President Bush;
It would do your legacy a world of good if you took the moral pathway and pardoned Don Siegelman in the days before you leave office.

With just 75 days left in your administration, you have an opportunity to, in some small way, shed a positive light for the schoolchildren of the future to look back on, and offering a pardon to Siegelman would accomplish that for you.

There is little doubt Siegelman was a victim of your own DOJ used awry, so take this opportunity to rectify just one of the black marks against your legacy. Pardon Don Siegelman, while you still have the power to do so.

If not for Siegelman's sake, do it for the sake of unity between our embattled partisan factions, and do it for your own sake.

Rectifying this egregious injustice could only be good for your soul.

From today's Wichita Eagle; 

A potential Obama cabinet projected in June on the Daily Kos Web site slotted Sebelius in at secretary of Health and Human Services.

It's not a bad guess, said Mel Kahn, a professor of political science at Wichita State University.

Health care reform is expected to be a key goal of the Obama administration and Sebelius has strong credentials in that area, he said.

Kahn said that in her previous role as Kansas insurance commissioner, Sebelius established herself as someone who could stand up to powerful insurance interests.

She blocked a planned merger between the for-profit Anthem Insurance Co. of Indiana and the member-owned Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. Sebelius also has fought for universal health coverage for children, a prime goal of Obama's health plan.
http://www.kansas.com/topstories/story/587426.html

Naomi "On October 1, 2008, President Bush deployed the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division -- three to four thousand battle-hardened warriors -- to...somewhere in the United States. Their original stated mission according to Army Times was 'crowd control' and 'subduing unruly individuals.' They have lethal and nonlethal technologies and tanks..."

Is Republican history repeating itself in century cycles?

With so much talk of Palin ignoring her Republican masters, maybe she's considered forging her own splinter "majority" of Evangelicals with AK47's Teddy Roosevelt invented the Bull Moose party as a response to his own era's sleazy Republican machine,

Maybe Palin's rabid mob will do the same and create their own stemma de Republicana.

She can call it the "Dead Moose Party".  We can bury it alongside the elephant she shot.

This is a crosspost from Bradblog, where Brad Friedman keeps a watchful eye on all things electoral;  the discussion was about the real voter fraud going on as caging by the Republicans, and how it is being camouflaged by a complicit media, using the ACORN contrivance for cover.

 

"Brad, before much longer, you will have the benefit a publicly exposed bona-fide conspiracy- to-commit-voter-fraud as a reference for your ongoing investigation...

Consider that the concerted and illegal efforts of Republicans to cage voters, was safe for them to get away with until November 2006.

Their arrogant, unrestricted use of caging, which you yourself have shown is illegal by most state and federal standards, could only be perpetuated without the enforcement of those laws.

Now consider the RICO laws; from the Wiki;
"The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly referred to as RICO Act or RICO) is a United States federal law that provides for extended penalties for criminal acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. It also provides a civil cause of action for those injured by violations of the act."

Lets not get too deep into the civil issue, every disenfranchised voter would be a legitimate victim, but that isn't my point. Consider the first part, which essentially extends guilt to conspirators who may not have been perpetrators of the actual crime.

Now, ponder the extended line of highly connected McCain campaign perps and Rove-connected wingnut rank and file who could be quite justifiably included in that legal lassoe, (Sampson, Goodling, Von Spassky, Griffin, Rove, etc. ad infinitum) the implications are startling.

If voter caging, with the intent of blocking legitimate voters, is a crime, then the list of guilty accomplices from the past 8 years who conspired to facilitate that crime is pretty easy to trace, and that intent easy to prove.

Simply ask; Cui Bono from fewer low-income and blue-collar voters?

Until the majority swung so hard against them in 2006, the Republican Party was the sole beneficiary of this voter fraud. By institutionally disenfranchising (which is a massive crime that requires a vast conspiracy of entrenched lawmakers) low-income and typically Democratic voters in micro-selected demographics like Ohio in 2004, they could push a closely divided public to the right of it's real center fulcrum.

And because they were in control of the Executive Branch, they agreeably ignored the clearly criminal caging committed by their own operatives, which in essence makes the Executive Branch co-conspirators in the crime of felony voter obstruction, and subject to the RICO laws installed in our legal code.

Had they abandoned their mischief this time around, they might have put some legal distance between themselves and their culpability. But this current vote-supression redux is one more bit of hubris, and exposes the entire house of cards to fresh scrutiny by the 111th Congress and their Commander in Chief.

Brad, your work has been instrumental in exposing the weak underbelly of this vote-suppresssion beast, you have revealed the very basic fact that they can not stand up to public scrutiny. Shine a light on their profanity, and they run for cover.

It's my guess there's an octopus in the middle of this RICO case. Just trace the still-active voter-caging strategists and perps back to their most powerfully connected roots. Anyone want to bet the scent of that old Texas Turdblossom, and the cowpie it rises from, stinks at the center of it all.

Don't let up. Keep after em'. You have slain a mythical anti-democracy dragon, that is not so mythical after all.

If the pen is mightier than the sword, then what's your keyboard worth?

They should send Mudcat out ahead of Biden and Bubba (yes, THAT Bubba) to set up some down-home events in WV, spend a few days there working the blue collar and rural areas.

 

Wouldn't that make a great post-election documentary?

Warning to all Republicans who value your voting rights...

 

Be on the lookout for a short, black and white mouse-looking character when you go to vote, he's known in voter fraud circles as "Mick" but many of us know him as Mickey Mouse.

 

This miscreant cartoon character has leapt off the little screen and has registered to vote, multiple times in every state.

 

This is a serious threat to the fabric of our democracy! (Not to mention the very facric of reality!)  If this mnouse is allowed to sabatoge the electoral process, we may never be able to fix the problem.

 

So, Republicans, be VIGILANT and stop The Mouse whenever you see him voting.  Rumors have it that Mickey's mol, Minnie, may accompany him, they look identical except that Minnie wears a bow.  Also, be on the lookout for their gang members, including a dog named Pluto and an angry little duck named Donald.

Former Mickey gang member Goofy is a life long Republican, so don't expect to see him there...

 

McCain's old habits die hard, huh?

The Keating 5 was just foreplay, this current economic disaster is much closer to McCain, his book-cooking pals on Wall Street, and his campaign lobbyist/handlers than any of them wants to admit.

The Gramm/Hindenburg plan was akin to floating around in a giant bag of hot air, with the pressure-regulators turned off until it all exploded...

This is someting like W's failed "Enron Plan" for Social Security, only this applied to the whole economy, not just a slice.

Crossposted at KOS;

DOES John McCain represent a candidate who not only would use nukes, but Like Bush 1, is actually anticipating the opportunity?

John McCain, with his military upbringing and his connections to the uranium industry, potentially represents one of the most dangerous, world-peace-threatening candidates we have ever seen, in terms of world peace and stability.

If you follow the evolution of our 21st Century military expansion and you have any understanding of the neocons who want to profit from it, then have to go back to Bush 1's "winnable nuclear war" wet dream, and trace it from there to the present day and John McCain's "bomb bomb bomb" giddiness.

This all portends a deadly digression back to nukes as an option for world dominance. The evidence is sprinkled throughout our recent history.

Along the way, ponder the extensive underground nukes the Indians and Pakistanis set off just after Bush 2 stole the White House in  2000.  That series of tests wasn't conducted to see who could make the biggest bomb, it was experimenting to see who could make the SMALLEST nuclear bomb, in an iconoclastic attempt to bring atomic warfare down to a scale that Bush 1 might consider "winnable."

So I think it would be both realistic, and an effective tool for campaigners and debators to start putting this "John McCain = Nuclear War" meme onto a bumpersticker, or at least into our ongoing debate.

There's no doubt John (critical mass) Mccain is tightly puckered-up to the uranium mining industry. Just more evidence he's itching to get his bi-polar finger on that button.  And not just to threaten the likes of Iran, now he wants to fire up the not-so-cold war with Russia, who  has the ability to return the destruction one for one.

It is time to start reminding everyone who thinks he's a maverick that Mccain's the Nuclear War candidate.  That much maverick, the whole world can do without.

John McCain = Nuclear War

Just wondering, if we buy up all that bad paper, can we use it to find out who the real culprits were?

Seriously, a retrospective investigation into the how and where and why (and mostly who) of this debacle might be in order.

And would any of those bonuses paid for writing those bad loans be recoverable?

Also, from a post at KOS, considering the actual dollar amount of the bad mortgages equals about 300-400 Billion balloon bucks,  where's that "other" 300-400 billion going?

At least McCain's got experience with that frantic dispatch...  considering his track record with flying machines and other management decisions, if he ever sat down at the helm of AF1, the SS would arrest him for threatening the life of the President...

After Obama's call this morning, McCain's staff knoew the choices were limited... either accept Obama's lead, or stab him in the back. Because if McCain had refused, when the news that Obama had reached out to McCain hit the media, and McCain said "no" the leadership thing would be all Obama's. So Mccain took the only low road Obama left him, and now that the cable news people have tapped McCain as the hinge vote and the REepublican influence here, he's got to balance the wingnuts with the fiscal conservatives again, which he isn't handling very well thus far. the VP choice of Palin was a bit too "balanced" towards the wingnuts...

and McCain went public as if it was his idea...

Will the public get this info from the MSM, or does it even matter?

for a week, or until the economic bailout debate has been debated.

If the media picks this up and labels it "leadership" Obama needs to willingly join McCain in DC, but don't stop the campaign, let the surrogates (non-congressional) keep the appointed campaign rounds.