Tampa Treasure

A New Direction for America

The New Direction for America advances the right priorities – to make our nation safer and our economy fairer; to make health care and college more affordable; to energize America with energy independence; and to guarantee a dignified retirement for all Americans. These initiatives – the product of a united Democratic House Caucus working together with our Senate colleagues - are our priorities for the 109th Congress. We are committed to building an America where all families can live and prosper in diverse, safe, and vibrant communities.....more

"In this House we may be of different parties, but we serve one country."

Democrats took control of both the House and Senate today for the first time in the presidency of Republican George W. Bush — and promptly embraced at least some of the trappings of bipartisanship.The House made history by electing Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco as its first female speaker, putting her behind Vice President Dick Cheney in the line of succession to the presidency......more

Liberal Media Bias

Something taken as a given by most conservatives, and even many moderates and a few liberals, is that there is a bias in the mainstream media that favors liberals. The problem with this is that there is actually no evidence to support this claim. And I mean that literally -- no evidence......more

Operation: Save Bush's Legacy

If press reports are correct – that George W. Bush will approve a troop “surge” in Iraq of 17,000 to 20,000 soldiers – the follow-up question must be whether the escalation will do anything but get more Americans and Iraqis killed while only forestalling the defeat of Bush’s war policy......more

And So It Begins…

It's a cliché to say that the 2008 battle for the presidency is the most open and competitive in our lifetimes, but a general examination of the race can't begin without pointing it out......more

Dems to Inherit Agenda Dominated by War

Now the majority party, Democrats will inherit an agenda dominated by the war in Iraq when the new Congress convenes Thursday, increasing their exposure to what has mostly been a politically damaging issue for Republicans.....more

God tells Pat Robertson of mass killing in US

"I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.".......more

US plunges to 53rd place

Cuba, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Eritrea: The worst violators of press freedom

New countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies in the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, issued today, while the most repressive countries are still the same ones.....more

Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents

Librarians took them off the shelves and dumped them

Like Borders and Barnes & Noble, Fairfax is responding aggressively to market preferences, calculating the system's return on its investment by each foot of space on the library shelves -- and figuring out which products will generate the biggest buzz. So books that people actually want are easy to find, but many books that no one is reading are gone -- even if they are classics......more

Officers Won't Let Protesters Cross Bridge

Police took 10 war protesters into custody Monday at the Golden Gate Bridge after a three-hour standoff that backed up New Year's Day traffic and frayed tempers of tourists and bicyclists hoping for a jaunt across the span. The confrontation began at noon when about a dozen members of the women's peace organization CodePink prepared to walk across the bridge as a vigil to remember the 3,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Officers from the California Highway Patrol, the Golden Gate Bridge District and the San Francisco Police Department barred their way and also refused to let tourists onto the span.....more

Ret. Col. Ann Wright

"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq."
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, 21 July 2003

A UFO at O'Hare? Some Pilots Thought So

Federal officials say it was probably just some weird weather phenomenon, but a group of United Airlines employees swear they saw a mysterious, saucer-shaped craft hovering over O'Hare Airport last fall.....more

Socialist senator makes US history

"Anybody read your website?" he asks the BBC brusquely at the beginning of an interview ahead of taking his seat in the Senate. Assured that millions do, he says: "OK, let's talk to them.".......more

Howard Dean in December 2003: The US is No Safer with Saddam in Captivity than Before. And Now?

Dean's candidacy catapulted to near coronation by an otherwise disdainful media corps precisely because he alone of any major candidate opposed the war from the outset. He gained unflinching grassroots support that translated into historic amounts of money, nearly all from small donors, because he literally spoke truth to power. Most regrettably, this weekend's confluence of Saddam's execution with passing the 3,000 mark in the number of American soldiers dead in Iraq proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dean was right three years ago. At the time Dean made his much-criticized remark, about 500 American's had died in Iraq. Five times that many have died since.......more

Darfur, Uganda and the U.S. campaign to destabilize Sudan

In a little publicized speech earlier this year to the conservative think tank Freedom House, President George Bush had this to say when asked about U.S. efforts to end the unfolding tragedy in Darfur: “We [himself and Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo] talked about the need for a parallel track [a parallel track to the fighting in Darfur], a peace process that needs to go forward, that there needs to be unity amongst the rebel groups,” he said. This seems a strange means by which to achieve peace in Darfur, creating unity between the rebel organizations and isolating the national government. A more fair and realistic approach would be to engage both the government and rebels to negotiate solutions to common grievances......more

Help stop the genocide in Darfur!

Wal-Mart hosts Communist Party

US retail giant Wal-Mart has set up a new branch of the Communist Party at its China headquarters after allowing unions to operate in its stores earlier this year......more

Kucinich for president 2008
kucinich.us
YouTube

2006: A Deadly Year For Journalists

A new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists found that at least 55 journalists were killed this year in direct connection to their work. The most violent country was Iraq where 32 journalists lost their lives......more

3,000 US servicemen and women have been killed by a war that was declared "accomplished" in May 2003.

North Koreans Hail Rise of 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong-il

Why does the Kim Jong-il regime starve its population in order to build nuclear weapons and feed its military? According to this tribute to Kim Jong-il published by the country's state-controlled newspaper, the threat of a 'U.S. imperialist attack' means nuclear weapons and a strong military are absolutely essential......more

The Juche Idea

A BARBARIAN'S BARBARIC END

The fate of Saddam, as a person, is trivial. We wish he had been tried in an Iraq where democracy and the rule of law prevail. We wish his trial had been a signal of the victory of justice and the end of injustice, tyranny and totalitarianism......more

A bitter family saga is at an end

“I don’t think the public would stand for it.”

It was ill-advised for Ford to utter these nine words. To even intimate a commitment not to pardon at that early date was inappropriate if there was even a possibility that he would later feel compelled to do so......more

Most Outrageous Right Wing Comments of 2006

The offensive, the senseless, the bigoted, the inaccurate: a year in right-wing nuttery.....more

2,996, Do I Hear 3,000

Armed Forces Relief Trust

"It's a success that hasn't occurred yet."

Homeland Security Advisor Frances Fragos Townsend, on why Osama bin Laden hasn't been captured

Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud

Thousands Mourn James Brown At Apollo

Thousands of people danced and sang in the streets outside the Apollo Theater on Thursday in raucous celebration of the music legend's life as his body was displayed to the public on the stage where he made his 1956 debut. Music thumped from storefronts and portable stereos. Brown's wails and growls even blasted inside the auditorium as fans marched quietly, single-file past his open gold coffin.....more

President John Edwards

Join the Campaign

Ethiopia invades Somalia

On December 26, US State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus described Ethiopia’s illegal attack as a response to “aggression” by Islamists and an attempt to stem the flow of outside arms shipments to them. Washington was also concerned about reports that the Islamists were using child soldiers and abusing Ethiopian prisoners of war, she added......more

Best cover of the year goes to Esquire Magazine
click here

Sean Penn blasts George W Bush

Sean Penn astonished audience members when he called for the accusation of Us President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and used the words "blow job" and "c*m stain" during a controversial acceptance speech on Dec 18 this year, as Femalefirst reports......more

Howard Dean made it pay — and then some

As candidates prepare for the 2008 presidential campaign, the Internet is the new Main Street. An estimated 70 percent of adults in the United States travel the digital highway, still a cheap and largely unregulated medium......more

Needed In Storrs: A College Town
UConn launches a plan to build one from scratch

The project exemplifies the growing interest of colleges and universities in their surrounding communities. Many have realized that a building boom of dormitories, student centers and libraries isn't enough. Students don't want an “ivory tower” experience; they want to be part of broader communities that offer commerce, culture and cuisine.......more

Are The Blinders Finally Coming Off?

There seems to be a fear setting in amongst Republicans and pundits that what those of us on the left have been saying for years, just might be true. Namely that this President is crazy! He is an End Times believer and an ideologue and he is in charge of our foreign policy! It’s about time they started questioning his fitness to lead this country......more

Death Count 2,972 This Christmas Day 2006

6 U.S. Troops Die in Bloody Iraq Weekend

Some 12,000 Iraqi policemen have been killed since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the country's interior minister said Sunday, as clashes, a suicide bomber and weekend explosions killed more than a dozen Iraqi officers and six American soldiers......more

RIP: James Brown

Surging into the Abyss

It now looks like the administration has adopted the surge strategy as its mantra. Simply put it means no new political road map for Iraq in place of the “national unity government” formula that has so far failed has not delivered on the insurgency but has managed to alienated the Shias, and has actually caused more rather than less sectarian violence since the U.S. adopted it.......more

New Poll: Hillary Over McCain

A new poll from Newsweek has some interesting data on Hillary Clinton's electability. According to the poll, Hillary beats John McCain 50 to 43 percent, squeaks by Rudy Giuliani 48 to 47 percent and trounces Mitt Romney, 58 to 32 percent. Her presumptive rival, Barack Obama, narrowly loses to McCain and Giuliani but thumps Romney as well, 55 to 25 percent.....more

Noam Chomsky on Creating Another World in a Time of War, Empire and Devastation

World-renowned scholar and linguist Noam Chomsky spoke this weekend at an event sponsored by Massachusetts Global Action. The event titled, "What's Next? Creating Another World in a Time of War, Empire and Devastation" was held at the Emmanuel Church in Boston. Chomsky, who is a professor of Linguistics at MIT, returned from Latin America in October. He talked about the recent elections in the region, which have brought leftist, governments to power that are challenging U.S foreign policy. Chomsky also spoke about Iraq and Iran in the context of Latin America.....more

The U.S. Has a History of Using Torture

In April 2004, Americans were stunned when CBS broadcast those now-notorious photographs from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, showing hooded Iraqis stripped naked while U.S. soldiers stood by smiling. As this scandal grabbed headlines around the globe, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisted that the abuses were "perpetrated by a small number of U.S. military......more

They Wash the Homeless people's feet

A Witness To What Faith Can Be

Something radical is happening every Friday night where homeless people congregate downtown under the Burnside Bridge. Car and vanloads of Christian volunteers swoop in with sleeping bags and coats to protect their dispossessed friends against the raw, wet weather that has moved in. They dispense hot meals and set up stations for shaves and haircuts. While a few pull out guitars and strike up their Jesus-themed songs, a small number of the volunteers commit one of the more audacious acts of compassion and humility I have ever witnessed......more

Bridgetown Ministries

Screen every child in school for mental illnesses

Pres. Bush has commissioned the mental health field to screen every child in school AND PRE-SCHOOL for mental illnesses. Once in the mental health system, they are given drugs that are NOT FDA approved for kids, mainly anti-depressants. I'm a nurse and I can tell you that these new drugs they are NOW giving these kids CAUSE suicidal and homicidal behaviors. I have a study in my hand that says they are targeting the MEDICAID children. From the year 2000 to 2005, there was an increase of 528% in these drugs given to Medicaid children. Almost 60,000 just in Florida alone. So, this cause will affect your future if it's continued. The way they get into schools is through TeenScreen mental health screening. We can stop the government from doing this by signing the petition below.

Go to this website and sign this on-line petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html

Also visit: www.nurses4humanrights.org

Bill defies Bush, visits Syria

In a direct affront to the Bush administration, a Democratic senator spent an hour Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, emerging from the meeting to say Assad was willing to help control the Iraq-Syrian border.....more

Meet: Maj. Megan McClung

A roadside bomb killed her a month before coming home

She was known for sprinting along the Tigris River in Iraq, competing in a triathlon in Brazil and doing a back flip in North Carolina to prove to police she was sober.With her copper-red hair, athletic ability and sense of humor, Maj. Megan McClung was a memorable figure to the troops and journalists she worked with as a Marine Corps public affairs officer......more

America Loses Another War
Iraq: a shameful ass-whupping, or just a pathetic trouncing? Ugly disgrace? Choices, choices

The good news is, we're all back in harmony. All back on the same page. No more divisiveness and no more silly bickering and no more nasty and indignant red state/blue state rock throwing because we're finally all back in cozy let's-hug-it-out agreement: The "war" in Iraq is over. And what's more, we lost. Very, very badly......more

Clueless

Pinochet's grandson kicked out of army

The grandson of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was booted out of the army today for criticising the judiciary in a highly politicised speech at his grandfather's funeral. In his funeral speech, the younger Pinochet described his grandfather as "a man who, at the height of the Cold War, defeated the Marxist government which tried to impose its totalitarian model, not through the ballot box, but through direct use of force."......more

The Fall of the Mighty Dollar

Is an end of an era looming in the foreign exchange markets? The dollar has been depreciating against the euro for weeks. Currency experts and the German government don't yet see this as cause for alarm. The US currency's role as a lead currency isn't as important as it used to be, they say......more

Blame the Iraqis and run

As George W. Bush agonises over which bits of last week’s Baker-Hamilton re­port to adopt for his forthcoming “new way forward in Iraq” announcement, an­other consensus is emerging in Washington on how to handle the situation: blame the Iraqis.....more

December 10, 2006: Human Rights and Impeachment (Prison) Day
here

European Left see better ties with US after Democrat win

The chairman of the national committee of the US Democratic Party, Howard Dean, told the gathering his party now "has a say" in US policy and wants to restore close political ties with Europe. "It is time for the US to renew its ties with the rest of the world. It is time for us to treat our allies with respect and honesty," he said to applause from participants.......more

A New Game

If you’re like me, you’ve got a wingnut friend or two that persists in trying to “convert you” by sending you foolish spam emails and chain letters. Sometimes the emails aren’t so bad - I got one from a devout Christain friend the other day that spoke of respect for the troops during the holidays. Jingoistic? Sure… But it was touching, nonetheless......more

The Dixie Chicks Earn Five Grammy Nominations

Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Best Country Album........more

The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is sad and profoundly un-American.”.........Harvey Weinstein

Changes Are Expected in Voting by 2008 Election

By the 2008 presidential election, voters around the country are likely to see sweeping changes in how they cast their ballots and how those ballots are counted, including an end to the use of most electronic voting machines without a paper trail, federal voting officials and legislators say......more