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Gissendanner to challenge in District 71
By JOHN HACKWORTH
Sun Managing Editor
03/21/08
Charlotte Sun
She is first Democrat to file in legislative race
Betty Gissendanner wants to make sure people have an opportunity to vote for their District 71 state legislator in November.
Gissendanner, 57, plans to announce her candidacy for the District 71 seat at an 11:45 a.m. news conference on the steps of the historic Punta Gorda Courthouse today. She will be the first, and perhaps only, Democrat in the race.
"I think more than anything else," she said of her reasons for running, "is that we have a two-party system that has served us well" and we need to preserve it. "As we look at the system right now, it has not been very balanced."
The Myth of the Surge
Hoping to turn enemies into allies, U.S. forces are arming Iraqis who fought with the insurgents. But it's already starting to backfire. A report from the front lines of the new Iraq
NIR ROSEN
Rolling Stone
It's a cold, gray day in December, and I'm walking down Sixtieth Street in the Dora district of Baghdad, one of the most violent and fearsome of the city's no-go zones. Devastated by five years of clashes between American forces, Shiite militias, Sunni resistance groups and Al Qaeda, much of Dora is now a ghost town. This is what "victory" looks like in a once upscale neighborhood of Iraq: Lakes of mud and sewage fill the streets. Mountains of trash stagnate in the pungent liquid. Most of the windows in the sand-colored homes are broken, and the wind blows through them, whistling eerily. House after house is deserted, bullet holes pockmarking their walls, their doors open and unguarded, many emptied of furniture. What few furnishings remain are covered by a thick layer of the fine dust that invades every space in Iraq. Looming over the homes are twelve-foot-high security walls built by the Americans to separate warring factions and confine people to their own neighborhood. Emptied and destroyed by civil war, walled off by President Bush's much-heralded "surge," Dora feels more like a desolate, post-apocalyptic maze of concrete tunnels than a living, inhabited neighborhood. Apart from our footsteps, there is complete silence.
My guide, a thirty-one-year-old named Osama who grew up in Dora, points to shops he used to go to, now abandoned or destroyed: a barbershop, a hardware store. Since the U.S. occupation began, Osama has watched civil war turn the streets where he grew up into an ethnic killing field. After the fall of Saddam, the Americans allowed looters and gangs to take over the streets, and Iraqi security forces were stripped of their jobs. The Mahdi Army, the powerful Shiite paramilitary force led by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, took advantage of the power shift to retaliate in areas such as Dora, where Shiites had been driven from their homes. Shiite forces tried to cleanse the district of Sunni families like Osama's, burning or confiscating their homes and torturing or killing those who refused to leave.
"The Mahdi Army was killing people here," Osama says, pointing to a now-destroyed Shiite mosque that in earlier times had been a cafe and before that an office for Saddam's Baath Party. Later, driving in the nearby district of Baya, Osama shows me a gas station. "They killed my uncle here. He didn't accept to leave. Twenty guys came to his house, the women were screaming. He ran to the back, but they caught him, tortured him and killed him." Under siege by Shiite militias and the U.S. military, who viewed Sunnis as Saddam supporters, and largely cut out of the Shiite-dominated government, many Sunnis joined the resistance. Others turned to Al Qaeda and other jihadists for protection.
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Did Ex-Alabama Governor Get A Raw Deal?
60 Minutes Reports On Bribery Conviction Of Don Siegelman In A Case Criticized by Democrats And Republicans
(CBS) Is Don Siegelman in prison because he’s a criminal or because he belonged to the wrong political party in Alabama? Siegelman is the former governor of Alabama, and he was the most successful Democrat in that Republican state. But while he was governor, the U.S. Justice Department launched multiple investigations that went on year after year until, finally, a jury convicted Siegelman of bribery.
Now, many Democrats and Republicans have become suspicious of the Justice Department’s motivations. As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, 52 former state attorneys-general have asked Congress to investigate whether the prosecution of Siegelman was pursued not because of a crime but because of politics.
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Gallup Daily: Tracking Election 2008
Gallup Poll (for the Presidential race), taken every day until the November election:
http://www.gallup.com/..
935 false statements
False Pretenses
Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
By Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith
The Center for Public Integrity
President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.
On at least 532 separate occasions (in speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony, and the like), Bush and these three key officials, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both. This concerted effort was the underpinning of the Bush administration's case for war.
It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al Qaeda. This was the conclusion of numerous bipartisan government investigations, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2004 and 2006), the 9/11 Commission, and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, whose "Duelfer Report" established that Saddam Hussein had terminated Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to restart it.
Juliano for State Rep - introduction by JJ
Hello Charlotte County Democrats! Let’s bring in a Blue Year!
I am Judy “JJ” Juliano, Candidate for State Representative, district 72 that includes portions of Charlotte, Lee and all of DeSoto County.
I am a proud first-generation Italian American. Both sets of Grandparents and my Parents emigrated from Calabria, Italy by way of Ellis Island. They became American citizens, overcoming language barriers and the cultural differences they faced. I am very proud of what Frank and Rose Juliano accomplished in order for their family to have a better life in their adopted country.
I have been working as a medical professional for 23 years in Florida, as a Registered Nurse. During this time, I have cared for, stood up for, and advocated for patients, their families and friends. I have done the same for my family and friends my entire life. Being an advocate for people is what I do best and that is exactly what I will do in your behalf as State Representative.
As a caring person and Nurse, I understand the needs of many. To listen, to find out the needs, and then to address them are among my most important qualities.
For me it's about “People, not Power”.
I am running because I care about the direction of our Communities and our State.
We need a Representative who will stand up and advocate to make the changes we need to streamline our health care costs, improve education, preserve our unique Florida's environment, and keep Florida affordable for all it's citizens . We need a stronger voice to advocate on behalf of the middle class people of our district.
The issues we face are many and varied, much like the characteristics of our District.
People deserve a State Government that is honest, responsive and accountable. We need Representatives who are willing to put our needs above all other interests, including holding onto their own power or personal agenda. It's time to shake up the old conviction in S.W Florida that being a Republican is an entitlement program for election or re-election in our region.
During this time of the New Year, we often think of making changes for ourselves, our families and our community. It is time to make changes in our State; we cannot afford to continue the direction Florida is headed.
I am asking for your vote & your support in whatever way you can afford to help: hosting a fundraiser, offering financial support, or even just walking and talking with me during this election cycle.
I look forward to meeting many of you as I go around our district and hear your concerns and your hopes for the future. I ask you to stand with me so we may walk together towards victory in “08”.
It’s time to turn the “page”, and together, we will!
With warm wishes, I am
“JJ”
Judy Juliano, Candidate, for State Representative
Please visit Julianoforstaterep.org
That Giant Sucking Sound May Be Your New TV
Flat-Panel Displays Devour Power, Even Before Add-Ons; Energy Star Blurs the Picture
By REBECCA SMITH
The Wall Street Journal
December 13, 2007; Page D1
Prices for big-screen television sets are dropping, but the cost of home entertainment may still be headed up. That is because the fancy screens shoppers are lugging home this holiday season consume far more electricity than their old-school predecessors.
Consider that a 42-inch plasma set can consume more electricity than a full-size refrigerator -- even when that TV is used only a few hours a day. Powering a fancy TV and full-on entertainment system -- with set-top boxes, game consoles, speakers, DVDs and digital video recorders -- can add nearly $200 to a family's annual energy bill.
Most consumers aren't made aware of extra energy expenses when they are shopping for a TV. Energy Star tags, a government program that identifies the most energy-efficient models, won't begin flagging the greenest televisions, when turned on, until late next year. Currently, Energy Star judges energy consumption only in standby mode, limiting its usefulness.
You Can’t Keep A Bad Media Narrative Down — Even in the Liberal Media
Published by Kenneth Quinnell on 2 December 2007
at Florida Progressive Coalition Blog
I don’t know much about Bob Moser, but if this article from The Nation
is any measure of his journalistic skills, I don’t have much to say for
him. (The article was posted on Alternet on 11/30 and appears in the
12/17 issue). I won’t go after it line-by-line, although I could, but
will focus on some of the more outrageous parts of the article.
