ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

Sadly, The Resident of the USA has not been able to maintain the social contract between government and the will of the people. I suspect that his various 'past and present corruptions' have made him vulnerable to the whims of the tic, tic, tics who will soon be exploding as a consequence of their inability to resolve internal issues such as: gluttony, greed, lust etc - I am sure you get the picture.
Happily, George seems to be made out of teflon and does not seem to be affected by the heat. More power to ya.

More power to who George Bush or Tyler for bringing up this important issue?

I spent a good part of my day today calling Congress. I felt it important on this, the eve of the 4th of July, to utilize my right to free speech to beg my representatives to give us, the American People, independence from these crooks, traitors and liars.

Scooter Libby and the White House Gang put every American in danger when they outed a covert CIA agent working on Weapons of Mass Destruction. Most likely, according to numerous CIA agents, people died as a result. No time in the history of the United States of America has our own government outed one of our own agents.

These people feel they are above the law. They can lie us into a war that has cost over 3500 working class lives, cheat our elderly out of their social security checks and their right to affordable prescription drugs, and steal our treasury at a level never before seen in the history of the United States of America.

The worst part is people still drive around with Busy/Cheney stickers on their cars. Aren't they sufficiently embarrassed yet by the actions of this administration? Are they happy that ordinary people are being wire tapped illegally? Are they happy that corporations are being elevated to levels where they have more rights than individuals?

It's time for America to WAKE UP! It's time to demand Independence from these crooks. They must go and they must go NOW before they are allowed to do more damage.

Think about what they've done tomorrow while you sit and watch the parade go by. "Through the eyes of a child" is the parade theme. Look what this administration has left them. It’s time for every patriotic American to speak out for our children, for our elderly, for our environment, for our jobs, for our healthcare, and for the innocent people of the world who lay victim to a government drunk with unrestricted power!

When one chooses to fall asleep in the back of a car driven by strangers having ignored strained body language signals and countless other signs... well... you've made your back seat now lie in it... but there is still plenty of time to wake up and jump out the window so don't worry too, too much... giving is so much easier than getting. (-:-)

What does that, "giving is so much easier than getting" mean exactly Mike? Does that comment have some relevance to my post?

I've been purposely vague to allow more information to seep thru the cracks. . It is my belief that the nation of America/Amiracle allowed itself to come to the brink(among other reasons) due to the perfected politcal craft of infantilization. In other words, Trying to place all of the accountability on one particular side, party, race, creed, person etc is quite obviously counter productive. It's unkind, naive and a lazy way of thinking. Glossing over the truth just makes things hazy. Peace means no one is excluded - unless they exclude them selves.

"giving is so much easier than getting"
I've recently come to real eyes that being a servant to all living beings releases me from the karmic wheel of typical existence, alligns my senses of well being and invigorates my soul.
On another level, it can mean that it is easier to give advice that to receive #it#. So, it is kind of a built in joke designed to convey a mutual mental message massage. Hope I did not go to deep. Ha Ha.

Just say UNCLE!

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who watches Keith Olbermann. I get a kick out of his ribbing of B.O., pointing out his ineptness and dishonesty. His worst person in the world bit is usually great. One time, Keith put himself on the list, saying, after explaining why he put himself on the list, that "I suck".

I always expected him to fully pardon Scooter by the end of his term. At first I was surprised by the timing, then the crafting of the commutation. But upon reflection, it made sense to me. Scooter was on his way to jail in days. No one in the White House thought he would be jailed during his appeal when they planned his deception to Congress and to the Special Prosecutor, assuring him that he would be pardoned in full by the end of bush's term. Anyone who doesn't believe a deal was crafted before any of his appearances before Fitzgerald and Congress, between the V.P. and P. and Libby hasn't a clue what these people are about.

These guys play for keeps, no wounded are left behind to tell the truth about this inner circle of corruption.

Any republicans out there that voted for this worst president of the country, have any regrets? How about all those independents who participated in this deception, do you have any regrets?

There is no end to the gull and guile that this motley crew will do for power, to keep power, thus the last 6years of lies, mockery of law, vendettas perfected, personal attacks on those who tell the truth.

Tony Snow, the White House Press Secretary, spent all his credibility yesterday among his colleagues when he parroted the The Inner Circle's spin on Valerie Plame's husband, Mr. Wilson, saying that there are questions on his veracity. I could hear the moan by his colleagues in the press room. He just wanted duck out as soon as possible.Tony is given too much credit for articulating facts. What he is great at is what Ed McMahon would call 'Double Speak'. He is a master at it.

Usually, I never watch the press room briefings, for it is designed to be govt. feed for the outlets of media. That would be fine, except the reporters there don't want to lose their seat by asking tough questions, for they know all to well that the white house decides who gets to be in there. None of these guys want to lose that Prop for back ground when doing their reporting while live or otherwise-It's cool stuff and gives legitimacy and credibility to their importance as an inside man to the truth. But something honest happened their yesterday, it got my attention. There was a heavy black woman in red, wearing a skirt hemmed above her knees, on the front row, no one to either side. When I first saw her, I could see this woman is not there to be intimidated by any there. She didn't let me down. She asked the toughest questions, and when Tony Snow went into double speak, she called him on it and called him on it and again called him on it. He was clearly pissed off by her insistence for an honest answer. She was beaming, and rightfully so when she appeared on the Chris Mathews show.

Back to Scooter. The President said he is considering a full pardon later on. No, he didn't use those exact words, but there was no doubt what he was saying.

Happy Fourth of July to everyone. We are expecting a high of 81 today, we already had a rain this morning and more is on the way. I hope you all can bear the 98 I see predicted by some stations. Missing it all.

Timing of course is everything. Commuting Libby on the eve of Independence Day says it all. This "President's" contempt for everything that America stands for and was founded for shows in stark relief. Bush made the Fourth of July, 2007, a day of national shame to be an American.

While it is true that humans are a herd animal, and herds will commit any atrocity and excuse any shame without even thinking if its what the leaders are doing, we are supposed to be a few additional things; intelligent, civilized, with the capacity for moral reasoning.

Our tolerance for the Bush administration is, at the least, inconsistent with this theory.

Was the Declaration of Independent about anything more than just replacing one despot with another? Was Nuremberg about something other than victor's justice? Does the axiom that "we are a government of laws, not of men," mean anything anymore? Are there any principles that we as a country will actually stand up for?

The old John Bircher saying was "America: Love it or leave it." It is time for those who love America to send those who don't packing. Starting with Bush, Cheney, Libby and their whole crew of America-haters. If we are a decent country, we can do no less. There is a spot waiting in the Hague for them. Let's get them to it.

What is it that Scooter did anyway?

this is from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Libby :

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr. (born August 22, 1950) served as chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, assistant to the Vice President for national security affairs, and an assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005.[1][2] He resigned from those positions hours after he was indicted in federal court on five felony counts of obstruction of justice, making false statements, and perjury in the CIA leak grand jury investigation into the "Plame affair."[3][4] In United States v. Libby, Libby was found guilty on four of the five counts and sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, a fine of $250,000, and two years of supervised release.[5][6][7]

Libby is the first sitting White House official to be indicted in 130 years[8] and the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a federal-level government scandal since National Security Advisor John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair in 1990.[9]

Before being indicted, Libby was a licensed corporate lawyer, admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Libby's law license is inactive in Pennsylvania.[10] In April 2007 the Washington, D.C. Office of Bar Counsel (DC Bar) disbarred him on legal grounds of "moral turpitude" and recommended to the DC Court of Appeals his permanent disbarment if his conviction is not overturned on appeal.[11][12][13]

While Libby's appeal in United States v. Libby is still pending, the presiding judge, Reggie Walton, denied his request for a stay and ordered Libby to begin his prison sentence.[14] Libby appealed Walton's ruling the following week.[15] Two weeks later he lost that appeal.[16][17][18] Within hours, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence, eliminating the prison term while not changing the other parts and their conditions and stating that he believes the sentence too harsh given that "The reputation [Libby] gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged" and that "The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting."[19][20]

Ok, But what false statments did he make? and how did he "obstruct justice" ?

It is rather complicated and I may not be the best one to unravel it but it goes something like this:
Valerie Plame (married to Joseph Wilson) was a CIA officer whose identity as a covert agent was identified by Robert Novak, a political columnist. It is assumed that her identity was leaked as retaliation for her husband making critical statements about the Bush administartion, specifically about the basis for the invasion of Iraq. President Bush had made a statement in his 2003 State of the Union address about Saddam Hussein's attempt to purchase "yellowcake" (enriched uranium) from Niger. Bush used this as evidence that Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction. Wilson was sent to Niger but found no evidence for this. Libby's role in all this is that he lied about what he knew about Valerie Plame and who told him what and when. Libby is seen as a fall guy for the Bush administration. Some were hoping that Cheney and Rove would be implicated in the Plame leak. It is fairly obvious why Bush would commute and possibly pardon Libby.

"Yellowcake" is another name for uranium oxide.

I read somewhere that Saddam had 500 tons of yellow cake uranium in his possession at the time the troops rolled into Bagdad.

Laurie - thanks for participating. Saddam had ZERO weapons of mass destruction. And there was zero connection between Saddam and 9/11. Intelligence was manufactured and "stovepiped", to make a trumped-up case to go to war. Anybody or any evidence that got in the way was steamrolled. This administration was hell-bent on war. If you have a source, feel free to bring it to the table.

Anonymous did a nice recap. One note is that the sentence was commuted, meaning that Libby can still appeal, and thus plead the 5th Amendment as the appeals process works its way through the courts. This administration desperately wants to run out the clock.

Hi ! This is from the IAEA
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Booklets/Iraq/iaeaplan.html#plutonium

Hope this helps !

Thanks Laurie. Yes, it does help debunk the misinformation you posted. Your link is to a 1992 IAEA report. For more up to date information about the situation "when the troops rolled into Baghdad" you can read a Newsweek report of the IAEA Director-General El Baradei's summary here:

http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2004/inspectionsiraq20040202.html

An excerpt:

"... Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N. nuclear agency, told the Security Council on March 7, 2003, after his team had done 247 inspections at 147 sites: "no evidence of resumed nuclear activities... nor any indication of nuclear-related prohibited activities at any related sites." He went on to say that evidence suggested Iraq had not imported uranium since 1990 and no longer had a centrifuge program. He concluded that Iraq's nuclear capabilities had been effectively dismantled by 1997 and its dual-use industrial plants had decayed. All these claims appear to be dead-on, based on Kay's findings..."

See the actual report to the U.N. Security Council on march 7, 2003, here:

http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2003/ebsp2003n006.shtml

Among other things, but especially relevant to the thread here, Dr. El Baradei debunks Bush's claim that Saddam Hussein had tried to obtain yellowcake in Niger. He says the source documents were found to be "not authentic."

This of course is merely a ratification and restatement of what Ambassador Joe Wilson was trying to tell the American people about that same claim by Bush - there was no reliable evidence for it (and, as we all now know, Bush and Cheney knew it). Bush and Cheney, being the lowest form of scumbags, could not handle the truth being told about them. Did they defend themselves, or admit their mistake? No. They attacked Wilson by deliberately outing his wife's covert status, blowing the cover off a key covert source of intelligence about iran and probably ending up in the deaths of U.S. intelligence agents in the process. When this unbelievably low, treasonous attack itself became an issue, they lied and dissembled some more - remember Bush himself saying that he'd fire anyone in his White House responsible for the leak of Valerie Plame's identity?

Turns out HE was responsible. But he and Cheney continued lying and dissembling, finally setting up Scooter as the fall guy. Scooter lied and obstructed the investigation to the point where it could go no further because of his obstruction. He was indicted, and Bush and Cheney continued to lie and dissemble some more while they dragged out the trial process and sought appeals.

The best defense money can buy can get an acquittal - i.e. 12 jurors saying not guilty - for O.J. and for Michael Jackson; the best defense money can buy - millions of dollars and a huge team of well-regarded defense lawyers, led by one of the best in the country - could not get a single juror in one of the most Republican, government friendly districts in the country, in a courtroom run by a conservative Bush appointee, to harbor a reasonable doubt that Scooter Libby had lied and obstructed justice. Indeed, one of the jurors was quoted as saying they felt bad convicting him alone, since the evidence had so overwhelmigly shown that while he was clearly guilty, he was hardly the most guilty. (Look to Bush, Cheney, Rove for that.)

Dumbass dittoheads on right wing hate radio were not in the courtroom and did not see the evidence. But they count on the complete lack of intelligence of their listeners when they try to assert that somehow Scooter was a victim of a "political attack," that it was a rogue prosecutor, that there was no "underlying crime." Its pathetic. The Constitution provides for impeachment as the proper remedy, and real Americans - registered Democrat, Republican, Independent, or not registered at all - will insist on nothing less. Send Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Perl, the whole shoddy crew to the Hague. Or better yet, send them to Baghdad, for a "fair trial" like they gave Saddam.

"What is it that Scooter did anyway?"

Its not so complicated. He lied and obstructed an investigation into whether Bush, Cheney, Rove, or anyone else in their adminstration had deliberately exposed a CIA agent, in retaliation for her husband having cast public doubt on one of George W. Bush's many lies leading up to the criminal invasion of Iraq.

You see, George W. Bush and his crew desperately wanted to bomb one of the world's oldest civilizations to smithereens, murder its women and children in their sleep, and steal its oil. However, they had no honest justification for it that could stand up to the scrutiny of law, morals or common sense. So they made up lies. Valarie Plame's husband exposed one of those lies; in retaliation, Bush and Cheney exposed his wife as a CIA agent to teach him to shut up.

Yep; these architects of the "war on terror" who now want to whip up a frenzy about the dangers of Iran thought so little of any actual danger from Iran that they were willing to compromise one of our key intelligence assets about that country, for the petty goal of teaching her husband not to talk out of school.

Bush, Cheney, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln... NOT.

Bush, Cheney, Pinochet, Stalin, Hitler ... now that's sounding a little closer to the company they'll be keeping in history. 650,000 Iraqi civilians dead so far? Gitmo? Abu Ghraib? The almost daily bombing of Afghan villages? "Extraordinary rendition"? The cancelling of habeas corpus? "Military commissions" that get do overs until they reach a result the command approves? And all the while, billions flowing directly into the pockets of their cronies. This truly is the "underlying crime" and it is continuing today, right now.

At the heart of it, Scooter was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into how this shameful ongoing crime - Iraq and the whole fraud of the so-called "war on terror" - happened. Thirty months in prison seems pretty light for that.

But he wasn't convicted of "outing" Valerie Plame because the CIA never determined that she was a covert agent.

Also this document shows that there was still yellow cake in Iraq until 2003 and maybe it's still there now.
http://www.iaea.org/OurWork/SV/Invo/reports/s_2003_711.pdf

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18927332/site/newsweek/page/2/

“It was clear from very early in the investigation that Ms. Wilson qualified under the relevant statute”—the Intelligence Identities Act—“as a covert agent whose identity had been disclosed by public officials, including Mr. Libby, to the press,” Fitzgerald wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed late last Friday night.

In the “unclassified summary” of his memorandum which was based on information cleared by the CIA and became publicly available Tuesday, Fitzgerald provided new details about Wilson’s previously classified activities at the agency. In January 2002, she was working for the agency “as an operations officer” in the Directorate of Operations’s Counterproliferation Division (CPD) and serving as “chief” of a unit with responsibility for weapons-proliferation issues related to Iraq. In that capacity, he added, she traveled overseas in an undercover capacity.

Wow Tyler, it looks like the Ojai Post has hit the big time. We've got what looks like a real live paid Republican blogmole on our thread, spitting out Rove talking points and misinformation and guaranteed to get the last word.

I thought the Republicans reserved these paid moles for the national blogs.

Thanks for playing Laurie. I hope I won't be investigated for outing you?

No, Just a patriot who would like to see our country win this war. But losers like you would rather see us lose, hey maybe that's why you're a loser, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Sure, that's hilarious, Laurie. With over 3,500 Americans dead, and no end in sight for this god-forsaken war that the Bush-Cheney cabal LIED us into, you show us the path to victory. We are caught in the middle of a civil war. There are no easy answers. The reality-based people, from generals to some but not all Democratic leaders to the left blogosphere to 70% of American citizens realize we are in an awful situation with no good solutions.

Let's put it this way, Laurie. Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army (Ret.), is a Senior Fellow with Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University. He was Director of the National Security Agency from 1985 to 1988 under Reagan. From 1981 to 1985, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence officer. From 1977 to 1981, he was Military Assistant to the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In other words, a hard-core Republican. But not an idiot.

What did he have to say yesterday?

If the Democrats truly want to succeed in forcing President Bush to begin withdrawing from Iraq, the first step is to redefine "supporting the troops" as withdrawing them, citing the mass of accumulating evidence of the psychological as well as the physical damage that the president is forcing them to endure because he did not raise adequate forces. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress could confirm this evidence and lay the blame for "not supporting the troops" where it really belongs – on the president. And they could rightly claim to the public that they are supporting the troops by cutting off the funds that he uses to keep U.S. forces in Iraq.

To force him to begin a withdrawal before then, the first step should be to rally the public by providing an honest and candid definition of what "supporting the troops" really means and pointing out who is and who is not supporting our troops at war. The next step should be a flat refusal to appropriate money for to be used in Iraq for anything but withdrawal operations with a clear deadline for completion.

So the question is, Laurie, Do you support the troops, or are you just going to clap louder?

Laurie's ignorance and stupidity is really all you need to know about the 20 - 25 % that still support this criminal administration.

The Bush Cheney ship is going down, and even the rats are jumping off. I saw something today about the Democrats taking a vote in July, not waiting for September. They must have felt the heat on their vacations. My fear is that this has been planned by the big banksters; they're cutting the bushies loose and hiring the Democrats to do damage control. Or they're letting the whole economic ship go down so they can buy cheap and make trillions. It's all a rigged game on this level; but thank Godus, there are other levels. You may think I'm crazy, but I'm starting another government with the help of a new political party. It is a parallel government which seeks to reform the present one, not overthrow it. It's not what you think it is. It's off the charts; looks like an edge of the world fringe element but its center radical. I'm doing my bit for my country. Until this thread, I didn't think there was such political passion in Ojai. Refreshing. The new government is called The Love Government aka The Lover Government and its inauguration is tomorrow, July 7 at 0707 at the Fountain. Love, Dennis.

I saw our cocaine addled brain of a president wolfing down a hot dog at a ball game celebrating his 61st birthday. I wonder if he had one thought that day about all the troops he sent to death that won't see their 61st birthday.

Ever who Laurie is, what ever the motive, what ever the sincerity, She(it) is wrong. Those who do as she(or who ever it is) does, are aiding and abetting a Felon in his crime against humanity. She and her kind are the losers, yet those kind of people hurt allot of innocent ones without conscience. A fine example would be Ann Coulter. The only thing I can say good about her is after two six packs, she might be worth taking home, then back to her trailer.

Don't always believe what you read on wikipedia, especially when it comes to politics!

As quoted above:

Libby is the first sitting White House official to be indicted in 130 years[8] and the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a federal-level government scandal since National Security Advisor John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair in 1990.

Does Clinton's Secretary of HUD, Henry Cisneros ring a bell?

Left wing revisionist history strikes again!

Anonymous - interesting that Wikipedia no longer lists Libby as "the first sitting White House official to be indicted in 130 years".

Here's a description of what Cisneros did:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0882783.html
Cisneros pleaded guilty in 1999 to a misdemeanor count of lying to the FBI. In his 1993 background check for his cabinet position, he lied about payments he made to a former mistress. President Clinton pardoned him in January 2001.

Are you trying to compare that to obstruction of justice and perjury in direct connection to the lies that have dragged us into this war?

The right likes to justify actions by guys like Scooter Libby by bringing up examples that hardly compare.

For instance, the right has flipped out about William Jefferson, with the $90k cash in his freezer. And used that example to try and deflect attention from the systemic and widespread GOP corruption that includes Delay, Abramoff, Cunningham, Ney and dozens more in an intricate web of deceit.

So sure, Cisneros and Jefferson are bad guys and should be fired and prosecuted fully.

But to compare with they have done (one lied about an affair and the other was corrupt but with no connection to other members), with the GOP's rampant corruption and looting is not much different than what Pat Fitzgerald accused Libby of - throwing sand in the eyes of the umpire.

Right wing comparatist history strikes again!

Good call Tyler. The fanatical right continues to put up apples against oranges. For along time, they got away with this because the left and center didn't want to bother with such stupidity nipping at their ankles. The likes of longtime right wing radio personalities never had to prove any of the ridiculous accusations or their twisting the truth to befit their show's spin. But the left and center let some of us down with some of their arrogance, not paying enough attention to their supporters, along with not providing an argument to stay with them, thus allowing for defections to an ideological nightmare that today and for some time to come, haunts our country and the world

I've been saying this for along time, the political pendulum is swinging to the new left of political thought that includes the fight for individual rights. The American right once stood for safe guarding the rights that guaranteed individuals protections from our government. Now, their only concerned with protecting business interest over the country's needs and over anyone who gets in the way.

One of the things I'm looking forward to is when the congress revamps the FCC, bringing back restrictions on how many radio stations, newspapers, and television stations, anyone company can own in any given market. When Collin Powell's son was given the top seat there, he ruled against any consumer protection interest rules and regulations. He was instrumental in allowing right wing companies to control most of what you see for news. I didn't trust him any more or less than I did his Dad.

What gives me great comfort in all this, is that when the cooks, hardcore, or even the sincere right come forth with their arguments, no one is listening to them any more. They are gasping their last breaths, some of them know it, but they are compelled to make fools of their side. Because reasonable people through out the political spectrum are, and have been seeing the truth, against what was promoted deceitfully to us and the world and are making argument in rebuttal, that lacked for too long. I take joy at the death of this political machine.

Cooks was meant to be "kooks".

PLEASE, Go to LLINK:
http://start-a-petition.com/showPetition.asp?p=melaniemorgan

The Chairman of America’s largest pro-troops organization, Move America Forward, calls for TV suspension of Olbermann, and boycott of MSNBC/NBC and parent company GE. Sign the on-line petition now to SUSPEND Keith Olbermann for the slanderous comments against Mark Levin, and Laura Ingraham, nationally renowned syndicated conservative talk show hosts who were called "Troop Haters" by Olbermann of MSNBC recently. Troop supporters are encouraged to go sign now, and get it back. Left-wing Keith Olbermann syncophants are attempting to hijack my petition.

OLBERMANN: I cannot imagine that kind of evil knee-jerk reflex. I feel very sorry for those that have shown it. It seems to me these right-wingers have inadvertently shown their true colors, their instinctive hatred for, and contempt for those self-sacrificing Americans...

Cliche lip syncs what the robot tells him. Robot reads off the clone's telepromter. Clone is working for a parrot. Polly want a cracker?