cutting in line results in cops putting beat down on minister

Last week a man waited in line to attend the Congressional hearings in which Gen. David "Bush's Mouthpiece" Petraeus made the case for the U.S. military continuing to occupy Iraq. The Capitol Police decided that the man should be excluded from the hearing.

The Capitol Police officer claimed the man cut in line. The man, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, a former U.S. Air Force officer, claims he was excluded after the officer read his button that says, "I love the people of Iraq".

In the video of the incident, there is no reference to anyone complaining about Yearwood cutting in line. I would have expected that the police officer would say something like, "These people behind you have complained that you cut in front of them in line."

Anyway, a relatively minor issue ended-up resulting in an arrest and the Capitol Police injuring Yearwood.

With all our great media companies--New York Times, Washington Post, etc--it seems the best journalism on the incident is by Air Force Times (Seamus O’Connor).

But don't take my word for the incident. You can see the video yourself.

Watching the video a second time, I'm pretty sure the person behind Yearwood in line is Aaron Hughes, the the president of the Chicago chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War. It seems natural that Yearwood would be next to Hughes in line, especially considering the next video (h/t Siun (Fire Dog Lake)).

My general take is that war makes everybody tense. This is especially true of wars that drag on past the point where everybody knows we're sacrificing lives just to procrastinate the elites admitting the were wrong to start the war.

This tension has the ability to make a minor issue--how often does cutting in line at the Capitol result in arrest or injury?--into something bigger. This is the same basic problem--normal people operating under tense conditions caused by war--that resulted in Allison Krause, Jeffrey Glen Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder being killed by their government on May 4, 1970 at Kent State University.

[UPDATE: According to Yearwood, he and Ann Wright, Col, US Army (ret), were deliberately blackballed by Capitol Police. The officer gave tickets to people in line, but deliberately withheld tickets from Wright and Yearwood.]

Mark Pera taking questions online Saturday 1:00 PM

Mark Pera, president of the board of education, Lyons Township High School, is running for Congress against Dan Lipinski in the Democratic Primary. The district includes southern Proviso Township, including Brookfield, La Grange Park, North Riverside, and the southern portions of Forest Park and Westchester. There may be a third candidate.

On Saturday, September 8, at 1 PM, Pera will take questions from people around the country, and around the world, on Fire Dog Lake.

h/t EricV (Prairie State Blue) for reminding me to post this.

What would you ask Pera?

I would ask something like,

Mr. Pera, your wife is a consultant who is working to privatize the UK health care system. You've stated that the best health care system is more public than the U.S. system and more private than the UK system. In your mind what are the problems with the U.S. health care system? What needs to be fixed?

[UPDATE: Fire Dog Lake discussion with Pera.]

is this the best health care system in the world?

Jane Hamsher (Fire Dog Lake):

I’m one of those lucky people who has insurance. And Blue Cross has decided to deny the $4000 test I had last fall which determined I had invasive breast cancer as “not medically necessary.”

When someone claims the U.S. health care system is the best in the world, ask them by what measure.

It's not the most cost effective. It doesn't cover everyone. We don't have the low infant mortality rates. We don't have the highest life expectancy.

The U.S. system probably does put the highest percentage of the cost in the pockets of shareholders. So, when Republicans say we have the best health care system in the world, they might be referring to the system that does the most to enrich the executives and shareholders.

re-enacting soliciting for sex in men's room

[UPDATE2: Countdown with Keith Olbermann does an even more entertaining job re-enacting Sen. Craig's bathroom incident.]


Channel 13, Sacramento, a CBS affiliate reenacted the conduct from the arrest of Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) the anti-gay rights U.S. Senator who liked to have sex with men in bathrooms. But he's not gay.

[UPDATE: Below is a video with a song by Doug Clark, produced by Joe Barrentine for SpokesmanReview.com. h/t to TRex of Fire Dog Lake, who in turn credits Diane.]

The jingle is a 1971 #1 hit Knock Three Times by Tony Orlando and Dawn. Knock Three Times unseated George Harrison's My Sweet Lord as the #1 song in the USA.

Keith Olbermann and some other people on Bush commuting Libby's sentence

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby committed obstruction of justice. Why would Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff obstruct justice when dealing with a special prosecutor investigating who outed undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame?

Libby was protecting Cheney and/or President George W. Bush. Either Bush and/or Cheney engaged in criminal activity or conduct that would have been politically explosive.

Libby was rewarded for his criminality by President Bush who protect Libby from being sent to prison. The lies used to justify invading Iraq where protected by a planned effort to retaliate against Ambassador Joe Wilson. The retaliation included Wilson's wife, a CIA operative specializing in learning about nuclear weapons programs, including Iran's.

Bush has abused the power of the presidency to protect one of his co-conspirators from the consequences of his actions. Will our members of Congress--Reps. Danny K. Davis, Dan Lipinski, Rahm Emanuel and Luis Gutierrez--rise to the occasion and do something about it?

Fire Dog Lake (Christy Hardin Smith) quotes extensively from a Baltimore Sun editorial. She also includes Digby quoting Thomas Paine.

…in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other….

IRAQ, happy fourth anniversay!

Today is the fourth anniversary of the United States invading Iraq. See Wikipedia's entry Iraq War, although the situation is now an U.S. military occupation resisted by guerrilla warfare with at least one civil war happening in the same place at the same time.

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE and presidential candidate) recently highlighted that all the objectives in the Iraq War Resolution have largely been achieved. Saddam Hussein is no longer leading Iraq. There have been elections. There were no "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (a misleading term that lumps relatively innocuous biological and chemical weapons with nuclear weapons).

IMO, historians will decide that invading Iraq was the worst foreign policy mistake in U.S. history.

At Daily Kos, BarbinMD made a list of President George W. Bush's evolving statements about Iraq. The statements are labeled with dates and the number of U.S. casualties in Iraq at the time.


Brave New Foundation created Iraq Veterans Memorial. It's a cross between the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and YouTube.

Unfortunately, President George W. Bush seems unwilling to admit that his policies have failed. He seems to be avoiding admission of failure by keeping U.S. military troops occupying Iraq. If he doesn't admit failure this somehow means the situation in Iraq isn't a failure.

In addition to Bush refusing to work with Democrats on Iraq, Bush has refused to allow Congress to limit his power in other areas, like wiretapping U.S. citizens without warrants, and attacking Iran. Bush has resisted Congress requiring Bush to seek a vote in Congress before attacking Iran as described in the Constitution.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) had this to say.


Jane Hamsher created the blog Fire Dog Lake. Fire Dog Lake's live blogging of the "Scooter" Libby trial was praised for being in depth and timely with superb analysis.

On Fire Dog Lake looseheadprop wrote an open letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

I have seen it reported in the press that you have publicly stated that “impeachment is off the table.” As a former prosecutor of public corruption and fraud against the government cases, this statement is deeply, deeply disturbing to me. Predetermining the outcome of a criminal investigation prior to the completion of that investigation and the uncovering of all the facts, is one of the very worst abuses of prosecutorial discretion and a grievous breach of the canons of ethics for prosecutors.

When he was NY State Attorney General, Elliot Spitzer was oft heard to remark that “as a prosecutor, you must follow the facts and the law where ever they may lead you, even if it somewhere you wish you did not have to go.” His was a correct statement of the standard that all prosecutors, even intermittent prosecutorial entities like the U.S. House of Representatives, must follow.

Today, in Chicago there will be a demonstration calling for bringing the troops home from Iraq. If you want to march with the Chicago chapter of Veterans for Peace, meet at the McDonald's at Chicago & State at 7 PM.