Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

Well, maybe, anyway .....

"Official: Risk to Guardsmen Exaggerated"

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON - The risk to National Guard soldiers of getting killed or wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan has been exaggerated, making recruiting more difficult, the general in charge of all National Guard forces said Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. Steven Blum told a group of defense reporters that more than 250,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen have been mobilized for active duty since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and 262 of them have been killed.

And here, I have to say that this general's claim above about only 262 National Guardsmen being killed in Iraq has set me to wondering, because we have had more than a few from right here killed, and so .....

"Amid tears, a smile is remembered - Corinth family, friends pay tribute to soldier's service at his funeral"

By TIM O'BRIEN, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, July 10, 2005

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the tribute paid to Army Spc. Stephen Z. Madison at his funeral. Three volleys were fired by seven riflemen in Madison's honor.

SARATOGA -- Family and friends of Army Spc. Stephen Z. Madison paid tribute Saturday to the soldier who died 10 months after suffering severe burns while serving in Iraq.

They remembered his kindness, his smile and his service to his country at a time of war.

A steady drizzle fell as mourners gathered under a shelter at the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery for the service.

Madison's cremated remains sat in a white wooden box at the front as prayers were said in his memory.

Madison, 23, died June 29 at Fort Riley, Kan., 10 months after he suffered severe burns when a shower malfunctioned in Iraq, scalding his left arm and torso.

His father, Stephen R. Madison, has said his death may have been caused by an allergic reaction to medication he was taking.

Stephen Z. Madison was a native of Corinth.

"Even in our greatest sorrow, we can have hope, eternal hope," Pastor Rick Cohen said at the memorial service.

"On behalf of the family, I can thank you for coming, for celebrating Stephen's life."

"We are going to discuss Steve and the blessing he was to us."

Cohen, of the Adirondack Christian Fellowship, had met both Stephen Z. Madison and his wife, Mary, who also was born in Corinth.

"We loved them both," he said.

"He was very kind and open and a very wonderful guy."

Madison's mother-in-law, Mary Lou Walsh, said she could not have asked for a better son-in-law.

"We will always remember that smile," she told the mourners.

U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, said the nation will never forget Madison's service to his country.

"We are deeply grateful, deeply respectful for his service."

"We honor him for what he represents, the best of this nation," Sweeney said.

"He sacrificed himself for us, for our freedom, for our way of life."

Taps was played by Army soldiers from Fort Drum and three volleys were fired by seven riflemen in Madison's honor.

An honor guard from the Horace D. Washburn American Legion Post 533 of Corinth also saluted him, and his family was presented with an Army commendation medal by a captain from Fort Riley.

After the ceremony, Sweeney said he will continue pressing the Army for an explanation for both Madison's injury and the cause of his death.

"All the questions the family has about his death will be answered," he said.

"In the end, this family will at least have the peace of mind that they know all they need to know."

Sweeney said the terrorist attack in London was a reminder of the need for soldiers like Madison.

"Stephen Madison served his country honorably in volunteering and serving his nation at a time when our nation was at war."

"He will always be a hero," he said.

"We saw this week with events around the world why that service is so important."

Tim O'Brien can be reached at 454-5096 or by e-mail at tobrien@timesunion.com.

end quotes

John Sweeney, the Congressman from where I am, himself could have worn the uniform, and he too could have served his country, BUT ...

John Sweeney was just too important to do that!

Republican politics called him, instead, and that is a much higher calling than serving America could ever be!

But John is good at giving lip service, and so, he does!

[Livyjr]

And some interesting local trivia, which serves to demonstrate just how long OUR history here stretches back in time ....

"An 18th-century man of the people - Lord Howe, buried in Albany, is noted; reputed to be the only English lord buried in North America."

By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, July 8, 2005

ALBANY -- Lord George Augustus Howe was a grandson of England's King George I, whose common touch made the military commander a beloved figure among farmers, merchants and ordinary colonists of 18th-century Albany.

"He was a helluva bloke," said Joe Meany, New York State Historian emeritus and a scholar of Howe and the French and Indian War.

Howe led an English attack on French-held Fort Ticonderoga and was killed at age 33 with a musket ball to the chest in a skirmish outside Ticonderoga on July 6, 1758.

The outpouring of grief over Howe's demise was not unlike the expressions of sorrow over the untimely death of Princess Diana centuries later, Meany said.

"Lord Howe was genuinely sympathetic to Americans and they revered him."

"Had he lived, it's likely he would have risen to a high level in the American government and there might not have been an American Revolution," Meany said.

On Saturday, French and Indian War re-enactors, bagpipers, members of St. Andrew's Society and historians will gather to remember Lord Howe, who is buried beneath St. Peter's Episcopal Church at 107 State St. in downtown Albany.

Howe is reputed to be the only English lord buried in North America.

"Actually, we've had to move poor Lord Howe twice," said Lee Stanton, historian and archivist of St. Peter's, which is now in its third structure.

Lord Howe's remains were moved each time the house of worship was rebuilt.

The first St. Peter's was built in 1715 in the middle of today's State Street, just south of the current site.

Philip Hooker designed the second church in 1802 and the third, a Richard Upjohn design, was built in 1859.

It's a classic example of Gothic architecture and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Landmarks.

A marble plaque commemorating Howe's burial beneath the church entrance describes him as "a distinguished man and soldier, a friend of the colonies."

"Howe was an excellent commander who understood that fighting in America wasn't the same as in Europe," Stanton said.

"A couple of Howe's brothers fought against America in the Revolutionary War."

"Luckily for us, they weren't as skilled as soldiers."

Saturday's memorial for Lord Howe coincides with a yearlong roster of events commemorating the 250th anniversary of the French and Indian War.

"Starting with the Albany Plan of Union in 1754, the Colonies actually began working together for the first time and it was a prelude to freedom and the Revolutionary War," said Robert Flack Sr., president of the Fort William Henry Corp. in Lake George.

"The French and Indian War was a military training ground for the Americans," Flack said.

"That's where all the leaders of the American Revolution became experienced in the tactics of warfare."

"There wouldn't have been a Revolution without that."

Howe -- the likable bloke who was equally at ease with blacksmiths as he was with British lords in powdered wigs -- was a central figure in that development of American soldiers.

In addressing his British officers, Howe said of the American recruits: "You will find gentlemen of equal competence in every regiment of Americans."

Said Meany: "He had an ability to look beyond the outward appearance and to see the value of Americans."

"They responded to him in kind."

Historians have suggested that Howe's desire to mix with commoners may have contributed to his death.

It was unusual that a commander of Howe's stature should have been at the front among an advance party making a risky scouting maneuver.

Howe was killed in a skirmish that was a brief, random clash between a small number of British and French troops during the run-up to the major Battle of Fort Ticonderoga.

For that battle, the British assembled near what is today Lake George's Million-Dollar Beach a fleet of nearly 1,000 bateaux, whaleboats and artillery barges and 15,000 troops.

As the British and French soldiers collided unexpectedly in a forest near today's Route 9N in Ticonderoga, Howe was shot at point-blank range.

A letter from Howe's adjutant read: "Never has ball had more devastating effect ... he was hit in the chest, fell backwards and only the tips of his fingers twitched for an instant."

Howe was buried at St. Peter's Church in part because of the practicalities of transporting a dead body in July's heat.

In 1758, St. Peter's was part of the Church of England, of which Howe was a prominent member.

Howe's cortege from Ticonderoga to St. Peter's was led by his friend from Albany, the American military leader Philip Schuyler, who would go on to become a general in the Revolutionary War.

"I think there will be a lot of interest in the Lord Howe memorial events," said Christine Miles, executive director of the Albany Institute of History & Art, which has artifacts from the French and Indian War era.

"People love seeing the kilts and bagpipes."

"There's a romanticism about it."

[jeffmoskin]

"People love seeing the kilts and bagpipes."

Q. What is the difference between an onion and a bagpipe?

A. Nobody ever cries when they chop up a bagpipe.






Q. Why do bagpipe players march as they play?

A. To get away from the sound.

[jeffmoskin]

And here, I have to say that this general's claim above about only 262 National Guardsmen being killed in Iraq has set me to wondering, because we have had more than a few from right here killed, and so .....

Here, too, in Kah-lee-FAWN-yah.

As an aside, the son of a close friend signed up for the Nat'l Guard on Sept 12, 2001. We were all REAL patriots back then. He was in medical school and is now a doc. He thought he might be "of use" to our State in the event of another 9/11 catastrophe.


Well, the catastrophe finally happened - - he's getting shipped to...

IRAQ.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

[Livyjr]

Here, too, in Kah-lee-FAWN-yah.

How many "bills of goods" are we being sold, here, jeffmoskin, is what I have to wonder?

I wouldn't have thought of any of this if this general hadn't made that statement about only 262 N.G's being killed, and while not every state might have N.G.'s serving in Iraq, the number seems quite low to me, unless those deaths are concentrated in just a few small areas of America, which does not seem likely somehow, given how big a geographic area the 42nd Division alone draws from.

I wonder at what kind of finagle is going on here, as some of the ones "drafted" from here that were killed, were actually assigned to the First Infantry Division when they were killed, as replacements, even though they were National Guardsmen.

I wonder, then, to what "unit" those deaths were attributed to?

Are they calling these deaths "active army" deaths because the First Infantry Division is an active Army unit, I wonder?

[Livyjr]

"Flood of questions after dam's failure - Power, houses and highways are casualties as Pataki declares state of emergency" 
 
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
First published: Monday, July 4, 2005

FORT ANN -- As day broke over the aftermath of the catastrophic dam breach that sent millions of gallons of water gushing through residential neighborhoods here, officials began to cobble together what caused the massive collapse of the 2-month-old dam that, incredibly, killed no one.

By day's end Sunday, dozens of officials, including Gov. George Pataki's chief of staff, had come to survey the devastation in this Washington County community about 60 miles northeast of Albany.

But there was no word on what caused the earthen, cement and steel bulwark to wash away, taking homes and roads with it.

It is interesting that news coverage of this dam break by the Albany, New York Times Union has seemed to have ceased completely, and that is made more interesting by all that is coming out on the matter, such as the news on the radio this morning that no inspections were performed on the dam, as the law requires, before it broke, and destroyed the homes and property of quite a few people in that area, who are now basically destitute, and are looking for answers that are not forthcoming!

One man on the radio this morning had his whole house simply washed away and destroyed, and he is wondering where he and his family are to sleep, and he wants to know how and why this happened, as do I, a licensed engineer in this state!

Why and how was an engineering firm from New Hampshire, two states away, selected to be the site engineer, when New York State law, which is intended to protect and safeguard the life, health and property of common people in the State of New York, such as this man, and his family, requires that a New York State-licensed engineer be in charge of site inspections and engineering on a major project such as this one was, and WHERE WAS THE STATE OF NEW YORK, ITSELF, with respect to these necessary inspections?

SILENCE!

And who are these people right now relying upon for answers?

You guessed it!

The State of New York!

Like turning the investigation of a bank robbery over to the person who robbed the bank!

And why is the Albany, New York Tiimes Union gone silent on what is going on here, is another one of those lingering questions!

Maybe they're emulating Judith Miller and the New York Times!

KEEP THE COVER ON!

[Livyjr]

Is Judith Miller really not disclosing names because it's against her principles, or is she protecting someone in the administration (probably Rove) for other reasons?

Is there going to be a pay off for her for keeping silent?

Or am I being too cynical?

A.B.

"If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is and if the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of."

-- George W. Bush, Sept. 2003

[Livyjr]

"If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is and if the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of."

-- George W. Bush, Sept. 2003

MSNBC live vote as of 4:45 p.m. ET July 14, 2005

Should Bush fire Karl Rove? * 90785 responses

Yes 88%

No 9%

Don't know 3%

"Wilson says Bush should fire Rove - Ex-envoy tells NBC that top Bush aide engaged in 'abuse of power'"

July 14: President Bush says he will not comment on the role that senior aide Karl Rove may have played in revealing the identity of a CIA agent until a federal probe is completed.

Updated: 1:40 p.m. ET July 14, 2005

WASHINGTON - Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson called on President Bush on Thurday to fire deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, saying Bush’s top-level aide engaged in an “abuse of power” by discussing Wilson’s wife’s job with a reporter.

Wilson decried what he called a White House “stonewall” in the wake of revelations that Rove, a longtime Bush confidant, was involved in the leak to the news media that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA officer.

Bush said Wednesday that he would not comment on discussions that blew her cover because it is the subject of an ongoing investigation by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, however, the president still has confidence in Rove.

Meanwhile Thursday, Senate Democrats appeared to be suggesting that Rove can’t be trusted with the nation’s secrets.

They called for legislation to deny security clearances to officials who disclose the identity of an undercover agent.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wanted to attach the proposal to a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security -- and aides said he hoped for a vote Thursday.

Wilson, in an interview broadcast Thursday on NBC’s “Today” show, said he thinks the White House’s posture in this controvery represents a continuing “cover-up of the web of lies that underpin the justification for going to war in Iraq.”

Wilson was asked about statements by Rove’s defenders noting that an e-mail describing Rove’s conversation with Time reporter Matthew Cooper indicated that Rove did not specifically mention Valerie Plame by name.

Abuse of power?

“My wife’s name is Mrs. Joseph Wilson,” he replied.

“It is Mrs. Valerie Wilson."

"He named her."

"He identified her,” Wilson said.

“So that argument doesn’t stand the smell test ..."

"What I do know is that Mr. Rove is talking to the press and he is saying things like my wife is fair game."

"That’s an outrage."

"That’s an abuse of power.”

Asked how he and his wife were coping with the continuing controversy, Wilson said, “We have two 5-year-old twins and they occupy most of our free time."

"She’s obviously nonplussed at this unwanted attention brought to our family."

"But she’s tough.”

Wilson said that he and his wife “have great confidence in the institutions that have made our country great ..."

"Yes, we do have confidence that justice will be done.”

“I think the president should call in his senior advisers and say, ’Enough is enough, I want you to step forward and cooperate,’ “ he said.

“The president has said repeatedly, “I am a man of my word,’ “ Wilson added.

“He should stand up and prove that his word is his bond and fire Karl Rove.”

Wilson has said the leak of his wife’s name was an attempt by the administration to discredit him after he challenged its assertion that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was seeking to obtain from Niger material to make nuclear weapons.

[Livyjr]

MSNBC live vote as of 4:45 p.m. ET July 14, 2005

Should Bush fire Karl Rove? * 90785 responses 

Yes 88% 

No 9% 

Don't know 3% 

From: Air America Radio <AirAmericaRadio@AirAmericaRadio-lists.com>

Reply-To: Air America Radio <my2cents@airamericaradio.com>

Subject: A Traitor in the White House

Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 01:42:17 -0700 (PDT)

Attention Air America Radio Listener,

Air America Radio needs your help to get a traitor out of the White House.

For two years, we've known that someone in the White House undermined America by maliciously leaking the identity of CIA covert operative Valerie Plame to punish her husband for criticizing the Bush Administration.

And now what many suspected has finally been revealed: the leaker is President Bush's closest advisor, the man they call "Bush's Brain", none other than Karl Rove.

A growing chorus of voices is calling on President Bush to fire Karl Rove, including Air America Radio hosts and listeners.

The White House will try to say that Americans don't care about this.

They'll try to pass it off as an "inside the Beltway" issue.

That's why today we're asking you to help our hosts by adding your name to our Air America Radio petition calling for Bush to fire Karl Rove.

Please help our hosts show that Air America Radio listeners are outraged about treason in the White House by signing right now:

http://www.airamericaradio.com/petition/

George Bush has never been in such a "bad spot," as one reporter put it at Monday's White House press briefing.

When this scandal first came up in 2003, the Bush White House said unambiguously: "If anyone in this Administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this Administration." (Scott McClellan, 9/29/03, White House press briefing)

The President must now make good on his word.

By signing our petition, you'll be helping Air America Radio do its job as the country's leading progressive media outlet to bring pressure to bear on the Bush White House that won't let up until Karl Rove has had his security clearance revoked and is barred from the White House.

Here are the facts about this case:

* Valerie Plame was an undercover CIA operative who worked in the field of WMD counter-proliferation.

* After her husband published an editorial in The New York Times critical of the Bush Administration, Valerie Plame's name and her CIA affiliation were leaked to a number of news sources.

* Right-wing hack Bob Novak published a column outing Valerie Plame and effectively ending her career.

* One of those who received the leak about Valerie Plame's identity was Matt Cooper. His source: Karl Rove.

* By exposing her identity, Rove destroyed a valuable asset in the war on terror.

But even worse than that, he potentially exposed and endangered a network of intelligence assets throughout the world that Plame had built painstakingly over an entire career.

* We will never know just how much damage Rove did, nor how many lives he ruined.

With 65 stations across the country, Air America is beginning to have the critical mass to make a real impact at crucial moments like these.

Show that Air America Radio has become a political force to be reckoned with.

Sign our petition and help Air America Radio send a message to the White House.

Thank you,

The Air America Radio Team

http://www.airamericaradio.com/petition/

For further reading:

The Michael Isikoff Newsweek piece that definitively revealed Rove as the source:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8525978/site/newsweek/

Yesterday's "ridiculous" press briefing:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20050711-3.html

The first of no doubt a flood of newspaper editorials calling for Rove to be fired:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...EDG8HDLC431.DTL

And Howard Kurtz asks the inevitable: "Frog-Marching Time for Rove?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5071200330.html

[Livyjr]

And while this following is a story that I cannot personally vouch for, and do not, it is sent to me from Europe, "old" Europe, perhaps, but I am not sure, since I don't know where Dick Cheney has the "line of demarcation" right now, and upon reading it, and considering it in the light of past events over in that part of the world, that being Asia, and here, "Dugout Doug" MacArthur comes to mind, when he got too close to China and so, brought swarms of Chinese into the Korean War, up around the "frozen Chosin", I thought it should be posted in here, for whatever it is worth, with the disclaimer that this is how other people in the world are looking at us, and where that might be taking us to, which is further down the road to more war, as I see it, and one big mess for everyone, which was really kind of a done deal, when America lost its collective mind and put an incompetent like George W. Bush in the White House, here in OUR America:

http://www.rense.com/general67/RUSC.HTM

"Russian/China Activate 10 Divisions To Counter US"

By Sorcha Faal
7-13-5

Russian Intelligence Analysts are reporting today that both President Putin (Russia) and President Hu (China) have ordered the immediate activation of 10 Combat Ready Divisions to counter the increasingly aggressive moves being made by the United States in the Caspian Oil Regions of Central Asia.

Special Forces Army Units of both Russian Spetsnaz and Chinese Immediate Action Units were also ordered to be immediately deployed to both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to surround the large American Military bases in those regions, and that the governments of both of these countries have ordered the Americans to leave.

The government of Uzbekistan had called first for these actions, and as we can read as reported by the Indian National Newspaper Hindu News Service in its article titled

Uzbekistan Steps Up Pressure On US To Close Base

http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/09/stories/2005070900251500.htm

and which says -

"Uzbekistan is stepping up pressure on the United States to withdraw its air base set up in the Central Asian country for operations in neighbouring Afghanistan."

"Uzbekistan also said that the United States had not paid takeoff and landing fees, as well as compensation for security services, new infrastructure, ecological damage and inconvenience to the local population."

The statement was issued two days after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation called for the United States and its coalition allies in Afghanistan to set a date for withdrawing their military bases from Central Asia.

Last month Uzbekistan introduced severe restrictions on American flights from the Khanabad base forcing the U.S. command to redeploy some aircraft to Afghanistan.

Kyrgyzstan has joined Uzbekistan in calling on Washington to shut down its air base near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

The government of Kyrgyzstan has also called for the Americans to leave their country, and as we can read as reported by the RIA Novosti News Service in their article titled

Kyrgyz Ambassador: US Base Must Go - Russia's Should Stay

http://en.rian.ru/world/20050711/40886695.html

and which says,

"The United States' military base near the Manas Airport, in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, must go and Russia's, at Kant, should stay, the Kyrgyz Ambassador to Russia said Monday at a press conference here. Apas Jumagulov recalled the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit explaining the need for the Manas base's withdrawal by the fact that the situation in the neighboring Afghanistan was returning to normal."

The actions of the United States Military Leaders though to these demands to leave have been met instead with their increasing their combat capabilities in both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and in total disregard to both Russian and Chinese warnings issued to them, and of which can read as reported by the USA Today News Service in their article titled

China, Russia-Led Alliance Wants Date For US Pullout

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-07...ia-summit_x.htm

and which says

"A regional alliance led by China and Russia called Tuesday for the U.S. and its coalition allies in Afghanistan to set a date for withdrawing from several states in Central Asia, reflecting growing unease at America's military presence in the region."

"The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which groups Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, urged a deadline be set for withdrawal of the foreign forces from its member states in light of what it said was a decline in active fighting in Afghanistan."

"The alliance's move appeared to be an attempt to push the United States out of a region that Moscow regards as historically part of its sphere of influence and in which China seeks a dominant role because of its extensive energy resources."

Angering President Putin also has been the United States pressuring the European Union to attempt to take away Russia's vast oil resources, and as we can read as reported by the Moscow Times News Service in their article titled

Putin's Aide Warns Of Finno-Ugric Conspiracy To Seize Russia's Oil Assets

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/07/12/surkovfinns.shtml

and which says

"The deputy head of Russia's presidential administration, Vladislav Surkov, has said that foreigners are accusing Russia of oppressing provinces that are home to Finno-Ugric nations and "strategic resources" of oil..Speaking at a meeting with Russian businessmen, Vladislav Surkov said, "Today, Finland, Estonia and the European Union have become markedly more intense on the topic of Finno-Ugric nations. It turns out that we oppress them somehow. They allegedly have no rights in our country. Regions where those nations are dominant have strategic resources of our oil. I am not a follower of a conspiracy theory. But this is evidently a planned action."

Moscow Officials further report that upon hearing of these latest moves by the United States against Russia President Putin remarked, "Then let's see how well they are prepared when the UN orders them (the Americans) to return California to Mexico."

To the Western peoples it still appears that they believe this American War upon the World is based on 'terrorism', but to the rest of the World it has long been known what the Military Leaders of the United States were planning, and even to as far back as 1998 were the warnings of these wars being reported, and as exampled by one such warning issued by the World Socialist Web Site News Service in their article titled

New Caspian Oil Interests Fuel US War Drive Against Iraq

http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/nov1998/casp-n16.shtml

and which had said

"Powerful geo-political interests are fueling the American war drive. In many respects US policy in the Persian Gulf is driven today by the same considerations that led it to invade Iraq nearly eight years ago. As a "senior American official"--most likely Secretary of State James Baker--told the New York Times within days of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in August of 1990: "We are talking about oil. Got it? Oil, vital American interests."

http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/nov1998/casp-n16.shtml

This struggle recalls the protracted conflict between Britain and Russia at the end of the nineteenth century for hegemony in the Middle East and Central Asia that became known as the Great Game.

Germany made its own thrust into the region with its decision to build the Berlin to Baghdad railroad.

The resulting tensions played a major role in the growth of European militarism that erupted in World War I.

This time American imperialism is the major protagonist.

Over the past several years, the battle for dominance in the region has come to center on one question: where to build a pipeline to move oil from the Azeri capital of Baku to the West.

http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/nov1998/casp-n16.shtml

"The Caspian region has emerged as the world's newest stage for big power politics. It not only offers oil companies the prospect of great wealth, but provides a stage for high-stakes competition among world powers.... Much depends on the outcome, because these pipelines will not simply carry oil but will also define new corridors of trade and power. The nation or alliance that controls pipeline routes could hold sway over the Caspian region for decades to come."

What is perhaps most insane about these Western peoples reactions to these true things is their not caring to know that both Russia and China are not going to lose Central Asia, or the Middle East, by anything other than Military defeat. The suddenness of this Wars escalation will surprise these Westerners, even as their Military Forces had been the ones who started it, and as we can read as reported by the Washington Post News Service in their article titled

Undeclared Oil War

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Jun27.html

The and which says

"Asia's undeclared oil war is but the latest reminder that in a global economy dependent largely on a single fuel -- oil -- "energy security" means far more than hardening refineries and pipelines against terrorist attack. At its most basic level, energy security is the ability to keep the global machine humming -- that is, to produce enough fuels and electricity at affordable prices that every nation can keep its economy running, its people fed and its borders defended. A failure of energy security means that the momentum of industrialization and modernity grinds to a halt. And by that measure, we are failing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Jun27.html

In the United States and Europe, new demand for electricity is outpacing the new supply of power and natural gas and raising the specter of more rolling blackouts. In the "emerging" economies, such as Brazil, India and especially China, energy demand is rising so fast it may double by 2020. And this only hints at the energy crisis facing the developing world, where nearly 2 billion people -- a third of the world's population -- have almost no access to electricity or liquid fuels and are thus condemned to a medieval existence that breeds despair, resentment and, ultimately, conflict. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Jun27.html

In other words, we are on the cusp of a new kind of war -- between those who have enough energy and those who do not but are increasingly willing to go out and get it. While nations have always competed for oil, it seems more and more likely that the race for a piece of the last big reserves of oil and natural gas will be the dominant geopolitical theme of the 21st century."

To this 'New Kind Of War" the Washington Post speaks of we can already see by the actions of these Western Nations how it is to be waged, by the deliberate terrorizing of their own citizens through continued mass attacks designed to keep them in constant fear against enemies that do not exist for the purpose of creating a War Society built upon the model established by the Nazi Germany Regime of the 1930's, and which led to the last Global War.

For their continued refusal to see the whole truths of the very World they live in, and instead believing only in the repeated lies of propaganda told to them, these Western peoples have now been labeled as the most insane in the world, and as we can read as reported by the Australian News Service in their article titled

People In West Suffer More From Mental Illness

http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetai...144&cat=Science

and which says

"People in the West suffer more from mental illness than those in poorer countries, with chances of recovery being higher in places like India than in say New York or London, says an Australian study. Their findings are expected to rewrite international textbooks on the devastating mental illness characterized by symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, disorganized communication, poor planning and reduced motivation, it reported."

To the shocking devastation of Total Global War these Westerners know only through their movies, soon they will know it by looking out their doorways.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4284299

[Livyjr]

And from the Veterans' for truth, justice and the American way hotline comes this:

John Youmans: "It's a Slam Dunk" Debunked

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author

John F. Youmans is a retired USAF major and a well decorated disabled Vietnam Veteran who served at Bien Hoa AB from 1966-1967. Mr. Youmans served 30 years in the USAF. Since his military retirement in 1993, Mr. Youmans has become a well published journalist and a reporter for the Daily Record in Dunn, N.C. for several years when forced to resign due to his health and disability stemming from Hodgkin’s Disease and Agent Orange. Mr. Youmans continues, however, to write articles for newspapers across the nation from home. In addition, he is a featured columnist for Military.Com and staff writer for several other Internet web sites. Mr. Youmans has taken the task of advocating improvements for veterans’ benefits as a personal goal.

June 16, 2005

Former CIA Director George Tenet's promise of a "slam dunk" in providing the intelligence required to justify the war with Iraq was not only a pack of intentional lies and misrepresentations, it was also taken out of context.

So what did Tenet really mean when he told President Bush, "It's a slam dunk?"

We were misled to believe that Tenet was saying he could produce accurate, reliable, hard intelligence and that it would be a "slam dunk" to present and prove it.

The part we didn't hear, and it is important to understand, is what Bush said to Tenet prior to that statement.

Tenet had already briefed Bush on the intelligence he had.

It was weak, unreliable and frequently only substantiated by one source.

The president was "unimpressed" by the presentation and pressed Tenet saying his information would not "convince Joe Public" and then asked, "This is the best we've got?"

It was then that Tenet replied, "It's a slam dunk."

It was then that Tenet promised Bush he would bend the intelligence and provide what was needed to convince Joe Public.

He was telling Bush not to worry, he would take care of it.

And he did.

The hard intelligence was molded, manipulated and fabricated to fit Bush's preconceived war plan.

Tenet, for his part, opted to become a political advocate for Bush's propaganda rather than a protector of the intelligence community.

Office of Special Plans (OSP)

Instead, a rogue Office of Special Plans was created and opened in the Pentagon.

It took the hard intelligence from the CIA and others, and transformed it to what the administration wanted it to say.

Tenet further ingratiated himself by remaining silent about the OSP.

He knew the information Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were giving out was false, but did nothing to disclose it.

The OSP was kept so secret even CIA senior intelligence officers did not know about it.

The OSP was cherry picking intelligence and packaging it for Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld to take to the president.

Fixed Intelligence

Some examples of this fabricated intelligence:

1. "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." - Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002

2. "Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent." - George W. Bush, January 28, 2003

3. "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." - George W. Bush, March 17, 2003

4. "For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction because it was the one reason everyone could agree on." - Paul Wolfowitz, May 28, 2003

5. "Saddam possesses enough anthrax and potentially enough technology to send unmanned aircraft on spray attacks that could wipe out a third of the West Coast." - U.S. Rep Mike Rogers, March 16, 2003

6. "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." - Condoleezza Rice, September 8, 2002

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), is an excellent first-hand source concerning manipulated OSP intelligence because she saw it happening.

Her final posting was as an analyst at the Pentagon.

Her writings provide a unique view of the Department of Defense during a period of intense ideological upheaval, as the United States prepared to launch a preventive war.

She states, " ... the pressure of the intelligence community to conform, the rejection of it when it failed to produce intelligence suitable for supporting the 'Iraq is an imminent threat to the United States' agenda, and the amazing things I was hearing in both Bush and Cheney speeches told me that not only do neoconservatives hold a theory based on ideas not embraced by the American mainstream, but they also have a collective contempt for fact."

http://www.amconmag.com/12_1_03/feature.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski-arch.html

In another article she states, " ... They spent their energy gathering pieces of information and creating a propaganda story line, which is the same story line we heard the president and Vice President Cheney tell the American people in the fall of 2002."

"The neoconservatives needed to do more than just topple Saddam Hussein."

"They wanted to put in a government friendly to the U.S., and they wanted permanent basing in Iraq."

"There are several reasons why they wanted to do that."

"None of those reasons, of course, were presented to the American people or to Congress."

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/13/news-cooper.php

Downing Street Memo

Now, more than two years later, shocking documents proving the facts for war were "fixed" are still being covered up.

The Downing Street Memo, written eight months prior to the invasion of Iraq, and other related documents showing the intelligence was fixed, is now the smoking gun.

The Times of London printed this explosive document May 1, 2005.

But it wasn't until Prime Minister Tony Blair's recent visit when he was asked about it, that it got any head wind here in the states.

It is slowly receiving more and more attention here at home.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html

The memo reveals:

Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired a July 2002 meeting, at which he discussed military options, having already committed himself to supporting President Bush's plans for invading Iraq.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged that the case for war was "thin" as "Saddam was not threatening his neighbours and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran."

A separate secret briefing for the meeting said that Britain and America had to "create" conditions to justify a war.

A British official reported on his recent talks in Washington.

"There was a perceptible shift in attitude."

"Military action was now seen as inevitable."

"Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD."

"But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

U.S. Representatives Demand Answer From Bush

More than 88 U.S. Representatives have signed a letter to President Bush requesting answers about this grave matter.

"Thus far, our search for the truth has been stonewalled," said Rep. John Conyers.

"American people deserve answers about this matter and should demand directly that the President tell the truth about the memo."

Result of Fixed Intelligence

In conclusion, I will quote a mother who lost her son in Iraq.

She criticized the United States' "illegal and unjust war" during an interfaith rally in Lexington.

Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., accused President Bush of lying to the nation about a war which has consumed more than $200 billion and claimed more than 1,700 American lives -- including the life of Army Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan.

Sheehan ridiculed Bush for saying that it's "hard work" comforting the widow of a soldier who's been killed in Iraq.

"Hard work is seeing your son's murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you're enjoying the last supper you'll ever truly enjoy again."

"Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son, your first-born, your kind and gentle sweet baby."

"Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday."

"Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big brother into the ground."

"Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both," she said.

[Livyjr]

It was then that Tenet promised Bush he would bend the intelligence and provide what was needed to convince Joe Public.

He was telling Bush not to worry, he would take care of it.

And he did.

The hard intelligence was molded, manipulated and fabricated to fit Bush's preconceived war plan.

Tenet, for his part, opted to become a political advocate for Bush's propaganda rather than a protector of the intelligence community.

"Civilian Deaths in Iraq Exceed Military"

2 hours, 36 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Violent deaths among Iraqi civilians far exceeded those of soldiers or police during the first six months of this year, according to figures obtained Thursday from separate Iraqi government ministries.

Between Jan. 1 and June 30, 1,594 civilians were killed, according to the Ministry of Health.

Civilians often bear the brunt of car-bombings and suicide attacks.

By contrast, a total of 895 security forces — 275 Iraqi soldiers and 620 police — were killed in bombings, assassinations or armed clashes with insurgents, according to figures from the interior and defense ministries.

The number of insurgents killed during that six-month period was 781, the government said.

Earlier this year, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr told The Associated Press that more mosques and clerics from the country's majority Shiite community had been attacked than those belonging to the Sunni minority.

The minister, citing figures he obtained from an Interior Ministry research center, said about 12,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed during the previous 18 months.

Of those, more than 10,000 were Shiites, he said.

Jabr said he analyzed the figures based on the areas where the victims lived and not data explicitly stating the branch of Islam they belonged to.

[Livyjr]

And as a public health engineer, here is what I consider to be a real "story of OUR times", here in OUR America:

"Unborn babies carry pollutants, study finds"

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

2 hours, 37 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report released on Thursday.

Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment.

The report by the Environmental Working Group is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical-cord blood taken by the American Red Cross.

They found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA.

"These 10 newborn babies ... were born polluted," said New York Rep. Louise Slaughter, who spoke a news conference about the findings on Thursday.

"If ever we had proof that our nation's pollution laws aren't working, it's reading the list of industrial chemicals in the bodies of babies who have not yet lived outside the womb," Slaughter, a Democrat, said.

Cord blood reflects what the mother passes to the baby through the placenta.

"Of the 287 chemicals we detected in umbilical-cord blood, we know that 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests," the report said.

Blood tests did not show how the chemicals got into the mothers' bodies, or what their effects might be on the babies.

MERCURY AND PESTICIDES

Among the chemicals found in the cord blood were methylmercury, produced by coal-fired power plants and certain industrial processes.

People can breathe it in or eat it in seafood and it causes brain and nerve damage.

Also found were polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which are produced by burning gasoline and garbage and which may cause cancer; flame-retardant chemicals called polybrominated dibenzodioxins and furans; and pesticides including DDT and chlordane.

The same group analyzed the breast milk of mothers across the United States in 2003 and found varying levels of chemicals, including flame retardants known as PBDEs.

This latest analysis also found PBDEs in cord blood.

Slaughter had similar tests done on her own blood.

"The stunning results show chemicals daily pumping through my vital organs that include PCBs that were banned decades ago as well as chemicals like Teflon that are currently under federal investigation," she said in remarks prepared for the news conference.

"I have auto exhaust fumes, flame retardant chemicals, and in all, some 271 harmful substances pulsing through my veins."

"That's hardly the picture of health I had hoped for, but I've been living in an industrial society for over 70 years."

The Government Accountability Office issued a report on Wednesday saying the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the powers it needs to fully regulate toxic chemicals.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found that the EPA's Toxic Substances Control Act gives only "limited assurance" that new chemicals entering the market are safe and said the EPA only rarely assesses chemicals already on the market.

"Today, chemicals are being used to make baby bottles, food packaging and other products that have never been fully evaluated for their health effects on children -- and some of these chemicals are turning up in our blood," said New Jersey Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who plans to co-sponsor a bill to require chemical manufacturers to provide data to the EPA on the health affects of their products.

[Livyjr]

And as a public health engineer, here is what I consider to be a real "story of OUR times", here in OUR America:

"Unborn babies carry pollutants, study finds"

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report released on Thursday.

Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment.

And then, there's this, of course, as well, which should come as no surprise, as the environment and ecology up here in the corrupt EMPIRE of New York get tipped right on their ear!

In the field of ecology, it is well known that the top of the food chain, us, always gets taken down by the smallest part of the food chain, which is the microbes .....

"Lyme disease threat takes hold in region - Number of cases more than doubles from 2003 to 2004 in Albany County"

By MATT PACENZA, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Thursday, July 14, 2005

The number of local Lyme disease cases is rising, with officials in Albany and Rensselaer counties reporting more residents are contracting the tick-borne illness.

Lyme slammed the Mid-Hudson Valley a few years ago.

The highest per-capita rates in the nation were once in Columbia and Dutchess counties.

Totals for 2004 and this year's early returns show a swift shift northward and westward into the Capital Region.

The most troubling increase is in Albany County, where cases jumped from 108 in 2003 to 235 last year.

Most people with Lyme disease respond well to treatment with antibiotics, especially if they catch it early.

But 5 percent to 10 percent continue to suffer symptoms for months or years, a problem that has plagued patients and their physicians.

Now, an Albany Medical Center researcher thinks he may have figured out why some people stay sick: They may have also caught another infection from ticks, such as cat-scratch fever.

Dr. Timothy Sellati, who got a $1.8 million federal grant to study Lyme disease last year, is doing lab research on mice to discover the relationship between Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, and other tick-borne bacteria or parasites.

People get Lyme after they are bitten by infected deer ticks, most commonly between May and August.

"There is a growing appreciation, at least in a subset of Lyme disease, that the reason that people may not respond as favorably to treatment is because they're infected with other pathogens," said Sellati, associate professor in Albany Med's Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease.

Statewide, the number of Lyme disease cases peaked at 5,476 in 2002, before dropping slightly the last two years.

Public health officials credit education: Residents have learned to wear long sleeves and install natural barriers like rock walls around their lawns.

"We're not sure why," said Nancy Winch, public health director for the Health Department in Columbia County, which had 408 Lyme cases in 2004, down sharply from 904 the year before.

"Was it the weather, or were people more careful taking ticks off other people?"

Officials in the counties where the numbers are still rising hope they can educate residents quickly to keep infections at bay.

"We're seeing the disease move up the Hudson Valley," said Marcia Fabiano, Albany County Health Department epidemiologist.

One factor driving the jumps could be increased awareness by doctors, who have learned to diagnose and report cases better.

The Rensselaer County Health Department reports that the number of cases increased from 157 in 2003 to 192 last year.

The numbers look even higher this year, said Denise Ayers, the department's public health director.

The numbers are much lower in Saratoga and Schenectady counties, averaging about a dozen a year, but have been creeping up.

Area doctors have become adept at treating Lyme disease.

Some people see a doctor immediately after they are bitten by a tick.

They are typically advised to go home and see if symptoms appear before starting antibiotics.

The key change to look for, said Dr. Liz Higgins, is a tell-tale rash.

Most people infected with Lyme get a 2-inch circular rash, sometimes resembling a bull's eye, near the site of the bite.

If the rash appears, doctors will prescribe an antibiotic, typically for two weeks, without waiting for tests to come back confirming Lyme.

"The tests are really unreliable," said Higgins, an assistant professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at Albany Med.

"And they come back too late."

Other people don't notice they have a tick bite or a rash, or the rash never appears.

They first notice they're sick after developing headaches, aches, joint pain, facial paralysis or even neurological problems.

Wyatt Sexton, a Florida State University quarterback, didn't even know he was sick before he was diagnosed last week with a case of untreated Lyme disease.

It was initially reported that Sexton was on drugs or mentally ill after police found him last month doing push-ups in the street clad only in his underwear, claiming he was the "son of God."

Dr. Anita Kiehl, an infectious disease specialist at Albany Memorial Hospital, sees patients who have already developed symptoms, although rarely any as bizarre as Sexton's.

Severe cases can require intensive treatment.

"If a spinal tap shows evidence of inflammation, we recommend antibiotics by IV, usually for four weeks," she said.

That's exactly what cured the Rev. Jonathan Malone, a Latham native who is now a Baptist pastor in Philadelphia.

In 1999, Malone was hiking the Appalachian Trail from Virginia to Maine, when he started to feel tired and achy while in New Hampshire.

He chalked it up to the difficult hike, but then the problem got worse.

"The next morning, half my face was paralyzed," said Malone.

"I thought maybe there was more to it than just the hike."

Malone returned to Albany, did a month of IV antibiotics, and recovered quickly.

A small number of patients aren't so fortunate.

Some symptoms fade, but others, like headaches and joint pain, persist and even worsen.

Most doctors will try a second course of antibiotics, but then have to tell patients there is little more they can do.

"It is often unclear whether these symptoms are indeed related to Lyme disease, or are chronic joint pain or even psychological," said Kiehl.

Evidence is building that Lyme may be complicated by co-infections, Sellati said.

Field research shows that ticks often carry several strains of bacteria beyond those that cause Lyme disease or cat-scratch fever.

And initial research on patients with "chronic Lyme" shows some feel better after taking antibiotics to treat the other infections.

Sellati's lab is now working to develop a protocol of how the other infections affect people, so they can help doctors spot them.

The researcher hopes that someday his work will help others who have suffered with what they thought was Lyme for years, with nowhere to turn.

"The consequence of the treatment failures of Lyme have been quite devastating in terms of diminished quality of life," he said.

[Livyjr]

"Leaders get green light to dip into pork barrel" 
 
By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
First published: Thursday, May 19, 2005

ALBANY -- A panel appointed by the governor and legislative leaders quietly approved more than $440 million in borrowing Wednesday for projects the leaders will pick and New York's taxpayers will pay off over the next 30 years.

The borrowing includes $235 million for "various projects" to be determined by Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and $209.5 million to be used at the discretion of Gov. George Pataki, according to board resolutions.

"Bruno's brother lands new job - Robert Bruno, who left $127,500 state post amid controversy, gets part-time position with Assembly's GOP"

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Thursday, July 14, 2005

ALBANY -- The brother of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who resigned under a cloud last year from his job as deputy commissioner of a state agency, has quietly returned to the public payroll as a part-time budget analyst for the Assembly Republicans.

A spokesman for Assembly Minority Leader Charles Nesbitt, R-Albion, confirmed Wednesday that Robert Bruno started work last week as a member of the Republicans' Ways and Means staff.

The spokesman, Josh Hills, said Robert Bruno will be focusing primarily on health care.

Hills said Robert Bruno will be working between 18 and 21 hours a week.

Hills was unable to provide an exact salary, but said it is in the "mid-to-upper" $20,000 range.

Robert Bruno resigned from his $127,500-a-year post as deputy commissioner at the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services in October 2004.

The state comptroller's office, which maintains a list of all public employees, said Robert Bruno resumed work too recently for his name and new salary to reappear in the database.

Hills said two analysts recently left the Assembly Minority's Ways and Means staff, so Robert Bruno's job was not created for him, but no one else was up for the post.

Joseph Bruno, a Republican from Brunswick, made no request to get his brother the job, Hills said.

"I'm not sure how long he will be part time, or how long he will be working on these issues," Hills said.

"He was at least temporarily hired to deal with health issues, and it seemed to be a fit for his experience."

Robert Bruno stepped down at OASAS amid intense scrutiny over unusual financial dealings at the program he oversaw, Road to Recovery, which provides substance abuse treatment as an alternative to prison for nonviolent felons.

Road to Recovery still exists.

It began in 2002 as a Senate-funded pilot program and is now funded by the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.

In the days before Robert Bruno resigned, it was revealed the state had rented him a plush, $54,400-a-year Saratoga Springs office suite.

The location, partly owned by Saratoga Springs GOP Chairman J. Thomas Roohan, shaved 60 miles off Robert Bruno's commute from his Glens Falls home.

The state terminated its lease for the office suite in February.

Robert Bruno was also found to have tried to get OASAS to buy, or spend more than $245,000 to fix up, a closed residential treatment center, Pinewood Lodge, in Granville, Washington County, that belonged to his Glens Falls neighbor, Donald Skaarup.

Robert Bruno hired Skaarup for a $75,000-a-year job with Road to Recovery.

The Pinewood Lodge deal fell through when OASAS officials deemed it too expensive.

The property was purchased by VESTA Community Housing Development Board Inc.

VESTA was created by the Rev. Peter Young to acquire properties for substance abuse treatment programs.

The Lodge is the only OASAS-licensed halfway house for women in Washington and Warren counties.

It is run by 820 River Street, a Troy-based substance abuse treatment organization also headed by Young.

Four months after Robert Bruno left OASAS, his former boss, ex-OASAS Commissioner William Gorman, also resigned from his $120,800-a-year job.

Gorman was reprimanded in October 2004 by officials in the Pataki administration for hiring his daughter, podiatrist Tara Harbeck, for a part-time, $55,670-a-year job.

The rebuke of Gorman coincided with Robert Bruno's resignation.

Harbeck quit her job soon after its existence was made public.

[Livyjr]

MSNBC Live Vote @ 7:45 A.M. ET, July 15, 2005

Should Bush fire Karl Rove? * 100871 responses

Yes 88%

No 10%

Don't know 2%

"Source: Rove says reporters told him of Plame - Bush aide reportedly testifies that he learned agent’s name from press"

July 14: As a show of support, President Bush made a public appearance with embattled top aide Karl Rove.

MSNBC News Services

Updated: 1:33 a.m. ET July 15, 2005

WASHINGTON - Presidential confidant Karl Rove testified to a grand jury that he learned the identity of a CIA operative originally from journalists, then informally discussed the information with a Time magazine reporter days before the story broke, according to a person briefed on the testimony.

The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, told The Associated Press that Rove testified last year that he remembers specifically being told by columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a harsh Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA.

Rove testified that Novak originally called him the Tuesday before Plame’s identity was revealed in July 2003 to discuss another story.

The conversation eventually turned to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was strongly criticizing the Bush administration’s Iraq war policy and the intelligence it used to justify the war, the source said.

Column touched off firestorm

The person said Rove testified that Novak told him he had learned and planned to report in a weekend column that Wilson’s wife, Plame, had worked for the CIA, and the circumstances on how her husband traveled to Africa to check bogus claims of alleged nuclear material sales to Iraq.

Novak’s column, citing two Bush administration officials, appeared six days later, touching off a political firestorm and leading to a federal criminal investigation into who leaked Plame’s undercover identity.

That probe has ensnared presidential aides and reporters in a two-year legal battle.

Tale of two reporters

Rove told the grand jury that by the time Novak had called him, he believes he had similar information about Wilson’s wife from another reporter but had no recollection of which reporter had told him about it first, the source said.

When Novak inquired about Wilson’s wife working for the CIA, Rove indicated he had heard something like that, according to the source’s recounting of the grand jury testimony.

Rove told the grand jury that four days later, he had a phone conversation with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper and — in an effort to discredit some of Wilson’s allegations — told Cooper that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, though he never used her name.

An e-mail Cooper recently provided the grand jury shows Cooper reported to his magazine bosses that Rove had described Wilson’s wife in a confidential conversation as someone who “apparently works” at the CIA.

Attorney: Rove isn't target of probe

Robert Luskin, Rove’s attorney, said Thursday his client truthfully testified to the grand jury and expected to be exonerated.

“Karl provided all pertinent information to prosecutors a long time ago,” Luskin said.

“And prosecutors confirmed when he testified most recently in October 2004 that he is not a target of the investigation.”

In an interview with NBC Thursday before the latest revelation, Wilson kept up his criticism of the White House.

“Mr. Rove was talking to the press."

"And he was saying things like my wife is fair game,” Wilson said.

“That is an outrage."

"It is abuse of power.”

Plame wasn’t undercover when outed

Wilson later told CNN that his wife was no longer in an undercover job at the time Novak’s column first identified her.

“My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity,” he said.

Federal law prohibits government officials from divulging the identity of an undercover intelligence officer.

But in order to bring charges, prosecutors must prove the official knew the officer was covert and nonetheless outed his or her identity.

Rove’s conversation with Cooper took place five days after Wilson suggested in a New York Times opinion piece that some of the intelligence related to Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

Novak’s column identifying Wilson’s wife as a CIA employee and Cooper’s magazine piece came out a few days later.

Pressed to explain its statements of two years ago that Rove wasn’t involved in the leak, the White House refused to do so this week.

“If I were to get into discussing this, I would be getting into discussing an investigation that continues and could be prejudging the outcome of the investigation,” McClellan said.

The Associated Press and NBC’s “Today” show contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

No one takes climate change seriously, lazyboy!

At least over here, in America, so far as I can tell anyway, and the "forces" of the "government" here, which is no longer "of us, by us, and for us", well, their efforts go into keeping the lid on, and telling people that it's alright, put your thumbs back in your mouths, kiddies (this to people in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties on up), and go back home, there can be no climate change caused by man, because the earth is too big, and everybody knows .......

The problem is that the whole world economy is built up on a basis of destroying the earth, and all on it, and so ....

We are supposed to believe, as "good Americans" that we can consume, without end, and that is OUR due, over here, because God and Jesus are enamoured of the sinners who comprise the ruling class in America, and if we love God and Jesus, well, we will just keep consuming, so that the sinners will have more money to sin with, and thus, will make God and Jesus love them, and us, even more than yesterday!

A great big pack of lies, but since that is where the money is .....

And it is about the money, after all, isn't it?

I mean, isn't everything else just "cold comfort" if you don't have a huge wad of money to lay your pumpkin head down on every night .....

Isn't that why Donald Trump is in the TOP TEN of American heros of the MILLENIUM?

Climate change?

It's a lie cooked up by some "enviros" and "tree huggers" to politically embarass, George W. Bush, George Pataki, and the REPUBLICAN Party of America, and yes, folks, THE WORLD, too!

We're all REPUBLICANS now, and may God have mercy on OUR souls, for that!

And while we are on the subject of TRUTH in America, here, folks, don't worry about global "energy re-distribution", which is mistakenly called "global warming" by the media, because, of course, it is a myth cooked up by "enviros" who want us all to live in caves, if you can find one above water-level, that is, but whoops, there I go, sucked in by that myth, myself .....

"Siberia three degrees warmer than 45 years ago, study warns"

Thu Jul 14, 7:06 PM ET

JENA, Germany (AFP) - Average temperatures in Siberia have risen by three degrees Celsius since 1960, research by a team of German scientists has found.

Furthermore the forests in the region are less effective in soaking up greenhouse gases than previously believed.

Snow and ice are melting earlier, according to the scientists, from the University of Jena in eastern Germany who used data from European, Japanese and US satellites.

Because of the rise in temperatures in the taiga (coniferous forests) there has been an increase in the release of organic carbon from decomposition and in the production of methane, a greenhouse gas.

"All that leads us to believe that the taiga overall absorbs less greenhouse gas than we were supposing until now," Professor Christiane Schmullius said.

She thought her team's findings could also apply to other major northern hemisphere forests such as those in Canada and the United States.

The taiga only soaks up 20 percent of Russia's output of carbon dioxide of human origin and only 10 percent of European output, according to Martin Heimann of the Max-Planck Institute.

The scientists say their findings contradict the idea put forward by supporters of the Kyoto agreement on cutting greenhouse gases that tree planting could help.

The Kyoto protocol, agreed in 1997 but shunned by the United States, the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases, aims to cut emissions by five percent by 2012 from their 1990 levels.

[amy]

Since this corner is devoted to Life in OUR America, I believe Mark Twain, one of our greatest American authors ( and one of my favorites) might appreciate a spot in this corner.

So, a bit of biographical information on Samuel L. Clemens ( Mark Twain).
http://www.geocities.com/swaisman/


I love Twain's witty observations about life. A few of my favorites.

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything
--Mark Twain

Etiquette requires us to admire the human race.
--Mark Twain

Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth.
--Mark Twain

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man
--Mark Twain

Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.
--Mark Twain

Always do the right thing. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
--Mark Twain

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education
--Mark Twain

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
--Mark Twain

Suppose you were an idiot... And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself.
--Mark Twain

First, God created idiots. That was just for practice. Then He created school boards.
--Mark Twain

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
--Mark Twain

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.
--Mark Twain


The difference between truth and fiction: fiction has to make sense
--Mark Twain

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer
--Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thought that is forever flowing through one's head
--Mark Twain

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.
--Mark Twain

[Livyjr]

"Source: Rove says reporters told him of Plame - Bush aide reportedly testifies that he learned agent’s name from press"

July 14: As a show of support, President Bush made a public appearance with embattled top aide Karl Rove.

MSNBC News Services

Updated: 1:33 a.m. ET July 15, 2005

WASHINGTON - Presidential confidant Karl Rove testified to a grand jury that he learned the identity of a CIA operative originally from journalists, then informally discussed the information with a Time magazine reporter days before the story broke, according to a person briefed on the testimony.

I love Twain's witty observations about life.

Suppose you were an idiot... And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself.

--Mark Twain

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.

--Mark Twain

"I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving."

"I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves."

- George W. Bush being entirely candid with the American people about how it really was that he found out that Joseph Wilson was an American diplomat, and his wife was a CIA agent, which information came to him via Karl Rove, who himself read about it in a newspaper article, so that he could then brief George W. Bush on how to run the government, here in OUR America, Washington, D.C.; September 21, 2003

[Livyjr]

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man

--Mark Twain

One of my favorite books is by Mark Twain, and while I can't think of the exact title right now, it is the one in which he and his brother head out west, where his brother was to assume some kind of duties or other, somewhere out there.

Never have I laughed so hard as at some of the parts of that book, and I think it was all real.

Certainly the part about the flash flood coming was real sounding, anyway, and the alkali dust, as well.

And with this one right above here, I think old Samuel Clemens might just be on to something big .....