I hope many good ideas come up for discussion.

But my comment is off topic.

It relates to the Speaker and her statements Re; Being informed about torture, then and now. This is what I wrote to her, and I repost it here IN CASE IT IS HELPFUL.

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Greetings to the Speaker.

There is a logical fallacy in your statement re: being informed about torture, then and now.

The interesting thing, Madame Speaker, is that you are attempting to portray yourself as opposed to Torture, without actually taking any action against it.

Interesting too, is that it was YOU, Nancy Pelosi, that decided Impeachment was "Off the Table". We, the People could have had a different President in 2006. We could have had YOU. Instead, what We have, Now, is the former Vice President traveling the country explaining and proclaiming that Torture is effective. This does not "amount to" or "resemble" a confession, IT IS ONE.

Don't suppose you have anyone fooled for a second, Ma'am. You are as Guilty as the day is long. but you have in hand both means and opportunity to rehabilitate yourself, both in terms of public image and in actual fact.

You need only do the right thing to earn the appreciation of the vast majority. Bald Facing your way through is not working, is it? The alternative is to leave town. And, should you, there will be a man following in your wake. He will have either a supeona, or a warrent.

Just how much choice do you really think you have, Ma'am? You may have been afraid for America when you made these mistakes, but it is now plain to most that the mistakes made are what threatens the Country, while the fears were largely imaginary. It is now time to correct the mistakes. And ignore the fears.

So get out of the way.
Frosted Flake

for you and your family JC, in this difficult time.

January 30th, Our Responsibility

To me, the bottom line is this: If we move on now without fully documenting what occurred, without acknowledging the betrayal of our values, and without determining whether or not any laws have been broken, we cannot help but validate all that has gone on before. If we look at the Bush record and conclude that the book should simply be closed, we will be tacitly approving both the documented abuses and the additional misdeeds we will have chosen to leave uncovered.

February 13th, More support for Commission

...USA Today/Gallup poll demonstrating over 70 percent of Americans favor an investigation of the Bush Administration for its role in politicizing the Department of Justice.

February 16th, Obama administration defending Bush secrets

the Justice Department is defending Bush administration decisions to keep secret many documents about domestic wiretapping, data collection on travelers and U.S. citizens, and interrogation of suspected terrorists.

And then,

* February- 1 more post on the subject of healthcare

* March- 5 posts, zero on the subject of investigations.

* April- Zero posts, Crickets

* May- 3 posts on the subject of healthcare and the economy

And then June 17th, Monica Conyers named in bribery probe

City Council member Monica Conyers, the wife of a prominent congressman, sought political support from Baptist pastors and prayers from constituents Tuesday as her re-election bid collided with a corruption probe involving cash bribes handed over in fast-food parking lots.

* June- Zero posts and more Crickets

* July- Zero posts and even more Crickets

* August- Recess....Congress Goes Out To Play!

John,

Your 80 freakin years old, your wife's political career went down in flames, and your legacy in the history books is going down in flames. Meanwhile, you finally have the gavel in your hand. So the question is "What are you going to do?" Are you are just going to just sit by and "validate all that has gone on before", being an accessory to all that is to come or are you going to finally understand that you have nothing to lose and bring the long awaited justice and accountability that this whole freakin world needs and deserves?

Do something or just turn out the lights!

Thank you Congressman Conyers
The dismissal of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias in December 2006 followed extensive communication among lawyers and political aides in the White House who hashed over complaints about his work on public corruption cases against Democrats, according to newly released e-mails and transcripts of closed-door House testimony by former Bush counsel Harriet Miers and political chief Karl Rove.

A campaign to oust Iglesias intensified after state party officials and GOP members of the congressional delegation apparently concluded he was not pursuing the cases against Democrats in a way that would help then- Rep. Heather Wilson in a tight releection race, according to interviews and Bush White House e-mails released Tuesday by congressional investigators. The documents place the genesis of Iglesias's dismissal earlier than previously known.

House Judiciary Chairman John M. Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) Tuesday characterized the role of Bush White House figures in the firing episode as improper and inappropriate.

"Under the Bush regime, honest and well-performing US Attorneys were fired for petty patronage, political horse trading and, in the most egregious case of political abuse of the US Attorney corps -- that of US Attorney Iglesias -- because he refused to use his office to help Republicans win elections," Conyers said. "When Mr. Iglesias said his firing was a 'political fragging,' he was right"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/11/AR2009081102104.html?hpid=topnews

It is a very interesting letter, which may be of political import.

Byline : Editor : Wall Street Pit dot com : August 20

Best Wishes to all.
FF

Brad Blog Reports

It has now been over a week since the video tape and transcript from the remarkable 8/8/09 deposition of former FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds was publicly released. Previously, the Bush Administration invoked the so-called "state secrets privilege" in order to gag Edmonds, in attempting to keep such information from becoming public.

The under-oath, detailed allegations include bribery, blackmail, espionage and infiltration of the U.S. government of, and by current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials and agents of the government of Turkey. The broad criminal conspiracy is said to have resulted in, among other things, the sale of nuclear weapons technology to black market interests including Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, Libya and others.

Even as many of these allegations had been previously corroborated to varying extents, by a number of official government reports, documents and independent media outlets (largely overseas), not a single major mainstream media outlet in the U.S. has picked up on Edmonds' startling claims since her deposition has been made fully available.

Granted, last week was a busy news week, with the death of Ted Kennedy, the release of the CIA Inspector General's report on torture, and the announcement that Michael Jackson's death was ruled a homicide. And, it's true, a 4-hour deposition and/or 241-page transcript [PDF] is a lot of material to review, particularly given the wide scope of the charges being made here. Still, given the serious national security issues at stake, said to have the been among the most important matters of the past 8 years, one would think someone in the corporate MSM might have taken the time to go through the material, and report on it. Particularly as Edmonds' claims have previously been found "credible" "serious" and "warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review," by the DoJ Inspector General, and confirmed as such, on several occasions, by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and many many others.

So for the benefit of the U.S. media, and other readers, who may find it helpful for this large body of newly-available information to be culled down into more digestible pieces, I will attempt to break down the deposition, a bit, into some of its subject matter-based component parts. I will try to go through the major disclosures from the deposition, one-by-one, in a series of pieces which might help others to further report and/or investigate these breathtaking disclosures from a former FBI official who, following 9/11, listened to and translated wiretap recordings made from 1996 through 2002, in the FBI's counterintelligence and counterterrorism departments, under top-secret clearance.

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You can lead a republican to the truth, but you can't make him think it...

Thank you once again Congressman Conyers for your voice! Why is it that no one mentions how the republicans have NO problem spending our money to kill people with their wars.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/68603-conyers-im-getting-tired-of-saving-obamas-can
"I'm getting tired of saving Obama's can in the White House," Conyers said on the liberal Bill Press radio show. "He only won by five votes in the House, and this bill wasn't even anything to write home about."

"The only way he could have got it through was that progressives held their nose," Conyers added.

Friday was MLK Jr's birthday. I am surprised that there isn't a new blog post commemorating the holiday today.