Or at least, that's how it's seemed to me. I'll let the Correntian Experts fix the problem, but for now- here's a round up of what I would've posted this morning had I been able to get on. Don't panic, readers- we're experts in more than just angry radical lesbianism at Corrente and I'm confident that such problems will be few and far between. Also, I had a great day in the garden and I'm glad to have used the am outdoors for a change.

Anyhoo:
Who are these people and why should I care? I'm asking honestly, as I've not really paid attention to them before, despite their claim of "ten years" on the web. The member's list is interesting, although I'm always suspect of "invitation only" lists which include celebrities. I'm part of several invitation only groups, and I know just how little that really means, at least in the sense of being productive or innovative.
I found the distribution and 'diversity' of the web sites nominated to be interesting. I'll get to that in a later post. Verizon is the sponsor? Well, that says it all.

Eat it, old rich white male conservative people. You thought it was only my Semitic ancient history archives that were being fucked with:

The FBI delivered a total of 9,254 NSLs relating to 3,501 people in 2005, according to a report submitted late Friday to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. In some cases, the bureau demanded information about one person from several companies.

The department also reported it received a secret court's approval for 155 warrants to examine business records last year, under a Patriot Act provision that includes library records.

This sucks. I'm not confident it won't happen, but if I prayed, I'd pray it wouldn't:

By GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer Tue May 2, 8:16 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Tuesday that a Republican proposal in Congress to set up a watchdog over the federal courts is a "really scary idea."
Ginsburg told a gathering of the American Bar Association that lawyers should stick up for judges when they are criticized by congressional leaders.

"My sense now is that the judiciary is under assault in a way that I haven't seen before," she said.

As an example, she mentioned proposals by senior Republicans who want an inspector general to police judges' acceptance of free trips or their possible financial interests with groups that could appear before them.

"It sounds to me very much like the Soviet Union was .... That's a really scary idea," said Ginsburg...Ginsburg said her confirmation hearings in 1993, and those the following year for Justice Stephen Breyer, were long but friendly. "That bipartisan spirit has broken down," she said.

Sen. Charles Grassley (news, bio, voting record), R-Iowa, said last week that the judiciary wasn't doing enough policing of itself. His plan would create an inspector general to oversee federal courts including the Supreme Court. The inspector general would be directed to report any judicial misconduct to the Justice Department.

There are several judges in my family, and all I can say is: this is utter bullshit. Judges do more to police themselves than you would think, and when they don't, it's because it wouldn't help/matter. These bills are nothing more than an attempt to silence/declaw the few, remaining intelligent judges left in the federal judiciary. Which is a pretty small number, given the trajectory of Ray-gun/Pere/Blocked at Every Appointment Clinton/Free for All Fascist Enabler. Judges like to golf and retire and be done with it after about 10 years, the ones you know for longer periods are sadists or ambitious or crazy or some combination of all three. "No One" truly cares about what happens in our courts. Go to one and you'll agree with me.

Go read this, as it gets better and better with every paragraph. Whore, whores, drivers, pitchers, whores, and knee pad manufacturers.

More details on Shirlington Limousine

Posted on Wednesday, May 3, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.
A few days ago I wondered aloud exactly how Shirlington Limousine of Arlington, Virginia, owned by Christopher Baker—a man with a lengthy history of illegal activity—got millions of dollars in federal contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and if those contracts had anything to do with Shirlington’s relationship with defense contractor and accused Duke Cunningham-briber Brent Wilkes. The latter, readers might recall, allegedly used Baker's limo service to transport congressmen, CIA officials, and perhaps prostitutes to his Washington parties.

Most companies owned by a man with a 62-page rap sheet aren't nearly so lucky in winning taxpayer dollars.

Yesterday, a source close to the Cunningham investigation told me that Wilkes and other San Diego defense contractors were behind-the-scenes players at Shirlington. Talking Points Memo looks to have confirmed that, finding that a man named Jerome Foster was a company director for Shirlington from 1995—the year after the company incorporated in Virginia—until 1999. Foster owns a company called Pentech, which is represented in Washington by former Rep. Bill Lowery, whose lobbying firm also represented a company owned by Brent Wilkes.

Here's what I've learned about Pentech and Foster: the firm received a series of small Pentagon contracts worth a total of $2.3 million between 1994 and 1998. Also—perhaps just a coincidence—but before starting Pentech Foster was a professor at San Diego State University, for which Lowery lobbied and where Wilkes went to school. According to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Wilkes was a major donor to the university, the athletic director's office was named after him, and he had courtside seats for basketball games.

Like I said, there's plenty to contemplate.

Let's all embrace Raw Story, shall we? Flaws and all. They are regularly rockin of late.
File under "Yah, we pay attention to what an Uncle Tom has to say. That's what it means to be in the Klan."

Ron Brynaert
Published: Tuesday May 2, 2006

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Bush apparently gave Cheney power to preside over National Security Council meetings

Shortly after taking office, Vice President Dick Cheney fought to take over one of the national security adviser's key duties, claims an unnamed ex-official in the June issue of Vanity Fair.

"At one point early in this Bush administration, a former official tells me, Cheney wanted to chair meetings of the National Security Council "principals"— the secretaries of state and defense, the C.I.A. director, and so on—in Bush’s absence, co-opting the usual role of the national security adviser, then Condoleezza Rice," writes Vanity Fair national editor Todd Purdum in an advance copy provided by the magazine to RAW STORY.

"He lost," Purdum adds within parenthesis.

Although Cheney's alleged desire to chair principals meetings has been reported before, the results of a RAW STORY investigation suggest that the Vice President may have gotten what he wanted.

Practically unnoticed, a National Security Presidential Directive issued Feb.13, 2001, and signed by President George W. Bush, formally gave the vice president that duty, albeit at the President's discretion.

"When I am absent from a meeting of the NSC, at my direction the Vice President may preside," Bush wrote.

But before the document was officially released, an article in the New York Times published in February, 2001 claimed that "officials who read the directive today and who were familiar with its development" said that it "rejected suggestions that Vice President Cheney head important meetings of the National Security Council."

"Given Mr. Cheney's broad powers and his past posts as defense secretary in the first Bush administration and chief of staff to President Gerald R. Ford, there were expectations at the White House that he would assume a more prominent role in the security council," the Times' Jane Perlez wrote.

"But the directive today affirmed Ms. Rice's primacy," Perlez claimed. "The directive means that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld will sit "deferentially" beside Ms. Rice at the meetings."

Grrl, they don't listen to me and they also don't listen to your black ass. Wake up and smell Gwen's coffee: no one cares what you think or say. You must be such a fucking lightweight to take this from your husbands, I mean Offred-namers, er no I mean high gloss shine masters. Go buy some shoes and look busy, you silly cnut. And work on your Russian, if you want to join the Adults in the Sandbox in Iran, it's time you actually learned some. Otherwise, you're the lipstick on the Pig that is.. Cheney. Ick.