IMPEACH BUSH

It's clear the "war on terror" has more to do with PR than national security. When will the media and the Democrats figure this out?

October 9, 2007

Government leak ruined Al-Qaeda monitoring

WASHINGTON - A leak from the White House or US spy agencies about a video from Osama bin Laden sabotaged a private intelligence firm's secret ability to intercept Al-Qaeda communications, the Washington Post reported today.

The Post said that SITE Intelligence Group had covertly developed access over several years to Al-Qaeda's communications network but that the access was lost after the administration of President George W.

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October 7, 2007

Bush's torturers follow where the Nazis led

From almost the beginning of the war, it is now indisputable, the Bush administration made a strong and formative decision: in the absence of good intelligence on the Islamist terror threat after 9/11, it would do what no American administration had done before. It would torture detainees to get information.

This decision was and is illegal, and violates America's treaty obligations, the military code of justice, the United Nations convention against torture, and US law. Although America has allied itself over the decades with some unsavoury regimes around the world and has come close to acquiescing to torture, it has never itself tortured. It has also, in liberating the world from the evils of Nazism and communism, and in crafting the Geneva conventions, done more than any other nation to banish torture from the world. George Washington himself vowed that it would be a defining mark of the new nation that such tactics, used by the British in his day, would be anathema to Americans.

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October 6, 2007

Blackwater Offical: We're creating terrorists

"Where do you all expect them to go?" I shrieked. "It was an old guy and a family, for goodness' sake. Was it necessary for them to destroy their poor old car?"

My driver responded impassively: "Ma'am, we've been trained to view anyone as a potential threat. You don't know who they might use as decoys or what the risks are. Terrorists could be disguised as anyone."

"Well, if they weren't terrorists before, they certainly are now!" I retorted. Sulking in my seat, I was stunned by the driver's indifference.

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October 7, 2007

The truth about conservatism

There have been a number of articles recently that portray President Bush as someone who strayed from the path of true conservatism. Republicans, these articles say, need to return to their roots.

Well, I don't know what true conservatism is, but while doing research for my forthcoming book I spent a lot of time studying the history of the American political movement that calls itself conservatism — and Mr. Bush hasn't strayed from the path at all. On the contrary, he's the very model of a modern movement conservative.

For example, people claim to be shocked that Mr. Bush cut taxes while waging an expensive war. But Ronald Reagan also cut taxes while embarking on a huge military buildup.

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October 7, 2007

Charge It to My Kids

Every so often a quote comes out of the Bush administration that leaves you asking: Am I crazy or are they? I had one of those moments last week when Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, was asked about a proposal by some Congressional Democrats to levy a surtax to pay for the Iraq war, and she responded, "We've always known that Democrats seem to revert to type, and they are willing to raise taxes on just about anything."

Yes, those silly Democrats. They'll raise taxes for anything, even — get this — to pay for a war!

And if we did raise taxes to pay for our war to bring a measure of democracy to the Arab world, "does anyone seriously believe that the Democrats are going to end these new taxes that they're asking the American people to pay at a time when it's not necessary to pay them?" added Ms. Perino. "I just think it's completely fiscally irresponsible."

Friends, we are through the looking glass. It is now "fiscally irresponsible" to want to pay for a war with a tax. These democrats just don't understand: the tooth fairy pays for wars. Of course she does — the tooth fairy leaves the money at the end of every month under Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's pillow. And what a big pillow it is! My God, what will the Democrats come up with next? Taxes to rebuild bridges or schools or high-speed rail or our lagging broadband networks? No, no, the tooth fairy covers all that. She borrows the money from China and leaves it under Paulson's pillow.

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It's always been a war of choice and a political tool to be used against Democrats. It has nothing to do with our national defense. Make the GOP pay for their war and they'll stop supporting it.

October 3, 2007

National Guard Troops Denied Benefits After Longest Deployment Of Iraq War

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (NBC) -- When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge.

1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.

"It's pretty much a slap in the face," Anderson said. "I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership... once again failing the soldiers."

Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.

Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.

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October 4, 2007

Iraqi probe implicates Blackwater

BAGHDAD - The official Iraqi investigation into the Blackwater shooting last month recommends that the security guards face trial in Iraqi courts and that the company compensate the victims, an Iraqi government minister told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The three-member panel, led by Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi, determined that Blackwater guards sprayed western Baghdad's Nisoor Square with gunfire Sept. 16 without provocation, Minister of State for National Security Sherwan al-Waili told AP.

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October 5, 2007

G.O.P. Contenders Endorse Health Insurance Veto

The four leading Republican presidential candidates have aligned themselves with President Bush's veto on Wednesday of an expanded health insurance program for children, once again testing the political risk of appearing in lock step with a president who has low approval ratings and some critics of the veto within their party.

"You need to decide where you are on any given issue — not necessarily where the president is — and go from there," Mr. Galen said. "Democrats can say this is a Bush veto or a Bush position, but Republicans don't even mention that because it doesn't make sense to talk that way to Republican primary voters right now."

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October 5, 2007

Ex-Investigator Details Iraqi Corruption

The Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has thwarted investigations into corruption at the top levels of his administration, including probes of his relatives, while nearly four dozen anti-corruption employees or their family members have been brutally murdered, the former top Iraqi corruption investigator told a House panel yesterday.

Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the former commissioner of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, has sought asylum in the United States, according to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Radhi said his investigators had uncovered "rampant" corruption in Iraqi ministries that had cost the country as much as $18 billion, but only 241 cases, out of 3,000 forwarded to the courts, had been adjudicated.

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First we had Haditha, now we have a second slaughter of innocent civilians. As always the military will drop most of the charges in exchange for testimony and then reduce the charges to almost nothing as they did after the Haditha massacre.

October 2, 2007

17 Iraqi Civilians Killed by US

American-led coalition forces in Iraq are so far not commenting on eyewitness claims that women and children are among the dead following the enemy engagement near Baquba, 60km north of the capital Baghdad.

"Seventeen people were killed, 27 were wounded and eight are missing including women and children," an unnamed Iraqi government official told al-Jazeera.

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Why doesn't the military let a jury decide? A simple truth is once again exposed. The US military can't investigate itself.

October 4, 2007

No Murder Charges After Haditha Massacre

It was called the Haditha massacre: 24 Iraqis killed and four Marines charged with murder. But now the case against those Marines appears to be falling apart.

The investigating officer in the case recommended Wednesday that the most serious charges be dropped. If the officer's recommendation is accepted -- and it usually is -- nobody will face murder charges in connection with an incident that left 24 Iraqis dead.

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September 27, 2007

Senate Extends Protections to Gays, Lesbians in Hate Crimes Act

Senators voted Thursday morning to give the federal government more jurisdiction to prosecute hate crimes and included protections for gay, lesbian and transgender victims, attaching the measure to an annual defense policy bill.

Sixty Senators -- just enough to override a Republican filibuster -- voted to attach the Matthew Shepard Act, named for the gay Wyoming college student murdered in 1998, as an amendment to the 2008 Department of Defense authorization bill. The measure was sponsored by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

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October 3, 2007

Limbaugh Latest Target in War of Condemnation

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Having abandoned for now their effort to force President Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq, Democrats are not giving ground against a lesser nemesis: Rush Limbaugh.

With the help of liberal advocacy groups, the Democrats in Congress are turning Mr. Limbaugh's insinuation that members of the military who question the Iraq war are "phony soldiers" into the latest war of words over the war.

A resolution introduced by 20 Democrats urges the House to condemn the "unwarranted slur" made by Mr. Limbaugh, though it does not condemn the broadcaster himself.

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October 3, 2007

Blackwater to guard FBI team probing it

WASHINGTON - When a team of FBI agents lands in Baghdad this week to probe Blackwater security contractors for murder, it will be protected by bodyguards from the very same firm, the Daily News has learned.

Half a dozen FBI criminal investigators based in Washington are scheduled to travel to Iraq to gather evidence and interview witnesses about a Sept. 16 shooting spree that left at least 11 Iraqi civilians dead.

The agents plan to interview witnesses within the relative safety of the fortified Green Zone, but they will be transported outside the compound by Blackwater armored convoys, a source briefed on the FBI mission said.

"What happens when the FBI team decides to go visit the crime scene? Blackwater is going to have to take them there," the senior U.S. official told The News.

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October 1, 2007

Record 2008 Cost of War: $189.3bln

For the fifth time since 2001, Congress is raising the debt limit, increasing it by $850 billion to $9.815 trillion. The Senate approved the plan on a 53-42 vote Thursday night. The House of Representatives has already signed off on the plan, without a direct vote.

According to the folks who follow this stuff closely, the national debt has been rising by an average of $1.36 billion per day since September of last year.

And each citizen now has a share of nearly $30,000.

But Congress has an easy solution to deal with the mounting red ink. Instead of fretting over it, members simply allow the government to borrow more money, much to the consternation of some critics.

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Bush calls Afghanistan one of his successes. He lied and the media ate it up.

October 2, 2007

U.N. says Afghan violence up 30 percent

KABUL, Afghanistan - Violence in Afghanistan has surged nearly 30 percent this year and suicide bombings are inflicting a high toll on civilians, a new United Nations report says.

The report said Afghanistan is averaging 550 violent incidents a month, up from an average of 425 last year. It said three-fourths of suicide bombings are targeting international and Afghan security forces, but suicide bombers also killed 143 civilians through August.

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October 2, 2007

Blackwater contractor wrote government report on incident

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The State Department's initial report of last month's incident in which Blackwater guards were accused of killing Iraqi civilians was written by a Blackwater contractor working in the embassy security detail, according to government and industry sources.

The deadly incident produced an outcry in Iraq and raised questions about the accountability of foreign security contractors in Iraq, who, under an order laid down by the U.S.-led occupation government, are not subject to Iraqi law for actions taken within their contracts.

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October 2, 2007

Anti-war veterans take to the air against Limbaugh

Anti-war veterans are not letting up on Rush Limbaugh, the radio talk show host who derisively spoke of "phony soldiers" last week during an on-air conversation with callers about people calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

A leading anti-war veterans coalition is taking out television ads on Fox News and CNN Wednesday and Thursday. The ads feature a wounded veteran saying: "More and more troops and veterans of Iraq believe George Bush's military policy has been a disaster."

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A conservative publicantion that takes on the distortions of truth of Petreaus. While he says he didn't lie, logic proves otherwise. Not only isn't the general not exploiting his so-called surge by asking for more troops but if he really was successful he'd be calling for all our troops to return home. Regardless of how we look at it, Petraeus is a Republican shrew, who's more interested in his politician career than his soldiers.

October 8, 2007

General Petraeus wins a battle in Washington—if not in Baghdad

The critics make a good case. Yet let us ignore them. Let us assume instead that Petraeus genuinely believes that he has broken the code in Iraq and that things are improving. Let's assume further that he is correct in that assessment.

What then should he have recommended to the Congress and the president? That is, if the commitment of a modest increment of additional forces —the 30,000 troops comprising the surge, now employed in accordance with sound counterinsurgency doctrine —has begun to turn things around, then what should the senior field commander be asking for next?

A single word suffices to answer that question: more. More time. More money. And above all, more troops.

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October 2, 2007

Helping heal hundreds of service members at Fisher House

After helping heal hundreds of service members at Fisher House comfort homes across the nation, Ken Fisher said the failures in the health care system for wounded troops and veterans that have been revealed in the wake of the controversy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center have both surprised and angered him.

And he's still mad: As the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs search for solutions, Fisher said they keep stumbling over delays in staffing, technology and ingrained bureaucratic culture.

"I don't understand why anything is held up anywhere," he said. "We've lost a little momentum and we need to get that back."

Fisher, chairman of the Fisher House Foundation that builds the comfort homes near military and VA medical facilities so families of the wounded can be near them while they recuperate, recently served on the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, which ultimately recommended more than 40 changes, all but six of which require no congressional action.

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So what are Democrats doing? They're giving Bush what he wants and now their starting to blame Democrats for being cowards. I hope the media pick up on this fact.

October 2, 2007

Poll: 70% want Iraq war funding cut

Only about 25 percent of Americans support the administration's $190 billion war funding request; 70 percent want the proposed allocation reduced, the Post said.

According to the poll, more than seven in 10 support the planned $35 billion increase included in legislation that would renew the children's health care program administered by the states. Twenty-five percent oppose the increased spending, the Post said.

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October 2, 2007

GOP Is Losing Grip On Core Business Vote

Already, economic conservatives who favor balanced federal budgets have become a much smaller part of the party's base. That's partly because other groups, especially social conservatives, have grown more dominant. But it's also the result of defections by other fiscal conservatives angered by the growth of government spending during the six years that Republicans controlled both the White House and Congress.

The most prominent sign of dissatisfaction has come from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, long a pillar of Republican Party economic thinking. He blasted the party's fiscal record in a new book. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he said: "The Republican Party, which ruled the House, the Senate and the presidency, I no longer recognize."

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September 29, 2007

Transcript: Graeme Frost Speaks for the Democrats

Hi, my name is Graeme Frost. I'm 12 years old and I live in Baltimore, Maryland. Most kids my age probably havent heard of CHIP, the Childrens Health Insurance Program. But I know all about it, because if it weren't for CHIP, I might not be here today.

CHIP is a law the government made to help families like mine afford healthcare for their kids. Three years ago, my family was in a really bad car accident. My younger sister Gemma and I were both hurt. I was in a coma for a week and couldn't eat or stand up or even talk at first. My sister was even worse.

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September 29, 2007

Wounded vets also suffer financial woes

TEMECULA, Calif. - He was one of America's first defenders on Sept. 11, 2001, a Marine who pulled burned bodies from the ruins of the Pentagon. He saw more horrors in Kuwait and Iraq.

Today, he can't keep a job, pay his bills, or chase thoughts of suicide from his tortured brain. In a few weeks, he may lose his house, too.

Gamal Awad, the American son of a Sudanese immigrant, exemplifies an emerging group of war veterans: the economic casualties.

More than in past wars, many wounded troops are coming home alive from the Middle East. That's a triumph for military medicine. But they often return hobbled by prolonged physical and mental injuries from homemade bombs and the unremitting anxiety of fighting a hidden enemy along blurred battle lines. Treatment, recovery and retraining often can't be assured quickly or cheaply.

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September 28, 2007

US Military: Abu Usama al-Tunisi killed twice

This morning, the Pentagon conducted a press briefing with Brigadier General Joseph Anderson, the Chief of Staff of Multinational Corps-Iraq. In a video linkup from Camp Liberty in Baghdad, General Anderson addressed a number of issues--chief among them, the reported killing of a "high level" Al-Qaida commander--Tunisian national Abu Usama al-Tunisi--near Musayyib, Iraq on September 25 in a targeted strike by U.S. warplanes.

Oddly enough, this is not the first time that Abu Usama al-Tunisi has been reported killed. Over a year ago (in May 2006), Al-Qaida supporters posted online announcements declaring the "martyrdom" of Abu Usama al-Tunisi. The news of al-Tunisi's death was distributed on, among other places, the highly credible Al-Hesbah Islamic Network--which has been directly endorsed in past propaganda films produced by Al-Qaida in Iraq. According to that announcement (a translation of which was posted shortly thereafter on Globalterroralert.com):

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September 28, 2007

Young White Evangelicals: Less Republican, Still Conservative

Party Identification
In 2001, 55% of younger white evangelicals identified as Republicans – nearly three-and-a-half times the number who identified as Democrats, and more than double the number of Americans overall in this age group who identified as Republicans. Throughout Bush's first term, party identification among younger white evangelicals remained relatively stable, but since 2005 the group's Republican affiliation has dropped significantly – by 15 percentage points. However, the shift away from the GOP has not resulted in substantial Democratic gains; instead it has produced a small increase in the number of Democrats (five-point increase) and a ten-point increase in the number of independents and politically unaffiliated Americans. Republicans now have only a two-to-one advantage over Democrats among younger white evangelicals, compared with a nearly four-to-one edge in 2005.

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September 28, 2007

Fox News: Top Military Officials are a Disgrace to Those They Lead

Our generals in both the Army and Marine Corps have cared more about their precious careers and reputations than their soldiers and Marines under them. The Marines have actually prosecuted a Marine for shooting a terrorist too many times and the Army — well, the Army has the Pat Tillman tragedy, the Abu Graib disaster and many more to answer for, and now these courts martial.

In Iraq, the story is the same. The Army rediscovered a trick we used in 'Nam' called "baiting," where you leave ammunition and pieces of explosive devices out and shoot whoever takes them. We used to leave exploding ammo to put in your AK — when you try to fire it, the gun blows up. It worked then and it works now … but guess what the Army is now putting on trial: Ranger Snipers for doing their jobs. The rules of engagement were once again being followed and once again our generals put their careers over their men's lives. The chilling effect that these actions have over our soldiers is dramatic; this distrust weakens the very foundations of our military. It causes soldiers to second-guess themselves and their chain of command. We cannot fight like this and hope to win.

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September 30, 2007

Bush's EPA Is Pursuing Fewer Polluters

The Environmental Protection Agency's pursuit of criminal cases against polluters has dropped off sharply during the Bush administration, with the number of prosecutions, new investigations and total convictions all down by more than a third, according to Justice Department and EPA data.

The number of civil lawsuits filed against defendants who refuse to settle environmental cases was down nearly 70 percent between fiscal years 2002 and 2006, compared with a four-year period in the late 1990s, according to those same statistics.

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September 24, 2007

Department of Homeland Security: Data Breaches

The FBI is investigating a major information technology firm with a $1.7 billion Department of Homeland Security contract after it allegedly failed to detect cyber break-ins traced to a Chinese-language Web site and then tried to cover up its deficiencies, according to congressional investigators.

At the center of the probe is Unisys Corp., a company that in 2002 won a $1 billion deal to build, secure and manage the information technology networks for the Transportation Security Administration and DHS headquarters. In 2005, the company was awarded a $750 million follow-on contract.

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Geez, this is where were at under Clinton. It seems the Clinton approach works after all.

September 28, 2007

U.S. to give $25M to N. Korea for fuel aid

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Friday announced it would spend up to $25 million to pay for 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil for North Korea — part of an agreement the communist regime made with the U.S. and other nations pushing it to dismantle its nuclear program.

Under a February agreement, the U.S. and other participants in the six-party negotiations with Pyongyang agreed to provide North Korea with 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil, or the monetary equivalent in other aid and assistance.

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This vote once again proves MoveOn.org was telling the truth and Betraeus was lying. If the surge worked, all our troops would be coming home and most Senators wouldn't have voted to divide Iraq. Congress needs to do the following; admit the surge failed. Admit Betraeus lied to them. Admit that Bush mismanaged the war. Admit Bush (and Betraeus) can't be trusted to win the war and then stop funding the war.

September 26, 2007

Senate Endorses Plan to Divide Iraq

WASHINGTON -- Implicitly criticizing the Bush administration's reliance on the Iraqi central government to unify the country, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly endorsed the decentralization of Iraq into semi-autonomous regions.

The nonbinding measure sponsored by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) -- which supports a "federal system" that would divide Iraq into sectarian-dominated regions -- won unusually broad bipartisan support, passing 75 to 23.

It attracted 26 Republicans, 47 Democrats and both independents.

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What will Democrats do about this crisis? We already know. They'll have more hearings, whine about Bush mismanaging the war, give him more money so he can continue to mismanage the war and then go on vacation.

I have no idea why Democrats in congress bother getting up in the morning.

September 27, 2007

General Casey: Army can not respond to another conflict

WASHINGTON - The Army's top officer, General George Casey, told Congress yesterday that his branch of the military has been stretched so thin by the war in Iraq that it can not adequately respond to another conflict - one of the strongest warnings yet from a military leader that repeated deployments to war zones in the Middle East have hamstrung the military's ability to deter future aggression.

In his first appearance as Army chief of staff, Casey told the House Armed Services Committee that the Army is "out of balance" and "the current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply. We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies."

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Will the Democrat leadership force the GOP to vote for or against Rush Limbaugh? Of course not. It's not their way. They want Limbaugh to beat them up and they want the GOP to beat up their allies. In fact, they help Fox, Limbaugh and the GOP beat up on their allies.

September 27, 2007

Members of Congress denounced Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" smear

Sen. Jim Webb and Reps. Frank Pallone, Jan Schakowsky, Chris Van Hollen, and Patrick Murphy denounced Rush Limbaugh for calling service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers," which Media Matters for America documented.

On September 27, several members of Congress denounced Rush Limbaugh for, as Media Matters for America documented, calling service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers" on the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show. Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) made speeches on the House floor responding to Limbaugh; Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made his comments on the September 27 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann; and Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Patrick J. Murphy (D-PA) issued statements denouncing Limbaugh's comments.

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The Military Times Poll shows that about 70% of the military wants to withdraw and of course there are over 20 retired generals want us to withdraw. Limbaugh is simply doing what he always does. He's lying. He also knows Democrats are too weak to care about how much he hates our troops.

Will Republicans join with Democrats and condemn Rush Limbaugh like they did MoveOn.org? Of course not. Hell, Democrats won't even ask them to condemn Limbaugh. Dems will do what they always do. Nothing. They look weak because they are weak. Why would anyone vote for a Democrat?

September 27, 2007

Limbaugh: Service members who support U.S. withdrawal are "phony soldiers"

During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers." He made the comment while discussing with a caller a conversation he had with a previous caller, "Mike from Chicago," who said he "used to be military," and "believe[s] that we should pull out of Iraq." Limbaugh told the second caller, whom he identified as "Mike, this one from Olympia, Washington," that "[t]here's a lot" that people who favor U.S. withdrawal "don't understand" and that when asked why the United States should pull out, their only answer is, " 'Well, we just gotta bring the troops home.' ... 'Save the -- keeps the troops safe' or whatever," adding, "[I]t's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people." "Mike" from Olympia replied, "No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media." Limbaugh interjected, "The phony soldiers." The caller, who had earlier said, "I am a serving American military, in the Army," agreed, replying, "The phony soldiers."

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How long can the Democratic leadership stay on message and inform an entire generation that Republicans are irresponsible? One minute? I've come to the conclusion that Democrats hate winning elections. There's no reason they can't destroy every Republican senator and congressmen with the debt they created, but they wont. Instead, they side with Mitch McConnell, condemn MoveOn.org and give him a big enough boost in the polls that his reelection is all but assured.

When modern day Democrats see a Republican on life-support, they rush to his defense. They're pathetic.

September 24, 2007

Experts Agree: Bush Administration and Republican Congress Abandoned Fiscal Responsibility

"Having lost the majority in Congress and now in the twilight of his presidency, George W. Bush has become a fiscal conservative. That's quite a turnabout and requires considerable mental gymnastics to even contemplate, given Bush's record: When he took office in 2001, the federal budget was in surplus and the national debt was $5.7 trillion. The debt is now just under $9 trillion and growing." USA Today editorial, 9/24/07

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It is as it's always been. Bush got up and denounced how our vets were being treated by him, then he appoints someone who doesn't fix the problem and for the most part the media ignores another Bush lie.

September 26, 2007

GAO Report: Walter Reed Problems Have Not Been Fixed

Remember Walter Reed? After the huge scandal last spring, President Bush and the members of Congress promised to improve troops' care. They promised to take action and get our wounded veterans the care they were waiting for. They promised to make things right. Well, that promise has been broken.

This week, we got definitive proof that our nation's wounded veterans are still waiting for government leaders to deliver much needed resources. According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the response to shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center has been woefully inadequate.

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September 25, 2007

Iranian University Chancellors Ask Bollinger 10 Questions

We, the professors and heads of universities and research institutions in Tehran , hereby announce our displeasure and protest at your impolite remarks prior to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent speech at Columbia University.

We would like to inform you that President Ahmadinejad was elected directly by the Iranian people through an enthusiastic two-round poll in which almost all of the country's political parties and groups participated. To assess the quality and nature of these elections you may refer to US news reports on the poll dated June 2005.

Your insult, in a scholarly atmosphere, to the president of a country with a population of 72 million and a recorded history of 7,000 years of civilization and culture is deeply shameful.

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Congress supported the 'surge' and the surge failed. So they condemn MoveOn.org for telling the truth. We live in very odd times.

September 26, 2007

House Passes Resolution Condemning MoveOn.org Advertisement

Washington D.C. (AHN) - The liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org's front page ad in the New York Times referring Gen. David Petraeus as "General Betray Us" created such a controversy that the House voted to condemn it on Wednesday.

The House passed a resolution commending Gen. Petraeus by a 341-79 vote and condemning the advocacy group.

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The US Congress is passing laws that violate the US Constitution and their condemning speech they don't agree with. Who are our REAL enemies?

September 27, 2007

Two Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A federal judge issued a stern rebuke of a key White House antiterror law, striking down as unconstitutional two pillars of the USA Patriot Act. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that using the act to authorize secret searches and wiretapping to gather criminal evidence - instead of intelligence gathering - violates the Constitution.

"For over 200 years, this nation has adhered to the rule of law - with unparalleled success," the judge wrote Wednesday. "A shift to a nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised."

The case began when the FBI misidentified a fingerprint in the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004, leading investigators to a Portland attorney whose home and office were secretly searched and bugged.

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September 25, 2007

FCC Proposes 'Fake News' Fine

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission is proposing a $4,000 fine against Comcast Corp. for airing a pitch for a sleep aid without telling viewers that the spot was financed by the maker of the product.

The fine was in response to a complaint by the Center for Media and Democracy, a media watchdog group, which said it marks the first time a company has been sanctioned for airing a "video news release," a type of programming it dubs "fake news."

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Betraeus cooked the books, lied to Congress. MoveOn.org called him on it and the US House and Senate condemned them for daring to speak the truth. Good grief.

September 25, 2007

What Defines a Killing as Sectarian?

On Sept. 1, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi men were found on a Baghdad street. Two days later, a single dead man, with one bullet in his head, was found on a different street. According to the U.S. military in Iraq, the solitary man was a victim of sectarian violence. The first four were not.

Such determinations are the building blocks for what the Bush administration has declared a downward trend in sectarian deaths and a sign that its war strategy is working. They are made by a specialized team of soldiers who spend their nights at computer terminals, sifting through data on the day's civilian victims for clues to the motivations of killers.

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September 25, 2007

Bush Planned Veto of Children's Health Care

This week's showdown over children's health insurance is the first skirmish in the new battle for universal health coverage. It is also the first confrontation between the president and Congress fought out almost entirely on terms set by the new Democratic majority.

On no spending issue do Democrats have broader public support -- or more Republican allies -- than on expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program. That is why they have chosen this as the issue on which they want to take their first stand.

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September 24, 2007

PBS: Weapons of US soldiers in Iraq 'plagued with problems'

"That AK-74 outhits the M-16 by two to one on full automatic," said Jim Sullivan, referring to the Russian-made assault rifle, now in its third generation. "And the reason there were 100 million AK's made wasn't to equip the Russian army - it was to give [to] our Third World opponents. The United States can't win ground wars anymore."

The M-16 and its successor, the shorter M4, are known for their finickiness, jamming in even the most innocuous conditions. In combat, the unreliability of the rifle can be deadly.

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The Family Research Council is an extremists right right wing gay hating group. IMO, anyone associated with it is very sick.

September 25, 2007

Blackwater Has GOP, Christian Group Ties

September 25, 2007 ·  With more than $800 million in contracts, Blackwater USA, led by Erik Prince, is among the biggest companies providing armed guards for U.S. officials and government contractors in Iraq.

Prince grew up in Holland, Mich., where his father, Edgar Prince, built Prince Corporation, an auto-parts company that based its success on novel products, such as the lighted vanity mirror for car window visors. The elder Prince was a close friend and supporter of Christian evangelists, such as James Dobson of Focus on the Family, as well as a contributor to the Republican Party. He was an early benefactor of the Family Research Council.

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September 23, 2007

23 Democrats voting "yes" to condemn free speech

MoveOn Ad: 23 Democrats Voting to Condemn Free Speech Who will they betray next?
Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Conrad (D-ND)	Dorgan (D-ND) Feinstein (D-CA) Johnson (D-SD) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA)	Leahy (D-VT) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) McCaskill (D-MO) Mikulski (D-MD) Nelson (D-FL)	Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Salazar (D-CO) Tester (D-MT) Webb (D-VA)
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Note how the media uses a right wing organization to defend the WH position even though the member it quotes isn't a scientist. It seems some in the media think being fair and balanced means they need to put out known lies also. Shame on the AP. It's rapidly becoming worthless. Another Bush lie, another impeachable offense.

September 27, 2007

Physicists challenge US missile defense claims

WASHINGTON - A number of top U.S-based physicists have concluded that the Bush administration used inaccurate claims to reassure NATO allies about U.S. missile defense plans in Eastern Europe.

But the six scientists, whose backgrounds include elite American universities, research labs and high levels of government, said in interviews that Russia's concerns were justified.

"The claim by the Missile Defense Agency is not correct," said Theodore Postol, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a longtime missile defense critic. "And it is hard to understand how they could get something so basic wrong."

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September 25, 2007

Transcript: Iran's president at Columbia University

I think the text read by the (dear ?) gentleman here, more than addressing me, was an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here, present here. In a university environment, we must allow people to speak their mind, to allow everyone to talk so that the truth is eventually revealed by all. Most certainly he took more than all the time I was allocated to speak. And that's fine with me. We'll just leave that to add up with the claims of respect for freedom and the freedom of speech that is given to us in this country.

In many parts of his speech, there were many insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully. Of course, I think that he was affected by the press, the media and the political sort of mainstream line that you read here, that goes against the very grain of the need for peace and stability in the world around us.

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September 26, 2007

State Dept. blocks Blackwater probe

WASHINGTON -- The State Department has interceded in a congressional investigation of Blackwater USA, the private security firm accused of killing Iraqi civilians last week, ordering the company not to disclose information about its Iraq operations without approval from the Bush administration, according to documents revealed Tuesday.

In a letter sent to a senior Blackwater executive Thursday, a State Department contracting official ordered the company "to make no disclosure of the documents or information" about its work in Iraq without permission.

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September 25, 2007

Lawmaker says Rice interfered with Iraq inquiry

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of interfering in congressional inquiries into corruption in Iraq's government and the activities of U.S. security firm Blackwater.

Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman said State Department officials had told the Oversight and Government Reform Committee he chairs they could not provide details of corruption in Iraq's government unless the information was treated as a "state secret" and not revealed to the public.

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September 23, 2007

Generals opposing Iraq war break with military tradition

The generals acted independently, coming in their own ways to the agonizing decision to defy military tradition and publicly criticize the Bush administration over its conduct of the war in Iraq.

What might be called The Revolt of the Generals has rarely happened in the nation's history.

In op-ed pieces, interviews and TV ads, more than 20 retired U.S. generals have broken ranks with the culture of salute and keep it in the family. Instead, they are criticizing the commander in chief and other top civilian leaders who led the nation into what the generals believe is a misbegotten and tragic war.

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September 24, 2007

Dollar Edifice Crumbling

U.S. national debt has almost doubled since the start of George W. Bush's first term as president. A lot of people will be looking to blame Bush and his brand of big government conservatism, as well as the unpopular war in Iraq, for the downtrend in the value of the dollar - on which attention has been strongly refocused in the wake of the recent rate cut.

And things are likely to get pretty bad for a while once the dollar's slide turns into a rout, as at some point it will; such is the nature of markets. There was always the possibility that the sub-prime mortgage crisis and associated economic damage – leading to last week's rate cut - would be the trigger, but that hasn't happened so far.

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This independent has no reason to vote for a Democrat.

September 25, 2007

44% of Voters are Independents - Tilt Toward Democrats

In AP-Ipsos polling this summer, 44 percent of those surveyed said initially they had no major party affiliation. When pressed, most said they generally back one particular party, usually Democrats. That left 17 percent as true independents, more than enough to tilt the balance in the presidential and many congressional races.

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There are so few good senators left but in normal times I'd say any senator who votes for this nominee is an enemy of our Constitution. The problem we have now, is most senator are enemies of the Constitution - starting wars for no reason, staying in those war when their lies are exposed, condemning speech they disagree with etc.

September 24, 2007

AG Nominee Ordered Suspects Held Indefinitely

Even though Mr. Awadallah was not charged at the time with any crime and had friends and family in San Diego who would vouch that he had no terrorist ties, Judge Mukasey ordered that he be held indefinitely, a ruling he made in the cases of several other so-called material witnesses in the Sept. 11 investigations. A prison medical examination later identified the bruises across his body.

Critics say a 1984 material witness law was abused by the Justice Department, and by Judge Mukasey and his judicial colleagues, to hold terrorist suspects indefinitely after Sept. 11 without having to accuse them of a crime and afford them the rights of a criminal defendant.

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September 20, 2007

The secret lobbying campaign your phone company doesn't want you to know about

Sept. 20, 2007 - The nation's biggest telecommunications companies, working closely with the White House, have mounted a secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve a measure wiping out all private lawsuits against them for assisting the U.S. intelligence community's warrantless surveillance programs.

The campaign—which involves some of Washington's most prominent lobbying and law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because of fears that a U.S. appellate court in San Francisco is poised to rule that the lawsuits should be allowed to proceed.

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September 22, 2007

Video shows Blackwater guards firing on civilians

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in an incident last week in which 11 people died, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case had been referred to the Iraqi judiciary.

Family visits Hassan Jabir at a Baghdad, Iraq, hospital Saturday. He says guards in a U.S. convoy shot him.

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September 23, 2007

Bomb Blasts Cause Long Term Brain Injuries

In the animal studies, scientists say they have found a fundamentally different wound than the "brain concussion" historically associated with undetected brain injuries. A concussion, essentially a bruise on the brain, is a wound that can heal over time, doctors say.

The newly discovered brain damage at the cellular level can be permanent — especially after repeated exposures to blasts — and lead to lasting neurological deterioration, Ling and Cernak say.

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Another day, another corrupt soldier. But the US Senate says we can't condemn them or else they'll condemn us.

September 24, 2007

Major Cockerham arrested: Largest bribery scheme of Iraqi war

Less than 24 hours later Major Cockerham was behind bars, accused of orchestrating the largest single bribery scheme against the military since the start of the Iraq war. According to the authorities, the 41-year-old officer, with his wife and a sister, used an elaborate network of offshore bank accounts and safe deposit boxes to hide nearly $10 million in bribes from companies seeking military contracts.

The accusations against Major Cockerham are tied to a crisis of corruption inside the behemoth bureaucracy that sustains America's troops. Pentagon officials are investigating some $6 billion in military contracts, most covering supplies as varied as bottled water, tents and latrines for troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

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September 22, 2007

Bush to seek $200 billion for war

WASHINGTON - After smothering efforts by war critics in Congress to drastically cut U.S. troop levels in Iraq, President Bush plans to ask lawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure -- totaling nearly $200 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2008, Pentagon officials said.

If Bush's spending request is approved, 2008 will be the most expensive year of the Iraq war.

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Raise taxes on faith based groups so they're not taking our money and see how long they beg for more government handouts.

posted September 23, 2007

U.S. funds earmarked for anti-Darwin group

WASHINGTON, 23 (UPI) -- Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter earmarked $100,000 for a group, headed by former political associates, that opposes teaching evolution in schools.

The money is set aside for the Louisiana Family Forum in the labor, health and education financing bill for fiscal 2008, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Sunday. The group is being paid "to develop a plan to promote better science education."

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posted September 25, 2007

No-bid contracts, bribery and fraud

No-bid contracts, bribery, fraud — that's just the start of the alleged improprieties under investigation by the Army, which has launched two investigations into contracting problems across the service.

Army Secretary Pete Geren said Aug. 30 these efforts would determine what went wrong. But he has already identified one factor: a lack of acquisition professionals.

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