IMPEACH BUSH

Greenspan has finally waken from his deep slumber. Both Reagan and Bush financed their tax cuts with borrowed money. What took this moron so long to catch up with us?

September 12, 2008

Greenspan Says McCain Tax Plan Needs Corresponding Budget Cuts

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the country can't afford $3.3 trillion of tax cuts proposed by Republican presidential nominee John McCain without corresponding spending reductions.

Greenspan, a lifelong Republican and longtime friend of McCain, said today on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt" that "I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money."

It's worth noting that the US Supreme Court acted within seconds when Gov. Bush asked them to appoint him president, but it takes months to get the court to rule of the crimes committed by the Bush White House.

September 16, 2008

Appeals Court Sets Sept. 16 Arguments on House Subpoenas of Bush Aides

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit announced Thursday that a three-judge panel will hear arguments Sept. 16 in a subpoena battle between the Bush administration and the House Judiciary Committee.

The committee has subpoenaed White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers as part of its investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006. Bolten was subpoenaed for records related to the dismissals. Both he and Miers declined to comply with the subpoenas after President Bush asserted executive privilege.

When liars lie, and those liars happen to be republicans, other republicans defend the liars and the lies. It's what they've been brought up to do. They NEVER take responsibly...it's always someone else's fault....always.

September 12, 2008

McCain Lied About Palin earmarks

NEW YORK -- John McCain got it wrong Friday when he asserted that his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, had not requested any earmarks, the spending directives lawmakers insert in spending bills that McCain has vowed to eliminate.

Palin, in fact, requested $198 million in federal earmarks in February, including such expenses as $487,000 to fight obesity in Alaska and $4 million to develop recreational trails.

By day's end, the McCain campaign backed down from the claim the GOP presidential candidate made on the ABC television show "The View."

September 17, 2008

Housing construction plunges 6.2 pct. in August

WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction of new homes and apartments fell to the weakest pace in 17 years in August, far more than expected, but lower mortgage rates and tax credits have given builders some glimmer of hope of a possible rebound.

Housing construction dropped a surprising 6.2 percent last month, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday, far larger than the 1.6 percent decline analysts had been expecting.

It was the slowest building pace since January 1991, but that should help clear out bloated inventories of unsold homes. Building activity is on track to slide below the 1 million-mark for the whole year, the first time that has happened in more than six decades.

"The housing market is just cratering — sales, prices and construction are all down. That is the fundamental reason why the economy is having so much trouble," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

September 15, 2008

Feds seize Nevada's Silver State Bank

Silver State Bank, which bet its future on Las Vegas real estate values and lost, became the second Nevada bank to fail because of the continuing mortgage and credit crisis.

The Henderson-based bank was seized by state and federal regulators on Sept. 5 and reopened Sept. 8 as part of Nevada State Bank.

The bank had $1.7 billion in deposits. Nevada State Bank took over the deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., leaving only $20 million in uninsured deposits, which may not be wholly recovered.

September 18, 2008

Dow Drops 450 pts.

NEW YORK, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street plummeted again Wednesday with Dow Jones losing 450 points, as investors became more worried that the financial crisis would continue to deteriorate.

U.S. stocks Wednesday's plunge was like a rerun of Monday's nose-dive as investors flighted to commodities like crude and gold to seek safety.

September 17, 2008

Changes to the Dow

Call us crazy, but any Dow component that needs to get a loan from the Federal Reserve in order to avoid bankruptcy doesn't belong in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, never mind the fact that a stock trading below $5 a share doesn't either.

This means that the composition of the Dow should be changing shortly as insurer AIG (AIG) gets shown the door.

In recent moves, the editors of The Wall Street Journal who control the Dow's makeup, have made changes at a given point that have included more than one component. It is uncertain if their efforts will be concentrated on finding a single replacement for AIG or if they will take another look at the overall structure and kick out one or two other components, too.

September 14, 2008

Campaign of lies disgraces McCain

This nation is facing real challenges on the economy, health care, jobs and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are significant differences between how Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain would address them. But McCain's recent campaign ads suggest the most vital issues are whether Obama wanted to teach sex education to kindergarten children and whether he derided the Republican's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, by talking about lipstick on a pig.

McCain's straight talk has become a toxic mix of lies and double-speak. It is leaving a permanent stain on his reputation for integrity, and it is a short-term strategy that eventually will backfire with the very types of independent-thinking voters that were so attracted to him.

So McCain is a pathological liar just like every republican who seeks office. What new? This time the media is calling them on it. It's about time.

September 13, 2008

Out of bounds! McCain-Palin misdirect blame for immigration flop

"The press reports that their efforts were 'poison pills' that made immigration reform fail," the ad charges. "The result: No guest worker program. No path to citizenship. No secure borders. No reform. Is that being on our side? Obama and his congressional allies ready to block immigration reform, but not ready to lead."

What that's wrong: Media accounts cited two votes as effectively killing immigration reform last year — and Obama was on the same side as McCain in both.

September 13, 2008

N.Y. Fed calls meeting to forestall Lehman collapse

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- As U.S. Treasury officials made it clear the government will not bail out Lehman Bros., the Federal Reserve Bank of New York met Friday night with Wall Street executives in an effort to forestall the collapse of the investment firm and shore up rapidly weakening financial markets.

The New York Fed called the emergency meeting Friday evening with the heads of major financial institutions and the group reportedly plans to continue meeting throughout the weekend if necessary to come up with a plan to save the ailing Lehman Bros. and prevent further damage among financial companies.

September 12, 2008

McCain campaign systematically targets the news media

FAIRFAX, Va . — Republicans were already fired up for John McCain and Sarah Palin this week when Fred Thompson took the stage here to turn up the heat a little more — with a full-throated attack on the media as a co-conspirator with the Democrats in an effort to smear and destroy Palin.

"This woman is undergoing the most vicious assault that anybody has ever seen in public life," Thompson said.

A half hour later, the Republicans lined Old Lee Highway to watch the campaign motorcade pull away. As McCain and Palin rolled by, they cheered. As the press van approached a second later, they booed.

September 6, 2008

US unemployment hits 6.1%

The US unemployment rate soared to 6.1 percent in August as workers lost 84,000 jobs, the highest level of job losses in the past five years.

The unemployment figure increases come in the midst of the last weeks of the presidential campaign. US workers have witnessed rises in job loss for eighth consecutive months with June and July seeing a total of 58,000 job losses, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Saturday.

The bureau said the figures indicate that the world's largest economy is encountering a recession and a clear signal for the Federal Reserve to take serious countermeasures.

A total of 605,000 personnel have lost their jobs since January and 2.2 million people have become unemployed over the past 12 months.

September 8, 2008

US government assumes leading role in mortgage market with takeover of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Uncle Sam has just become the 800 pound gorilla in the U.S. mortgage market. The Bush administration is seizing troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a bid to help reverse a prolonged housing and credit crisis.

But private analysts worried that it may not be enough to stabilize the slumping housing market given the glut of vacant homes for sale, rising foreclosures, rising unemployment and weak consumer confidence.

September 2, 2008

Gonzales mishandled classified data

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales mishandled highly classified notes about a secret counterterror program, says a memo by his legal team, which touches on one of the most contentious episodes of high-level infighting in the Bush administration's war on terror.

The memo, obtained by The Associated Press, acknowledges that Gonzales improperly stored notes about the program and might have taken them home at one point.

Gonzales' lawyers wrote in their memo that there is no evidence the security breach resulted in secret information being viewed or otherwise exposed to anyone who was not authorized.

Removing secret documents from specially secured rooms violates government policy.

September 12, 2008

New Rules Allow FBI to Spy On Americans

Justice officials discussing the changes requested anonymity so they could speak more freely about them and because the changes have not been finalized.

If a tipster claims that a patron is dealing drugs, the guidelines for criminal investigations allow agents to conduct more intrusive preliminary interviews and take other action.

If the tipster claims the patron is raising money for a suspected terrorist group, an obvious national security concern, the alternative guidelines limit investigators to the more public methods, absent more evidence.

Republicans lie during their campaigns, they lie while they're in office and then people wonder why we're on the wrong track. The problem is singular...republicans are liars.

September 12, 2008

McCain comes under fire for untrue attack ads

While harsh ads and negative attacks are a staple of presidential campaigns, Sen. John McCain has drawn an avalanche of criticism this week from Democrats, independent groups and even some Republicans for regularly stretching the truth in attacking Sen. Barack Obama's record and positions.

This week McCain has found himself under fire for a pair of headline-grabbing attacks. First, the McCain campaign twisted Obama's words to suggest that he had compared Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, to a pig after Obama said, in questioning McCain's claim to be the change agent in the race, "You can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig." (McCain once used the same expression to describe Sen. Hillary Clinton's health plan.)

The fact that anyone ever believed this lie is appalling enough, but the fact that a woman who wants to be vice president doesn't know it's a lie proves that dumb people vote for republicans...because republicans are idiots.

We should never shy away from calling idiots what they are or shame those who lie, or those that don't a lie is a lie even after it's been known to be a lie for many years.

September 12, 2008

Palin Falsely Links Iraq to Sept. 11 In Talk to Troops in Alaska

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska, Sept. 11 -- Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."

The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion.

September 11, 2008

VA Suicide Prevention Panel Completes Draft Report

A blue-ribbon panel has praised the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for its "comprehensive strategy" in suicide prevention that includes a "number of initiatives and innovations that hold great promise for preventing suicide attempts and completions."

Among the initiatives and innovations the group studied was VA's Suicide Prevention Lifeline -- 1-800-273-TALK. The lifeline is staffed by trained professionals 24 hours a day to deal with any immediate crisis that may be taking place. Nearly 33,000 veterans, family members or friends of veterans have called the lifeline in the year that it has been operating. Of those, there have been more than 1,600 rescues to prevent possible tragedy.

September 10, 2008

The Tragedy of Iraq

Relations between the Western powers and Iraq had been strained since the Ba’ath Socialist Party came to power in 1968, and a few years after that the government managed to oust the British and United States oil monopolies and nationalise the oil for Iraq. The West, though, never gave up hope of getting it back.

The first big lie was told in 1991 when President of the United States, George Bush senior, said that Iraq had invaded Kuwait. At first glance that was true, but the lead up to that invasion tells a different story. The big Ramalia oil field straddles the border between Kuwait and Iraq and Kuwait had been drilling aslant-wise into the Iraqi field and stealing Iraq's oil. Iraq asked Kuwait to stop this practice but they did not and the Iraqi government went to the United States embassy in Iraq and told them that they might have to use force and what would the United States do? The then United States Ambassador, April Glaspie, said that the US was not concerned as it was an internal problem and they would not interfere.

September 9, 2008

VA: Veteran suicides highest in 2006

WASHINGTON — Suicide rates for young male Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans were highest in 2006, according to statistics to be released Tuesday by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In 2006, the last year for which records are available, figures show there were about 46 suicides per 100,000 male veterans ages 18 to 29 who use VA services. That compares with about 20 suicides per 100,000 men of that age who are not veterans, VA records show.

September 11, 2008

McCain Still Struggling With The Basics

(Political Animal) MCCAIN STILL STRUGGLING WITH THE BASICS.... There's been ample discussion of late about Sarah Palin being sequestered, away from the media, because the McCain campaign isn't confident in her ability to answer questions about, well, much of anything. But what about McCain's ability to answer questions?

AmericaBlog posted a clip of an interview McCain did, via satellite, with Rob Caldwell at WCSH in Portland, Maine. Caldwell noted, for example, that McCain insisted that national security and counter-terrorism is the number one issue facing the United States. McCain denied ever having said that. Caldwell moved on, asking about Sarah Palin's experience in national security. McCain responded by attacking Barack Obama.

911 happened because the Bush White House dropped the ball. Perhaps this level of inaptitude can be forgiven, but why didn't he fire the generals who couldn't defend our homeland? The era of Bush gave us the endless defense of failure; failure in business, politics, the military and the media.

Bush gave us WMD lies. McCain supported the war and never had to apologize for helping Bush take us to war for no reason. Failure and the defense of failure are the new motto of the GOP and of America.

September 10, 2008

Exploiting 9/11

But 9/11 has become a brand name. A Republican campaign slogan. Propaganda of the lowest form. 9/11 has become 9/11 with a trademark logo.

9/11 (TM) has sustained a president who long ago should have been dismissed, or impeached. It has kept him and his gang of financial and constitutional crooks in office without -- literally -- any visible means of support.

September 11, 2008

No victory in Iraq, says Petraeus

The outgoing commander of US troops in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, has said that he will never declare victory there.

In a BBC interview, Gen Petraeus said that recent security gains were "not irreversible" and that the US still faced a "long struggle".

When asked if US troops could withdraw from Iraqi cities by the middle of next year, he said that would be "doable".

September 3, 2008

Obama might pursue criminal charges against Bush administration

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said earlier this week that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.

Biden's comments, first reported by ABC news, attracted little notice on a day dominated by the drama surrounding his Republican counterpart, Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

August 19, 2008

Large U.S. bank collapse ahead

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The worst of the global financial crisis is yet to come and a large U.S. bank will fail in the next few months as the world's biggest economy hits further troubles, former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff said on Tuesday.

"The U.S. is not out of the woods. I think the financial crisis is at the halfway point, perhaps. I would even go further to say 'the worst is to come'," he told a financial conference.

September 2, 2008

The North Pole becomes an 'island' for the first time in history as ice melt

Startling satellite pictures taken three days ago show that melting ice has opened up the fabled North-West and North-East Passages - making it possible to sail around the Arctic ice cap.

The opening of the passages has been eagerly awaited by shipping companies which hope they will be able to cut thousands of miles off their routes.

August 31, 2008

SAS kills thousands of terrorists in 'secret war'

More than 3,500 insurgents have been "taken off the streets of Baghdad" by the elite British force in a series of audacious "Black Ops" over the past two years.

It is understood that while the majority of the terrorists were captured, several hundred, who were mainly members of the organisation known as "al-Qa'eda in Iraq" have been killed by the SAS.

The SAS is part of a highly secretive unit called "Task Force Black" which also includes Delta Force, the US equivalent of the SAS.

August 28, 2008

Iraq veterans endorse Obama

DENVER (AP) — Iraq war veterans brought their military credibility to the podium on Wednesday and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama as the best candidate to lead the military and help veterans.

Seeking to bolster Obama's credentials on security issues, Obama was formally nominated at the Democratic convention by Michael Wilson, 33, of Melbourne, Fla., an Air Force medic who served in Iraq. Wilson, a Republican, said Obama has wisdom and courage "to talk to our enemies and consult with our allies."

September 1, 2008

Hoenig: US Fed's response to crisis hurt its key role

WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - In aggressively responding to the year-long credit crisis in the United States, the Federal Reserve has threatened its key responsibility of combating inflation, one of its leaders said on Monday.

"The current stance of policy, while understandably calibrated for responding to the immediate financial crisis, will make it difficult to achieve our mandate for price stability over the longer term," Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig said in remarks prepared for delivery at a central banking conference in Argentina.

September 1, 2008

Fed's Kroszner: Inflation has added to global woes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. economic woes have spilled into both developed countries and emerging markets, and inflation pressures have added to the challenges, Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner said on Monday.

"Throughout the world, the challenges posed by weakening economic activity were further complicated by mounting inflationary pressures as food and energy prices soared," Kroszner said in remarks prepared for delivery to a Central Bank of Argentina banking conference in Buenos Aires.

September 1, 2008

Fed's Hoenig Says Banks Must Be Allowed to 'Fail'

The subprime-mortgage collapse has taken a toll on banks and other financial companies, which have reported $514 billion of writedowns since the start of 2007. The Fed rescued Bear Stearns Cos. from bankruptcy in March, facilitating the firm's merger with JPMorgan Chase & Co. by lending against $29 billion of Bear securities.

"Financial crises will occur despite our best efforts to prevent them," Hoenig said in prepared remarks at an event hosted by Argentina's central bank. "The 'Too Big to Fail' issue will only grow in importance as the consolidation of the financial industry grows in both size and scope in future decades."

September 1, 2008

Millions working into their late 60s

CHICAGO - Americans are changing the game plan for retirement, with millions laboring right past the traditional retirement age and working into their late 60s and beyond.

While the average retirement age remains 63, that standard may soon be going the way of the gold watch — a trend expected to accelerate as baby boomers close in on retirement without sufficient savings.

August 12, 2008

Fed's Fisher expects close to zero growth this year

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. economy faces a prolonged period of anemic growth, but that's no reason to get complacent on inflation, said Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher in an interview with the Dallas Morning News published Tuesday. "I expect that in the second half of this year we will broach zero growth," he said. Fisher, a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee who's been on the losing side on the past five votes on interest rates, said the credit crunch is worse than the S&L crisis of the late 1980s. "We go through these periods of correction. It's not unhealthy. It's the way capitalism works." Fisher said everyone on the FOMC would be concerned if inflationary expectations became unanchored.

August 29, 2008

Integrity Bank Becomes 10th U.S. Failure This Year

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, Georgia, was closed by U.S. regulators today, the 10th bank to collapse this year amid a surge in soured real-estate loans stemming from the worst housing slump since the Great Depression.

Integrity Bank, with $1.1 billion in assets and $974 million in deposits, was shuttered by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Regions Financial Corp., Alabama's biggest bank, will assume all deposits from Integrity, which was run by Integrity Bancshares Inc. The failed bank's five offices will open on Sept. 2 as branches of Regions, the FDIC said.

August 29, 2008

Personal income in largest drop in 3 years

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Personal income fell in July by the biggest drop in 3 years after surging the prior two months because of $90 billion in economic stimulus payments.

The Commerce Department said Friday that individual income decreased by 0.7% in July after a 0.1% jump in June and a 1.8% increase in May. Economists polled by Briefing.com were expecting income to fall by 0.2% in July.

August 31, 2008

Special Prosecutor Appointed to Investigate Palin

For the past several years, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, has been embroiled in a bitter family feud that has drawn in the state police, the attorney general, the governor's office and the state legislature.

A bipartisan state legislative panel has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate whether Palin improperly brought the family fight into the governor's office. The investigation is focusing on whether she and her aides pressured and ultimately fired the public safety commissioner, Walter Monegan, for not removing Palin's ex-brother-in-law from the state police force.

August 31, 2008

Hard Times Hitting Students and Schools

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With mortgage foreclosures throwing hundreds of families out of their homes here each month, dismayed school officials say they are feeling the upheaval: record numbers of students turning up for classes this fall are homeless or poor enough to qualify for free meals.

"We're seeing a lot more children in poverty," said Lauren Roberts, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County school system, a 98,000-student district that includes Louisville and its suburbs.

August 25, 2008

Uninsured Get Less Health Care Than Insured

They found that people uninsured for any part of 2008 receive about half as much care as those who are fully insured. A person who is uninsured all year will average $1,686 in medical costs, while someone who is privately insured will average $3,915.

And, the researchers pointed out, the uninsured pay an average of $583 (35 percent) of their costs, while the insured pay an average of $681 (17 percent).

"The uninsured receive a lot less care than the insured, and they pay a greater percentage of it out of pocket. Contrary to popular myth, they are not all free riders," study author Hadley, a senior health services researcher at George Mason, said in a news release from the journal.

August 26, 2008

Iraq says date for pull-out by US is agreed

The US has agreed to withdraw all troops from Iraq by 2011, Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, said yesterday.

But his comments, which go to the heart of the controversy over the US's presence in Iraq, were not confirmed by Washington. US officials indicate that any withdrawal date will be "aspirational" - that is, subject to conditions.

US and Iraqi officials said last week that negotiators had reached an agreement to withdraw American combat troops from Iraqi cities by next year, and pull out the rest by 2011 if the security situation is stable enough.

August 20, 2008

Wholesale inflation at 27-year high

(New Haven Register (New Haven, CT) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 20--Wholesale inflation surged to a 27-year high in July, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The department's Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Producer Price Index, showing that prices for finished goods jumped 1.2 percent last month, an increase of 9.8 percent from July 2007 -- marking the fastest pace since the 10.4 percent year-over-year gain recorded in June 1981.

Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist at DataCore Partners LLC in New Haven, said the report reveals "in very loud terms" that higher prices faced by producers will be passed on to consumers by the end of the year.

August 22, 2008

Intentional Abuse of Intelligence

Washington D.C., August 22, 2008 - The U.S. intelligence community buckled sooner in 2002 than previously reported to Bush administration pressure for data justifying an invasion of Iraq, according to a documents posting on the Web today by National Security Archive senior fellow John Prados.

The documents suggest that the public relations push for war came before the intelligence analysis, which then conformed to public positions taken by Pentagon and White House officials. For example, a July 2002 draft of the "White Paper" ultimately issued by the CIA in October 2002 actually pre-dated the National Intelligence Estimate that the paper purportedly summarized, but which Congress did not insist on until September 2002.

Bias is ok, but when the AP lied for the GOP, that's another story. The AP helped Bush's lies about WMD, Tillman, Jessica Lang etc. Without their endless lies, the Bush White House would have been brought to its knees years many years earlier. Reuters is just as bad...maybe worse. After 911 it was impossible to find a political story that didn't come straight from the White House. It was pathetic.

August 22, 2008

The AP has a Ron Fournier problem

In one email, Rove asked, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this?" Fournier responded: "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."

That sign-off, which seemed to indicate an allegiance between the two men, raised hackles all over the Internet. That kind of correspondence ("Keep up the fight") between a reporter and a partisan White House aide during a campaign year lands way outside the boundaries of acceptable newsroom practices.

August 22, 2008

Intentional Abuse of Intelligence

Washington D.C., August 22, 2008 - The U.S. intelligence community buckled sooner in 2002 than previously reported to Bush administration pressure for data justifying an invasion of Iraq, according to a documents posting on the Web today by National Security Archive senior fellow John Prados.

The documents suggest that the public relations push for war came before the intelligence analysis, which then conformed to public positions taken by Pentagon and White House officials. For example, a July 2002 draft of the "White Paper" ultimately issued by the CIA in October 2002 actually pre-dated the National Intelligence Estimate that the paper purportedly summarized, but which Congress did not insist on until September 2002.

Being held without being charged is something the former Soviet Union did, not the US military. Shame on them.

August 23, 2008

US forces in Iraq release detained APTN cameraman

BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. military on Saturday released a cameraman working for Associated Press Television News after nearly three months in detention, saying no evidence was found that he posed a security threat.

Ahmed Nouri Raziak, 38, was handed over to representatives of The Associated Press at a U.S. military compound in Baghdad. He was detained by U.S. and Iraqi forces at his home in the northern city of Tikrit on June 4.

"He was detained because he was believed to be a security risk," a U.S. spokesman Maj. John C. Hall said. "He was released when after review he was determined not to pose a threat."

Raziak's release came two days after a television cameraman for the Reuters news agency, Ali al-Mashhadani, also was set free without charges. He had been held for 26 days.

August 22, 2008

Regulators Close Columbian Bank and Trust

WASHINGTON -- State regulators shut down Columbian Bank and Trust Co. of Topeka, Kan. on Friday, the ninth bank to fail this year and fifth since July 11.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimated the failure would cost its deposit insurance fund $60 million. Columbian Bank and Trust had $752 million of assets and $622 million of deposits as of June 30, the FDIC said.

The surge is working for the US media, using their standard, but what about the Iraqi people. Don't they have a say?

August 24, 2008

Iraqis Not Returning to Their Homes

It is not an unusual decision. Out of the more than 151,000 families who had fled their houses in Baghdad, just 7,112 had returned to them by mid-July, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Migration. Many of the displaced remain in Baghdad, just in different areas. In one neighborhood alone, Amiriya, in western Baghdad, there are 8,350 displaced families, more than the total number of families who have returned to their houses in all of Baghdad.

The reasons for the hesitation are complex, based on dangers both real and imagined. In most cases, Iraqis say they feel safe with their neighbors but are not sure about other residents. Some are afraid of the new guards on their blocks. In rarer cases, they cannot face neighbors who they suspect helped in killings.

August 20, 2008

New York City to set Windmills on Top of Skyscrapers

At the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas Tuesday night, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed placing windmills atop skyscrapers and bridges and turbines in the East and Hudson rivers to help power the city.

Bloomberg's "windmill power plan" is the boldest environmental proposal yet from the billionaire independent, who has been trying to make energy efficiency a legacy of his administration, reports CBS station WCBS-TV reporter Magee Hickey.

August 19, 2008

Google invests over $10 million on geothermal energy

You know the cachet of alternative energy is on the rise when Google makes an investment in it.

On Tuesday, the uber-cool U.S. Internet search engine company announced it would invest more than $10 million in geothermal energy technology as part of an effort announced last year to lower the cost of electricity from renewable sources.

The conservative view of religion and politics is based entirely on whether that support will help them get or keep power. Now that it's a fact that church goes were most likely to be misled by Bush, conservatives think church and religion should once again be separate.

August 21, 2008

50% of Conservatives Say Churches Should Stay Out of Politics

Some Americans are having a change of heart about mixing religion and politics. A new survey finds a narrow majority of the public saying that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters and not express their views on day-to-day social and political matters. For a decade, majorities of Americans had voiced support for religious institutions speaking out on such issues.

The new national survey by the Pew Research Center reveals that most of the reconsideration of the desirability of religious involvement in politics has occurred among conservatives. Four years ago, just 30% of conservatives believed that churches and other houses of worship should stay out of politics. Today, 50% of conservatives express this view.

August 21, 2008

McCain unsure how many houses he owns

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

"I think — I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."

The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.

If the POWs at Guantanamo haven't been tortured, then McCain wasn't tortured. We can't have it both ways.

August 19, 2008

Does Bush Believe McCain Was Tortured?

In all the discussion of John McCain's recently recovered memory of a religious epiphany in Vietnam, one thing has been missing. The torture that was deployed against McCain emerges in all the various accounts. It involved sleep deprivation, the withholding of medical treatment, stress positions, long-time standing, and beating. Sound familiar?

According to the Bush administration's definition of torture, McCain was therefore not tortured.

Cheney denies that McCain was tortured; as does Bush. So do John Yoo and David Addington and George Tenet. In the one indisputably authentic version of the story of a Vietnamese guard showing compassion, McCain talks of the agony of long-time standing. A quarter century later, Don Rumsfeld was putting his signature to memos lengthening the agony of "long-time standing" that victims of Bush's torture regime would have to endure. These torture techniques are, according to the president of the United States, merely "enhanced interrogation."

This White House asked us to trust them with the war on terror when they couldn't even keep track of their own email.

August 20, 2008

White House missing up to 225 days of e-mail

WASHINGTON - The White House is missing as many as 225 days of e-mail dating back to 2003 and there is little if any likelihood a recovery effort will be completed by the time the Bush administration leaves office, according to an internal White House draft document obtained by The Associated Press.

The nine-page outline of the White House's e-mail problems invites companies to bid on a project to recover the missing electronic messages.

The work would be carried out through April 19, 2009, according to the Office of Administration request for contractors' proposals, which was dated June 20.

August 21, 2008

U.S., Iraq Agree to Troop Withdrawal Timeline

BAGHDAD -- U.S. and Iraqi negotiators reached agreement on a security deal that calls for American military forces to leave Iraq's cities by next summer as a prelude to a full withdrawal from the country, according to senior American officials.

The draft agreement sets 2011 as the date by which all remaining U.S. troops will leave Iraq, according to Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Humood and other people familiar with the matter.

August 21, 2008

British security services colluded in unlawful detention of terror suspect, court rules

Two judges ordered the foreign secretary to hand over to Binyam Mohamed's legal team secret information that could support his case that he was tortured in Pakistan and Morocco before being sent to Guantánamo Bay.

Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones found that the British security service "facilitated interviews by or on behalf of the United States incommunicado and without access to a lawyer in Pakistan" in 2002. The detention was unlawful under Pakistani law, the judges said.

August 20, 2008

US contractors eye gains from Polish shield deal

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Poland's agreement to host part of a U.S. missile shield for Europe should generate significant sales for American defense contractors, but critics say the whole effort amounts to a multibillion-dollar sham.

The United States has spent more than $120 billion on missile defenses over the past 25 years since former president Ronald Reagan's famous "Star Wars" speech in 1983.

Pastor Warren said "AND WE HAVE SAFELY PLACED SENATOR MCCAIN IN A CONE OF SILENCE." That was a lie. By his own admission, McCain was in a motorcade. Both McCain and Rev. Warren lied to the American people.

August 13, 2008

Despite Assurances, McCain Wasn't in a 'Cone of Silence'

ORLANDO, Fla. — Senator John McCain was not in a "cone of silence" on Saturday night while his rival, Senator Barack Obama, was being interviewed at the Saddleback Church in California.

Members of the McCain campaign staff, who flew here Sunday from California, said Mr. McCain was in his motorcade on the way to the church as Mr. Obama was being interviewed by the Rev. Rick Warren, the author of the best-selling book "The Purpose Driven Life."

August 15, 2008

'Dead Zones' Appear In Waters Worldwide

In the latest sign of trouble in the planet's chemistry, the number of oxygen-starved "dead zones" in coastal waters around the world has roughly doubled every decade since the 1960s, killing fish, crabs and massive amounts of marine life at the base of the food chain, according to a study released yesterday.

"These zones are popping up all over," said Robert Diaz, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who led the study, published online by the journal Science.

August 15, 2008

CNN: The Anti News Network

August 13, 2008

CEOs gloomier than public on U.S. economy

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The vast majority of chief executives are gloomier about U.S. economic prospects than a year earlier, and top company officials have become more downbeat than the public at large, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

Some 90 percent of chief executives described U.S. economic conditions as fair or poor, up from 16 percent a year earlier, according to NYSE Euronext's (NYX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(NYX.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) fourth annual CEO survey, "Managing During Economic Turbulence."

August 14, 2008

FAA Lied About Seriousness of Obama Jet Emergency

In contrast, the FAA tapes reveal the pilot reported he no longer had 100 per cent control, with only "limited pitch authority" of the aircraft.

A few minutes later, the pilot formally declared an emergency situation.

Asked by the St. Louis tower controller which runway he wanted to land on, the pilot responded, "Well, which one is the longest?"

The pilot then reported, "We have Senator Obama on board the aircraft and his campaign."

Unbeknownst to the pilot, an emergency evacuation slide had inflated inside the tail of the jet, affecting control cables there.

As tension mounted and the pilot rapidly descended from 32,000 feet, he was asked how many were on the jet.

"51 souls on board," he responded.

God knows the Justice Department doesn't care about the rule of law.

August 15, 2008

DOJ Officials Sued Over Illegal Hiring Practices

Six attorneys rejected from civil service positions at the Justice Department filed a lawsuit today against former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and three other top officials for allegedly violating their rights by taking politics into consideration in the hiring process.

The suit is an attempt to hold top officials accountable for the hiring scandal that ultimately led to Gonzales' resignation last year, said Daniel Metcalfe, the attorney for the plaintiffs who is also executive director of its Collaboration on Government Secrecy at American University's Washington College of Law.

August 14, 2008

American troops put their money on Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. soldiers have donated more presidential campaign money to Democrat Barack Obama than to Republican John McCain, a reversal of previous campaigns in which military donations tended to favor GOP White House hopefuls, a nonpartisan group reported Thursday.

Troops serving abroad have given nearly six times as much money to Obama's presidential campaign as they have to McCain's, the Center for Responsive Politics said.

August 14, 2008

U.S. Forest Service Sued for Mismanaging Southern California National Forests

San Francisco, CA -- Seven environmental groups filed a lawsuit today over the failure of the U.S. Forest Service to protect wildlife and roadless areas on four Southern California national forests -- the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres, and San Bernardino. According to the lawsuit, overarching land-management plans prepared by the Forest Service in 2005 do little to protect nature from many harmful activities, including roads, off-road vehicles, power lines, oil and gas, logging, and grazing.

"The national forests of Southern California support a globally significant concentration of wildlife and plants and are a popular destination for millions of people seeking relief from the concrete jungle," said David Hogan, conservation manager at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Yet the Forest Service ignores these values and treats most of this land as if it were worthy only of development for urban infrastructure or other exploitation."

With our national deficit and debt rising to all time record highs, is it so much to ask corporations to pay their fair share?

August 12, 2008

Report says most corporations pay no federal income taxes

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate.

Tax cuts were supposed to give us balanced budgets. What happened? Why doesn't the media ever ask the GOP how it's going to pay for what it spends?

August 12, 2008

July Deficit is nearly triple that of 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government says the federal budget deficit soared in July, pushed higher by economic stimulus payments and $15 billion in outlays to protect depositors at failed banks.

The Treasury Department reported Tuesday that the deficit for July totaled $102.8 billion, nearly triple the $36.4 billion deficit recorded in July 2007.

"Fiscal Conservative" vs. "Tax and Spend Liberal"

August 8, 2008

Religious Groups Outraged By McCain Ad - Obama the Anti Christ

It's not easy to make the infamous Willie Horton ad from the 1988 presidential campaign seem benign. But suggesting that Barack Obama is the Antichrist might just do it.

That's just what some outraged Christian supporters of the Democratic nominee are claiming John McCain's campaign did in an ad called "The One" that was recently released online. The Republican nominee's advisers brush off the charges, arguing that the spot was meant to be a "creative" and "humorous" way of poking fun at Obama's popularity by painting him as a self-appointed messiah. But even this innocuous interpretation of the ad — which includes images of Charlton Heston as Moses and culled clips that make Obama sound truly egomaniacal — taps into a conversation that has been gaining urgency on Christian radio and political blogs and in widely circulated e-mail messages that accuse Obama of being the Antichrist.

Anyone who thought debt-creating tax cuts would save our economy from conservatism was fooled.

August 14, 2008

Foreclosures rose 55 percent in July

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The number of homeowners stung by the dramatic decline in the U.S. housing market jumped last month as foreclosure filings grew by more than 50 percent compared with the same month a year ago, according to data released Thursday.

Nationwide, more than 272,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice in July, up 55 percent from about 175,000 in the same month last year and up 8 percent from June, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 464 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last month.

I have a theory. Conservatism is such a poor governing and economic belief system that when it fails, it uses tax cuts to hide that failure.

August 14, 2008

Living Costs Rising Fast, and Wages Are Trailin

The cost of living, led by the soaring cost of gasoline and food, is rising at the fastest rate since the recession of the early 1990s, the government said on Thursday, handing a de facto pay cut to the American worker.

The report, from the Labor Department, offered quantitative proof of what Americans have been feeling for months: almost everything costs more, even as they have less money to pay for it.

Prices of a wide range of common products in the Consumer Price Index were 5.6 percent higher last month than they were in July 2007, the sharpest annual increase since January 1991.

August 12, 2008

Mukasey: No prosecutions in Justice hiring scandal

NEW YORK - No criminal prosecutions are planned for former Justice Department officials accused of allowing politics to influence the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday.

Mukasey used his sharpest words yet to criticize the senior leaders who took part in or failed to stop illegal hiring practices during the tenure of his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales.

August 8, 2008

KBR Bans Cell Phones and Silences Rape Victims

So. KBR employee is raped by her coworkers and then kidnapped and held prisoner. Employee secures her release through use of a personal cell phone. KBR doesn't really give a shit about any of it. Employee makes a lot of noise about the incident, making KBR look really bad, even if not actually impacting the company financially. KBR bans personal cell phone use.

August 13, 2008

Al Qaeda More Potent Than Last Year

WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda's success in forging close ties to Pakistani militant groups has given it an increasingly secure haven in the mountainous tribal areas of Pakistan, the American government's senior terrorism analyst said Tuesday.

Al Qaeda is more capable of attacking inside the United States than it was last year, and its cadre of senior leaders has recruited and trained "dozens" of militants capable of blending into Western society to carry out attacks, the analyst said.

So now the government can violate the Constitution in order to find other law-breakers. Good grief. Impeach this judge and fire the police who broke the law.

August 13, 2008

Secret GPS Tracking of Suspects, Without Warrants, OK'd By Courts

A Fairfax police detective had placed the device on the suspect's van, in a few seconds, while it was parked on the public street, the newspaper writes. It apparently helped them catch the suspect Feb. 6 as he was allegedly dragging a woman into a wooded area in Falls Church. He was not charged in any of the prior attacks.

Attorney Chris Leibig, who is representing the suspect, David Lee Foltz Jr., sought to have the GPS evidence thrown out at an Arlington County General District Court hearing last week. Because police tracked Foltz' vehicle on private, as well as public, property, they needed a warrant, Leibig argued. The judge disagreed, and it is to be introduced into evidence at his trial in October.

August 13, 2008

Lawyers Seek Criminal Probe in Death of Ailing US Detainee

Attorneys representing a 34-year-old Hong Kong man being held by U.S. authorities in an immigration case are seeking a criminal investigation of his death last week, apparently as a result of an untreated medical condition.

Although Hiu Lui Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain in April, authorities did not seek appropriate medical treatment for him until a judge insisted July 31 that they do so, according to the New York Times.

"In federal court affidavits, Mr. Ng's lawyers contend that when he complained of severe pain that did not respond to analgesics, and grew too weak to walk or even stand to call his family from a detention pay phone, officials accused him of faking his condition. They denied him a wheelchair and refused pleas for an independent medical evaluation," the newspaper writes.

August 13, 2008

US General: Guantanamo General Unprofessional

Hartmann is the legal advisor overseeing the first U.S. war crimes tribunals since World War II. Jawad's attorney, Air Force Reserve Maj. David Frakt, wants his client's charges dismissed on grounds that Hartmann exerted "unlawful influence" on the Guantánamo trials from his perch at the Pentagon.

Frakt alleges in his motion that Hartmann usurped the role of a prosecutor — rather than act as an impartial supervisor — by pressuring military attorneys to charge Jawad because the case involved battlefield bloodshed.

In June, Hartmann defended his "intense and direct" management style in testimony, saying he had pressured for speed in the interest of kick-starting sluggish military commissions, not for political reasons.

August 12, 2008

Beleaguered Air Force shifting more forces to nuclear, intel jobs to restore trust in service

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The new leaders of the Air Force acknowledged Tuesday that the service lost its focus and must work to mend fences after a slew of contracting and nuclear-related missteps.

Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz, the new chief of staff, told Pentagon reporters that he plans to use the reinstatement of about 14,000 jobs in the service to bolster its nuclear staffing and beef up intelligence and surveillance.

The media never asks a republican how he's going to pay for what he's spending, but wait until a Democrat wants to spend a few dollars and the media will start shouting "tax and spend liberal." It's become a national disgrace. The media and the GOP have been working together to destroy the opposition party.

August 11, 2008

Use of Private Contractors In Iraq Costs Billions

WASHINGTON — The United States this year will have spent $100 billion on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, a milestone that reflects the Bush administration's unprecedented level of dependence on private firms for help in the war, according to a government report to be released Tuesday.

The report, by the Congressional Budget Office, according to people with knowledge of its contents, will say that one out of every five dollars spent on the war in Iraq has gone to contractors for the United States military and other government agencies, in a war zone where employees of private contractors now outnumber American troops.