this version is multi-tasking while still operating from the "gut". Lacks perception of any nation or culture that does not contain hockeystick terminology. Not user friendly or compatible with most operating systems especially those originating in the USSR or made in China.

The sole purpose of conservatives is to preserve their social network, their privileged way of life and their income base while shutting out the unwashed multitudes. They spend their time trying to lock out the undeserving, they would not know the common good if they fell over it. Liberals look at the whole picture and try to think of the long term consequences for everybody. Teddy Kennedy brought us Medicare, Lyndon Johnson desegregation, conservatives like Gingrich and DeLay brought us redistricting for a permanent Republican majority. Republicans = drill here, drill now, Liberals = an Inconvenient truth, recycling and green policies. Liberals want to increase the minimum wage which McCain voted against 19 times, while he was passing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

there were only 3 major candidates Bush, Kerry and Nader, since Nader received 1% of the vote, 411,304 votes, I didn't think it was relevant to the missing millions of votes. I was able to find out there were 699,309 votes for anyone else who was not Kerry, Bush or Nader.

Thanks

so let's add them up

62,040,610 votes for Bush
59,028,444 votes for Kerry
121,069,054 votes for both
411,304 votes for Nader
121,480,358 votes for all 3 candidates
699,309 all votes cast in 2004 not any of 3 major candidates
122,179,667 total of all cast votes according to CNN and CSPAN

125.7 million votes cast per US Bureau of the Census

Now the total of 122,179,667 is all votes counted for all candidates for the 2004 general election for president
which don't add up to 125.7 million votes to me.

"I noticed what they were doing from day one," says Gordon Hamel, a career bureaucrat who worked in various areas of the federal government including the White House. "The telltale sign of what the crowd was going to be like was the way Bush was appointing politicals early on. He was putting tons of unqualified politicals into positions. One of the things I noticed the most was the inspectors general. He was filling all of the IG positions with former Secret Service agents. It had nothing to do with their skills. A secret service agent does two things: Protect the president and chase counterfeiters. Unless you were a manager, you were one of the geeks standing at the door talking into your sleeve. So how are you qualified to go from that into an executive position that requires manager and policy-making skills. But these Secret Service agents were the ones who had protected Daddy Bush and Rove knew it. The agents were loyal Bushies."

This quote is from page 112 of The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove by Paul Alexander, Modern Times, 2008

It was about loyalty above reality, above truth, above what was the best or smartest choice, many times he wasn't even informed about what was done after 9-11 becuz it would upset him. (that's my take from reading the Dark Side)

is there a special category for those from inside the WH
White House
David Safavian (convicted), Scooter Libby (convicted), Claude Allen (convicted) (he was Bush domestic policy adviser-Target shoplifting)
CIA
Dusty Foggo - Exec. Director of the CIA
RNC
James Tobin, New England Regional Political Director, charges related to phone jamming (convicted)
House of Representatives
Rep. Ric Renzi charged with conspiracy, money laundering
Rep. Duke Cunningham, (convicted) fraud, bribery, tax evasion
Rep. Bob Ney plead guilty to corruption charges
Rep. Tom DeLay charged with money laundering
Rep. Mark Foley resigned due to IMs in Page Scandal, no charges that I know of
Rep. Curt Weldon investigated for 1 mil. contract steered to daughter's firm, outcome???
Senate
Sen. Larry Craig
Sen. Ted Stevens

the Supreme Court tried to totally obstruct minimum wage, outlawing child labor, establishing the 40 hour work week until
FDR threatened to change the Supreme Court from 9 to 15 justices to help enact this legislation. Suddenly one of the Supremes became convinced that these reforms were not unconstitutional, sound familiar?

"The change of one vote would have thrown all the affairs of this great nation back into hopeless chaos. In effect, four justices ruled that right under a private contract to exact a pound of flesh was more sacred than the main objectives of the Constitution to establish an enduring nation."

"In one case holding the New York minimum wage unconstitutional, Justice Stone said that the majority were actually reading into the Constitution their own "personal economic predilections," and that if the legislative power is not left free to choose the methods of solving the problems of poverty, subsistence, and health of large numbers in the community, then "government is to be rendered impotent."

FDR Fireside Chat March 9, 1937 quoted in the book FDR's Fireside Chats, page 85, page 88, edited by Russell D. Buhite and David W. Levy, Oklahoma Press, 1992

I support Obama too but I think that we need to stand up ourselves, we can't be bobble heads, the dollar has dropped 40% under bush, we find ourselves in the 5th year of occupation of a country that never attacked us, we have 50,000 people who will be losing their homes in Maryland this year. And how does our Maryland officials respond, they are drawing a map of where these homes are. That ought to help a great deal. Quick someone draw a map of New Orleans, maybe it would help if we knew where those homes in the 9th ward were (NOT).

I do not expect Obama to echo my ideas, I do expect him to have backbone stand up for the constitution, this current FISA bill would not permit the states to investigate wiretapping abuse by the Federal Government. This is one more power grab for the Executive, one more cloak to hide behind in secrecy. One thing I know, there are two ways to handle the coming crisis. One is to have a democracy which will provide disaster relief and be flexible enough to make required changes or the alternative which will be a strong authoritarian state that will frighten us w/o providing any relief except for the top 2% and big corporations.

The letter to Mukasey, given to the Associated Press by Wecht's attorneys, was signed by political leaders, attorneys, a retired FBI agent and some media members...The letter echoes arguments by Wecht's defense that the hung jury showed the government's case is weak and much ado about nothing. The letter notes that one anonymous juror told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review that a "majority" of jurors favored acquitting Wecht. "You brought your case to the people. The people have spoken. You have discharged your duty," the letter says. "Do not now summarily dismiss the findings of this jury, but rather dismiss the indictment." Wecht's attorneys argued the charges were administrative oversights - 24 wire counts involve faxes that cost the county $3.96 to send - that didn't rise to the level of federal crimes.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1344804~Letter_t...

Two jurors said Thursday they were unnerved by FBI requests for home visits to explain why they deadlocked in the federal public corruption trial of former Allegheny County coroner Cyril H. Wecht. Experts said the practice of using FBI agents to contact and interview jurors in their homes after mistrials was unusual, but the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh characterized it as "commonplace." "I thought it was kind of intimidating," the jury foreman said about the FBI phone call. Said another juror, "I found it kind of unusual."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertime...

We believe in the 4 freedoms, which includes freedom of speech and expression, FDR put it first above all the others.

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/f...

I never forget that I live in a house owned by all the American people and that I have been given their trust. I try always to remember that their deepest problems are human. I constantly talk with those who come to tell me their own points of view; with those who manage great industries and financial institutions of the the country; with those who represent the farmer and the worker; and often, very often with average citizens without high position who come to this house.

And I constantly seek to look beyond the doors of the White House, beyond the officialdom of the national capital, into the hopes and fears of men and women in their homes. I have traveled the country over many times. My friends, my enemies, my daily mail, bring to me reports of what you are thinking and hoping.

I want to be sure that neither battles nor burdens of office shall ever blind me to an intimate knowledge of the way the American people want to live and the simple purposes for which they put me here...I always try to remember that reconciling differences cannot satisfy everyone completely. Because I do not expect too much then I am not disappointed. But I know that I must never give up-that I must never let the greater interest of all the people down, merely because that might be for the moment the easiest personal way out.

FDR, Fireside chat, April 14, 1938, from the book FDR's Fireside Chats Oklahoma Press, 1992 pages 122-123

Okay, you might feel this is schmaltzy, but still it's one more letter to fight this FISA cave-in thingee so trendy right now
with Dems in an election year.

Senator Mikulski, I am writing you about the FISA bill that will be coming up for a Senate vote after the House has passed their "compromise." I understand that this is an election year and the Democrats wish to appear strong on National Security, just stick with the truth and you should be okay. Ashcroft forbid any checks of the terrorists to see if they purchased firearms after 9-11. There were over 140 warnings of a possible terrorist attack before 9-11, nothing was done, warnings were ignored now we have the FISA bill. I keep thinking of the classic rationale from the Nazis: "I was only following orders." We did not accept that credo then so why should we do so now. Hitler used defense of the Homeland constantly to drum up support for his programs. Gestapo translates into English as Homeland Security. Is that what we want here, I remember my parents did not talk about Hitler, their only remark whenever his name was mentioned was "Never Again." Isn't that our job to make sure that there really is a "Never Again." We have the FISA court, we have the FBI, the CIA, we have subpoenas and everything in place to deal with what we need to deal with. One of the questions the FISA court asked the FBI was why are you collecting people's bank account numbers and passwords for voicemail. If there is no accountability for what occurred, there is no guarantee that innocent Americans' key rights will be respected, esp. if they are democrats. If you must grant some concessions to the telecoms who you feel may have been coerced into cooperating with the WH on this, then cap the financial awards for damages but allow due process to occur. Please we owe it to all of America to protect the rights of her citizens now and in the future.

to lead calls for either Congressional investigations or the establishment of a special investigative committee of some sort (as happened with detention facilities in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo) seems like a good place to start. So would calls for the immediate resignation of ICE chief Julie Myers, who has overseen an agency that has sexually abused, physically beaten, drugged, used dogs against and even killed immigrant detainees in a manner not unlike that seen in offshore military detention centers.

With increasing frequency since 2006, Hastings and other Spanish language reporters in print and electronic media outlets have filled pages and airwaves with tear-inspiring, almost daily reports of numerous forms of abuse, death and fear experienced by immigrants at the hands of ICE.

So, in the netherworld of the immigrant gulag growing on our shores, the small differences around the minutiae of immigration law can mean the difference between life and death, a difference that can win the hearts and minds of many voters this year.

http://www.alternet.org/election08/88109 /

Rove is described on page 49: "He is a formula guy in his campaign and he has other people do his dirty tricks. But his approach is dependent on having control of the money and being dominant on the money. When he didn't have dominance on the money-as with Clayton Williams-someone can come out of the blue and win." Since their WH was just one big campaign, that's how they handled Katrina, but when they could not control the spin, when the media went down and starting covering New Orleans day by day, they lost. The only thing that ever concerned them was their own agenda and how to spin everything else.

...the vicarious liability rule of conspiracy, which provides that each member of a conspiracy is criminally responsible for all crimes committed by his co-conspirators or innocent agents of the conspirators to further the object of the conspiracy. If Bush is guilty of the murders I believe him to be, because he took this nation to war under false pretenses, he obviously did not do this all by himself. Necessarily, he conspired with certain members of his inner circle, co-conspirators like Dick Cheney and Condolezza Rice."

We have made little progress in stopping Bush from circumventing Congress, boundaries set by the constitution or by the courts. He still continues on all fronts. I really was disappointed that Arlen Specter did so little to represent the American people on this. Here's a Texas case where they ruled that executive privilege did not grant Bush the authority to intervene in this case.

It's become a sort of truism that nothing earthly can halt the Bush administration's drive to reinstate the Imperial Presidency. We like to moan that as this president continues to expand the reach of his asserted authority to invade/eavesdrop/classify/torture/detain, nothing breaks his stride. Not tanking poll numbers, not losing Congress to the Democrats, not even pushback from the Supreme Court. Over seven long years, no institution of government has really been able to tell the president, "No."

Until Texas.

Medellin v. Texas could be a law-school exam unto itself. It touches on the separation of powers and the supremacy clause, international treaties and state criminal codes, federalism and the reach of the president's diplomatic authority, all wrapped up in fundamental questions about the scope of judicial review. But really, the best part of Medellin is that if you are a casual spectator attempting to pick out the "good guys," here's your choice: the state of Texas and its relentless quest to execute its people without regard to moral, international, or legal norms, versus the Bush administration and its claim to broad new executive authority to boss around state judges. It's like having to choose between being clawed to ribbons by a grizzly bear or gnawed to death by a killer whale.

http://www.slate.com/id/2175648