If This Doesn't Kill Giuliani's Chances . . .

Check out this article in The Village Voice . They connect Giuliani to the royal family of Qatar -- the same royal family that the "9/11 Commission" identified as protecting Khalid Sheikh Muhammad (KSM),the terrorist that planned 9-11.

Rudy Giuliani appeared on CNN with al-Thani [right after 9-11] and vouched for the emir when Larry King asked the mayor: "You are a friend of his, are you not?" . . .

. . . Giuliani Partners, the consulting company that has made Giuliani rich, feasts at the Qatar trough, doing business with the ministry run by the very member of the royal family identified in news and government reports as having concealed KSM—the terrorist mastermind who wired funds from Qatar to his nephew Ramzi Yousef prior to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and who also sold the idea of a plane attack on the towers to Osama bin Laden—on his Qatar farm in the mid-1990s. . . .

Abdallah al-Thani is also said to have welcomed Osama bin Laden on two visits to the farm, a charge repeated as recently as October 10, 2007, in a Congressional Research Service study. Abdallah al-Thani's interior ministry or the state-owned company it helps oversee, Qatar Petroleum, has worked with Giuliani Security & Safety LLC, a subsidiary of Giuliani Partners, on an undisclosed number of contracts, the value of which neither the government nor the company will release. . . .

. . . Abdallah al-Thani has been widely accused of helping to spirit KSM out of Qatar in 1996, just as the FBI was closing in on him. . .

I wonder if Fox will be able to spin Rudy out of this relevation as just a "mistakes were made" faux pas? Too bad the writers guild is out on strike -- Rupert Merdock sure could use a couple of good writers now.

New York Times Editorial

The NY Times had a good editorial this morning on the capitulation of the Democratic Senate and Congress.

The Democrats, however, also deserve a large measure of blame. They did almost nothing while they were in the minority to demand better nominees than Mr. Bush was sending up. And now that they have attained the majority, they are not doing any better.

On Thursday, the Senate voted by 53 to 40 to confirm Mr. Mukasey even though he would not answer a simple question: does he think waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning used to extract information from a prisoner, is torture and therefore illegal?

Democrats offer excuses for their sorry record, starting with their razor-thin majority. But it is often said that any vote in the Senate requires more than 60 votes — enough to overcome a filibuster. So why did Mr. Mukasey get by with only 53 votes? Given the success the Republicans have had in blocking action when the Democrats cannot muster 60 votes, the main culprit appears to be the Democratic leadership, which seems uninterested in or incapable of standing up to Mr. Bush.

Glenn Greenwald asked the same question earlier this week.

I'm more and more disappointed and Congressman Smith's performance yesterday really put the icing on it for me.

Throw the bums out!

Report from the NW Progressive Convention

America in Solidarity held a convention today in Tacoma. The keynote speaker was Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey. She was a hit, of course. She said that John Conyers agreed to get the Kucinich Cheney impeachment bill through committee as soon as possible.

Next came Congressman Adam Smith. I generally like him but he really irritated me and pissed off a bunch of people at the convention. When asked about why more isn't being done to get us out of Iraq he first tried to complain that we don't give the Democrats enough credit for what they have accomplished -- they raised minimum wages, for Gawd's sake. Then he told a story of how the Republicans were on board to hold Bush's feet to the fire in September but then we progressives started giving all the Democratic Congress persons grief for votes we were disappointed in and the approval rating for Congress dropped to 19% -- thus the Republicans saw there was no political advantage to supporting withdrawal and their support evaporated. So it was all our fault. He said we need to hold the Republican's feet to the fire. Yep. He blamed us. It's our fault for not being so thrilled and grateful that minimum wage increased that we forgot about Iraq and showered them with approval ratings.

Smith also danced around and said impeachment was unlikely -- they were too busy with other work. When I questioned him about the various crimes becoming precedent and inherited powers he said there were other ways to prevent that but didn't enumerate them.

What a disappointment!

Oh! Darcy Burner was there too. She ws on a panel with a lawyer from the ALCU, Sal Munigia, and the co-founder of the Backbone Campaign, Bill Moyer. They spoke about civil rights. Darcy was really smokin'! She said those who give immunity to AT&T and the other phone companies as part of the FISA bill are cowards and traitors. You Go Girl!! She also said what connects us as Americans is not our religion, the color of our skin or hair, or our language -- but instead we are bound together as Americans through our fundamental belief in core values as expressed by our Constitution and it's worth protecting. We've GOT to get her elected.