Republicans on immigration laws

Do you know that Republicans ignored enforcement of existing immigrant labor laws until they are now forced by public opinion to act concerned. Do you want to make criminals out of 12-20 million people and their children who by and large just walked across open fields and came to work in this country, not take jobs to India, China or Mexico, Why not make criminals out of those who hire them???

They are not about to arrest employers as Republicans are for the owners who are mostly Republicans.. Do you think it would be feasible to deport 12-20 million people out of this country? Have a nice day.

and the enemy is.....?

Epitaph:
Between WW11 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, we saw our enemies as the evil ones--just as we do now. The enemy had WMD--just as they do now. They spied on their citizens without warrants--just as we do now. Their citizens could be fired and were called unpatriotic for criticizing their leader--just as we can now.

They excluded god from their government--just as we do now. They had secret prisons where they tortured people--just as we do now. They believed in spreading their ideology throughout the world at any cost--just as we do now. They sent their soldiers to die in the middle east--just as we do now.

Their empire ended in economic collapse--our national debt will double under these Republicans to over $9 trillion. We met the enemy and it could have been us.

who can disobey the law

Must the President of the United States obey the law? Ordinarily, the answer of course is yes, unless the law itself is unconstitutional. However, the President does not have the last word on what is or is not constitutional. That decision belongs to the Supreme Court.

Hey, if the President can pick and chose so can we. A new bill introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) yesterday would set the stage for the Supreme Court to consider the legality of the Bush Administration's warrantless surveillance program by granting legal standing to litigants seeking to challenge the program.

borrow and spend republicans

The national debt will almost double to more than $9 trillion under Bush's tenure in office, a natural result from a borrow and spend fiscal policy that says you can have guns, butter, tax cuts for the wealthy , and never mind the deficit. ... It holds no real plan or prospect of balancing the budget.

a unified Iraq

foreign policy,international relations

The Bush administration, with its insistence on absolute power for the executive branch, has managed to blow this opportunity to win hearts and minds abroad. Administration lawyers will argue Tuesday that Hamdan has almost no rights. Worse, the government contends that the Supreme Court has no right to be hearing his case.

A former taxi driver with a fourth-grade education in his native Yemen, he is one of just 10 detainees who have actually been charged with terrorism and war crimes.Whether he's a terrorist collaborator or a flunky who was swept off the battlefield in Afghanistan is hard to determine. The details of his supposed offenses are unknown.

The message from the Supreme Court Tuesday could have been a shining slice of the democratic ideal: the rule of law by an independent judiciary, a concept sacred to the Founding Fathers and a model for the world. Instead, Tuesday's hearing projects the image of an administration that has botched the handling of prisoner issues and given the USA a black eye internationally in the process.

Hamdan, thought to be in his mid-30s, has become a high-profile pawn in the administration's stubborn contention that it doesn't have to answer to anyone — not Congress, not the courts and not international treaties and organizations — in its pursuit of the war on terror.

The administration asserts the right to unilaterally designate individuals as "enemy combatants" and hold them prisoner indefinitely, possibly forever.

the soldiers media and attitudes

A new Zogby poll came out today. What is getting coverage in a New York Times article is that 72% of U.S. soldiers in Iraq believe we should substantially withdraw sooner rather than later.

85% believe that the primary reason we are in Iraq is “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks,” while 77% said that “the main or a major reason” for the war was “to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.”

This is a year and a half after the 9/11 Commission dismissed any meaningful relationship between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks or al Qaeda. Perhaps we cannot expect American soldiers to be better informed than the public at large and a large slice of the public has often linked Iraq and 9/11, in no small part because of innuendo from the Administration or direct claims, particularly from Vice President Cheney.

Yet, today polls indicate that less than a third of the public still believe that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. Soldiers in Iraq get their news through media that the military controls or at least is aware of. It is a shame that they are so poorly informed about why they are fighting.

mideast policy,lobbyists, vulnerable to terrorism?

According to the two academics, the United States' "unwavering support" for Israel — including the $3 billion a year we give in direct assistance, as well as the decades of unequivocal military and diplomatic support we've provided — is justified by neither strategic nor moral imperatives.

Perhaps Israel was a strategic asset during the Cold War (oil embargo aside), but more recently it has inflamed Arab and Islamic public opinion and emboldened the world's Osama bin Ladens, they say.

It has made us more — not less — vulnerable to terrorism. What's more, Israel routinely ignores U.S. requests (to stop building settlements, say, or end "targeted assassinations"). Our acceptance of its nuclear arsenal makes us look hypocritical on proliferation issues.

Nor is our support of Israel morally justifiable, according to Walt and Mearsheimer. Despite the common view, Israel is, in fact, the Goliath in the Middle East, not the David. It is not a truly democratic country, but an avowedly Jewish state in which Arabs live as second-class citizens, a country that has committed crimes against its Palestinian neighbors with which the U.S. should be ashamed to be associated.

So, ask the authors, if neither shared strategic interests nor compelling moral imperatives explain U.S. support for Israel, what does? You guessed it: the "Israel Lobby."
Its most powerful arm is AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (the nation's second most powerful lobby behind AARP, they suggest), but it also includes Christian evangelicals (such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson), Jewish members of Congress (such as Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut), Christian Zionists in Congress (such as Rep. Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican) and media cheerleaders (such as the Weekly Standard's William Kristol and the entire Wall Street Journal editorial page).

It has its own think tanks, including the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It has operatives like Martin Indyk — a former AIPAC official, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and now head of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Together, these groups give money, votes, endorsements and intellectual firepower to favored government officials. And enemies of Israel, beware! "The Lobby" can make or break candidates (as when it forced former Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois out of office in 1984) and policymakers (as when it persuaded President Carter not to appoint George Ball as secretary of State).

"The bottom line is that AIPAC, a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on Congress," Walt and Mearsheimer contend.

Most important these days, the lobby includes the hawkish neoconservative Zionists around President Bush — Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and Elliott Abrams, to name three — who, the academics say, were the driving force behind the movement to topple Saddam Hussein for the benefit of Israel.

It seems silly to deny that a powerful lobby on behalf of Israel exists. The real question is how pernicious it is. Does it, in fact, persuade us to act counter to our national interest — or is it a positive thing? We report, you decide.

a question for Republicans?

The Quran is very clear and the words of our prophet are very clear. There can only be one outcome: death," said cleric Khoja Ahmad Sediqi, who is also a member of the Supreme Court. "If Karzai releases him, it will play into the hands of our enemy and there could be an uprising."

Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which states that any Muslim who rejects Islam should be sentenced to death, according to Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy chairman of the state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

A respected cleric in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Mohammed Qasim, said, "We don't care if the West drops its support for us. God will look after Afghanistan.

As a Christian, my question is, " Why don't we get the hell out of there?"

what are these Republicans really up to?

DOD and Army regulations "allow collection about U.S. persons reasonably believed to be engaged, or about to engage, in International terrorist activities."
"Remember, merely receiving information does not constitute 'collection' under AR [Army Regulation] 381-10; collection entails receiving 'for use'," Gen. Noonan wrote.

"Army intelligence may always receive information, if only to determine its intelligence value and whether it can be collected, retained, or disseminated in accordance with governing policy."

The distinction between "receiving" information (always permitted) and "collecting" it (permitted only in certain circumstances) appears to offer considerable leeway for domestic surveillance activities under the existing legal framework.

This in turn makes it harder to understand why the NSA domestic surveillance program departed from previous practice. It makes you wonder what these Republicans are really up to, doesn't it?

Afghanistan update

Afghan and U.S. troops backed up by American aircraft fought suspected Taliban rebels in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, leaving one U.S. service member and an unknown number of militants dead, officials said.

A second U.S. service member and an Afghan soldier were wounded in the fighting in Helmand province's Sangin district, a hotbed of insurgency and the booming drug trade, a U.S. military statement said.

Fighting has spiked in southern Afghanistan in the past year, leaving swaths of it off-limits to aid workers and raising concerns for the country's future (and for you "Sleeve Christians") IN A COUNTRY WHERE CONVERTING FROM ISLAM TO CHRISTIANITY IS STILL A CRIME PUNISHABLE BY DEATH.

consrvatives beginning to flee

Even Wm F Buckley (Mr.Conservative) now acknowledges the failure in Iraq--listen to what he says (and I quote)."One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed.

Our mission has failed because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans. The great human reserves that call for civil life haven't proved strong enough. .The Iraqis say that everything is the fault of the Americans.

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elucidates on the complaint against Americans. It is not only that the invaders are American, it is that they are "Zionists."

President Bush, ultimately -has to cope with the postulates and decide how to proceed. One of these postulates, from the beginning, was that the Iraqi people, whatever their tribal differences, would suspend internal divisions in order to get on with life in a political structure that guaranteed them religious freedom.

The accompanying postulate was that the invading American army would succeed in training Iraqi soldiers and policymakers to cope with insurgents bent on violence.

They haven't happened and the administration has, now, to cope with failure. The failure in Iraq does not force us to generalize that violence and anti-democratic movements always prevail. It does call on us to adjust to the question.

It is healthier for the disillusioned American to concede that in one theater in the Mideast, the postulates didn't work. The alternative would be to abandon the postulates. To do that would be to register a kind of philosophical despair. " (unquote)
Some of us have known this all along.

result of republicans hiring rich cronies

Medical and financial information gathered on millions of Americans by Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs is vulnerable to thieves or pranksters because of inadequate computer security, federal investigators say.

Investigators for the GAO reviewed management and audit reports from 2004 and 2005 that outline security practices at 13 Health and Human Services divisions of the federal government and found:
• Anti-virus software not installed or up to date.
• Lack of adequate control over computer passwords.
• Employees and contractors serving without background checks.
• Inadequate physical controls to prevent spying or theft, such as non-working surveillance cameras and unrestricted access to a data center.

"Fundamentally, it's an organization that is behind in making security part of its regular operations," says Alan Paller, who has seen the report but was not involved in writing it. Paller is research director at security firm the SANS Institute in Bethesda, Md. "It's very dangerous for health care data."
This is what happens when you hire your rich cronies in the top jobs.

Republicans on fairness

Over the past few years, CEO and top executive pay has gone through the roof - often regardless of whether they are doing their jobs well. In just ten years, the average compensation of a CEO at the largest corporations jumped from $3.7 million to $9.1 million. That's an increase of almost 150%, and yet economists say the pay hikes haven't meant these companies performed any better.

It's wrong for the privileged few to keep getting raises while their companies aren't reaching their goals - or while their workers don't get a fair share of the pie. Some of these CEOs have even slashed pension funds, but found a way to reward themselves with massive pay hikes. This is wrong.

And as CEO pay shoots through the roof, the minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 per hour for ten years -- which means someone can work full-time and still raise their kids in abject poverty.

So CEO pay goes up 150% in just a few years, and minimum wage worker pay goes up 0% in 10 years. Whatever happened to getting a fair day's pay for a hard day's work? How can Republicans think this is just or fair?

Republican budget for you

Republican budget and consequences:
Social Security: Bush is trying to use the budget to sneak through his old $700 billion dollar plan to privatize Social Security and immediately slash benefits by $6.3 billion dollars.

Health Care: Bush would slash Medicaid by $13.7 billion over 5 years, abandoning millions of young, elderly, poor and disabled Americans who depend on Medicaid as their health care option of last resort.

Education: Bush is pushing for the largest cut in the history of the Department of Education, and to completely eliminate the Perkins loan, a vital program for college students in need.

Child care: Bush wants to kick 400,000 children out of child care programs for low income working families.

Budget busting tax breaks for the rich: Bush's budget would only continue to explode the deficit by giving away over $900 billion dollars to richest 1% of the population over 10 years.

Deeper debt: Bush wants to give so much away to millionaires that even after his service cuts the annual deficit would grow by almost $200 billion dollars.

more prisoner abuse in Iraq

Check out the once secret Camp Nama, the secret headquarters of a military unit known as Task Force 6-26 at the Baghdad Airport for more abuse before and after the abuse of Abu Ghraib was made public.

Iraqi police,US troops,execution?

read today; Iraqi police have accused US troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant (unusual because it originated with Iraqi plice and they were willing to attach their names to it) in the aftermath of a raid last Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Afghanistan,still an Islamic country persecuting Christians

Read today 3-20-06: An Afghan man is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death on a charge of converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under the current Afghan's Islamic laws. This is a country that we are fighting and dying for????

Buffet views on weakening dollar

The so-called Oracle of Omaha,Warren Buffett, the 75-year-old billionaire investor and chairman of insurance and industrial conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway reaffirmed his views on the dollar, which he expects will weaken "over time" due to U.S. fiscal policies.
"I think over time the dollar is going to weaken. I think that we are following a policy that will cause the dollar to weaken over time." he said. "It's the consumer's action in the end that is doing it but we have no governmental policy that counters the fact we are sending a couple of billion dollars a day abroad.

We are trading - we are buying goods and we are selling capital."

Republicans sticking to their Iraq story

Vice President Cheney, appearing on CBS' Face the Nation, rejected Allawi's assessment that Iraq is in a state of civil war and said insurgents have "reached a stage of desperation."
Cheney also said he did not regret previous statements — that U.S. forces would be greeted as liberators and that the insurgency was in its last throes — and said they "were basically accurate, reflect reality."
Apparently, if you tell a lie often enough and stick to your story, people are expected to believe you and know what the party line continues to be.l

Corporations shipping jobs overseas update

Scores of Western companies have been cutting costs by shifting software development, engineering design and routine office functions to countries such as India, where English-speaking workers are plentiful and wages are low.
Dell plans to double the number of its employees in India to 20,000 in three years, Chairman Michael Dell said Monday.

partial account of Iraqi dead

"At least" 2,314 members of the U.S. military have died, not counting (1)"contractors" (2) Iraqi civilians (3) the tens of thousands that have been wounded, and the one in five surviving soldiers that have lingering mental problems.

update Iraq, someone update republicans

"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," Ayad Allawi told the British Broadcasting Corp. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."
Allawi, who heads the Iraqi National List, a secular alliance of Shiite and Sunni politicians, said the violence in the country was moving toward "the point of no return."

He said not only that Iraq could "fall apart," but added that "sectarianism will spread throughout the region, and even Europe and the United States would not be spared all the violence that may occur as a result of sectarian problems in this region."

Iraq,strike-first,USA weakened,lack of trust

The Iraq invasion, far from being a success, provides a cautionary tale about just why strike-first needs to remain, as in the past, the final option. In Iraq, it vaulted to the top of the agenda. Key administration figures — notably Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — had been itching for a war with Iraq long before 9/11.

After the terror attacks, they asserted links between Saddam and al-Qaeda where there was none. Because the administration rushed into war without building alliances, few countries joined in.

After three years of turmoil, Iraq stands on the brink of civil war. Al-Qaeda operatives who weren't in Iraq before have gone there to fight U.S. forces. Neighboring Iran is increasingly influential with Iraqi Shiites, compounding the nuclear threat Iran presents.

Worse, because of Iraq, the U.S. ability to use pre-emption in the future, when it might really be needed, is weakened. Most of the world sees the USA as a global bully and its intelligence as suspect. U.S. forces are overstretched. And getting backing for a new pre-emptive attack from a public made wary by the Iraq experience would be difficult.

Pre-emption in Iraq, learning the wrong lessons!

As the world now knows, the intelligence was wrong. Saddam had neither ties to bin Laden nor weapons of mass destruction. The cost of this misapplication of pre-emption — in U.S. lives, money and credibility — has been incalculable.

So what has Bush learned? Officially, at least, not much. On Thursday, the White House published its first National Security Strategy since the one that enshrined the Bush Doctrine.

Perhaps not surprisingly for an administration loath to admit error, the document casts Iraq as a pre-emption success. "With the elimination of Saddam's regime, this threat has been addressed once and for all," it declares. The pre-emption policy "remains the same." Talk about learning the wrong lessons.

drug benefit plan designed by insurance companies

Many elderly and disabled Americans enrolled for the Medicare drug benefit will face new difficulties in obtaining their medicines on April 1, say advocacy groups familiar with the program.

On that date, insurers will have more latitude to tell pharmacists that they won't pay for a particular drug. Before that, insurers have been told, they should pay for a prescription even if it's not on the list of drugs they cover.

"I think that, after April 1, you're going to see huge problems with access. It's going to be January 1 all over again," said Tom Clark, policy director at the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. The association represents pharmacists who serve nursing homes

Even prominent neo-conservatives are beginning to jump ship on the war and even neo-conservatism. Professor Francis Fukuyama has gone so far as to renounce his affiliations with Cheney, Rumsfeld and the pre-emption doctrine. Fukuyama was one of the 25 original founders of the Project for the New American Century—the intellectual founding document for neo-conservative foreign policy.

Writing in The New York Times last month, Fukuyama said: "As we approach the third anniversary of the onset of the Iraq war, it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention itself or the ideas animating it kindly. By invading Iraq, the Bush administration created a self-fulfilling prophecy: Iraq has now replaced Afghanistan as a magnet, a training ground and an operational base for jihadist terrorists, with plenty of American targets to shoot at."

He added, "The so-called Bush Doctrine that set the framework for the administration's first term is now in shambles." And, "Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support."
It is clear that the Bush pre-emption polices are a disaster—and now they're being rejected by people from Left to Right, while Bush continues to push the same spin believing that if you say the same thing enough times, people will believe it.

Iraq, first-strike policy, killing fields

Undaunted by the killing fields in Iraq, President Bush today reaffirmed his strike-first policy. . He is a "bring it on" fanatical crusader spreading fear as a way of controlling us and attempting to control the world, and he is using us to kill innocent people around the world. All the while by threatening people with our first- strike capability,they are causing us to be more at risk. We must vote these people out of offce.

Iraq update

Eleven people - most of them women and children - have been killed after US forces bombed a house during a raid north of Baghdad, police and relatives said. The killed family was not part of the resistance, they were women and children.

rule of law

Freedom requires respect for the rule of law. President Bush already had the authority to wiretap suspected terrorists—he could even wiretap first and get warrants 3 days later. But he chose to get no warrants at all, clearly violating the law set up to protect innocent Americans and then he mislead (lied to) Congress and the American people about his program. We are not free if a President doesn't follow the law and violates laws that are constitutional and have been passed by Congress representing we the people. If he can pick and choose those he will follow why can’t we?

Bush, big oil, profits, remember to vote

Oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips , the U.S. units of BP and Royal Dutch Shell and major oil refiner Valero are making record profits.

This dramatic consolidation of the oil and gas industry has gone largely unchecked by the federal government, the Bushes are heavily invested in Big Oil. Exxon alone earned more than $36 billion last year, the biggest profit ever for a U.S. company.

Oil and gas mergers in recent years have boosted energy prices. The national retail price for regular unleaded gasoline has jumped 11.2 cents over the past two weeks to $2.37 a gallon, the highest level since early November, the Energy Department reported Monday. Remembmer to vote.

update Iraq

"At least" 2,308 members of the U.S. military have died, not counting (1)"contractors" (2) Iraqi civilians (3) the tens of thousands that have been wounded, and the one in five surviving soldiers that have lingering mental problems.

American people waking up to bush republicans.

President Bush's "approval rating" has sunk to a new low according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll released Monday. The latest results show only 36% of those polled saying they "approve" of the way Bush is handling his job.

Asked two years ago if they were "certain that the U.S. will win" the war with Iraq, 79% of those polled said yes. The answer last weekend: 22%. Finally, the people are waking up. Hurrah for the intelligence of the American People.

impeach or censure?

The resolution says the president "repeatedly misled the public" before the disclosure of the NSA program last December when he indicated the administration was relying on court orders to wiretap terror suspects inside the U.S.

"Congress has to reassert our system of government, and the cleanest and the most efficient way to do that is to censure the president," Feingold said. "And, hopefully, he will acknowledge that he did something wrong."

Don't trust the military

Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Eagle, an expert on enemy targeting, served 20 years in the military -- 10 years of active duty in the Air Force, another 10 in the West Virginia National Guard. Then he decided enough was enough. He owned a promising new aircraft-maintenance business, and it needed his attention. His retirement date was set for last February.

Staff Sgt. Justin Fontaine, a generator mechanic, enrolled in the Massachusetts National Guard out of high school and served nearly nine years. In preparation for his exit date last March, he turned in his field gear -- his rucksack and web belt, his uniforms and canteen.

An interrogator in an intelligence unit, joined the Army Reserve in 1991, extended his enlistment in 1999 and then re-upped for three years in 2000. Costas, a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Texas, was due to retire from the reserves in last May

According to their contracts, expectations and desires, all three soldiers should have been civilians by now. But Fontaine and Costas are currently serving in Iraq, and Eagle has just been deployed. On their Army paychecks, the expiration date of their military service is now listed sometime after 2030 -- the payroll computer's way of saying, "Who knows?"

Through a series of stop-loss orders, the Army alone has blocked the possible retirements and departures of more than 40,000 soldiers, about 16,000 of them National Guard and reserve members who were eligible to leave the service this year. Hundreds more in the Air Force, Navy and Marines were briefly blocked from retiring or departing the military at some point this year.

"An enlistment contract has two parties, yet only the government is allowed to violate the contract; I am not," said Costas, 42, who signed an e-mail from Iraq this month "Chained in Iraq," an allusion to the fact that he and his fellow reservists remained in Baghdad after the active-duty unit into which they were transferred last spring went home.

He has now been told that he will be home late next June, more than a year after his contractual departure date. "Unfair. I would not say it's a draft per se, but it's clearly a breach of contract. I will not reenlist."

"We don't ever trust anything we're told," said Chris Walsh of Southington, Conn., whose wife, Jessica, an eighth-grade English teacher, is a military police officer in a National Guard unit in Baghdad. She may end up serving nearly two years beyond her original exit date of July 2002, Chris Walsh said. "We've been disappointed too many times."

Why Republicans outing of Plame is a big deal

NOCs (the word rhymes with "rocks") are the most covert CIA operatives. They typically work abroad without diplomatic protection (often they pretend to work for some commercial enterprise). If these spies are caught, there's no guarantee that the United States would admit their true identities. When using official cover could put a spy's life and work at risk, NOC is the only alternative.

Why is it such a big deal that someone outed Valerie Plame? For starters, it's a felony. And Plame was also reportedly a NOC with years of experience investigating weapons of mass destruction. If this is true, her discovery could compromise intelligence operations she was involved with around the world, which would explain why she maintained her nonofficial cover even when she was back in the United States.

"Hard target" countries like China and North Korea often keep records of every known meeting between Americans and their scientists and officials. Almost certainly, those lists would have been frantically reviewed when Plame's identity was revealed, and any sources she recruited could have been exposed.

Democrats finally standing up on ports and economy

"Republicans have shown a pre-9/11 mind-set when it comes to closing the gaps in our security at our ports," the Democratic chairman said. "Democrats will continue to fight to secure our ports."

On another issue, Dean assailed Bush for running up the U.S. debt by $3 trillion during his tenure, contending that amounts to another security crisis.

"One of the implications of this increased debt is that increasingly, foreigners are financing this debt, putting the American economy in the hands of foreign debt holders, just like the ports deal would have put port security in the hands of a foreign-owned government," Dean said.

Dean said the Democrats will oppose budgets that deepen the deficit. Finally, Democrats are standing up to this republican idiocy.

Republican shell game

Critics also say that by highlighting the grants to faith-based groups, the administration is distorting the overall funding picture. Bush is "cooking the numbers" and that while more money is going to faith-based groups, less is going to secular groups. "There is no new money for the poor," he says. "People are told about increases in spending for faith-based groups, but not told about cuts in other programs."

Now instead of money they have raised, "faith based" groups are spending your tax dollars in their charity programs and using their fund raising for parties and other in-house activities,coupled with cuts in federal spending,it is a net dencrease to the poor.

A tip of the iceberg?

Allen, Delay, Abramoff,Burton,Livingstone,Cunningham, Lay, Skilling, Gingerich and a host over other senior corporate executives (all alledged, indicted or convicted evildoers) are Republicans, Surprise! surprise!
Now, grants(your money) are routine and have quietly increased to the point where groups affiliated with churches, synagogues, or other "faith communities" now receive more than $2.1 billion a year from the federal government, They return the favor in votes. Neat isn't it.

Republican sympathy for an alleged thief

Claude Alexander Allen, 45, Bush's domestic policy advisor until he abuptly resigned in February, was arrested Thursday by police in Montgomery County, Md., for allegedly claiming refunds for more than $5,000 worth of merchandise he did not buy, according to county and federal authorities.

Bush said, "If the allegations are true, something went wrong in Claude Allen's life, and that is really sad." When was the last time you heard republicans say about a thief, "something went wrong in his life and that is really sad?

good advice

The 38-year-old country singer also criticized President Bush, who visited the devastated Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans on Wednesday.

"There's no reason why someone can't go down there — who's supposed to be the leader of the free world — and say, 'I'm giving you a job to do and I'm not leaving here until it's done. And you're held accountable,'" he said.

Later in the news conference, McGraw let out a stream of frustration, growling, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore." The couple were married in 1996.

When asked what their fans could do to help, McGraw said: "Vote."

These republicans never quit.

Republicans are now trying to say that cancelling the port takeover is a bad thing.
They now are saying that the developments could make cash-rich investors in the Persian Gulf, where there is the widespread belief that the furor was rooted in anti-Arab bias, wary of high-profile investments in the United States.

Hey, it's a good thing to dis-motivate the foreign rich from buying up all of our assets, especially those with security issues.

what the people think of Republicans

read today:
More and more people disapprove of Republican's performance, question their character and no longer consider them strong leaders against terrorism according to an AP-Ipsos poll. Well, it's about time.

Republican economics

One America that does the work, another America that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks. One America that will do anything to leave its children a better life, another America that never has to do a thing because its children are already set for life.

The minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 per hour for ten years--while costs for health care, housing, child care, transportation and everything else have skyrocketed and executive pay has steadily increased. Executives have figured out how to pay themselves more, while paying their workers less. It's a disgrace--but not a surprise--that poverty is up for the fourth year in a row.

enjoy your Republican economy

The biggest ever monthly deficit follows a record annual trade deficit of $723.6 billion in 2005. The trade gap would exceed $800 billion in 2006 if it continued to run at the pace set in the first month of the year.

Another report said the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week to 303,000, the highest level since the start of the year.

Iraq, dead, wounded, mental problems

"At least" 2,300 members of the U.S. military have died, not counting (1)"contractors" (2) Iraqi civilians (3) the tens of thousands that have been wounded, and the one in five surviving soldiers that have lingering mental problems.

Delta funnels money to Republicans but can't pay employees

Delta Air Lines, the nation's third-largest carrier, asked a bankruptcy court judge Friday to approve $3.9 million in payments to some of the airline's advisers.

The professional fees to Delta's auditors and advisers include a request to pay more than $1.8 million to the consulting firm of former New York City and possible Republican candidate for President in 2008, Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The pilots union says it will strike if its contract is thrown out by a panel of arbitrators that will hold hearings starting March 13. Chief Executive Officer Gerald Grinstein, at a public event Friday, told reporters "Delta is cooked" and will not survive if the pilots strike.

Republican India policy will lead to expanded nukes

Mr. Bush's team says it designed the India deal as a way to build a "strategic partnership" with the world's largest democracy, after decades of estrangement. India has proved itself a responsible power, Mr. Bush said. That the country is one of the fastest-growing emerging markets, a favorite destination for technology companies, a market for his rich friends.

The part of the deal the administration likes to talk about allows India to buy American fuel for its civilian reactors for the first time, in exchange for opening them to international inspection.

But India only designated 14 of its sites as "civilian" plants that it permanently guarantees can be inspected (up from four a few months ago), meaning that the additional eight can be used to make bomb fuel.

The administration's negotiator "caved on that one early on," in the words of Robert J. Einhorn, a nonproliferation expert who served under President Clinton and in the early days of Mr. Bush's tenure.

Since the United States would now sell India fuel for its newly declared civilian reactors — assuming Congress goes along — the Indians can devote their domestic uranium supply to weapons. It substantially expands the supply of uranium the Indians have for military purposes.

Republican secrecy violates Constitution

Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the last three years. Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005.

What makes the American criminal justice system different from so many others in the world is our willingness to cast some sunshine on the process, but if you can't see it, you can't really criticize it.

The data show a sharp increase in secret case files over time as the Bush administration's well-documented reliance on secrecy in the executive branch has crept into the federal courts through the war on drugs, anti-terrorism efforts and other criminal matters.

"This follows the pattern of this administration," said John Wesley Hall, an Arkansas defense attorney and second vice president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Support our troops,Oppose the war

Tillman joined the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks even though he had a multimillion-dollar contract to play football for the Arizona Cardinals. He and his brother completed a tour in Iraq before going to Afghanistan

Tillman, 27, died on April 22, 2004, when he was struck by gunfire during a firefight along a canyon road near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The Army said at the time that the barrage of bullets came from enemy fire.

Tillman's mother, Mary, told the Washington Post Saturday that the criminal investigation should have been launched at the onset. "The military has had every opportunity to do the right thing and they haven't," she said. "They knew all along that something was seriously wrong and they just wanted to cover it up."

A report by the Army later found that troops with Tillman knew at the time that friendly fire had killed the football star. Officers destroyed critical evidence and concealed the truth from Tillman's brother, also an Army Ranger, who was nearby, the report found.

Republican economy

Now that America's savings rate has been negative for an entire year, a first since the Great Depression, there is more evidence that, under Republican control, we are a nation on its way to the poor house.

Iraq, republicans, both sides hate us

Anger at the Americans and the Iraqi government found its way to pulpits on both sides of the Shiite-Sunni divide.
In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, Cleric Ahmed Hassan al-Taha accused U.S. forces and their allies of stoking the tension between majority Shiites and minority Sunnis. "Iraqis were living in harmony until the occupiers and those who came with them arrived in this country. They are responsible for igniting sectarianism," al-Taha said.

We have been saying all along, after throwing away $320 billion (this much admitted to), we will still be the enemy of both sides and the Iraqi government will be dominated by the Shiite majority aligned with Iran, thanks to our republicans.

republicans and trade deficits

Warren Buffett says he remains bothered by the U.S. trade deficit, which rose 17.5% last year to a record $725.8 billion. These Republicans just don't get it

Republicans outsourcing jobs for cheap labor

The outsourcing industry — in which Indian firms handle everything from software engineering to customer service call centers for U.S. and other foreign companies — is expected to bring in $22 billion in revenue alone this fiscal year. Much of that outsourcing business is generated by U.S. companies. Many have eliminated domestic jobs for cheaper Indian labor.

Bush can't even get that right

"I believe that a prosperous, democratic Pakistan will be a steadfast partner for America, a peaceful neighbor for India and a force for freedom and moderation in the Arab world."
Later, White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters that Bush meant to say Pakistan would be a force in the Muslim world. Pakistan is not an Arab country.

Republican cronies make money on Katrina

It is at least possible that the delay in responding to Katrina was so they could have the time to arrange for their rich Republican friends to profit from the money that would flow. The Carnival Cruise line deal may only be the tip of the iceberg. That should be investigated.

Republican payback

Did Florida Governor Jeb Bush improperly line up a $236 million government contract for Carnival Cruise Lines after Hurricane Katrina? That's what Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Ca.) is accusing.

Waxman released a series of e-mails today that were among many provided to Congress from former FEMA director Michael Brown. Along with correspondence from Brown, those e-mails include Bush's communications with Carnival advertising executive Ric Davis, who also happens to be a major political donor to the Republican party.

Republicans and lies

These Republicans said
1. There were WMD's in Iraq and they knew where they were-not true

2. Iraq was acquiring WMD materials from Africa--not true (we went to war on those) and

3.Bush said 5 days later that he didn't know how bad Katrina was going to be--watch the just released tape and you will see that he was told what to expect the day before Katrina hit landfall AND in the next two days he campaigned, attended birthday parties and played the guitar while the worst natural disaster in American history killed over 1,300 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Either he is the most incompetent in history or the worst liar. We report, you decide.

Bush lied, AGAIN

At the August 28th briefing, the president was told exactly what to expect:
• The chief scientist of the National Hurricane Center warned that a major levee breach was "obviously a very, very grave concern." Bush lied to the entire nation about this point just 5 days later.

• Michael Brown told the president that if New Orleans flooded the Superdome emergency shelter would likely be under water and short on supplies, creating a "catastrophe within a catastrophe."

• Experts and officials implored the President to prepare for, as the AP described it, "devastation of historic proportions."

President Bush didn't ask a single question during the briefing. In the next two days he campaigned, attended birthday parties and played guitar while the worst natural disaster in American history killed over 1,300 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. If you listen to the video just released, you will see that he did know.

Republicans on the environment

The Endangered Species Act has been "remarkably successful" in the Northeast, a New England Wild Flower Society report said Tuesday
The report comes amid proposals to alter the act in Congress, where Republicans claim that too few of the listed species have recovered under the act

Republicans block civil liberties safeguards

Senate Republicans moved Wednesday to prevent Democrats from trying to add more civil liberties safeguards to a renewal of the 2001 Patriot Act due to expire next week. Who said, "If you are willing to give up liberties in the name of security, you deserve neither?"

Iraq, troops, mental health

Besides the dead and wounded, what are Republicans doing to our troops? Well, more than a third of U.S. soldiers and Marines fighting in Iraq visited a mental health specialist at least once after their combat tour, evidence of the emotional trauma of the war. The study found about 1 in 5 veterans of Iraq show evidence of mental health problems.

Tax cheats, corporations and business owners

Taxpayers have been underpaying the government for decades. Some are corporations or wealthy individuals who use illegal tax shelters. Others are individuals with business income, including the self-employed, who underreported that income by 57% in 2001, the IRS says.So, the question is, how do you feel about paying your taxes every year.

progress in Iraq?

Sunni and Shiite religious leaders also met Saturday, agreeing to prohibit killings and ban attacks on each other's mosques. The clerics issued a statement blaming "the occupiers," meaning the Americans, for stirring up sectarian unrest."We demand that the occupiers leave or set a timetable for the withdrawal," the clerics said.

This is the progress our Republicaqn leaders claim????

Iraqi dead estimate

"At least" 2,289 members of the U.S. military have died, not counting "contractors" and Iraqi civilians AND the tens of thousands that have been wounded.

Republicans, oil sheiks,Bush family

The Bush administration said Friday it won't reconsider its approval for a United Arab Emirates company to take over significant operations at six U.S. ports. The former head of the Sept. 11 commission said the deal "never should have happened."

Opponents, including the agency that runs New York and New Jersey ports, took their case to court, while the company, Dubai Ports World, stepped up efforts to change the minds of congressional critics.

Thomas Kean, a former governor of New Jersey who led the bipartisan probe of the Sept. 11 attacks, said the deal was a big mistake because of past connections between the 2001 hijackers and the UAE. "It shouldn't have happened, it never should have happened," Kean said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

"There's no question that two of the 9/11 hijackers came from there and money was laundered through there," Kean said."From our point of view, we don't want foreigners controlling our ports," Kean's comments threatened to overshadow moves by the company and the White House to appease critics by delaying the takeover.

"Governor Kean knows as much as anyone how risky it is to deal with the United Arab Emirates," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and a leading opponent.

"This just proves that no real investigation was ever conducted, and it's unfortunate that he and the other 9/11 commissioners were not contacted before the government approved this."

The former head of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit joined in the criticism."The fact that you are putting a company in place that could already be infiltrated by al-Qaeda is a silly thing to do," said Mike Scheuer, who headed the CIA unit until 1999.

Lawmakers led by King and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., plan to introduce legislation next week that would put the deal on hold while the government conducts further investigation.

churches, charities, politics

Among the prohibited activities, the IRS examiners have found that charities and churches distributed printed material supporting a preferred candidate and assembled improper voter guides or candidate ratings.

Religious leaders had used the pulpit to endorse or oppose a particular candidate, and some groups had shown preferential treatment to candidates by letting them speak at functions.

Other charities and churches had made improper cash contributions to a candidate's political campaign.

We have been watching these activities by religious fanantics for years.

Iraq, Middle East, Hamas, Republicans

The rush to blame the United States for the shrine bombing is a sign not only of the deteriorating situation in Iraq, but the tense state of West-Mideast relations overall. From riots over the prophet drawings to the United Arab Emirates ports dispute to Hamas' election win, little is going right for the United States across the Arab world.

Even a supposed friend — a top Iraqi Shiite leader, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who President Bush once praised at the White House — took a poke after Wednesday's attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra, saying the U.S. ambassador "gave a green light to terrorist groups."

The outcry, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on a troubled visit to the region, is a sign of just how much America's Mideast policy has unraveled in recent months. What a mess these republicans have made!

US made goods on the decline

Orders for U.S.-made durable goods plunged 10.2% in January, the biggest drop in 5½ years, as non-defense aircraft orders posted their largest decline since December 1998, a government report showed Friday.

Capital goods orders tumbled 23.1%, the biggest decline since July 2000, on a record 20% decline in non-defense capital goods orders and a 64.3% fall in defense capital goods orders. Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, seen as a proxy for business spending, edged down 0.4%, the report showed.

Aircraft is about all we manufacture in the USA, anymore, as the big corporations have taken their production jobs and facilities overseas.

corporate profits, cronyism, national security

In September 2005, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said the Treasury Department, as head of the interagency committee that reviews deals with foreign implications, had used an overly narrow definition of national security threats because it wanted to encourage foreign investment. That is what we have know all along. Corporate profits for their cronies are more important to the Republican establishment than national security.

Bush, mideast oil, carlyle group,policies

"Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be," said Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit public interest group based in Washington. "George Bush is getting money from private interests that have business before the government, while his son is president. And, in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush could benefit financially from his own administration's decisions, through his father's investments. The average American doesn't know that and, to me, that's a jaw-dropper."

Bushes, Sheiks,Carlyle Group connection

Critics of the deal have raised concerns about the company's status as a state-owned venture, accusing the UAE of having ties to terrorism. Two of the hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks came from the Persian Gulf country, and most of the money for the plot was funneled through the banking center of Dubai.

Critics also note that Dubai was a key transfer point for illicit nuclear technology sales to North Korea, Iran and Libya that were led by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan.

"At a time when we're faced with this terror threat, we should not be surrendering any port to any foreign government, let alone the UAE," said Baltimore, Maryland, Mayor Martin O'Malley, whose city is one of the ports involved in the deal.

There should be an investigation of the Bush Family ties to the oil sheiks of the middle east including a look at the Carlyle Group.

Republicans, middle class, wealth declines

The average income of American families, after adjusting for inflation, declined 2.3% in 2004 compared with 2001.

The percentage of Americans who owned stocks, either directly or through a mutual fund, fell 3.3 percentage points to 48.6% in 2004, down from 51.9% in 2001.

Stock ownership rates were highest in 2004 among families with higher incomes and families age 55 to 64. Overall median stock holdings fell to $24,300 in 2004.

What does all this tell us. Under the Republicans, the rich got richer and the middle class got squeezed, for their motto is, "Give the most to those that have the most."

USA task force fighting in nine countries in Africa?

Did you know that the USA had a Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, set up in the former French colony in June 2002,which is responsible for fighting terrorism in nine countries in the region: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia in Africa and Yemen on the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula? I didn't.

Iraq and your cost of living

Iraq's oil industry suffered $6.25 billion in losses in 2005 as a result of oil infrastructure sabotage and lost export revenues, Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said Saturday. Who is paying the bills? YOU ARE.

Iraq update, "at least"

"At least" 2,269 members of the U.S. military have died, not counting "contractors" and Iraqi civilians AND the tens of thousands that have been wounded.

republicans, google, domestic spying

Google criticized the Bush administration's demand to examine millions of its users' Internet search requests as a misguided fishing expedition that threatens to ruin the company's credibility and reveal its closely guarded secrets.

The case has attracted widespread attention because the Justice Department's demand to peek under the hood of the Internet's most popular search engine has underscored the potential for online databases becoming tools for government surveillance.

But Google has steadfastly refused to hand over the requested information, a defiant stance that the company reaffirmed in a brief that depicts the Bush administration as heavy-handed snoops and technological rubes.

Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and Time Warner's America Online already have provided some of the search engine information sought by the Justice Department

Does anyone believe that these republicans are already watching us and just want to make it legal to use the information?

tragedy, different stories,republicans,special treatment

Karl Rove,Republican spin doctor, called Ms. Armstrong at the ranch on 8pm Saturday night. The next day, Sunday, they had her break the news, blaming the victim for not calling out his position.(never mind that a hunter should never whirl and fire without knowing what or who is in the line of fire.--I learned that at 7 years old).

Cheney said 5 days later that they had her announce it as she was a witness and knew the most about it.

However, she was sitting in a car some 100 yards away. Also she said she thought Cheney had suffered "a heart attack" when she saw Cheney's security people running toward the scene. So much for being the witness who knew the most about it.

She also said that he was peppered,leaving the impression of a light sprinkling. After his heart attack, we learned he has at least one pellet at or in the heart, they won't say how many others and apparently will not operate.

A Sheriff's deputy went out that evening to the ranch and was turned away by a border patrol agent at the gate ( who said he didn't know anything about it). The Sheriff then made a call arranging to have another deputy go out the next morning to interview witnesses. If they had been drinking, the Sheriff wouldn't know it.

Cheney now says he had one beer at lunch. Do we smell the same smell?

republicans, morality,respect, torture,hypocrisy

The United States should shut down the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay and either release all detainees being held there or bring them to trial, the United Nations said in a report released Thursday.

The report, summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts, called on the U.S. government "to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention center and to refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

The United States is holding about 500 men at the U.S. naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba. The detainees are accused of having links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or the al-Qaeda terror group, though only 10 have been charged since the detention camp opened in January 2001.

Hypocrisy abounds. We preach and push elections and democracy on other nations until the result is not to our liking. We preach human rights and fair trial theory but use turture and degrading treatment, and detention without trial.

We tout freedom of the press but these Reputlicans work to control it by secretly paying journalists and spending millions on covert propaganda to its own citizens. It's no wonder we are losing the respect of our friends around the world.

republicans, cheney, rove, policies

Karl Rove,the Republican spin doctor,spoke with ranch owner Armstrong. Rove reported back to Bush shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday that the vice president himself had done the shooting. It took another day for the news came out at the local scene while they obviously discussed how to spin the incident, hence the Armstrong woman's bland explanation.

However, Mark Birkhauser, president-elect of the International Hunter Education Associationm said," it's incumbent upon the shooter to assess the situation and make sure it's a safe shot. Once you squeeze that trigger, you can't bring that shot back."

It's another example of the fact that the Republicans are good at spin and public relations (spent $1.6 BILLION of your money on PR since 2000) but little else from lying and bungling in Iraq to unfair trade, sending middle class jobs to Asia, failed health care, failed education, you name it.

cheney, guns, deferments, bin laden

it's a good thing Cheney got all those deferments from serving in the Vietnam War given his marksmanship skills. Bin Laden better not take up quail hunting.

katrina,waste,fraud,mismanagement

.Two reports released by the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department's office of inspector general detail a series of accounting flaws,waste, fraud or mismanagement in their initial review of how $85 billion in federal aid is being spent on Katrina. Are you surprised?

Republicans, trade deficits, job losses

The Commerce Department reported that the gap between what America sells abroad and what it imports rose to $725.8 billion last year, up by 17.5% from the previous record of $617.6 billion set in 2004.

It marked the fourth consecutive year that America's trade deficit has set a record and was certain to spark increased debate in Congress over President Bush's trade policies. Since mid-2000 the country has lost nearly 3 million manufacturing jobs and Democrats rightfully blame the administration's flawed policies of emphasizing free trade agreements.

During this time, the Republicans have controlled all three branches of government.

bush, clinton, and hypocrisy

Laura Bush said Saturday that Hillary Rodham Clinton's criticism of her husband's administration was "out of bounds," arguing that the former first lady should show some empathy for the current White House occupants. Well, talk about hypocrisy!!!

How much empathy did republicans have for President Clinton, and that was a personal matter in which no one died?? AND notice that they don't dispute or discuss the facts, they only find some way to run down the messenger.

medications cost and Pfizer sales

Are you having trouble paying for your medications? Well, check out the following:

Pfizer projects Lipitor sales will exceed $13 billion, indicating a growth rate for the drug of about 7% compared with 12% in 2005. Arthritis medication Celebrex is expected to post sales of more than $2 billion, up from $1.73 billion in 2005. Sales of anti-anxiety drug Lyrica are expected to exceed $900 million, up from $291 million a year earlier.

more republican admin. lies about Katrina

Former federal disaster chief Michael Brown testified Friday that he notified top White House and Homeland Security officials on the day that Hurricane Katrina roared ashore that "we were realizing our worst nightmare" and that New Orleans was seriously flooding.

The storm slammed into New Orleans and the Gulf coast on the morning of Monday, Aug. 29. Brown said he spoke by phone to a top White House official — he said he believed it was Joe Hagin — "on at least two occasions on that day to inform him of what was going on."

Hagin was with the president, who was vacationing on his ranch in Crawford, Texas, at the time, while Brown was in Baton Rouge
"I think I told him that we were realizing our worst nightmare, that everything we had planned about, worried about, that FEMA, frankly, had worried about for 10 years was coming true," Brown said. He said he made similar comments in an e-mail message to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

He insisted he provided information to White House and Homeland Security officials the day of the storm. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said he did not know the levees were breached until the following day

Iraq dead, maybe dead, and wounded?

At least 2,269 members of the U.S. military have died, not counting "contractors" and Iraqi civilians AND the tens of thousands that have been wounded.

republicans, more lies, katrina

Decisions and policies by the parent Department of Homeland Security doomed FEMA to "a path to failure" that led to the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, former disaster chief Michael Brown said Friday.

Brown's appearance in front of the Senate investigative panel came as new documents reveal that 28 federal, state and local agencies — including the White House — reported levee failures on Aug. 29, according to a timeline of e-mails, situation updates and weather reports.

That litany was at odds with the administration's contention that it didn't know the extent of the problem until much later. At the time, President Bush said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

republicans outed Plame to shut up their critics

A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq, according to court papers.

Libby, 55, was indicted late last year on charges that he lied to FBI agents and the grand jury about how he learned CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and when he subsequently told reporters. He is not charged with leaking classified information from an intelligence estimate report.

Plame's identity was published in July 2003 by columnist Robert Novak after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium in Niger. The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports.

spying, evading, lying

read today: Consider these key facts:

First, the president said publicly there was no such program. He said, "Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." He lied.


For weeks, Gonzales, President Bush and others have insisted that the wiretapping program was only applied to suspected terrorists. But just last Sunday, the Washington Post exposed that the program was broad and not limited to suspected terrorists. In a nutshell, it's a fishing expedition and participants are increasingly "uncomfortable with the mountain of data they have now begun to accumulate."


And yesterday, the attorney general said that he could not assure the Senate that the program did not eavesdrop on innocent Americans.

billions down the Iraq rat hole

"For war, billions more, but no more for the poor,"

medicare, pensions and Iraq

Bush is trimming spending by Medicare, the government's health care program for the elderly and disabled, by $35.9 billion over five years.

Other reductions include: $4.99 billion in farm commodity programs, and $16.7 billion in the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the government program that backs private pensions. They are spending and wasting the money in Iraq. And is your pension going to be secure?

spying on you and me

The National Security Agency has secured the cooperation of large telecommunications companies, including AT&T, MCI and Sprint, in its efforts to eavesdrop without warrants on international calls by suspected terrorists, according to seven telecommunications executives.

At issue: whether the surveillance is legal, as President Bush insists, or an illegal intrusion into the lives of Americans, as lawsuits by civil libertarians contend.

The government has refused to publicly discuss the precise number of individuals targeted.

free press, infidels, and us

Protesters took to the streets by the thousands in the Muslim world, a day after demonstrators in Syria charged security barriers outside the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and sent the buildings up in flames over cartoons published in a free press in a free democratic country, but it is okay for them and their Koran to call us infidels and call for our destruction.

lies about Iraq

read today:
It turns out that Bush told Prime Minister Tony Blair at a White House meeting on Jan,31, 2003, nearly two months before the invasion of Iraq, that the United States intended to go to war even if inspectors failed to find evidence of a banned weapons program, according to a memo of the meeting.
The memo also states that Bush also told Blair that military intervention was scheduled for March 2003 even without UN backing.

needless deaths in Iraq

Top Army and Marine Corps officers said Wednesday that they are JUST NOW buying and sending the latest body armor to troops in Iraq as fast as possible, including ceramic plates to protect against bullets or shrapnel from the side.

Several members of Congress, including Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., pushed the Pentagon to speed the body armor to troops after newspaper accounts said the military had delayed buying the armor despite evidence it would save lives.

dead in Iraq

At least 2,248 members of the U.S. military have died, not counting "contractors" and Iraqi civilians AND the tens of thousands that have been wounded.

Libby trial after elections?

A federal judge on Friday set former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's trial date in the CIA leak case for January 2007, two months after the midterm congressional elections Isn't that interesting???

Iraq and national debt

The Bush administration will ask Congress soon for another $120 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing total spending to about $440 billion, AND deputy budget director Joel Kaplan and Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman acknowledged that EVEN THAT WON'T BE ENOUGH.

The war in Iraq is costing about $150 million a day, while continued fighting in Afghanistan is costing about $27 million a day.

In 2002, the White House suggested the cost could reach $200 billion, another lie. Since our national debt is over $8 Trillion,this is more debt your children and grandchildren will have to pay

vote those republicans out

On Iraq, Bush declared that the United States must stay the course. Some Iraqis expressed anger over the long-term presence of U.S. troops while others welcomed the words, saying they believed the Americans had little choice but to stick it out to prevent civil war. In other words, we are "between a rock and a hard place."

And who got us into this mess based on lies, distortions alnd manipulations? Those Republicans that control everything, that's who. Your vote or your not voting will count.