Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
“Night watchman” Video on You Tube below:
White House issues stark understatement:
"We Screwed Up"
Sen. Patrick Leahy: So did Nixon
White House: 'We screwed up' on deleted e-mails
WASHINGTON -- The White House "screwed up" by not requiring e-mails from Republican Party and campaign accounts to be saved and is trying to recover any documents that may have been deleted, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
The admission came after the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee accused the White House of trying to hide messages related to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, which has stirred up a hornet's nest on Capitol Hill.
Congressional investigators have questioned whether White House aides used e-mail accounts from the Republican Party and President Bush's re-election campaign for official government business to avoid scrutiny of those dealings.
"You can't erase e-mails, not today," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont. "They've gone through too many servers. They can't say they've been lost. That's like saying, 'The dog ate my homework.' "
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9579
"You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers."
Leahy doubts Bush aides on lost e-mails
By Laurie Kellman / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The White House's claim that e-mails sent on a Republican Party account might have been lost was challenged Thursday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who quipped that even his teenage neighbor could find them.
"They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" Leahy shouted from the Senate floor as the dispute over the firing of federal prosecutors continued at a high pitch.
"You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers," said Leahy, D-Vt. "Those e-mails are there; they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary."
Later, Leahy and his committee's ranking Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said the White House and lawmakers should agree on an independent forensic expert to try to recover the messages.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9580
Nyack Says Go!
We did it! The resolution passes 5-0!
http://nyackimpeach.org/
Nyack board approves support for Bush probe
By GERALD MCKINSTRYTHE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: April 13, 2007)
NYACK - Much of last night's village board agenda was business as usual, such items as a discussion of parking complaints and approval of meeting minutes.
But one matter brought out a large and impassioned crowd, and by the end of the night the board had voted - unanimously - for a congressional investigation of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
In Rockwellian fashion, a local citizens group, informally known as Nyack Impeach, packed the second-floor courtroom and accused the Bush administration of abusing its power and misleading the public to justify war in Iraq.
Why Nyack?
Following the late Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill's adage that "All politics is local," David Balsam, an organizer, said the answer was simple.
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070413/NEWS03/704130408
'D.C. madam' names a purported customer
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The alleged "D.C. madam" dropped a name in court documents filed Thursday, but the man named bristled at being accused of hiring the high-end escort service run by Deborah Jean Palfrey.
Government prosecutors say Pamela Martin and Associates was actually a prostitution ring that Palfrey operated in the Washington area for 13 years. Palfrey denies that her business provided sexual services to its customers.
In her motion to reconsider appointment of counsel, Palfrey named Harlan K. Ullman as "one of the regular customers" of the business.
Ullman is one of the leading theorists behind the "shock and awe" military strategy that was associated with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
"The allegations do not dignify a response," Ullman told CNN. "I'm a private, not a public, citizen. Any further questions are referred to my attorneys."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9582
Bombing at Iraqi parliament kills 8
By Steven R. Hurst and Qassim Abdul-Zahra
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber slipped through the tightest security net in Baghdad and blew himself up in the midst of lawmakers having lunch in the parliament dining hall Thursday. U.S. officials said eight people, including parliament members, were killed in the deadliest-ever attack in the American-guarded Green Zone.
The stunning breach of security, on the same day that a massive bombing destroyed one of Baghdad's main bridges, laid a cloud of heavy doubt about progress in the latest U.S.-Iraqi bid to clamp off violence in the capital. The drive has put thousands of troops on the streets in a massive operation to round up militants and their weapons.
A news video camera captured the moment of the blast, about 2:30 p.m. — a flash and an orange ball of fire causing Jalaluddin al-Saghir, a startled parliament member who was being interviewed, to duck. Smoke and dust billowed through the area, and confused and frightened lawmakers and others could be heard screaming for help and to find colleagues. Al-Saghir reportedly escaped injury.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9578
Video Shows Iraqi Parliament Bombing
April 12, 2007: Video shows the impact of a suspected suicide bomber who blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria Thursday.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=731_1176398967
PERSONAL NOTE, it reminds me of the video tape when the UN Embassy in Iraq was bombed.
Suicide truck bomb collapses Baghdad bridge
10 people reported killed as explosion sends cars crashing into Tigris river
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide truck bomb exploded on a major bridge in Baghdad early Thursday, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars toppling into the Tigris River below, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.
Hospital officials said another 26 were injured, and police were trying to rescue as many as 20 people whose cars plummeted off the al-Sarafiya bridge.
Waves lapped up against twisted girders sinking into the water, as police patrol boats searched for survivors. Scuba divers donned flippers and waded in from the banks of the Tigris, as U.S. helicopters whirred overhead.
Farhan al-Sudani, a 34-year-old Shiite businessman who lives near the bridge, said the blast woke him at dawn.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9577
Some in G.O.P. Express Worry Over ’08 Hopes
By Adam Nagourney and John M. Broder / New York Times
WASHINGTON, April 10 — Republican leaders across the country say they are growing increasingly anxious about their party’s chances of holding the White House, citing public dissatisfaction with President Bush, the political fallout from the war in Iraq and the problems their leading presidential candidates are having generating enthusiasm among conservative voters.
In interviews on Tuesday, the Republicans said they were concerned about signs of despondency among party members and fund-raisers, reflected in polls and the Democratic fund-raising advantage in the first quarter of the year. Many party leaders expressed worry that the party’s presidential candidates faced a tough course without some fundamental shift in the political dynamic.
“My level of concern and dismay is very, very high,” said Mickey Edwards, a Republican former congressman from Oklahoma who is now a lecturer in public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. “It’s not that I have any particular problem with the people who are running for the Republican nomination. I just don’t know how they can run hard enough or fast enough to escape the gravitational pull of the Bush administration.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9569
Ford CEO apologises after joke on Bush blows up
DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Alan Mulally is no longer laughing about his suggestion that he saved President Bush's life during a recent White House visit.
The No. 2 U.S. automaker on Tuesday apologised after Mulally said his claim of intervening to prevent U.S. President George W. Bush from plugging an electrical cord into the hydrogen tank of an experimental Ford vehicle had been meant as a joke.
Ford said Mulally never expected the story he told journalists in New York last week would be taken seriously.
The CEO found himself in an embarrassing situation when the story was featured on blogs and even in mainstream media like the Financial Times, which said "he may have saved the incumbent of the Oval Office from blowing himself up."
Recounting the meeting at the White House on March 28, Mulally said he noticed the president appeared to be ready to plug the power cord into the wrong outlet of a rechargeable vehicle that also runs on hydrogen.
"I violated all protocols. I grabbed his arm and I moved him up to the front," Mulally told reporters last Wednesday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9568
Tales of Freeway Blogger
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2007/04/ann-arbor-mi.html
“How to reach 100,000 people for under a $1.00.”
http://freewayblogger28.cf.huffingtonpost.com/freewayblogger-web4.mov
Public Punditry Contest!
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2007/03/public-punditry-contest.html
Fake statue fails to replace toppled Saddam
By Damien McElroy / Telegraph UK
It was supposed to be a symbol of the rise of freedom in an Islamic nation with a proud history.
Instead it is an anonymous green blob at the heart of a nation without symbols.
Four years ago the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue by US marines in central Baghdad stood as the moment the regime's downfall was complete.
Two months later an artists' collective erected a replacement statue called Najeen, or Survivor. It shows a woman, supported by a man and a child, holding up an Islamic crescent moon that frames a Sumerian sun.
It attracted universal derision and scuttled the career of its sculptor, Basim Hamid. Painted dark green to give the impression that the plaster figure is a bronze, its features are hard to make out in Baghdad's harsh sunlight.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9567
THE NIGHTWATCHMAN DEBUT ALBUM 4/24!
ON TOM MORELLO'S SOLO DEBUT AS THE NIGHTWATCHMAN,
SONGS OF BITTERNESS AND REVENGE ARE A DARK RESPONSE TO A WORLD IN TURMOIL
ALBUM 'ONE MAN REVOLUTION'
OUT APRIL 24 ON EPIC RECORDS
Pre-order the album now and get a free digital download of The Nightwatchman's new single
"The Road I Must Travel"!
Click here for details EXTENSIVE TOURING THIS SPRING
The Nightwatchman is Tom Morello.
http://www.nightwatchmanmusic.com/
The Nightwatchman
ONE MAN REVOLUTION [CD]
http://www.sonymusicstore.com/store/catalog/SearchAction.do?searchBy=Quick&keyword=nightwatchman&sms=ast-nightwatchman
Striking a blow for freedom
Tom Morello's politically charged Nightwatchman persona a departure from his Rage and Audioslave days
By Jim DeRogatisBorn and raised in the Chicago suburb of Libertyville, Tom Morello will always be best known to legions of rock fans as a supreme shredder -- the musician who developed a new vocabulary for lead guitar by evoking falling bombs, bursts of machine-gun fire and scratching turntables with '90s rap-rockers Rage Against the Machine and the post-alternative supergroup Audioslave.
The 42-year-old musician has always worked just as hard as a political activist, however -- he is a co-founder and driving force behind the organization Axis of Justice -- and for the last four and a half years, he's quietly been building a solo career, singing and playing acoustic guitar as the Nightwatchman. On April 24, Epic will release his first album as a one-man band, and "One Man Revolution" is as much of a surprise for his rich baritone and minimalist but moving songs as it is an expected forum for his views.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=9555
One Man Revolution
http://www.amazon.com/One-Man-Revolution-Nightwatchman/dp/B000NVJRBO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-0385660-4148723?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1176416274&sr=8-1
American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03):
3296
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
Since "Mission Accomplished"
(5/1/03) : 3157
American Military Deaths
Since May 1st, 2003
Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84
By Christian Salazar / Associated Press
NEW YORK - Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.
Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.
The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people.
"I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations," Vonnegut, whose watery, heavy-lidded eyes and unruly hair made him seem to be in existential pain, once told a gathering of psychiatrists.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9572
I Love You, Madame Librarian - by Kurt Vonnegut
by Kurt Vonnegut / In These Times
I, like probably most of you, have seen Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Its title is a parody of the title of Ray Bradbury’s great science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451. This temperature 451° Fahrenheit, is the combustion point, incidentally, of paper, of which books are composed. The hero of Bradbury’s novel is a municipal worker whose job is burning books.
And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.
So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=129
continued …