republican progress?

A new public opinion poll has found nearly two thirds of Iraqis oppose plans to open the country's oilfields to foreign companies.
A top member of the Iraqi prime minister's party says a law governing oil reserves should be delayed until occupation forces leave the country.

Afghanistan now exports not opium, but heroin. Opium is converted into heroin on an industrial scale, not in kitchens but in factories. Millions of gallons of the chemicals needed for this process are shipped into Afghanistan by tanker. The tankers and bulk opium lorries on the way to the factories share the roads, improved by American aid, with Nato troops.

real threat to US

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.

Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.

old Hitler and the new

He was a dictator. He made war on helpless countries. Ultimately, when he failed, he first blamed his generals, then his people.
Guess who? Hitler you say. Think again. Bush fits..We report,you decide.

heroism,homeland, fascism

The empty rhetoric of heroism is everywhere these days. You know what I mean. Pat Tillman -- the former NFL star -- is "an American hero," apparently because he volunteered for duty along with several hundred thousand other people, then had the misfortune to be accidentally shot by his own side.

A person upon whom the title 'hero' is bestowed has often performed no heroic deed whatsoever, but may receive the title merely in return for displaying loyalty and/or diligence. With time, the awarding of the title came to be used as a token to be disbursed or withheld according to political considerations. In other words, comrades, whenever it seems as if they're handing out "hero" medals for free, look out: There's usually a hidden price.

But there's a deeper reason to be wary of the "everyone's a hero" rhetoric. Simply put, it fits neatly alongside other terms beloved of the powers that be, such as "warrior" and "the Homeland": It's part of the language of fascism.

delusional democracy

We have arrived at a delusional democracy. Delusional because Americans overwhelmingly cannot admit the painful truth that their limited democracy no longer works for the good of most citizens. Instead, through corruption and dishonesty, our representative democracy has morphed into a plutocracy that serves the wealthy, power elites and corporate masters that control the political system and through that the economic system

neocon repubican dictators

If you don't believe that these Republicans are (1) interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries, and/or (2) on their way to creating a dictatorship in our country, go to the White House Website and click on Executive Orders AND think about the implications and open doors for abuse these Orders afford these Neocons.

Judgment,politicians,Iraq

What is called wisdom in statesmen is understanding rather than knowledge — some kind of acquaintance with relevant facts of such a kind that it enables those who have it to tell what fits with what; what can be done in given circumstances and what cannot, what means will work in what situations.

Politicians cannot afford to cocoon themselves in the inner world of their own imaginings. They must not confuse the world as it is with the world as they wish it to be. They must see Iraq — or anywhere else — as it is. Of course, better information and factual criteria for decision-making can reduce the margin of uncertainty. Benchmarks for progress in Iraq can help to decide how long America should stay there.

The costs of staying will be borne by Americans and Iraqis, while the cost of leaving will be mostly borne by Iraqis. What does that lead you to conclude?

Our politicians in controlBut fixed ideas of a dogmatic kind are usually the enemy of good judgment. It is an obstacle to clear thinking to believe that America’s foreign policy serves God’s plan to expand human freedom. Ideological thinking of this sort bends what Kant called “the crooked timber of humanity” to fit an abstract illusion.

Politicians with good judgment bend the policy to fit the human timber. Not all good things, after all, can be had together, whether in life or in politics. must decide, and soon.

Procrastination is even costlier in politics than it is in private life. The sign on Truman’s desk — “The buck stops here!” — reminds us that those who make good judgments in politics tend to be those who do not shrink from the responsibility of making them. In the case of Iraq, deciding what course of action to pursue next requires first admitting that all courses of action thus far have failed.

In private life, you take attacks personally and would be a cold fish if you didn’t. In politics, if you take attacks personally, you display vulnerability In private life, we pay the price of our own mistakes.

In public life, a politician’s mistakes are first paid by others. Good judgment means understanding how to be responsible to those who pay the price of your decisions.

But fixed ideas of a dogmatic kind are usually the enemy of good judgment. It is an obstacle to clear thinking to believe that America’s foreign policy serves God’s plan to expand human freedom. Ideological thinking of this sort bends what Kant called “the crooked timber of humanity” to fit an abstract illusion. Politicians with good judgment bend the policy to fit the human timber.

Not all good things, after all, can be had together, whether in life or in politics.

Iraq-did you know?

There are documents of the Defense Intelligence Agency proving beyond a doubt that, contrary to the Geneva Convention, the U.S. government intentionally used sanctions against Iraq to degrade the country's water supply after the first Gulf War. The United States knew the cost that civilian Iraqis, mostly children, would pay, and it went ahead anyway.

phony war on Iraq, bridges falling down

Senior British officials tried to persuade the Bush administration to keep off Iraq and concentrate on Afghanistan, the real source of terrorist violence inspired by al-Qaida. Richard Dearlove, then head the British of MI6; and Eliza Manningham-Buller, then head of MI5. "I hope we can all agree that we should concentrate on Afghanistan and not be tempted to launch any attacks on Iraq,"

Now, Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of Balochistan, said here on Thursday that it is the CIA and not Pakistan that should be asked where Osama Bin Laden is, since it was the CIA that recruited, trained and shepherded the future chief of Al Qaeda during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the ensuing conflict.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday the Bush administration is waging a "phony war" on terrorism, warning that the country is losing ground against the kind of Islamic radicals who attacked the country on Sept. 11, 2001. In an effort to get cannon fodder, latino teenagers, including illegal immigrants, are now being recruited into the military with false promises.

Meanwhile, with the billions spent in the war on Iraq, about 77,000 bridges across the US share the same "structurally deficient" rating as the one that collapsed over the Mississippi in Minnesota. DID YOU KNOW?

war on Iraq

The number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War on Iraq now totals 3660.

And it's on to Iran as the Bush Regime outfits B-2 stealth bombers with 30,000 pound monster "bunker buster" bombs for its coming attack on Iran, the US economy continues its 21st century decline. While profits soar for the armaments industry, the American people continue to take it on the chin. As for Iraq:

What have Iraqis done to you? Did they invade you? Did they steal your homes? Did they imprison you? Did they torture you? Did they rape you? Did they occupy your lands? Of course, some of you will come and present me with your usual condescending, paternalistic, patronizing lists of political theories, attempting to explain the inexplicable.

them and us

The republican "mission accoumplished" we accurate. Of the world's 100 largest economies, 51 are corporations, more US-based ones than from any other country.

They're run by wealthy and powerful figures comprising, along with other elites, the top 1% of the nation's affluent. Today they own 40 - 50% of the country's wealth in the form of stocks, bonds, land, natural resources, business assets and other investments.

In contrast, 90% of American families have little or no net worth after mortgage and other debt burdens are taken into account.

Iraq five years later

As the Bush administration struggles to convince lawmakers that its Iraq war strategy is working, it has stopped reporting to Congress a key quality-of-life indicator in Baghdad: how long the power stays on.

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that Baghdad residents could count on only "an hour or two a day" of electricity. That's down from an average of five to six hours a day earlier this year.

Up to eight million Iraqis require immediate emergency aid, with nearly half of the population living in absolute poverty.

Two thousand Iraqis are fleeing their homes every day. It is the greatest mass exodus of people ever in the Middle East and dwarfs anything seen in Europe since the Second World War. Four million people, one in seven Iraqis, have run away, because if they do not, they will be killed.

Here we are in the fifth year, and we simply have not greatly improved the quality of life. that we destroyed.

Iraqi kangaroo courts

The Americans and the Iraqi government have turned to an unusual measure to help implant the rule of law: they have erected a legal Green Zone in Baghdad, a heavily fortified compound (The Rule of Law Complex) to shelter judges and their families and secure the trials of suspects.

It is common practice that witnesses statements,who are rounded up by "investigators" are entered in a file that only the judges are allowed to read. The evidence in the files are what persuades the judges to convict.

So much for "justice" and the "rule of law" That's the way it would be here if the neocon republicans had their way.

tribal and sheep-like

What always disturbs me the most about any subject shedding light on what's wrong in America right now is met by uninformed comments from brainwashed ignorant people. How anyone could support these republicans and their war, let alone his burning of the Constitution just baffles me.

Maybe people, being tribal and sheep-like, just don't want to see reality. This worked for Hitler and it's working for Bush

virtue

The politicians still speak in the abstract terms of glory, honor, and heroism, in the necessity of improving the world, in lofty phrases of political and spiritual renewal. Those who kill large numbers of people always claim it as a virtue.

neocon republicans

The leading GOP contenders are all die-hard fans of the war. And the newest star in the show--Fred Thompson, the former Republican senator from Tennessee, onetime lobbyist and TV actor who has all but officially announced his candidacy--might be the most neoconnish of all.

Thompson, a prominent member of the Libby defense fund, called for Bush to pardon the former Cheney chief of staff. While doing so, Thompson repeatedly misstated core facts of the CIA leak case. Deriding special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Thompson, who played a prosecutor on Law & Order, insisted that Valerie Plame Wilson was not covered by the Intelligence Identities Protection Act--though indeed she was.

Thompson has a strong claim on the neoconservative heart. If he ends up in the White House, the neocons will rise again.

congressional bribery

If a baseball player slides into home plate and, right before the umpire rules if he is safe or out, the player says to the umpire - 'Here is $1,000.' What would we call that? We would call that a bribe. If a lawyer was arguing a case before a judge and said, 'Your honor before you decide on the guilt or innocence of my client, here is $1,000.' What would we call that? We would call that a bribe.

"But if an industry lobbyist walks into the office of a key legislator and hands her or him a check for $1,000, we call that a campaign contribution. We should call it a bribe."

republican health policy

A surgeon general's report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee, without any background or expertise in medicine or public health chiefly because the report did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.

He is William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and Latin American history, whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services with no background in the subject.

republicans for corporate welfare

The provision in the farm bill that offsets farm programs merely closes a loophole that allows a limited number of U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies to avoid taxes.

It is aimed at companies headquartered in tax havens such as Bermuda, with which the United States has no tax treaty.

Subsidiaries avoid a tax bite by funneling earnings through European countries that have reciprocal tax-reduction arrangements with the United States.

Guess what, Republicans are against closing this corproate welfare loophole. Why are we not surprised.

healthcare solution

Why are U.S. healthcare costs off the charts? Partly because we don't bargain with providers for a universal price. Partly because of the money that health insurers spend on marketing and screening people in or out.

Medicare's overhead is just 1.5 percent, compared with 13 to 16 percent in the private sector. John Sheils of the Lewin Group, a health-care consultant, says that the health insurers' overhead came to $120 billion last year, of which $40 billion was profit.

By comparison, it would cost $54 billion to cover all the uninsured.

republicans spying on you

The FBI wants to pay the major telecommunications companies to retain their customers' Internet and phone call information for at least two years for the agency's use.
The proposal "is circumventing the law by paying companies to do something the FBI couldn't do itself legally," said Michael German, American Civil Liberties Union policy counsel on national security.
"Going around the Fourth Amendment by paying private companies to hoard our phone and internet records is outrageous."

The proposal has raised concerns by civil libertarians who point to telecom companies' alleged involvement in the government's domestic surveillance program and to a recent Justice Department inspector general's report on FBI abuse of national security letters.

We suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg on your government spying on YOU.

republicans openly violate the law

White House aides have conducted at least half a dozen political briefings for the Bush administration's top diplomats, including a PowerPoint presentation for ambassadors with senior adviser Karl Rove that named Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in 2008 and a "general political briefing" at the Peace Corps headquarters after the 2002 midterm elections.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel found, in a May report, that General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan violated the Hatch Act when she allegedly asked GSA political appointees how they could "help our candidates" win the next election at a January briefing by White House officials.

The Hatch Act insulates virtually all federal workers from partisan politics and bars the use of federal resources -- including office buildings, phones and computers -- for partisan purposes.

To Bush/Cheney/Repubicans

read today and slightly edited:
When Civil War Gen. Ambrose Burnside ordered a disastrous attack on Fredericksburg in which 12,000 of his men were killed, he had to be physically restrained from leading the next charge himself.

After the First Lord of the British Admiralty, Winston Churchill, authored and enabled the disastrous Gallipoli campaign that saw a quarter-million Allied soldiers cut down in the First World War, Churchill resigned his office and took a commission as a front-line officer in the trenches of France. They are your new role models, Mr. Bush.

Let your minions try to spread the blame to the real patriots here, who have sought only to undo the horrors you have wrought since 2002. Let them try it, until the end of time. Though the words might be erased from a million books and a billion memories, though the world be covered knee-deep in your lies, the truth shall prevail.

This, sir, is your and your Republican follower's war. Like good Germans followed Hitler in 1945, they will follow you

We have reinforced enemy propaganda? Made it impossible for you to get your ego-driven, blood-steeped win in Iraq? Then take it into your own hands, Mr. Bush. Take your Republican followers and go to Baghdad now and fulfill, finally, your military service obligations.

register and vote in 2008

The American ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan C. Crocker, has asked the Bush administration to take the unusual step of granting immigrant visas to all Iraqis employed by the U.S. government in Iraq because of growing concern that they will quit and flee the country if they cannot be assured eventual safe passage to the United States.

It appears that humanitarian concerns have been trumped so far by fears that terrorists may infiltrate through refugee channels. Another reason the administration has been slow to resettle Iraqis in large numbers is that Republicans would have to admit that they lied to get us to go along with making war on Iraq.

As with all fanatics, they ignored the 1400 year history of Sunnis and Shiittes fighting each other. Of course. with an election looming in 2008, they cannot admit that they "screwed up" royally.
Meanwhile, we not they, and thousands of Iraquis die in Iraq.

our own Hitler?

A former Reagan official has issued a public warning that the Bush administration is preparing to orchestrate a staged terrorist attack in the United States, transform the country into a dictatorship and launch a war with Iran within a year.

Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, blasted Thursday a new Executive Order, released July 17, allowing the White House to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies and giving the government expanded police powers to exercise control in the country.

"The American people don't really understand the danger that they face," Roberts said, adding that the so-called neoconservatives intended to use a renewal of the fight against terrorism to rally the American people around the fading Republican Party.

Roberts, who spoke on the Thom Hartmann radio program, said: "When Bush exercises this authority [under the new Executive Order], there's no check to it. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man rule."

why Iraq?

Why we are in Iraq; CUFI, in a short period of time, has become one of the most important Christian grassroots organizations in America.

Hesitant to call itself a lobby, preferring the term "national association," CUFI is often described as a Christian parallel to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Zionist Christians are no recent phenomena. Neither is their communal work on behalf of Israel. For the past century, there have been Christian groups supporting Israel through their pocketbooks, prayer, and political power.

Their organizations stated purpose is to "provide a national association through which every pro-Israel church, para-church organization, ministry or individual in America can speak and act with one voice in support of Israel.

CUFI, Christians United for Israel in a short period of time, has become one of the most important Christian grassroots organizations in America. Hesitant to call itself a lobby, preferring the term "national association," CUFI is often described as a Christian parallel to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

republicans

Republicans always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive

They need checks and restraints lest they come to identify the common good for their own tastes and desires, and their continuation in office as essential to the preservation of the nation.

more republican hypocrisy

With a straight face, Bush blamed General Tommy Franks for the disastrous post-invasion plan. Apparently, Franks was awarded the Medal of Freedom for giving us bum advice on troop requirements for stabilizing Iraq.

the real class warfare

The very rich in America pay taxes at a lower rate than most working people, and, due to a wrinkle in the tax code, private-equity partners enjoy some of the lowest tax rates of all.

Warren Buffett, no stranger to wealth, told an audience filled with bankers and real-estate developers the system was, in effect, rigged. "This is what Congress in its wisdom did: the 400 of us [here] pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter." Buffett (who is a director of NEWSWEEK's parent, The Washington Post Company) offered a million dollars to any fellow magnate who could prove he had higher tax rates than his secretary.

Bush and al-Qaeda

Nearly six years after President Bush pledged to capture him "dead or alive," Osama bin Laden is not only still at large, but he and his al-Qaeda organization have apparently benefited greatly from Bush's decision to invade Iraq.. It's the inevitable conclusion from the declassified summary of a White House intelligence report released to great fanfare yesterday.

The U.S. occupation of Iraq has provided them with a potent rallying cry, recruiting tool and training ground they would not have had otherwise. Bush and Osama are good for each other.

Iraq hush-hush

About 1,000 US contractors have been killed in Iraq since the WAR ON IRAQ began, nearly 13,000 have been injured AND YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS ON CNN OR FOX.

republican corporate and tax welfore

Only twice before over the last century has 5 percent of the national income gone to families in the upper one-one-hundredth of a percent of the income distribution — currently, the almost 15,000 families with incomes of $9.5 million or more a year, according to an analysis of tax returns.

Such concentration at the very top occurred in 1915 and 1916, as the Gilded Age was ending, and again briefly in the late 1920s, before the stock market crash.

Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company. The message is that all brilliance emanates from the top; that the worker on the floor of the store or the factory is insignificant.
Republican corporate and tax welfare tend to promote the concentration of wealth at the top of our society.

welfare for the rich

The very rich in America pay taxes at a lower rate than most working people, and, due to a wrinkle in the tax code, private-equity partners enjoy some of the lowest tax rates of all.

Federal loopholes, particularly for private-equity partnerships, allow them to pay at the capital-gains rate—15 percent—rather than the 35 percent charged on ordinary income and that is after loads of right-offs.

Wall Street is scrambling to deny any changes with the ridiculous claim that it would be an attack on the virtues of free enterprise. Meanwhile, the gap is growing between the rich and the poor

what republicans doing to out country

For a country that calls itself a "superpower", we sure have a lot of stupid politicians who are controlled by big corporations....look who is benefiting....start with EXXON. We have a war we shouldn't be in and that we started. We have a health care system that no one seems to want to fix... and those that do are getting lambasted.

We have areas of our country ravaged by global warming (republicans say it doesn't even exist) that are still not repaired. We have a drug problem that's been spiraling out of control... we have crazy people shooting up our schools with guns... we have a government, controlled by big oil and big health, drug and insurance corporations that are working for their own gain and not for the people, and we blame the immigrants who only come here to work. And our media is controlled by big business which ignores the above, just like it did in the 1920's before the great Depression.
These are the primary reasons why our great country is going down the drain, in my opinion.

Iraq/repbulican war

A key adviser to Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused U.S. forces Saturday of human rights violations, embarassing the government and cooperating with "gangs of killers" in its campaign against al-Qaida in Iraq.

Prime Minister Maliki shrugged off U.S. doubts of his government's military and political progress on Saturday, saying Iraqi forces are capable and American troops can leave "any time they want."

After nearly five years, Al Qaida is stronger than ever. These neocon Republicans are spending at least $10 BILLION AND 60 of our DEAD MILITARY EACH MONTH on their foolish gamble of war on Iraq.

neocon republicans

Barry Goldwater must have known the current neocon republicans when he said: "Now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth, and let me remind you they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyranny."

As the American people can no longer rely on these neocon republicans to respond to public opinion, the people must do what they can to gather power back into their hands before they become the subjects of tyrants.

republican nightmare hits home

While opposition to the war has been stronger and more visible on the East and West coasts, small towns in the heartland and the South have provided the Bush administration with some of its most steadfast backers.

But that support has cracked amid the echoes of graveside bagpipes and 21-gun salutes, which have been heard with greater frequency in recent months in small Midwestern communities.

The cause is no longer clear, the Iraq war no longer seems winnable and the costs are too high. Now it's dragged on and on. It's just every day, you hear of more casualties." Small town USA is waking up to this Republican nightmare.

republican health care

Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona who served from 2002 to 2006, told the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that Bush appointees routinely vetted his speeches for political red flags, told him to mention the president's name at least three times on every page of his public remarks, and approved or denied his travel appearances with an eye to their political impact.

Carmona accused the administration of silencing him on hot-button issues such as embryonic stem cell research and abstinence-only sex education.

"Anything that doesn't fit into their ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried," he testified.

Bush/Cheney not totally to blame

The President wants to play again on Al Qaeda because he thinks Americans will be swayed with that approach. Their original claims of Al Qaeda. WMD's. buying uranium in Africa, bringing democracy to Iraq, were all lies.

Al Qaeda, both in Iraq and globally, thrives on the American occupation. It is stronger than ever. But let's don't put the total blame on the Bush/Cheney for this mess.

They cound not have done it without the solid support of Congressional Republicans and Democrat/Independent-in-name-only
Lie-berman.

more republican lies aout Iraq

For more than an hour, they listened to President Bush give what one panel member called a "Churchillian" vision of "victory" in Iraq and defend the country's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. "A constitutional order is emerging," he said. When you lie you need to let others know so they can lie too.

Later that morning, around the same conference table, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden painted a starkly different picture for members of the study group. Hayden said "the inability of the government to govern seems irreversible," adding that he could not "point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around," according to written records of his briefing and the recollections of six participants."The government is unable to govern,"

Lie-berman really a republican

Most American soldiers killed in the Korean War fell victim to mines, bombs or bullets made in China. General Douglas MacArthur - sounding much like some in Washington today - wanted to carry the war into China itself. President Harry Truman wisely refused and, when MacArthur persisted, relieved him of his command.

During the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with weapons and ammunition that killed thousands of American soldiers. Yet no one in the Johnson or Nixon administrations ever considered attacking Moscow in retaliation.

Nor did the Sandinista government in Nicaragua try to attack the United States during the 1980s, when American weapons and American-trained fighters were killing Nicaraguan soldiers and civilians. Helping friends during wartime is a tactic as old as proxy war itself.

Accusing Iran of deep involvement in the Iraq war is more than a way to lay the groundwork for a US attack. It also provides a scapegoat for America's looming defeat. By this rationale, the American occupation would have succeeded, and Iraq would now be blooming and tranquil, if only Iran had not interfered and ruined everything.

The Bush team's latest rationale for bombing Iran is even lamer than all the previous ones. But hey, Joe Lieberman buys it

republcans continue Iraq

Republicans say that they intend to change the message (spin) about the war on Iraq but not the course of the war, obviously thinking we are too dumb to know the difference.

Let's show them at the next election that we are not as dumb as they think we are. Register and vote.

more republican hypocrisy

Sen. David Vitter's (R-La.) led the blocking of the immigration bill, and has stated that he is committed to "advancing mainstream conservative principles," notes that he and his wife are lectors at their hometown church, and is committed to "family values."

Sounds good until you know that his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," Another Republican hypocrite.

more republican lies

As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Gonzales was routinely sent notifications from the FBI when such violations occurred and had to be reported to the president's Intelligence Oversight Board.

impeach

A government that spies upon its citizens, evades the courts and feels no compulsion to explain itself beyond vague warnings of security threats must be brought into check. The damage caused by terrorists on 9/11 begins to pale against the havoc wreaked upon America by these Republicans.

impeach

Nearly half of the US public wants President George W. Bush to face impeachment, and even more favor that fate for Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a poll out Friday. They have made us a party to their madness.

killing for oil is okay

I question if the Cheney/Bush change of heart towards convicted criminals will continue until his term of office expires - and that in the future we shall witness increasing moderation in the justice department's insatiable urge to punish, imprison and execute.

We hope that the commutation of Libby's prison sentence will usher in a new era of clemency, compassion and human forgiveness, under Bush/Cheney who otherwise have so much blood on their hands. Don't hold your breath. Oh, killing people in the hopes of controlling their oil is okay.

Iraq's 9/11 daily

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and their republican supporters have used demagoguery and fear to quell Americans' demands for an end to this war. They say withdrawing will create bloodshed and chaos and encourage terrorists. Actually, all of that has already happened - the result of this unnecessary invasion and the incompetent management of this war.

Shortages; lack of electricity; potable water; tanks rolling through the streets night and day; gunfire and explosions. Iraqi health care in shambles. 200 bodies turn up daily in the Baghdad morgue. For Iraqis, it's 9/11 every day.

Libby and "beans"

To the neocons, Scooter is a hero. Scooter was the pivot man in the veep's office moving the cherry-picked intel on Saddam's WMD, Saddam's nukes, Saddam's ties to 9-11 and al-Qaida to a collaborationist press as determined as he was to smash Iraq and Iran, secure Israel and control the Middle East. So what if Scooter lied to cover up the White House campaign to carve up Joe Wilson?

Cheney and Bush, fear that if Scooter goes to prison, and is staring at disgrace and 30 months away from friends and family, he may think he has been abandoned by people whose secrets he kept at the cost of reputation and freedom. An idle mind being the devil's workshop, Scooter might sit down and write a book, or phone "Bulldog" Fitzgerald and "spill the beans.".

Iraq

Shortages; lack of electricity; potable water; tanks rolling through the streets night and day; gunfire and explosions. Iraqi health care in shambles. 200 bodies turn up daily in the Baghdad morgue. For Iraqis, it's 9/11 every day.

Also, these republicans are admitting to only 3601 of our military having been sacrified in Iraq, not counting contractors (mercenaries), our tens of thousands of wounded, and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's killed. They won't or can't admit that they lied into a war that has no win options. The true character of finatics.

Lou Dobbs

Read Today: "Lou Dobbs was recently the subject of a withering New York Times column which deftly but decisively portrayed him as a charlatan, a xenophobe, a blowhard, and a liar." They left out-- a fanatic.

darth vadar

Dick Cheney has been a malevolent force on the checks and balances of American government for over six years. He has subverted government processes to lead us into this tragedy in Iraq, and is now seeking to do the same with Iran. Two countries, mind you, that he did business with while CEO of Halliburton.

finatic republicans

The final 18 months of his presidency will be an increasingly dangerous time for the world. Bush is wrapping himself in his messianic blanket, still bound to convince the infidels at home and abroad that he is a gifted visionary who can reshape the Middle East.

Vice President Dick Cheney makes Dr. Strangelove seem like Gandhi. Cheney operates above the Congress, the Constitution, the law and human decency -- at times, above the presidency. He does as he pleases and is answerable to no one.

Bush is not nearly clever enough to sort through or keep up with Cheney's Machiavellian machinations. The president is so lazy and incurious, he's more than willing to let Cheney do his dirty work. Whether it is approving torture, illegal wiretapping, concentration camps and kidnappings, or coddling corporate polluters, Cheney is ready to nod OK.

Bush/Cheney fell into the obvious trap by sending U.S. forces to Iraq in the heart of Islam. Bin Laden, hiding in the mountains of northern Pakistan, just sits back and relaxes, enjoying the bloody spectacle and the gift to radical Islam they gave brought him.

Finatic republicans never see the obvious.

killing for profit

The death toll for private mercenaries in the U.S. wars in occupied Iraq and Afghanistan has topped 1,000, a stark reminder of the risks run by civilian mercenaries working with the military in roles previously held by soldiers.

Republicans freely admit to using merenaries. The number of U.S.-paid private contractors mercenaries in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops. That used to be viewed as using outlaws. Killing for profit is now admired.

republicans will say anything

On July 4, Bush compared our Revolutionary War to Iraq. He left out that in the revolutionary war we were occupied, in Iraq WE are the occupyers.

republican loyalty

Is it any wonder that Bush thought 30 months for lying over the case for war was “excessive,” when the executors of that war have completely escaped, and have even been rewarded?

George Tenet and L. Paul Bremer III got the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Paul Wolfowitz was awarded the World Bank (until he botched that too), and Donald Rumsfeld was called a “superb leader” by Bush as he was gently ushered off to retirement last November.

republican criminals

Tough enough to execute Karla Fay Tucker -- and then laugh about it. Tough enough to sign a death warrant for a man whose lawyer slept through the trial -- and then snicker when asked about it in a debate. Even tough enough to execute a great-grandmother who murdered her husband -- after he abused her. A friend of mine at the time asked Bush to commute her sentence, telling him, "Betty Lou ain't a threat to no one she ain't married to." No dice.

Mr. Bush is tough enough to invade a country that was no risk to America, causing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and shedding precious American blood in the process. Tough enough to sanction torture. Tough enough to order an American citizen arrested and held without trial.

But if you're rich and right-wing and Republican, George is a real softie. As George W. Bush demonstrated in giving Scooter Libby a Get Out of Jail Free Card, he is only compassionate to conservatives.

What does it say about America in the age of Bush when Judith Miller spends more time in jail over the Valerie Plame smear than Scooter Libby?

One thing it says is that Mr. Bush and his partner in crime, Dick Cheney, believe they are above the law. The commutation of Libby confirms the belief that Mr. Libby lied to the FBI, perjured himself to the grand jury, and obstructed a federal criminal investigation in order to cover up the role Bush and Cheney played in smearing Joe Wilson and ruining the career of his CIA operative wife, which are federal crimes.

the republican "smirk"

Have you noticed all along the little "smirk" on Libby's face. They all have it: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and all the others.

That's because as long as they keep their mouths shut they have nothing to worry about. If they do get caught, the rich republicans in their big corporations and PAC's will raise millions of dollars for them, get them hired, and help them sell their books to keep their silence.
That's how these republicans operate.

republicans take care of their own

He was an architect of the Iraq war who was forced from the World Bank presidency amid allegations that he improperly acted to benefit his girlfriend. Now, Paul D. Wolfowitz will turn his attention to the relatively calmer waters of Washington intelligentsia, as a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. These rightwing republicans take care of their own.

respublicans destroying our country

General Janis Karpinski has testified that she saw a memorandum on "Interrogation techniques" pinned to the wall by military intelligence at Abu Ghraib, signed by Defence Secretary Rumsfeld himself.

Karpinski was at the top of the line of command of the guards - the military police - but not the interrogators. Doubtless more of the details of the war crimes at Abu Ghraib, and of extraordinary rendition and Guantanamo, will continue to emerge in the next few months as the war party in Washington becomes totally discredited.

Sexual aggression is not really about sex or gender, but about power: the powerful humiliating the powerless .

fanatic republicans

Bush's circle remains sealed tight, the lawmaker said. "There's nobody there who can stand up to him and tell him, 'Mr. President, you've got to do this. You're wrong on this.' There's no adult supervision.

It's like he's oblivious. Maybe that's a defense mechanism." "The president thinks cutting and running on his friends shows weakness," said an exasperated senior official. "Change shows weakness. Doing what everyone knows has to be done shows weakness."

The picture of a true fanatic, out of touch with reality. God help us.

update Iraq

In America's War On Iraq 3578 US military have been killed, not counting wounded, mercenaries or Iraqi women and children (called collateral damage).

Iraq mercenaries.

Our government has outsourced a wide range of security functions to 20,000 to 30,000 contractors (mercenaries) in Iraq; the exact number has not been disclosed. Contractors protect U.S. generals and key military installations, have served as prison guards and interrogators in facilities holding suspected insurgents, and gather intelligence among "other responsibilities." with little or no oversight. No wonder Iraqis see US civilians as killing their brothers, sisters, children and other family members.

winning hearts and minds in Iraq

U.S. soldiers killed 26 people before dawn Saturday during raids in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. The U.S. military said the dead were terrorists who had attacked American troops, but Iraqi police and officials said the victims were civilians. Over 100 US troops are killed in June.

update Iraq

The number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War On Iraq is 3571 and going up.

immigration

Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina joined 36 of her Republican colleagues, 15 Democrats and one independent in the Senate yesterday in squashing the last, best hope for now of overhauling the nation's bankrupt and busted immigration laws. At some point Congress will come to its senses, steady its nerves and recognize that unimpeachable reality. Mrs. Dole and her colleagues may think they killed immigration reform yesterday. In fact the problem will just keep coming back, bigger each time than the last.

conservative republican Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday overturned a nearly century-old ruling that prohibited manufacturers from dictating the minimum prices retailers must charge for their goods.

It also destroyed policies whereby education districts may attempt to balance schools racially, thereby in the long run restarting segregated schools.

Iraq stats

The number Of Iraqis slaughtered In America's War On Iraqis At Least 655,000. The number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) In America's War on Iraq is now 3568.

Iraq 3560

The number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War on Iraq has jumped to 3560.

Cheney-the real power and villian

Dick Cheney is the most influential and powerful man ever to hold the office of vice president. This series examines Cheney's largely hidden and little-understood role in crafting policies for the War on Terror, the economy and the environment.

Convinced that the “war on terror” required “robust interrogations” of captured suspects, Dick Cheney pressed the Bush administration to carve out exceptions to the Geneva Conventions.

Working behind the scenes, Dick Cheney has made himself the dominant voice on tax and spending policy, outmaneuvering rivals for the president’s ear.

Dick Cheney steered some of the Bush administration’s most important environmental decisions — easing air pollution controls, opening public parks to snowmobiles and diverting river water from threatened salmon.

Vice President Dick Cheney usually wields his considerable power behind the scenes and is often the last person to talk to the president before important decisions are made.

Bush=figurehead, Cheney= real power

Just past the Oval Office, in the private dining room overlooking the South Lawn, Vice President Cheney joined President Bush at a round parquet table they shared once a week. Cheney brought a four-page text, written in strict secrecy by his lawyer. He carried it back out with him after lunch.

In less than an hour, the document traversed a West Wing circuit that gave its words the power of command. It changed hands four times, according to witnesses, with emphatic instructions to bypass staff review. When it returned to the Oval Office, in a blue portfolio embossed with the presidential seal, Bush pulled a felt-tip pen from his pocket and signed without sitting down. Almost no one else had seen the text.

Cheney's proposal had become a military order from the commander in chief. Foreign terrorism suspects held by the United States were stripped of access to any court -- civilian or military, domestic or foreign. They could be confined indefinitely without charges and would be tried, if at all, in closed "military commissions."

"What the hell just happened?" Secretary of State Colin L. Powell demanded, a witness said, when CNN announced the order that evening, Nov. 13, 2001. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, incensed, sent an aide to find out. Even witnesses to the Oval Office signing said they did not know the vice president had played any part.

Bush declared himself as the decider to cover up the fact that Cheney is really running our government. Very clever!

religion

Right-wing evangelical leaders have exploited and politicized religious beliefs in an effort to sow division. Faith stopped being used to bring us together and faith started being used to drive us apart.

The Christian Coalition even determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich. What Bible are they reading?

These days religion appears to be about organization, control and power. Spirituality is about morality, tolerance and love; the true concerns of Jesus.

loss of our civil liberties

A federal judge who used to authorize wiretaps in terrorism and espionage cases criticized yesterday President Bush's decision to order warrantless surveillance after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"We have to understand you can fight the war [on terrorism] and lose everything if you have no civil liberties left when you get through fighting the war," said Royce C. Lamberth, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington and a former presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, speaking at the American Library Association's annual convention.

your and your children's money to Israel

Congress skillfully gives Israel at least $10 billion a year to expand its brutal occupation of Palestinian lands in a manner that hides the amount from taxpayers.

Congressional Research Service confirmed assessments made previously by American Free Press that blank-check aid to Israel costs taxpayers in excess of $10 billion a year. Because, in the age of deficits, the United States has to borrow the money it gives Israel in one chunk at the start of the fiscal year, taxpayers are paying interest on all the money given Israel for the entire year.

Because of the uncertainties and ambiguities associated with U.S. aid to Israel, arriving at a precise figure for total direct U.S. aid to Israel probably is not possible. Parts of it are buried in the budgets of other government agencies—mostly the Defense Department (DOD)—or in a form not easily quantifiable—such as the early disbursement of aid, allowing Israel a direct gain and the U.S. Treasury a direct loss of interest on the unspent money. Given these caveats, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA) conservatively estimates cumulative total direct U.S. aid to Israel of at least $107.961 billion.

another Republican goof

The deployment of the US Missile Defense System in Eastern Europe is a de-facto declaration of war on the Russian Federation . As Russian President Putin said in a recent press conference, “If this missile system is put in place, it will work automatically with the entire nuclear capability of the United States . It will be an integral part of the US nuclear capability.” This will disrupt the current configuration of international security and force Russia to begin work on a new regime of tactical nuclear weapons. This is a very serious development. Russia will now have to rethink its current policy vis a vis the United States and develop a long-range strategy for fending off further hostile encroachments into former-Soviet states by NATO.

Already, in the last few months, Norway , Iran , Syria , UAE, Kuwait , and Venezuela have announced that they are either cutting back on their USD reserves or converting from the greenback to the euro or a “basket of currencies”. Dollar hegemony is at the very center of American power, and yet, the downturn is visible everywhere. If the dollar loses its place as the world’s “reserve currency”; the US will have to pay-down its monstrous current account deficit and live within its means. America will lose the ability to simply print fiat money and use it in exchange for valuable resources and manufactured goods. Putin is now openly challenging the monetary-system that provides the flow of oxygen to the American superpower.

republicans protect big oil

Senate Democrats also fell short of their own goals. In a victory for the oil industry, Republican lawmakers successfully blocked a crucial component of the Democratic plan that would have raised taxes on oil companies by about $32 billion and used the money on tax breaks for wind power, solar power, ethanol and other renewable fuels.

Republicans also blocked a provision of the legislation that would have required electric utilities to greatly increase the share of power they get from renewable sources o

Iraq 3545 today

3545, going up

Bush opens mouth AGAIN

Speaking with the teachers, Putin suggested the United States' use of atomic weapons against Japan at the end of World War II was worse than the abuses of Stalin. He also cited the U.S. bombing campaign and use the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

"We have not used nuclear weapons against a civilian population," he said. "We have not sprayed thousands of kilometers (miles) with chemicals, (or) dropped on a small country seven times more bombs than in all the Great Patriotic (War)" _ Russia's name for World War II.

His remarks came just over a week after President Bush unveiled a monument to the victims of communism in Washington. At the ceremony, Bush compared those totalitarian regimes to modern terror groups.

3531 in Iraq

Iraq 3531

our shame in Iraq

We are trying to buy off survivors of our killing in Iraq as though that somehow makes it right.

The Pentagon has set $2,500 as the highest individual sum that can be paid. Most death payments remain at that level, with a rough sliding scale of $1,000 for serious injury and $500 for property damage. Beginning in April of last year, payments of up to $10,000 were possible for "extraordinary cases" but only with a division commander's authorization.

For example, two members of the same family are killed in a car hit by U.S. forces. The family could receive a maximum of $7,500 in condolence payments ($2,500 for each death and up to $2,500 for vehicle damage).

upsate Iraq

Number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War on Iraq now totals 3519 and continues in its fifth year, not including our wounded, and all the Iraqui dead and wounded.

republicans violate the law

President Bush has asserted that he is not bound by the bills he signs into law, and yesterday a congressional study found multiple examples in which the administration has not complied with the requirements of the new statutes. The administration is thumbing its nose at the law.

republicans don't follow the law

Read today: "It is troubling that so many senior White House officials, including Karl Rove and his former deputy Sara Taylor, were engaging in an effort to avoid oversight and accountability by ignoring the laws meant to ensure a public record of official government business," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee. "This extensive end run around the laws leads one to wonder what these officials wanted to hide from the public and Congress."

our mercenaries in Iraq

Private security companies(mercenaries), funded by billions of dollars in U.S. military and State Department contracts, are fighting insurgents on a widening scale in Iraq,
enduring daily attacks, returning fire and taking hundreds of casualties that have beenunderreported and sometimes concealed, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and company representatives.

While the military has built up troops in an ongoing campaign to secure Baghdad, the security companies,out of public view, have been engaged in a parallel surge, boosting manpower, adding expensive armor and stepping up evasive action as attacks increase, the officials and company representatives said.

The industry's enormous growth has been facilitated by the U.S. military, which uses the up to 30,000 contractors (mercenaries) to offset chronic troop shortages. Private Army mercenary companies
include: Falcon Security, Agility, Granite Tactical Vehicle, ArmorGroup International, Public Warehousing Co, Hart Security, and Blackwater USA, to name just a few.

The U.S. military has never released complete statistics on contractor(mercenary) casualties.The majority of the more than 100 security companies (mercenaries) operate outside of Iraqi law.

brainwashed

The war on Iraq won't be remembered for how it was waged so much as for how it was sold. It was a propaganda war, a war of perception management, where loaded phrases, such as "weapons of mass destruction" and "rogue state" were hurled like precision weapons
at the target audience .

All of us are involved in enabling the whole U.S. military empire building plan. It is about corporate domination. Bush is just the front man for the big money. By keeping our collective military boot on the necks of the people of the world we get control of a higher percentage of the world's resources. We, 5% of the global population in the U.S., use 25% of the global resource base.

Learn to read again. Many of us don't read enough. We spend our time in front of the TV, which is a primary tool that the power structure uses to brainwash us. We've got to become
independent thinkers again and teach our kids to think for themselves. Reading and talking to others is a key. Read more history. All the answers and lessons can be found there.

what Republicans say is not what they do

The Bush administration and military leaders in Washington are always claiming that they will do anything to support American troops fighting in Iraq. That makes it all the more infuriating to
learn that,for more than two years, they largely ignored urgent requests from field commanders for better armor-protected vehicles that could have saved untold lives and limbs.

Improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.'s, can blast through the flat underbelly of the military's standard Humvees, maiming and killing the soldiers within. These devices, a low-tech response to America's overwhelming military power, are now causing 70 percent to 80 percent of the American combat deaths in Iraq.

More than two years ago, according to newly disclosed documents, Marine commanders in Al Anbar Province, a center of the Sunni insurgency, submitted an urgent request for more than 1,100 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, or MRAPs, that have V-shaped bottoms able to deflect blasts from below. They sat on the request and then ordered relatively few.

Yet all you hear from these Republicans is "Support the troops."

another republican goof

The strategy of dividing moderate Palestinians from the extremists -- which was the core of Bush's strategy--- proved ineffective and may have led to the dilemma facing the administration today.

The less we try to intervene and shape Palestinian politics, the better off we will be. Almost every decision the United States has made to interfere with Palestinian politics has boomeranged."

which candidate is this?

Some are working for universal health care, so we never again have to worry about our families getting the care they deserve. Some are working to stop global warming, so that our legacy for our children is not global catastrophe. Others are working to end the war in Iraq, so we can bring our loved ones home and once again offer moral leadership to the world. And still others are working to end the injustice of poverty in America. Because in our America, opportunity should be more than a dream.

Iraq, the quagmire

The number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War on Iraq now totals 3513, and over 25,000 wounded, not counting Iraqi civilians. The cost is over $434 BILLION., WHICH IS being passed on to our children---NO END IS SIGHT WITH THESE REPUBLICANS.

FBI abuses

An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial
transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional criticism.

The new audit covers just 10 percent of the bureau's national security investigations since 2002, and so the mistakes in the FBI's domestic surveillance efforts probably number several thousand, bureau officials said in interviews. The earlier report found 22 violations in a much smaller sampling

how Republicans gorvern

President Bush yesterday tapped veteran GOP strategist and lobbyist Edward W. Gillespie as White House counselor, adding another Washington insider to a key position in his administration as it continues to battle with Congress over Iraq, the Justice Department
and immigration.

Opensecrets.org reported that Quinn Gillespie had income of $16.8 million from lobbying during 2006, including $320,000 from the American Hospital Association, $360,000 from AT&T and $600,000 from the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Some of the firm's clients have major decisions pending before federal regulatory bodies and other government institutions.DaimlerChrysler, for instance, is worried about moves to raise fuel-efficiency standards, while XM Satellite Radio is looking for approval of its proposed merger with Sirius

bush 2

The arrival of Bush's former advisers has put an unofficial White House stamp of approval on McCain's effort, at a time when the Iraq war has rendered that a decidedly mixed blessing.

Despite the animosity of their 2000 clash, McCain has emerged as the president's biggest backer on the season's two highest-profile issues: the war and the immigration compromise that all but collapsed in the Senate last week.

another Republican scandal

The U.S. special counsel has called on President Bush to discipline General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan "to the fullest extent" for violating the federal Hatch Act when she allegedly asked political appointees how they could "help our candidates" during a January meeting.

In a June 8 letter to Bush, Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch accused Doan of "engaging in the most pernicious of political activity" during a Jan. 26 lunch briefing involving 36 GSA political appointees and featuring a PowerPoint presentation about the November elections by the White House's deputy director of political affairs.

another Republican scandal

At least one-third of the immigration judges appointed by the Justice Department since 2004 have had Republican connections or have been administration insiders, and half lacked experience in immigration law.

Two newly appointed immigration judges were failed candidates for the U.S. Tax Court nominated by President Bush; one fudged his taxes and the other was deemed unqualified to be a tax judge by the nation's largest association of lawyers. Both were Republican loyalists.

think immigration

In the late 19th century, rich countries had incomes about 10 times greater than the poorest ones.
Today’s ratio is about 50 to 1.

The key to breaking the political deadlock is to ensure that
the migrants go home, which is why they should remain temporary workers ( About 7 percent of the rich world’s jobs are held by people from developing countries.

For starters, the poor should get another 3 percent, or 16 million guest-worker jobs — 3 million in the U.S.

They would stay three to five years, with no path to citizenship, and work in fields with certified labor shortages. We could ensure that most receiving countries would not allow them to bring families.

Taxpayers would be spared from educating the migrants’ kids. Domestic workers would gain some protection through the certification process. And a revolving labor pool would reach
more of the world’s poor.

Guest work the only way to accommodate large numbers. To insist that migrants have a right to citizenship and family unification, he says, is to let men in the rest of the world go hungry. It is cruel to be kind. The choice is theirs.

Let the poor decide. Letting guest workers in America doesn’t create an underclass.. It moves an underclass and makes the underclass better off. Rich countries have jobs. Poor people need work.

killed in Iraq

3504 and accelerating.

these republicans

Arkansas GOP head: "We need more 'attacks on American soil' so people appreciate Bush." These republicans have no limits and have no shame.

deaths jump in Iraq

The total number of our U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War on Iraq jumped to 3,495 with May being the third highest ever with 132, not counting civilians, mercenaries (approx 120,000),nor all the wounded.

Facts about Iraq

On Aug. 13, 2002, the CIA completed a classified, six-page intelligence analysis that described the worst scenarios that could arise after a U.S.-led removal of Saddam Hussein: anarchy and territorial breakup in Iraq, a surge of global terrorism, and a deepening of Islamic antipathy toward the United States.

Titled "The Perfect Storm: Planning for Negative Consequences of Invading Iraq," the paper,written seven months before the war began, also speculated about al-Qaeda operatives taking
"advantage of a destabilized Iraq to establish secure safe havens from which they can continue their operations," according to a report about prewar intelligence recently released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

In the "Perfect Storm" paper, CIA analysts offered what they described as "near-term tactical moves" that the administration could make to minimize the worst-case scenarios that the report
presented. Among them were taking "concrete diplomatic steps toward Arab-Israeli peace" and providing "back-channel assurances to Tehran on the duration and extent of U.S. force deployments" -- actions that were not taken.

no more republicans

read today: I want a president who reads newspapers, who reads books other than those that confirm his worldview, who bones up on Persian history before deciding how to deal with Iran's ambitious dreams of glory. I want a president who understands the relationship between energy policy at home and U.S. interests in the Middle East -- and who's smart enough to form his or her own opinions, not just rely on what old friends in the oil business say.

Actually, I want a president smart enough to know a good deal about science. He or she doesn't have to be able to do the math, but I want a president who knows that the great theories underpinning our understanding of the universe--general relativity and quantum mechanics -- have stood for nearly acentury and proved stunningly accurate, even though they describe a world that is more shimmer than substance. I want him or her to know that there's a lot we still don't know.

I want the next president to be intellectually curious -- and also intellectually honest. I want him or her to understand the details, not just the big picture.I won't complain if the next president occasionally uses a word I have to look up.