“It is an excuse to make it a do-nothing Congress,” Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican [duh] of Texas, said. “And we are turning our back on the middle-class and poor people in this country who depend on the minimum wage and death-tax relief.”
Realeased August 5, 1966
Download a free e-book telling the story of the Beatles 1966 album Revolver.
Revolver in Wikipedia.....
Photo by Ryan McManus
"Collapse (w/ silence)" - C'est la Mort
"Zombie" - The Cranberries
"The Way we Get By" - Spoon
"Vicario" - Kissinger
"Caravan Breaker" - Frog Eyes
"I Cover the Waterfront" - John Lee Hooker
"Cut-Out Witch" - Guided By Voices
"Sound Of Changing Places" - The Thought Criminals
"Roscoe" - Midlake
"Ice Dog" - Man Man
Video bonus - The Reivers - "Over and Over"
WASHINGTON, DC— In a decisive 1–0 decision Monday, President Bush voted to grant the president the constitutional power to grant himself additional powers.
"As president, I strongly believe that my first duty as president is to support and serve the president," Bush said during a televised address from the East Room of the White House shortly after signing his executive order. "I promise the American people that I will not abuse this new power, unless it becomes necessary to grant myself the power to do so at a later time."
The Presidential Empowerment Act, which the president hand-drafted on his own Oval Office stationery and promptly signed into law, provides Bush with full authority to permit himself to authorize increased jurisdiction over the three branches of the federal government, provided that the president considers it in his best interest to do so.
Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.
Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to several commission sources. Staff members and some commissioners thought that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause to believe that military and aviation officials violated the law by making false statements to Congress and to the commission, hoping to hide the bungled response to the hijackings, these sources said.
In the end, the panel agreed to a compromise, turning over the allegations to the inspectors general for the Defense and Transportation departments, who can make criminal referrals if they believe they are warranted, officials said.
"We to this day don't know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what they told us," said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who led the commission. "It was just so far from the truth. . . . It's one of those loose ends that never got tied."
Although the commission's landmark report made it clear that the Defense Department's early versions of events on the day of the attacks were inaccurate, the revelation that it considered criminal referrals reveals how skeptically those reports were viewed by the panel and provides a glimpse of the tension between it and the Bush administration.
Tamara Hoover Benefit Art Show - August 11 - RSVP Here
August 11th, 6-11 p.m.
The Pedernales Lofts
2401 East 6th St. ..2028.
A benefit art show featuring works by Celesta Danger and Tamara Hoover. Tamara Hoover is the Austin high school art teacher who is facing unemployment for posing for artistic nude photographs. This art show will be raising money for her defense.
Featuring live music by Michael Clay, 215, and Tito and the Man.
Food and Cocktails.
Hosted by Illuna Entertainment.
After-party at The Peacock.
Who they'd like to meet: Freedom lovers and supporters of the First Amendment.
tag: Tamara Hoover
Church employee charged with child sexual assault
The Minister of Education at Great Hills Baptist Church is facing a charge of sexual assault to a child.
Jerry Dale Carver, 51, was arrested at his home Monday night. Police say he picked up a 15-year-old boy at a bus stop at Parmer and Metric on July 25.
Police say when Carver engaged in inappropriate conversation and physical contact, the boy tried to get out of the car. But investigators say Carver drove him to a park called The Quarries off of MoPac in Northwest Austin, where he sexually assaulted the boy then drove him home.
Police believe there may be additional victims. They're asking parents who observe a change in the behavior of their child to contact the Child Abuse tip line at (512) 974-6880.
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! August 6th! 
Get ready for the grudge match of the year... 2-time Champs, the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers, in their re-match with the Hotrod Honeys, the only team that's beaten the Heartbreakers in almost three seasons. Bring your helmets and pads, y'all... it's gonna be a rough one. And don't count out the other two Texas Rollergirls teams! There's no love lost between the Hell Marys and the Hustlers, and their match-up is sure to blow the roof off Playland.
What: 2006 Championship!
When: Sunday, August 6th - Doors @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Playland Skate Center - 8822 McCann (183 & Burnet)
Music: The Feelers (Columbus, OH) opens the show @ 6:45pm and Honky heats up half-time! And DJ Alan B spins throughout the show!
After-party: The Jackelope, 404 E. 6th Street
Tickets: $12 in advance; $15 at the door. Kids under 12 get in free. Buy on-line now or pick 'em up at Cheapo Discs, Beerland, Texas or Playland Skate Center
Fittingly, the President ended his address with the neoconservative prayer -- that what appears to sane and civilized people as tragic and brutal wars in Iraq and in Lebanon are really glorious "opportunities" which we should celebrate and for which we should be grateful -- beautiful "birth pangs" on the road to a majestic transformation:This moment of conflict in the Middle East is painful and tragic. Yet it is also a moment of opportunity for broader change in the region. Transforming countries that have suffered decades of tyranny and violence is difficult, and it will take time to achieve. But the consequences will be profound -- for our country and the world. When the Middle East grows in liberty and democracy, it will also grow in peace, and that will make America and all free nations more secure.
Again, aside from the genuinely repugnant and casual celebration of carnage, none of this makes even basic sense. The two countries on which Israel is waging war, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority, both have democratically elected governments, as does, at least to some degree, the country on which we most want to wage war, Iran. By contrast, the closest and most reliable allies we have in that region -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan -- are the least democratic. The notion that we can bomb the Middle East into peace-loving, pro-U.S. democracies is painfully, self-evidently absurd by now, but the President believes it.
The neoconservative extremists are ridiculed on an almost daily basis, because the extent of their ever-increasing lunacy is truly difficult to fathom. But that mindset is not merely some fringe radicalism but, instead, has been driving our foreign policy for the last five years. And it still is, because the individual who happens to be the President, along with the omnipotent Vice President, are full-fledged adherents to this approach, and while scores of people marvel at how increasingly deranged the Bill Kristols and Richard Perles of the world seem to be, those who occupy the White House believe they speak great wisdom and are listening intently to (and outright echoing) what they have to say.
President Bush's "moment of opportunity" in the Middle East is increasingly looking like an opportunity for disaster.
Bush's official position is that some blood-spilling in the Middle East is worth it in pursuit of the region's positive transformation.
Even in the wake of an Israeli airstrike Sunday that killed 57 civilians in the Southern Lebanese town of Qana, every terse presidential acknowledgment of the human toll is accompanied by soaring rhetoric about freedom and democracy and lasting stability.
In the best of circumstances, Bush would be running the risk of being considered callous. But in the current circumstances, he runs the risk of being considered both callous and delusional.
By almost no stretch of the imagination is the current conflict strengthening Bush's hand or advancing democracy. Rather, it appears to be emboldening Bush's enemies.
Perfect for a Monday morning.
Anger Management - play it now.
(via Anntichrist S. Coulter)
