It was a rather peculiar diatribe by the Secretary of Defense, especially considering that, oh so many ages ago, he'd been a member of the Air Force himself. Even more puzzling, considering that the Air Force is running at least four mega bases in Iraq, including the Balad Air Field, which rivals O'Hare in traffic, was Robert Gates' assertion that the Air Force is not pulling its weight in the Iraq and Afghanistan endeavors.

What was he thinking?

Let me start with the observation that I did not invite the missive from the Jeanne Shaheen campaign to be dropped in my in-box, nor did I forward my address in anticipation of getting either policy missives or requests for donations. So, in a sense, this is the internet version of the robo call and the extension of the opt-out policy to this medium of communication is not welcome, since it's the strategy spammers rely on to validate that the addresses they have purchased are active.

Analysis of the communication follows after the break.

There's a reason why witnesses called to testify in a court of law are required to pledge to

Tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Things left out or embellishments stuck in pervert the truth and turn it into a lie. We recently saw that happen with Hillary Clinton's sniper fire in Tuzla and it's also been apparent in the stories told by the twenty-two dirty pensioners--perjurers in the court of public opinion--who spread half-truths and snippets of mis-information about the invasion/occupation of Iraq to deceive the American people and enrich themselves.

And yesterday Secretary Robert Gates joined them. Or maybe he just decided to do his own dirty work. Because the dirty pensioners were a Department of Defense operation.

For Immediate Release

Gov. John Lynch today received a letter of resignation from Superior Court Judge Patricia Coffey, who was recently suspended by the state Supreme Court for three years without pay.

"Judge Coffey's resignation was the right thing to do for the people of New Hampshire and the judiciary. To ensure the continued faith of the people in our judicial system, its judges must meet the highest standards of ethics and integrity, and follow the law at all times."

# # #

Read Judge Coffey's resignation letter (PDF)

This past Sunday, the venerable New York Times published a lengthy screed in which it was revealed that some twenty-two high ranking retired military men and one still on active duty in the Pentagon had been suborned to give false evidence, about the conduct and progress of the aggression against Iraq, to the electronic and print media.

SOURCE: Press Release

Deb Gibbons

Concord, New Hampshire ----- HR24, the Petition to Commence Impeachment Procedures in the United States Congress submitted by NH Representative Betty Hall, was tabled by the New Hampshire House on Wednesday, April 16. The vote was 227 to 95 to table the petition. Before the tabling motion was made, there was limited debate, during which most Republicans left the House floor.

SOURCE: Rolling Stone

Four Amendments & a Funeral -- A month inside the house of horrors that is Congress BY MATT TAIBBI

Posted Aug 10, 2005 12:00 AM

It was a fairy-tale political season for George W. Bush, and it seemed like no one in the world noticed. Amid bombs in London, bloodshed in Iraq, a missing blonde in Aruba and a scandal curling up on the doorstep of Karl Rove, Bush's Republican Party quietly celebrated a massacre on Capitol Hill. Two of the most long-awaited legislative wet dreams of the Washington Insiders Club -- an energy bill and a much-delayed highway bill -- breezed into law. One mildly nervous evening was all it took to pass through the House the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), for years now a primary strategic focus of the battle-in-Seattle activist scene. And accompanied by scarcely a whimper from the Democratic opposition, a second version of the notorious USA Patriot Act passed triumphantly through both houses of Congress, with most of the law being made permanent this time.

SOURCE: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0804/S00239.htm

Zubaydah, Bush and the Bureaucracy of Torture, Wednesday, 16 April 2008, 1:18 pm, BY Michael Collins

"certifiable, insane"

"The United States does not torture." - Pres. Bush, Sept. 6, 2006

The devastating attack of 9/11 conferred unprecedented popularity on the Bush administration. This was more a reflection of the strong desire for national unity in the wake of a tragedy than an endorsement of Bush policies.

After the attack, there was a frantic effort inside the administration to show a major success in their newly proclaimed war on terror. The administration knew what the public didn't: Far from being surprised by airplanes used as weapons, they'd had a series of warnings from intelligence sources that commercial airplanes were indeed the next weapon of choice by terrorists. Once that information became public, the Bush administration would need something more to boost its image.

SOURCE: Concord Monitor
State representatives to vote on resolution

By LAUREN R. DORGAN, Monitor staff, April 15, 2008

Calling President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney "domestic enemies," Pentagon Papers icon Daniel Ellsberg headlined a rally in Concord last night calling for their impeachment.

The rally, which drew more than 200 people to the Capitol Center for the Arts, was aimed at the New Hampshire House, which is considering a resolution that would call on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney. The resolution may come to a vote on the House floor tomorrow.

A pre-rally reception for the House members who will vote on the resolution drew a couple of dozen, among them a few who said they were on the fence about the resolution. Rep. Betty Hall, the 87-year-old Brookline Democrat who is the measure's lone sponsor, was bullish, pumping her arms at a press conference and saying: "I think it's gonna pass."

SOURCE: Nancy White reports

April 15, 2008

CONCORD, NH. Thank YOU all for coming to this amazing event.....YOU were a witness to history tonight.....and we thank you for being there, for assisting, for talking, for showing up! There are abundant reasons that NH citizens find to speak their minds.....and we will remember this enough to say to our grandchildren, 'In those times....I was there-I saw what this grandmother began in the state of NH!' *

SOURCE: Foster's Daily Democrat

Making the prison prosper: Developers of defunct Navy facility convene in closed forum

By ROBERT M. COOK

Article Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2008

DURHAM — Luxury condominiums, a high-tech office park or even a new correctional facility represent some of the potential new uses for the 100-year-old prison at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.

As many as 40 to 50 prospective developers from the Seacoast and elsewhere will converge Wednesday on the New England Center for an all-day forum where they can learn more about lease process, according to Deputy Shipyard Commander David Kelly.

SOURCE:   http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0804/S00172.htm

NH Impeachment Resolution: Betty Hall Interview, Saturday, 12 April 2008, 3:12 pm, Column: Rosalea Barker

Stateside With Rosalea Barker

The ship of state is drifting and it’s getting hard to steer
It’s a complicated issue but the direction’s pretty clear
And each of us is who we need to get to there from here
In these times
Noel Paul Stookey, “In These Times”

As someone who once helped a group of people push a stranded scow back out into the Pacific Ocean, I know personally what people can achieve when the tide is right. In this brief email interview with Betty Hall, she says:

While it's possible that the debts have been paid, each month's filings with the FEC isn't available until about the 20th of the next, so the February numbers are about all we have.

h/t to tpmcafe

From: Cafe, Election Central

Hillary please pay these debts first

By - April 4, 2008, 12:16PM

We've all heard the stories about Hillary Clinton's debt. The small businesses left to pick up the tab after Clinton came, saw and left an unpaid invoice.

Let's talk about the other folks she's stiffed.

The school districts, universities, cities, towns and non-profits.

Had enough? Then take back our elections. Who put Bush in the White House? The American voters? No. Does this government represent YOU? If it doesn't, there's a reason for that. Representational democracy only works when the elections work. Until then, we all have this blood on our hands. It won't wash off easy.

SOURCE: BradBlog.com

Constitutional Attorney Jonathon Turley Tells MSNBC Congress Refuses To Investigate Because They 'Do Not Want to Deal With That Fact' Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Jonathan Turley: It really is amazing because Congress, including the Democrats, have avoided any typed of investigation into torture because they do not want to deal with the fact that the President ordered war crimes. But evidence keeps on coming out - the only thing we don’t have is a group picture with a detainee attached to electrical wires. I mean every time we see more evidence we have more and more high ranking people at the scene of this crime. And what you get from this is that this was a premeditated and carefully orchestrated torture program. Not torture, but a torture program.

SOURCE: MSNBC.com

Dan Abrams talks to Artur Davis and Scott Horton about the release of Don Siegelman from prison tonight, and recaps some of his coverage on the story. Now will justice be served to Karl Rove for his role in this? I hope so but I'm not holding my breath. Sadly as long as George Bush has a pardon pen in his hand there's no use in trying to convict him now anyway since Dubya will let him walk if he's found guilty.

SOURCE: http://www.BrasscheckTV.com

http://www.BrasscheckTV.com

Most people have the sense that there was something bizarre and surreal about the sudden coordinated FBI and US news media attack on New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

After all, unproven allegations about how he may have chosen to spend his own money on his own time hardly seems a worthy subject of front page news for a week

Why Hillary is still fighting to overthrow the Democratic Party and crush Barack:

The Group calling itself the New Democrat Movement, with Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton Evan Bayh, Dick Gephardt, Terry McAuliffe, among others, is possibly working to dismantle the Democratic Party as we know it. According to one website, the group--
"Believes that "left-wing" positions are not politically viable. Describes itself as "moderate and pro-growth". Probably responsible for erosion of the Democratic Party's historical labor and minority base due to support of treaties like NAFTA, lack of support for affirmative action and poverty programs, and their siphoning away of campaign funds from minority groups.

At the national level, the movement was founded by the Democratic Leadership Council (501c4 educational non-profit, founded 1984) and includes the House New Democrat Coalition (founded 1997), the Senate New Democrat Coalition (founded 2000), the New Democrat Network PAC (founded 1996), the misnamed Progressive Policy Institute (501c4 think tank, "Bill Clinton's idea mill", founded 1989), and the umbrella funding group The Third Way Foundation (501c3 non-profit, founded 1996).

2006 was a good year for New Hampshire Democrats. We had Carol Shea-Porter headlining electoral successes all over the state and for almost no money.

2008 looks to be not quite as good. The end of the quarterly fund-raising reporting cycle has brought missives to my mail box, suggesting it's all about the money again.