February 24, 2006
Murtha said the war was lost a long time ago. Why didn't anyone listen?
Iraq slides towards civil war
BAGHDAD - Iraq is edging closer to outright civil war as furious mobs attack Sunni mosques in retaliation for the bombing of one of the country's most revered Shiite shrines.

Gunmen sprayed a Sunni mosque in the city of Baquba, killing one person, in the latest of dozens of incidents that have left religious and political leaders scrambling to halt a descent into all-out civil war. In the same city, a bomb targeting an Iraqi army foot patrol killed 12 people and wounded 21.

February 24, 2006
We sold our souls to the devil and now he's come to collect his due.
Koppel: Will Fight for Oil
The shah's unswerving commitment to the free flow and marketing of Iranian oil would, by the end of the 1960's, become a central pillar of the so-called Nixon Doctrine, in which American allies were tapped to be regional surrogates to maintain peace and security. The sales of sophisticated American weapons to Iran served the twin purposes of sopping up billions of what came to be known as "petro-dollars," while equipping (in particular) the shah's air force.

February 23, 2006
Another court order the military will ignore
Pentagon Must Release Guantanomo Names
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico A federal judge ordered the Pentagon on Thursday to release the identities of hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to The Associated Press, a move which would force the government to break its secrecy and reveal the most comprehensive list yet of those who have been imprisoned there.

February 24, 2006
Dust off the "civil war" plan. Oops, none exists.
Iraq starts to spiral out of control
"We are very, very afraid of civil war," said Qusay Karim Hassan, a Sunni imam from Dora in southern Baghdad whose mosque was attacked by Shia gunmen. "We fear that the Americans will simply stand by and watch as we slaughter one another. For blood only begets blood. We have no idea what will become of us."

February 23, 2006
Will the WH stop leaking classified information? Hypocrites
Leaks fuel anger at White House over ports deal
According to the Associated Press, Dubai Ports World has offered full co-operation with American security programmes as part of the takeover. But the company will not have to keep its business records on US soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts, a routine requirement for foreign firms.

"There is a very serious question as to why the records are not going to be maintained on American soil subject to American jurisdiction," said Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and a leading critic of the deal.

February 23, 2006
One word : inept
Bush, Snow Struggle to Explain Knowledge of Port Deal
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary John Snow are struggling to explain why they didn't know until several days ago about a state-owned Dubai company's takeover of seaport facilities in New York and five other U.S. cities.

February 17, 2006
Rockefeller Blasts WH Over Intelligence Leaks
I am surprised and puzzled, however, that Director Goss chose to lay the blame for this damage on what he describes as misguided whistleblowers. Clearly "leaks" and damaging revelations of intelligence sources and methods are generated primarily by Executive Branch officials pushing a particular policy, and not by the rank-and-file employees of the intelligence agencies.

February 22, 2006
"There's nothing to fear but fear itself."
Port deal demagoguery
Never mind that the deal was announced 13 days ago and had been rumored for months. Never mind that Congress could have reviewed it at any time. Never mind that revoking it could have significant ramifications in the Arab world. And never mind that a little patience might have allowed time to get the facts straight.

Using the terrorist boogeyman to attract cameras has more political appeal.

February 22, 2006
The Real Bush/GOP Legacy
Dubai Harbored 9/11 Hijackers
Its deliberations are shrouded in secrecy, so no one knows how the commission came to be fine with the notion that our ports should be managed by a country that is a laundromat for terrorist cash, was home to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and was a base of operations for a massive nuclear proliferation operation run by the Pakistani atomic scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

February 23, 2006
Conservative government = government decides which rights we have.
S.D. Closer to Banning All Abortions
Under the measure, doctors in South Dakota would face up to five years in prison for performing an abortion. The only exception would be for women who need abortions to save their lives.

February 21, 2006
Conservatism = giving the world control over our future
Empire of debt has its limits
HONG KONG -- Recent news about U.S. current-account deficits with the rest of the world gives grim pause for thought from Beijing and Tokyo to London, and especially in Washington, for it shows the United States approaching the financial equivalent of a nuclear meltdown.

Increasingly the U.S. relies on the kindness of strangers to save it from going bust. In Japan's case, almost all government debt is owed to the Japanese people. American debt is increasingly in the hands of foreigners, who now hold trillions of dollars of it. Moreover, the U.S. must import almost $ 2 billion a day to support its spending spree.

February 22, 2006
Conservatives need Fox's Murdoch to tell them how to be real Americans and he's not even an American
Foreigner Ownership: Debt Dwarfs Ports
Foreign ownership of corporations active in the United States, like the one poised to control operations at six U.S. ports, is small scale compared to the ownership of U.S. debt. In fact, foreign entities own a little more than 53 percent of the U.S. federal debt in publicly traded world markets.

February 21, 2006
When you plant news in the US AND Iraq it's hard keeping track
US Paying Iraq Media for News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday he was mistaken when he stated last week that the U.S. military had stopped paying Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-American articles.

February 22, 2006
News is driven by the polls - always has been, always will be
Gallup: 55% Now Call Iraq War a 'Mistake'
NEW YORK More Americans than nearly ever before now say the war in Iraq is a "mistake" for the United States, according to a new Gallup poll. That figure now stands at 55%, up 4% point since late January. Only once before was the figure higher, at 59%, and that was during the period of overall pessimism right after Hurricane Katrina hit.

February 22, 2006
When given a choice between voting for a republican and a republican, Americans will vote for a republican.
Democrats missing a golden opportunity
"The Democrats are very close to squandering an opportunity," said pollster John Zogby, who faults the party for failing to come up with an alternative program to that of the Republicans. "It will not be enough for the Democrats just to not be the Republicans."

February 19, 2006
Mainstream arguments for impeachment
As a result of his continuing abuse of power, the impeachment option is making its way from the margin to the mainstream. Legal scholars on the left and the right argue that Bush may have committed "high crimes and misdemeanors," as stated in Article II, Section 4, of the Constitution.

February 22, 2006
The Real Bush/GOP Legacy
Majority Dissatisfied With U.S. Position in World
PRINCETON, NJ --According to Gallup's annual World Affairs survey, updated Feb. 6-9, 2006, a majority of Americans today are dissatisfied with the United States' position in the world -- a significant change from the pre-Sept. 11, 2001 climate when most were satisfied.

February 21, 2006
An Impeachable Offense (and another Bush lie)
WH Chief of Staff nixed congressional domestic spying briefing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top intelligence official was prepared to brief the House of Representatives intelligence committee about President George W. Bush's domestic spying program last December but was stopped by White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, a leading House Democrat said on Tuesday.

February 21, 2006
When Bush is impeached, the country won't accept Cheney
Approval for Cheney Stands at 29% in U.S.
(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Few adults in the United States are satisfied with the performance of their vice-president, according to a poll by SRBI Public Affairs published in Time. 29 per cent of respondents approve of the job Dick Cheney has done in the Bush administration, down three points since January.

February 22, 2006
CNN continues to pander to Fox viewers - people who are morons.
CNN repeatedly referred to Dubai Ports as Foreign Company Instead of Government-Owned
On the February 22 edition of CNN's American Morning, CNN anchors and reporters repeatedly described Dubai Ports World -- the company set to assume control of six U.S. ports -- as an "Arab company" or a "Dubai-based company." But in simply describing Dubai Ports World as a company based in an Arab country, CNN obscured the source of the bipartisan controversy surrounding the takeover deal, in which Dubai Ports World acquired the British company that used to manage the U.S. ports. Members of Congress, governors, and other lawmakers have objected to the White House's approval of this transfer specifically because the company is owned by a foreign government with what The New York Times editorial board referred to as a "mixed" record on fighting terrorism.

February 22, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Does Bush have one lawyer who can think or are they all conservatives?
Dubai Port Deal Was Illegal
A 1993 amendment to the law stipulates that such an investigation is mandatory when the acquiring company is controlled by or acting on behalf of a foreign government. Administration officials said they conducted additional inquires because of the ties to the United Arab Emirates, but they could not say why a 45-day investigation did not occur.

February 17, 2006
Is there ONE ethical republican left in Washington?
Specters' $50 million Ethics Scandal
Sen. Arlen Specter on Thursday asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether a top aide improperly helped direct nearly $50 million in Pentagon spending to clients represented by her husband.

February 17, 2006
Conservatism is dead - need proof? Here it is.
Federal aid fuels spending by states
State and local governments have used big increases in federal aid to help cover higher spending since 2000, a move away from the tradition of using local taxes to pay for local programs.

The shift could accelerate this year as about two dozen state legislatures consider tax cuts before the November elections.

February 21, 2006
Denying children a family is called "evil."
Drives to ban gay adoption heat up in 16 states
Steps to pass laws or secure November ballot initiatives are underway in at least 16 states, adoption, gay rights and conservative groups say. Some - such as Ohio, Georgia and Kentucky - approved constitutional amendments in 2004 banning gay marriage.

February 22, 2006
Keep government out of church and church out of government
Court allows church's hallucinogenic tea
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that adherents of a small Brazilian-based religion practicing in New Mexico may continue to use a hallucinogenic tea. The court rejected arguments by the Justice Department that the communion ritual undermines federal anti-drug law.

February 22, 2006
Right wing propaganda instead of real science
NASA under pressure to ensure researcher independence
ST. LOUIS, United States (AFP) - The US space agency NASA is under increasing pressure from Congress and the scientific community to make sure its researchers remain independent after the agency's top expert on climate publicly denounced attempts to censor his work.

February 22, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Nearly 100 dead in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan
At least 98 deaths occurred, with at least 34 of them suspected or confirmed homicides -- deliberate or reckless killing -- the group of US lawyers told BBC television Tuesday.

February 20, 2006
Everyone knew the truth except Bush, Congress and the media.
Navy Counsel Issued Warning On Torture Before Abu
The Navy's general counsel warned Pentagon officials two years before the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that circumventing international agreements on torture and detainees' treatment would invite abuse, according to a published report.

February 21, 2006
Will the Church/Government) ban these women from getting married?
Moms' Genetics Might Help Produce Gay Sons
"When we looked at women who have gay kids, in those with more than one gay son, we saw a quarter of them inactivate the same X in virtually every cell we checked," Bocklandt said. "That's extremely unusual."

February 22, 2006
Long term energy spikes Always cause inflation, followed by recession
Surging Energy Costs Push Inflation Up
The Labor Department reported that its closely watched Consumer Price Index rose by 0.7 percent last month, with about 70 percent of that increase coming from higher energy costs.

February 21, 2006
What do conservatives really believe in? Nothing!
GOP once noisy over debt limit increase, now silent
Treasury Secretary John Snow last week informed Congress that he would begin borrowing from the federal employees' retirement fund to avoid exceeding the nation's statutory debt limit of $8.184 trillion.

February 17, 2006
When the facts are against you - lie!
Hatch links Saddam to al-Qaeda
"And, more importantly, we've stopped a mass murderer in Saddam Hussein. Nobody denies that he was supporting al-Qaida."

In a clear attack on Democrats, Hatch added, "Well, I shouldn't say nobody. Nobody with brains."

February 22, 2006
It took them fives to figure this out. Good grief.
Porkies II- the GOP Congress
Feb. 22, 2006 | WASHINGTON -- The mother church of right-wing activism, the American Conservative Union, issued an electronic call to arms earlier this month. There was a new enemy at the gates: the free-spending ways of the Republican Congress. "I'm tired of being taxed to death just so elitist politicians can 'bring home the bacon,'" declared J. William Lauderback, the group's executive director, in an e-mail to members and supporters. "That's why I'm asking you to join with me TODAY to send a very simple -- yet effective -- message to Congress. Simply put -- No more pork barrel spending."

February 22, 2006
It's called 'civil war.'
Bombs Damage Dome Golden Dome
SAMARRA, Iraq - A large explosion heavily damaged the golden dome of one of Iraq's most famous Shiite shrines Wednesday, spawning mass protests and triggering reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques. It was the third major attack against Shiite targets this week and threatened to stoke sectarian tensions.

February 22, 2006
President Clinton was right again
Americans will spend one of every five dollars on health care
WASHINGTON - Within a decade, an aging America will spend one of every five dollars on health care, according to government analysts who see no end to increases in the cost of going to the doctor and taking medicine.

The nation's total health care bill by 2015: more than $4 trillion. Consumers will foot about half the bill, the government the rest.

February 22, 2006
Repeat after me: the puppet master controls the strings
Bush Unaware of Ports Deal Before Approval
WASHINGTON -President Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates until the deal already had been approved by his administration, the White House said Wednesday.

February 21, 2006
Alito should be impeached for lying under oath
Justices to Revisit Late-Term Abortion Ban
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said Tuesday it would consider reinstating a federal ban on what opponents call partial-birth abortion, pulling the contentious issue back to the high court on conservative Justice Samuel Alito's first day.

February 14, 2006
Congressional opponents of the Iraq war were largely absent
If It's Sunday, It's Conservative
In fact, as this study reveals, conservative voices significantly outnumber progressive voices on the Sunday talk shows. Media Matters for America conducted a content analysis of ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, and NBC's Meet the Press, classifying each one of the nearly 7,000 guest appearances during President Bill Clinton's second term, President George W. Bush's first term, and the year 2005 as either Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive, or neutral. The conclusion is clear: Republicans and conservatives have been offered more opportunities to appear on the Sunday shows - in some cases, dramatically so.

February 18, 2006
When the media says Bush is a "Good Christian Man" they're lying
The World Council of Churches Denounce Bush
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil -- A coalition of American churches sharply denounced the U.S.-led war in Iraq on Saturday, accusing Washington of "raining down terror" and apologizing to other nations for "the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown."

"We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights," said the statement from representatives of the 34 U.S. members of World Council of Churches. "We mourn all who have died or been injured in this war. We acknowledge with shame abuses carried out in our name."

February 17, 2006 (published 2/18/06)
Roberts is too foolish to know what he wants
Senate Chairman Splits With Bush on Spy Program
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 — The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Friday that he wanted the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program brought under the authority of a special intelligence court, a move President Bush has argued is not necessary.

February 17, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Rockefeller Questions NSA's Authority
WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee wants the panel to look into whether the National Security Agency was eavesdropping without proper authority in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks

Bush has seen Republican congressional support for his eavesdropping program erode in the last two months, but Republican leaders have managed — for now — to stave off full-scale investigations.

February 16, 2006
Hint to GOP: When Bush breaks the law you're supposed to impeach him
Sen.: White House Agrees to Spy Law Change
WASHINGTON - Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts said he has worked out an agreement with the White House to change U.S. law regarding the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program and provide more information about it to Congress.

February 17, 2006
Democrats Lieberman, Salazar, Landrieu, Nelson (FL), Nelson NE) and Pryor voted to confirm Gonzales (this criminal)
Gonzales Won't Step Aside in Abramoff Case
Thirty-one Senate Democrats said in a letter to Gonzales that he was too close to the president and top administration officials who have had dealings with Abramoff and immediately should step aside from the investigation.

February 17, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
The entire government will have to be fumigated after Bush is impeached
Fire Griffin's sorry ass.
Calls for Openness at NASA
Top political appointees in the NASA press office exerted strong pressure during the 2004 presidential campaign to cut the flow of news releases on glaciers, climate, pollution and other earth sciences, public affairs officers at the agency say.

The disclosure comes nearly two weeks after the NASA administrator, Michael D. Griffin, called for "scientific openness" at the agency. In response to that, researchers and public affairs workers at the agency have described in fresh detail how political appointees altered or limited news releases on scientific findings that could have conflicted with administration policies.

February 16, 2006
Bush legacy is failure in Iraq if next president is democrat
Republican Ask Cheney to Step Down
Who would it be? Someone who's a strong supporter of Iraq, and, presumably, the Bush doctrine.

Who would that be? That's what I suspect the president's men are asking themselves. But silently.

February 16, 2006
Judge say Bush must follow the law. He won't.
Judge Orders Surveillance Info Released
WASHINGTON - A federal judge ordered the Bush administration Thursday to release documents about its warrantless surveillance program or spell out what it is withholding, a setback to efforts to keep the program under wraps.

February 16, 2006
Christian values or Bush corruption?
Iraqi Government Condemns Abu Ghraib Abuse
BAGHDAD, Iraq Feb 16, 2006 (AP)— The Iraqi government Thursday condemned the past abuse of Iraqi prisoners shown in new pictures from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and a Web site said it had obtained more than 1,000 photos, videos and supporting documents from the Army investigation of the case.

February 15, 2006
Which side of history are you on?
N.J. Court Hears Gay Marriage Arguments
TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey Supreme Court justices grilled lawyers on the issue of same-sex marriage Wednesday, asking what business the state has barring such unions, but also whether lifting the ban could open the door to legalizing polygamy.

February 17, 2006
States can't be trusted to protect the rights of Gay Americans
March could be monumental in marriage equality history
WASHINGTON - The next month is shaping up to be one of the biggest ever in gay marriage history. The supreme court of Massachusetts will rule on whether out-of-state couples can marry there, and the supreme court of Washington will deliver an opinion that could make Washington the second state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. A victory in either case will carry an enormous impact nationally.

February 15, 2006
Failure is rewarded
Chertoff Says He Is Responsible for Katrina Failures
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate panel today that he is responsible for the federal government's failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina and he promised to "fix what's wrong" with his department before the next hurricane season begins.

February 16, 2006
The US was admired on Bill Clinton
Poll: US sinks to new low in eyes of Australians
"The United States's standing dropped sharply as a result of the Iraq war, and it hasn't hit rock bottom yet."

In interviews conducted between last October and January, only 29 per cent of Australians had a "mainly positive" attitude towards the US, while 60 per cent were "mainly negative" and 11 per cent undecided. This is down on last year, when 40 per cent of Australians were positive about the US.

February 15, 2006
Bush needs to borrow billions from China every year to pay for his budget deficits. Talk is cheap.
Big deficit prompts U.S. to rethink policy on trade
China must open its market to more imports, crack down on the piracy of copyrighted goods and curb subsidies to exporters in order to lower its record trade surplus with the U.S., the U.S. Trade Representative's office in Washington said in a 29-page review of trade policy toward China.

February 16, 2006
FEMA worked under Bill Clinton
Whitewashing Katrina?
The investigation produced 90 findings and 13 areas of failure that were praised as comprehensive by Democrats, who declined to participate, predicting a GOP whitewash. But they said it made few specific recommendations, such as removing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and did not explore key White House and Pentagon decisions.

February 15, 2006
New Abu Ghraib abuse photos broadcast in Australia
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian television station broadcast on Wednesday what it said were previously unpublished images of abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, stoking more Arab anger against the United States.

February 14, 2006
Impeach the GOP Congress
U.S. Has Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government.

February 14, 2006
Reid and Schumer want democrats who owe them - a lot like DeLay
Popular Ohio Democrat Drops Out of Race
Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.

February 11, 2006
Spinning out of control
Timeline Following Cheney's Hunting Mishap
A timeline of events following Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident, all times EST:

7:50 p.m.: The head of the Secret Service office in McAllen, Texas, calls the Kenedy County sheriff to report the accident. The sheriff asks to speak to Cheney, and they schedule an interview for 9 a.m. Sunday. At the White House, presidential aide Karl Rove tells Bush that Cheney was the shooter, after talking to ranch owner Katharine Armstrong.

New Torture Pics added Feb. 16, 2006

February 14, 2006
Hunter Shot by Cheney Has Heart Attack
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident has some birdshot in or touching his heart and he had "a silent heart attack" Tuesday morning, hospital officials said.

The victim, Harry Whittington, was immediately moved back to the intensive care unit for further treatment, said Peter Banko, the administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial in Texas.

February 13, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
AMA slams Bush on eavesdropping
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The American Bar Association told President George W. Bush on Monday to either stop domestic eavesdropping without a warrant or get the law changed to make it legal.

If Bush believes that law is inadequate, then he should ask Congress to change it or enact new legislation, it added.

The resolution also called on the U.S. Congress to affirm that the post September 11 law on the authorization of military force did not give the White House an exemption from the requirements of the 1978 law.

February 13, 2006
UN report recommends closing Guantanamo jail
The 38-page report, which may be revised, accused the United States of distorting international law by denying prisoners the right to due process, such as not allowing them to choose their defense lawyer and appointing hearing officers with a "minimum level of legal knowledge."

Using photos and video, the report said some prisoners transported to Guantanamo were shackled, chained, hooded, kicked and stripped.

February 13, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
McCain writes anti torture legislation, Bush ignores it.
McCain shows himself to be utterly worthless.
U.N. report alleges torture
A draft U.N. report on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay concludes that U.S. treatment of them violates their right to physical and mental health, and, in some cases, constitutes torture.

It urges the United States to close the detention center in Cuba and bring the detainees to trial on U.S. territory, contending that Washington's justification for their continued detention is a distortion of international law.

February 13, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
How do you get away with cold-blooded murder? Join the military.
Years After 2 Afghans Died, Abuse Case Falters
The two Afghans were found dead within days of each other, hanging by their shackled wrists in isolation cells at the prison in Bagram, north of Kabul. An Army investigation showed they were treated harshly by interrogators, deprived of sleep for days, and struck so often in the legs by guards that a coroner compared the injuries to being run over by a bus.

Of 27 soldiers and officers against whom Army investigators had recommended criminal charges, 15 have been prosecuted. Five of those have pleaded guilty to assault and other crimes; the stiffest punishment any of them have received has been five months in a military prison. Only one soldier has been convicted at trial; he was not imprisoned at all.

"The president of the United States doesn't know what the rules are!" said Capt. Joseph Owens, a lawyer for one of the accused interrogators, Pfc. Damien M. Corsetti, who is one of two former Bagram soldiers still facing court-martial. "The secretary of defense doesn't know what the rules are. But the government expects this Pfc. to know what the rules are?"

February 12, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Bush lie: "We don't torture."
Revealed: the terror prison US is helping build in Morocco
THE United States is helping Morocco to build a new interrogation and detention facility for Al-Qaeda suspects near its capital, Rabat, according to western intelligence sources.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other groups critical of the policy have compiled dossiers detailing the detention and apparent torture of radical Islamists at the DST's current headquarters, at Temara, near Rabat.

February 13, 2006
Debating Impeachment Among Democrats
Can you even imagine Republicans, even if they were in a minority in Congress, debating whether or not to call for the impeachment of a Democratic president known and documented as guilty of a wide range of high crimes and misdemeanors?  In particular, if you can imagine that, can you imagine the Republicans who opposed impeachment arguing that they were doing so for strategic political reasons?

February 7, 2006
U.S. Trade Deficit Hits All-Time High
The Commerce Department reported Friday that the overall trade gap climbed to an all-time high of $725.8 billion last year. The deficit was up 17.5 percent from 2004, marking the fourth straight record.

February 9, 2006
Code: It's ok for the GOP to bash Bush, but not democrats
Bush's base is rising up against him
The people out on the West Lawn of the Capitol were the kind of God-fearing, flag-waving conservatives who usually adore President Bush. But not yesterday.

As demonstrators cheered and waved signs saying such things as "Bush Buries the Middle Class," talk-show host Terry Anderson summed up the mood. "The president sucks," he cried.

February 9, 2006
Code: Bush is corrupt, Congress is corrupt and so are the judges overseeing both
Secret Court's Judges Were Warned About NSA Spy Data
The revelations infuriated U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly -- who, like her predecessor, Royce C. Lamberth, had expressed serious doubts about whether the warrantless monitoring of phone calls and e-mails ordered by Bush was legal. Both judges had insisted that no information obtained this way be used to gain warrants from their court, according to government sources, and both had been assured by administration officials it would never happen.

Both judges expressed concern to senior officials that the president's program, if ever made public and challenged in court, ran a significant risk of being declared unconstitutional, according to sources familiar with their actions. Yet the judges believed they did not have the authority to rule on the president's power to order the eavesdropping, government sources said, and focused instead on protecting the integrity of the FISA process.

February 9, 2006
Code: Bush didn't follow previous laws, so let's write new laws and hope he follows them
Specter wants special court to supervise surveillance
WASHINGTON — A special federal court would be given power to supervise the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program under a bill being written by a key Senate Republican.

February 7, 2006
Media outlets ignored dispute over Specter's refusal to swear in Gonzales
Most major news outlets did not report the dispute over Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter's refusal to swear in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the committee's hearing on the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program.

February 7, 2006
Fox,CNN edited anti-Bush comments at King funeral
During which Lowery mentioned the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. While Lowery's remarks were greeted with 23 seconds of applause and a standing ovation, the clip Fox News aired presented nine seconds of applause and little hint of the standing ovation -- and no indication that the clip had been doctored.

CNN similarly spliced out the majority of the applause following Lowery's "weapons of mass destruction" comment, also with no indication that it had done so.

January 15, 2006
Code: Truth is mailable at Time
Is Abramoff the New Monica?
This much is certain: 1) The Abramoff scandal, so far anyway, boasts plenty of cigars but no sex. 2) It has almost everything else, including the "Miami Vice"-style rub-out of a Florida casino-cruise-ship mogul who'd had contentious business dealings with Mr. Abramoff. Not without reason is the White House on a frantic search-and-destroy mission to root out any potential embarrassments. Mr. Bush's expert stage managers are smart enough to know that this scandal may metastasize from a cancer on Congress to a cancer on the Republican Party in general and this presidency in particular.

January 31, 2006
Code: Truth is mailable at Time
Time reporters deceived readers about Rove's role in Plamegate
At least three reporters involved in an October 2003 Time magazine article that suggested Karl Rove was no longer under suspicion of outing Valerie Plame, and that contained Scott McClellan's denial that Rove was involved, knew at the time of the article that Rove had, in fact, outed Plame.

January 31, 2006
GOP Lawmaker Condemns NASA Over Scientist's Accusations of Censorship
The chairman of the House Science Committee sharply criticized NASA yesterday after the agency's top climate scientist and several public affairs officers complained of political pressure intended to prevent public discussions of global warming.

February 7, 2006
Bush Appointee Resigns His Post at NASA
Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé on file at the agency asserted.

February 8, 2006
Reagan's Ex-Navy Secretary seeks to be Democratic nominee for Senate
Webb, who was secretary of the Navy under Republican President Ronald Reagan, resigned in protest of cutbacks in the Navy fleet. He has been a strong critic of the war in Iraq, saying that the Bush administration has never developed an exit strategy

January 28, 2006
Democrats assemble an army of veterans to beat Bush
Mr Horne, 44, is not alone. He is one of a dozen Iraq war veterans running for congressional seats in the November mid-term elections. What makes this new band of political brothers extraordinary is that all but one are running as Democrats, and against a war that only months ago they were fighting in.

Thirty military {now over 50) veterans from the wars in Vietnam, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq are seeking seats in the US House of Representatives as antiwar Democrats in a country where more than half the public now consider the war a mistake.

February 8, 2006
Obama: 'I think his feelings got bruised'
Obama is proposing creation of a nine-member congressional "Ethics Commission," with subpoena power to probe ethics allegations. Four commissioners would be former federal judges, four former members of Congress and the ninth a sort of wild-card pick. This new group would not supplant the House and Senate ethics committees but could kick-start these sleepy panels, which have not done much of a job of enforcing ethics laws already on the books.

February 7, 2006
McCain mocks Obama
"I confess that I have no idea" what prompted the letter, Obama wrote Monday. "But let me assure you that I am not interested in typical partisan rhetoric or posturing. The fact that you have now questioned my sincerity and my desire to put aside politics for the public interest is regrettable but does not in any way diminish my deep respect for you nor my willingness to find a bipartisan solution to this problem."

February 8, 2006
Republican Who Oversees N.S.A. Calls for Wiretap Inquiry
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 — A House Republican whose subcommittee oversees the National Security Agency broke ranks with the White House on Tuesday and called for a full Congressional inquiry into the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program.

February 6, 2006
Congress talks tough to Gonzales—and then turns and runs
"This is really not a good way to begin these hearings," Senate judiciary committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., sighed this morning, only a few minutes after he opened them. Specter was talking about the kerfuffle over whether to swear in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before his testimony. But he could have been talking about the parameters he had agreed to for the hearing: No witnesses other than Gonzales. No new details of the National Security Agency spying program that the committee was supposed to be inquiring about. No request for the Justice Department's internal legal memorandums about the legality of the NSA program.

February 8, 2006
GOP Leader Rents Apartment Owned by Lobbyist
Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who was elected House majority leader last week, is renting his Capitol Hill apartment from a veteran lobbyist whose clients have direct stakes in legislation Boehner has co-written and that he has overseen as chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee.

February 7, 2006
Soldier pays for armor
The last time 1st Lt. William "Eddie" Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood.

A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook's right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again.

But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago.

February 6, 2006
Ex-President Carter: Eavesdropping Illegal
"Under the Bush administration, there's been a disgraceful and illegal decision we're not going to the let the judges or the Congress or anyone else know that we're spying on the American people," Carter told reporters. "And no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated under this secret act."

February 6, 2006
56 Democrat Vets Running for Office
Veterans for a Secure America lists the democrats running for political office.

February 6, 2006
Code: Fascism is alive and well
"This statutory force resolution argument that you're making is very dangerous"
"This statutory force resolution argument that you're making is very dangerous in terms of its application for the future," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "When I voted for it, I never envisioned that I was giving to this president or any other president the ability to go around FISA (the 1978 law) carte blanche."

February 5, 2006
NSA's Hunt for Terrorists Scrutinizes Thousands of Americans, but Most Are Later Cleare
The Bush administration refuses to say -- in public or in closed session of Congress -- how many Americans in the past four years have had their conversations recorded or their e-mails read by intelligence analysts without court authority. Two knowledgeable sources placed that number in the thousands; one of them, more specific, said about 5,000.

February 6, 2006
Code: Fascism is alive and well
Telecoms let NSA spy on calls
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.

February 5, 2006
Code: Bush is lying again
US eavesdropping finds few suspects
Each year, fewer than 10 U.S. citizens or residents spark enough interest during the surveillance to cause monitoring of domestic phone calls as well, according to an authoritative account, the newspaper said.

Two sources said thousands of people in the past four years have had their telephone conversation recorded or e-mails read by intelligence analysts.

February 13, 2006
Questions Persist Over Cheney Shootin
(CBS/AP) President Bush knew Saturday evening that Vice President Dick Cheney had accidentally shot a hunting companion, but the information wasn't made public until the next day — by a private citizen — the White House said Monday.

Cheney apparently did not see Whittington, and the vice president accidentally hit him in the face, neck and chest with bird shot.

February 14, 2006
Katrina: Gov't Failure, Private Fraud
(CBS/AP) As a congressional report blamed government-wide ineptitude for mishandling the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, a government accounting report called out misspending on hurricane efforts and the Justice Department announced widespread hurricane-related fraud.

February 11, 2006
Nurse Investigated for 'Sedition' After Writing Letter to Editor
Laura Berg, a clinical nurse specialist for 15 years, wrote a letter in September to a weekly Albuquerque newspaper criticizing how the administration handled Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq Wwr. She urged people to "act forcefully" by bringing criminal charges against top administration officials, including the president, to remove them from power because they played games of "vicious deceit." She added: "This country needs to get out of Iraq now and return to our original vision and priorities of caring for land and people and resources rather than killing for oil....Otherwise, many more of us will be facing living hell in these times."

The agency seized her office computer and launched an investigation.

February 12, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Bush Ignores SCOTUS ruling on the "Pentagon Papers"
Inquiry Into Wiretapping Article Widens
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 — Federal agents have interviewed officials at several of the country's law enforcement and national security agencies in a rapidly expanding criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding a New York Times article published in December that disclosed the existence of a highly classified domestic eavesdropping program, according to government officials.

February 12, 2006
The Trust Gap
We can't think of a president who has gone to the American people more often than George W. Bush has to ask them to forget about things like democracy, judicial process and the balance of powers — and just trust him. We also can't think of a president who has deserved that trust less.

February 12, 2006
Starving polar bears shame Bush to act
The Arctic ice on which the iconic animal lives is melting away as the world heats up and, if the listing is finalized, the Bush administration will be obliged to modify its pollution policies to try to save the bear.

The move comes as the President faces attack for the first time over global warming from some of his strongest allies. Evangelical Christian leaders last week took out TV ads urging action.

February 11, 2006
Bush wants to sell thousands of acres
The Bush administration on Friday proposed the largest Forest Service land sale in decades, listing 309,421 acres in more than 30 states — including nearly 7,500 acres in Washington state.<

February 7, 2006
Cities and State Parties Pass Impeachment Resolutions
The past month has seen a burst of resolutions supporting impeachment in city councils, state democratic parties, and even chapters of Democrats Abroad. On January 6, the City Council of Arcata, Calif., passed a resolution demanding the impeachment or resignation of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, citing violations of international and constitutional law.

February 10, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Ex-CIA Official: Intelligence 'Misused' to Justify War
"Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war," Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Instead, he asserted, the administration "went to war without requesting -- and evidently without being influenced by -- any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq."

Pillar's critique is one of the most severe indictments of White House actions by a former Bush official since Richard C. Clarke, a former National Security Council staff member, went public with his criticism of the administration's handling of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and its failure to deal with the terrorist threat beforehand.

February 10, 2006
Ex-FEMA director feels like scape goat
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - 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.

He dismissed as "just baloney" and "a little disingenuous" claims by agency officials that they didn't know about the severity of the damage until the next day.

February 9, 2006
Code: It didn't happen
L.A. Mayor Blindsided by 2002 hijacking plot
LOS ANGELES - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he was blindsided by President Bush's announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed at a downtown skyscraper, and described communication with the White House as "nonexistent."

February 9, 2006
Number of Attacks by Insurgents in Iraq Increases
The American military declassified the statistics so he could present them to the hearing in his report, Mr. Christoff said in an interview. The figures cover attacks on American and Iraqi forces and civilians.

The curve traced out by the figures between June 2003 and December 2005 shows a number of fluctuations, including several large spikes in insurgent activity — one as recently as October of last year. But while American and Iraqi officials have often pointed to the downward edges of those fluctuations as evidence that the steam was going out of the insurgency, the numbers over all seem to tell a different story, Mr. Christoff said. "It's not going down," he said. "There are peaks and valleys, but if you look at every peak, it's higher than the peak before."

February 8, 2006
Senator Clinton blasts Bush on war
WASHINGTON -- Ignoring GOP criticism that she's too angry for prime time, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton Wednesday walloped Karl Rove and President George W. Bush for "playing the fear card" on terrorism and for failing to kill "the tallest man in Afghanistan," Osama bin Laden.

February 9, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.

February 7, 2006
World at its warmest of past 1,200 years
The warmth in which the Northern Hemisphere has basked since the middle of the 20th century has been the most widespread and longest period of unusual climate experienced at any time during at least the past 1,200 years, according to a research paper in the journal Science.