George Bush's watch stolen in Albania video+photos

clipped from www.washingtonmonthly.com THE PRESIDENT'S WRISTWATCH....Conspiracy theory of the day: Was George Bush's watch stolen while he was working the crowd in Albania this weekend? Or did he take it off himself? You be the judge! YouTube video is here. Selected frame grabs are below. At 51 seconds in, Bush has a watch. At 56 seconds he still has a watch. At 57 seconds hands are grabbing at his wrist. His hands are then obscured for a few seconds, and at 1:05 he doesn't have a watch. Bruce Schneier has collected three different denials that Bush was robbed. Denial 1: At about the one minute mark Bush put his hands behind his back so a bodyguard could remove his watch. Denial 2: It fell off. Denial 3: Bush took it off himself.

On U.S. Congress Mandate Part 2

clipped from www.prospect.org At this rate, Republicans will reach 153 filibusters by the end of the 110th Congress -- nearly three times the previous high of 58 the GOP has succeeded in sinking a popular agenda in this way without paying any real political price. In early July, Democrats began to demonstrate some understanding that Republican obstructionism would continue indefinitely "there's a growing consensus that we ought to" force Republicans to carry out their filibuster threats. The logic was clear. If Republicans were forced to actually filibuster these bills for 24 hours a day, the press would converge on a piece of true political drama: the spectacle of GOP senators standing up all day long in support of Big Oil, or Gonzales, or the president's war in Iraq Democrats now find The DOD appropriations bill has not passed the Senate and no Republican filibuster has been broken Democrats will have the perfect opportunity to make Republicans pay a political price for their intransigence

European lawmakers accuse CIA of running secret prisions

clipped from rawstory.com European lawmakers in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly overwhelmingly approved a report that accused the CIA of having run secret prisons in Poland and Romania where terror suspects were interrogated from 2003 to 2005. The report also criticized Germany and Italy for having invoked a defense of state secrets to obstruct the investigation into the covert program. Marty claimed that NATO and the United States had reached a secret framework deal after the September 11, 2001 attacks CIA director Michael Hayden explained that the release of the previously secret report was part of the agency's "social contract with the American people," which included an obligation to "share with the public the information we can." taking exception to criticism, Hayden said the CIA of old is a far cry from the agency of today. "I don't think Americans need to look at these documents and say, 'Oh my God, what are they doing now?"