November 15, 2006
Fox News internal memo shows hostility to Democrats
The Huffington Post highlighted the memo's suggestion to "be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress." The memo also smeared House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), a candidate for House majority leader, noting: "In the House, the newly empowered Dems will shed some fraternal blood before settling in. [Rep. John P.] Murtha [D-PA] will challenge Hoyer for the leadership. A former hawk v. a political hack." The memo concluded: "Just because Dems won, the war on terror isn't over."

November 16, 2006
Marine sentenced to 18 months in killing
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - A Marine private sentenced to 18 months in custody apologized for his role in the killing of an Iraqi civilian who prosecutors say was kidnapped and then shot to death.

Pfc. John J. Jodka III, who pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the case, said Wednesday at his sentencing that he was "truly sorry" for his role in the killing.

The author is still deluded about the Contract With American which most Americans didn't know exited (the GOP base knew about it, but that's about it). 70% of Americans had never heard of the Contract.

Regarding which party has the majority - clearly there are and have been more Democrats than Republicans. More people voted from Democratic Senators in 2006 and 2004 than Republican and more people called themselves Democrat in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006.

The GOP is in the minority because it's the minority party. There are even more Independents than Republicans (PEW poll).

November 20, 2006 Issue
Conservative Magazine: Pathetic Republicans . . .
The electoral strategy the 1994 results invited was the one Karl Rove successfully exploited in three elections before stumbling badly in the fourth this year: The way to win elections is to find your people and get them to the polls. The premise is that "your people" are out there in sufficient numbers to produce victories, given a technically competent effort to turn them out. You win elections not through conspicuous efforts to reach out to the middle to persuade undecided voters, who probably don't pay much attention to politics anyway. Rather, you focus your efforts on "your people."

Johnson's defeat and Wilson's cliffhanger are also emblematic of the geography of the GOP loss in 2006. Republicans have now been all but wiped out in the Northeast. This is not a sudden development. Beginning with the 1996 election, the GOP tide, as it receded, did so unevenly. The South stayed strong, still recording GOP takeaways from Democrats until this year, but the two coasts and the upper Midwest were becoming much more difficult territory for the GOP. By now, the de-Republicanization of these regions is about complete, and the problem has spread to the high plains, the Midwest, and the noncoastal West, such as Wilson's district in and around Albuquerque.

That more or less leaves the GOP with a majority it has the potential to turn out only in the South. And unless Republicans are content to be a regionally strong minority party, they need to do something different.

November 16, 2006
Soldier pleads guilty to rape
One of four US soldiers facing trial for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family pleaded guilty to charges connected to the case, military officials said on Wednesday.

Army officials did not specify what charges James Barker had admitted, but he has provided military prosecutors with a detailed account of the quadruple murder which took place in March in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad.

November 16, 2006
Grading the Pollsters
Mason-Dixon's average error was under 3.4 points in 14 races. Rasmussen missed by an average of 3.8 points in 30 races; SurveyUSA was off by 4.4 points, on average, in 18 races. But Zogby's online poll missed by an average of 8.3 points, erring on six races by more than 15 points.

November 12, 2006
Two Out of Three Americans See President Bush as Lame Duck
(New York, NY) - Two-thirds of Americans - 66 percent - believe that President Bush will be unable to get much done for the remainder of his second term, according to the November 9-10, 2006 Newsweek Poll. Only 30 percent say he can be effective. Bush's approval rating has dropped to an historic low in the Newsweek Poll of 31 percent-four points below the rating recorded the week before the midterm elections in the November 2-3 poll. Only 29 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States; 63 percent say they are dissatisfied.

McCain knows there's no way in hell there are going to be more troops in Iraq so it's an easy call. Will he support tax increases to pay for these troops? or a draft? No! McCain is like the rest of the pro war nuts. He's a coward.

November 14, 2006
McCain Calls for More Troops in Iraq
A majority of Americans now say they think invading Iraq was a mistake and would like to see the withdrawal of at least some of the nearly 150,000 troops there, polls say. Only one in seven Americans agrees with Mr. McCain that the United States should send more soldiers and marines. Even President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who assert that victory is the only acceptable outcome of the war, have not dared publicly to advocate additional deployments.

If the US has evidence against these so called terrorists, let them show it in a court of law. Their record is dismal. They've been forced to release thousands of people who were falsely arrested. Any court can easily see these gross violations of US and International Law.

November 14, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
US Government Fights Guantanamo Detainee Cases
Lawyers for the prisoners have argued the new law does not give the US government the power to arrest suspects overseas and imprison them indefinitely without any charges and without allowing them to challenge their detention in US court.

They say a provision of the law unconstitutionally suspends the right under habeas corpus, a long-standing principle of American law, for detainees to contest their imprisonment.

November 14, 2006
Iraq's education sector crippled by bloodshed
Ever since the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq in April 2003 and the violence that has erupted since, university professors and other academics from various backgrounds have frequently been targets of assassinations. More than 100 have been killed.

Scientists in Baghdad have been known for many centuries as regional and international pioneers in mathematics and medicine, but the violence and exodus of academics has reduced a once-thriving academic community to a state of fear.

November 12, 2006
Hurting Gays, and Ourselves
But everything changed when Thomas Aquinas and other religious writers labeled not only homosexual acts but all non-procreative sexual behavior "unnatural." The Roman Catholic Church continues to promote this idea today, even though most critical thinkers appreciate the relational bonding, tension release and joyous pleasure that sexuality affords along with the possibility of procreation. Of course any practice of sexuality that harms, takes advantage of or demeans another person is wrong, no matter who is involved. Nonetheless, instead of dealing with this and other related issues in a straightforward way, many join the church in simply rejecting gays and lesbians.

But many people are not as fortunate. They, and our society at large, miss out on the fullness of life that is tragically denied to so many because the rest of us don't want to deal fairly and fully with such a difficult and embarrassing subject. Families are torn apart, careers ruined, gifts and graces underutilized, and lives destroyed. Thus, ironically, the anguish that gays and lesbians suffer because of their rejection isn't visited just upon them, as horrible as that is. It affects us all.

The US no longer leads the world on human rights. Even S. Africa has a better record.

November 14, 2006
S. Africa parliament OKs gay marriages
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - The South African parliament on Tuesday approved new legislation recognizing gay marriages — a first for a continent where homosexuality is largely taboo.

The National Assembly passed the Civil Union Bill, worked out after months of heated public discussion, by a majority of 230 to 41 votes despite criticism from both traditionalists and gay activists and warnings that it might be unconstitutional. There were three abstentions.

NEW YORK TIMES: "The termination language, The Times said, was inserted into the bill by Congressional staff members working for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and who declared on Monday that he plans to run for president in 2008.

November 14, 2006
Senate Reverses Course: Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Will Stay Open
On a voice vote, the chamber embraced a bipartisan plan to keep the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction open until 10 months after 80 percent of the funds for Iraqi reconstruction have been spent, whenever that is.

November 14, 2006
Rumsfeld war crimes complaint filed in Germany
Eleven former Abu Ghraib detainees and one Guantanamo detainee all claiming to have been victims of US torture initiated a criminal complaint in Germany Tuesday asking that the German Federal Prosecutor [official website] investigate and ultimately prosecute former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top US officials and advisors [CCR list] for authorizing the commission of war crimes in the US "war on terror."

November 14, 2006
Molly Ivins: Now They're All For Bipartisanship
AUSTIN, Texas—Having watched election coverage nonstop all week, I sometimes wake screaming, "Bipartisanship!" and scare myself.

Of all the viral members of the media who have been suggesting that the Dems cooperate with their political opponents, the one who rendered me almost unconscious with surprise was Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich, the Boy Scout. Newt Gingrich, the man who sat there and watched Congress impeach and try Bill Clinton for lying about having an extramarital while he, Newt Gingrich, was lying about having an extramarital affair. (This all took place during his second marriage. The first one ended when he told his wife he was divorcing her while she was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment.)

The current headline is "Insurgent activity rising in Afghanistan." The new headline doesn't sound nearly as bad does it?

November 12, 2006
Afghan Insurgency Has Quadrupled In Last Year
KABUL, Afghanistan - Insurgent activity in Afghanistan has risen fourfold this year, and militants now launch more than 600 attacks a month, a rising wave of violence that has resulted in 3,700 deaths in 2006, a bleak new report released Sunday found.

What kind of message does this send? These Marines kidnapped and killed a man in cold blood and then lied about it, yet the charges are dropped to assault? Who's the military judge in this case? Get rid of ASAP.

November 14, 2006
3rd Marine to plead guilty in Iraqi slay probe
Steve Immel, attorney for Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr., said his client would plead guilty to charges of aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He said the original charges, including murder and kidnapping, would be dismissed.

November 13, 2006
Iraq Group's Report Contains a Poisonous Suggestion - talk to Iran
Drafted by the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission of policy elders — chaired jointly by the Bush family consiglière and former secretary of state, James Baker, and a veteran Democratic lawmaker, Lee Hamilton — the report contains not a silver bullet but a poisonous one: a suggestion to engage Iran and Iraq in talks, ending a long boycott of the two terrorist states.

November 12, 2006
Member of Iraq advisory group offers somber analysis
WASHINGTON - The situation in Iraq is "even worse than we thought," with key Iraqi leaders showing no willingness to compromise to avoid increasing violence, said Leon Panetta, a member of the high-powered advisory group that will recommend new options for the war.

Private assessments by government officials are much more grim than what is said in public, Panetta said, "and we left some of those sessions shaking our heads over how bad it is in Iraq."

U.S. forces can't control sectarian violence and powerful militias. One of the most disturbing findings, Panetta said, is that many Shiite religious leaders who are a big part of the government have no interest in deals or compromises with Sunnis and other groups, and are "playing for time because they say it's their show."

Right wingers who fell for the notion that so-called terrorists was increasing because they wanted Republicans defeated in the poll have more egg on their face. Now, these same right wingers will claim it's all the Democrats fault.

November 14, 2006
Up to 150 kidnapped from Baghdad institute
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen wearing Iraqi police commando uniforms kidnapped up to 150 staff and visitors in a lightning raid on a government research institute in downtown Baghdad on Tuesday, the largest mass abduction since the start of the U.S. occupation.

Iraq's higher education minister immediately ordered all universities closed until security improvements are made, saying he was "not ready to see more professors get killed."

November 12, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Baghdad's morgues so full, bodies being turned away
The city's network of morgues, built to hold 130 bodies at most, now holds more than 500, he says.

Bodies are sent for burial every three or four days just to make room for the daily intake, sometimes making corpse identification impossible.

Democrats come up with solutions, Bush says no! Will the media portray Bush as an obstructionist?

November 13, 2006
Administration Opposes Democrats' Plan for Negotiating Medicare Drug Prices
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 — The Bush administration said on Sunday that it would strenuously oppose one of the Democrats' top priorities for the new Congress: legislation authorizing the government to negotiate with drug companies to secure lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries.

Government will endorse science over religious beliefs. It's about time.

November 13, 2006
Election outcome boosts embryonic stem cell work
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov 13 (Reuters) - The religious protesters are gone and expansion plans are back on track at a top Kansas City stem-cell research lab after Missouri voters endorsed the controversial field in last week's elections.

With some $2 billion in private funding, and a team of international scientists already at work, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research now sees mostly clear sailing as it seeks stem-cell treatments for illnesses ranging from Alzheimer's disease to multiple sclerosis.

Passage of the amendment to the state constitution was a turning point, supporters say, as voters across the United States elected stem-cell research proponents and shifted political power in Washington away from Republicans and U.S. President George W. Bush, a chief opponent of the research.

November 12, 2006
Democrats: Start U.S. Iraq withdrawal in 4-6 months
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats, who won majorities in the U.S. Congress in last week's elections, said on Sunday they will push for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to begin in four to six months.

"The first order of business is to change the direction of Iraq policy," said Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is expected to be <

November 13, 2006
Insurgent Activity Spikes in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan Nov 13, 2006 (AP)— Insurgent activity in Afghanistan has risen fourfold this year, and militants now launch more than 600 attacks a month, a rising wave of violence that has resulted in 3,700 deaths in 2006, a bleak new report released Sunday found.

The US still doesn't get it. Israel is part of the problem. The US media when hog wild when two Israeli soldiers were killed a couple months ago. Now we have 19 innocent Palestinians killed and it's a non-story. Does anyone still wonder why the US and Israel are so hated in around the world?

November 13, 2006
US vetoes UN draft that condemns Israel
New York: The US vetoed a draft resolution supported by Arab states for the UN Security Council to condemn the killings of 18 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip by Israeli Defence Forces.

August 15, 2006 (posted Nov. 14)
A Self-Defeating War
Taken together, these four factors ensure that the war on terror cannot be won. An endless war waged against an unseen enemy is doing great damage to our power and prestige abroad and to our open society at home. It has led to a dangerous extension of executive powers; it has tarnished our adherence to universal human rights; it has inhibited the critical process that is at the heart of an open society; and it has cost a lot of money. Most importantly, it has diverted attention from other urgent tasks that require American leadership, such as finishing the job we so correctly began in Afghanistan, addressing the looming global energy crisis, and dealing with nuclear proliferation.

Click image enlarge

What a mess! The GOP has been cutting taxes for so long we've accumulated over $7 trillion of debt in the last 25 years. Trying to convince EVERYONE that taxes have to go up is nearly impossible. The GOP says it supports the war but they never raised taxes to pay for it. Their support of the troops was never real, it was political rhetoric.

November 11, 2006
Alternative Minimum Tax Targeted
The focus on the AMT is hardly surprising, given that victims of the tax have been concentrated in high-cost urban areas such as Washington, New York and San Francisco -- places that tend to vote Democratic. Rangel, Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the presumptive House speaker, all represent states hit hard by the AMT, which is sometimes called the "blue-state tax." To map states with the highest concentrations of AMT taxpayers is to draw bull's-eyes over California and the Northeastern seaboard.

Locally, an estimated 240,000 families and individuals in the District, Maryland and Virginia will have to pay the AMT at tax time in April, according to projections by the nonprofit Citizens for Tax Justice. That is an increase of nearly 100,000 local families since 2003.

November 11, 2006
Macho Politics Failed — Because It Was Macho Politics By Marshmallow Men
The macho poses and tough talk of the cowboy president were undercut when he seemed flaccid in the face of the vicious Katrina and the vicious Iraq insurgency.

Even former members of the administration conceded they were tired of the muscle-bound style, longing for a more maternal approach to the globe. "We were exporting our anger and our fear, hatred for what had happened," Richard Armitage, the former deputy secretary of state, said in a speech in Australia, referring to the 9/11 attacks. He said America needed "to turn another face to the world and get back to more traditional things, such as the export of hope and opportunity and inspiration."

November 9, 2006
It's the War, Stupid—And the Youth Vote, And Angry Indies, And…..
This was a national referendum, just as 1994 was a national referendum. They were both elections where you had one party in charge of all the major institutions and that gives people a very clear target if they are unhappy. They used their vote to express their feelings about national politics and issues-primarily dissatisfaction with the war and the policies of the Bush administration. There was general discontent with all things Republican.

November 11, 2006
Americans Support Democratic Agenda
And there's massive support for much of the Democratic Congress's presumed agenda. For instance, 75 percent of Americans say allowing the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices for seniors should be a "top priority," including 67 percent of Republicans. Increasing the minimum wage comes next (68 percent) on the public's list, followed by investigating government contracts in Iraq (60 percent).

I'm still amazed that conservatives still think Reagan was a small government republican. He created more debt than all the presidents before him combined. How conservative is that?

November 12, 2006
Why the GOP Lost Big on Election Day 2006: Understanding Addition & Subtraction!
The GOP suffered a humiliating and demoralizing defeat on Tuesday. Why? The answer is pretty simple to this "Millionaire Republican." I am proud to call myself a Jewish Libertarian Republican. And I think an old Holocaust story passed down by my Yiddish grandmother explains the problem we as Republicans encountered on election day. The story about the Holocaust goes like this: "First the Nazis came for the Jews. And no one spoke up. Then they came for the gays- and no one spoke up. Then they came for the gypsies- and no one spoke up. Then they came for the crippled- and no one spoke up. Finally they came for us- and there was no one left to speak up." That reminds me of the problem the GOP has created for our party. First the GOP alienated literally every moderate voter in America- the centrists, independents, blue dog Democrats- with the idiotic Karl Rove/Ken Mehlman strategy of pandering to the religious right and mobilizing the base- while ignoring everyone else. Then President Bush and the GOP finished the job by showcasing their extreme religious views on Terri Schiavo, stem cells, and teaching evolution in the classroom. Next the GOP alienated any moderate soccer moms that were still left with their outspoken desire to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Then the GOP alienated all gay voters with their intense desire to make gay marriage the most important issue in American politics. Then GOP politicians screamed from the highest rooftops about throwing all the illegal immigrants (and their children) out of the country- thereby alienating Hispanics (and most other immigrants as well). Then there was the brilliant Bush stand against funding of stem cell research- mixed in with a Rush Limbaugh tirade against one of Hollywood's biggest (and most sympathetic) stars Michael J. Fox. Whoops- out went the votes of anyone with a disease- or with a friend or parent or child or spouse with a disease (including Ronald Reagan's widow Nancy).

November 11, 2006
Popular Vote For Senate Was 55%-43% Democratic
Look how easily the media manipulates everyone's perceptions, including our own. An hour of vote tabulation reveals a stunning fact: Democrats won the popular vote for the Senate by an overwhelming 12.6% margin - 55%/42.4%. "Bipartisanship" and "compromise" are today's buzzwords, when the phrase on everybody's lips should be "mandate for dramatic change" - especially in Iraq.

Scalia is unfit to hear this case. He recently said the constitution doesn't list gay or women's rights. Needless to day, the Ninth Amendment says our rights don't have to be enumerated so he's simply another conservative idiot pretending to know what he's talking about.

November 11, 2006
The Supreme Court and Abortion
The Supreme Court unnecessarily returned to the politically charged area of abortion this week, hearing arguments in a case testing some of the core principles of Roe v. Wade and the court's own credibility as an institution removed from politics.

Republicans only support Vets who tow the party line. If you're not a republican vet, you're screwed.

November 11, 2006
Listening to a Veteran
The Nation -- Next week, one of the greatest war heroes to ever serve in Congress will return to Washington to discuss how the U.S. should extract itself from the quagmire in Iraq.

Sore losers. These nuts also didn't think Clinton would balance the budget or preside over the largest investment boom in US history. It's self-evident groups like don't deal in the real world. Does this publication defend the Bush debt? the Reagan debt? Like all conservative publications they should be ignored.

November 11, 2006
Investor's Business Daily Calls Conyers an Islamist' Tool
NEW YORK The conservative business publication, Investor's Business Daily, isn't taking this week's elections results in stride. In a blistering editorial, the newspaper charges that Rep. John Conyers, soon to chair the House Judiciary Committee, is "leading a Democrat jihad to deny law enforcement key terror-fighting tools" and "is in the pocket of Islamists."

November 10, 2006
Disaster Awaits If We Attack Iran
Many of the consequences of a war with Iran are easy to imagine. Oil would soar to at least $200 per barrel if we could get it. Gas shortages would bring back the gas lines of 1973 and 1979. Our European alliances would be stretched to the breaking point if not beyond it. Most people outside the Bush bubble can see all this coming.

What I fear no one foresees is a substantial danger that we could lose the American army now deployed in Iraq. I have mentioned this in previous columns, but I want to go into it here in more detail because the scenario may soon go live.

Halliburton Provided Contaminated Water To Soldiers

November 9, 2006
House Democrats won't repeat GOP mistakes
Many in the new House majority incorrectly concluded that their 1994 victory was a mandate for all they had campaigned on: dramatically smaller government, quickly achieved; significantly lower taxes; and a complete rollback of many policies instituted in his first two years in office by their nemesis, President Bill Clinton (whom we repeatedly underestimated).

What many congressional Republicans failed to realize until much later was that their November victory was less of a vote of confidence in them and more a vote against Clinton. This miscalculation led to costly blunders in our first year; including trying to do too much too fast, which placed us far ahead of where the American public wanted us to be and where it felt comfortable being.

The Democrats will do everything in their power to avoid a return to second-class citizenship. They will be more likely than were the Republicans a dozen years ago to take modest steps, and to be careful lest rhetoric overtake feasible action. The goal for Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her battle-hardened team will be to spend two years laying the groundwork for further gains in 2008, and to push an agenda that will provide a solid and likely centrist platform for their party's standard-bearer.

November 10, 2006
Lieberman: Call Me a Democrat
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joe Lieberman, who won re-election as an independent, has a message for his Senate colleagues in the next Congress: Call me a Democrat.

I thought it was the Democrat Party too. It's Democratic Party. Interesting.

November 10, 2006
Time For A Big Ol' Cup Of 'Shut The F*** Up'
10) The devilish wordsmiths who think it's strategic and clever to refer to the Democratic Party as the "Democrat Party" need to stop it. Shut the f*** up. The official name of the party is the Democratic Party, with the "ic" at the end. Yeah, I know. Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz invented the idea of saying "Democrat Party" or "the Democrat leadership" or "the Democrat voters" in order to emphasize the "rat" syllable, leaving a rat-like subliminal hint in the minds of listeners. President Bush, in his so-called "conciliatory" press conference Wednesday, used this incorrect pronunciation several times.<

One can imagine Washington reporters running to their computers before they go on the air to see what the GOP wants them to say. Isn't it time for the media to stop carrying their water?

November 3, 2006
Top election falsehoods, myths, and talking points
Many in the media -- such as ABC News political director Mark Halperin, New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg, and CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- have either uncritically reported or asserted that "national security" or "terrorism" are Republican "strengths." MSNBC host Chris Matthews, meanwhile, has stated that "Republicans know from the polls they got two strengths right now" -- "terrorism" and "[t]axes" -- and then added: "[W]hether the current polls back that up or not."

In fact, recent polling undermines these assertions, indicating that Americans favor Democrats by a significant margin when asked whom they trust more to handle the specific national security-related issue of the war in Iraq. And recent polling is mixed on which party respondents prefer to handle the issue of terrorism.

Bush says he lied and the WH tells the NY Times the decision to dump Rumsfeld was made last summer, but the media still isn't willing to call a lie, a lie. The liars that helped him take us to war for no reason haven't learned their lesion. I wish we could vote for new reporters because if we could these liars would be out of a job tomorrow.

November 9, 2006
Bush acknowledged he lied about Rumsfeld, but media refused to call him on it
Reporting on President Bush's announcement of Donald Rumsfeld's resignation, media outlets, with few exceptions, have avoided characterizing Bush's assertion the previous week that he wanted Rumsfeld to stay on as a "lie" or intentional misrepresentation -- this, despite Bush's own admission of a deliberate deception. Some outlets even failed to acknowledge Bush's previous statement that Rumsfeld would stay on as defense secretary until the end of his presidency.

As shown in this article there have been four previous gay pride parades in Jerusalem and no one seemed to care. Then "they" were told what to think and they dutifully bowed down and obeyed. Intolerance and hate are still welcomed in most modern religions.

November 10, 2006
Fifth Gay Pride Parade In Jerusalem canceled
Although the gay-pride march had been held for four years in Jerusalem, it struck a nerve last summer when organizers made the parade the centerpiece of a planned international gay-pride festival. The march was twice delayed, most recently because of the war in Lebanon. But opponents kept up their pressure when it was rescheduled for this month.

If anyone still thinks Bush cares about winning in Iraq, the troops, or telling the truth they're delusion. Just a few days ago he said Rumsfeld was going to stay, and GOP pundits carried his water. He was lying and they got caught up in his lies.

November 10, 2006
Bush planned Rumsfeld ouster in summer
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Sources close to the White House said U.S. President George Bush began plans to remove U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in late summer.

The sources, from within and outside the White House, told The New York Times that Bush delayed the plans until after the election because of concerns that the move would be seen as political opportunism or viewed by critics as vindication of their concerns about the administration's war plans.

November 10, 2006
R.I. senator may leave Republican Party
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Two days after losing a bid for a second term, Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he was unsure whether he would remain a Republican.

"I haven't made any decisions. I just haven't even thought about where my place is," Chafee said at a news conference. When pressed on whether his comments indicated he might leave the GOP, he replied: "That's fair."

November 9, 2006
GOP furious about timing of Rumsfeld resignation
Donald Rumsfeld's abrupt resignation from the Pentagon the day after Republicans lost both chambers of Congress has infuriated some GOP officials on and off Capitol Hill.

"They did this to protect themselves, but they couldn't protect us?" another Republican aide said yesterday.

I'm classifying this as an impeachable offense because Bush continues to lie about the number of people killed in Iraq. It's also an impeachable offense because an occupying power is responsible for the security and the Bush has failed to secure Iraq.

November 8, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
150,000 Iraqis killed by insurgents
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Nearly simultaneous car bombs struck two markets in predominantly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 16 people. Iraq's health minister said about 150,000 have been killed by insurgents since the war started, giving the government's first overall casualty estimate.

November 8, 2006
Restore The Fairness Doctrine!
Ronald Reagan's FCC stopped enforcing and then got rid of the Fairness Doctrine. Congress restored it but Reagan vetoed that. Under President George HW Bush Congress again restored it but it was vetoed. Then, under President Clinton the House passed it but the Republicans in the Senate blocked it with a filibuster. In the last six years Republicans controlled the House, Senate and Presidency and were quite happy with broadcasters presenting only a narrow corporate viewpoint, and allowing personal attacks to go unanswered.

November 8, 2006
Europeans Revel in US Republican Defeat
The European reaction to Democrat wins in midterm US elections was overwhelmingly positive. Observers said they hoped the US and Europe could start healing widening trans-Atlantic rifts.

Political observers in Europe said they were hoping that a decisive advance by Democrats in the US election could usher in a new era in trans-Atlantic cooperation.

November 8, 2006
Israeli flights into Lebanon violate U.N. ceasefire resolution
PARIS, Nov 9 (Reuters) - French peacekeeping troops in Lebanon recently came within two seconds of firing missiles at Israeli fighter jets that approached as if to attack them, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said.

Speaking to the lower house of parliament on Wednesday night, she said this was the latest in a string of incidents in which Israeli warplanes had "adopted a hostile attitude" to French and German forces and added it was "not tolerable".

It seems the only group of people who are dissatisfied with the elections are conservative republicans who ran away from their principles faster than they ran away from Bush.

November 8, 2006
Poll: Independents voted for Democrats by 59 percent to 37 percent
On Tuesday, the middle rebelled.

Independents voted for Democrats by 59 percent to 37 percent, the exit polls showed. GOP Senate candidates, for instance, won among independents only in New Jersey and Rhode Island.

November 8, 2006
Youth turnout in election biggest in 20 years
BOSTON (Reuters) - Young Americans voted in the largest numbers in at least 20 years in congressional elections, energized by the Iraq war and giving a boost to Democrats, pollsters said on Wednesday.

About 24 percent of Americans under the age of 30, or at least 10 million young voters, cast ballots in Tuesday's elections that saw Democrats make big gains in Congress. That was up 4 percentage points from the last mid-term elections in 2002.

What was the GOP solution to the rising debt? More tax cuts and more increases in the debt ceiling. The GOP wasn't about solution, it was about pandering, power and making things worse. Now, are there any solutions to the debt? Most people think it's impossible to fix what they've done.

November 2, 2006
Democrats warn debt could trigger crisis
Nov 2, 2006 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers warned on Thursday that U.S. reliance on foreign countries to purchase U.S. debt could lead to a financial crisis as they faulted the Bush administration's economic stewardship.

"If the United States does not begin to take steps to reduce its unsustainable dependence on foreign borrowing in an orderly way, there could be a run on the dollar that could precipitate an international finance crisis and a sharp increase in interest rates," a report issued by Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee and House of Representatives Financial Services Committee said.

It seems obvious the culture war was based more on power grabbing and hypocrisy than true beliefs.

November 8, 2006
Losses on Ballot Measures Jolt Religious
From the country's heartland, voters sent messages that altered America's culture wars and dismayed the religious right - defending abortion rights in South Dakota, endorsing stem cell research in Missouri, and, in a national first, rejecting a same-sex marriage ban in Arizona.

Conservative leaders were jolted by the setbacks and looked for an explanation Wednesday. Gay-rights and abortion-rights activists celebrated.

November 8, 2006
An Impeachable Offense - another military coverup
Startling findings from Pat Tillman investigations
All four failed to identify their targets before firing, a direct violation of the fire discipline techniques drilled into every soldier.

--Tillman's platoon had nearly run out of vital supplies, according to one of the shooters. They were down to the water in their Camelbak drinking pouches, and were forced to buy a goat from a local vendor. Delayed supply flights contributed to the hunger, fatigue and possibly misjudgments by platoon members.

--A field hospital report says someone tried to jump-start Tillman's heart with CPR hours after his head had been partly blown off and his corpse wrapped in a poncho; key evidence including Tillman's body armor and uniform was burned.

Recall a few months ago when two Israeli soldiers were killed. The US media went into war mode and pushed that story around the clock for days. Now we have 19 innocent Palestinians killed and it barely makes the news. Fair and balanced? Where?

November 9, 2006
19 Palestinians killed in Gaza; Hamas threatens revenge attacks
Nineteen Palestinians, including 17 members of a single family, were killed by stray Israel Defense Forces artillery shells that hit a house in Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip, early yesterday morning.

November 8, 2006
Payback Time: Who the Democrats Will Target
Defense contractors, including Halliburton, the intelligence rationale for the war in Iraq and CIA secret prisons are what one staffer called "uninvestigated scandals."

Jane Harman (D-Calif.): As a possibility for Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Harman is eager to pursue the ties between convicted Congressman Duke Cunningham and defense contractors.

It's clear the GOP was able to keep power during mid term elections by driving voters away from the voting booth. Maybe we can reverse what they've done and turn this trend around. The biggest fear the GOP has is a majority of Americans voting. It's likely we'd have far fewer republicans in office if we had a 50% - 60% turnout rate. Dems need to find a way to reach these voters.

November 8, 2006
Election turnout rate tops 40 percent
The overall turnout rate, reflecting a percentage of voting age population, was 40.4 percent, compared with 39.7 percent in 2002, the director of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate.

In Virginia, where Democratic challenger James Webb's lead over Republican incumbent George Allen was razor thin, an estimated 43.7 percent of eligible voters went to the polls, compared with 29.2 percent in 2002, the last nonpresidential election year.

Things have returned to normal. According to the polls Democrats are the majority party, followed by Independents and then the GOP. The GOP has been living on borrowed time since it was first elected and was never able to solidify voters to follow their agenda and/or become republicans.

November 8, 2006
Democrats win majority of state legislatures
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The wave of voter discontent that put Democrats in charge of the U.S. House of Representatives also hit state legislatures, where the party won control of more chambers than Republicans.

Democrats have been able to capitalize of corruption from the top down in the republican party and it worked. It seems obvious Americans want corruption rooted out - which would include criminal activity by the Bush White House.

November 7, 2006
Corruption named as key issue by voters in exit polls
(CNN) -- By a wide margin, Americans who voted Tuesday in the midterm election say they disapprove of the war in Iraq.

But when asked which issue was extremely important to their vote, more voters said corruption and ethics in government than any other issue, including the war, according to national exit polls.

Cleaning out the swamp in the Marine Corps should be a top priority for Democrats in Congress. Almost all the scandals in Iraq involved Marines.

November 7, 2006
New Allegations of Marine Misconduct in Haditha
Seventeen Marine reservists just returned from Iraq have been ordered to remain at Camp Lejeune while an investigation is conducted into an undisclosed case of criminal misconduct. So far officials are tight-lipped on the specifics of the allegation.

Haditha is the town in western Iraq made famous after allegations that another group of Marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians last November. That investigation continues and could possibly result in criminal charges for some of the dozen Marines implicated in the incident.

November 6, 2006
The Difference Two Years Made
To begin with, the Republican majority that has run the House — and for the most part, the Senate — during President Bush's tenure has done a terrible job on the basics. Its tax-cutting-above-all-else has wrecked the budget, hobbled the middle class and endangered the long-term economy. It has refused to face up to global warming and done pathetically little about the country's dependence on foreign oil.

November 5, 2006
The Democrats' best slogan: "Bush lost the war"
The election is four days away, and I'm through dicking around with you. Here are your talking points:

1) When they say, "Democrats will raise taxes," you say, "We have to, because some asshole spent all the money in the world cutting Paris Hilton's taxes and not killing Osama bin Laden." In just six years the national debt has doubled. You can't keep spending money you don't take in, that's not even elementary economics, that's just called "Don't be Michael Jackson."

2) When they say, "The terrorists want the Democrats to win," you say, "Are you insane? George Bush has been a terrorist's wet dream, and nonpartisan commissions have confirmed that he's a recruiter's dream: theirs, not ours. And, he has exhausted our military without coming away with a win, the worst of both worlds." Bush inflames radical hatred against America and then runs on offering to protect us from it. It's like a guy throwing shit on you and then selling you relief from the flies.

3) When they say, "Cut and Run" or "Defeatocrat," you say, "Bush lost the war -- period." All this nonsense about "the violence is getting worse because they're trying to influence our election." No, it's getting worse because you drew up the postwar plans on the back of a cocktail napkin at Applebee's. And of course Democrats want to win, but that's impossible now that you've ethnically cleansed the place by making it unlivable, just like you did with New Orleans.

November 6, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Feds Refusing FBI Terror Cases
Prosecutors declined to bring charges in 131 of 150, or 87 percent, of international terrorist case referrals from the FBI between October 2005 and June 2006, according to the report. The study was based on the most recent data available from the Justice Department's executive office for U.S. attorneys.

This article is very long but if you have time to read only one, READ this one. Regardless of your political views, you won't be disappointed. The article sums up why the GOP fell apart and the damage they have done to our future and standing around the world. Someone has to fix what they did, but first we have to know what the problems are.

November 5, 2006
End of the Neo-Cons
There isn't a Republican drawing breath, war hawk John McCain included, who wants to campaign in 2008 on a diplomatic and military horror show produced and directed by a Republican White House and a GOP-controlled Congress.

But the neo-cons got a taste of things to come when Kristol appeared on a National Public Radio panel in late July with Gen. William Odom (ret.). Kristol, the first and probably last magazine editor to help spearhead American foreign policy, was arguing for a hard line against Hezbollah in the midst of another U.S. foreign-policy debacle, the civilian deaths and $3.6-billion (U.S.) worth of property damage the Israeli Defence Forces managed to inflict on Lebanon with White House encouragement. When it was his turn to speak, Odom was beside himself:

"Mr. Kristol certainly wants to make (Lebanon) our war," Odom said. "He's the man with remarkable moral clarity. He tends to forget the clarity he had on getting us into the mess in Mesopotamia. I think if you look at his record, you'd wonder why anybody would allow him to speak publicly anymore."

An America, too, whose diplomatic influence has cratered, due not only to the unilateral belligerence with which America went to war in Iraq, but also the incompetence subsequently exposed in almost every particular of its Iraq occupation: intelligence breakdowns; acrimonious relations between the civilian and military U.S. occupation leadership; rampant theft by contractors; and the failure to provide Iraqis with security, power, fresh water and other essentials even now, 43 months after the invasion. The resulting diplomatic void has been filled by China and Russia, now resisting U.S. calls for their imposition of sanctions against North Korea and Iran, respectively.

The media called Bill Clinton and Al Gore liars throughout their presidencies and campaigns (with no proof supporting their claims - it was the media that lied to us about Whitewater, not Bill Clinton). Today, Bush lies to our face daily and few, if any in the media call him a liar. As far as I know none of the network news anchors have the balls to tell the truth. They fear conservatives and the ratings drop when they stop listening. In other words, the only way the networks can keep GOP voters listening is to help them in their delusions about the greatness of the GOP.

November 5, 2006
Bush Cites Oil As Reason to Stay in Iraq
Greeley, Colo.- During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush and his aides sternly dismissed suggestions that the war was all about oil. "Nonsense," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declared. "This is not about that," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Now, more than 3 1/2 years later, someone else is asserting that the war is about oil - President Bush.

When Dems lost control of congress in 1994, the media had spent months pushing the GOP agenda and attacking Democrats for the same things Republicans were guilty of (the check writing scandal etc.). In this cycle, republicans across the board are guilty of criminal negligence and there's barely a peep from the media.

November 4, 2006
Scientists Told Government About Nuclear Secrets Two Weeks Ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Scientists at a U.S. weapons lab complained more than two weeks ago that captured Iraqi documents containing sensitive nuclear information were available on the Web site that the government shut down on Thursday, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Only 16% of Americans think Congress is doing a good job, so just about everyone has abandoned the GOP. While they won't lose every seat, they should. What do they stand for - balanced budgets? Nope. After 12 years of Reagan and Bush spending like drunken sailors, the GOP congress and Bush 43 have taken up where they left off.

November 5, 2006
G.O.P. Glum as It Struggles to Hold Congress
Party strategists on both sides, speaking in interviews after they had finished conducting their last polls and making their final purchases of television time, said they were running advertisements in more than 50 Congressional districts this weekend, far more than anyone thought would be in play at this stage.

"It's the worst political environment for Republican candidates since Watergate," said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster working in many of the top races this year.

November 3, 2006
Army Recruiters Accused of Lying to Get Them to Enlist
ABC News and New York affiliate WABC equipped students with hidden video cameras before they visited 10 Army recruitment offices in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

One Colorado student taped a recruiting session posing as a drug-addicted dropout.

"You mean I'm not going to get in trouble?" the student asked.

The recruiters told him no, and helped him cheat to sign up.

The GOP destroyer the presidency under Clinton. President Clinton and his wife were forced to testify under oath repeatedly. Kenneth Star's position was created by Congress and Congress used that sworn testimony to impeach Clinton, therefore congress has the power to subpoena and force executive officers to testify under oath. Now we wait to see if Democrats have the balls to do it.

November 5, 2006
Cheney: I Would 'Probably Not' Testify Before Congress, Even If Subpoenaed
This morning on ABC, George Stephanopoulos asked Vice President Cheney if he would testify before Congress if he was subpoenaed. Cheney said "probably not in the sense at that vice president and president and constitutional officers don't appear before the Congress."

In the same week a minister is defrocked for being gay, another man comes out and says he's a happy gay man. When Churches learn they can't make money off of being anti gay, they'll stop.

November 3, 2006
Neil Patrick Harris Tells PEOPLE He Is Gay
"So, rather than ignore those who choose to publish their opinions without actually talking to me, I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."

October 12, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Co-Author of Medical Study: 600,000 Iraqis Died From Violence
And our conclusion was comparing the death rate for that 14 months before the invasion, with the 40 months after, that the death rate is now about four times higher. And, in fact, it's twice as high as when we last spoke two years ago and when we did our first study. So, things have gotten bad, as you stated. We think about 650,000 extra people have died because of this invasion, and about 600,000, some 90%, are from violence.

November 20, 2006
The American Conservative: GOP Must Go
There may be little Americans can do to atone for this presidency, which will stain our country's reputation for a long time. But the process of recovering our good name must begin somewhere, and the logical place is in the voting booth this Nov. 7. If we are fortunate, we can produce a result that is seen—in Washington, in Peoria, and in world capitals from Prague to Kuala Lumpur—as a repudiation of George W. Bush and the war of aggression he launched against Iraq.

Democrats have to watch these court cases and if ONE judge rules in favor of Bush, that judge must be impeached and removed from office.

November 4, 2006
An Impeachable Offense
Court Is Asked to Bar Detainees From Talking About Interrogations
The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.

November 3, 2006
U.S. speeds attack plans for North Korea
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the accelerated military planning includes detailed programs for striking a North Korean plutonium-reprocessing facility at Yongbyon with special operations commando raids or strikes with Tomahawk cruise missiles or other precision-guided weapons.

November 4, 2006
Top cheerleaders of Iraq war abandon Bush
Top US neoconservatives, who had cheered the US invasion of Iraq, admitted that the operation may not have been that necessary, after all.

In separate interviews with Vanity Fair magazine, former top Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, White House speechwriter David Frum and Reagan administration arms control negotiator Kenneth Adelman continued to insist that toppling the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein was a noble thing to have done.

But they argued that the execution of the plan by President George W. Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others, was nothing short of "incompetent."

November 4, 2006
1999 War Games Foresaw Iraq Problems
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue.

In its "Desert Crossing" games, 70 military, diplomatic and intelligence officials assumed the high troop levels would be needed to keep order, seal borders and take care of other security needs.

Using One Breath Name Republican Officials
Under Criminal Investigation or Already Convicted

The media continues to recite GOP talking points daily - the Democrats are weak on defense. When will the media figure out there's something more than GOP spin?

November 3, 2006
Bush Attacks Democrats: Clean up the mess I created
President Bush's foremost political liability going into the mid-term elections is that the American people aren't happy he took the nation to war in Iraq and don't believe he has a way out.

In other words, they think Bush made a mess and has no idea how to clean it up.

Now, in what may be the ultimate show of Karl Rovian chutzpah, Bush is righteously attacking Democrats for not having a plan to clean up the mess he himself made.