Conservatives in the GOP know the war is lost and know the surge isn't working but they're still supporting the war. They don't have what it takes to govern and with any luck they'll be thrown out of government because they're cowards and liars.

May 27, 2007

Troop Cut Expected After Iraq Report

A conservative Republican senator said Sunday most lawmakers believe President Bush will focus on reducing U.S. troops in Iraq once a top general reports in September on the war's progress.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said any reduction will have to await a much anticipated report by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who will tell the president and Congress whether the current troop increase is working.

"By September, when General Petraeus is to make a report, I think most of the people in Congress believe, unless something extraordinary occurs, that we should be on a move to draw those surge numbers down," Sessions said.

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The US government bans any and all speech from Hezbollah and other groups they consider to be terrorists. This banning of news keeps the American people in the dark about what's really going on in the Middle East - that is the government forces the media to be pro Israel no matter how many atrocities it commits. Israel is accused of war crimes, but that too is mostly banned from US network news.

May 16, 2007

Hezbollah speech not properly screened by US government network

WASHINGTON - Overseers of the United States government's Arabic-language satellite television network say a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was not screened for anti-Israel content before broadcast because no supervisor spoke Arabic.

"Mistakes were made," Joaquin Blaya, of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, told the House Middle East subcommittee Wednesday, referring to the broadcast last December and others by the network, Al-Hurra, that he said "lacked journalistic or academic merit."

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May 18, 2007

Al Hurra, the new "terror" network financed by America

On March 12 in a Wall Street Journal editorial, Joel Mowbray detailed how Al-Hurra, under the leadership of former CNN producer Larry Register, had turned "into a platform for Islamic terrorists." In a May 8 follow-up editorial in Power Line, Mowbray follows Register's reaction to his editorial arguing that Al-Hurra's news director, Register, and his boss Brian Conniff, president of the network's parent company, the Middle East Broadcasting Network "hoodwinked Secretary of State Condi Rice, Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, the Broadcasting Board of Governors [BBG], and Congress," by downplaying the extent to which the television network aired a controversial speech by Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah. Mowbray argues that Register originally assured press that only part of the speech, in which Nasrallah denied the Holocaust, aired before the network cut away. Mowbray also alludes to memos of Conniff to the BBG, Rice, and Congress in which Conniff consistently varies the actual air time of the speech, ranging from 25 to 60 minutes. Mowbray states that DVDs of the broadcast provided to Congress provide evidence that Al-Hurra carried the entire speech of 68 minutes and the network never cut away.

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May 27, 2007

Iraqi Soldiers Killing Americans

But now on his third deployment in Iraq, he is no longer a believer in the mission. The pivotal moment came, he says, this past February when soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched the bomber's body, they found identification showing him to be a sergeant in the Iraqi Army.

"I thought, 'What are we doing here? Why are we still here?' " said Sergeant Safstrom, a member of Delta Company of the First Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. "We're helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us."

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Why did the CIA hold send false information to the Brits and why didn't they correct the information until now? The US Supreme Court needs to get off it's ass and protect the world from the monsters in this White House and their CIA.

May 28, 2007

Guantánamo detainee: stay in jail or face torture in home country

The government was under pressure last night to allow a London man held in Guantánamo Bay for four years to return to Britain after the US cleared him for release from the notorious prison.

Jamil el-Banna was detained by the US in 2002 after Britain sent the CIA false information about him. He had also failed to accept an MI5 offer to turn informant.

If refused entry to Britain, Mr Banna could be returned to face torture in his native Jordan, from where he fled to Britain in 1994 after alleging ill treatment.

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May 23, 2007

Goodling: Gonzales and possible witness tampering

WASHINGTON - A former Justice Department official told House investigators Wednesday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tried to review his version of the prosecutor firings with her at a time when lawmakers were homing in on conflicting accounts.

"It made me a little uncomfortable," Monica Goodling, Gonzales' former White House liaison, said of her conversation with the attorney general just before she took a leave of absence in March. "I just did not know if it was appropriate for us to both be discussing our recollections of what had happened."

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There is virtually nothing the Democrat leadership can do to restore my trust. They've betrayed our constitution by failing to impeach and they've betrayed the voter who wants this war to end. It's time for new leaders; Pelosi and Reid are too inept to understand the Iraq war destroyed the Bush presidency, decimated the GOP and is now taking down the Democratic Party.

When the Democrat polls fall as low as Bush's, they're realize just how screwed they are and by then it'll be too late.

May 23, 2007

Anti-war groups resent Democratic dealmakings

Anti-war activists vowed they will have long memories about the deal Democratic leaders struck with the Bush administration this week on Iraq war funding, warning that they will exact retribution from lawmakers in both parties in 2008.

Enraged by what they considered capitulation by Democrats, anti-war leaders vowed to redouble their efforts at defeating the next funding request when it comes up as expected in September. The group MoveOn.org, which previously had been an ally of the Democratic leadership on the war issue, in a statement raised the specter of "in-district advertising and recruitment of primary challengers" as punishment for Democrats who supported the deal.

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The American people told this congress what we want - end this war. Instead of doing their jobs, they're trying to protect their collective asses from a Bush smear campaign. If that's the best they can do they deserve being in the minority again.

May 24, 2007

Democrats Become the Minority Party

WASHINGTON, May 23 — Congressional contortions over the Iraq spending bill could end up with most House Democrats momentarily occupying the position they were so desperate to vacate: the minority.

The decision by the Democratic majority to strip the measure of a timetable for troop withdrawal has raised the prospect that it could be approved mainly by Republicans with scattered Democrat support. The idea that many Democrats would be left on the losing side in a consequential vote has exposed a sharp divide within the party, drawn scorn from antiwar groups, confused the public and frustrated the party rank and file.

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A republican House and republican Senate would have given Bush the same deal...so why do Democrats pretend to be the opposition party? The was is and always has been based on lies. Democrats who support this war funding are legitimizing that lie....and they will suffer the wrath of the voter in state primaries.

May 24, 2007

Who Won The Iraq Spending Showdown?

Much of the this morning's coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan war spending bill focuses on who won and who lost the showdown. Some reports conclude that Republicans may have won this round even if their victory is not complete and may be short-lived. The AP says "Democrats may have lost their fight with President Bush over a timetable for ending the war in Iraq," but "they won billions of dollars for farm aid, hurricane victims, veterans and health care for poor children." President Bush "vetoed a $124 billion war funding bill containing $21 billion in unrequested funds," but the White House negotiators "signed off on a $120 billion measure containing four-fifths of the additional money." Indeed, although one reason President Bush cited for his veto of the first Iraq war spending bill was the inclusion of "extraneous" funds by congressional Democrats, the compromise he is expected to sign includes billions of dollars of non-Iraq related funding.

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May 24, 2007

Goodling admits she broke the law, accuses Gonzales of lying to congress

In her testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, Ms. Goodling removed all doubt about whether partisan politics infected the Justice Department's treatment of federal prosecutors. She admitted that she investigated the party affiliations, and even campaign contributions, of applicants for prosecutor, and other nonpolitical jobs. "I know I crossed the line," she said of her actions, which may have violated federal law. Her admission that partisan politics was used to hire people only makes it more likely that it was also used to fire people.

Ms. Goodling appeared to be straining to make her testimony helpful to Mr. Gonzales, but when backed into a corner, she conceded that he had lied about his role in the scandal.

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Bush has spent the last four years LOSING the war in Iraq and what's the Democratic response...give him more money so he can continue to lose the war. Dems should seriously consider going home. After they've given Bush what he wants they have no value whatsoever and everyone of them MUST be defeated in state primaries.

May 23, 2007

Months after troop surge, violence rises in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three months into the U.S. buildup of troops in Iraq, violence appears to be rising, both against American troops and Iraqi civilians.

A body suspected of being one of three missing American soldiers was pulled from the Euphrates River on Wednesday, and the U.S. military announced the deaths of two Marines and seven soldiers in separate attacks Tuesday, bringing to 80 the number of American service members who've died in Iraq so far this month.

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Bush will wait until Congress has a recess than appoint this jackass as a recess appointment. Dems will do nothing as he takes constitution power away from them because impeachment is off the table.

May 23, 2007

Lobbyist withdrew his nomination to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission

WASHINGTON — A manufacturing industry lobbyist withdrew his nomination to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission Wednesday amid strong opposition from some Senate Democrats and criticism from consumer groups.

President Bush had named National Association of Manufacturers lobbyist Michael Baroody to head the commission, which oversees product recalls and helps enforce federal consumer safety rules. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., moved to block Baroody's confirmation, joined by Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama.

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At some point in the very near future we have to ask ourselves if there would be any difference if republicans ran the government. When you give voters a choice between voting for a republican and a republican, they'll vote for a republican.

May 21, 2007

A Widening Chasm Between Congressional Democrats and Voters on Impeachment

So far, Democrats in Congress and at the top of the party hierarchy, out of touch with public sentiment and worried that impeachment could hurt them with "independents"--whom they mistakenly consider to stand somehow "in between" Democrats and Republicans--have been following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's vow that for the 110th Congress, "impeachment is off the table." They've been doing more than that: they have been actively working to tamp down, and even to crush, impeachment campaigns in the states. For example, in the state of Washington, an effort to get the state to pass a joint legislative resolution which would have compelled the Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings was derailed after the Democratic leadership dispatched two of the state's leading federal elected officials, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Jay Inslee, to press legislative leaders to block a floor vote. Similar pressure doomed efforts that might have passed in the legislatures of New Mexico and Vermont (The Vermont Senate did pass the resolution).

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May 21, 2007

Increase in carbon emissions seen tripling since '90s

Emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning, the main culprit in global warming, have increased three times faster in recent years than they did in the 1990s, international climate researchers reported today.

And human-induced warming may have been responsible for an unprecedented observation reported Monday by a second group of scientists, who said that for the first time in 30 years of U.S. satellite monitoring of Antarctica, there is "clear evidence" of snowmelt on some of the continent's highest and coldest areas.

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Since the Iraqi president thinks things are good enough for him to leave his country and enter a "fat farm" maybe someone in congress will vote to stop this madness. Don't bet on it.

May 21, 2007

While Americans die, Iraq president is on a diet at Mayo Clinic

CHICAGO (AFP) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has begun a weight loss treatment expected to last several weeks at the Mayo Clinic in the United States.

The Mayo Clinic would not disclose what type of treatments Talabani would receive as part of his "comprehensive examination," but the 74-year-old portly politician said last week that the tests were aimed at helping him to shed some weight.

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May 23, 2007

The U.S. Seen Through Muslim Eyes

When it comes to renovating America's image in the greater Islamic world, the news is not getting any better.

An extensive, new public opinion survey conducted in four predominantly Muslim countries finds not only that hard feelings toward the United States' global role persist but that something more ominous is happening as well: Large majorities believe that the United States is in some kind of a war against Islam itself.

Roughly 8 in 10 people surveyed in Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, and Pakistan agreed that the United States is trying to "weaken and divide the Islamic world." Bush administration officials, including the president, have frequently said that they are doing nothing of the sort, and that they respect Islam as a great religion. These views are particularly troubling since they come from four countries that, traditionally, have had good relations with the United States and that play an outsize role in the politics of the Islamic world.

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I'm not sure why we have a congress anymore. Here we have absolute proof that someone in the Justice Dept. lied under oath and I can't find a single story about impeachment. We've never witnessed a more neutered and cowardly congress in our history. They fund a war they know is and always was based on lies and they let the Attorney General and his cronies lie to them under oath. The Constitution is not safe with these sissies in power.

May 23, 2007

Goodling Accuses McNulty of Misleading Congress

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- A former top Justice Department aide denied knowledge of any improper White House role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and accused Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty of misleading Congress about the dismissals.

Monica Goodling, the former White House liaison for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, told the House Judiciary Committee she had no discussions before the firings with Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, or then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers.

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Maybe if Bush screws up another oil rich country in the Middle East we'll see gas prices hit $6 a gallon.

May 22, 2007

Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran

The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, misinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

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If anyone was still under the delusion that we have a two-party system, they know the truth now. There is only one party - the pro war party.

May 22, 2007

Democrats to fund Iraq war with no pullout date

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush won a battle over nearly $100 billion to fund the Iraq war as Democratic leaders in Congress on Tuesday abandoned efforts to withdraw troops for now but pledged to try again in July.

Instead of setting schedules for pulling U.S. troops, it appeared the Democratic-run Congress and the Republican White House agreed for the first time to include conditions prodding Baghdad to make better progress toward quelling violence or risk losing around $1.3 billion in U.S. reconstruction aid.

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When congress votes to give Bush more money for his war, remember what this is really about - killing children.

May 23, 2007

1 in 8 Iraqis dies before fifth birthday

(05-23) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- Hanna Yousef Tamer watches hopelessly as her year-old daughter, Mahdi, writhes on pink sheets in a crowded ward of the Ibn Al-Baladi Pediatric Hospital in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. The feeble child cries and looks around the bustling room through hollowed eyes.

Her body is wasted from malnutrition and dehydration. But with the hospital lacking basic medication and intravenous fluids, doctors and nurses can't do much to help Mahdi. And while precious drugs are available in pharmacies, the little girl's family can't afford them. Tamer, 27, lost another daughter, Roqia, in 2005 when the 2-year-old died of the same disorders.

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May 22, 2007

Gasoline costs U.S. consumers extra $20 bln

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The jump in U.S. gasoline prices this year has so far cost consumers an extra $20 billion, or about $146 for each passenger car in the country, the Government Accountability Office told Congress on Tuesday.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline hit a record $3.22 a gallon this week, and is up $1.05 since the beginning of February, according to the Energy Department.

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May 21, 2007

Smithsonian accused of altering global warming exhibit

WASHINGTON — The Smithsonian Institution toned down an exhibit on climate change in the Arctic for fear of angering Congress and the Bush administration, says a former administrator at the museum.

Among other things, the script, or official text, of last year's exhibit was rewritten to minimize and inject more uncertainty into the relationship between global warming and humans, said Robert Sullivan, who was associate director in charge of exhibitions at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Also, officials omitted scientists' interpretation of some research and let visitors draw their own conclusions from the data, he said. In addition, graphs were altered "to show that global warming could go either way," Sullivan said.

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May 19, 2007

13 State Democratic Parties Demand Impeachment

Thirteen state Democratic parties have now passed resolutions demanding impeachment, nine of them since Nancy Pelosi ordered the Democratic Party away from impeachment.

"Whereas George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have:

• Deliberately misled the nation about the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war;
• Condoned the torture of prisoners in violation of the Geneva Convention & US law;
• Approved illegal electronic surveillance of American citizens without a warrant."

The majority of these resolutions have never been reported in the media. Therefore, this list is almost certainly incomplete. So are the following tallies:

• Cities and towns that have backed impeachment by resolution, public vote, or both: 79.
• Largest cities: Detroit, home of the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and San Francisco, home of the Speaker of the House.
• Earliest and most frequent city: Santa Cruz beginning in 2003.
• States where impeachment has been introduced into the legislature at least once: 10 (California, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont).
• State legislative bodies that have voted on impeachment: 3 (Vermont Senate, Vermont House, New Mexico Senate).
• State legislative bodies that have passed impeachment resolutions: 1 (Vermont Senate).
• National political parties backing impeachment: 1 (Green).
• Non-Democratic state political parties backing impeachment: 2 (Vermont Progressives, California Greens).
• Democrats Abroad Chapters backing impeachment: 1.
• Local political party organizations that have backed impeachment: 32.
• Labor unions backing impeachment: 1.
• Page listing all these resolutions: http://impeachpac.org/resolutions-list
• How to make corrections or additions to the list: http://afterdowningstreet.org/listadditions
• Organization helping promote Democratic Party resolutions, including those recently passed in Massachusetts and California: http://pdamerica.org
• Articles of impeachment introduced against Bush: 3 (by Rep. Cynthia McKinney).
• Articles of impeachment introduced against Cheney: 3 (by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, H Res. 333, http://www.impeachcheney.org ).
• Impeachment Resource Center: http://afterdowningstreet.org/resourcecenter

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May 18, 2007

Alberto Gonzales Displays Contempt for Congress

John Dean: This week, Gonzales was again shown to have lied to Congress; his ineptitude as Attorney General has resurfaced in litigation that is going to damage the government; and after ignoring a subpoena from the Senate, he made a belated but insufficient response following an angry letter from the Senate.

It's been clear for a while - and is becoming ever clearer - that the Attorney General ought to resign, or to be fired. Now, it seems that Congress is determined to force Gonzales from office or send him to jail, whichever they can do first.

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Once again we learn that Democrats who supported war are unfit for high office. Let history damn them but in the mean time let's make sure they don't get power.

May 21, 2007

Gore Blasts Bush in 'The Assault on Reason'

In the book, Gore is accusatory, passionate, and angry. He begins discussing the president by accusing him of sharing President Richard Nixon's unprincipled hunger for power -- and the book proceeds to get less complimentary from there. While Gore stops short of flatly calling for the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, he certainly gives the impression that in his view such a move would be well deserved. He calls the president a lawbreaker, a liar and a man with the blood of thousands of innocent lives on his hands.

Most of Gore's ire stems from, not surprisingly, the war in Iraq, a war that Gore opposed from the beginning. Bush, he writes, "has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every U.S. town and city to a greater danger of attack because of his arrogance and willfulness."

"History will surely judge America's decision to invade and occupy (Iraq)…as a decision that was not only tragic but absurd," Gore writes.

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Since being Commander in Chief is too taxing maybe Bush should consider resigning.

May 15, 2007

Bush Creates New 'War Czar'

After a frustrating search for a new "war czar" to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ABC News has learned that President Bush has chosen the Pentagon's director of operations, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, for the role.

In the newly created position of assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan policy and implementation, Lute would have the power to direct the Pentagon, State Department and other agencies involved in the two conflicts.

Lute would report directly to the president and to National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

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May 20, 2007

Gas Prices Hit An All-Time High

(CBS) The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.18, according to the latest Lundberg Survey. As CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports, that is the highest average cost per gallon ever in the United States – even adjusting for inflation.

These days, every trip to the gas station is an experience in sticker shock. A gallon of regular gas costs $3.24 in New York. It's $3.45 in Milwaukee, and $3.59 in Chicago.

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May 21, 2007

U.S. death toll rising in Baghdad

A seventh U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb Saturday in Diwaniyah, about 100 miles south of Baghdad, the military said. Two soldiers were wounded in that attack.

The deaths raise to 71 the number of U.S. service members killed this month.

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Is impeachment back on the table yet?

May 19, 2007

GOP's unsubstantiated voter fraud claims

It is time to stop referring to the "fired U.S attorneys scandal" by that misnomer, and call it what it is: a White House-coordinated effort to use the vast powers of the Justice Department to swing elections to Republicans.

This is no botched personnel switch. It is not even a political spat between the fired U.S. attorneys and Bush administration officials who deemed some of them insufficiently zealous in promoting the department's law enforcement priorities. Connect the dots and you see an insidious effort to corrupt the American electoral system. It's Watergate without the break-in or the bagmen.

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May 20, 2007

Efforts to stop `voter fraud' may have curbed legitimate voting

WASHINGTON - During four years as a Justice Department civil rights lawyer, Hans von Spakovsky went so far in a crusade against voter fraud as to warn of its dangers under a pseudonym in a law journal article.

Writing as "Publius," von Spakovsky contended that every voter should be required to produce a photo-identification card and that there was "no evidence" that such restrictions burden minority voters disproportionately.

Now, amid a scandal over politicization of the Justice Department, Congress is beginning to examine allegations that von Spakovsky was a key player in a Republican campaign to hang onto power in Washington by suppressing the votes of minority voters.

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May 19, 2007

The fired U.S. attorney says he was targeted for not pressing charges that could have helped the GOP

Iglesias recounted the episode in an interview with The Times after meeting behind closed doors with federal investigators this week to provide new details of the events leading up to his termination as U.S. attorney. He said he now believed he was targeted because he was seen as slow to bring criminal charges that would have helped GOP election prospects.

Federal investigators are examining whether electoral considerations — such as a broader Republican initiative to enforce anti-fraud rules and cull questionable voters from rolls nationwide — played a part in the termination of Iglesias and other U.S. attorneys last year.

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Carter is seldom careless so I'm not sure what he's up to. He may have wanted this story to have legs (last longer) and by saying he was careless it's headline news for another day. People will continue to think about what he said..."the worst in history" long after this story dies down.

May 21, 2007

Carter remarks on Bush (updated)

"I think this administration's foreign policy compared to president Nixon's was much worse," he said, but he said he did not mean to call it the worst in history.

In audio posted Saturday on the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Web site, an interviewer asked Carter: "Which president was worse, George W. Bush or Richard Nixon?"

Carter gave the broader answer, calling the Bush administration "the worst in history."

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Increasing it's looking like anyone in government who supported war was either pandering or too delusional to ever be president. While some claim it was Bush's fault (that he lied), the reality is the UN inspectors told us there were no WMD and Congress still didn't undo the "use of force" resolution."

With the release of these new documents senators who claim they were misled by Bush are shown to have been lying.

May 20, 2007

Prewar intelligence foretold Iraq upheaval

WASHINGTON — Two intelligence assessments from January 2003 predicted that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to Islamic extremists and terrorists, according to congressional sources and former intelligence officials familiar with the prewar studies.

The two assessments, titled "Principal Challenges in Post-Saddam Iraq" and "Regional Consequences of Regime Change in Iraq," were produced by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and will be a major part of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's long-awaited Phase II report on prewar intelligence assessments about Iraq. The assessments were delivered to the White House and to congressional intelligence committees before the war started.

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This is the first story proving the Bush White House has committed treason.Their war is funding the terrorists much like Reagan did when he sold arms to terrorists in the Iran/Contra scandal. Treason is an impeachable offense.

It's also fair to say the only person willing to fund terrorism against the US prior to the Iraq war was bin Laden...now Bush's war has created a network of contributors.

May 16, 2007

Iraq a "big moneymaker" for al-Qaida, says CIA

In one of the most troubling trends, U.S. officials said al-Qaida's command base in Pakistan increasingly is being funded by cash from Iraq, where the terrorist network's operatives are raising substantial sums from donations to the insurgency as well as kidnappings of wealthy Iraqis and other criminal activity.

The influx of money has bolstered al-Qaida's leadership ranks at a time when the core command is regrouping. The trend also signals a reversal in the traditional flow of al-Qaida funds, with the leadership surviving to a large extent on money from its most profitable franchise, rather than distributing funds from headquarters to distant cells.

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This is the definging moment of this generation. If the GOP doesn't stop this war it will cease to have relevance. IMO, very few people still believe anything they say about anything because they've been so cowardly during the past six years. Can they redeem themselves? I doubt it. It's not in their blood to admit mistakes or take corrective action. An entire generation of republicans are unfit to govern.

May 18, 2007

Only Republicans Can Stop the War

On May 9 of this year, that scene was repeated, more or less, in the White House of George W. Bush. It was all Republicans this time, a dozen moderate Republicans came to call and warn the emperor.

It was self-defense. They are the ones most worried that they will go down in next year's election as the Iraq war sinks into deeper disaster. One of the congressman, Tom Davis, told Bush that the president's approval rating was about 5 percent in his northern Virginia district.

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There are times when a certain business no longer has the privilege to exist. This is one such time. While the funding for fake science is small compared to other funding programs they were and are fully aware they have a captive audience in GOP voters and delusional talk show hosts.

Exxon was and is fully aware that GOP members of Congress will push their fake science. We've rapidly reaching the point where the GOP no longer has the privilege to exist. Delusion is not another point of view.

May 18, 2007

Exxon Still Funding Fake Science

So. The day of reckoning has come – when we get to find out just how much of the climate change denial industry ExxonMobil is still paying for.

This is the company which, apparently, has been "misunderstood" on global warming and has said it has dropped its funding of the deniers.

The ExxonSecrets people have gone through the documents, and found a clear answer: last year Exxon spent $2.1 million on 41 groups who are leading the climate sceptic industry.

While the company has been forced to drop the hottest potato of them all, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and another particularly vocal denier, Steve "Junk Science" Milloy, the rest of them are still on the payroll.

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May 18, 2007

New claims of Army war crimes in Iraq

The British Army is facing new allegations that it was involved in "forced disappearances", hostage-taking and torture of Iraqi civilians after the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein.

One of the claims is made by the former chairman of the Red Crescent in Basra, who alleges he was beaten unconscious by British soldiers after they accused him of being a senior official in Saddam's Baath party.

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There's little doubt that if Whitman was still if office she'd be impeached for lying to congress and the American people about the air quality after 911. It seems everyone associated with this White House is corrupt.

May 18, 2007

Ex-EPA Chief Whitman Agrees to Testify

Ex-EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman abruptly reversed herself Friday and agreed to testify before Congress on her agency's response to the environmental fallout of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Two days ago, Whitman's lawyer Joel Kobert had denied a request from a House panel chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., for his client to testify, noting she was named in two lawsuits related to the issue.

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Is there really a surge or did the White House plan for the inevitable withdrawal of British troops? It's seems reasonably clear the WH knew Brown was going to pull troops out so they manufactured the "surge."

May 20, 2007

Brits plan to pull troops out of Iraq

GORDON Brown will remove all British forces from Iraq before the next election under a plan to rebuild support among disillusioned Labour voters.

Scotland on Sunday can reveal the Prime Minister elect is working on a withdrawal plan that could see troop numbers slashed from 7,000 to as few as 2,000 within 12 months.

If implemented, the strategy would culminate in total withdrawal no later than spring 2010, the date by which Brown must go to the country to seek his own mandate.

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"Small government" republicans looked the other way while Bush built this monstrosity.

May 19, 2007

U.S. Embassy in Iraq to be biggest ever

WASHINGTON - The new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad will be the world's largest and most expensive foreign mission, though it may not be large enough or secure enough to cope with the chaos in Iraq.

The $592 million embassy occupies a chunk of prime real estate two-thirds the size of Washington's National Mall, with desk space for about 1,000 people behind high, blast-resistant walls. The compound is a symbol both of how much the United States has invested in Iraq and how the circumstances of its involvement are changing.

The embassy is one of the few major projects the administration has undertaken in Iraq that is on schedule and within budget. Still, not all has gone according to plan.

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May 16, 2007

Democrats seek "no confidence" vote on Gonzales

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats announced on Thursday they will seek a U.S. Senate vote of "no confidence" in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, hopeful it will prompt President George W. Bush's embattled friend to resign.

A half dozen of the 49 Republicans in the 100-member, Democratic-led Senate have called on Gonzales to step down, with Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record) of Minnesota becoming the latest to do so. "I believe Attorney General Gonzales is unable to provide the type of leadership needed," Coleman said on Thursday.

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May 16, 2007

Oil Companies Keep Capacity Low so They Can Keep Prices High

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Big Oil went on the defensive Wednesday, getting grilled before a House panel and denying accusations that mismanagement and a lack of competition are the reasons behind this spring's record gasoline prices.

Gas prices hit $3.10 a gallon Wednesday, according to AAA. It's the fourth record day in a row, and the surge has been attributed to low gasoline supplies caused by a lack of refining capacity.

"They have no interest in building spare capacity because that would undermine their pricing power," Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America, said prior to a hearing by a House Judiciary Committee antitrust panel in Washington Wednesday.

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May 17, 2007

The Gonzales Wiretapping Coverup

If you were Mr. Gonzales, you'd certainly want to make sure they stayed quiet. Consider: Mr. Gonzales, as the president's lawyer, went to the hospital room of a man so ill he had temporarily relinquished his authority. There, Mr. Gonzales tried to persuade Mr. Ashcroft to override the views of the attorney general's own legal counsel. When the attorney general refused, Mr. Gonzales apparently took part in a plan to go forward with a program that the Justice Department had refused to certify as legal.

What was the administration doing, and what was it willing to continue to do, that its lawyers concluded was without a legal basis? Without an answer to that fundamental question, the coverup will have succeeded.

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May 17, 2007

Two US officers relieved after soldiers abducted, killed in Iraq

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two US army officers were relieved of command after an investigation found that three soldiers killed by insurgents in Iraq last year were left alone for 36 hours at an undermanned and unprotected observation point, army officials said Thursday.

The June 16 attack, in which two of the soldiers were abducted and their mutilated bodies were found days later, has come under renewed scrutiny following the abduction of three other US soldiers during an insurgent attack this week.

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The reader may be aware that economic indicators failed to predict the 2001 recession which began in March of 2001. The numbers go down during periods of growth and go up during recessions so they're becoming as worthless as government unemployment statistics.

May 17, 2007

U.S. economy to contract in coming month

NEW YORK (AP) - A gauge of future economic activity showed the U.S. economy will slow in coming months, reversing recent gains and suggesting higher gas prices and a sluggish construction industry are beginning to take their toll.

The Conference Board said Thursday its index of leading economic indicators dropped 0.5 per cent, higher than the 0.1 decline analysts were expecting. The reading is designed to forecast economic activity over the next three to six months.

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Our troops are at greater risk of being tortured because Bush and his cronies authorized torture.

May 15, 2007

Torture and Troop

Recall, for context, our national debate over torture, renditions, and the rights of prisoners captured in the "War on Terror." Recall the secret memos, endorsed by then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, that slapped aside Geneva Convention prohibitions against the torture of prisoners. Recall Abu Ghraib, and the shameful photos documenting the absence of those prohibitions in living, bleeding color.

It isn't theoretical anymore. Three American soldiers are hostages today, and God help them if their captors decide to play by our rules.

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May 16, 2007

Evil Empire: Is Imperial Liquidation Possible for America?

George W. Bush has, of course, flagrantly violated his oath of office, which requires him "to protect and defend the constitution," and the opposition party has been remarkably reluctant to hold him to account. Among the "high crimes and misdemeanors" that, under other political circumstances, would surely constitute the Constitutional grounds for impeachment are these: the President and his top officials pressured the Central Intelligence Agency to put together a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq's nuclear weapons that both the administration and the Agency knew to be patently dishonest. They then used this false NIE to justify an American war of aggression. After launching an invasion of Iraq, the administration unilaterally reinterpreted international and domestic law to permit the torture of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and at other secret locations around the world.

Nothing in the Constitution, least of all the commander-in-chief clause, allows the president to commit felonies. Nonetheless, within days after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush had signed a secret executive order authorizing a new policy of "extraordinary rendition," in which the CIA is allowed to kidnap terrorist suspects anywhere on Earth and transfer them to prisons in countries like Egypt, Syria, or Uzbekistan, where torture is a normal practice, or to secret CIA prisons outside the United States where Agency operatives themselves do the torturing.

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It's a tough call. It seems there are tests proving each type of body armor is better so someone's not doing the right tests.

May 18, 2007

Dragon Skin Outperformed the Army's Body Armor

Given the controversy over body armor, NBC News commissioned an independent, side-by-side test of Dragon Skin and the Army's Interceptor vest. In that testing, Dragon Skin outperformed the Army's body armor in stopping the most lethal threats. Retired four-star Army Gen. Wayne Downing, now an NBC news analyst, observed the tests.

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Bush was fully aware Wolfowitz was unethical - first by misleading us into war and then at the World Bank. Bush had to know for months that Wolfowitz was corrupt but didn't force him to resign. This simple facts speaks volumes about Bush's lack of morals.

May 17, 2007

World Bank Chief Paul Wolfowitz Resigns

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has resigned his post, effective June 30.

An internal panel tasked with investigating the lucrative pay and promotion package Wolfowitz arranged in 2005 for girlfriend Shaha Riza found him guilty of breaking bank rules.

The committee also found that he tried to hide the salary and promotion package from top ethics and legal officials within the bank. The report added that there is a "crisis in the leadership" at the World Bank.

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When journalists are too lazy to do their own research, are confronted with falsehoods and refuse to take corrective action, they should be fired. Lou Dobbs spreads misinformation faster than the Bush White House.

May 9, 2007

Center Urges CNN to Retract False Reporting by Lou Dobbs

"We're not talking about a newscaster who simply made a mistake — we're talking about someone with a national platform who cites wildly inaccurate data to demean an entire group of people and who, when confronted with the truth, simply repeats the lie," said SPLC President Richard Cohen. "It's outrageous, and CNN should do something about it immediately."

The dispute highlights the SPLC's concern that Dobbs and some others in the media are regularly using discredited and inaccurate information about immigrants — material that often originates with far-right ideologues and organizations dominated by white supremacists and nativists.

The dispute highlights the SPLC's concern that Dobbs and some others in the media are regularly using discredited and inaccurate information about immigrants — material that often originates with far-right ideologues and organizations dominated by white supremacists and nativists.

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The Bush White House could order the CIA to release the information. What are they trying to hide?

May 17, 2007

Senators want CIA to release 9/11 report

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of senators is pushing legislation that would force the CIA to release an inspector general's report on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The CIA has spent more than 20 months weighing requests under the Freedom of Information Act for its internal investigation of the attacks but has yet to release any portion of it.

The agency is the only federal office involved in counterterrorism operations that has not made at least a version of its internal 9/11 investigation public.

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The Bush White House pushed another "faith based" unproven program and it failed. What's new?

May 16, 2007

Funding for abstinence likely to drop

WASHINGTON - Federal funding for abstinence education will likely fall considerably this year as Democratic leaders said Wednesday they will let a $50 million grant program expire on June 30.

The program, known as Title V, has not proven to be effective, said Rep. John Dingell (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingell's committee has jurisdiction over Title V funding. With a budget deficit and a war, he said the decision to eliminate funding was not a difficult one.

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The Bush White House spent years denying global warming existed and even had their political hacks rewrite scientific papers. The media bought into it.

It's also worth noting the changes in global warming reporting. Just a few months ago every global warming story had "fair and balanced" anti global warming tripe. Reporters stopped doing their jobs and instead pushed the GOP agenda. News is NOT fair and balanced - it should be accurate.

May 18, 2007

Southern Ocean saturated with carbon dioxide

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is so loaded with carbon dioxide that it can barely absorb any more, so more of the gas will stay in the atmosphere to warm up the planet, scientists reported on Thursday.

Human activity is the main culprit, said researcher Corinne Le Quere, who called the finding very alarming.

The phenomenon wasn't expected to be apparent for decades, Le Quere said in a telephone interview from the University of East Anglia in Britain.

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The governments case appears to be based on the a childs handwriting - someone not fluent in Arabic...but that document proves he's part of al-Qaeda? If this is the best they can do, the judge should throw the case out. The previous charges against Padilla (dirty bomb) proved to be fabricated by the US government. Are they fabricating these charges?

May 17, 2007

Padilla fingerprints appear only on the front of the first page and back of the last page

Although the form was one of dozens found in a binder in late 2001, it wasn't analyzed for Padilla's fingerprints until August 2006, Morgan said. The fingerprints appear only on the front of the first page and back of the last page, possibly indicating that the form had been simply handed to Padilla at some point, defense lawyers say.

Also testifying Thursday was FBI translator Nancy Khouri, who said that whoever wrote the date on the form used a format most common in the United States — month/date/year — and identified himself as an American. The alias allegedly used by Padilla means "Abu Abdallah the Immigrant," she said.

Khouri also said the form appeared to be filled out be someone not particularly fluent in Arabic.

"It looks like a kid's handwriting," she said.

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May 10, 2007

Dr. Gilbert Burnham on the 654,965 Death Toll in Iraq

Washington, D.C. - Dr. Gilbert Burnham is the co-author of the report entitled: "The Human Cost of the War in Iraq: A Mortality Study (2002-2006)." (1) It was published by "The Lancet," a British Medical Journal, in Oct., 2006. (2) It concluded that 654,965 Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003, and from the subsequent occupation of that country by the military forces of the Allied Coalition. President George W. Bush Jr., the Liar-in-Chief, dismissed it as "not a credible report." He insisted that only "about 30,000 Iraqis" have been killed in the war. Nevertheless, the study on Iraqi mortality has withstood all attempts by Right Wing ranters to debunk it. On May 8, 2007, Dr. Burnham gave a Power Point presentation on his work. He went into considerable details with respect to the research, practice and methodology which were utilized in collecting the mortality data. The disaster that is Iraq, is found in this number: 654,965!

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It appears Rove used the Justice Dept. to suppress votes in key parts of the country. Not only is Rove and the White House responsible, but so is the former AG. Congress should subpoena him and force him to testify.

May 14, 2007

Voter-Fraud Complaints by GOP Drove Dismissals

Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews.

Democrats counter that such fraud is rare and that GOP efforts are designed to suppress legitimate votes by minorities, the elderly and recent immigrants, who are likely to support Democratic candidates. A draft report last year by the Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan government panel that conducts election research, said that "there is widespread but not unanimous agreement that there is little polling place fraud."

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May 17, 2007

Rove Advisor Request Immunity

On the day presidential senior adviser Karl Rove administered a tongue-lashing to a Republican congressman, disturbing news about his former executive assistant was spread on Capitol Hill. GOP House members learned that Susan Ralston is requesting immunity to testify before Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman's investigating committee.

She was an assistant to Jack Abramoff, Washington super-lobbyist and Republican fundraiser, in 2001 when he recommended her for the top job with Rove as he entered the White House. As Rove's gatekeeper, Susan Bonzon Ralston became special assistant to the president and the highest-ranking Filipino American in the administration. For Waxman, she is a link between the disgraced, imprisoned Abramoff and Rove, a principal political target of the Democratic-controlled Congress.

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May 16, 2007

Journalists banned from scene of bombings

Reporters Without Borders today voiced concern about the press freedom implications of a decision by the Iraqi interior ministry announced yesterday to prevent journalists from getting access to the scene of bomb attacks.

The worldwide press freedom organisation said it feared that growing restrictions on the media could end in a total news blackout.

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May 17, 2007

Iraq is on the verge of collapse

BAGHDAD, May 17 (Reuters) - Iraq's government has lost control of vast areas to powerful local factions and the country is on the verge of collapse and fragmentation, a leading British think-tank said on Thursday.

Chatham House also said there was not one civil war in Iraq, but "several civil wars" between rival communities, and accused Iraq's main neighbours -- Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey -- of having reasons "for seeing the instability there continue".

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The DOJ and Bush could force Rove to turn over the email. Why haven't they?

Obstructing a congressional investigation should be grounds for impeachment - impeach Gonzales, then Rove, then Bush.

May 16, 2007

Congress demands e-mails; Justice says ask Rove camp

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department on Wednesday told an angry Senate Judiciary Committee chairman it does not have documents described in a subpoena that demands all materials relating to Karl Rove's possible involvement in the U.S. attorney firings.

Instead, it said, Rove's lawyer must have them. Rove is the chief political adviser for President Bush.

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