bush's GOP BOBBLE-HEAD DOLLS

What are Voinovich and the rest of the GOP members of the committee really saying? It is perfectly obvious that they are simply making a scripted and rehearsed statement about the Democrats plan to fillibuster bush's radical activist judges. Nothing more, and nothing less.

Your GOP talking point fillibuster smears just won't jive.

While Americans overwhelmingly support the minority protections provided by the fillibuster, GOP committee members are shirking their responsibilities to the people while sitting there nodding their heads like bobble-head dolls in support of bush's reckless choice of candidates. Why do you think there are committees to look at candidates before they go to the floor for a vote Voinovich? What are you payed to do? By whom were you elected to do your job? The president OR the people?

GOP Senator Breaks Ranks, Attacks Bolton - Yahoo! News:

"'Mr. Chairman,' Voinovich said, 'I am not so arrogant to think that I should impose my judgment and perspective of the U.S. position in the world community on the rest of my colleagues. We owe it to the president to give Mr. Bolton an up-or-down vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate.'

The committee, he said, should move the nomination along — but without a recommendation to approve Bolton. 'Let the Senate work its will,' he said.

At day's end, Voinovich prevailed. By a 10-8 party-line vote, the committee followed his recommendation, and now it will be up to the Senate itself to decide.

Afterward, Voinovich said he would vote against Bolton on the floor, but he declined to predict the outcome in the Senate, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 55 to 44, with one independent.

Voinovich said he plans to lobby fellow senators on the matter, saying he intends to 'share my concerns about him with my colleagues in the Senate, hopefully to convince them to not just rubber-stamp this, but rather give this thoughtful consideration.'"

Sorry there bobble-head Voinovich. What your statement really means to Americans is that you and the GOP failed, yet again, to do your job of representing the people. You shouldn't be on the committee if you are incapable of voting against an incompetent choice, and instead invoke your purposefully scripted, and feigned, discomfort with the choice of Bolton.

You, Voinovich, and the rest of the GOP bobble-head committee members, have failed to do what the people pay you to do by putting one of the worst possible candidates for the job at the UN on to the floor for a vote. Your Job was to stop the Senate from wasting it's time voting on the wrong candidates. It was pretty arrogant of you to assume you are on the committee just to nod your head like a bobble-head doll. You owe it to Americans to do your job Voinovich. You, and the rest of the GOP bobble-heads, are all complete failures.

Pittsburgh's Proud Propagandist

If you haven't visited Arianna Huffington's new blog, The Huffington Post, you might have missed a great story. Scott Baker, according to his bio at news channel 4, is very accustomed to Pittsburgh viewers referring to him as "that guy who's on with Sally and Michelle." You still don't know who Scott Baker is? Scott Baker is also the man behind the Teresa Heinze "Shove It" story.

The Huffington Post | The News Wire: "Scott Baker, News Anchor, WTAE-Pittsburgh
'I’m the Guy Who Taught Jeff Gannon Everything He Knows About Journalism.' | permalink

I’m the guy who taught Jeff Gannon everything he knows about journalism. Okay maybe not everything. I’m still not clear on (sorry all hyperlinks on this one freak me out) his evident self-description of “Position: Top.” Except that I now gather that it has endangered the nuptial bonds of Julia and Brad. But I suppose I bear some responsibility for having lectured at the two-day journalism seminar Gannon attended.

Just when it seemed like the Gannon/Guckert story was about to fade away for lack of interest (something slightly less than the interest in “Topic A with Tina Brown”), along comes the new Vanity Fair to re-energize the matter when Gannon himself couldn’t even pull an invite to the White House Correspondents Association dinner.

This is what I get for trying to teach a simple little seminar on media career strategies? Jeff Gannon as my star student? I had more modest goals. Most kids trying to dive into media careers fail miserably. So maybe I can nudge them with a few helpful ideas. Hoped for result: entry level job in, say, a small market television station. Not so hoped for: center square of odd journalism scandal.

The Vanity Fair article calls it a seminar for “aspiring right-wing journalists.” My mantra to the students involves getting rid of the “right-wing” and esteeming the value of solid day-to-day journalism. Good old-fashioned storytelling.

TV commercials for weight loss programs often have tiny disclaimers about the thin person in the ad. “Results not typical.” I’m kind of hoping this is like that. But with my luck Corey Clark will soon be claiming I’m the guru of his love life.

Posted May 9, 2005 03:03 PM"

Do you think that News channel 4 will be inserting these little tidbits from Bakers first Blog entry on The Huffington post into his bio? I highly doubt it.

It is also interesting to note that in Baker's bio News Channel 4 mentions that "For 10 years, he has taught career philosophy seminars for thousands of students interested in media careers." What Baker refers to as teaching "a simple little seminar on media career strategies" might seem much more inspirational if it were not for the fact that, as reported on by Will Bunch at Attytood, Baker is not simply teaching journalism philosophy seminars, but right wing journalism philosophy seminars.

But Baker has another job -- one that he doesn't list on his resume, although he does (sort of) 'fess up in his Huffington Post post. It turns out he teaches journalism to young conservatives at the Leadership Institute School of Broadcast Journalism, founded by Karl Rove associate and former national Young Republican director Morton Blackwell. And anchorman Baker is not just their star instructor -- he's also a graduate (scroll down).

Bunch also reports on the known fact that Morton Blackwell, a very good friend of Karl Rove, was also behind the "Purple Bandage" protest of John Kerry's Purple Hearts by the GOP before the election. Do you find any of these links disturbing? If you don't you haven't been paying attention to the fake media out there funded by our tax dollars and pushing the GOP agenda.

Scott Baker... Is he just another Jeff Gannon, Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher, Mark McManus, or the most recently outed Tax dollar funded GOP journalist Dave Smith? It would be too convenient to blow this off as coincidence IMHO. I am sure that more will come of this in the Blogosphere, but I won't be holding my breath for this information to come out in the MSM. They won't even report on the biggest news of the last year: The leaked memo covered by the BBC that proves bush and Blair conspired to make us go to war with Iraq. Why would they care about telling us the truth? No profit in that...

Not your typical recall...

What more needs to be said about this?

Marines Recall Combat Vests After Tests - Yahoo! News: "1 minute ago

WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps is recalling 5,277 combat vests issued to troops in
Iraq,
Afghanistan and Djibouti after a newspaper article raised concerns that they failed a test to determine whether they could stop a bullet.

The Marines said in a statement they are recalling the vests to alleviate any doubts caused by a Marine Corps Times article published Monday, but service officials insisted they do not believe the vests are faulty.

The armor in question is called the 'Outer Tactical Vest' and it is part of the Interceptor body armor package issued to troops in combat zones. The vest, when combined with protective plates, is designed to stop a rifle round.

Without the plates, the vest should still provide some protection against 9 mm pistol rounds and fragments from an explosion. But several vests manufactured by Point Blank Body Armor of Pompano Beach, Fla., fell short of the Marines' standards during testing in 2004, according to Capt. Jeff Landis, a Marine spokesman.

The Marine statement described an urgent need for the vests as Marines prepared to deploy.

Most Point Blank vests passed the tests, but the Marine liaison to Point Blank recommended the service reject the production lots of those that failed — numbering thousands of vests total, according to memos, dated in mid-2004, obtained by the Marine Corps Times and reproduced on the Internet.

The Marines then tested vests from those lots again at another test range, and they passed, Landis said. Marine officials then issued waivers allowing the vests to go to the troops, but decided to recall the vests from the field when they learned of the imminent article.

Overall, about 181,000 Kevlar vests have been issued to Marines. Each costs $525, Landis said.

In one memo obtained by the Times, James MacKiewicz, a Marine technical adviser, complained of "major performance and quality assurance problems" with Point Blank's products.

However, Landis said the Marines are satisfied with the company's performance and its vests.

"Point Blank stands by its products," said Ish Burks, a spokesman for Point Blank's parent company, DHB Industries. "The vests are performing in the only test that matters — live combat. There have been no reported failures in the field."

Landis said the recall was going out to commanders in the field. Troops will have to check tags on their vests to see if they are from the recalled lots. Then they can exchange their vests for new ones.

Well? Maybe we could ask who gave the OK to distribute these failed vests? It seems the people that decided to send out these faulty vests are more worried about "bad press" than they are about soldiers lives...

KR Washington Bureau | 05/05/2005 | British memo indicates Bush made intelligence fit Iraq policy

It really pisses me off that this story has been out there since March and the MSM refuses to give it any serious coverage. If there was any doubt about a conservative biased media this is just another marker on the highway to the truth. The "Liberal-biased media" is a figment of the radical right wing's messed up imagination.

KR Washington Bureau | 05/05/2005 | British memo indicates Bush made intelligence fit Iraq policy: "Posted on Thu, May. 05, 2005

British memo indicates Bush made intelligence fit Iraq policy

By Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A highly classified British memo, leaked in the midst of Britain's just-concluded election campaign, indicates that President Bush decided to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by summer 2002 and was determined to ensure that U.S. intelligence data supported his policy.

The document, which summarizes a July 23, 2002, meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair with his top security advisers, reports on a visit to Washington by the head of Britain's MI-6 intelligence service.

The visit took place while the Bush administration was still declaring to the American public that no decision had been made to go to war.

'There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable,' the MI-6 chief said at the meeting, according to the memo. 'Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD,' weapons of mass destruction.

The memo said 'the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.'

No weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

The White House has repeatedly denied accusations made by several top foreign officials that it manipulated intelligence estimates to justify an invasion of Iraq.

It has instead pointed to the conclusions of two studies, one by the Senate Intelligence Committee and one by a presidentially appointed panel, that cite serious failures by the CIA and other agencies in judging Saddam's weapons programs.

Click on the headline for the rest of the story...

I was going to skip writing on this. Since it was huge news all around the world I figured eventually it would have to saturate the American MSM... But HELL NO! They have chosen to ignore the incontrivertable evidence that bush lied to and/or misled congress which is an impeachable offense. Does that make the MSM as guilty of this as the bush admin.? I think it does...

Thanks for tanking the economy bush!

Some more serious news for radical right wing bush supporters to ignore (as per usual...)

BBC NEWS | Business | GM and Ford downgraded to junk
GM and Ford downgraded to junk
Standard & Poor's (S&P) has cut the debt ratings of US carmakers General Motors and Ford to 'junk' status.

The US credit rating agency said its decision reflected tough global competition in the market and slower sales of both firms' leading vehicles.

The downgrades, affecting debt worth about $290bn (£152bn), are the largest cuts to junk in a single day.

A junk status rating suggests that a company is more likely to default on its debt.

Rising costs

With both GM and Ford facing difficult times, analysts had predicted cuts to junk status later this year.

But many were surprised at the speed of S&P's decision.

Last month, GM reported a net loss of $1.1bn in the first three months of 2005, largely due to flagging sales and the rising cost of employee healthcare.

Rival Ford also reported a 40% drop in first-quarter net profits, to $1.21bn, citing falling US sales and rising prices for raw materials.

S&P cut GM and General Motors Acceptance Corp's long-term credit ratings to 'BB', the second-highest junk rating.

S&P's outlook on the new rating is negative, which means another downgrade could be possible in the next 24 months.

Meanwhile, S&P cut Ford and Ford Motor Credit Co's long-term credit ratings to 'BB+', the highest junk rating. The outlook on the new rating is also negative.

GM and Ford, which are the world's number one and three carmakers respectively, said they were disappointed with the downgrades.

Both companies stressed they had ample cash reserves.

The economy is tanking, the market is tanking, inflation is rising, unemployment is sucking unless you want to call flipping burgers a career.

I wonder how happy the soon to be laid off auto workers will be knowing that GM and Ford have plenty of cash on hand? Do you think they are glad that bush is pushing for dismantling social security so they can try and scrape together enough of their oncoming unemployment checks for "investing" in the bush privatization scam?

The only thing worse than Reaganomics? Reaganomics in the incapabable hands of a warmongering fool...