boss?

In light of the new indictments against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the question may not be so far fetched.

DeLay was originally indicted on charges of violating campaign finance law. His lawyers have quickly raised serious technical challenges.

But now two additional charges have been filed by a second grand jury. Conspiracy is involved, taking things to a whole other level, including the possibility of jail time.

The prospect of “The Hammer” duck-walking in orange polyester to a Texas prison cell may warm progressive hearts everywhere. But there’s a much deeper message here about the case of Valerie Plame.

What do we make of the Saturday, October 1 Washington Post headline “Poison Found in Air During Anti-War Protest”?

Washington D.C. Public Health Director Greg A. Pane posed the right question in the Post article, “Why that day? That’s what is not explained.” Pane pointed that it was “just this 24-hour period and none since.”

The Post noted that Pane found “. . . it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the mall was packed with people.”

Puzzling? Indeed. Biohazard sensors detected tularemia bacteria at the mall on Saturday, September 24.

Equally puzzling was an earlier Post report: “Weekend protesters hit travel snags.” The article reported that Amtrak trains from New York City were turned back, cancelled or delayed from heading to the nation’s capitol for the biggest peace demonstration since the Vietnam War era. Also, Metro subway cars coming into the capitol were disrupted by repairs.

Federal officials are still pondering the death of five people on U.S. soil and scores of others who were infected with U.S. military-grade anthrax in the fall of 2001.

Sept. 24 Test Results Indicate Tularemia Bacteria

(RICHMOND, Va) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notified the states of Maryland and Virginia and the District of Columbia today that an airborne form of Tularemia bacterium was detected by air sensors in the vicinity of the National Capital Mall during the weekend of Sept. 24 - 25. Since then, additional tests from these collectors have all been negative. Subsequent laboratory tests performed on the Sept. 24-25 samples have supported the presence of low levels of the bacterium in the environment. Public health officials do not believe the finding of low levels of the bacterium near the National Mall indicate a public health threat.

Tularemia, which occurs naturally, is easily treated with common antibiotics. It cannot be transmitted from person to person. Tularemia is found naturally in the environment, and health officials are doing additional environmental sampling as well as reviewing other possible causes of the positive reading. State health departments have alerted local health departments, acute care treatment facilities, health care providers and veterinarians to be on the
Republicans, before I ask you to take a pledge I would like you to read about the consequences of global warming, greenhouse gasses, and depletion of the ozone layer.  If we do not act to reduce the use of fossil fuels your children will inherit a world which is hotter, which has dirtier air and water, which has severe floods and droughts, increasingly intense hurricanes, and more wildfires.  Also, the level of the ocean will rise dramatically causing massive flooding along the entire coastal areas of the United States.  And as the ocean warms the intensity of hurricanes will become more severe causing great losses in lives.

A senior staff person for one of the most progressive and courageous members of Congress recently advised a room full of peace activists that they won't be able to persuade Democrats to oppose the war simply by showing them polls finding that a majority of Americans oppose the war.  Rather they must assuage the Democrats' fears of being called "weak on national security."

But that's not possible.  Opponents of a war will inevitably be called weak on national security.  And even if that ceases to be the case, Democrats will continue to fear it for a generation or more.  My advice to you, Democratic Members of Congress, is to embrace it and change the discourse.  Don't run scared of someone else's language.  Learn to recognize when the greatest gift you could ask for is to be attacked by your discredited, despised, and indicted opponents. 

Having publicly raised the idea of turning the September 24 anti-war march in Washington into a sit-down, I feel obliged to report on what happened last weekend and ask what more will we do?

The column I wrote on that idea a couple days before the demonstration (“Will We Use the Power We Have on September 24th?”) generated several email replies.  All but one were supportive, generally along the lines that “the horrors we are perpetrating in Iraq call for the strongest non-violent response possible.”  Keeping in mind the unscientific nature of my polling process, here’s what I learned from talking with as many people as I could on the way to Washington and while waiting in line for the march to begin the morning of the 24th.

And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey
By Studs Terkel
The New Press (New York); hardback: 301 pages; $25.95

Few Americans can honestly be described as a "national treasure," but Studs Terkel is certainly one. And there is certainly just one Studs Terkel.

Feisty well into his nineties, Studs still has that unquenchable spirit and that ultimate radio voice. Our world has been bettered by him, in more ways than we can measure.

His newest book is a tribute to that legacy. And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey is a completely unique and fascinating compendium of Studs's brilliant, vanguard interviews with many of the most important figures in American culture.

Studs is at his incomparable best in the Introduction, explaining the origins of this, his first radio show, The Wax Museum. Soon after World War II, the owner of Chicago's classical music mecca at WFMT gave Studs (and the people of Chicago) the ultimate gift---an hour of radio time in which to do whatever he pleased.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Jeez, that was quite a hissy fit Tom DeLay had, calling Ronnie Earle a rogue prosecutor, a partisan fanatic and an unabashed partisan zealot out for personal revenge.

Ronnie Earle? Our very own mild-mannered -- well, let's be honest, bland as toast, eternally unexciting, Mr. Understatement, Old Vanilla -- Ronnie Earle? If the rest of Tom DeLay's defense is as accurate as his description of Ronnie Earle, DeLay might as well have himself measured for a white jumpsuit right now.

For the one-zillionth time, of the 15 cases Ronnie Earle has brought against politicians over the years, 12 of them were against Democrats. Earle was so aggressive in going after corrupt Democrats, the Republicans never even put up a candidate against him all during the '80s. Partisan is not a word anyone can honestly use about Ronnie Earle, but that sure doesn't stop the TV blabbermouths. So many of them have bought the Republican spin that Earle is on a partisan witch-hunt, the watchdogs like Media Matters can hardly keep up.

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