editor@netpath.net wrote:

Jim Colblum libslie.com> wrote:

Latest From Tim Johnson's Office

By Bob Geiger
Created Dec 29 2006 - 12:28pm

Here's the latest statement from the office of Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD),
who suffered a brain hemorrhage two weeks ago:

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Washington, DC. On U.S. Senator Tim Johnson's 60th birthday, he remains in
the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital and is
surrounded by his family.

"Senator Johnson's overall general medical condition has improved and he
is gradually being weaned from the sedation," said Vivek Deshmukh, MD,
neurosurgeon at The George Washington University Hospital. "He is opening
his eyes and is responsive to his wife." It is anticipated that Senator
Johnson will undergo further testing in the coming days. He remains in
critical condition.

George W. Bush Is Going To Bomb Iran

By boloboffin
Created Dec 29 2006 - 10:33am

Promoted to front page by moderator

George W. Bush is going to bomb Iran. This is the purpose of the "surge". No
amount of troops is going to fix Iraq; they couldn't if they tried. If Bush
wanted to fix Iraq, he'd give them jobs. People who are employed in decent
jobs can figure out how to live with their neighbors. More American troops
in the Persian Gulf are not going to quell violence in Iraq any more than
the ones already there are.

George W. Bush is going to bomb Iran. And there may be almost nothing we can
do to stop it.

Iran has a single trump card - their nuclear program. I share the doubts
that Bush can destroy the whole thing. There will be no repeat of Israel's
surgical removal of the nuclear ambitions of Saddam Hussein. But Bush can
take out enough of Iran's nuclear facilities to knock them back a few more
years in the development of a feasible weapon. That is all he needs to
bomb - that is, until Iran makes its move.

What Should Congressional Democrats Do, When the Bush Administration
Stonewalls Their Efforts To Undertake Oversight?

By John W. Dean
Created Dec 29 2006 - 9:14am

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

Part Two in a Three-Part Series

"We see a war coming on Capitol Hill," a well-connected Republican attorney
based in Washington recently told me, as I reported in my last column [2] on
the subject. The clash is not surprising, because Vice President Dick
Cheney -- who is at the center of many of the subjects the Democratic
Congress will be investigating -- is strongly opposed to Congress' inquiring
into these areas. He believes the power of the presidency is at stake.
Accordingly, as I noted earlier, he has made it quite clear that he is not
going to cooperate with these investigations.

Before the conflict develops, it might seem helpful to go over the rules of
game -- to appreciate who is on solid ground, who is on shaky ground, and
why this is the case. But as it happens, there are no rules!

Saddam wins big! (And human rights take a thumping)

By Joshua Holland
Created Dec 29 2006 - 9:09am

Under "Iraqi law*," Saddam Hussein must hang before January 27 for ordering
the deaths of 148 people in the town of Dujail in 1982. CBS reports [1] that
the execution will be recorded, but it's not clear if the tape will be
broadcast.

As I've written before (here [2], here [3], here [4] and here [5]), the
trial was a joke -- an utter sham. And while Saddam Hussein, the decrepit
old man, doesn't deserve much in the way of sympathy, the fact that the
Bushies -- in order to score domestic political points -- threw away an
opportunity to bring to justice Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq
who ordered the gassing of as many as 30,000 Kurds, will go down as one of
the great tragedies in a war that's been replete with them.

Saddam couldn't have hoped for a better end than a swift death after an
illegitimate trial by Western occupiers, or a better legacy than that which
will result from it.

Let's Toast to Ten Good Things About 2006

By Medea Benjamin
Created Dec 29 2006 - 8:59am

As we close this year on the low of a devastating conflict in Iraq and a
President contemplating sending yet more troops to fight and die in an
unwinnable war, let us not forget that it was a year of many positive gains
for the progressive movement. Here are just ten.

1. First, of course, is the November elections, when voters gave Repubicans
an "electoral thumpin'". From California's Jerry McNerney to Ohio's Sherrod
Brown to Minnesota's Keith Ellison--Democrats all over the country won
elections by slamming Bush's war. The collapse of one-party rule in
Washington reflected a spectacular repudiation of George Bush and handed
Congress a mandate to get out of Iraq.

Laurie David and I: Hollywood parlances meet blue-collar environmentalism

By John F. Borowski
Created Dec 29 2006 - 8:50am

Several weeks ago I was contacted by Laurie David and her surrogates at the
Natural Resources Defense Council regarding the National Science Teachers
Association's (NSTA) refusal to distribute 50,000 free...

More media follies!

By Geov Parrish
Created Dec 29 2006 - 8:39am

Readers submit their picks for most overhyped and underreported stories of
the year

Last week in this space, I published my tenth annual list of the most
overhyped and underreported stories of the year. It was a necessarily
incomplete list, due both to space limitations and to the human brain's
endless capacity for blocking out bad news. In this case, that means both
news that was depressing and news that was an embarrassment (or should have
been) to the poor journalists required to cover it.

And, so, I invited readers to send in your own suggestions of stories I
should have included but didn't. The response was both overwhelming and
quite astute. And, so, in no particular order, here are some of your
letters. Thanks for writing!

Hi, Geov,

Thanks for your piece on hype and underreporting. I have a couple of things
to add in the latter category:

Gerald Ford Should Have Listened to Tim McGraw

By Cenk Uygur
Created Dec 29 2006 - 8:29am

While a lot of us were on vacation, the Grim Reaper got to work. It was a
good week for death. First it was James Brown and Gerald Ford. Soon a man
who knows a thing or two about death will join them, Saddam Hussein.
Every life needs an exit strategy. For James Brown it was a horse drawn
carriage pulling into The Apollo. Perfect. The man lived large and he died
large. It's an exit plan that the Pentagon would have called "Go Strong."

Saddam on the other hand will be redeploying his forces - into Hades. The
guy is still giving lectures about how we should "become an example of love,
forgiveness and brotherly coexistence." [1] Come on. For audacious
hypocrisy, it's hard to get a better value than Saddam.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Gerald Ford. A pleasant man. An
uninteresting man. His exit strategy was more of a phased withdrawal.

The schmaltzy Tim McGraw song urges everyone to "live like you were dyin'."
[2] In Saddam's case, he really put that slogan to the test, but not in the
way McGraw imagined. James Brown was the epitome of Carpe Diem. Did the man
have any boring days?