When school was canceled to accommodate a campaign visit by President Bush, the two 55-year-old teachers reckoned the time was ripe to voice their simmering discontent with the administration's policies.

Christine Nelson showed up at the Cedar Rapids rally with a Kerry-Edwards button pinned on her T-shirt; Alice McCabe clutched a small, paper sign stating "No More War." What could be more American, they thought, than mixing a little dissent with the bunting and buzz of a get-out-the-vote rally headlined by the president?

Their reward: a pair of handcuffs and a strip search at the county jail.

I believe the oath of office is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. Il Presidente has repeatedly violated that oath. It really is that simple.

Freedom of Spee.. Hey!

The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

I can see this going over well with the Lebanese and Palestinians...

US rushes precision-guided bombs to Israel: NYTimes - Yahoo! News

But diplomats focus particularly on an area with less evidence of instructions from Washington and more of Mr. Bolton’s personal touch, the mission that he has described as his priority: overhauling the institution’s discredited management. Envoys say he has in fact endangered that effort by alienating traditional allies. They say he combatively asserts American leadership, contests procedures at the mannerly, rules-bound United Nations and then shrugs off the organization when it does not follow his lead.

Back to the original thought, John Bolton must go.

Bolton’s Ways Foil Goals, Envoys Say - New York Times

John Bolton, U.N. Ambassador: "The notion that you just declare a cease fire and act as if that is going to solve the problem, I think is simplistic. Among other things. I want somebody to address the problem on how you get a cease-fire with a terrorist organization."

It's pretty easy. The Israelis have been doing it for decades, so have the Brits, the Indians (if W or Bolton is reading this, that's the Indians from India, not the Indians that run casinos over here) have as well in their ongoing feud with Pakistan (and vice-cersa). Actually, there is a very long list of people who have had cease fires with "terrorists."

Is it simplistic? Sort of, but we've had a cease fire with North Korea for 50+ years now and while things are not buddy-buddy, they've been reasonably stable. It seems that the only people who DON'T know how to talk are the ones strategerizing in the executive branch.

Bolton Walks Out Of Meeting With French

"It was the president of the United States himself who prevented this investigation from going forward. In obstructing the investigation, he was protecting the people around him, and not protecting the Constitution," Hinchey said.

This is explicitly "Obstruction of Justice."

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Bush Blocked Justice Department Investigation (07/18/06)

The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need. For the portion of your trip directly handled by the U.S. Government we will ask you to sign a promissory note and we will bill you at a later date.

Hey people who just found yourselves getting bombed by the Israelis? Your country will get you out! Of course, you'll need to pay for that service, probably including combat pay for the Haliburton group that gets you out since the actual military forces we would normally use are all tied up in Iraq, and we have a liner ready to go into the port of Beirut, just as soon as they stop bombing there, and assuming we can find a pier still standing, and we've even tasked a destroyer to protect the liner from the airplanes firing harpoon anti-ship missles that we sold to Israel which are designed to take out a destroyer in one shot (to say nothing of that big floating target we plan to stick you on if we can get it to what's left of the docks that is). Or if you prefer, you can walk to Jordan and maybe see if you can catch a connecting flight from there to someplace else as the Beirut airport has been bombed to shit.

If we actually had ANY interest in actual peace in the Mideast, there is usually a full carrier battle group stationed in the eastern Med, and we could say, Lebanon is a no-fly-zone to any except US planes which will be flying in humanitarian supplies (and hey, we could even make some money off the red cross flying the stuff in) and the planes of the carrier battle group there to enforce that, but since that would put us in opposition to Israel, you can forget about that ever happening. Hell, we could even put Hawkeyes up and pinpoint the Hezbollah launch locations and hit those instead of blowing up random shit in Beirut. That's something AWACS capability is good at.

Too bad actually helping people is a fantasy world.

Lebanon Situation Update - July 15, 2006 - US Embassy Beirut Lebanon

US Ambassador John Bolton said there was no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from "malicious terrorist acts".

Really? Why not? People who are doing nothing but minding their own business are blown to bits by rockets raining down from above. I fail to see what the difference is other than the fact that one side shooting rockets is an explicit state agent and the other isn't.

Lebanon civilian deaths morally not same as terror victims -- Bolton - Yahoo! News

This is precisely what is happening in America today, as Bush and Cheney are being sucker punched by Osama bin Laden. Authoritarianism is everywhere in the federal government, not because Bush and Cheney do not realize what they are doing, but because they are authoritarians, and they are doing what authoritarians do. In the process they have weakened the fabric of democracy, discredited the American government as never before in the eyes of the world, caused people to wonder if terrorists have a legitimate complaint, and taken the United States far from the moral high ground in refusing to abide by basic international law.

This actually isn't the main thrust of Dean's book. It is more of a scholarly document dealing with authoritarianism in general, and then looking at it as a possible explanation for what has been happening in this country. The case is both convincing and damning. What is happening now is worse than Nixon at his absolute worst, and goes into not just what is happening, but what makes it possible and why there are parts of the public that agree with it.

If you have a brain capable of critical thinking, read this book. Buy it, go to the library and borrow it, find a friend who has a copy, steal it if you have to, but read it.

Amazon.com: Conservatives Without Conscience: Books: John Dean

"It was highly classified, very important and many other lawyers had access. Why not OPR?" asked Specter, R-Pa.

"The president of the United States makes the decision," Gonzales told the committee hearing, during which he was strongly criticized on a range of national security issues by Specter and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), the panel's senior Democrat.

I want to say this is unbelievable, but it's not. This is just par for the course for these bastards. Al Q can kill people and blow up buildings, but they have no way to destroy America. The piece of crap living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has done everything he can to do so, and this is simply a prime example of it.

Gonzales: Bush blocked eavesdropping probe - Yahoo! News

In a variety of experiments, the first person to receive the implant, Matthew Nagle, moved a cursor, opened e-mail, played a simple video game called Pong and drew a crude circle on the screen. He could change the channel or volume on a television set, move a robot arm somewhat, and open and close a prosthetic hand.

This is cool. It's also kind of sad that they had to describe pong.

Paralyzed Man Uses Thoughts to Move a Cursor - New York Times