TechCentralStation
by Glenn Harlan Reynolds

11/09/05

Republicans might be tempted to root against Sperling here. To the extent that the activist left tugs the Democratic Party into Jimmy Carterland, that's probably good for the GOP's chances in 2006 and especially 2008. But the fact remains: Sooner or later, the Democrats will win the White House, and/or a majority in Congress, and when they do it will matter a lot whether they're promulgating the economic policies of Bill Clinton, or the economic policies of Jimmy Carter -- or Michael Moore. For the good of the country, Republicans should be rooting for Sperling, not against him...

http://www.techcentralstation.com/110905B.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

11/09/05

As blowback from the lies that duped us into war plunges Washington into a maelstrom of investigations and counter-investigations, Ahmed Chalabi adds insult to injury by making a return trip to the Imperial City. He's staying at the ritzy-glitzy Ritz-Carlton, where he's staked out a whole bloc of rooms at (U.S.) taxpayers' expense, and is slated to meet with Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Treasury Secretary John Snow, and the Chalabi fan club over at the American Enterprise Institute. Gee, that's funny: I could've sworn Chalabi was under investigation for turning over highly sensitive U.S. intelligence to the Iranians, and had his Iraqi home and headquarters raided by American and Iraqi troops last year. Not to mention the fabrications he retailed to New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who reported them as fact and plastered them all over the front page of the 'newspaper of record'...

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=7961



Return of the tinker

The American Prospect
by Matthew Yglesias

11/08/05

In a more just world, Ahmed Chalabi would spend the rest of his life afraid to set foot in the United States. After all, what could possibly await him in Uncle Sam's jurisdiction but a bundle of awkward subpoenas and summonses? ... But returning he is. Not to be interviewed by FBI counterintelligence officers. Not to testify before a grand jury. Not to be hauled in front of a congressional committee or two. ... He'll be back in our nation's capital Wednesday afternoon to deliver a speech to the American Enterprise Institute. The topic: 'An Insider's View: Democratic Politics at Work in Iraq.' Vital questions about how and why the United States wound up invading and occupying Iraq in order to dismantle a nuclear weapons program that didn't exist won't be addressed. Instead: 'Will the constitution provide the foundation for a democratic system that can be a model for the Middle East?'

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10597


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Cato Institute
by Alan Reynolds

11/09/05

If prices or crude oil and gasoline really rise and fall at the whim of U.S. petroleum companies, why would oil and gas prices ever fall? Texas crude fell to $12 in February 1999. Was that because U.S. oil companies suddenly became less greedy? 'Average U.S. gasoline price tumbles to $2.48 a gallon,' said a recent headline at USA Today, noting gas prices had dropped by at least 55 cents. The crude oil price dropped 9.8 percent in October. The Dow Jones stock index for oil and gas companies fell 9.2 percent. On the futures market, natural gas prices fell 18 percent in a single week. Mr. O'Reilly's spin zone had to spin a new theory. He now argues that, while prices rose due to some inexplicable hurricane of greed, they later fell because 'oil companies have been scared into lowering prices of oil'...

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5184


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The Price of Liberty
by Nathan A. Barton

11/07/05

Terance Jeffrey recently published the above commentary. While it is obviously about the Alito nomination, that is not why I am writing about it today. This little article very carefully summarizes the situation this nation has gotten itself into regarding who is 'entitled' to be treated as a person -- and how courts have decided that all humans are NOT persons, in the name of 'privacy rights.' It is a doctrine that should be branded as evil by ANY lover of liberty, no matter what their religious convictions may be: the situation should be condemned by conservatives, liberals, right, left, as well as libertarians: only the tyrant and totalitarian could stomach such a thing...

http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/05/11/07/nathan.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

David MacGregor

11/08/05

The greatest threat to our freedom today is not terrorism, but what governments are doing to counter this perceived terrorist threat. Let me say that again. Terrorism is not the real danger we face, it's what governments around the world are doing to make us 'safe.' ... Terrorists do not have a grievance against Microsoft, General Motors or KFC. They do not have a grievance against your local supermarket. They do not have a grievance against YOU or your family. They have a grievance against your government...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/52/macgregor/macgregor7.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

USA Today

11/08/05

The recent indictment of Vice President Cheney's top aide has struck a nerve with the American public. Four in five, 79%, said the indictment of former Cheney aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby on perjury and other charges is important to the nation, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press...

http://tinyurl.com/7dv6g


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

USA Today

11/08/05

The Senate's top Democrats challenged President Bush on Tuesday to rule out a pardon for I. Lewis Libby, a former top White House aide who faces trial on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in the CIA leak case. 'We also urge you to state publicly whether anyone in the White House -- including White House counsel Harriet Miers or Vice President Cheney -- has already discussed the possibility of a pardon with Mr. Libby,' added the letter, signed by Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and three other members of the leadership...

http://tinyurl.com/asuen


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

All Headline News

11/09/05

Democrats made a clean sweep of contentious and hard-fought governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey Tuesday, as well as rejecting all four of GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives. ... The only big Republican win came in normally Democratic New York, where Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg sailed to re-election after spending as much as $100 million of his own fortune to defeat Democrat Fernando Ferrer. ... With control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress and 36 governorships at stake in 2006, the off-year election offered grim news for Republicans seeking clues to next year's political climate and the long-term effect of Bush's plummeting approval ratings, now the lowest of his presidency...

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7000944756


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

A classified report issued last year by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general warned that interrogation procedures approved by the CIA after the September 11 attacks might violate some provisions of the international Convention Against Torture, current and former intelligence officials say.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110905Z.shtml

by Ahmed Amr

Within a month of Judith Miller’s appearance before the grand jury investigating the outing of a CIA agent, Lewis Libby was indicted on five counts of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice. After reading the indictment, Patrick Fitzgerald pointed out that, “we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005.” Once you do the math, it becomes apparent that the only vote that counted in the last presidential election was Judith Miller’s. Of course, Miller can’t take all the credit for obstructing the investigation. It was Arthur Sulzberger who decided to spend millions of dollars to take his flimsy arguments to the Supreme Court. When the highest court in the land ruled against the publisher of the New York Times, Miller volunteered to hide away in jail while Sulzberger orchestrated a mass media campaign to canonize his star WMD fiction writer as a first amendment martyr. The idea was to pressure Fitzgerald into making do without Judy’s testimony or wait for the clock to run out on the investigation. According to Miller, the NYT lawyers pressured her to go the distance and risk an obstruction of justice charge or a second grand jury. But on the advice of her personal lawyer, she decided to get herself out of jail and appear before the grand jury...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Amr1109.htm