Gandalf Grey wrote:

Correct. I noted and stated this many years ago. Professional pundits
should have also.

Letters to a Christian Friend

By Dr. Gerry Lower
Created Dec 27 2006 - 10:23am

Christmas Eve - December 24, 2006

Hi Adam,

Well, tomorrow we will be celebrating the birth of the Christ. Is it not
mindboggling that this simple, honest man, under the auspices of Roman
religion and capitalism, has become something of a poster boy for
materialism, conspicuous consumption, superficial living without meaning,
and one war after the next? I can hardly wait for one of my friends to call
me to share a $15,000 bottle of Dom Perignon (1).

It seems all too clear that the rich and powerful (as opposed to the people)
running the U.S. will not soon see any light on their own. It seems all too
clear that they will pursue their own ends, nevermind unfairness and
inequality, until their own ends actually come to pass. Who could be more
deserving? Think of it ... a bottle of wine that costs more than a year's
income for a wage earner working at the hoped for new minimum wage of 2007.

Dr. Bush's Big Bottle of Testicular Extract: Good For What Ails You

By Steven Laffoley
Created Dec 27 2006 - 7:46am

Do you feel anxious about the Civil War in Iraq? Does your heart ache when
yet another American is killed in Anbar province? Does your stomach feel
queasy when more bodies turn up in Baghdad with gruesome signs of torture?
Well, worry no more. The good Dr. Bush has a specially made salve at hand:
Dr. Bush's Big Bottle of Testicular Extract - good for what ails you.

Sounds silly? Well, maybe not.

Listen:

In 1842, German physiologist and physician, Wilhelm Ludwig put forward the
radical 'Ludwig's Theory,' which explained, in purely chemical and
physiological terms, the simple function of the liver. Why was it considered
a 'radical' theory? Because most people at that time still believed that the
liver had a mystical 'life force,' which explained, to their latent medieval
minds, the very wonder that was urine. Though it seems a trifling argument
now, Ludwig's Theory, medically and scientifically, was a forceful leap into
the modern age of rational medical science.

Who Will Speak for the Victims? Why we need to shoot the moon in 2007

By Elizabeth de la Vega
Created Dec 27 2006 - 7:29am

- first posted at Truthout [1]

Last year during the holiday season, I wrote a piece called "Shoot the Moon
and Forget About the Bell Curve," which was published at TomDispatch.com. In
it I asked: Is it futile - or foolish - to continue working to hold the Bush
administration to account for defrauding the American people into war, even
though the odds of success seemed slim given the Republican-controlled
Congress. My answer was a resounding "No!" It is neither futile nor foolish
to continue to push for justice despite seemingly intractable obstacles; on
the contrary, we have no reasonable choice but to do so.

Twelve months later, it seems we have moved three steps forward and two
steps back - or perhaps it is the other way around. Democrats routed the
Republicans in an election that was a virtual clarion call for
accountability and an end to this war. But now we have our new House leader
Nancy Pelosi saying impeachment is "off the table" and Senator Harry Reid
considering whether to send more troops to Iraq.

Ike Was Right

By Robert Scheer
Created Dec 27 2006 - 7:24am

- from Truthdig (posted here with permission) [1]

The public, seeing through the tissue of Bush administration lies told to
justify an invasion that never had anything to do with the terrorist attacks
of Sept. 11 or weapons of mass destruction, now has begun a national
questioning: Why are we still in Iraq? The answers posted most widely on the
Internet by critics of the war suggest its continuation as a naked imperial
grab for the world's second-largest petroleum source, but that is wrong.

It's not primarily about the oil; it's much more about the
military-industrial complex, the label employed by President Dwight D.
Eisenhower 45 years ago when he warned of the dangers of "a permanent arms
industry of vast proportions."

A Special Report: The GOP's $3 Billion Propaganda Organ

By Robert Parry
Created Dec 27 2006 - 7:13am

The American Right achieved its political dominance in Washington over the
past quarter century with the help of more than $3 billion spent by Korean
cult leader Sun Myung Moon on a daily propaganda organ, the Washington
Times, according to a 21-year veteran of the newspaper.

George Archibald, who describes himself "as the first reporter hired at the
Washington Times outside the founding group" and author of a commemorative
book on the Times' first two decades, has now joined a long line of
disillusioned conservative writers who departed and warned the public about
extremism within the newspaper.

In an Internet essay [1] on recent turmoil inside the Times, Archibald also
confirmed claims by some former Moon insiders that the cult leader has
continued to pour in $100 million a year or more to keep the newspaper
afloat. Archibald put the price tag for the newspaper's first 24 years at
"more than $3 billion of cash."

Cheney/Bush vs. Baker Commission: Cowboys Differ on Iran Attack

By Gary Leupp
Created Dec 27 2006 - 6:56am

The reaction to the Iraq Study Group (ISG) report suggests that a showdown
is shaping up within the U.S. power elite between two different sets of
cowboys. On the one hand, there are the George W. Bush...

Asleep And Dreaming

By Todd Huffman
Created Dec 26 2006 - 7:12pm

'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the White House, not a
measure of reality was stirring, not even an ounce.

Incoming Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week marked his swearing in
ceremony by warning Americans that "failure in Iraq at this juncture would
be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility, and
endanger Americans for decades to come."

Was he kidding us? Foretold by millions of Americans and people around the
world in the run-up to war, Gates' predicted calamity has already come to
pass. Failure in Iraq is already a foregone conclusion. Now it is simply a
matter of how many more soldiers and civilians will pay the ultimate price
before Congress and the White House finally stop chasing more good lives
after good lives.

But the quote most upsetting was given by President Bush in an interview
granted to People magazine [1], in which he remarked that he was sleeping
much better than people would assume. If I were a solider, or the relative
of one, I would be outraged by this comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ford_nixon_pardon&printer=1

Ford pardon sealed Watergate shut

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press WriterWed Dec 27, 7:01 AM ET

On a September Sunday in 1974, President Gerald Ford told the nation it was
time to "shut and seal this book" of Watergate by pardoning his predecessor,
Richard Nixon.

Ford's stunning announcement may also have sealed his political fate, since
the nation's only president never elected to nationwide office - a
Republican - lost the 1976 election to Democrat Jimmy Carter. Many said the
unpopular pardon was a cause of Ford's defeat.

But years later, Ford's act of conscience was viewed differently. In 2001,
Ford, who died Tuesday, received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage
Award named after the former Democratic president. He was chosen by a
bipartisan committee of political and community leaders, who had the luxury
of looking back at the fateful day of Sept. 8, 1974.

Ford was not known for his eloquence, but he was eloquent when he addressed
the nation that morning in the Oval Office.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.investigate26dec26,0,7071390...
From the Baltimore Sun

Bush is bracing for new scrutiny

White House hiring lawyers in expectation of Democratic probes

By Julie Hirschfeld Davis
Sun reporter

December 26, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is bracing for what could be an onslaught of
investigations by the new Democratic-led Congress by hiring lawyers to fill
key White House posts and preparing to play defense on countless document
requests and possible subpoenas.
Bush is moving quickly to fill vacancies within his stable of lawyers,
though White House officials say there are no plans to drastically expand
the legal staff to deal with a flood of oversight.

"No, at this point, no," Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said
recently. "We'll have to see what happens."

Snow rebutted the notion that Bush is casting about for legal advice in the
wake of his party's loss of control of the Congress.