Archives: September 2006
STATE OF DENIAL
STATE OF DENIALBy Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 1, 2006; A01
In May, President Bush spoke in Chicago and gave a characteristically upbeat forecast: "Years from now, people will look back on the formation of a unity government in Iraq as a decisive moment in the story of liberty, a moment when freedom gained a firm foothold in the Middle East and the forces of terror began their long retreat."
Two days later, the intelligence division of the Joint Chiefs of Staff circulated a secret intelligence assessment to the White House that contradicted the president's forecast.
Instead of a "long retreat," the report predicted a more violent 2007: "Insurgents and terrorists retain the resources and capabilities to sustain and even increase current level of violence through the next year."
A graph included in the assessment measured attacks from May 2003 to May 2006. It showed some significant dips, but the current number of attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces and Iraqi authorities was as high as it had ever been -- exceeding 3,500 a month. (In July the number would be over 4,500.) The assessment also included a pessimistic report on crude oil production, the delivery of electricity and political progress.
Woodward explains his findings this Sunday on 60 Minutes...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
A Mark Foley flashback to 1998...
WASHINGTON -- For more than a week, members of Congress said they would avoid partisan politics when they got Kenneth Starr's report on President Clinton. But when they finally saw it Friday, they split along party lines.Republicans were aghast at Clinton's behavior, with many saying it showed he had lied and abused his power.
"It's vile," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Bush finger
I actually think this is funny... I don't mind Bush's "git 'em, boys!" attitude. All presidents have big egos. It takes arrogance to run for governor or president. It comes with the territory. Too bad he sucks at his job because if he were a better president he'd be one of the most liked presidents in American history, instead of being one of the most divisive. He talks the talk but can't walk the walk.
GM Hires Fox News Mouthpiece Sean Hannity As Spokesman
General Motors has hired right-wing talk show host Sean Hannity to be the lead spokesman for a car giveaway campaign called “You’re a Great American“:...
Hannity has a long history of divisive remarks and has repeatedly questioned the patriotism of his political opponents:
– Hannity said a Democratic victory in the midterm elections could be a “victory for the terrorists”
– Hannity said that “making sure Nancy Pelosi doesn’t become the [House] speaker” is “worth … dying for.”
– Hannity defended Ann Coulter’s attack on the widows of 9/11 victims, whom Coulter described as “broads” who were “enjoying their husbands’ deaths.”
– Hannity compared voting for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) to voting for terrorist groups Hamas or Hezbollah.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Rove and Abramoff: best friends forever!
The White House, now comfortable admitting that Jack Abramoff was a scumbag, is now struggling - and struggling overtime - to distance itself from Mr. A. Unfortunately, there's a White House-Abramoff paper trail longer than Tony's Snow's list of denials...Email: Rove Killed Interior Nomination for Abramoff
By Paul Kiel - September 29, 2006, 11:26 AM
The House Government Reform Committee has released hundreds of new emails from Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm pertaining to his and his associates' contacts with Administration officials.
We're scouring them now, and here's a good one. In an email exchange subject-lined "were you able to whack mccain's wife yet?" Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff discuss derailing the nomination of a woman named Angela Williams to an Interior post...
You can view the emai from Jack Abramoff to Ralph Reed here.
White House ‘ignored’ Iraq warning
White House ‘ignored’ Iraq warningBy Caroline Daniel in Washington
Published: September 29 2006 23:38 | Last updated: September 30 2006 01:09
The Bush administration was shaken on Friday by revelations from a new book by Bob Woodward, the veteran investigative reporter, which said Andrew Card, the former White House chief of staff, had twice tried to force the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, over his handling of the Iraq war.
State of Denial by the Washington Post reporter who uncovered the Watergate scandal, paints a picture of an administration riven by personal rivalries, with Mr Rumsfeld at one point refusing to take calls from Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser. It claims that even Laura Bush, President George W. Bush’s wife, had misgivings about the defence secretary.
It also suggests Ms Rice “brushed off” a July 2001 briefing from the CIA director and former head of counterterrorism, about an imminent terrorist threat. That contrasts with claims from Ms Rice that the administration had in its first eight months been “at least as aggressive” as the Clinton administration...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
More weekly jokes
"It's great to have Bill in the mix again. It puts conservatives back on the offensive. Now they can get back to doing what they do best [on screen: Fear Gay People]. Pointing out that everything wrong with this country is Bill Clinton's fault." --Stephen Colbert"In Germany, the openly gay mayor of Berlin won re-election by a landslide. They said he may be now looking at a higher office. Germans are now debating if they are ready for a gay leader. Gay leader? You thought Hitler knew how to put on a parade." --Jay Leno
"The Senate has voted to approve the building of a 700-mile fence along the 2,000-mile border of Mexico. This is what happens when you let President Bush do the math." --Jay Leno
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
John Boehner Still Believes Saddam Was Tied To 9/11
On Hardball recently, House Majority Leader John Boehner was asked questions about Iraq. Boehner insisted that Saddam had WMD and that we just "haven't found them yet." Boehner also states that Saddam was supporting the terrorists for 9/11 and was "providing cover" for the training camps in Iraq.
It's yet another attempt by the GOP to distort the truth about 9/11. We all know Saddam probably had a few canisters of nerve agent still lying around in 2003, but not the massive STOCKPILES President Bush asserted that Iraq had. Don't forget - Iraq was said to have tons and tons of WMD, not just a few rusted out canisters from the 1980s. As for Saddam supporting the terrorists for 9/11 - that's just an outright lie. Saddam is alleged to have offered $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers in Jordan, not worldwide, and he is on record many times as having said he was against al Qaeda. Saddam hated bin Laden, and THAT's a fact.
Iraq situation is dire, Straw finally admits
BRITAIN - The former foreign secretary Jack Straw has described the situation in Iraq as "dire", blaming mistakes made by the US for the escalating crisis.Mr Straw - now the leader of the Commons - was foreign secretary at the time of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and staunchly backed Tony Blair's decision to join the operation.
"The current situation is dire," he said on BBC1's Question Time last night. "I think many mistakes were made AFTER THE MILITARY ACTION - there is no question about it - by the United States administration.
"Why? Because they failed to follow the lead of secretary [of state Colin] Powell. The state department had put in a huge amount of effort to ensure there was a proper civilian administration..."
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Hillary urges Dean to raise campaign funds
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton took a backhanded swipe at Democratic National Committee boss Howard Dean Thursday, saying Dean's long-term party-building efforts should take a back seat to fundraising for the midterm elections."The [Republican National Committee] is pouring tens of millions of dollars into races and we're not matching that," Clinton said during a DNC fundraiser in Washington.
"We're doing investments, you know, in ground and other efforts which will be very beneficial, but the RNC has about $60 million to $70 million waiting to drop on our candidates," she added...
What can you do? CONTRIBUTE: The Democratic Party.
or... if you swing the other way: The Republican Party.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Colbert Shames McCain
Stephen Colbert puts to shame McCain and the other GOP Congressmen who feigned opposition to the president's torture bill, only to allow it to pass almost unchanged, effectively legalizing the administration's lawbreaking (as determined by the Supreme Court this month) after the fact.
Bush’s Torture Bill: Worse Than You Think
Geneva Conventions sidestepped; basic habeas right to challenge imprisonment cancelled; coerced evidence allowed; torture allowed; secret evidence allowed; judicial review blocked; U.S. residents could be detained indefinitely with no hope of appeal. Nearly all Senate Republicans voted Yes...N.Y. Times:
There is not enough time to fix these bills, especially since the few Republicans who call themselves moderates have been whipped into line, and the Democratic leadership in the Senate seems to have misplaced its spine. If there was ever a moment for a filibuster, this was it.
We don’t blame the Democrats for being frightened. The Republicans have made it clear that they’ll use any opportunity to brand anyone who votes against this bill as a terrorist enabler. But Americans of the future won’t remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration.
They’ll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Sen. Clinton: 'Incalculable Damage Done to Our Country'
The upcoming mid-term election is important because the U.S. is "in a deep hole, and Republicans don't want to quit digging," Sen. Hillary Clinton told a gathering of Democratic women in Washington, D.C., on Thursday."I am just totally focused on this November's election, and I hope you are, too," the junior senator from New York told the Democratic National Committee Women's Leadership Forum. "I am fixated on taking back the House and the Senate" because "everything we care about is at stake."
"The damage that has already been done to our country in the last six years is incalculable," she said.
"It's going to take an enormous amount of effort to begin to repair and restore American values and to reinstate the kind of shared commitment to common values and common ground that we desperately need," Clinton added.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Carter helps son win, attacks Bush
RENO, Nev. Former President Carter is urging northern Nevadans to elect his son, Jack, to the Senate to help combat a Bush administration he says has brought "international disgrace" to the country.The former president told a crowd of about 300 on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno today that the nation is more sharply divided that it has ever been [does that include the Civil War?] as a result of Bush's policies.
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, he says he's deeply embarrassed that the American government now stands convicted around the world as one of the greatest abusers of civil rights. He continued the theme in a dinner speech to 700 at a Democratic fundraiser tonight, saying every past president has been a supporter of human rights, until this one.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
NEW: Pollyticks.com magnet poetry!
Click the new 'MagnetPoetry' link at the top of the page to play our new free game! Whatever you create will be left for the next person to see...
Watergate Woodward looks into truth of Iraq
(CBS News) NEW YORK Veteran Washington reporter Bob Woodward tells Mike Wallace that the Bush administration has not told the truth regarding the level of violence, especially against U.S. troops, in Iraq. He also reveals key intelligence that predicts the insurgency will grow worse next year.In Wallace’s interview with Woodward, to be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. ET/PT, the reporter also claims that Henry Kissenger is among those advising Mr. Bush.
According to Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret. "It’s getting to the point now where there are eight-, nine-hundred attacks a week. That's more than 100 a day. That is four an hour attacking our forces," says Woodward.
The situation is getting much worse, says Woodward, despite what the White House and the Pentagon are saying...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
More Best Jokes of The Week
"The president of Afghanistan says over the past year, democracy has suffered a set back in his country. On the bright side, at least now he and President Bush have something in common." --Jay Leno"After three long years, our efforts in Iraq have been successful in fostering a new generation of people who hate us." --Jon Stewart
"A new National Intelligence Estimate report recently leaked to the New York Times says the war in Iraq has made the overall terrorism problem worse, and has spread Islamic radicalism further than before. Now that sounds bad, but remember, this is from a U.S. intelligence report. Take it with a grain of salt." --Jon Stewart
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Iraqis back attacks on U.S. troops
About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year, according to a poll in that country.The Iraqis also have negative views of Osama bin Laden, according to the early September poll of 1,150.
The poll, done for University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, found:
Almost four in five Iraqis say the U.S. military force in Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents.
About 61 percent approved of the attacks — up from 47 percent in January. A solid majority of Shiite and Sunni Arabs approved of the attacks, according to the poll. The increase came mostly among Shiite Iraqis.
An overwhelmingly negative opinion of terror chief bin Laden and more than half, 57 percent, disapproving of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Three-fourths say they think the United States plans to keep military bases in Iraq permanently.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
O'Reilly on Iraq: I "couldn't care less about the country"
O'Reilly is one cold bastard... He calls his rants the "no-spin zone" and hides behind what he calls honesty. Well, honestly, Bill, have you no heart? What would God say to, "I don't care what Iraq was, I don't care what it will be"?On the September 25 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly declared: "I don't care what Iraq was, I don't care what it will be. I just don't want them killing anybody or helping Al Qaeda." O'Reilly added that he "[c]ouldn't care less" about Iraq. But in the past, O'Reilly has criticized those who didn't "care" about Iraq becoming a democracy. For example, on the January 24, 2005, edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, while criticizing war critics, O'Reilly stated: "Now, you would think everyone in the world who values freedom would be rooting for the Iraqis to have them, but they are not."
From the September 25 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
O'REILLY: I don't care.
E.D. HILL (co-host): Postwar?
O'REILLY: I don't care what Iraq was, I don't care what it will be. I just don't want them killing anybody or helping Al Qaeda. OK? Couldn't care less about the country. That is the no-spin honesty that you all come to expect from me.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
White House refuses to release full NIE
The White House refused Wednesday to release the rest of a secret intelligence assessment that depicts a growing terrorist threat, as the Bush administration tried to quell election-season criticism that its anti-terror policies are seriously off track.Press secretary Tony Snow said releasing the full report, portions of which President Bush declassified on Tuesday, would jeopardize the lives of agents who gathered the information. [No one wants to put the lives of agents in danger, but I think the White House can still release more than 10% of the report. It's an intelligence estimate, after all, and doesn't cite specific events/dates/places anyway. This is a convenient excuse.]
It would also risk the nation's ability to work with foreign governments and to keep secret its U.S. intelligence-gathering methods, Snow said, and "compromise the independence of people doing intelligence analysis."
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Tony Snow’s Challenge: ‘Please Show Me’ Where The NIE Says ‘We’re Not Winning’
In today’s briefing, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow challenged a reporter who said the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluded that we’re not safer. Snow retorted, “Look for, ‘We’re not winning.’ Please show me. Well, the President says we’re winning.” Watch it:We looked through the NIE for Snow. Some examples of “We’re not winning”:
“[A] large body of all-source reporting indicates that activists identifying themselves as jihadists, although a small percentage of Muslims, are increasing in both number and geographic dispersion.” [p. 1]
“If this trend continues, threats to US interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide.” [p. 1]
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Keith Olbermann reviews Bush’s actions in office leading up to 9/11
Keith Olbermann responds to Bush’s non-response to Bill Clinton. He goes over his first months in office leading up to 9/11. It’s not a pretty picture.Olbermann: The political debate still raging over Mr. Clinton’s remarks in a Fox News interview Sunday has overshadowed the debate Mr. Clinton suggested the nation ought to have… a discussion of what steps the Bush administration took to get Osama bin Laden or destroy al Qaeda before September 11th.
Yesterday, Mr. Bush declined to address Mr. Clinton’s remarks, saying we’ve already had the "look-back this" and "look-back that."
But if we are to look forward with any clarity, it is important to know the facts about where we have been, and how we got where we are.
Mr. Clinton is not in office.
Mr. Bush is.
His policies determine how the U.S. fights al Qaeda, so it is important that we understand how he has done so in the past.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Play the George Allen Insult Generator
<== Hey, macaca, play Slate's fun new game! ==>George Allen has spent all summer with his foot in his mouth. On Sunday, Salon reported that a handful of the Virginia senator's former football teammates claim he repeatedly used the [n-word]. The New York Times wrote on Tuesday that two of Allen's former acquaintances recall that he said the word. Allen has denied the allegations. "The story and his comments and assertions in there are completely false," he told the Associated Press. "I don't remember ever using that word and it is absolutely false that that was ever part of my vocabulary."
Georgia Christian Coalition branch splits
Georgia's branch of the Christian Coalition has announced plans to change names and split from the national group — making it the fourth state to leave the socially conservative political group.Director Sadie Fields said the Georgia branch's board voted about two weeks ago to make the change because of the Christian Coalition of America's liberal "drift."
"It's really a sad moment," Fields said Monday. "I deeply regret we have been compelled to take this action, but we felt like we had no other choice."
The president of the national organization said Tuesday she will establish a new chapter in Georgia.
"The Christian Coalition — or any group — is not about individuals," said Roberta Combs, president of Christian Coalition of America. "Maybe we [only Christians, of course] can work together in the future."
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Best mid-week jokes...
"Big problems for California U.S. Senate candidate Dick Mountjoy. He says he was on the Battleship Missouri in the Korean War. Turns out he wasn't. No one on the ship can remember him being there. And believe me, when your name is Dick Mountjoy, people are gonna remember you being there." --Jay Leno"We all know about the big dust-up between President Bush and the Senate leadership over his wanting to change the Geneva Conventions, right? Well, on Thursday, they reached a compromise. That's not just a victory for Bush, it's a victory for the country because basic human rights is something we all need to compromise on." --Stephen Colbert
"The Transportation Security Administration has partially lifted the ban on carry-on liquids for air flights. You can bring liquids on the plane, as long as they are purchased from secure airport stores. What a relief, huh? See now instead of bringing your own hair gel, you can buy a three ounce tube at the airport for $162." --Jay Leno
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Memo directly contradicts Rice terrorism claim...
A memo received by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shortly after becoming National Security Advisor in 2001 directly contradicts statements she made to reporters yesterday, RAW STORY has learned."We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al Qaeda," Rice told a reporter for the New York Post on Monday. "Big pieces were missing," Rice added, "like an approach to Pakistan that might work, because without Pakistan you weren't going to get Afghanistan."
Rice made the comments in response to claims made Sunday by former President Bill Clinton, who argued that his administration had done more than the current one to address the al Qaeda problem before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She stopped short of calling the former president a liar.
However, RAW STORY has found that just five days after President George W. Bush was sworn into office, a memo from counter-terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke to Rice included the 2000 document, "Strategy for Eliminating the Threat from the Jihadist Networks of al-Qida: Status and Prospects." This document devotes over 2 of its 13 pages of material to specifically addressing strategies for securing Pakistan's cooperation in airstrikes against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Strong majority of Iraqis want U.S. out
A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and reduce sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers.In Baghdad, for example, nearly three-quarters of residents polled said they would feel safer if U.S. and other foreign forces left Iraq, with 65 percent of those asked favoring an immediate pullout, according to polling results obtained by The Washington Post.
Another new poll, scheduled to be released today by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, found that 71 percent of Iraqis questioned want the Iraqi government to ask foreign forces to depart within a year. By large margins, though, Iraqis believed that the U.S. government would refuse the request; 77 percent said the U.S. intends to keep permanent military bases in the country.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Bush declasifies a whopping 10% of NIE report
President Bush insisted on Sept. 26 that a National Intelligence Estimate from this past April does not say that the war in Iraq has contributed to the spread of terrorism, as the New York Times alleged in an article published two days earlier that contained no direct quotes from the NIE. To prove his point, the president declassified one-tenth of the NIE and made that partial document available to the public. "You can read it for yourself," the president said. "Everybody can draw their own conclusions about what the report says."What does the report say?
On the plus side for President Bush, it says that if United States military forces withdrew anytime soon from Iraq, then al Qaida would use that perceived victory to recruit new members. That's bad news for any congressional Democrats who advocate removing troops in the near term.
But Bush was clearly wrong to suggest that the Times mischaracterized the NIE. The document he released says what the New York Times reported...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Senator mocks fears of global warming...
I am going to speak today about the most media-hyped environmental issue of all time, global warming. I have spoken more about global warming than any other politician in Washington today. My speech will be a bit different from the previous seven floor speeches, as I focus not only on the science, but on the media’s coverage of climate change....
Since 1895, the media has alternated between global cooling and warming scares during four separate and sometimes overlapping time periods. From 1895 until the 1930’s the media peddled a coming ice age.
From the late 1920’s until the 1960’s they warned of global warming. From the 1950’s until the 1970’s they warned us again of a coming ice age. This makes modern global warming the fourth estate’s fourth attempt to promote opposing climate change fears during the last 100 years.
Recently, advocates of alarmism have grown increasingly desperate to try to convince the public that global warming is the greatest moral issue of our generation. Just last week, the vice president of London’s Royal Society sent a chilling letter to the media encouraging them to stifle the voices of scientists skeptical of climate alarmism.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Olbermann says Clinton spoke the truth, calls President Bush a coward
You can say one thing about Keith Olbermann... The guy is smart. Roosevelt, Hoover, Lincoln, Tokyo Rose, plus quotes from public figures from nearly 10 years ago? The man knows history, regardless of how you feel about him personally.The headlines about them are, of course, entirely wrong.
It is not essential that a past president, bullied and sandbagged by a monkey posing as a newscaster, finally lashed back.
It is not important that the current President’s portable public chorus has described his predecessor’s tone as “crazed.”
Our tone should be crazed. The nation’s freedoms are under assault by an administration whose policies can do us as much damage as al Qaida; the nation’s marketplace of ideas is being poisoned by a propaganda company so blatant that Tokyo Rose would’ve quit.
Nonetheless. The headline is this:
Bill Clinton did what almost none of us have done in five years.
He has spoken the truth about 9/11, and the current presidential administration.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Rice challenges Bill Clinton
Excerpts..."What we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years," Rice said Monday during a meeting with editors and reporters at the New York Post.
The newspaper published her comments Tuesday, after Clinton appeared on "Fox News Sunday" in a combative interview in which he defended his handling of the threat posed by bin Laden and said he "worked hard" to have the al-Qaida leader killed.
Rice took exception to Clinton's statement that he "left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy" for incoming officials when he left office.
"We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaida," she told the newspaper, which is owned by News Corp., which also owns Fox News Channel.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
12 Traps That Keep Progressives From Winning
Interesting assessment... values, connection, authenticity and trust.Richard Wirthlin, chief strategist for former president Ronald Reagan, made a discovery in 1980 that profoundly changed American politics. As a pollster, he was taught that people vote for candidates on the basis of the candidates' positions on issues. But his initial polls for Reagan revealed something fascinating: Voters who didn't agree with Reagan on the issues still wanted to vote for him.
Mystified, Wirthlin studied the matter further. He discovered just what made people want to vote for Reagan. Reagan talked about values rather than issues. Communicating values mattered more than specific policy positions. Reagan connected with people; he communicated well. Reagan also appeared authentic -- he seemed to believe what he said. And because he talked about his values, connected with people and appeared authentic, they felt they could trust him. For these four reasons -- values, connection, authenticity and trust -- voters identified with Reagan; they felt he was one of them. It was not because all of his values matched theirs exactly. It was not because he was from their socioeconomic class or subculture. It was because they believed in the integrity of his connection with them as well as the connection between his worldview and his actions.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
From Harken to Halliburton, the backroom deals that have netted war profiteers billions...
We all know how Dick Cheney brought his rolodex with him to Houston to help Halliburton out as CEO. That was after serving as Secretary of Defense, where he hired KBR to produce a report that led to the decision to privatize military work and give the company billions of dollars through the LOGCAP contract, which has (along with its oil work) resulted in $18 billion worth of contract-related revenues so far for the company’s work in Iraq.Many people are also aware that Cheney carried some of his Halliburton salary over into his term as Vice President, when the company’s no-bid oil contract was “coordinated” with his office. In fact, Cheney has received over a million dollars from Halliburton since he came to Washington.
Yet while Cheney himself has made millions off the company’s good fortunes, it’s safe to say that he left the title of “Daddy Warbucks” behind with his successor, Halliburton CEO David Lesar, who has made over $100 million since the war began which, as filmaker Robert Greenwald told Keith Olbermann, is “an obscenity.”
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
tit for tat
What else did you expect Rice to say? - "Yes, the Bush administration didn't do a damn thing about terrorism before 9/11"?Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday accused Bill Clinton of making "flatly false" claims that the Bush administration didn't lift a finger to stop terrorism before the 9/11 attacks.
Rice hammered Clinton, who leveled his charges in a contentious weekend interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News Channel, for his claims that the Bush administration "did not try" to kill Osama bin Laden in the eight months they controlled the White House before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The notion somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn't do that is just flatly false - and I think the 9/11 commission understood that," Rice said during a wide-ranging meeting with Post editors and reporters.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Both Parties Sensing Tighter House Races
After months of unrelenting bad news, President Bush and his Republican allies have begun to change the mood, if not the overall trajectory, of a midterm election campaign that has tilted against them for a year.A combination of good luck -- in the form of a sharp decline in gasoline prices -- and dogged persistence by the president's political team in trying to redefine the terms of the fall campaign has given a much-needed morale boost to beleaguered Republican candidates. The ebullience many Democrats exhibited throughout the summer has given way to more cautious assessments of how difficult the final six weeks may be.
Republicans remain very much on the defensive, anticipating losses in the Senate and possible loss of control in the House. Surveys show that voters strongly disapprove of the performance of this Congress and continue to express far greater willingness to vote for Democrats over Republicans in House races in November...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
U.S. Army Extends Iraq Duty for 4,000
In a new sign of mounting strain from the war in Iraq, the Army has extended the combat tours of about 4,000 soldiers who would otherwise be returning home, a defense official said Monday.The 1st Brigade of 1st Armored Division, which is operating in the vicinity of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, will be kept in place for several weeks beyond their scheduled departure, the official said. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced by the Pentagon.
The brigade's home base is in Germany. The soldiers' families were notified of the extension Monday, the official said.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Best Jokes of the week...
"The situation might be improving in Dhi Qar, but conditions continue to deteriorate in the capital of Bagdad. So with sectarian violence spreading, U.S. forces have approved an Iraq plan to protect Baghdad by digging trenches around the entire city, completely protecting Baghdad from World War I era soldiers." --Jon Stewart"Oil has fallen to $60 a barrel. Experts predict it will continue to fall until exactly one minute after the polls close on November 7th." --Jay Leno
"The Vatican has increased protection around the Pope. How ironic is that -- A Catholic using protection?" --Jay Leno
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Wary of electronic voting...
A growing number of state and local officials are getting cold feet about electronic voting technology, and many are making last-minute efforts to limit or reverse the rollout of new machines in the November elections.Less than two months before voters head to the polls, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of Maryland this week became the most recent official to raise concerns publicly. Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican, said he lacked confidence in the state’s new $106 million electronic voting system and suggested a return to paper ballots.
Dozens of states have adopted electronic voting technology to comply with federal legislation in 2002 intended to phase out old-fashioned lever and punch-card machines after the “hanging chads” confusion of the 2000 presidential election.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
White House: Account of Iraq report incomplete
Without citing specifics, on Sunday the White House said the country's recent National Intelligence Estimate, which plainly said the Iraq war had worsened terrorism, was "not representative of the complete document."A newspaper report that a U.S. intelligence analysis found that the Iraq war gave rise to a new generation of Islamic radicals and made the overall terrorism problem worse was "not representative of the complete document," the White House said on Sunday.
The New York Times reported that a classified National Intelligence Estimate completed in April said Islamic radicalism had mushroomed worldwide and cited the Iraq war as a reason for the spread of jihadist ideology.
It was the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by U.S. intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began in March 2003 and represents a consensus view of the 16 spy services.
"The New York Times' characterization of the NIE is not representative of the complete document," said White House spokesman Peter Watkins.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Nuclear talks with Iran may start without U.S.-report
France, Britain and Germany would be willing to begin talks with Iran even if it has not suspended its nuclear enrichment programme first, but Washington would not take part, a German magazine reported on Saturday.So far Iran has refused to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, which could refine uranium for atom bombs, saying its nuclear fuel ambitions are limited to fuelling power stations. Western countries suspect Tehran wants to produce weapons.
Citing unnamed German diplomatic sources, weekly Der Spiegel said the goal of this new strategy would be to lure Tehran to the negotiating table to discuss a package of incentives offered by six world powers in June in exchange for a suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment programme.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat
A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.
The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Bush goes behind curtain
Since President Bush's approval rating sank to the lowest level of his presidency in May, nearly six in 10 of his appearances helping Republican candidates have been closed to all media coverage.Unlike his barnstorming leading up to the 2002 congressional elections, when he was more popular and the divisive Iraq war had not begun, Bush has yet to hold a single traditional campaign-style rally for one of his party's hopefuls this election cycle.
Every one of his events for GOP gubernatorial, House and Senate candidates has been to raise money from faithful Republican donors — not to urge support among the broader voting public.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
White House-Abramoff ties
Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed totaled more than 100 visits to the Bush White House, according to documents released Wednesday that provide the first official accounting of the access and influence the two presidential allies have enjoyed.The White House released the Secret Service visit records to settle a lawsuit by the Democratic Party and an ethics watchdog group seeking visitor logs for the two GOP strategists and others who emerged as figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
Earlier this month, the White House suggested to the judge in the lawsuit that such records need not be disclosed because the information was privileged and might reveal how Bush and his staff get private advice, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Cheney doing his best 'I'm a reasonable person' bit
At a Republican fundraiser held in Rochester, New York on Friday afternoon, Vice President Dick Cheney said that his "old friend," Democratic Congressman Jack Murtha was "wrong" on Iraq, and that following his advice to withdraw our troops would "simply validate the al Qaeda strategy and invite more terrorist attacks in the future."The vice president also condemned the "Dean Democrats" who "have purged Joe Lieberman from the ranks of the Democratic Party in Connecticut," in favor of primary winner Ned Lamont, "a candidate whose explicit goal is to give up the fight against the terrorists in Iraq."
"One of those who has been calling for withdrawal from Iraq is Congressman Jack Murtha," Cheney said at a reception for Rep. John "Randy" Kuhl.
"Jack is an old friend of mine," said Cheney. "When I was Secretary of Defense, he was the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Sub-committee..."
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Audit finds Bush reading program corrupt
This is unbelievable. Very convincing evidence of government corruption on a mulit-billion-dollar scale...A scorching internal review of the Bush administration's billion-dollar-a-year reading program says the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money how it wanted.
The government audit is unsparing in its view that the Reading First program has been beset by conflicts of interest and willful mismanagement. It suggests the department broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum schools must use.
It also depicts a program in which review panels were stacked with people who shared the director's views, and in which only favored publishers of reading curricula could get money.
In one e-mail, the director told a staff member to come down hard on a company he didn't support, according to the report released Friday by the department's inspector general.
"They are trying to crash our party and we need to beat the (expletive deleted) out of them in front of all the other would-be party crashers who are standing on the front lawn waiting to see how we welcome these dirtbags," the program director wrote, the report says...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Clinton: We must get back to thinking
On Friday, "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann caught up with former President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, and asked him about everything from his work in the international community to his advice for President Bush to his pick for president in 2008.Here's my favorite excerpt from the interview:
...I think what’s the great disservice, though, that’s been done here in the last few years is not that let’s say the administration disagrees with you or me on whether there should be an Abu Ghraib or a Guantanamo or what the economic or social policies of America should be.
The great disservice is the creation of the idea that if you disagree with the people that are in, you’re somehow, you don’t love your country and you can’t be trusted to defend it. What we have to do is to get back to a point, to thinking in America and to promoting honest debate and honest diffences, so that like, if you asked, and I would urge you to do this, if you interview somebody in the administration, no matter how much you disagree with them, don’t be snide. Give them a straight up chance to say how they disagree with you.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
VIDEO: Branson Discusses How Al Gore Convinced Him To Lead on Global Warming
Earlier today on Good Morning America, Virgin CEO Richard Branson, who yesterday pledged $3 billion (how much has the federal government pledged to spend on alternative energy?) to invest in alternative energy to combat global warming, appeared alongside Al Gore. Branson explained that he was once a global warming skeptic, but after meeting with scientists, reading books, and talking over breakfast with Gore, he became “convinced that the world has a real serious problem.”Gore praised Branson for having the “guts” to show such “courage and leaderhip” on the issue. Watch it:
Quote of the day
"They rediscover bin Laden every two years right before the election. If you had a business strategy that worked all the time that was premised on scaring the living daylights out of people, you just keep doing it."-- Bill Clinton, in an interview on Bloomberg Television's Political Capital with Al Hunt, about the Republican strategy for the midterm elections.
Clinton faults Bush on bin Laden
Former President Bill Clinton, angrily defending his efforts to capture Osama bin Laden, accused the Bush administration of doing far less to stop the al Qaeda leader before the September 11 attacks.In a heated interview to be aired on Sunday on "Fox News Sunday," the former Democratic president defended the steps he took after al Qaeda's attack on the USS Cole in 2000 and faulted "right-wingers" for their criticism of his efforts to capture Osama bin Laden.
"But at least I tried. That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now," Clinton said when asked whether he had failed to fully anticipate bin Laden's danger. "They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed."
Bush: Dems will raise your taxes
President Bush may be right here, but do I care? No. Because good schools cost money, taking care of the elderly costs money, good highways cost money, protecting America costs money, and I don't believe those are the real priorities of the current administration. Money earmarked for the above is being wasted today. It's not always about quantity, but rather quality of funding. Not only is government bigger today than it's ever been before, but it's corrupt, ineffective and wasteful.Either WE start responsibly paying for government ourselves, or through the national debt we stick it to our children and grandchildren to do. Sooner or later the bill comes due.
President George W. Bush charged on Thursday that Democrats would raise taxes if put in control of the U.S. Congress, turning to a familiar campaign theme as he seeks to stave off Republican losses in November.
"If they get control of the House of Representatives, they'll raise your taxes. It'll hurt our economy. And that's why we're not going to let them get control of the House of Representatives," Bush said.
The president's blast was new language for the final seven weeks of the campaign ahead before the November 7 elections and aides said he plans extensive travel to try to help Republicans.
Bush rolled out the attack at an event that raised $450,000 for Republican Gus Bilirakis, running for a House seat held by his father, Rep. Mike Bilirakis, who is retiring after 12 terms in Congress.
Republicans Will Make History
GOP Chairman Ken Mehlman sticks to familiar themes here in this letter to the Wall Street Journal (aka the American people)...Last month's narrowly averted plot to blow up airliners bound for the U.S. from Great Britain is a stark reminder that we are engaged in an extraordinary and dangerous global war. In 46 days, the American people will make an important decision about how we prosecute that war: Do we stay on the offense and use every tool available to defeat the enemy, or do we elect leaders who would weaken America and surrender key tools we need to defeat the global jihad?
This war began long before September 11, 2001. For a generation, the terrorists have attacked free nations, from the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich to the 444 days that American hostages were held in Iran; from the 1983 Beirut attacks to the bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, Riyadh in 1995 and Khobar Towers in 1996; from the embassy attacks in 1998 to bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. Too often, free nations responded weakly, or not at all, so the enemy grew emboldened. The result was 9/11.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Howard Dean: Dems' new direction
From a letter Dean wrote for the Wall Street Journal... Frankly, it was actually kind of tough finding the actual "New Direction" in the letter. It's burried near the bottom.Democrats offer America a new direction in fiscal policy, for the middle class, and in the war in Iraq. We believe that America should work for everyone:
--We will restore honesty in government, starting with the pay-as-you-go discipline in Congress that served Mr. Clinton so well. Balancing the Federal budget will be a high priority with concurrent limitation of spending. We will ease the burdens on middle class Americans and reverse Republican cuts in college tuition aid and health care. We will ensure that a retirement with dignity is the right and expectation of every single American, including pension reform, and preventing the privatization of social security.
--We will dramatically expand support of energy independence in order to generate large numbers of new American jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We will have a jobs agenda that includes good jobs that stay in America, a higher minimum wage and trade policies that benefit the global labor force, not just multinational corporations.
--We will have a defense policy that is tough and smart, starting with phased redeployment of our troops in Iraq, and shore up our efforts to attack al Qaeda and fight the war on terror. We also will close the gaps in our security here at home by implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations.
--We are ready to lead with a thoughtful, fiscally responsible long-term vision. We will reach out to all Americans who value hope over fear and begin moving the country forward again.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Clinton cautions anti-war segment
This is a nice article about Hillary Clinton's presidential bid and her position on the Iraq War. President Bill Clinton, speaking about his wife's plans to run for the presidency and the Iraq War in general, also had these words for the "Far Left..."“It would really be crazy if the anti-war element of our party thought that the most important thing to do was to beat up on the Democrats, and gave the Republicans a free ride,” an exasperated Bill Clinton told the New Yorker. “This deal with Iraq makes me want to throw up. I’m sick and tired of being told that if you voted for authorization, you voted for the war. It was a mistake, and I would have made it, too.”
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Kerry Urges Democrats to Fight Back
Senator John Kerry (a decorated war hero, unlike the man in the White House) is hoping that Democrats learn from his mistakes. The 2004 Democratic nominee for president says that Dems must fight back "swiftly" when smeared...Kerry urges Democrats to fight back in a letter seeking funds for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
"Their first attack ads against Democratic House candidates are already on the air. They hope they've caught you sleeping. We have to respond quickly and in force," Kerry writes in an e-mail sent to tens of thousands of Democrats.
Kerry was widely criticized for his slow response to the Swift Boat attacks.
"You get knocked down and you can either get mad or you can get tougher," said Kerry spokesman David Wade. "Our battle cry is 'never again.'"
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Ignoring Senate Intel Report, White House Releases ‘Fact Sheet’ on ‘Iraq’s Links to Al Qaeda’
Thinkprogress.org is hands-down one of the most informative sites on the Net. Their investigative reports dig deeper than those by most of the big news outlets. Here's another gem:Ignoring Senate Intel Report, White House Releases ‘Fact Sheet’ on ‘Iraq’s Links to Al Qaeda’
On September 8, the Senate Intelligence Committee — chaired by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) — released a report examining Iraq’s pre-war links to al-Qaeda. Here’s what they concluded:
"…Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qa’ida and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al Qa’ida to provide material or operational support…Saddam issued a general order that Iraq should not deal with al Qa’ida. No postwar information suggests that the Iraqi regime attempted to facilitate a relationship with bin Ladin."
Days later, the White House has released this “fact sheet“:
Iran misses U.N. deadline...
Iran missed the deadline to halt uranium enrichment or face sanctions. No problem, just give them a new one...The nations seeking to halt Iran's nuclear activities are working out a new deadline for Tehran despite differences over possible sanctions, the French foreign minister said Wednesday.
With world leaders gathered at the United Nations, the United States had hoped to move decisively this week toward political and economic sanctions against Iran after it missed an Aug. 31 U.N. Security Council deadline to halt disputed uranium enrichment that many believe is aimed at making a bomb.
But some U.S. allies are balking (BIG surprise). France has instead proposed a compromise deal: a simultaneous suspension of all threats of sanctions and Iran's uranium enrichment.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
More best mid-week jokes
"Willie Nelson and the boys were on the road, and they stopped them and found a pound and a half of marijuana. bin Laden is still loose, but we got Willie Nelson." --David Letterman"The leader of Hezbollah says he's throwing a victory party in honor of their victory over Israel. Well that should be fun--a party thrown by Muslim extremists -- 'Who wants some more goat? Turn off the music, and no girls'." --Jay Leno
"According to the latest poll, Bush's approval rating has rebounded to 44% -- the highest level in a year. The White House says it's thrilled that Bush has gone from an overwhelming dislike to a general dislike." --Conan O'Brien
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Bill Clinton on The Daily Show
Stewart to Clinton: "Mr. President, Hillary Clinton may be running for president. If so, what is the key to defeating her?" Watch the Clinton interview.Cable News Race
Fox News Channel still DOMINATES the cable news airwaves...CABLE NEWS RACE
TUES. SEPT 19, 2006
VIEWERS
FOXNEWS O'REILLY 1,932,000
FOXNEWS SHEP SMITH 1,405,000
FNC HANNITY/COLMES 1,396,000
FNC BRIT HUME 1,381,000
FNC GRETA 1,284,000
CNN WOLF BLITZER 912,000
CNN LOU DOBBS 848,000
CNN COOPER 790,000
CNN ZAHN 783,000
CNNHN GRACE 770,000
CNN KING 706,000
MSNBC SCARBOROUGH 444,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 444,000
CNNHN BECK 425,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 413,000
Record, not orientation, disturbs GOP
The GOP will use this to amazing political advantage. They say their problem with now outed former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey is based solely on his policies in office... and not on his sexual orientation. They can say that because they KNOW that all MOST voters know about the former Democratic governor is that he's gay, was forced to leave office in disgrace, wrote a tell-all book, and was a Democrat. The GOP is working hard to tie the two facets - that he was a married Democrat who had a gay affair - together and will leverage it to imply that Democrats everywhere suffer from moral weakness. They'll imply that McGreevey is not so unlike his Democratic colleagues elsewhere in the country. What they'll mean to say is, "Look, none of them can be trusted."In yesterday's episode of the Oprah Winfrey show, McGreevey was shockingly detailed in their interview, and, of course, the show was also the most watched program on television nationwide...
Don't expect to see the Republicans who represent Hunterdon and Warren counties in the state's 23rd Legislative District among the people lining up for Jim McGreevey's autograph at an upcoming book signing.
"I think history will judge Jim McGreevey based upon his record in office regarding public policy," said Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, R-Hunterdon/Warren. "Ultimately, that record is one I find very disturbing."
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
The Liberals' War - by Bret Stephens
"When I was 19, I moved to New York City. . . . If you had asked me to describe myself then, I would have told you I was a musician, an artist and, on a somewhat political level, a woman, a lesbian and a Jew. Being an American wouldn't have made my list. On Sept. 11, all that changed. I realized that I had been taking the freedoms I have here for granted. Now I have an American flag on my backpack, I cheer at the fighter jets as they pass overhead and I am calling myself a patriot." -- Rachel Newman, "My Turn" in Newsweek, Oct. 21, 2001Here's a puzzle: Why is it so frequently the case that the people who have the most at stake in the battle against Islamic extremism and the most to lose when Islamism gains--namely, liberals--are typically the most reluctant to fight it?
It is often said, particularly in the "progressive" precincts of the democratic left, that by aiming at the Pentagon, the World Trade Center and perhaps the Capitol, Mohamed Atta and his cohorts were registering a broader Muslim objection to what those buildings supposedly represented: capitalism and globalization, U.S. military power, support for Israel, oppression of the Palestinians and so on.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Fox Guest: We Should Ignore McCain Since He ‘Was So Traumatized’ By P.O.W. Experience
Last night on the O’Reilly Factor, former New York Senator Al D’Amato (R) and Bill O’Reilly debated Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) insistence that the U.S. follow the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of all detainees. D’Amato said McCain should receive “a pass on this” because he was “so traumatized by the events that took place” during his captivity in the Vietnam War. The trauma, D’Amato argued, put McCain in such a mental state that he was not in “a position to consider the impact of what his restrictions would do.” Watch it:Best mid-week jokes...
"Of course, President Bush is in town, as well. Earlier today at the public library, President Bush and the First Lady gave a speech on literacy. Apparently, she was for it and he was against it." --Conan O'Brien"Robert Novak does not watch the 'Daily Show,' or myself -- not surprising. I keep reading all these articles about how the 'Daily Show' is big amongst 115-year-old vampire demons." --Jon Stewart
"There's a lot of tension in the world. Over the weekend, Pope Benedict apologized to the Muslims. Altar boys, on the other hand, are still waiting for their apology." --David Letterman
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Iran’s president also full of crap
Eloquent, he may have been, but I don't care about eloquence or fairness when it comes to the spread of nuclear weapons. Enough is enough. It's bad enough the U.S. has tens of thousands of nukes. I don't want Iran to have them too.President Bush’s policies in the Middle East are “moving the world toward war,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday, maintaining that Iran was a peaceful nation that merely wanted to be left alone to “stand on its [own] feet.”
“The U.S. government thinks that it’s still the period after World War II,” Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News,” a mindset that led Bush to believe that he “can rule, therefore, over the rest of the world.”
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Poll: In Match-up Between Hillary and Kerry, Most Democrats Would Choose Suicide
A new survey of Democratic voters indicates that in a hypothetical match-up between Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and former presidential nominee John Kerry, most Democrats would choose suicide over either candidate.The poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, shows Mr. Kerry drawing 21%, Sen. Clinton 18%, and various forms of suicide 61%.
“Throwing yourself in front of a speeding city bus” was the most popular means of suicide at 22%, with “jumping off the roof of a really tall building or bridge” coming in second at 17%.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Wal-mart mobilizing 1.3 mil voters
With all the hell Democratic legislators have raised with Wal-mart, which party do you think the company would like to see win big this November?The nation's largest retailer and biggest employer, Wal-Mart, will begin a program next week that will provide voter registration and educational materials to the company's 1.3 million employees, the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill is reporting. The Arkansas-based company has come under fire from labor union and Democratic leaders over issues such as hourly wages, legal status of employees, and benefits given to the company's workers.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Iran - What will happen?
Unless Javier Solana, the chief diplomat for the European Union, can magically pull a rabbit out of the hat, the Bush administration is heading for a blunt choice between a military strike and acquiescing as Iran achieves nuclear power status.The one alternative to this grimly binary choice appears to be some kind of Grand Bargain between Iran and the United States, elusive as that may seem with the current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran. A conference in Washington last week, organized by the New American Foundation, explored what such a Grand Bargain might look like, and whether it could be feasible...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
The 13 most corrupt in Congress
Over the past year, the issue of Congressional ethics has taken on new resonance. Where questionable conduct was once shrugged off as "business as usual," now both the public and the press are demanding greater accountability from Members of Congress. At a time when a recent Gallup Poll reports only that 36% of those polled express approval of Congress, people are taking a harder look at the actions of their representatives.The ethics issues surrounding House Majority Leader Tom DeLay are well documented and frequently reported. In fact, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has been one of Rep. DeLay's harshest critics. Nonetheless, we recognize that Rep. DeLay is not the only Member of Congress whose behavior me