June 19, 2007
Officials Disregard Bush Signing Statements
WASHINGTON -- Federal officials have disobeyed at least six new laws that President Bush challenged in his signing statements, a government study disclosed yesterday. The report provides the first evidence that the government may have acted on claims by Bush that he can set aside laws under his executive powers.
In a report to Congress, the non partisan Government Accountability Office studied a small sample of the bill provisions that Bush has signed into law but also challenged with signing statements. The GAO found that agencies disobeyed six such laws, while enforcing 10 others as written even though Bush had challenged them.
The problem with today's Army is they didn't anticipate anything out of the ordinary - that's why they're losing a war in a country that was disarmed. I doubt this nation has ever had so many incompetent generals and civilian leaders.
The generals let Bush take us to war for no reason, they let him lie about why we were there long after his first lies were exposed, they allowed him to destroy the reputation of the United States by torturing POWs and they allowed him to destroy the military and the National Guard. Who needs enemies when we have generals.
On the bright side many of the pro war nuts who took us to war within the White House ,including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs are gone.
June 14, 2007
Army plans to hire more psychiatrists
WASHINGTON - Overwhelmed by the number of soldiers returning from war with mental problems, the Army is planning to hire at least 25 percent more psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers.
A contract finalized this week but not yet announced calls for spending $33 million to add about 200 mental health professionals to help soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health needs, officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Ritchie said long and repeat deployments caused by extended wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are causing more mental strain on troops. "At the time that the war began, I don't think anybody anticipated how long it would be going on," she said.
I have a different take on what's really going on. The Catholic Church under this pope and under his predecessor looked the other way while its priests rapped children. The lawsuits are costing them a fortune and they need as much money as they can get so they're looking for excuses for Catholics to stop giving to other organizations.
Personally, I think anyone who still gives to the Catholic Church after what they did has questionable moral values. Priests, bishops, cardinals and popes had to know their criminal behavior was costing them a fortune but they still refused to report these criminals to the police.
June 14, 2007
Vatican urges Catholics to stop giving Amnesty
The Vatican has urged all Catholics to stop donating money to Amnesty International, accusing the human rights group of promoting abortion.
The Vatican, which regards life as sacred from the moment of conception, said it was an "inevitable consequence" of the group's policy change.
Amnesty said it was not promoting abortion as a universal right.
Two very good numbers are coming out of this poll. The # who say there should be no funding and those who support keeping the current restrictions has been cut in half (10% and 15% respectively). The religious right have lost all power.
June 15, 2007
Six in Ten Support Easing Stem Cell Restriction
PRINCETON, NJ -- Last week, Congress passed legislation to loosen government restrictions on funding medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos. This legislation is similar to a bill that President George W. Bush vetoed last summer. The president has said he plans to veto the current bill as well. Recent Gallup polling finds that most Americans feel that embryonic stem cell research is morally acceptable, favor easing the current restrictions on stem cell research, and believe the president should not veto the new legislation.
President to Veto Bill on Government Funding of Stem Cell Research
According to an April 13-15, 2007, USA Today/Gallup poll, only 31% of Americans say the president should veto a bill to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research; 64% of Americans say the president should not veto the bill.
June 66/15/2007 , 2007
Poll: War Support Will Play Major Part in 2008 Election
Gallup polling shows that Iraq is clearly the public's No. 1 policy concern, and is likely to play a major role in voting decisions next year. The June 1-3, 2007, poll finds 33% of Americans saying a candidate's past and current positions on Iraq will be extremely important in determining their vote next year, with an additional 41% saying the candidate's positions will be very important. Only about one in four Americans say these will be somewhat important (19%) or not that important (6%).
June 13, 2007
New Bush Adviser Has Vast Lobbying Ties
A new high-ranking adviser to President Bush will enter the White House with lobbying ties to dozens of companies seeking the federal government's help on everything from proposed acquisitions to patent disputes.
Ed Gillespie, named Wednesday as the next White House counselor, is a partner in Quinn Gillespie & Associates LLC, a lobbying firm whose clients include: Sirius Satellite Radio, which needs antitrust approval to acquire a rival; Qualcomm, which wants Bush to veto a federal agency's ban on imported cell phones made with its chips; and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group trying to limit drug industry regulation.
Everyone now knows it's a disaster in Iraq and this story might sound like piling-on, but the pro war nuts in the GOP and the Democratic Party have to exposed for what they are...liars.
June 12, 2007
32,000 Iraqi police quite, 12,000 not on the job but drawing salaries
WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) -- About 32,000 Iraqi police who have been trained and equipped are no longer on the job, having left for various reasons over the last 18 months.
And as many as 12,000 police not on the job are drawing salaries anyway, said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who has just returned from more than two years in Iraq overseeing the development of Iraqi security forces.
Now that the centrists and conservatives in the Democratic Party had their way with more funding the war will someone please tell them to "shut the fuck up?"
June 12, 2007
Approval of Congress lowest in a decade
WASHINGTON — Fueled by disappointment at the pace of change since Democrats assumed the majority on Capitol Hill, public approval of Congress has fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll.
Just 27% of Americans now approve of the way Congress is doing its job, the poll found, down from 36% in January, when Democrats assumed control of the House and the Senate.
And 63% of Americans say that the new Democratic Congress is governing in a "business as usual" manner, rather than working to bring the fundamental change that party leaders promised after November's midterm election.
A very extensive list of scandals on one page. If the media reported just one scandal a day it'd consume 190 days.
June 14, 2007
Bush Scandals List
1. Walter Reed outpatient treatment, poor living conditions, lack of caseworkers to oversee and facilitate patient care for amputees, brain injured, and psychologically disabled veterans; Walter Reed is not the only military hospital about which questions have been raised; also out there the underfunding of the VA.
The problems at Walter Reed came to the public's attention through a series of articles by Dana Priest beginning February 18, 2007. Following them, Gen. George Weightman who ran Walter Reed for 6 months resigned March 1, followed by the forced resignation of Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey the next day. Weightman's boss Army Surgeon General Gen. Kevin "I don't do barracks inspections at Walter Reed" Kiley who lived across from the notorious Building 18 and who had run the hospital from 2002-2004 lasted one day as the new head of Walter Reed before he was removed. He resigned from the Army on March 12.
June 12, 2007
U.S. Mortgage Foreclosure Filings Rise 90% in May
June 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. foreclosure filings surged 90 percent in May from a year earlier as more homeowners fell behind on their monthly mortgage payments, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
There were 176,137 notices of default, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions last month, led by California, Florida and Ohio, the Irvine, California-based seller of foreclosure data said in a report today. The median price for a U.S. home slid 1.8 percent the first three months of 2007 as the housing slump entered its second year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The filings rose 19 percent from April.
June 7, 2007
Democratic Leaders Face Growing Disapproval, Criticism on Iraq
The survey finds that Americans are less impressed now by the Democratic congressional leadership than when the party took control of Congress in January. While approval of the job Democratic leaders are doing has dipped only slightly - from 39% in January to 34% today - disapproval has grown substantially from 34% to 49%. Independents, in particular, express a much more negative opinion of Democratic congressional leaders. Fully 58% disapprove of their job performance, up from 40% in January.
Here's an interesting take on the immigration issue. The author uses emotion, 911 and terrorism to make his point (which is fine considering his circumstances) but is it logical?
For generations Americans have accepted illegal aliens - they work(ed) for many working in government or seeking work in government. It's said most major restaurants would have to close without illegal aliens and then there's the cheap food we've become accustomed to. Is cheap labor, food and profits worth the risk?
June 2, 2007
A 9/11 Father, Lifelong Republican, Says: Time To Impeach Bush
The person most responsible for the failure to exclude dangerous aliens from our country, most responsible for refusing to use his power to remove those already here, has been America's Chief Disregarder of the Law: President George W. Bush.
Consider: Four of the Fort Dix Six would have been eligible for the Bush Amnesty. Several of those who were involved in the 1993 World Trade Center attacks (including ringleader Ramzi Yousef) had been granted legal permanent resident status thanks to the 1986 amnesty (specifically the Agricultural Worker provision authored by then NYC Representative Charles Schumer, presumably on behalf of the strawberry farmers of Brooklyn). All of the 9/11 terrorists would have been eligible for the Bush amnesty if they had postponed their attacks until after passage of the Kyl-Kennedy-Bush bill. The list of these amnestied or eligible-for-amnesty criminals goes on and on. And we really only know of the criminals whose crimes made the front pages. How many other Americans were killed or raped in crimes committed by Bush amnesty eligible aliens in crimes that did not make the headlines?
June 11, 2007
Male veterans have higher suicide risk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Male U.S. veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide than people with no military service, and are more likely to kill themselves with a gun than others who commit suicide, researchers said on Monday.
The findings indicate that doctors and others who may treat U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan should be alert for signs of depression and suicidal tendencies, said lead researcher Mark Kaplan of Portland State University in Oregon.
The damage to the US presidency and the bankrupting of our Treasury will last for generations. Global polls show they don't hate us because of the war per se, they hate us because a majority voted for Bush AFTER they knew he lied about war. The problem isn't just within the presidency or the US government, the problem is the American people.
We have become a nation of idiots; supporting the troops when we know the troops are in a war based on lies and supporting tax cuts when we have trillions of dollars of debt. These are not the actions of sane people.
June 12, 2007
Cleaning up after the elephants
ATLANTA - It's like cleaning up after the elephants in the circus parade -- unpleasant but necessary.
The challenge after the disaster of the Bush presidency will be to regain our once-good international standing, essential precursor for the durable cooperation abroad which, in turn, is essential to blunt and parry terrorism.
To do that, we first will have to repair our national soul.
There is real science which said global warming is real and there was fake science that said it wasn't. There was real intelligence which said there were no WMD in Iraq (including from the UN inspectors) and there was fake intelligence manufactured by the Bush White House. Now we have to deal with more fake science again - this time masquerading as religion.
June 10, 2007
Bush's Surgeon General Nominee: "Ex-Gay" Therapy On Trial
Holsinger's allies -- those who lobbied the White House for his nomination -- include James Dobson's Focus on the Family and the Heritage Foundation. They have predictably cast his confirmation battle as a religious test, alleging that his homophobia is a reflection of orthodox Christian views. To oppose Holsinger on the grounds of his anti-gay sentiments, the right says, is to discriminate against him simply for being a bible-believing Christian. Why should he have to check his Christiantiy at the church exit door? they ask. This worn-out appeal to the Christian right's victimhood complex distracts from the most salient argument against Holsinger's confirmation -- which is exactly what it is intended to do.
Can the Democratic Party be shamed into action?
An Impeachable OffenseJune 11, 2007
Immigration Judges Often Picked Based On GOP Ties
The Bush administration increasingly emphasized partisan political ties over expertise in recent years in selecting the judges who decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, despite laws that preclude such considerations, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
At least one-third of the immigration judges appointed by the Justice Department since 2004 have had Republican connections or have been administration insiders, and half lacked experience in immigration law, Justice Department, immigration court and other records show.
June 11, 2007
CBS: Military Concerned It Can't Respond to Crisis
CBS News reported Sunday that the final members of the 82nd Airborne are about to leave Fort Bragg for Iraq, saying, "This is only going to be to be the second time since World War II that the entire 82nd Airborne will be deployed overseas. Just one more sign of how thinly stretched the Army is right now."
The report continues, "Commanders say if an emergency happened elsewhere in the world, they could draw ground troops from Iraq and units recuperating at bases back in the U.S. But it won't be easy" because neither equipment nor personnel on leave would be immediately available. As a result, there are concerns about the ability of the military to respond to a crisis.
If the war on terror and Iraq are so damn important to conservative voters why doesn't the conservative network spend more more than 6% of their time talking about it? The war on terror and the war in Iraq are a joke. Is Fox the first to realize we've all been had? (not likely - Fox knows they have nothing to gain from telling the truth).
June 11, 2007
War Takes Up Less Time on Fox News
Neither story merited a mention on Fox News Channel that hour.
That wasn't unusual. Fox spent half as much time covering the Iraq war than MSNBC during the first three months of the year, and considerably less than CNN, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The difference was more stark during daytime news hours than in prime-time opinion shows. The Iraq war occupied 20 percent of CNN's daytime news hole and 18 percent of MSNBC's. On Fox, the war was talked about only 6 percent of the time.
For all practical purposes the war is already winding down. Few Americans believe we can win the war and even fewer think the war was worth fighting in the first place. The legacy of the pro war nuts is; they took us war for no reason, they couldn't admit they were wrong even after the government said there were no WMD and they lost the war. None of them are fit to be president.
June 10, 2007An Impeachable Offense
Sharp drawdown of troops is likely to begin by the middle of next year
This goal, drawn from recent interviews with more than 20 U.S. military officers and other officials here, including senior commanders, strategist and analysts, remains in the early planning stages. It is based on officials' assessment that a sharp drawdown of troops is likely to begin by the middle of next year, with roughly two-thirds of the current force of 150,000 moving out by late 2008 or early 2009. The questions officials are grappling with are not whether the U.S. presence will be cut, but how quickly, to what level and to what purpose.
June 8, 2007
Body armor donated by Legion sits unused in Iraq
The body armor that West Seneca's American Legion Post 735 bought for Marines in Iraq is gathering dust somewhere in dusty Anbar province, thanks to Marine Corps orders preventing its use.
And the local Legionnaires who spent nearly $6,000 for the state-of-the- art protective gear are none too happy about it.
"It's asinine," said Mark McMahon, whose purchase of the body armor for his son and two of his buddies prompted the Legion post to buy 20 sets for the West Seneca Marine's entire unit.
It's good to see there are still some judges who honor their oath of office. It's too bad Congress, the Supreme Court and the White House don't do the same.
An Impeachable OffenseJune 11, 2007
Court Orders Release Of "Enemy Combatant" In U.S
The 2-1 appellate ruling was a major setback for Bush's contention in the war on terrorism that he has the power to detain people in the United States without charging them.
The court panel based in Richmond, Virginia, ruled that the Qatari national involved, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, must be released from military custody.
"The decision protects legal residents and citizens from secret detention," said al-Marri's lawyer, Jonathan Hafetz of the Brennan Center for Justice in New York.
Do Democrats sit up nights thinking of ways to look weak?
June 8, 2007
House Progressive leaders sign on to Cheney impeachment motion
The co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have signed on to Articles of Impeachment introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Congressman who is seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for President in 2008. But a staff-member of one of the Congress members tells RAW STORY that the move comes only in their personal capacity.
"I don't know of any effort to whip members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to back the impeachment resolution," said a spokesman for Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), who is a co-chair of the CPC.
In 1993 when this unconstitutional and immoral law was passed (a law that created two standards - separate and unequal), centrists and conservative Democrats joined with conservative Republicans to destroy our troops ability to win a war in the Middle East. A decade later we're still suffering from that vote. Centrist and conservative Democrats pander to the GOP base and the GOP panders to the GOP base. What about the rest of the country?
June 8, 2007
Don't Ask, Don't Translate
IMAGINE for a moment an American soldier deep in the Iraqi desert. His unit is about to head out when he receives a cable detailing an insurgent ambush right in his convoy's path. With this information, he and his soldiers are now prepared for the danger that lies ahead.
Reports like these are regularly sent from military translators' desks, providing critical, often life-saving intelligence to troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the military has a desperate shortage of linguists trained to translate such invaluable information and convey it to the war zone.
There are still many Democrats who think they're get reelected if they act like republicans. That's what they did during the 90's when they lost power. They deserve to lose power again.
The GOP was able to pass legislation that destroyed the constitution and there wasn't one Democrat in the Senate who filibuster their laws. We must learn one important fact from all this, there is only one party - the pro war party.
June 9, 2007
Dean criticizes GOP as obstructionist
He noted his party has made little progress toward ending the war, the cause, he said, that returned them to power.
"The American people hired Democrats last November to ensure that we end this war," Dean said during the weekly Democratic radio address. "So let me be clear, we know that if we don't keep our promise, we may find ourselves the minority again."
This trial proves one unequivocal fact; there are more terrorist in the CIA than in al Qaeda or at a minimum we can't seem to arrest, try and convict as many terrorists as we have in the CIA.
An Impeachable OffenseJune 9, 2007
In Italy, trial of CIA agents begins
MILAN, ITALY — As President Bush headed for Italy on Friday, a Milan court opened the trial of a group of CIA agents accused of kidnapping a radical Egyptian cleric — the first legal prosecution of one of the administration's most controversial counter-terrorism tactics.
Twenty-six American defendants, including two CIA station chiefs and an Air Force colonel, are being tried in absentia in the 2003 abduction from a Milan sidewalk of the cleric known as Abu Omar.
There are 10 republicans who said Gonzales should resign so if anyone thought a republican says what he means and means what he says he's still delusional.
The GOP also knows Reid can be rolled so why should they piss off their base even if it's the right thing to do?
June 12, 2007
Gonzales cloture push falls seven votes short
Senate Republicans yesterday shot down a Democratic resolution of no confidence in embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, presaging a setback for the new majority's expanding investigation of the Justice Department.
Four of the six GOP members who have called for Gonzales's resignation backed cutting off debate on the no-confidence measure, a sight more common in the British Parliament than in the U.S. Congress. Democrats had hoped the vote would land a new blow in their high-stakes battle with the White House over last year's firing of nine U.S. attorneys and the politicization of the Justice Department.
When the Democrat leader in the Senate has an approval rating on par with Scooter Libby you know we're in trouble.
Americans have divided themselves into two camps; pro war and anti war. The pro war side will never support Reid and the anti war side was betrayed. That leaves the centrists - all 19% of them.
Democrat strategist think Americans want centrists but that's simply not true. Centrists gave Bush more funding for his war and he's finished. Dems need a new leader - a liberal. Will they learn or will continue to pander to the DLC (the republican arm of the Democratic Party.
June 8, 2007
Harry Reid's Favorables Fall to 19%
This Week's Favorability Ratings
Name
Fav
Unfav
Net
John Edwards
52%
38%
+14
Fred Thompson
45%
31%
+14
Barack Obama
50%
44%
+6
Robert Gates
36%
34%
+2
Dick Cheney
38%
58%
-20
John Boehner
14%
36%
-22
Harry Reid
19%
45%
-26
Scooter Libby
19%
58%
-39
Inspector Generals are supposed to protect us from lawlessness, but in this White House the inspector generals are criminals.
The people who thought they were voting for a good Christian man have been exposed as being naive and/or immoral.
An Impeachable OffenseJune 8, 2007
Scandal Hits Commerce Department: Inspector General Resigns
Commerce Department Inspector General Johnnie E. Frazier retired yesterday in the face of multiple investigations and a formal report recommending that President Bush punish him for violating the whistle-blower protection law.
Frazier, who since 1999 has served as the department's chief watchdog responsible for investigating waste, fraud and abuse, told the administration that he is retiring effective June 29, congressional and White House officials said.
With each passing day we learn more about the idiocy behind the "war on terror." Not only aren't these people terrorists, but they're not illegal combatants or POWs. In other words, the US has been kidnapping people all over the world and holding them in prisons all over the world. This generation of war mongers has shamed us for the rest of time. They should be banned from ever holding office again.
June 8, 2007
Pentagon to appeal dismissal of Khadr charges
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced Friday it will challenge a military judge's decision to dismiss all terrorism charges against Canadian Omar Khadr, even as the Bush administration scrambles to assemble an appellate court to hear a formal appeal of the ruling.
Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said military prosecutors will file a motion asking army Col. Peter Brownback to reconsider his decision earlier this week to throw out the U.S. government's case against the 20-year-old Canadian detainee.
Our intelligence agencies say torture doesn't work . Why did they (the CIA) torture POWs?
An Impeachable OffenseJune 8, 2007An Impeachable Offense
EU calls for investigations by Poland, Romania into CIA prisons
BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - The European Commission today called on EU member states accused of running secret prisons for the CIA to conduct impartial investigations into this 'as quickly as possible'.
European Commission spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing stressed the need 'for the member states concerned to conduct impartial investigations to establish the truth.'
'Indeed, such investigations should be fully carried out as quickly as possible in order to establish responsibility and for the victims to obtain compensation,' he told reporters in Brussels.
Now that we're certain the White House, the Justice Department, the Congress and the Courts violated (or allowed Bush to violate) their oaths of office, it's time to clean house. We've never seen so many utterly immoral and worthless leaders in our history. Anyone who voted for a conservative member of the Supreme Court isn't moral enough to serve our nation. The Supreme Court had the power to stop Bush and did nothing. This lazy and corrupt Court will be damned by history.
June 8, 2007
Report claims US ran secret prisons in Europe
The CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005 where terrorism suspects could be interrogated free of US legal restraints, a Council of Europe investigation concluded today.
It revealed that Abu Zubaydah, believed to be a senior al-Qaida member, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, were held and interrogated in Poland.
None of the prisoners had access to the Red Cross and many were subjected to what George Bush has called the CIA's "enhanced" interrogation, which critics have condemned as torture.
Now that all the pro war nuts that can be fired have been fired, will the Democrats, the GOP and the media figure out it's over?
June 8, 2007
Pace Fired: All pro war nuts are finally gone
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Anticipation of a "contentious" confirmation process on Capitol Hill prompted the decision to replace Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when his term ends in September, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.
Gates said he will recommend to President Bush that he nominate Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chief of naval operations, to the post.
It seems like only yesterday that media pundits were calling Bush a "good Christian man." Today, it seems like everyone associated with him is either a liar or a crook.
June 8, 2007
Italia Federici pleads guilty to lying to Senate investigators
WASHINGTON — Italia Federici, an ally of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty Friday to tax evasion and obstructing a Senate investigation into the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
Federici's plea was part of a deal with the Justice Department that two people close to the case said could lead investigators to officials in Congress and the Bush administration.
Federici served as a go-between for Abramoff, who currently is in prison, and J. Steven Griles, a deputy Interior secretary who also has pleaded guilty to lying to Senate investigators.
The war mongers that gave us Iraq want another war...is anyone surprise. Failure breeds failure.
June 6, 2007
Nuking Iran: The Republican Agenda?
At the Republican debate last night, almost all the candidates said that they would not rule out a nuclear attack on Iran as a means to prevent it from getting its own nuclear weapons. Only one of these knuckleheads would say that attacking Iran -- indeed even threatening to nuke Iran -- is not the right strategy.
Only Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the "Dennis the Menace" of his party, said he opposed a nuclear strike on moral grounds and because he believed Iran "has done no harm to us directly and is no threat to our national security."
"The United Nations nuclear watchdog chief warned on Friday against the 'new crazies.'" He was referring to people who wanted to bomb Iran. In other words the UN nuclear chief says nearly all the GOP candidates for president are crazy. This is what Bush and the propagandist in the party have done to themselves.
June 7, 2007
Republican Presidential Candidates Threaten Nuclear Bombing of Iran
The core problem for Republican presidential candidates is this: They are forced to continue to support the escalation of the war, while they are forced to appeal to a hard-core, right-wing base that is far out of touch with American opinion.
June 7, 2007
AP Poll: Bush Approval Matches Low Point
Public approval of the job President Bush is doing now matches its all-time low, an AP-Ipsos poll says. The survey, released Thursday, reflects widespread discontent over how Bush is handling the war in Iraq, efforts against terrorism and domestic issues. It also underscores challenges Republican presidential and congressional candidates will confront next year when they face voters who seem to be clamoring for change.
Only 32 percent said they were satisfied with how Bush is handling his job overall, the same low point AP-Ipsos polling measured last January and a drop of 3 percentage points since May.
The pro war side says there's progress in Iraq. Who do you believe...the politicians and pundits who supported this war from the beginning or the generals charged with fighting it? Lieberman, McCain and Bush should stop lying and the media should stop putting these liars on their talk shows.
Imagine for a moment if the anti war side had been wrong. Would there be anyone in the media running to our side to see what we think? Pro war supporters have absolutely no credibility...but the media lets them push their lies every single day. It's time for the lying to stop...it's time for the media to stop pretending there are honest disagreements. One side lied us into war, the other side called them on it. The anti war side was right.
June 8, 2007
General's Appraisal Echoes Secret Intelligence Findings
President Bush's nominee to be war czar said yesterday that conditions in Iraq have not improved significantly despite the influx of U.S. troops in recent months and predicted that, absent major political reform, violence will continue to rage over the next year.
Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, tapped by Bush to serve as a new high-powered White House coordinator of the war, told senators at a confirmation hearing that Iraqi factions "have shown so far very little progress" toward the reconciliation necessary to stem the bloodshed. If that does not change, he said, "we're not likely to see much difference in the security situation" a year from now.
Global polls indicate support for the US dropped significantly after Bush was reelected. US voters (assisted by liars in the media) helped Bush destroy our reputation.
June 7, 2007
Is it anti-Americanism or just anti-Bushism?
But while America's reputation in the world has suffered great harm in recent years, the damage is not irreparable.
Although most Americans would probably agree that world opinion of the United States is low, our travels abroad have revealed that this is not entirely accurate. In fact, it is not truly anti-Americanism but anti-Bushism that has gripped the world - and this is an illness that time can cure.
Why hasn't every veterans group called for his resignation...do they agree with him?
June 7, 2007
Veterans PAC calls for Arkansas GOP chairman's resignation
VoteVets.org, a PAC supported by veterans who are critical of the handling of the war in Iraq, condemned state GOP Chairman Dennis Milligan for his remarks in a recent newspaper interview.
"At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing (in Iraq), and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on (Sept. 11), and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country," Milligan was quoted as saying in the Sunday edition of Arkansas' statewide newspaper.
IMO, the media and the GOP are desperately searching for excuses as to why they supported the war. The myth-making has already begun (much like it did with the Reagan years). The reality is simple...the UN inspectors were sent to Iraq to verify Bush's intelligence. They found nothing and in fact said Bush's intelligence was "outdated" and "garbage." The media and the GOP (and many leading Democrats) allowed Bush to take us to war knowing he was lying. War supporters are unfit for high office.
June 6, 2007An Impeachable Offense
GOP/Media Rewrite Iraq War History
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and radio personality Jay Diamond are right to wonder why Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney got away with rewriting a key chapter of the Iraq War history without political reporters raising a peep.
At the June 5 Republican debate, co-sponsored by CNN, Romney defended George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq in March 2003 on the grounds that Saddam Hussein refused to let United Nations weapons inspectors in to search for WMD.
June 7, 2007An Impeachable Offense
Official: Cheney Urged Wiretaps
Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told senators yesterday.
The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get approval for the same program from then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who lay recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to former deputy attorney general James B. Comey.
June 7, 2007
U.S. Secretly Imprisoned 39
(LONDON)—A coalition of human rights groups has drawn up a list of 39 terror suspects it believes are being secretly imprisoned by U.S. authorities and published their names in a report released Thursday.
Information about the so-called "ghost detainees" was gleaned from interviews with former prisoners and officials in the U.S., Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen, according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and four other groups.
June 8, 2007
Lies, Sighs and Politics
In Tuesday's Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney completely misrepresent how we ended up in Iraq.
Later, Mike Huckabee mistakenly claimed that it was Ronald Reagan's birthday.
Guess which remark The Washington Post identified as the "gaffe of the night"?
Folks, this is serious.
If early campaign reporting is any guide, the bad media habits that helped install the worst president ever in the White House haven't changed a bit.
The problem is simple. The Bush Administration knew Americans would never support this war if they had to pay for it with higher taxes so they chose instead to do the war on the cheap...borrowing every penny and they chose to cut taxes. The problem then isn't just Bush, or the GOP, it's the American people and the Democratic Party. If Dems asked republicans how they were going to pay for the war, the war would have never started because the republican party wouldn't have supported tax increases necessary to fund the war.
An Impeachable OffenseJune 6, 2007
Equipment levels worst ever, Guard chief says
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — About half of all National Guard equipment is being used in the Middle East, and the Guard's senior uniformed officer said Tuesday that could hurt the organization's overall readiness at home.
National Guard units have 53 percent of the equipment they need to handle state emergencies, said Lt. General H. Steven Blum. It falls to 49 percent once Guard equipment needed for war — such as weapons — is factored in, he said.
June 6, 2007
Bush "Willfully Ignored Experts" Before Iraq War
Whether out of hubris or incompetence, the President and his men willfully ignored the experts and sent our troops to battle unprepared for the consequences."
"Despite more than three years of stonewalling by Republicans in Congress and the Bush Administration, Democrats have taken another major step forward in restoring accountability to government by completing another exhaustive investigation of the Bush Administration's dangerous incompetence," said Reid on May 25, when the report was released. "This new Senate Intelligence Committee report clearly demonstrates that the Bush Administration ignored and dismissed its best intelligence experts' warnings to expect major challenges in post-war Iraq. We have seen the terrible consequences to American national security that have resulted from the Bush Administration's failures over the last five years."
Unless you're a US political pundit you can probably see the truth is all this muck. The US gives China money so it can arm itself (we call it free trade). We did the same with Iraq and we're still giving Iran a lot of our oil money. We give our possible enemies our money so they can arm themselves and then we throw a tissy fit when they arm themselves.
If we had ONE functioning brain in Washington these problems would go away over night...all we have to do is stop giving Iraq, Iran and China our money...and therein lies the problem. We need China to finance our debt...debt created by tax cuts for the super wealthy.
June 5, 2007
China Warns U.S. May Set Off Arms Race
BEIJING -- China joined Russia on Tuesday in criticizing a U.S. plan to build a missile defense system in Europe, saying the system could set off an arms race.
The White House plans to install a radar system in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland -- two Eastern European countries that were in the Soviet orbit during the Cold War era.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the plan had "aroused great concern and attention."
June 7, 2007
Crazy, unpatriotic bigots
What Little George and his gang in their enthusiasm forgot to remember is that crazy, unpatriotic bigots who form the hard core of Bush's support network don't like being called crazy, unpatriotic bigots. And so, you see, it wasn't long before Right-wing media were all ablaze with comments from crazy, unpatriotic bigots who fancy themselves principled conservatives:
- "I am tired of Washington elites calling me a racist bigot because I believe in the rule of law, fairness and protecting our national identity." – Wes Allen, Troy, AL, to the editor of the Montgomery Advertiser, June 3.
- "George Bush .... will be remembered as the president who discarded American sovereignty, rule of law, language, and culture in exchange for cheap lettuce and fruit." – John Lillpop, who bills himself 'a recovering liberal,' June 3.
- "Those who endorse a vigorous immigration crackdown are upholding a sound conservative idea ... namely, the rule of law." – columnist Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune, June 3.
- "It's a great national concern about observing the rule of law." – Sen. Arlen Specter, in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 3.
- "It's about the rule of law, our national security, the American culture, the English language, national unity during time of war, the constitutional rights of American citizens and the fiscal concerns of American taxpayers and their descendants." – columnist David Limbaugh, May 22.
- "Over those years, it has not been uncommon for conservative thinkers ... to disagree.... But never before has a dispute degenerated into a street fight. We're seeing one now." – editor, Arizona Republic, June 3.
Is there a single Democratic consultant who doesn't think this isn't going to start happening to their party too?
June 4, 2007
Republicans Eating Their Own
Bush chastised opponents of the bill, most of them from his own party, saying that if they oppose the bill they "...don't want to do what's right for America." Garsh. Republicans deciding against the best interest of America. What's next? Republicans undermining the troops?
Sen. Lindsey Graham went in for a hot wing of Right. "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." Yowza! At least some honesty was seeping out
On Fox News Sunday, that far-left loon, Newt Gingrich, said, "We're losing this war with Islamo terrorists." Not "making progress." Not "too early to gauge how the surge is going." Nope. Clear and simple, Fox News' favorite pundit and just waiting to be drafted...into the presidential race, Gingrich said "five and a half years after 9/11, we are losing the war to the (terrorists)."
Brit Hume said that Gingrich "sounds like he's running on Mike Dukakis's platform."
Bush has been below the 50% mark for over two years and still the Democrats don't have balls to take him on or take him out. Now that pro war centrists and conservatives have nearly destroyed their party maybe they'll shut the fuck up.
It would help if other liberal blogs stopped enabling the leaders of the Democratic Party.
June 4, 2007
Poll: Democrats Lose Their Edge
The Democrats in Congress have lost much of the leadership edge they carried out of the 2006 midterm election, with the lack of progress in Iraq being the leading cause. Their only solace: President Bush and the Republicans aren't doing any better.
Another figure underscores the public's broad grumpiness: Seventy-three percent now say the country's off on the wrong track, the most in just over a decade.
The shift away from the Democrats in Congress has occurred on two levels. In terms of their overall approval rating, the damage is almost entirely among people who strongly oppose the war in Iraq. In this group 69 percent approved of the Democrats in April, but just 54 percent still approve now -- a likely effect of the Democrats' failure to push a withdrawal timetable through Congress.
Their decline in leadership ratings vs. Bush is more broadly based -- that's occurred among war opponents and supporters alike, apparently reflecting more an assessment of their performance than an expression of support or opposition.
The toll of this discontent is unmistakable. Bush has not seen majority approval in any ABC/Post poll since January 2005; in presidential polling back to the late 1930s, only President Truman stayed so low for a longer period of time. And Americans are nearly three times as likely to "strongly" disapprove of Bush's job performance (46 percent) as to strongly approve (17 percent).
Imagine for a moment if the GOP had spent as much time running this war as they spent attacking Democrats. Then imagine Democrats doing something other than rolling over and falling to the ground when the GOP attacked them. Have you ever seen two absolutely worthless parties in your life?
June 4, 2007
At U.S. military hospitals, 'everybody is overworked'
The Army operates 36 medical facilities worldwide. For the past two years, more than half have failed to meet Pentagon standards for providing a doctor within seven days for routine medical care. And the Army has been forced to spend more money sending military families to doctors in nearby communities. Payments for outside referrals have jumped from $200 million in 2000 to nearly $1 billion last year, records show. Outpatient care accounts for 70% of those costs.
Goodrich points to a more immediate problem: the conflicting demands for limited funds. "(The Pentagon) says you're authorized this many people. It's not enough," Goodrich says of his staffing. "There's only so many dollars. If you've got a war, you need equipment, you need soldiers, you need body armor. If I had more money, I'd buy more doctors."
Why didn't the Democrats filibuster this monstrosity? Because they're cowards.
June 5, 2007
The Iraq Embassy: A monument to failure
In September, the world's largest, most expensive and most heavily fortified embassy will open. It is ours and it is in Baghdad.
The embassy compound occupies 104 acres of primo real estate along the Tigris River in downtown Baghdad. If the embassy were in Washington, it would take up most of the National Mall.
The embassy will cost $592 million, although Congress is mulling a $50 million request for additional housing. The compound will contain 21 buildings, in addition to the embassy itself, residences for the ambassador and deputy, housing for 380 families, a PX, commissary, theater, schools, restaurants and a firehouse.
When the Democrats said the same thing they were called defeatists by these same republicans. Does anyone still believe anything these fools say?
June 6, 2007
GOP: Bush should adopt bipartisan plan
Several Republican senators Tuesday called for President Bush to implement a new war strategy based on recommendations by the Iraq Study Group, which advocated winding down the U.S. combat mission.
"The president needs bipartisan support if the United States is to sustain a long-term position in Iraq," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
It's hard to tell who the enemy is - the GOP which was insistent on taking us to war using fabricated intelligence or the Democrats who let them get away with lying to us. Not much has changed except we now know the Congress was fully aware the intelligence Bush was using was bogus.
June 6, 2007
Bush-bashing dominates Republican debate
Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential race today sharply criticised George Bush for being a vote-loser, during a live televised debate.
During the two-hour debate in Manchester, New Hampshire, the third since the campaign began, the candidates were asked what job they would give Mr Bush.
"I would certainly not send him to the United Nations" to represent the US, Tommy Thompson, one of the candidates, said.
The president also faced criticism over his handling of the Iraq war and illegal immigration, the hottest issue in the US after Iraq.
Now that Democrats own this war, we need to know where they're going to find the money to help all the people harmed by their war - specifically, who's taxes are they going to raise and to pay for their war and how much money do they plan on borrowing from the next generation?
June 5, 2007
U.N.: More than 4 million Iraqis displaced
GENEVA - More than 4 million Iraqis have now been displaced by violence in the country, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday, warning that the figure will continue to rise.
The number of Iraqis who have fled the country as refugees has risen to 2.2 million, said Jennifer Pagonis, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. A further 2 million have been driven from their homes but remain within the country, increasingly in "impoverished shanty towns," she said.
The problem isn't talking points, it's the inability of Dems to create change. Now that their poll numbers are nearly as low as Bush maybe they'll grow some balls and start doing the right thing.
If Democrats want to be a viable political party, they have to tell the pro war conservatives and centrists in the party to "shut the fuck up." This war has destroyed the reputation of the US, the Bush presidency and the GOP. Now it's destroyed the good will Americans had for the Democrats. Will they ever learn?
June 4, 2007
Democrats Bungle War Talking Points
Goffstown, N.H -- Ever since Senate Majority leader Harry Reid provoked a firestorm last April by declaring "the war is lost" -- without attributing defeat to President Bush -- Democrats have scrambled to pin the Iraq fiasco on the Republican Party.
Leading Democratic presidential candidates have had trouble, however, keeping the strategically critical issue of blame in focus. In the debate Sunday night at St. Anselm College here, neither Barack Obama nor John Edwards directly targeted Bush on his culpability for the war.